It Could Happen Here - Mutual Aid & the LA Fires

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

James talks to Andreina from Ktownforall about the devastating fires in Los Angeles and how mutual aid groups are mobilizing to help the community. http://ktwonforall.org/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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CAUZO MEDIA Hi, everyone. Welcome to It Can Happen Here. It's me, James, today with a terrible cold, as you can probably tell, but still very important to listen to today because I am talking to Andreina, an organizer from K-Town for All up in LA. We're going to talk about the fires in LA and the mutual aid response and what you can do to help. So welcome to the show, Andrena. Thank you for having me, James. Yeah, thanks for being here.

I know you guys are really busy right now. So to begin with, like in case this has missed people and there's a lot of news happening right now, can you explain what's been going on in LA with respect to the fires for the last two or three days? So about three or four days ago, we got a warning that we were going to be experiencing high winds up to 50 miles per hour, which is nuts. And they were going to be coming from the desert. So this is just like a barrage of hot wind. So we were preparing to have to replace tents and tarps

because, you know, manmade structures that people are surviving with can't survive that kind of wind. But when we hear that wind here in Southern California, we immediately think fire, sadly, because any little cigarette butt, an electrical spark, when it's this dry, it's enough to cause devastation, which is exactly what's happened. There are about seven fires right now spread around the perimeter of Los Angeles County that have been started and then spread massively by these giant winds everywhere. So the embers are being picked up. Thankfully, the wind has settled down, but the wind itself has prevented the big water tankers from flying, which has led to the massive devastation that you saw in the palisades

and other areas. The entire water fleet being grounded for a while just meant that it was burning with no control relying on the ground firefighters. So what we've seen is just mass devastation, thousands of homes lost. I think there is a death tally, thankfully very low in about 10ish, I think I've heard from this morning with confirmation. But yeah, that's what we're facing right now. Yeah, it's pretty devastating, like whole neighborhoods are gone, right? I think I thought like 2000 structures have already been burned. And like, as you said, if people aren't in the United States or unfamiliar with how fire is fought, like out here in the Western United States, it's a

lot of air dropping fire retardant and air dropping water, which without that, it's very hard to get enough water to where it needs to be. And I believe at one point that you ran out of water in water towers, right? Up in Palisades. Yeah, the, the fire hydrants ran dry in some areas, which is terrifying to think of. And we were warned, I'm in the Koreatown neighborhood, we were warned about low water pressure. And I do know that some areas in Los Angeles, particularly in that region, are being warned to boil water and that their water is unsafe to drink right now. Yeah, I'd seen that too.

There was a water boil warning for lots of places. So as a result of these fires and all the destruction they've caused, I think I saw it was 150,000 odd people have been displaced now. Is that right? Is that a good number? I saw something large like that

of just the people that have been evacuated. Right north of me was the Sunset Fire. And that was very concerningly close to the Korea 10 neighborhood that is generally never concerned about fires because we're so in the concrete jungle, like we're so insulated. I think that's the closest we've come to devastation. And we were really stressed out last night, just keeping an eye on the news because that's, you know, not even two miles away from the core of the densest neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Right. Yeah. I guess again, if people aren't familiar, fires destroy property and kill people every year here. And climate change has meant that they have become worse and worse. But in the middle of a city, you're generally not worried about fires because the resources will be spent to defend that property. Right? Germany not worried about fires because the resources will be spent to defend that property, right? Like this is a very unique situation to see huge parts of a city burning down.

Yeah, particularly the Palisades, which is historically a significantly wealthy neighborhood. Yeah. You know, a den of celebrity and Hollywood elites. It's seeing it devastated just kind of sends home the point that you have wealth that insulates you from the worst of what we're facing, but that only goes so far. I saw that there was a couple of wealthy people on Twitter begging for private, fired, biting horses to come save their homes. Famously, the same ones that are talking about tax evasion and how smart they are to

do real estate, you know, maneuvering to not pay into the social system that helps in these times. Clearly we're severely underfunded and severely under managed when it comes to the government stepping in during these emergencies. Yeah. And like, that's something I want to address because I think in every natural disaster that I've covered, the reason it becomes a disaster, I guess, is because the state's incapable of responding in a way that protects people. And in almost every case, it's people who have to step

up and look after one another. So we should talk about the response of the LA city and county governments. And then I'd love to talk about the mutual aid response after that. Yeah. From, from what we've seen here in K-Town, if you weren't immediately evacuated, there's, there's nothing. All of our outreach folks that were out talking to all of our own house neighbors here in the area, which are in the hundreds, first of all, didn't know what was going on.

