09/17/04

LC040917

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Fess Parker strikes a big land deal with the Chumash Indians and
that sparks a nasty war of words in Santa Barbara County.

Gail Marshall>> The only entity that's playing the race card in
all of this discussion is the tribe and I think that's very
unfortunate. I think they should be very careful.

Val>> And then, he's got an ear for talent and can lift an
aspiring musician from obscurity to celebrity. We go to KCRW to
meet Nic Harcourt.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> We know him best as the actor who brought Daniel Boone
and Davy Crockett to life, but now Fess Parker is in a real life
battle with some of his neighbors in Santa Barbara County. The
fight also involves the local Native-American tribe and, as
Philip Bruce reports, charges of racism are flying through the
air in one of the prettiest places anywhere in California.

Philip Bruce>> For any baby boomer, the experience is almost
surreal. There you are riding in a Hummer sitting next to the
man who launched a million coonskin caps. These days, Fess
Parker prefers a Stetson, but the face and the voice are exactly
what you remember.

Fess Parker>> This ranch really has a lot of hidden areas and,
once we go over this little knoll where the cows are, then we'll
be dipping down into a little valley and basically disappear.

Philip Bruce>> Parker has brought us to a spectacular piece of
property he owns in the Santa Ynez Valley north of Santa
Barbara. It's a living work of art, nearly 750 lush green acres
surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills and dotted with oak
trees. But for all of its beauty, this property has become a
battleground in one of the ugliest fights the central coast has
seen in years and it all starts with the deal Fess Parker has
struck with the Indians, a partnership that could turn this
pristine land into a golf course and a neighborhood of up to
five hundred luxury homes.

Fess Parker>> Quite frankly, those people that are so up in
arms about this, that's just one generation, and a generation
disappears sometimes and then the next group accepts it for what
it is. It's there. It's beautiful, and they have no regrets.

Philip Bruce>> The local Chumash Indians who have agreed to pay
Parker $12 million dollars for the property and then work with
him to develop it are a little puzzled at what all the fuss is
about. Vincent Armenta, the tribal chairman, says his neighbors
were never that picky before.

Vincent Armenta>> It's solid rooftops out there. Some of it
developed tastefully, some of it some people would say not. I'm
not going to judge anybody's taste, but I think this could
honestly be one of the premier places in the area.

Philip Bruce>> The Chumash have been living here for centuries.
Their small reservation lies near the heart of Santa Ynez. Not
long ago, they didn't even have running water, but then they got
a casino and, like so many other tribes in California, their
lives changed forever. It's also when people in this valley
started choosing sides.

Fess Parker>> I'm sad to say -- and I'll call it what I think
it is -- there's a certain amount of bigotry here and that's
been pulled out into the public.

Philip Bruce>> It all came out in a big way last fall with the
publication of this book which focused on the Chumash's rags to
riches story and how outsiders have reacted to the tribe's
changing fortunes. The bombshell quotes came from Santa Barbara
County Supervisor, Gail Marshall. She describes the Chumash as
"not real sophisticated people who don't want to be educated."
Marshall goes on to suggest that the Indians "blow their
gambling revenue buying new trucks" and, she says, "when you get
$300,000 a year for sitting on a couch watching a Lakers game,
you're setting a model for future generations." How do you feel
about those words coming back and are they accurate? I mean,
did you say that?

Gail Marshall>> Well, that's a large discussion. The
discussion of that book, how it was laid out, how the interview
went, do I appreciate seeing those quotes come back to me? No,
I don't. If I had it to do over again, I would characterize my
point in a different way, but there it is. It's out there and
it's used as it's used and, when you're a public figure, you
have no recourse. You sort of tuck in and hope people look at
you and realize that the large body of your work is much
different.

Philip Bruce>> Marshall says her comments were printed out of
context and she claims the author of the book, a UC Santa
Barbara professor, had an agenda. But the supervisor says that
race has nothing to do with the fight over this land.

Gail Marshall>> I think that the only entity that's playing the
race card in all of this discussion is the tribe and I think
that's very unfortunate. I think they should be very careful
about that.

Philip Bruce>> The Chumash leader says he's all too familiar
with the kind of comments that are attributed to Marshall. He
says he and other tribal members have been targets before and
that's especially true now since they've announced the deal with
Parker.

Vincent Armenta>> I'm not saying the whole community is like
that because I have a tremendous amount of good friends in the
area, but I believe the individuals that don't like the tribe
are actually the ones that are causing the animosity through
false statements and whatnot that they put out there. But if
it's there, it's there. We're going to have to deal with it and
we will.

