myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Meet the Candidate: John Parr, Burbank City Council Candidate
What if local politics could be as engaging and entertaining as a night at a comedy club? This week on "Meet the Candidate," we sit down with John Parr, a dynamic city council candidate for Burbank, who blends comedic activism with a genuine passion for community development. Discover John's unique journey from the sandy beaches of San Juan Capistrano to the halls of Loyola Marymount University, and hear how his gap year teaching English in Costa Rica shaped his views on education and community service. Learn about the similarities between San Juan Capistrano and Burbank and what motivates John to make local politics an honest and engaging venture.
Get ready for a hearty laugh as we dive into the quirks of city council meetings and John's career as a touring comedian. With upcoming gigs in Toronto and New York, John shares hilarious anecdotes about the absurdities of city council procedures and the joy of parenting. We also explore his Netflix series "Chad and JT Go Deep," where comedic activism takes center stage at city council meetings. John gives us a glimpse into his stand-up routines that balance humor with thought-provoking insights, emphasizing the value of intelligent comedy in today's society.
Transportation and infrastructure take the spotlight as John discusses pressing issues facing Burbank. From the limitations of the bus system to the success of the Chandler Bike Path, we explore practical improvements for pedestrian safety and electric vehicle infrastructure. John offers a balanced view on the controversial ban on electric scooters and the complex issue of homelessness, suggesting actionable solutions. We also cover the proposed Bus Rapid Transit project and its potential impact on the community. Tune in for an episode filled with humor, insight, and a refreshing perspective on local governance with John Parr.
My name is John Parr and I'm running for city council. Listen to what I have to say about my background and my visions for the future in this edition of Meet the Candidate.
Speaker 2:My Burbank Talks presents another episode of Meet the Candidate, the show where we invite anyone appearing on the Burbank ballot in the 2024 election to join us here and give our listeners a chance to learn about their background and the issues important to them. Now let's join our podcast.
Speaker 3:Hello, Burbank, Craig Sherwood here with you once again for another edition of Meet the Candidate, and today we have a city council candidate, John Parr, with us, who's going to talk about us and about his background and what's he going to do to become elected and for you to get to know him, which is the most important thing. So let me give you a little background on John here. John is a professional comedic activist and a writer who has spent the last decade of his career using his comedy to bring attention to important issues of the day. He and his comedy partner have brought their comedic activist message from local city halls to cable news programs and daytime and late-night talk shows. And now to why Burbank Talks meets the candidate.
Speaker 3:Of course, John is a native of Southern California, born and raised in San Juan Capistrano, so he may have seen a lot of swallows, I guess, in his day. He credits his childhood from being raised by a Colombian immigrant mother and an enterprising father who created a strong work ethic to drive and make an impact in his life. He graduated from LMU with a degree in screenwriting and moved to Burbank in 2022, where he and his spouse are raising their 13-month-old twins. Holy cow, if that alone isn't enough for anybody. Two, Two 13-month-old twins, Holy cow. If that alone isn't enough for anybody two, Two 13-month-old twins, We'll ask him in a second how much he gets to sleep at night.
Speaker 3:John is running for city council because he wants to make politics a party. That's interesting. He has seen voter cynicism grow to record highs over recent years and he wants to make politics and government something people not only believe in but find fun and exciting too. He wants to bring new people to the government, to the government party, by bringing a sense of realness and honesty to politics, and reignite the democratic spark in people who have grown disenchanted with government. Oh, I think this will be a very interesting podcast. I think this will be a very interesting podcast and I think this will be very informative. John, how are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? Things are good, Things are real good. Let's get back. You know we read the bio here so people understand the background a little bit. But let's get, let's start back.
Speaker 1:You know where did you grow up San Juan Capistrano in Orange County. For how long I was there in San Juan, from 8 to 18.
Speaker 3:Okay, so not bad. No, it was a good run. You probably had a lot of the beach life back then and all that. And what did you do for fun back then? What is fun to do besides watching the?
Speaker 1:swallows. We see it's actually the swallows don't fly there anymore. I mean they, we keep up the swallows parade because it's such a big part of the culture, but I think they actually land in tustin now and have for the past 40 years, but we're still getting a bit of a stolen uh, avion valor on it you know, I'm sure the local chamber of commerce is putting on the events for to raise money for everybody to come out there and watch them and maybe release some fake type things.
Speaker 3:It's a big people, yeah that's pretty funny.
Speaker 1:I didn't I didn't realize that, but it's a great place to grow up and I did go to the beach a lot. I always enjoyed playing beach volleyball and body surfing and all the uh different things you can do in the water how do you find san juan capistrano similar to Burbank?
Speaker 1:It is similar, actually it has the same kind of a. It doesn't feel too corporate, there's a lot of small business there and the community feels warm when you go around the town. There's real personality there. It feels rooted in history and you don't feel like, uh, it came out of a box so it has a small town feel to it for sure burbank does.
Speaker 3:The population there's offhand, I think it's like 35 000. Okay, we're about 100 000 here, so about three times as large yeah, probably about the same area, though I think probably we're like 17 square miles here about the same.
Speaker 1:there a lot of hillsides, a hillsides, a lot of open horse grounds and whatnot.