They saw the sky, they assumed there was a fire nearby, but they didn't know the swath of the devastation and that we were generally threatened as well. They didn't have any supplies. And in some areas of Los Angeles, we've heard as of this morning and yesterday that sweeps have continued. So the city has continued throwing away tents from the people living on the streets. And then for the house people that have been displaced, there are shelter designations that they've set up. Pan Pacific Park is one of them for Hollywood. There's one in Pasadena, you know, and the like, but it seems to be, you know, a hodgepodge of, you know, disorganization and a lot of, a lot of mutual aid folks on the ground being the ones to direct people and gather the supplies. I have not heard of a very formalized system.

There is no word on any kind of significant assistance for people who have lost their homes at the moment. I don't know if the Red Cross is going to set a staging zone up or anything, but I do know that the people who are setting up places for people to go, food, water, even pet care, things like that have been random volunteers. I'm in this chat group mutual aid LA that spurred literally just on signal the day that the fire started that has a thousand people on it, mobilizing and distributing and volunteering to move people from one area of the city to the other. You know, I have this person who needs a place to stay, like who's got a list of places that

are open. Because when you when you have disasters this big, you need help quickly. Yeah. And bureaucracy just doesn't, you know, that it's not built for that. Yeah, it's not. And like we've definitely seen that there was just a failure of the state to respond like in the way that it needed to as quickly as it needed to. And it's really, it's wonderful to see people picking up Slack.

Like of course it is. It's really beautiful that people show up for each other in these times. There's something about that that I obviously like find really affirming. That's maybe why I do this for a living. But yeah, it's really beautiful to see. It doesn't mean that we should forget that like the state has capacity that it is using, as you said, to displace people who are unhoused. It could be using that capacity to bring masks to people, to bring food to people,

to create shelter for people. It's not, it's choosing to harass people who live on the street. Yeah. And this is something we see repeatedly, you know, it hasn't rained in LA for about eight months, but when it did rain, we had historical rains. Last year in particular, we had a cold front where folks die every time. And we know folks are going to die every time it rains here in LA. We have more people that die of hypothermia in Los Angeles than New York and San Francisco combined every year, because hypothermia actually doesn't require it to be freezing to set in.

It just requires you to be in around 60 degrees and be wet, which is very common on the streets here of LA. We've seen people get frostbite from having their skin against cold concrete, you know, over the night while it's raining. And our electeds know this. When I first started doing this work, there was a slogan that we were chanting for a day in LA and that was the number of unhoused people that died every day. And now we're at about six or seven. We request, you know, through the Freedom of Information Act, request the coroner's report every year of how many people died. And that number is only growing. And the government knows this. They know every time we have a

heat wave that there are 70,000 people sleeping on the streets, sleeping in their cars. They know that during the winter, you know, people are out there in the cold and the rain. And I, and I talk to people who aren't into the organizing space and they ask me, well, aren't there, you know, insert service here that you think there should be? Right now during the fires, aren't there vans picking people up and taking them to shelter? And it's like, that would be wonderful when there's not, there's never any vans picking people up. Even when they open up cooling shelters and warming shelters, the number one barrier we hear from people on the streets

is how would I get there? And when I get there, they make me not bring my stuff in, so it's all gonna get stolen. There's just all of these barriers that the city is just completely purposely neglecting. They could talk to any of us on how to run a successful, you know, warming or cooling shelter. They don't, you know, they have no interest in what we have to say.

In fact, our city council person here in K-Town doesn't respond to any of our inquiries at all. She just flat out doesn't respond to us whenever we email her with concerns or questions. And that's kind of how we've been, you know, working just with the knowledge that we don't have the support of this agency. And in fact, there are opposition, you know, we're the ones having to organize around them and what they're doing. Yeah, it's sadly not that dissimilar here.

Like every time it rains, people will die every time we have a heat wave. I remember they found the remains of an unhoused person a couple of years ago and they thought the person had been burned like by fire. And it turned out they had just been exposed to massive amounts of heat. And yeah, I remember a couple of years ago, just to give an anecdote, it was I think above 100 degrees in town. It was so hot. And I was in the riverbed, Like I had this big insulated backpack to give people cold water and, uh, just like dozens of people were in terrible distress.

