244: Evan Lovett - LA in a Minute Interview

you know, three ways drive through such a big big element to the city. Yeah, well the freeways are aftermarket or what I went. Okay, good question. I know, but this is what happens.

As soon as this goes on, I'm good at going for it. Yeah, then as soon as we think, that's why we get back. We warm up and we start with good morning, good afternoon. You're listening to the old talk cop, odd cars, special episode, everyone knows we're going to see Martin Vegas, but no one knows that we're doing our first interview in LA, none other in studio city.

Yeah, we're in the right place. We've got the unofficial ambassador of LA. If you wanted anything about LA, we've got Mr Evan Lovett here from LA in a minute, mate. Thank you for joining us and coming on our little show from Australia.

Thank you for having me. I'm very intrigued and very excited. This is going to be a fun time. Thanks for having me.

Thanks as well, because I've got to say up until two three, we had a Vegas every year for Seema. And we had to do interviews there. It's a car podcast. We can't ask.

And we're always flying LAX, clear customs, go to the rental counter, get the car and drive. Just head out, huh? Because we've already done universal, we've already done using the van. We've already done the sign, we've already done a day of driving and we've been in Santa Monica.

I thought, well, we've seen it all. Let's get out of here. And then I bumped into your podcast a couple years back. And I'm like, man, this guy is my guy.

Like, it's not just LA Downtown Universal. There's 150 neighborhoods. There's 572 neighborhoods. There we go.

There we go. There we go. Just LA. We've got trivia.

It's taking a minute. What'd you be in trivia? I used to. I grew up.

I met my wife, actually, while I was doing trivia at a bar at a neighborhood called Porter Ranch. You know, we're not all loose focus. Absolutely not focus. And you know what?

I've never gone to a trivia night since. It's entirely true. Yeah. But I used to be a big trivia buff.

I just always loved tidbits, facts, little nuggets of information. I was always the guy in the days before texts. You know, now I'm still on text. Somebody find somebody interesting.

But I used to, I just gonna wait to tell people they call me an information station. One of my bosses actually used to call me an information station. He said, you just love getting information and then kind of like trafficking it out to other people. I don't know.

It's something that's always kind of excited me. Like, is the modern, no, it's like, the whole good, the other thing, the soccer pinion. Oh, yeah. The soccer pinion.

It's like a dual volume, but you know, all into one walking one. Should I? I mean, but you know, older age, there's facts don't stick as well as they did at one point, but 579, but if you went through it and made something like that, you know, you're struggling. But I mean, you're like, what a brand.

I mean, obviously you love this place. Absolutely. How can you? I call it the greatest city on the globe.

Oh, no. No, it's a cool Sydney, the greatest country in the world. You know what? I reckon Sydney's a good looking city.

Sydney's like a good looking girl with no brains, where LA is like a girl that's well rounded. Well, I'm not good at that because I like the ones with that brand as well. That's why you love Sydney. All right, because there's always a fight between Sydney and Melbourne.

Yeah, because Melbourne's like the arty, creative and sport. We're sitting like we've got the bridge. We've got the opera house. Come and see it.

Have you ever been to Australia? Yeah. We're officially involved. Yeah, you're gonna come.

I think you can compare it to my brother-in-law lived there for a year when he was younger. So now he's married and he has a kid. They just went back last year and they loved it. And what's funny is my nephew, who's now 13, talks about he wants to move there and he wants to know where he's going to be.

Yeah, he loved it. They love it. They came back really even about it. That would be sweet.

I mean, that is one of the greatest places in the world. Yeah. I mean, that would work. That'd be like it.

So, what we're saying? You know, I travel. I know you guys love Vegas, mention Vegas, go to Vegas. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I'm always considered Vegas LA's backyard because they have kind of a parallel growth and development.

And both of them are actually very unlikely metropolis is the way that they develop. But more importantly, everybody in LA, if you grew up in LA, you took road trips to Vegas. Like, I mean, it's, and my dad was a boxing manager, prize-fighting. And he used to manage fighters.

So a lot of the fights, Vegas was a fight capital world. So when I was growing up, we were going back and forth to Vegas like every month. And so I saw Vegas develop from basically just the strip and also down to like, yeah, in the 80s to the 90s, like the special. And then, you know, my dad had a 300, he saw 300 ZX.

Oh, bullshit. Yeah. And he had, he's actually ironically be a car guy. He had a 50 Chevy.

I forget what kind. He had a old GP at old Mercedes, which I, and MG, but that was 6 foot 5. I don't know if that is the meters, but he was a tall guy. And so he had MG that he had to get customized where they took the seat out essentially because he's too big.

You know, I don't know if you guys remember all the MG, it's like, I guess the meaning now, but he was too big for us. He had to get a customer. But we always go in his 300 ZX on what was called Pierblossom Highway. And there were billboards along the highway that said, be careful.

This is Death Trap Highway because there were big hills. Now, there's different ways to go. There's a freeway called the 15th, but that was like the shortcut. And it's big hills, but you know, drive people like what?

That's for definitely. No, no, it's the zero elevation, 6,000 feet. Mojave though. So, so similar.

And you know what, you're kind of on the outskirts. So yeah, you can say that, but he used to open it up 100 plus miles an hour. And that's how people would go. But a lot of accidents, they call it Death Trap Highway.