Speaker 3:Okay, Interesting, so okay. So after high school you went on to college at LMU.
Speaker 1:It was just the cutest route to get to college. Oh well, let's talk about that. I went to Costa Rica for a year. I taught English to kids there, lived with British guys who were doing their gap year. I don't think I was the best teacher, but I had a lot of fun hanging out with the people there and the kids there. We coached them in soccer as well. I wasn't the best player, but I brought up a lot of enthusiasm to the pitch.
Speaker 3:I think that's part of what our life experiences are, though, is doing things maybe out of your comfort zone, maybe you know a totally different place and atmosphere, and what did you? When you're done with Costa, Rica.
Speaker 1:what are your memories of Costa Rica? Now, you know it's cliche, but probably the Pura Vida of it. That's like their popular salutation. It means pure life. But they kind of embody that. They're like a very warm and like uh, I don't know engaging and fun, like kind of culture. And I also got to know the British guys well too and they brought a lot of their kind of uh humor and and banter to it. So probably just getting out of my orange County bubble and just seeing how the rest of the world was and and kind of finding my own footing as an adult outside of like my familiar surroundings.
Speaker 3:I think that's great. I think it's it's important to have those kinds of life experiences. So we spent a year in Costa Rica. Now we come back and go to LMU after that.
Speaker 1:Oh no, Junior college. Okay, I did, I did my rounds there and you know, actually I bounced around from a few but a lot of my best experiences were at junior college. I felt like my most. That's when my intellectual curiosity really kicked in and I really got into reading and art and just kind of trying to build my brain, and I had a lot of good teachers who kind of encouraged that in me, which I still remember fondly.
Speaker 3:I think JUCOs get a bad rap in the sense that you know out of high school well, you're going to go to college. Well, I'm going to go to, you know, valley College and they're going oh, valley, where are you going? Well, I'm going to go to USC. Well, the core classes are exactly the same those first two years, no matter what school you go to. And let's face it, economically, two years at SC compared to two years at Valley College is a huge, huge financial difference. Experience Well, you know what you transfer to the USC, you transfer to the LMU, you transfer to those colleges and when you get a degree, it says LMU, it doesn't say LMU via Valley College.
Speaker 1:I didn't even have to tell you yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker 3:So I think the JUCOs get a really bad rap in it. I think it's a great alternative for people and economically it's feasible and I think it's you know. So I don't think it's any kind of stigmatism at all when people go to junior colleges. I think it's actually a very smart thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I loved it and I really tried to bring like enthusiasm to it, because I felt like there was a lack of school spirit and I wanted people to feel like even though you know we were all kind of hoping to go somewhere else that we appreciated the time we had there.
Speaker 3:I think people don't kind of think about this, but you get out of anything what you put into it. If you go with a negative attitude, you're going to get probably a negative experience. If you go there and embrace, the experience probably a lot different. So did you have any activities you did? Which JC did you go to? I went to a lot Once again.
Speaker 1:Once again, you stuck with it, though oh, totally, and actually I bounced around coast. I went to new york and I went to borough of manhattan community college sorry, I know that's a, I'm charting a big map right now but that was probably my favorite one that I went to, because it was such an international school, there was people from everywhere, and so I ended up becoming a comedian and that was probably the first time where I realized, oh, I'm making people from ghana laugh, I'm making people from china laugh, like maybe I'm not just funny to my bros in orange county, maybe I got something here, and so it was uh, I'm so grateful for just the uh, the cultural like uh mesh I got to be a part of once.
Speaker 3:Once again, our experiences is what does you know if you don't get out of Orange County and go to New York? You don't do those things. Are you the man you are today? That's always a lot of questions. I mean, do you think that really has helped make who you are? Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Just even being on the subway and being around all those different people and just be nose to nose with people at six 30 in the morning and everyone's just tired and wants to be anywhere else, you can't avoid the the humanity of it all, Like you're in it and it makes you you know there's a vitality to it that I really love.
Speaker 3:Excellent, so okay, now we finally did make it to LMU. Yes, you get to get two years straight at LMU. Yes, and why?
Speaker 1:screenwriting. I've always just been obsessed with, uh, art and film specifically. Like in high school I was always reading books about cinema raging bulls and easy rider, easy riders and raging bulls and rebels on the back lot and all of Roger Ebert's books about the great movies, and and I just found Roger Ebert, who's one of my heroes he had a great quote about film that it's a vehicle for empathy, and I always found that to be true. Every time I watched movies it was like I was learning about all these different people, people that weren't like me, people who had different sexual orientations, different national pride, different desires, and it connected me to them in a way that just contributed to a more open-minded worldview.
Speaker 3:That's excellent. That's that's excellent when um I I think that you know, if you make to the burbank city council, you know we have one of our council members now who's a little bit of a comedian, also, constant anthony. I've been talking to him, great guy, a background, so we can have a lot of levity if you're, if you do get elected. So two years at lmu, got a screenwriting degree what was next?
Speaker 1:I started working in a production. I started working at a podcast company called Earwolf. That was a mostly comedy podcast and that's when that industry was first. Like I was going to say, how long ago was that?