And yeah, there, there was no presence of police fire and anyone to help. Right. Like we have these sometimes billion dollar police departments in these cities and, and, and people are still unsafe and they don't feel safe reaching out to any government agencies because these government agencies, the same ones that you say that throw away their shit that destroy all the little things that they've been trying to build up to get onto a better situation in life. Yeah, and I think there's this sense of like apathy that has built and rightfully so from the people that live on the streets where we've, you know, relayed messages that we've heard like, hey, 211 says they have a hundred

shelter beds tonight, call and see if you can get in. And they're like, okay, you know, like I'll give it a shot, you know, and it's very well received because we understand the amount of disappointment these people have gone through. When they do the Care Plus sweeps, which is in itself such an evil name, when they throw all their stuff away, when they show up and they do Care Plus, they show up with a social worker first, which if I was a social worker, I'd be kicking and screaming about how damaging that is that right before they throw away everything that a non-house person owns, they send in a lone social worker to write their names and maybe their numbers down and tell them that the shelters are full, but they'll get back to them. And then they have all of their

belongings thrown away. I can't imagine the harm that has done for just trusting services, even when they're available, you know, accessing them and then giving them your information. I have one person who rightfully so told me they have trauma about filling out forms because they've done this 300 times, you know, they said something incredible, they've been counting about how many times they've filled the same forms out to have it lead nowhere. And I can't imagine, you know, that kind of resilience. Now with this devastation, there's going to be a lot of homeowners who are going to experience that firsthand. I'm seeing a lot of people that are homeless for the first time ever in their lives, like in their late 50s. And these are people that have owned homes, that have worked careers, that have, you know,

lived their whole life as you're supposed to in the United States. And then in their elder years, befalls some sort of disaster or social security doesn't pay anymore. And they are severely shocked when I tell them what the landscape of our social safety net looks like. I've had people ask me like, where do I go to sign up for free housing? And I have to tell them, you know,

the wait list for vouchers is 15 years long and it's a lottery. The list is closed because it's so full. You can apply to a senior housing, but that's about a 10 year wait. You know that I have to be the one to tell them that. And that's sort of shock, I think is going to be hitting a lot of folks that have never tried to access services before. Yeah, definitely. Let's take a little break here for some advertisements,

and then we'll come back. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Lily podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor we got the answer space junk block your cell signal the astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer we talked with the scientists who figured out if

your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth plus this Tom Cruise really do his own stunts his stuntman reveals the answer and you never know who's gonna drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you two? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all.

Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, no really. Go to reallynoreally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason

Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I smoke weed, I get lost in the music. I like to isolate each instrument. The rhythmic bass, the harmonies on the piano, the sticky melody. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

Careful babe, there's someone crossing the street. Sorry, I didn't see him there. If you feel different, you drive different. Don't drive high. It's dangerous and illegal everywhere. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. We want to speak out, we want to raise awareness, and we want this to stop.

Wow, very powerful. I'm Ellie Flynn, and I'm an investigative journalist. When a group of models from the UK wanted my help, I went on a journey deep into the heart of the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a Playboy model. When my models from the UK wanted my help, I went on a journey deep into the heart of the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a playboy, my doll. Lingerie, topless.

I said, yes, please. Because at the center of this murky world is an alleged predator. You know who he is because of his pattern of behavior? He's just spinning the web for you to get trapped in it. He's everywhere and has been everywhere. It's so much worse and so much more widespread than I had anticipated. Together we're going to expose him and the rotten industry he works in.

It's not just me. We're an army in comparison to him. Listen to The Bunny Trap on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and batter than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast,

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It's like a death by a thousand cuts. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're back. So yeah, I think anyone who's familiar with the situation facing unhoused people in Southern California will understand that there is not a safety net. And that's about to become more profoundly obvious than ever for thousands of people. Let's talk about the way that people are helping to take care of one another because I think that's what always happened to these situations.

So let's talk about the mutual aid effort. Maybe you could talk about some of the groups, talk about some of the things you've been doing. And then I want to get onto how people can help if they're in town and how people can help if they are a long way away. Nicole Soule Yeah, in LA, we have a very robust network of mutual aid groups that have been built by force, honestly, via this government. I think a lot of them have started up to step in. There's no denying all over LA that there's this crisis because you walk outside of your house and there are people sleeping on your street. There's people digging through your garbage.

So we've seen this blossoming of mutual aid groups all over the city. And we, in times of crisis, will spark up a signal group that grows from zero to thousands of people overnight that are willing to jump in and get their hands dirty, to coalesce and find resources. Here's where we're buying masks, this door is out, don't go to this one, go to that one. Who's reimbursing people for gas, et cetera, et cetera. And it's normal people, you know, I have a full-time job, my friends here in KTown for All, some are teachers, some are in the movie industry, you know, some are random lawyers, you know, that will take their time out to do this work.