But Vegas is LA's backyard. I love it. And I don't even know why I brought that. Why?

Why? Why? I'm saying LA City comparison. Right.

What's I'm saying, only a Sydney versus Melbourne that that robbery is that like on a rival city? It's so funny. Is it right? Is it?

So there's, I don't know how much you guys watch American sports, but whenever an LA team in American sports is good, the other teams crowds always chant B.D.D.D.D.D.D.D.D.D. and LA doesn't do that to any other cities, but San Francisco, New York, Boston, specifically named three are the ones that probably consider LA arrival. But we're always like, no, the LA atmosphere, the LA vibe and part of it is because we're also self centered, you know, a little bit that's true. But we don't consider you know, city are quote unquote rival in the sense that LA is so unique and it has everything and we don't have any of that jealousy or envy San Francisco's beautiful wonderful world city, but their weather sucks for 10 months a year, you know.

So it's like, there's a little bit of that envy. New York is a great global world metropolis. But again, their weather sucks and you don't have the nature unless you're like leaving town and all this kind of stuff. So there's a lot of weaknesses there, concrete junk, all that kind of stuff.

Nothing's like LA. I mean, I mean, but what are the signs a lot of people in LA from absolutely from New York, I'm going to piece on New York when I'm living in LA and join the fruits of LA as well as think of that home or where I used to grow up. So you know, wait, it's hard to put shit on other cities when you're really what do you call it? Transplant.

And LA is the city of Transplant in 1920, 81% of the residents of Los Angeles were from somewhere else today. It's still 51%. So still more transplants than natives in Los Angeles. So when you see somebody that's like a third generation Los Angeles resident, you're like, wow, that your family's been here forever, even though it's only like 50 years.

So it's a relatively new city. But you know, it's now, it's entrenched globally and just a great dynamic. I was being here three generations to consider them the ones that have done well, because in Sydney, you know, I don't know about your generation, my generation think, if you've been here for three generations in the same city, you must be either done well, or yes, fucked it all up at the old place. You know what I mean?

Like you've done well, you've taken your family to great sorriites or you've got to the stage that you just got like just down to the spiral. It's a funny question. Both of those can apply and there's a look, say, well, I think that's a thing. And then at some point, like for a lot of people, it's where would you rather be?

And I don't want to keep coming back to the weather because it's so cliche and so obvious. But the truth is, and this is yesterday, I was driving, I was in Malibu yesterday of all places, very, very high profile, but obviously the beach is one of the most famous cosine you guys know, beach is well, anyway, but Malibu's right now, at least now, like, we got a 911, sorry. So it's not just the beaches in Malibu. It's that you're also on the Santa Monica mountains.

So right behind the beach, you have these cliffs, you have these bluffs, you have these mountains that leads to these beautiful canyons. And the canyons take you into the valleys which take you back into the mountains with snow and they always say in LA, you can snow and you can surf in the same day. And that keeps a lot of people here, whereas everything in between, of course, but people that love LA love LA. But you know, so it's a great place.

And the first thing you notice, I don't bring it to cars, the planes always come in the same way. Yeah. And the first feature you see are the freeways. The vane, I've got the veins of LA.

Yeah, the blood down up and down, the red lights, it's the vane and you see the arteries, it's what I call it. And it's like, you just, everything's whatever my question was last night, were and you said to me bestly, save for today, what were they and after thought? Yeah. Or was it made?

Yeah, it looks like they were an after thought. So we're going to carve up through in in Australia. We're going to our, what is it, what do you call camera? Our capital, NHS capital, camera, everything was planned down to it.

Again, the Sydney Melbourne were fighting, who's going to be the capital. And so they picked up, sitting in the middle, close up, sitting in and it's been designed since 1927. Yeah, and everything's designed with big round of bounds. You guys don't ever out of bounds.

Oh, when I see them I'm confused. They're confused. They're very few. They're very few.

These have full stop signs. No, it's going. Where are you stopping? Like, no, it's going.

And then you see it. Well, you go. No, no, you go. And then you see it.

And then you see it. Well, hang on. It's not your turn. Why are you going?

Then you got to go. Here goes the go. And then there's an argument. Well, you told me.

You told me to go. But you told me to go. But you told me. It's the case.

It's the same. It's the same. The different stages. So they designed it for tramways.

They reached a certain population. The roads are wide after they've been pulling a tram line or so it's been designed from 100 years ago. Even the like is like. Yeah, that's the biggest like man like in the Southern Hemisphere.

Like Billy Griffin. Is it really? Yeah, that's impressive. But we saw.

So I'll tell you this is LA. You got some great questions. So first and foremost, LA's mass transit is improving, but it's something of a laughing stock. Okay, like for it has been.

It's improving now the subways, the metro, the buses, but it's because LA's geographically so vast. But the thing that people don't realize is LA was actually the mass transit capital of the world until the 1920s, 1930s. And if you've seen the movie who framed Roger Rabbit, it all kind of came falling apart. It wasn't because of the car companies and the tire companies and Goodyear and Ford and all that stuff, which did have a part in it because obviously they had skin in the game and they wanted their investments to work out.