Speaker 3:probably 11 years ago, so that's when podcasting was it was just starting.
Speaker 1:It was a brand new thing, but it was starting to get like. I kind of had a dog whistle ear for comedy and I knew they were doing a lot of really cool, interesting stuff over there and but I was there when it started to grow and I was the assistant to the CEO and I got to watch him kind of design the business around it, which was really exciting. I became a PA at another really cool comedy company called Abso-lutely. That's over in Glendale, and I worked there for about four years and moved up into locations, which was a really exciting job as well and actually kind of paralleled the political work I'm doing now, where you had to go door to door and just ask people hey, can I rent your house for a shoot? And so I'm comfortable going up to strangers and talking to them about. You know my ambitions for something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I think if it's important to you, you don't have a problem dealing with people you know and you're confident in yourself.
Speaker 1:If you've got a mission, I think you can accomplish a lot.
Speaker 3:It kind of bolsters you up, yeah, but that's also confidence too, and it's also something that's really important, you know, is dealing with people. Thank you, that's kind. So we went to. We've done that for a while, and now how long?
Speaker 1:have you been married? So we're not officially married yet. I call her my wife and we're going to get married soon. How long have you been together for? We've been together for three years, okay.
Speaker 3:And let's talk about those 13 month old twins. Was that an expected situation? Number one having a baby.
Speaker 1:Number two having two of those babies well, we certainly wanted to have a child. The fact that it was twins was super surprising and probably the biggest shock of both of our lives. But now in retrospect, we wouldn't do it any other way. It's such a gift to watch them interact and just laugh like I'll just come home sometimes. And they're just laughing together for what I surmise is no reason. But they might have some secret language that's, like you know, very well developed and they're just laughing together for what I surmise is no reason. But they might have some secret language that's very well developed and they're just cracking up and I don't know. We got a boy and a girl too, so it feels like I don't know, something really is looking out for us and gave us the best possible outcome.
Speaker 3:That's outstanding. Are you sleeping at night, though?
Speaker 1:We're lucky. We actually managed to get through the first couple months and, um, we had a good protocol for their sleep, and now they're sleeping seven to seven. I'm almost wary to say that, though, because other parents are struggling with them and I don't want them to get upset that we kind of got lucky with it and get a nice chunk of sleep ourselves well, let's kind of bring us up to the present.
Speaker 3:Here we've got the kids and uh, the significant other at home and all those things and uh. So what are you doing now? What? What occupies your time right now?
Speaker 1:so I'm a comedian, so I tour. I'm uh leaving on a september 14th, I'm going to uh do a couple gigs in toronto and then I'm doing uh some tour dates in New York. So me and my partner, chad, who's my, we're a duo. We do touring for standup and then we've we also had a television series that we created for Netflix called Chad and JT go deep, which was built around our comedic activism, which is something we've been doing for almost a decade now, and a lot of it actually takes place at city council meetings. So we first kind of gained a little bit of notoriety by going to city council meetings and advocating for our political causes, speaking from the perspective of like an oc bro, which was like a a statue for paul walker to unite the nation or protecting house parties in downtown la, and uh we kind of built a whole uh ideology around that stuff and this now is currently on net.
Speaker 3:I mean you find it on Netflix somewhere If you do the old search and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you look for chatting JT, go deep, it's on there.
Speaker 3:Really Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, boost that viewer count.
Speaker 3:I'm going, absolutely I'm going to check it out. I had never seen it on there, but you know I don't really watch Star Wars. Let me think here. Well, you know, I mean Star.
Speaker 1:Wars is pretty great.
Speaker 3:I don't watch that ticket personally, but anyhow, okay, so well, that's going to take you kind of away from Burbank during, you know, kind of the electioneering season here. Yeah, it's going to be tough. Are you going to be able to spend much time here to get involved with groups and organizations and do all the stuff that you have to do, kind of to?
Speaker 2:get to know people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I like doing stuff. I don't like to be idle, so you know I'm. I try to pack my day with as much stuff as possible and I get energy from it. I'm very extroverted, so the more I do, the better I feel. I'm only gone two weekends out of the month, so it's not as strenuous of touring as some other guys do, so I think I'll have plenty of time. We're building out the calendar right now for campaigning, and I'm still going to be door knocking and calling, and we've got a good team around me too to help me when I am gone.
Speaker 3:So I feel like I'll be able to do all the things I want to do. Well, you know city council. At times it does crack me up. The other night we had a city council meeting and they spent three hours on deciding how they can make council meetings shorter.
Speaker 1:I heard you talking about this and, as someone who's been going to city council meetings for a decade, I definitely think we could speed the process up a bit.
Speaker 3:Well, there's no doubt we can. In fact, one is having more meetings, so you're not there until so late.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great idea, because most places do two meetings a month, I mean, you know, doing three a month.
Speaker 3:Yeah we have to do two a month by city ordinance, but why not do three a month? They used to do three a month years ago and then they kind of stopped doing that. But I just thought it was hilarious that they spent three hours to figure out how to shorten a meeting, you know, and they changed policies that were changed about 10 years ago, that were changed about 10 years before that. So it's kind of a so, you know, sometimes, you know, city council meetings are hilarious if you know how to find the comedy in them, for sure. So well, and speaking of comedy, what is your routine that you do when you go to you're on the road, you go to a comedy club. What's the routine you guys can do? Is it about politics? Is it about, you know, pop culture? What's it? What do you kind of talk about?