Philip Bruce>> In Santa Ynez, all the racial talk makes people
angry. They say it ignores what's really at stake and that's
the future of a prime piece of open land that could soon be
converted into Native-American territory. C.J. Jackson, head of
the local concerned citizens group, says that would make the
property off-limits to taxes, regulations and any control from
the outside.

C.J. Jackson>> I don't think it's a fair characterization to
say that the community wanted the tribe not to succeed. I think
that nothing could be farther from the truth. They are our
neighbors. They have been our neighbors. We wish them to
continue to be our neighbors. But the processes have removed
the dialogue and removed the sharing and the participation that
we feel is inherent in any good community and in any good
community planning effort.

Philip Bruce>> Jackson and others are also upset with Fess
Parker. They say, by striking a deal with the Chumash, he's
making himself exempt from the regulations he'd normally face as
a developer. But Parker, who's fought his share of land
battles, is unfazed.

Fess Parker>> From my point of view, it's no one's business
really. I reiterate that the voters gave the tribe the right to
have their casino and the federal government has given them
many, many other fine assists. I don't think it really matters
what our plan is. They're going to oppose it.

Philip Bruce>> That said, there is much bad blood over the way
the last Indian project played out here. Locals say that the
Chumash misled them about the size of the tribal casino.
Critics have called it massive, an eyesore that's out of scale
with the neighboring village. The publisher of the local paper
says that many of the townspeople feel as though they got
burned. Now they're watching Parker and the tribal chairman and
trying to decide what they think of this newest proposal which,
so far, remains very basic with few details.

Jim Buckley>> At this point, it's just a handshake deal. Both
of these guys are solid guys, so they've put a handshake on it
and it will likely happen unless something, you know, further
develops. Lots of people are nervous. This is a slow-growth
community.

Philip Bruce>> But for the Chumash Indians, the land and the
deal with Fess Parker represent a chance to recapture part of
their legacy. Beyond the talk of building a golf course and a
new hotel, the heart of the plan is building new homes for
tribal members and the Chumash leader says it isn't fair for
outsiders to try to stop that.

Vincent Armenta>> To say I moved here, this is mine, nobody
else do anything, don't touch anything, I've been here for two
years, five years, ten years, fifteen years, that's not a fair
statement. That's not a fair statement to make. And who has
the right, really, to say that?

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
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Val>> In fifteen years, there will be an estimated forty
million senior drivers on our roads. Now granted, elderly
drivers are much less likely to drive drunk or speed, but if
they are involved in an accident, it's much more likely to prove
fatal. But dangerous drivers come in all shapes, sizes and ages
and, as Gay Yee tells us, the DMV has a special unit that's
determined to get dangerous drivers off the road.

Gay Yee>> Walk up to just about anyone at the Department of
Motor Vehicles and you'll hear lots of stories about bad
drivers.

Martin Donovan>> I don't know them personally, but I see them
on the road. They will change lanes without any pre-
announcement, without using their indicators, making turns when
it doesn't correspond. I've seen it. I've seen it often. A
bad driver is something only in the eye of the beholder, but
someone who could be a public danger, I think, yes, one should
do something about it.

Gay Yee>> And the DMV is doing something about it, although
most people who come here on routine business have no idea that
somebody is actually paying attention to all those drivers who
represent a public menace. This is the DMV's Driver Safety
Branch, a special section with a mission, and that's to get
unsafe drivers off the roadways. Every year, the Safety Branch
deals with thousands of problem drivers, negligent drivers,
drunk drivers and physically or mentally troubled drivers.

Christine Farris>> "Hello, Mr. Smith, good afternoon. My name
is Christine Farris and I'm calling you in regards to a
negligent operator hearing."

Gay Yee>> If your driving habits bring you four tickets in a
year's time, the state calls you negligent.

Sergio Perez>> With our negligent operator usually their
behavior is that they have done nothing wrong. Everyone gets
tickets and that's why the department takes them seriously
because their potential for having an accident is greater than
any other driver.

Gay Yee>> Attorney Anthony Scott specializes in DMV license
suspension hearings. He knows all too well about the drivers
who account for most of the negligence cases.

Anthony Scott>> Most of my clients of those are young and they
just pay their tickets and think there are going to be no
consequences.