But LA was based around mass transit in the train and we have more miles of tracks, more railroad depots, more stations than New York does today. You see these old maps in the 1920s and the 1930s and the early was at Railtown. But what happened is once people got behind the wheel of cars and because cars were manufactured here, tires were manufactured here, it became the industry and you had the drive through restaurants, you had the car hops, you had the freedom and the autonomy to drive. People loved it man and nothing against mass transit.

But when you can get behind the wheel of your own car and your own timeline and sure traffic sucks and there could be accidents and you know sometimes frustrating, I got to get gas and pay for insurance. But there's nothing like having that autonomy. You must have a common effectoring company because it's really pushing cars. But what you're saying, you're saying those like we had we had Holden and Ford which is GM motors and we had Ford and what you're saying is how they advertise it to Australians because remember we got more picnic points if you want to call it like national parks or football.

I think yeah you're like and that's how the way you just said it. You had to get around the car and the family in the back of the car and that's how you had to do that. And think about what I just said even before this question in the sense that when you if you want to go see Mount Whitney, if you want to go to San Diego, if you want to go to Vegas like sure you can get your plane ticket, you can get your train ticket, you can take a bus but you can also hop in the car pack a bag and hop in the car and because LA is so geographically, first of all it has all these things in the city and in the huge geographic area but it's so close to all the Grand Canyon Santa Barbara's all within not just a road trip but a pretty quick drive so people LA people embrace the car and the railways and the railroads and the electric cars all got phased out and then they had to play on the freeway then they had the bright idea they copied Germany I believe was the first country with like a real like infrastructure for freeways but they sucked correct and they saw that you know that that gives you the freedom and the ability to travel and there's a company called I don't know if it's a company or an organization where they call AAA automobile club it's like an iron man yeah yeah so they really like we're pushing the narrative you know go explore go travel people are getting more disposable incomes the side was involved in the breakdown so they don't get fixed up so they get paid. Well not even but they used to have roadmaps and covered restaurants and a common idea.