Speaker 1:I would say my standup is slightly different than what I do at city council meetings. At the city council meetings I'm a bit more spaced out, I'm a bit more like in my bro kind of voice, my bro vernacular. When I do stand up, it's more personal, it's more autobiographical. You know, I I'm trying to do, uh, something that's in line with what my heroes did, like richard pryor or, um, um, mark maron, just more straightforward, not quite confessional, but more personally rooted stand up, okay.
Speaker 3:That's. I'm sure that there's a great. You know, I think intelligent comedy has a real place in our society. You know, you can only get slap slapstick so long you know the pie in the face, whatever it's going to be, I don't work so well. I think people want to be challenged and entertained at the same time, which is a tough mix.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, and some you know you can go too far with challenging people and not you know these people pay to come to a show, they pay to be entertained. So you need to do that job. You need to make sure they leave feeling good about the experience but at the same time, you want it to be something substantive and to actually engage with people in an authentic way.
Speaker 3:So I'm always trying to balance that out. People always say, when you're a comedian, that you can read the room immediately and you know if you're, if you got them. If you don't, what do you do when you don't have them?
Speaker 1:You power through, you sweat a little bit and you just uh act as if you're crushing, and then you know. What also helps is taking a small moment to say, hey, I know I'm not doing great, and that lets them know that you at least see what's happening and that engenders some trust.
Speaker 3:That's good. Yeah, that would probably work. Well, let's move on to Burbank. Here, here we are. So you spent two years here. We're going to have some things coming up here which you know, if you're going to get on the council you have to deal with. One is rent control. So you have to deal with. One is rent control. Now do you have any feelings on and it's a very complicated subject, because I really see how landlords look at this, especially your small mom and pop ones compared to your corporate ones. But I also see how the renters and the way the renters are nowadays. So I think both sides have great points. So how do you come down on that whole thing?
Speaker 1:It's such a complicated subject and I'm still working my way through it. I talk to people every day, especially over the last month just trying to get a better grasp on it and I think Burbank has a high population of renters 60%, which is above the national average and a lot of people are month to month, month to month and they're dealing with, like housing insecurity. So raising rents on people like that is immoral. But then you know, I talked to people on the development side and I understand that you know they need to. We need to boost up the housing supply so we can bring down the median price of houses in Burbank, which is extraordinarily high. It's like 1.2 million.
Speaker 1:You know a place like Charlotte where they're less restrictive with their housing developments, like 450,000. So how do we boost up the housing supply so prices come down overall and so we have less renters and more homeownership. I think the council is doing a good job and they have some aggressive, you know, progressive platforms that are well articulated, but I don't know if anyone's quite found the right answer that's actually going to solve the problem. Well, that is the right answer. That's actually going to solve the problem.
Speaker 3:Well, that's the, that's the. That is the problem that we have five people who are supposed to solve that problem.
Speaker 1:So we'll see how that works out.
Speaker 3:It is Absolutely, and there's times that you are not going to make friends. I'm okay with that. Okay, you?
Speaker 1:know what it is. I very. I love being close to people, but I also don't think conflict or disagreement necessarily means that you have to think ill of the other person. I sometimes think that conflict and disagreement can actually make you closer to other people, especially if you're being honest in what you're saying. So I kind of look forward to disagreeing with people.
Speaker 3:And that's part of it, and I think that the problem in our country is we aren't willing to listen to the other side. I had a last week. I went to an event and there were a couple of police commissioners there and I've been very critical of the police commission and they both came and we started to talk and we listened to each other and it was a great conversation, just listening to each other, and I didn't back away from what my points were, and I didn't back away from you know, because what I say is what I believe, but I also listened to their points of view too, and I understood where they're coming from. So I think we need more of that instead of being divisive all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a vilification of other people. That I think is not helpful, because if you're talking to someone and you're looking at them like they're you know, like they have bad intentions or like they're not a good person, that really short circuits the conversation, and I think in most instances we all want to see a better community. We just have different values that guide us to our choices, so I try to always be mindful of where someone's coming from and thinking that that's a positive place.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Let's move on to another topic Now. We did a show last week called um ask the mayor, and we did the entire show on a Burbank bus and it was. It was an outstanding show in my opinion. Of course, everyone one of my shows is a stand outstanding show. That was the one with Dave Christie. Yes, absolutely, and you had a chance to listen to it I did. Okay, thank you for listening. So transportation is a huge issue in Burbank, whether it be pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycles, electric vehicles and, of course, regular vehicles. And I've been always critical of the Burbank bus system because it's so limited in what it does. It doesn't serve the Hill community whatsoever. So, how do you? What are your visions? I mean, are you happy with what we have now or, if not, how would you change it? How would you modify it? Because I think transportation is in the future. It's. How would you modify it? You know, because I think transportation is in the future, it's going to be very important in our society.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think one thing that is most important to me right now is just pedestrian safety. Especially having two young children, I just want to make sure we're driving in a safe way and that maybe we can reduce speed limits on service streets so that because if you look at the numbers, like if an accident happens under 25, the risk of mortality goes down exponentially. So I think that's something that we can do immediately. That is pretty agreeable overall. I think the chandler bike path could you explain more on why that has been such a big success in your estimation?