I think that it's beautiful in the sense that we get people the help they need and it's never enough, which is crushing. Here in K-Town, we give supplies to about 400 or so unhoused people a week minimum, and that is hygiene supplies, tents, blankets. We connect them to any services that they might ask us to connect them to, driving them to the hospital, etc. And this has been going on for the last five years, and K-Town for All specifically started as a counter-protest because there was an attempt to build a shelter here in Koreatown and some homeowners organized against it.

They marched down Wilshire and shut it down, and our founders found each other because they were the only five people holding up We Want Shelter signs, and just started doing distribution themselves. And I think that's one thing that I would really suggest to folks, is it's not as intimidating as it seems to start one of these projects. It's literally you and a couple of friends who decide that you're going to do something.

And you acknowledge that you can't do everything and that you'll never be able to meet the need because what we need is a government who cares about people. But in the meanwhile, we're going to do the best we can. the lives of the, you know, now 400 or so people that we see every week are a little better because we decide to do that. Yeah, I think that's really important to say that like, it can seem really overwhelming. This is an email I get almost every week, like, how do I start a mutual aid group? Like, if you can make a sandwich, then you can you can start a mutual aid group, like, just go and feed people who are hungry.

If someone's cold, give them a blanket. It doesn't have to be... You don't have to read 17 books and be starting a 501c3 and stuff. You just need to do things. And I think especially we're going into a new administration, we're going to see the state being more hostile to people who are already marginalized. And like, the best advice I have for people is to get off the internet and to get into the streets and just do something. It doesn't matter if you say

you won't be able to do everything, not right away. Maybe one day we will, but like doing something is a lot better than doing nothing. And I guarantee it is also much better for you and your, like, I feel so much better for you. And you're like, I feel so much better when I'm able to help people. I wouldn't be able to do the job I do at the border if I wasn't also able to help people. Like it, it helps me feel like I'm not part of the problem, I guess, or like we're doing something about it at least. What are people doing right now to help people who are impacted by the fires? Like what are the needs that are arising and how are people meeting them?

Yeah, well Ktown for All focuses here in the Ktown neighborhood and what we've particularly focused on is mass distribution. People are sitting and it's literally raining ash in some areas and are sitting in the soot. So there's that. There's basic tent and tarp gathering meals. So many emergency services shut down during disasters, you know, makes sense. But a lot of food kitchens that people would get meals from are not open right now. So it's getting people food, getting people water, just enough to survive. In other areas, folks are gathering supplies. There's All Power Books that is a big distribution site right now. Puma Mutual Aid out in the Palms area is doing a lot of really great work. The South Bay got swept last night, so South Bay Mutual Aid Club is replacing tents this

morning. There's a lot of the pet mutual aid groups who are gathering pet food and finding foster homes for a lot of the found dogs and cats. It's just, I mean, I can't even list the amount of people right now that are like in their vehicles doing drop-offs to, you know, the sidewalk project. There's a big skid row distribution point that is building up crowdsourcing insulin, things that like you don't think about that people ran out of their house that they need to live. They don't have time to go get a prescription, you know, at a primary care provider.

Like we need Albuterol that people are having asthma attacks. So there's these kind of burdens that mutual aid projects get around because people, A, don't have to fill out any forms. They don't have to wait. If we have it, you're going to be handed it. And you know, even medical providers as part of our projects have become a really big support as people on the streets are often very disabled. We have a lot of folks with diabetes like diabetic open wounds, like just very horrible injuries that need constant

care. All Power Bookstore has a free clinic called All Power Clinic and they offer free medical care and come with us on our routes here in K-Town to offer free treatment for folks. And I think that's something that is going to only grow as you said, as this administration occurs. Homelessness rose 18% in the last year and that's only been the case every year since we started counting. There is no way this administration is going to institute rent control or anything that keeps people from being displaced.

One mutual aid project that I think people overlook often is the tenants unions, the LA tenants union mobilizing to care for their members, checking in on their disabled members. These kind of community-based organizations where people know people, they know who to check up on, they know who's vulnerable, those kind of organizations are invaluable in emergencies like these. Yeah, definitely. And I hope one good thing that can come out of this is that we can build stronger communities, right?