Points of interest and all that and it's so fine to travel like that. Have you used to know like okay I've got trackers in all my stuff at home and yeah and I threw some in my bags yeah sitting on the well I do a lot of things on the floor right and I suck yeah last last night I start my app you know if you look at this from up there this looks more tree and green very green if you go to Australia Sydney and all that you know it looks like we must cut down a lot more trees than you did because it does look greener from doing what it is yeah you'll use look greener than us and we're only over a hundred plus years old yeah no it's 200 years but if you look at it like it looks greener it's it's so this is a great observation because LA is actually maligned for its lack of parks right and there's Griffith Park and there's some big parks what's ET Park called technically but there's some big parks but LA doesn't have a lot of green space but to your point it has trees everywhere of all the I mean for the 32 Olympics they planted 75,000 palm trees that's a lot of palm trees that are still everywhere in the city whether you're in Compton Sylmar Bellflower Woodland Hills I always say you can walk outside right now and you can see a palm tree somewhere and it's not just the palm trees there were a lot of people you know from John Muir on down a lot of environmentalist trees Pilates palm trees Pilates palm trees Pilates oh we missed us the time the time they were there they're coming to the point trees there was also we came through a neighborhood last night ways took us from the airport through to the 10 yeah and there was like pine trees there's a neighborhood trees in the middle of Stovey they're all the first to start with the palm trees so they're bringing green one I think we don't make oaks or something I don't know what do you call we don't make those ones trees no so oaks are native to LA to the LA area there's a community called Encino which which means oak but anyway but oaks are native but there's everything sycamores um willows uh d-a-dar trees but here's the funny one redwoods you guys know what redwoods are the giant redwood there's even redwoods in LA because here's the thing LA's not just a city for transplant people but ideas uh cultures foods plants everything can thrive in LA which is funny where when it was first developed it was just this blank tablet and like let's see if this works and it's some of the most fertile ground in the world LA used to be the agricultural capital of the United States which is so funny to think about we used to be the cattle capital of the United States Los Angeles County which is crazy thing about it's going through all these evolutions but it's kind of because it's just a fertile place where ideas thrive people thrive plants thrive and look there's some crazy and there's some uh bad ideas and uh you know things that happen but the trees every neighborhood has has greenery and just a variety of the different trees and plants and this is a reason why I love driving and why the autonomy of having a car is because you could go neighborhood to neighborhood and they're all different and they all have their qualities and they all have just things to look at people look at food to eat um so it's incredible yeah we notice and then drive back on the tourism I mean they start building inner states and route 66 I mean everyone knows route 66 and what does that finish Santa Monica Santa Monica absolutely it's still today right you go to the pier and that's where you last night yeah where you really man as we were leaving all the guests were telling off the Halloween party they're supposed to I was just gonna say I got off a call this morning where somebody was like I'm so tired I was at the Santa Monica Pier for some costume slash concert something like that always had a great place how was Santa Monica it was nice with that's a good one sunset we walked too much yeah because you want to park on the stream and then parking is done parking what was I'm on the phone okay this parking is our so we can other car guys we pass the people on the 10 watch back you were talking to your wife about business yeah yeah that's why you drive all the way back I didn't hear and I love you or miss you no I love this 24 hours but yeah no in the freeways they got their own characters oh the yes we came to studio city to along the 101 like we're not called the parameter road like why have they got that's funny so this the freeways used to be named after their destination they didn't have numbers so it was like uh you know San Diego freeways Santa Monica freeway Ventura freeway and then they tried to codify everything nationally right under like Eisenhower with the freeway plan and they won a number so it was just easier for people to know the destination so like the Golden State freeway became the five the Ventura freeway the 101 and in the translation of people some people call it the Ventura freeway some people call it the 101 it just the vernacular was adopted where it's the because it's not I'm driving Ventura freeway I'm driving 101 like the Ventura freeways the place name took the prominence and you don't speak I mean at least in LA you know that's just the way that it was like adopted where you say the and it's definitely like an LA California thing that was a nothing just like there's a but there's a good way that's what a name it's not like a character but how would you name it to the destination at the end just so you get off it uh what about some some parameter is it and then you know it's funny now they name stretches freeway after people you know there's Barack Obama Memorial High or Ronald Reagan but so now some freeways have three different I don't know you just say that's kind of sponsored with Alina so the freeways work sort of mapped out after the old railroad and the railway lines and technically both of those were mapped out over indigenous trade routes LA is like a big and so do you guys right I remember learning about the aborigines uh growing up which is a big I don't know why they talk about it yeah I don't know which is where because our education system's a little spot a little spot over here so I don't know why I learned about that but um there's a big indigenous culture yeah and look the natives figure out the best trade routes those turn into the roads turn into the railroad lines and those turn into the freeways but you mentioned it's mapped out somewhat haphazardly this is an interesting fact of all the freeways in LA and there's over 500 miles of freeways just in LA which is a lot of miles it is a big city but that's a lot of freeway miles that's less than 20 percent of the amount of freeways that were initially planned to be built this was supposed to be like a it is a freeway city but I mean imagine five times as many freeway miles but because the city develops so fast they use what's called eminent domain if you guys heard that concept so where the government pays you your value for your land or your home and then they're gonna take it and it's kind of like it's not a negotiation you know what I mean they tell you what it's worth they tell you when they're gonna take so that caused a lot of problems and displacement so they couldn't you know they won certain fights that's where the freeways went they didn't win others that's where the freeways stopped and there's certain freeways like the seven-ten I don't know I think you guys might have mentioned the seven-ten but the seven-ten was supposed to run from Long Beach to Pasadena but it stops in South Pasadena because just for whatever reason the politics of the time those homeowners won that fight and the freeway just stops but then they end up building other freeways around it