02/25/05

LC050225

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Retaining walls keep thousands of homes from tumbling down Los
Angeles's steep hillsides, but is it time to cut them down to
size?

Robert Ringler>> Not to be elitist, but really to protect our
interests in having the community that still has mountains that
are made of dirt, of trees, that still have birds and animals
and not solid concrete.

Val>> And then, they sing, they dance, but there's more to this
group than great entertainment. It's music with a mission from
the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles.

It's all 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>> The old adage that fences make good neighbors is not
necessarily true here in Southern California. Here fences, or
more accurately walls, are making some good neighbors very mad.
Retaining walls are getting higher and higher and, as David
Okarski tells us, these overbearing walls have led the city of
Los Angeles to pass some strict new limits on builders.

David Okarski>> When developers started building this palatial
estate in her Benedict Canyon neighborhood, Barbara Nichols
didn't like what she saw.

Barbara Nichols>> I see a totally ugly wall that is a blot on
this community.

David Okarski>> It's a retaining wall.

Barbara Nichols>> We are looking at a wall that is forty-two
feet high by two thousand feet long.

David Okarski>> Southern California with its hillside homes has
always had retaining walls, but over the past several years, new
ones have been getting bigger like these in the Santa Monica
Mountains. Homes are getting more extravagant and, to get ocean
views, developers are leveling whole mountain tops and putting
up retaining walls that often rise more than forty feet above
the surrounding landscape. Nichols was alarmed and so were
other members of the Benedict Canyon Association over which she
presides.

Barbara Nichols>> It is a retaining wall built to support a
house under construction, a step-built house and the entire
community is quite upset about this project.

Robert Ringler>> I feel bad for future generations because they
will never be able to enjoy the beautiful, pristine hillside
that was once here, a natural mountain with trees, with
wildlife, with birds. It's now concrete.

David Okarski>> Robert Ringler is the vice president of the Bel
Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council which also took up the
fight, but they found there was nothing on the books at City
Hall to stop developers from putting up these giant walls.

Robert Ringler>> I think it was an excellent opportunity for
the City Council office, Councilman Jack Weiss, who actually
came to us and asked us our opinion.

Councilman Jack Weiss>> Right now, we have lots left on the
hillside areas that traditionally were not considered all that
developable. They were small. They were sort of postage
stamps. But now in Los Angeles, bank books and technology have
advanced to a new level.

David Okarski>> City Councilman Jack Weiss and Council
colleague, Ed Reyes, co-sponsored a bill that restricted the
size of retaining walls. It passed unanimously. Neighborhood
groups have persuaded the Los Angeles City Council to limit the
height of new retaining walls to twelve feet, twice my height,
or, if you must go higher, you can have two walls, one ten feet
high with a three-foot step and another ten foot wall for twenty
feet altogether. That's it, and then you have to plant
landscaping to cover them. Weiss says the ordinance will force
hillside developers to pay more attention to nature and to
neighbors.

Councilman Jack Weiss>> When you live in a neighborhood and
look up at one of these walls, all you see is concrete. When
you live in the home on top of one of these walls, all you see
is the ocean and it really isn't fair.

Councilman Ed Reyes>> These huge giant walls, the ability for
them to crack, to essentially collapse, enhances when more
weight is up against them. When we get saturated with water,
everything that is underneath it is in danger. They're like
little dams.

David Okarski>> It's too soon to know if a retaining wall
failure had anything to do with this slide in Laurel Canyon, but
the family that lived here was lucky to survive.

Councilman Ed Reyes>> So we want to shrink those walls and
allow for a more natural topography to flow as you're dealing
with the water runoff, and that enhances safety.

David Okarski>> Starting now, hillside developers will have to
scale back future projects. Even smaller retaining walls like
these off Beverly Glen would require a variance.

Brad Rosenheim>> The intent is good. I'm supportive of the
intent.

David Okarski>> But planning consultant, Brad Rosenheim, says
the new ordinance could cause unintended problems for ordinary
people.

Brad Rosenheim>> The house behind us, for example, is a good
example of a potential issue for the future in homes that might
be developed in a similar manner.