And we can, hopefully folks who are finding themselves dependent on mutual aid for the first time can realize that like They can participate in that and I know there are folks already where who reflect lost their homes who are still out there helping Other people driving around rescuing people and stuff Yeah, and I think we say this all the time in in the homelessness space You know you're closer to being homeless than you are to be a billionaire, and I think this is one of the most direct Examples like these people might have been well off maybe a month or two ago, and then now they

have zero. You know, they're going to be fighting with insurance companies for maybe five years, you know, if some of them. And hopefully, you know, they end up recovering, but I hope they don't forget that climate change and emergency disasters are a great equalizer and the people that show their faces, they're not the politicians, they're not the lobbyists, they're not, you know, the Democratic Party, you know, TM, it's your neighbor who has a mask for you. It's me, someone random from down the block who got a couple friends together who has water for you.

That's who comes through and that's who you need to care for all the time, including your unhoused neighbors that are around you all the time, who live in your community and who face this emergency every day. They don't know where they're going to sleep every night. They don't know where their next meal is coming from every day. They get their stuff destroyed by the state, you know, regularly, if not once a week, very frequently. And I hope this is really sad, but I hope it forces some empathy

in people who otherwise don't think about themselves in this context of being a human that needs food, water and shelter. You know, the basics. Yeah. Talking of food, water and shelter, those are things I need as well. And so to pay for them, I have to pivot to ads now. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. and together on the Really No Lily podcast our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor.

We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stunt man reveals the answer. And you never know who's gonna drop by.

Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you, sir? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening?

Really No Really. Yeah. No, really. Go to ReallyNoReally.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign. Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really. And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ["I'm On My Way To You"] ["I'm On My Way To You"] When I smoke weed, I get lost in the music. I like to isolate each instrument. The rhythmic bass, the harmonies on the piano, the sticky melody. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

careful babe, there's someone crossing the street. Sorry, I didn't see him there. If you feel different, you drive different. Don't drive high. It's dangerous and illegal everywhere. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. We want to speak out, we want to raise awareness, and we want this to stop.

Wow, very powerful. I'm Ellie Flynn, and I'm an investigative journalist. When a group of models from the UK wanted my help, I went on a journey deep into the heart of the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a playboy model. Lingerie, topless. I said yes please. Because at the center of this murky world is an alleged predator.

You know who he is because of his pattern of behavior? He's just spinning the web for you to get trapped in it. He's everywhere and has been everywhere. It's so much worse and so much more widespread than I had anticipated. Together, we're going to expose him and the rotten industry he works in. It's not just me.

We're an army in comparison to him. Listen to The Bunny Trap on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast,

brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribe. With guests like Corinne Stephens. I've never seen so many women protect predatory men.

And then me too happen. And then everybody else wanna get pissed off because the white said it was okay. Problem. My oldest daughter, her first day of ninth grade, her tech predatory men. And then me too happened. And then everybody else wanted to get pissed off because the white said it was okay. Problem. My oldest daughter, her first day of ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was doing. She was like, oh dad, all they was doing

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Okay. Uh, we're back. I think that was a really good plug for like why mutual aid is important and hopefully there are people who are listening right or people who are finding themselves for the first time interested in helping seeing a crisis. A lot of people like will ask me if they can come help at the border and of course you can but you should also help in your own community because there are people who need you there. And obviously that's very true in LA right now. So I want to like give some resources,

some ways people can help. If people are listening in LA, what are some, like I know there are all kinds of efforts, but what are some concrete things they could do or some places they can go if they're in a situation where they're not massively impacted by the fires and they want to help other people. What are some things they can do?

You're free to follow Ktown4all on Instagram. We are constantly uploading on our stories year round, fundraisers, resource requests, GoFundMe's, etc. We really try to stay connected with the LA Mutual Aid Network. And honestly, once you follow one of us, you kind of follow all of us because we're very supportive of each other's efforts. Mutual Aid LA is a good hub. They have a magazine that gets published every month that has a list of mutual aid programs

all over LA. If you can't come out on physical outreach with us, which we do on Saturdays, every Saturday except the first Saturday of the month when we do our planning meeting, you're free to help us connect with others. You're free to help us financially. But we also, funny you mentioned this, James, but if you DM us and you're like, hey, I want to talk to someone about starting a project in my region. I'm so happy to hop on Zoom with you, tell you how we do our distribution, tell you how we make our maps of encampments, tell you how we fund and outsource.