wherever they find rights of way or land so it is a little bit haphazard but I love it because it enables you to to see all the different things in the city and truthfully when I'm driving I love seeing the different neighborhoods we have our natural features there's mountains everywhere like you said the trees the greenery but you get a little haphazard a little confusing because a lot of times you're taking six different freeways to go like 12 miles so so kind of finding kind of interesting and the mergers are flawed it's almost like a tensile of fun it's almost like lay up a layer it's crazy the same place it's crazy I was Houston where there's almost like a rollercoaster ramp you go up and I have not been to Houston I want to get a hot I hear that Houston is the only major city in the United States that is geographically that as vast as Los Angeles and the freeways are the other in comparison they're more circular yeah because I mean Houston's like in the middle where lies on the coast yeah so a lot of their freeways are ring roads yeah but they've got instead of having the Chris crosses he they sort of go up like the um interchange at the next you know and they lift them right it looks like a rollercoaster here they go look there's one the 105 freeway near El Segundo near LAX so this might be the exact one you're talking about I used to have to commute every day from Valley Village which is the San Fernando Valley to El Segundo which is near LAX and that interchange at the one of them the 405 freeway which is the main artery in LA if you ask me to the 105 is so steep and also narrow and I'm not I'm not exactly afraid of heights but this is the land of earthquakes and so every single time I was on there I was like man you never want to at least let me let me get off this interchange yeah so but they can be a little bit scary man but the Houston like that again it's weak to go back to what you said about these freeways we've got similar problem in Sydney they built them 30-50 years ago the land prize is so expensive we're now tunnel and like I know I would have both ways like LA I reckon we're the best city in the world to tell free build on things really so a lot of our freeways are connected does it make it easier hold on why is that better to build because I kind of caught the land above no but why does sandstone make it easier to tunnel it's easy to drill through it as a strong but it's you could drill but it's wrong that is interesting okay but they got problems on the M6 it's tunneling it's sand based it's near the coast and on top they're cutting corners of the depth they want to go to do which one of the sick holes what's it building through blood oh yeah that too oh so they're meant to do test and go a bit deeper yeah but they're cutting corners everything is subcontracted man and I think I've got developments delayed at three years and now they're not sure what to do yeah there's big yeah let's stop it so there's big issues in LA again with the mass transfer with the freeways traffic if you build it they used to thank you know more lanes equals less traffic but they found that expanding the freeways somehow leads to more traffic more people want to drive so that's why this mass transit debate is huge because you can't keep building free but we had talked about double decker freeways which having San Francisco we talked about tunnels but again the homeowners now have so much power if you will because money equals power you resist it's everywhere so they're focusing on the mass transit but tunnels was a big big issue and and uh you're scared you don't potentially have quite but I know I've been in the tunnel I mean I've got the vitra that's what my wife says but yeah I don't I don't love it's insane I know whatever it is you know I know whatever it is I know whatever it is I know whatever it is I know what it is I'm scared you know it's not a documentary yeah it's not a documentary I'm still scared I'm I'm not a bit of a joke I know what our own is we're heavily told yeah but I noticed the tollways he's based on um the pick out like they were called express lanes like all the freeways are free literally but the certain lanes where you didn't come that way from the airport we're doing peak it's like four or five bucks you've got all the freeways are told that's good so they're not freeways you can change them to motorways it's got like a hundred dollars I ever had dollars I spent 60 bucks which is about 41 way what do I mean don't somewhere I like I do a lot of driving during the day yeah it rolls around a hundred dollars you guys yeah you guys know you have to be kidding me to go how far I don't know how far don't know how far to be guys from yeah well from where we are pico's to say Parramatta yeah it depends on which freeway you take yeah it's like 45 dollars how is that possible because you go through the new tunnel or the different tunnel no I okay let me read frees how do they expect people to they can use cabinets yeah you can do 60 dollars a week you know it's a private registered vehicle so if your business register they suck you away but you know what our freeways yeah I think we should have like a lot of money if you stop on a freeway if it's because you shouldn't have to pay like if there's traffic yeah you can't stop you shouldn't have to pay and anyone oh how can they work out well then they do you have e-tags yeah they've got tags okay in those tags obviously you can make them safe they don't have motion yeah after you go from a toll they register yeah it's not that difficult we can fly me into the moon apparently but you know what I mean is we could do things yeah that should be I'd love that to happen did you think about this last little bit in the big box no I'm just definitely I'm thinking that's a good point now because the reason why I'm bringing this up I went picked up a car from Parramatta a customer's car from a car yard they have a car yard zero yeah and I drive back to work at one of the freeways that's blocked off yeah so we took another route which is like four different freeways yeah across an internal yeah and on the way back it was one straight freeway which only had to say two tolls okay the customer who had the car on his statement wants to know did we take his car for a joy ride because there's 40 $48 in tolls one way and only I think it said $15 coming back so the dealership I got I got sent email saying oh we're gonna take us off the price of your thing but why did this happen but I still can't wrap my head around the fact that you're paying 45 dollars to drive so the cross-seat told us one time the goes under downtown yeah and that's eight dollars I think went up yeah so it's like ten bucks seven US but you got to be another for a minute you get to that anyway but you're probably get to that that's crazy all right they're beautiful I mean beautiful the turtles they're in the ground where's the money go the company oh no they're privatized privatized the property in Australia we're doing things we built things they're profitable and they're privatized no okay they are how is that is that good no no i'm okay like the Harper bridge was supposed to be for free yeah but what they do the contracts is with these private companies is you can't close surrounding roads the final traffic in you're meant to have alternative routes yeah but then they make it into one lane so three so they bottleneck the roads up are they trying to discourage people to drive is that ultimately the building metrics but wow we're building a deal in that area really they're met on like the ready for the year well you guys hold on what do you guys think are LAX it works confusing well you ever been to get on coming off from being trying to sleep all right