Gay Yee>> But there are consequences. A negligent driver can
find himself losing his license for six months, though he can
ask for a lesser penalty if he chooses a hearing.

Sergio Perez>> That's what the hearing process allows. Your
opportunity to come in and explain why your record is the way it
is and it's up to the hearing officer to determine what the
appropriate action would be.

Anthony Scott>> I think a lot of people, when they come in
without an attorney, will start arguing about, oh, this speeding
ticket shouldn't have been given to me, the left turn -- that's
not what it's about. It's what changed in your life and how are
you going to improve on your driving skills in order to make a
hearing officer feel comfortable that you're not going to come
back in another two months with more tickets?

Gay Yee>> And there is one kind of bad driver who is probably
going to be out of luck.

William Morgan>> My license was suspended because I had an
excessive alcohol level and it's been heck trying to get them
back, I'll tell you the truth.

Gay Yee>> Though people arrested for driving under the
influence can and often do ask for a DMV hearing in the hope of
holding on to their license, they are unlikely to prevail.

Anthony Scott>> If, in fact, the police officers have done
everything they're supposed to do, filled out the paperwork
correctly, given the test appropriately, most people will lose.
There has to be something extraordinary in order for a person to
prevail at driving under the influence hearing.

Gay Yee>> And then there are the medical cases. If you lose
consciousness, for example, and a doctor knows about it, the DMV
is likely to know as well. Doctors are obligated to report
these cases. When Arde Atheian had a stroke following a
divorce, he faced driving woes as well.

Arde Atheian>> I had a stroke and I didn't know that the state
automatically takes the driver's license away.

Gay Yee>> At this point, Atheian has his driving privileges
back. Though he remains disgusted, he had to prove he would be
safe on the road. And according to attorney Scott, older
drivers often find themselves called in for hearings before the
DMV.

Anthony Scott>> Police officers right now are very aggressive.
Especially the older you get, the closer scrutiny the police
officers look at my clients.

Gay Yee>> Scott says he's often successful in helping older
drivers who are referred by police to the DMV to keep their
licenses, but there's one type of case where few even try to
prevail. Anyone who thinks a driver is too dangerous to be on
the road can let the DMV know. Say a son or a daughter thinks
an elderly parent needs to stop driving, but doesn't want a
confrontation. The DMV says it will investigate and, if the
claim has merit, the driver's license will be taken away. In
cases like this, the person reporting can ask to remain
anonymous and, according to the DMV's Sergio Perez, only once
has he seen someone file a false report to get back at another
person.

Sergio Perez>> I can only speak from my own experience. I've
been with this program for almost twenty years in several
offices and I've had one case over the years that I was aware of
where there was a neighborhood kind of issue and the person was
reported erroneously.

Val>> As far as elderly drivers are concerned, if you're over
seventy, you cannot renew your license by mail. You have to go
into the DMV and take a written and a vision test.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val>> These days, the music you hear on commercial radio is
chosen by big-budget campaigns and record labels. If you're a
small but talented musician, your chances of being heard on the
radio are next to nil. Enter Nic Harcourt. For the past six
years, he's been host of the popular radio program "Morning
Becomes Eclectic". As Vicki Curry tells us, Nic Harcourt has an
ear for detecting talent.

Nic Harcourt>> "Morning Becomes Eclectic. It's 89.9 KCRW. I'm
Nic Harcourt, your host for the show. It's Friday and we . . ."

Vicki Curry>> Nic Harcourt may be, as one critic says, the most
influential DJ in America, but it's an unlikely description for
the music director of a public radio station.

Nic Harcourt>> You know, we try to feature as much different
music and different artists as we can and give the audience an
opportunity to hear stuff they won't hear anywhere else. Most
of the music tends to be new and upcoming artists and bands and
pretty much in any musical genre. It comes from all over the
place, you know, whether it's from record labels or whether it's
from, you know, someone making it in their basement and pressing
out their own CD.

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt's daily program, "Morning Becomes
Eclectic", has become a proving ground for unknown artists.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We've been really successful in, you know,
picking some artists before the rest of the world caught up to
them, who've gone on to be really big.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We're the first station in the states to play
Coldplay. We're the first station to play Norah Jones.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> When an artist is played by Nic Harcourt, their
music is heard by some influential listeners.

Nic Harcourt>> Well, it's intriguing, you know, obviously doing
this type of show in Los Angeles because there's a portion of
our audience that are movers and shakers. You know, people who
can make decisions about songs being put into advertisements or
into, you know, television programs or into movies.