Always happy to find that knowledge. And people message us all the time, can we start a neighborhood for all chapter? And we're like, we're so honored that you would do that. Please don't ask, but you're totally welcome to. So so we have Pasadena for All that is doing great work and Pasadena for All is definitely always in need of support. They are in a huge disaster zone, Altadena, Pasadena, like all those areas have been evacuated, Palms Mutual Aid. But yeah, if you want to stay connected, you know, follow us on Instagram, Ktown4all. Same Twitter, same on Blue Sky, and we'll hopefully be your input into the LA mutual aid scene. We're always so happy to support anyone else doing this work. And

while we focus on the Ktown neighborhood, LA is a giant place. And if you have any neighborhoods in Los Angeles that you feel passionate about or need extra attention, you know, we'll always be the ones to uplift those. Yeah, that's really cool. I think it's really important that we share, like, one of my friends when we were doing border stuff made a website where we documented all the stuff we did so that it was open source and available to people, like, how we built shelters and how we cooked. And yeah, we don't need to reinvent the wheel every time. Like, we can all help each other get that start and not make the mistakes that we all made.

So that's really cool that people can reach out to you. What about if they're a long way away and they just want to send some money? They want to help and they've got money they want to share. Yeah, you're always welcome to Venmo us Ktown4all. Same on Venmo we have a PayPal link, We have a website, katownforall.org. We are 501-C3. If you'd like to donate in our, you know, in some kind of corporate fancy way, feel free to DM us. We just got that figured out. But yeah, all of our money gets spent directly on material goods. We don't have any employees. We don't have any overhead. Our volunteers are up to their necks in baby wipes usually when we get, you know, sock donations and things like

that. And honestly, we prefer it that way just because, you know, we know what nonprofit requirements are like and that kind of burden that that places on mutual aid projects and we're trying to avoid them. So every dime still goes to supplies. And I know every mutual aid project, JTown Action in Japantown as well, operates in a very similar model. I would just suggest people get plugged in to Mutual Aid LA. They follow us on Instagram. Feel free to send any money.

We're constantly on our stories uploading GoFundMe's and Venmo's and stuff. I really appreciate their help, you know, out of the country and hope that one day orgs like ours are not needed anymore because we live in a great world. Yeah, that'd be nice. Is there anything else, like, do you have any bottlenecks or particular shortages that you want to shout out that the audience can maybe help you with? We're always looking for staples. So those are tents and tarps constantly. Those are often the most expensive items people have to purchase.

Tents go about 30 to $40 each one, and the government throws a lot of them away every week. So those items, feel free to always DM me if you have some that you would like to drop off. But I will say mutual aid orgs are really good at building connections directly with vendors. And we usually get like a discount and buying in bulk. So I would really love to shake people from their fear of donating cash. I know a lot of folks feel comfortable like buying an item because you know that that's the item that's given out. But sometimes we get a better deal buying a thousand of those tenths and your dollar goes farther.

So you know, tenths, blankets, and again, don't be afraid to do this by yourself. Like you can go to Home Depot and buy a tent and hand it to someone. You can go to Home Depot and buy masks right now and hand them to someone. You don't have to wait for a group like this to be around and to help, particularly if your neighborhood needs you. Matthew 10 Yeah, I think that's a really good message. It's a good place to end. Just to remind everyone, it's at Ktown4all on Instagram and Ktown4all on Venmo, right?

Danielle Pletka Yep. Matthew 10 Great. Thanks so much. Danielle Pletka Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonedmedia.com, or check us out on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen Here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Answer. Go to really no really dot com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or

a limited edition sign Jason Bobblehead. The really no really podcast. Follow us on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decisions Decisions, the podcast where boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite hosts me, Weezy WTF, and me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love.

That's right, every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, we share our personal journeys navigating our 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engage in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that will resonate with your experiences, Decisions Decisions is going to be your go-to source for the open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world.

Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections. Tune in and join in the conversation. Listen to Decisions Decisions on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We want to speak out and we want this to stop. Wow, very powerful. I'm Ellie Flynn, an investigative journalist,

and this is my journey deep into the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a player boy, my doll. He was like, I'll take you to the top, I'll make you a star. To expose an alleged predator and the rotten industry he works in. It's honestly so much worse than I had anticipated. We're an army in comparison to him. From Novel, listen to The Bunny Trap on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and batter than ever. I'm Erika. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Yeah, we're moms, but not your mommy.

Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women,, but not your mommy. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribe. Listen to the Good Moms, Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast.

When I smoke weed, I get lost in the music. I like to isolate each instrument. The rhythmic bass, the harmonies on the piano, the sticky melody. Hey, hey, hey, hey, careful babe, there's someone crossing the street. Sorry, I didn't see him there. If you feel different, you drive different. Don't drive high. It's dangerous and illegal everywhere.