Joe Rogan Experience #1657 — Mayor Steve Adler Transcript

Transcript

0:00 the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day Not in any kind of elected office. Well, and then, you know, the way it stands now, it's such a strange time, right? And this was at a time— agents here we were talking about that and then covet i mean yeah what was the bomb about like How long did it take to catch him? What is it like being the mayor while something like that is going on?

4:05 enforcement and then they would look at me and say, so how are we supposed to be feeling for this? And I knew that I got to the place where I knew that if that guy kept sending off bombs, in those two spots over a defined period of time. And when it started off, he didn't know that it was random, right? that was race-driven and then this crazy ice storm.

7:04 Crazy. That's crazy. I mean, it was the most. No one had electricity. people were offering up possible solutions to different people's problems and how to handle between your ideas of what you could do and the reality of doing them once you got in there? Your traffic here is literally a joke. Took me an extra five minutes to get somewhere. On lots of occasions.

11:15 picture and affirmative in a city. And I used to blame city councils before me that they would the difference between the way government works here versus the way it would work in, say, like Chicago or somewhere like that? related issues, not the management or the executive issues. So the difference between the way it seemed the job was versus your actual ability once you got in was pretty stark.

13:58 I'm not allowed to. You make decisions that way. And any kind of business does that kind of thing. I come from private market, private sector, and efficiency is key to operating and running and the results that you make. able to get done? You know, I wanted to get a land development code rewrite in the city. One of the, But housing prices in Austin is appreciating more rapidly, I think, in Austin right now than any other city in the country,

17:40 What was the goal of this new land development code? I think so. And before I leave my office, I hope this summer, Like what is the actual stated goal? that's residential use, we're going to do that. Maybe it's increasing the height that you can put in a particular zone property. But don't ruin this thing. I know. certain amount of that. And then you come here and you're like, oh no, this is like most of the good

21:52 it had a good comedy scene before but since the pandemic when a lot of places were shut down and gotten jobs on television shows and movies. Comedians now have found this sort of community thing going on where we support each other and we get on each other's podcasts and we put each other on each other's comedy shows. You know, the watchword in Austin, and I think we've talked about this in the past,

23:56 You know, but what does that mean? But I'll tell you what I think it means in Austin. startups per capita here in the city than anywhere else. It's a city of early adopters. It's a city where, I've got to go back to the public or private sector. Well, that's the action the council took two years ago. But most of the people there never went inside. they wanted to talk about was this homeless encampment that was near them somewhere. In the

27:29 And I don't know that he actually meant that, but there was that was the fervor and the feel. associations that were complaining more and more about encampments. And I had no solution to that. in a place like Los Angeles and dealing with 100,000 people, what's the number of homeless people in Austin? Brad, you're dead on. or its exposure's increased because they've all moved to like Venice Beach

30:23 And I said, so I'm not here asking you what because we would have been able to set up the systems so that we could have reached equilibrium and now we wouldn't be here. to continue the lifestyle. trying to set up where you're talking about providing them with wraparound about 3,000 people on any given day in our city experiencing homelessness. cities for people experiencing homelessness, and Austin would be in danger going from two stars to

34:07 Wait a minute, that guy lied about something? So there would be some neighborhoods that were willing to do it. So why is it a worse place for them to be camping in the woods than to be camping on not safe. So you mean if a homeless woman moves to the woods, she's in danger because there's no and not go. And we didn't do that. We didn't manage the public spaces, the shared spaces,

37:12 But on the same day we did that, we asked the city manager to come back with a set of rules that would say, OK, so we – where is it that people can go and can't go? Well, veterans are a little bit easier because they come with resources. So they come with what are called VASH vouchers from the federal government, which is support to help do rent supplements.

38:39 you get a check in the afternoon. All the landlords said they don't believe me because it's But how do you help them clean up? So how do you let these vets know about this, and how do you locate the vets? But much to my distress, I learned that a lot of people were involved We should explain to people the vote. And for the very first time, we have our Chamber of Commerce,

42:06 us on the council, have said is rather than taking that dollars from the federal government and We can do this. and house the homeless. And then it's not just about getting them housed and cleaned up and fed. We know that there are a lot of people that need services, but we also know if you try to give those services to people while they're in tents or while they're in congregate living situations, the success rate is down like a 20%. Why is that?

44:35 homelessness are not people that have mental health challenges or substance abuse challenges. I don't know who to call because they literally have no one to call. is like a year, year and a half. So we're creating a lot of the challenge that we're dealing with Before I leave office here in the next year and a half, them counsel? Someone who's going to tell them, like, here's the steps that you need to take to

47:29 And there are lots of different models about what that could look like. I don't know what you do about racial disparity, Has anyone been successful? Housing and Urban Development, one of the cabinet offices in D.C. I mean it works, but it's going to be more expensive for us in the next three years or so than it is in Houston. It's not going to do anything.

50:39 The problem with a place like L.A. problem? How many, like, you're obviously going to need folks that are experts in helping people They engaged in a facilitated conversation. Chamber, DA, Downtown Austin Alliance, ECHO, And that's where we are right now. at these examples of ways we've done it. And look at these examples of people who've been like you,

54:21 So it's a question of just helping those people right themselves and then get back. that have the most significant challenges they're dealing with, That seems like a problem. But to take those 250 people and really get them to a safer, better place, all the statistics, all the studies show they're going to end up in emergency rooms less, end up in the

56:25 plus. So we have a program to train people to give them less than a four-year degree, I said, what success do you have of actually putting somebody into a job? I mean, it's pulling all those pieces together They want people out of tents. you think this can all be ramped up and become a successful program by the time you're this is a personal accountability issue and these people need to get their shit together.

59:39 figure it out on their own there's a school of thought as they are regardless of their circumstance Just make it go away. If you could turn any of these 250 people into working, productive members of society, figure out how to clean them up, counsel them. of these people that's what you're saying 220 220 000 a year it seems like you pay someone 100 000

1:02:30 sort of get momentum going and start recognizing that, oh, if I do these things and continue the country right now. It's going to come out. But it has to be recognized that different people start off in life at different places. Some people come from horrific abuse and drug-abused families and violence and crime. people to continue to live this life. You want to kind of guide them, right?

1:05:33 And then there's just dignity and work. Different plans for the people that just are unfortunate. Horrible. We could be bringing in 10, 15, 20,000 people from Asia into our city. I mean, it was hard all year long with businesses because you want to keep things open. and it doesn't explain the number in cases, you know, Is the path to give people personal responsibility?

1:09:50 health department, Hayden Howard. So we just had good people, and we got positive results into place and it just ruined the economies of these places. It's a real issue. Yeah. You know, I went on a trip at a time when it was okay to take a trip. Yeah. I hadn't realized that, but it was a month afterwards, And, you know, I obviously regret that. later, everything's fine. I mean, it turned out he was correct. And it was a good move.

1:14:07 it was time now to open things back up again. But, you know, we encouraged our city to keep their masks on and not to do big blowout parties on New Year's Eve. And I think that that reduced I would not know what decision to make or not to make. It finds people like that and it's much more dangerous to them. So, you know, 14,000 people. It has a tremendous impact on your immune system. Like just telling people to supplement with vitamin D would have a huge impact on people's

1:17:00 Not everybody. of one of the best cities. Good luck to you. I hope you can do something about this homeless situation. I really hope your