right but you seem to know exactly what it is I mean we're coming up coming twice a year once a year right no one cares about what you bring into the country we're in Australia yeah um getting your passport steps easy yeah but getting your luggage through your customs like if you've got seeds like cuz we're an island nation yeah yeah anything that comes in it's gonna kill our livestock and so we're here I think it's like not really cares about protecting and this trip yeah because the first time we met the summer who you could choke with yeah customs I said to my wife you're not allowed to joke and he's got a paranoid to like paranoid heart and then all of a sudden this talking to someone way back at the line yeah yeah what's up i got now walk over and this guy's cracking jokes because their background's Greek and he's sorry our names he goes your Greek and yeah obviously your two shows obviously his name was really long yeah and we started laughing at customs I think I felt bad laughing because they were like yeah because he's not so scary it's just like we're healing his name but they just keep on walking like a rebel I told him that my dad had that in case your name shortens ronus it was margarone's okay I was my dad had but he's first shot because it was never he couldn't fit his name on the side but we were hey that's the joke and he started laughing we're carrying on like oh she's nowhere else if you look at the other already glums ready that first time ever you met the one guy so coming to the state customs is hard um passport controls hard yeah picking up luggage and getting out because that's when sitting here waiting for your luggage because you clean the passport yeah right with the dog sniffing out right off yeah and if I see next to you that path of boy that is like so the passport is it tough yeah yeah but LAX has uh is very uh polarizing as well because uh it was never meant to be a major airport as it is one busiest airports in the world too but uh they're doing a huge renovation because the olympics are coming yeah that's what the monorall that's going on yeah i shot at i was gonna put all the car in the finally yeah that was a lot of the live improvements needed there but but they're working out they're working so you were saying they're building a new airport yeah so western city victory yeah but not metra i forgot to go through i got that not metra i'll be ready i'll be ready in the morning you're after here the building stages the morning based on LA um they got stage one at each stage when it opens up they met a big old and they got to create more things so they've got stage one but they've got no fuel they've got to truck the fueling smart right because the pipeline is gonna cost two billion wow wow the petrol from kuril i think i'm gonna take that 200 tris a day i'm gonna go to the airport forever for stage one they must have gets the stage three yeah it's all bullshit it's gonna be like a back shift well i'm glad to know it's not just the u.s but it has this great reputation right at least here is a gleaming example of what the first world can should be yeah you know we're talking about piping you know piping for fuel in um Sydney there was uh what do you call a fuel depot massive fuel depot we're fine we're fine we're on the hard not the hard part yeah and when they got knocked down eventually and everything other the pipes out there was a house that this guy at some stage must have ran a pipe from his backyard to the oil to the refinery detail the other small area only the other when everything was getting knocked down so could you imagine how much fuel was going on wow was it running a taxi company i was gonna say what's your sound you should be how smart is that like i mentioned in the middle of the night in our back 80 years ago run a pipe through to your house you know for that's pretty ingenious though i'll tell you something interesting about LA speaking if you'll do you know LA used to be the oil capital of the world as well 1930 LA was producing 25 percent of the world's oil this is to the state of largest urban oil field right under Los Angeles they pump oil in the wood oil field La Sienna their pictures of Long Beach of Venice did you guys end up going to Venice by the way in the near journeys to Los Angeles? Venice boardwalk crazy place fun place famous place that's why you have earthquakes but it's sucked everything out of the ground i wonder honestly i don't know that's why but i do you should pump it up with that now you know what they so Long Beach was sinking when they were pumping so much so much oil and then they didn't know what to do because Long Beach is a great city in its own right and they were wondering what they were going to do because in this 1930s 1940s somebody had the idea to pump seawater in to replace the oil that they're and they didn't know if it was going to work but it works but LA was all kind of and to this day there's still a hundred thousand barrels of oil pumped per day in Los Angeles so oil even though gas prices are higher here in Los in California anywhere in the United States, LA is still one of the major oil and fuel sources but politics are coming into play they want to shut down the drill and all this kind of stuff and what's funny because of our regulations here in California even though we pump all the oil we have to ship it out to get it treated properly and refine even though we have refineries here in the shower of fire and also go but there are different types of fuel in other types of cars we pull our gas out of the country yeah we send it away and then buy back yes that's what's going on there it's always my company who owns the oil refinery here in LA if it's on your land do you own the oil underneath wow i can't i do not in Australia you own so much of you underneath the ground that's why we need to dig tunnels but in over seep china i think it is all we ever you know they own the dirt all the way here they don't know any wow we're sitting in the cities on a coal bill so we've got coal mines and new castles about 200 kilometers north of seep and 100 kilometers south is walling long it's coal and the belt so it goes under the city so if they wanted to mine coal on the city they could yeah we're still but coal's like a swear we know let's call them the more it's not environment so you know what's you know um when they're thinking all around the world which no i was saying i was saying you're just a nice man you're around the world you're too much thinking no that's not ultra violent like what's called uv yeah always argue about your burn car so keep it for us so obviously yes even we've got that much gas yeah and now we're trying to every new house against bill yeah you're not that what we're getting we're banning gas gas connections how's that place california's gonna start that too what do they say what's going on i like it that's going on that's bullshit wait so we're just that always implemented in our health insurance what do people say about it's bullshit because people it's a little bit of an outcry in california but again it's almost one of those things where there was an outcry that people are like yeah that's right you have your say and that's like the stop i have to pay tolls if you stop yeah i'll tell you something that like with this um what's it called environmentally friendly look we all care about the environment obviously but the push for electric vehicles is a little bit um halting you guys could probably speak on this i mean i'm not like pro anti-test i don't care about any of that but what i wonder is they're like oh it's so much better for the environment but all i hear about is how the mining for lithium and all this stuff with batteries is so destructive and