Speaker 3:well, number one it was. It was very controversial when they first put it in 20 years ago and a lot of residents did not want it. The success to it is you do have a lot of people with mobility, with bicycles and everything else, and this gives us a lane from North Hollywood and the Red Line all the way to the Burbank Center and, of course, now it follows all the way into LA. I think the goal was to go from the valley to the beach on a bicycle, although I could never do that. It's hard for me just to get on my own bicycle. But I think what that has become is not only that, but for people walking, walking their dogs and being People in the community all get together on that bike path. All the different aspects of the community go there and walk it and talk with each other and it's become a real. It's good for the connectivity, absolutely so. I think that's where the you know, that's where it has become.
Speaker 3:But that's not how it started. So I think it was kind of forced down people's throats. They didn't like it and now they're saying this is the greatest thing ever, right? You know how it is. The NIMBYs were all like it and now they're saying this is the greatest thing ever, right? Yeah, how it is. The nimbys were all after it. And now the nimbys are saying oh, no, no, don't change the thing. Now we love this thing, you know. Now it's perfect, now we're done. So um, um, are you much of a bicycle person or anything?
Speaker 1:I'm not well, but I do think it's more ideal than driving. Yes, that's true, I mean it's better for the environment. It's better for the environment, it's better for your health and it's better, I think, like for you're saying, for community connectivity.
Speaker 3:What about electric vehicles and all that? Because we're going electric car and one of the things I'm worried about is is that does our infrastructure, are they able to support? All of a sudden, everybody gets an electric vehicle. Well, that's a lot of electricity we need to generate all of a sudden, and a lot of you know and our power bills are going to. Then, yeah, you save money on gas. Well, now you're paying on electricity.
Speaker 1:I mean, I do agree with you, I think. But it's similar to the other thing you were talking about. We're like short term, we're not going to like it in short term, there's going to be issues. But that comes up with me to be a better path forward.
Speaker 3:I think so. Now of course, in Burbank we have outlawed electric scooters and the companies who rent them.
Speaker 1:So this is complicated for me because in my comedic activism I have been a huge supporter of electric scooters and I've gave a speech at the West Hollywood City Council, speech at the West Hollywood city council begging them to not ban electric scooters. But as as the real me, I have to say I think we're better off not having them in Burbank, just because I think they create so much detritus in the city and there's such a health hazard with injury and with impacting other people that I I I'm not sure in every community is different, but for Burbank and for the lifestyle that most people enjoy here, I don't think they would be additive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's funny. We're about a block from the border here in North Hollywood and I go up to the corner at Clydebourne and as I drive down Clydebourne I see scooters littered all around Clydebourne because their GPSs don't let them come into Burbank. Yeah, they shut down.
Speaker 2:So they shut down?
Speaker 3:I see them all on the border here and it just kind of cracks me up a little bit. Oh, now you're stuck, you've got to walk all of a sudden. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in Santa Monica it's like it's intermittent.
Speaker 3:So you'll be on one block and it's working. Then the's a lot of opposition to him in Santa Monica also, because people were so upset they were taking him and throwing in the ocean all the time. And the companies are saying, okay, once we rent that thing three times, it's paid for itself. So we'll just keep making more and more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's weird, it's. I think if there was a better policy in place for the handling and maintenance of them, I would be more supportive of it. But as of now, where people can just chuck them and leave them, it just doesn't feel fair to the rest of the community.
Speaker 3:Here's another one for you Cannabis stores Outlawed in Burbank. Can't have a cannabis store in Burbank. Any thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:I mean, I totally understand where people are coming from, not wanting cannabis stores in their neighborhood. You know, I think Burbank has a wholesome sensibility that should be protected and I do, just overall, sometimes feel like change should be more incremental so that people can adjust to it. But specifically with the cannabis stores we have liquor stores, we have vape shops I think resistance to weed shops is somewhat anachronistic and I think in time it won't feel like as big of a leap as it does in this moment. So I'm I'm pro allowing weed dispensaries, or cannabis dispensaries rather, to come into burbank, because also the tax revenue that they'll generate will be good for the city overall and we should be transparent about where that money goes. But I think it's uh, I don't know, I don't. I don't think we should be sending Burbank money into North Hollywood or into neighboring cities.
Speaker 3:That's a good point. Now I don't know if you've been following We've had a gun shop thing and I was all for dealing down to maybe four or five and that was it. But they're not doing that. But they have now set up districts or locations that gun storage can now be in, and only if a new one comes to town. There's only a couple very small spots they can open in Burbank and I can see that they could also do that with cannabis shops and put those probably in that same area. They're not near schools, they're not near playgrounds, they're not near residential areas, so that might be a solution there too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being intentional about where they're located.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay. Well, let's move on here. How do you feel about the gun shops? The gun shops? Well, I got to be honest with you. We were the ones who kind of broke the entire story to start with. I used to drive down Magnolia and I used to say look at all these gun stores. And then I started looking into it and I asked the city well, how many gun stores? And they sent me a list. There were 14 dealers in Burbank. I'm going 14? There's like one or two in LA. And why are there 14? Why are there two shops? And I understand how car dealerships work. They put all the car dealerships together because we walk dealership to dealership and look at the cars these are shipping cars, but gun shops. And so I just thought way too many.