It's kind of ironic, when you really think about it, that this
little public radio station in the basement is providing the
soundtrack for, you know, a lot of these big commercial
ventures. I mean, it's so weird. You know, I get soundtracks
from movies that come into the station and people come to me and
say, "Did you guys put this together?" You know, it happens all
the time. I mean, it's flattering, you know? I just hope
they're all subscribers (laughter).

Nic Harcourt>> "The track that just ended is from "Quincy".
It's from a self-released album called "Also Known as Mary" and
it's on her own record label. . ."

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt is known as one of a handful of DJs who
can make an artist's career. It's a far cry from his last job.
His only prior radio experience was in Woodstock, New York, so
it was a big coup when he got the job at KCRW in 1998.

Nic Harcourt>> I walked into a job basically that everyone on
the air had applied for and didn't get. So when I came to Los
Angeles, I kind of kept a low profile for the first month or
two, you know. I didn't come in with any great plan of, you
know, changing anything.

Vicki Curry>> That didn't last for long. He's helped KCRW
expand its visibility through several different ventures beyond
the radio station.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> You know, one of the biggest things that we've
done is get involved with shows in town by partnering with
promoters and fans and managers. The artists whose music we
play, we get involved in presenting their shows.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We do like, you know, three hundred shows a year
now, plus we do some now in New York and in San Francisco as
well as dot.com subscribers. So that just happened. I mean, it
was basically me looking at the opportunity and knowing that
this is something that happens in radio and commercial radio
that KCRW had never done before and just using the opportunity
to help spread the word.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt was the guiding force behind two special
concerts that have become annual events. The "Sounds Eclectic
Evening" happens every November as a fundraiser for the station
and "Next Up" is a free show featuring independent local
artists.

Nic Harcourt>> We've picked four artists who are not famous or
well-known, but they're either unsigned or, you know, on
independent Los Angeles-based labels.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We realize that, you know, we've plugged into
something with the audience which was people wanting to see
something different, you know?

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt also hosts a weekly program. Also
called "Sounds Eclectic", it's syndicated to some thirty public
stations nationwide. CDs featuring live performances from the
program help out in their pledge drives. And for those who
can't hear Harcourt on a local radio station, there's the World
Wide Web.

Nic Harcourt>> I mean, we have so many people listening online
throughout the country and throughout the world now. I mean,
people who send us money from different cities to subscribe to
the station. So, you know, it's helped create -- I don't really
like the word -- but a brand, I guess, that, you know, people
kind of recognize now outside of the station.

Vicki Curry>> That's what drives Nic Harcourt, his desire to
keep exposing audiences to new music, but what fans really want
to know is how does he decide what to play?

Nic Harcourt>> I can't tell you how. I mean, if I like it, it
gets added to our library, you know, and gets played on the
radio. If I don't like it, it doesn't. It's an instinctive
thing, you know. It's hard to quantify that. I mean, I guess
if I have to synthesize it down to anything, it's like if it has
lyrics that make me think or if it has a beat that makes me want
to tap my toes, then there's a good chance that we'll play it.
You know, every now and then, one of those artists will break
through in a big way and that's great and it's really
validating. But it's just as important to play the other stuff,
even if it doesn't, you know, go on to be huge.

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt and his fellow DJs look out for new
music, asking around and buying import records from other
countries, but much of it comes right to him. He receives about
four hundred CDs a week.

Nic Harcourt>> Maybe twenty of them might get added to our
library and, out of those twenty that get added to the library,
maybe eight of them will actually get air play. So it's a big
filtering process.

Nic Harcourt>> "And when we come back in the next hour, much
more coming your way, so please stay close for more "Morning
Becomes Eclectic".

Vicki Curry>> Despite the success of KCRW, few other stations
are willing to try out similar programming and so a public radio
station stands alone in the world of new music.

Nic Harcourt>> There's a lot of music out there that doesn't
get exposed, you know. There's a lot of music that we play on
KCRW not just on my show, but on our nighttime shows and on our
weekend shows, that doesn't get heard anywhere else. You know,
that's part of what we're here for. We're here to expose the
music, you know, that commercial stations don't pick up on.

Val>> This Saturday on the Santa Monica Pier, KCRW will present
a concert. It features many of the artists who appeared on
"Morning Becomes Eclectic". It's on the Santa Monica Pier at
4:00 p.m. and it's free. And that's our program. I'm Val
Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching.
We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.