then you can't even dispose of all the batteries and then i'm always wondering well all the people charging now you need chargers in a charging station and then you're still using energy and all this so i'm like ultimately is this better for the environment or is it worse for i mean i mean it's it's a debate yeah you can be foreign against and bring up your points versus my points yeah and both of your winners and losers like in anything that we move forward it doesn't look like anything new it's okay because you're talking about fuel and all that yeah it's just like um how what's the other technology got out of the hydrogen hydrogen hydrogen you're putting a bomb in the car this now if you go back a hundred years or whatever you put petrol in the car and all the same thing it's just revolution it's just it's going around you know what i mean it's just like remember when uh gas when that sun footing uh gas cylinders full of gas in a car yeah just have to do that you know it'll be jaxies don't know what i mean i don't think it's been a lot of gas we had a lot of gas we got it all the way we actually put gas cylinders in the back of cars and you can run on gas yeah and it was like uh 10 percent yeah it was tip set of the process of fuel yeah and then all of a sudden you work it out it'll take you know two years to pay that off i'm gonna go gas but now gas is the same price as petrol and then they're stopping it always wins but with these it's a little refinery supply demand at the moment gum it's up putting money and rebates and that but supply demand wins at the end of the day it's so cool i had a Tesla and i got rid of it i loved it we just started with a self-driving Tesla last week oh yeah you know i just started and i don't know we don't know how they got it they showed a video in Melbourne they've got a thing called a hook turn yeah so they got trans yeah and if you got to turn say you're left yeah so when you're across the other road you go say it's stupid it's saying you're turning left here to keep the american let's get you mind you go to the right side of the road and block the intersection and when the lights go red you then turn left stupid why that's called a hook turn because if you were turning left in the middle of the road the tramp will hit you oh yeah so there's trams in the middle of the road now us city scientists don't like melton Tesla couldn't figure that out well have you guys heard we will yeah okay so there's weimos in many parts of the city now oh yeah so it's a self-driving taxi if you will nicer than a jaguar jaguar manufacturers and i was a little leery of it until i rode in one and then i was like you know what this could be because everybody takes uber i am a big fan of like uber in the ride share and all this kind of stuff but you never know what kind of driver you're getting sometimes i want to go their own route some you know like if your wife's riding alone uber it gets a little questionable you said i wouldn't set my kid and if i'm in an uber but the weimos are self-driving i was wondering about the technology but man look and there's flaws because you see some of these stories where they'll stop the boob beans around there but i think yes yeah in a certain way but i was like you know i was pretty impressed at least at my right and again i'm only trying to show you something no i just keep the handles and no it's comfortable i tell people this was crazy because i was not expected i was like i feel safer than a human driver i just i don't know when i was in there it just it feels like it's like following the laws and the rules of the road and it's not necessarily like a defensive driver in a bad way but there are no risks you know like so i just felt like if anything happens you know because i notice what hell you're trying to trick it i'm trying to do it because i'm saying the funny thing is element yeah is what's trying to stuff about it's a machine you know i'm just saying it's the human element that's trying to trick it which i need to be afraid of it or we we've got a y-section where they haven't actually or hooked a fix that properly and you know what it's the human element we fuck it up yeah i was driving fine yeah because we i was like she's like a marriage just stuff it all up i'm in my day of driving away by pulled up yeah i like you got out and we stopped and said how is it and one of my mates asked did you feel safe in it yeah she didn't get the question she goes yeah there's no one in here that touched me like and she walked away but like no no no the driving aspect you know which that's a big deal i don't know if that happens with you got but that that's a fan uber uber is not what i'm talking about it's a big story it's like a sexual assault we have it's like we have it's like we have it's uh we have it's uh but that's where her mind went that's where her mind went on safety and safety and how the answer question was anyway i was like what she was running down yeah she fell kickle us on it and we were having dinner last night at downtown yeah and there was a way about part for 20 minutes just seeing that and he doesn't want to see a lady but it's a mind caught in the cold lights it did just wake up and leave did it really did it really have you guys seen those self-driving that self-driving but the little food delivery you know that's funny that's fucking cool have you any notice me human element i said my son we saw when we're like what happens if you you know walk in front of it it's like it's so nervous and then we shut one down one just like stopped and i'm sure the program you know like but it just shut down i was like i don't know did we break i mean i think it's like fuck off no and i was it went it was shut down and i was like i it's a program like when humans start to when it was what noodles were called but not less but it was it was great but yeah it's the human element like you were saying always hey there is terrific ideas everything's a great idea but it's a human element that usually fuck off yeah that's a good point that's a good point well Evan might thank you for so thank you for having us in your studio this is great this is awesome um just but remember come to syrian's Australia i want to and look i'll try and remember how many free ways we have got and and everything as much knowledge as you know about your life we can be the researchers Sydney in the middle let me ask you this is Sydney a good place for an anniversary trip what anniversary 20th so you know it's right oh what are you doing yeah yeah no but i'm saying we're planning our anniversary now we don't have a destination stay in a hotel in the city you will tell you where to stay yeah yeah ring and we'll tell you like it's four seasons this up at the rocks your dollar yeah you'll buy a calculate our dollar is shit yeah so we want to see dollars 65 us in really so if you google look at the price your winter is our summer right there's our anniversaries in January yeah you come for Christmas yeah yeah man you'll enjoy it yeah money goes on what you're doing you're doing it along with your bring what yes your son no no no i'm not gonna buy that anniversary trip no okay so you don't have to worry about like your luda parks and we're gonna jump around the plane because i didn't and i'm frozen and i'm like i'm getting i'm are you used to playing now as a play for falling going there to all back come back to the right edge of the earth yeah we went to Dubai that sounds a rough one yeah i've been a china that was it terrible i mean china was great if you've done those lights stay in the city and like just if you're just asking we want a room over looking yeah just a dream well we're we're going to do yeah you want you want to look at the bridge the