Speaker 3:I'm not against people owning a gun, I'm not against. This is nothing new to the Second Amendment. It's just too many. And then I started looking into it and found that the gun shops were breaking state law and not within had to be within 500 feet of a school or something. But there's nothing in the map that says it. By the crow flies or by the. The Thomas guide shows Right, or Thomas guides the old thing for, uh, um, google maps in the old days for those who don't understand, um, so uh, and I started a big story on it and then it started, you know, because we're the meaty capital of the world.
Speaker 3:So I started saying, well, where else is now the gun store capital of the world? And we actually are. There was more gun stores in a five-square-mile area of Burbank than there were anywhere else in the world. So that's kind of what got us started, and I wanted to see it capped at five stores. You know, let the ones that are open now stay open until, but when they close, nobody else can open them until they get down to five.
Speaker 3:But I think, I think once again, you have to listen to other people and you have to listen to other things, and I'm happy with how they they came up with it, and so while you can have more gun stores, they have to be in a certain small area of Burbank now. So I'm okay, you know, just get them off the main boulevards, get them away from schools and where people are. So that was my thoughts at the time and I'm not going to put my thoughts out there too Of course I'm not the one who sits on that dais and has to make decisions. So you say you've been up to city council and talked. What are some of the things you've talked about when you've gone up to speak to the council? What are some of the issues you brought up up there?
Speaker 1:Well, so oftentimes it's a comedic point of view and I'm not necessarily speaking from my point of view. It's this character that I've kind of created, but the character's genuine and I think for the character to work I have to touch on real subjects. So there's always kind of an underlying cultural truth that I'm trying to hit on. So I've done speeches about artificial intelligence and how we need universal basic income because of the job displacement that's going to come from it.
Speaker 1:But it's all done through like my bro voice, where I'm like dude, I don't want to work, I'm glad ai is coming here, so y'all need to hook it up with some fat stacks so I can chill without losing my place. And uh, or um, we'll talk about, um, you know, solitary confinement in prisons. We've talked about, you know, last minute rides like e-scooters. We've talked about, um, inflation. So we we tackle real subjects and we're trying to encourage real conversation in both directions. But we're just going at it from a comedic perspective. Okay, that's kind of the sugar on the pill. I like to think of it as, yeah, and sometimes we need a bit levity. We really do, yeah, or like I used to, um, I've gone on news programs before as a commentator and and uh, one uh bit we did that turned into a genuine movement.
Speaker 1:That I think was actually helpful was, um, the ocean waters are heating up, as a lot of people know, and that was causing, um, the destruction of a lot of coral reef, which is vital for that ecosystem. So when coral reef gets heated up, it bleaches itself, it turns into kind of a white color and that means it's uh, you know, long, no longer uh, prospering, no longer living, no longer helping. So we bleached our hair to raise awareness because we were saying it's at a dome for people. But now it's on our domes and out of that we directed people towards different organizations that were helping the coral reef and we got a lot of people to pay attention to it. So you were all in on that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought that was a good one, and we went on Fox News to talk about that. So, and we went on Fox News to talk about that, so I was like this is a huge opportunity, because this is an audience that might be against some of the legislation that's going towards environmental protections. But if I can be funny and charming about this and if I can treat them like we're the same, even if we don't have the same viewpoints, I might be able to get someone who might not otherwise have cared about this involved.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. Well, let's talk. Let's talk about crime. Let's talk about crime, let's talk about police. What are your feelings on police departments? Are you quote defunding, which I think is a very bad term? I think people, instead of defunding, they mean to reduce the officers and increase the mental health in a department. But it's hard to keep our department where it needs to be staffed twice because people aren't really going to be cops lately. Plus, we're going to our population is going to grow here substantially when you look at the 5,000 houses they still have to put in the next five years, the housing they're building now. So well, how do you feel about, you know, police and crime right now and what's going on with that whole thing and what any, any, any uh thing you want to throw?
Speaker 1:in there on that. I mean, I certainly understand why people were upset towards the police and there was a couple of, you know, huge inflection points where I think it was. It was good for our culture to shine a light on it and and hold police more accountable for whatever their procedures were for moments where they were overstepping. But I never was supportive of like defund the police or some of the other catchphrases that became popular at the time, because I just thought it lacked nuance and it was somewhat removed from practicality. I don't mean that to diminish the pain and anger that people were feeling. I think that was real and that it was worth prioritizing in that moment, but I don't think long-term it's the best sustainable plan.
Speaker 1:I think we need a strong police force. I think accountability is good and I think, you know, having a fair distribution of city revenue going to other services that could help people in need is is helpful. And I don't think you know police. I don't think most police officers want to be responding to a lot of the stuff that they have to respond to. I think we want to keep them more specialized in their job function. So, yeah, having more mental health services, having homeless shelters, things like that. That can make it easier on the people who need it, but also make it easier on the police who have to deal with those problems, is good for everyone.
Speaker 3:Well, you touched on it, so we're going there. Let's talk about the homeless. It's the latest buzzword in California, of course, is this homeless situation. I saw that I believe it's Long Beach is going in and just cleaning up the city completely and the governor wants says, the funding's there take care of all these homeless people. We do have a. Yeah, I think the homeless population in Burbank is around 120 to 150. In that area, we have a couple things that we're working on here, but what are your thoughts about? You know, what should we do to aid the homeless population here?
Speaker 1:I think a homeless shelter would be good. We don't have a designated homeless shelter. I think that a lot of neighboring cities have ones that we could probably work in conjunction with and maybe take some of their infrastructure and build a satellite unit out here. I think 120 is a manageable number. It's something that we can correct and it's something that I think we can pour personal attention into.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, let me ask you this there's a homeless person on the streets and he goes. I don't want your help, I don't want your, your, your shelter, I don't want your food. I just leave me alone. I want to just be right here on this sidewalk or under this bridge or whatever. What do you do about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that will happen. I hope you know by and large, statistically, that I mean that will happen. I hope you know by and large, statistically, that won't be the norm and that's more an anomaly, but I think in that case you know we have to have well-trained individuals who are it's their job to go out into the city and to try to encourage them to come to the shelter and try to use the programs that are available.
Speaker 3:I think you got to. That's an uphill battle. Once again, it's like anything else. Think there's. There's always two sides in america. Can you force somebody to do something, you know if they don't want to do it themselves?
Speaker 1:so it's, it's it is it's it's it's challenging. But again, like you talked about, that's the duty of being on the council, that's the duty of leadership is that you have to make these, you know, uphill battles seem achievable, and I think, think it is. It can certainly be better.
Speaker 3:What about development in Burbank? You know, how do you, how do you look at either the small businesses or corporate development or what's going on? You know because that you know, that's our tax base, is where our money comes from and all that. So how do you feel about our small businesses and what would you do to help them, help our business community?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we definitely have to have tax incentives for smaller businesses. You know places where they have less than like 10 employees and we don't want to be taken over by kind of homogenous corporate interests. I think attracting outside people to come in and bring their small businesses here like cutting them, better protections on buildings and on business development here is is vital.
Speaker 3:I think it's once again, I think our once again. I think, like Magnolia Park, we've got to keep the hometown feel of a Magnolia Park type area they're talking about, and, back in the day, transportation and business colliding is this BRT is coming up, the bus, rapid transit and they want to, you know, knock all down to one lane. And right now our city council said now we don't really want to do that, but what would do? How? How's your, what's your feeling on the brt subject? I don't know much about it. Well, I think you're going to be lucky because I guess you come up before the council changes over, so, but I think it's going to be an ongoing. It's going to be lucky because I think it's going to come up before the council change is over, but I think it's going to be an ongoing event.
Speaker 1:It's going to be an ongoing event, but I am curious, could you? We can move on, but if you could, yeah, real quick.
Speaker 3:The BRT Metro wants to put a bus line through North Hollywood to Pasadena on the streets, and one of the things they wanted to do it would come through Burbank and they and one of the things they wanted to do it would come through Burbank and they wanted to remove a lane of traffic on Olive and make it a bus-only lane. And the solutions were to put the lane in the middle and then put a, you know, one lane traffic, one lane bus, and then, you know, that was kind of it, you know, because there's a parking, you know, for parking. Still, another was to put a bus lane and take out the parking, leave the two lanes for cars. Now businesses have no way for people to park and go into the business. They were talking about doing like they're doing on Hollywood Boulevard and making it down to the one lane they have there and with parking and bike lanes and all that. So right now the city council is asking, you know, between Buena Vista and Lake, not to do that. But they are going to do other parts of this project and we've kind of agreed to that. So that's where the contention is right now. Plus, they want the metro to improve the Olive Bridge and be able to put a station there. So the buses widen the bridge and put a bus area and so people can take the bus and then take the elevator down to the Metro station, which they can't do now, which right now the bus had left them out about a quarter mile away from it, which is not, once again, practical. So that that's a lot of things going on with that. They haven't no decisions have been made, but they are we. They haven't no decisions have been made, but they are. We have a subcommittee working with Metro and it's supposed to come back in a month or two and we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3:But you know, I think that you know, we talked to the mayor a little bit and they want proof of concept, which I agree with you. Show me you have a bus with 75% full all the time, and I get it. But to take a lane of traffic away from Olive, they're only talking about about a minute and 30 seconds of savings in time. And so, yeah, you save a minute and 30 seconds on a bus by doing that, but now, with one lane, you increase the you know the wait, maybe 10 minutes in a vehicle. So is that and plus then people start going down the side streets to avoid all that. So you know, is that, and plus then people start going down the side streets to avoid all that. So you know, quality of life issues and all those things compared to the future and transportation, slippery slopes. But I think there needs to be a better alternative, such as take the darn bus down Alameda and make a left and come up victory to Olive if you need to. That might solve that whole problem.