opera house yeah if it's anniversary yeah yeah yeah and the food's great right oh yeah yeah but but food's great yeah not as the food's better yeah the food's awesome yeah well yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah our food is not as big yeah but it's weird but can you tell me what is Australian cuisine is there like an Australian audience like you want the do you have me pies okay we've got a gift for you oh dear oh oh i can't point you outside you're not gonna like something okay so we brought you a gift whoa they're called Tim Tams whoa all right what is this so they're like dessert cookie situation biscuit you guys that's right you guys come biscuit there you go oh thank you you want to try ozzy biscuits yeah that's that's a gift for you know what for glory thank you absolutely so we've got mad chocolate meat pies you've got to make pie yes and i love meat pies and there's something called chicken pot pie here which i know is different and i've but i've had meat pies and they're fucking i just discovered in the top ten best pies in Australia yeah i was at a rate we race a race car yeah and we're talking about pies in the middle of the bush and someone break up this pie shop at mccot raspberry raspberry yes so i went there of course it's like a back and i'll be gone every single day okay and i get to know the people in every shop i go yeah yeah yeah and these are fucking sensational okay dad the pie father pie father by far it's made up like the godfather you know exactly called the pie father okay and they i'm not plugging them that's all right i gotta go every shop i go into yeah i have a killer we'll send them the link i go kill it kill it kill it kill it to the point where you find out go for a week and i come oh there business is there i'll tell you that pie is done your pies uh always see this and see my language yeah that's what we don't want to have that we do not have that we do hybrid stuff so you can go to an Asian fusion place yeah so it's tayan and uh chinese yeah so you got fusion restaurants it's right that's what i want to do i'm gonna tell him the left today i want to leave you guys with a fact though before leave because you mentioned Beverly Hills and rodeo drive race car race all this kind of stuff Beverly Hills was actually founded the reason Beverly Hills became Beverly Hills was because of the Beverly Hills Speedway the early auto racing industry one of the most prominent tracks in the United States and in the world was the Beverly Hills Speedway which was the equivalent to three quarters of the size of Beverly Hills today and it wasn't the Beverly Hills hotel it wasn't rodeo drive Beverly Hills was it was uh lima bean farms uh um not arugo alfalfa all it was agriculture because alia was agriculture but they built this speedway because they had this land and you know it's controversial you can't turn on the farm but they built the speedway well racing got big and popular and it drew tourists from all over LA southern california the west coast and it was the most popular speedway in the united states for a while and that's when initially brought people into Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills hotel which is now legendary and beautiful and you know all this kind of polo lounge all this kind of stuff well that was just like an out of the way stop but people started staying there and then the Beverly Hills hotel started building up then uh mary pickford and Douglas Fairbanks built their house pick fair and then Beverly Hills became Beverly Hills when it was because of the Beverly Hills Speedway and an auto racing which is the furthest thing from the minds of of when you're in Beverly Hills now but that's the reason why Beverly Hills first became well that's what we're doing yeah there you go yeah and that's what because i mean long beach going that's like race on all of LA yeah and the truck dude that's going in i can't see him everything i want yes they didn't i'm my son's big into f1 now and he wants somehow because they did Vegas they do Vegas on that one second and he's like is there any way that they can bring out flinder LA and i was like i don't know about that but we said about Sydney yeah we thought that'll set up because we lost f1 used to be in Adelaide yeah no it's in Melbourne Melbourne the bastards see we hate it and we thought of my sons i'm gonna lose a contract i was gonna come sit in and i'm gonna race over the harbour bridge i'll never have it never have it they can't close that bridge down and that's but you would think the thing that blew my mind was Vegas because how can you close down the street they were like there's no way they closed the fountain no but they reopened it during the day no not all of it the main strip is open during the day and that's why they race it to in the morning Vegas at midnight because they shut it down is that yeah it's open during the day if you look where the stands were I remember like the fountain's empty the large fountain is the stands in there and there's hold on that races it's you in the morning it's at midnight 11 at p a midnight Vegas time i don't know if it aligns with you and for two years oh i know it's Saturday race because it's Sunday Europe so they do line it up for tv don't listen with the money per conversation you got enough money you can make it if they want to if you got the resources you can make it open the road and then at night they shut it down okay and if we go like we're there for two weeks before the Grand Prix the track set up the lighting and they put it the sphere the way they do it like a helmet and like that speeds another i haven't been inside this oh i was i was gonna say you two i want to see f1 f1 because we got not once we don't mention enough f1 stuff oh you can mention f1 for two years we get media passes so we keep saying f1 every episode no and we mention our best sponsor mr liquor because he spots the thing with cartons of cruisers shout out mr liquor so we'll get mr liquor beach champagne oh sorry you're gonna reach out so i'm gonna tell you where to go to we're gonna tell you where to go to eat yeah and you tell me what you want to eat and where to go to romance i'll figure that one out so no no so um and in the tradition and in the tradition of LA in a minute if you've got one thing to do auto eccentric type thing in LA where would you go wow i'm telling you right now and people are going to give me people are like i don't want to be in traffic but driving around Los Angeles get on the freeway drive any direction and get off it any exit because you there you are going to be in a neighborhood there's so many neighborhoods and they're all unique and they all have like great places to eat great people and get out and just explore any neighborhood because driving around LA whether it's honestly but you know where to go go over the six street bridge which is our new big infrastructure project takes you from poil heights to downtown it's a beautiful bridge and coming into downtown Los Angeles from the side most people don't see is gorgeous and it's a piece of infrastructure it's going to be here for centuries and surprise la se you'll be both going the same side of the car she's doing was on that side so i'm like thank you for having us thank you so happy to meet you and i think if you're gonna come down i don't want to now i'm pushing and we'll hook you up and we'll catch up again and we'll point you in the right direction have to get your wife to try something nice and then all of a sudden you're booking your tickets thank you for the little one to try because i want to come so thank you um right let's review yes by the way send us your questions and we'll talk about look.com.au and bye for now bye guys thank you