Speaker 3:But who am I to throw my two cents in? It sounds valuable. That's kind of what the BRT and Bird Bank, in a nutshell, got it. Well, let's see. Here I think we're getting near the end. I appreciate you coming in and I appreciate your sense of humor. I really think we need a sense of humor. Besides, you know there's times to always be serious, there's no doubt. But we also need a little bit of levity at times too, because it's not all that bad and all that serious all the time. And so I think you know, and once in a while I know Councilman Anthony throws a little one-liner once in a while and I always get a kind of you know, I'm used by that. So I think that you know there's, there's a place for it. So and but, but I don't plan on.
Speaker 1:To me, my job as a comedian is to be funny. To me, my job as a city council member wouldn't be to be funny. It'd be to represent the best interests and trusts of the people of Burbank. So I mean, you know, I'll be funny, hopefully on accident and not on purpose. My main goal here is to be as sincere as possible, and I do find and I'm reading that out of you.
Speaker 3:I read the fact you are sincere about this. This is not. You're not doing this as a joke, no, and I just don't do things.
Speaker 1:I take my comedy career very seriously. Like you know, the jokes and the things I write, no matter how silly they come out, it means everything to me when I'm working on them. I know that sounds a little highfalutin, but it's true and this would be similar. I just don't, uh, uh. I don't do things to make fun of them.
Speaker 3:Well, okay, so you know what. We're all on board, you get the votes, you're on the council. What do you want to accomplish now, in the first year? What are your goals, what are your ambitions? What do you see doing changes or things you can bring in to make Burbank better?
Speaker 1:Well, so one thing I really want to do is just and this was the main reason I decided to run is that I just want to build optimism and confidence in our institutions. You know I have young people who follow me who pay attention to what I do in my comedy and I just, overall I've just seen in the 10 years I've been going to city council meetings, just cynicism rising and I've seen people just kind of disconnect from believing government can make their lives better and I just don't think we can have a good society if people don't believe in those things. So I want to be really transparent about our budget, about where our revenue is going, and I want to make sure the community is fully plugged into all the choices we're making. I don't want there to be any subterfuge or any kind of like. You know when something's 10 pages when it could be one. I want to make sure that people feel like they're being communicated to honestly.
Speaker 1:And then, on the more policy side, I think housing is our biggest issue. I just want to bring down the median price for a house. I want to get people who are renting owning so cause that's another issue, especially in my demographic. I have a lot of friends who work really, really hard can't afford a house and they're being forced to leave California Maybe not forced, but they feel like they are to go get another place and I want to make sure people feel rooted in the community, cause I think there's a lot of that that ties into the first thing, that that builds optimism towards our society overall. So it's it's finding what the right policies are to help the supply side of housing and to bring down the overall costs of more people are living without fear and feel like they can move on to the other parts of their life that they'd like to attend to.
Speaker 3:Well said, I mean, I respect the fact that it's easy to sit there on the other side and criticize, but then, you know, what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm going to try to do something about it. I'm going to make that. You know, I'm going to take that leap. I'm going to try this thing about it. I'm going to make that. You know, I'm going to take that leap. Instead of being critical, I'm going to be the one who yeah, you come to me now and I make the decisions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. That is what it was for me too, is I just want to have skin in the game and I don't want to.
Speaker 3:I think you know a lot of people are talking, but I always do one thing at the end I think is very important and I let the candidate you know. Your camera is here, I let you look in the camera and I want you to make your case to the Burbank people of why they should vote for you for city council. So it's your. Take as much time as you need take as much time as you need.
Speaker 1:Hello, my name is John Parr and I'm running for city council in the city of Burbank. The reason I think you should vote for me is that I think for any leadership group, there needs to be a diverse array of opinions, sensibilities and ideologies. I think what I'll bring to the table is someone who's not a political professional, someone who doesn't have aspirations to move beyond the job I'm running for. I just want to do a good job for the people I'm representing. I'm not doing it for money, notoriety or for any kind of upward mobility. I just want to represent your thoughts, feelings and aspirations, and I don't care what ideology it is that gets it done. I just want to get it done and be practical.
Speaker 3:Fantastic. Well, you know what? Once again, I love doing these shows because I do not know most times who the people are on the first time people are running for office and to get to know people I think is a fantastic thing and I think people really get to know who you are and what you're about and what you bring to the table. So thank you very much for coming in.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me and thank you for doing this program overall, I think it's a great help to everyone in Burbank.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that also. Okay, well, for John Parr, this is Craig Sherwood saying. Thank you very much for listening. I appreciate it. We will have more Meet the Candidate episodes coming up, so look for them as they come up. And, uh, thank you very much for listening, you idiots. No, uh, dude, I always have similar thoughts, it's funny, you fools. I better, I better stop all this right, that's.
Speaker 1:I think that's natural. I think anyone who's uh talks into a microphone understands that feeling.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, it's you know, even when I'm doing my stand-up.
Speaker 1:We do like audience Q&A again and sometimes they'll ask me questions and I'm like is that really the questions you have to ask you?
Speaker 3:walk on the stage and say suckers.
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