David Okarski>> If you need a retaining wall slightly higher
than the limit for a relatively normal size house, you'll still
have to ask the city for a variance. Rosenheim says that
process could be abused.

Brad Rosenheim>> So if there are neighbors who are not
interested in seeing the property next door be developed, they
can go ahead and appeal that and put that property owner who's
trying to build their home through a very prolonged and
expensive process that this ordinance was not intended to
address.

David Okarski>> And an amendment was added just before the
vote. It makes the height restrictions applicable to apartments
and condominiums as well. Reyes and Weiss say it's a matter of
fairness.

Councilman Jack Weiss>> These sorts of protection ought to
apply equally across the board, across the entire city, in
privileged parts of this town and in less privileged parts of
this town, and in parts of town where the only realistic type of
development is multiple units.

David Okarski>> But Rosenheim says that could create obstacles
for plans along some major streets, plans that require walls
higher than twelve feet.

Brad Rosenheim>> One area, for example, that could be
significantly impacted would be Ventura Boulevard where the city
has talked about creating more mixed-use projects along
transportation corridors like Ventura Boulevard and, in this
instance, much of Ventura Boulevard is designated as hillside
area.

David Okarski>> The ordinance isn't perfect, but Barbara
Nichols says that it's a start.

Barbara Nichols>> It's a step in the right direction, but it's
not the complete answer to the problem. We would like to see
the separation between the down-slope walls to be greater than
three feet to allow for planting substantial sized trees and
shrubs and landscaping that would allow the covering of the
second wall that's up-sloped more readily.

David Okarski>> She's also concerned that developers finish the
walls they start. Sometimes they run out of money.

Robert Ringler>> And when it comes time to build the house,
they've invested the entire amount of money that they've
allocated for this for the retaining wall and then they walk
away from it.

David Okarski>> This very project sat derelict for more than a
year. Nichols says there should be a law to ensure that any
project that substantially changes the hillside is finished.

Barbara Nichols>> We feel there should be a requirement for a
completion bond whenever significant grading is undertaken or
people endeavor to build these massive properties.

David Okarski>> Neighborhood groups also would like to see the
city do more to protect ridgelines and mountaintops.

Robert Ringler>> The city of Los Angeles -- it's mind-boggling
that a city this rich in resources and expertise is lagging
behind so far from other communities, other cities, who have
built-in ridgeline protection.

Barbara Nichols>> Recently, the Board of Supervisors for the
County of Los Angeles passed a ridgeline and grading ordinance
which we feel is a terrific step forward in protecting the
ridgelines and in reducing the amount of grading in the Santa
Monica Mountains. We would like to see the City Council of Los
Angeles pass that same ordinance for areas of the Santa Monica
Mountains under the jurisdiction of the city of Los Angeles.

David Okarski>> The neighborhood advocates say that Los Angeles
hillsides are for everyone to enjoy and the city should do
everything possible to protect them.

Robert Ringler>> It's one of our treasures, our landmarks, that
we must preserve not to be elitist, but really to protect our
interests in having a community that still has mountains that
are made of dirt, of trees, that still have birds and animals,
and not solid concrete.

David Okarski>> So their next goal is concrete protections,
more limits on development in the Santa Monica Mountains. David
Okarski for Life and Times.

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Val>> This next story is about a computer program that could
make a major impact on a big social challenge. The challenge is
illiteracy and, as you know, Southern California is home to a
huge number of immigrants, many of whom can't read or write in
their own language, much less English. So how do you make them
literate? Get ready to be impressed.

It's a street-front community center in the heavily Latino
neighborhood of Pico Union just west of downtown and every
evening, Monday through Friday, something remarkable happens
here. These adults from Mexico and Central America have never
been to school, but they're determined to read and write and
they'll do it in record time.

[Film Clip]

Val>> The key? A computer program developed by the Centro
Latino de Educacion Popular, or Latino Education Center. The
computer program is called LEAMOS, or Let's Read, and in forty-
three lessons, a student can be reading at fourth grade level
and it can be done in as little as one hundred hours. Melanie
Stephens is Executive Director of the center. She says, for
many of the students, even Spanish is their second language and
English classes are way too difficult.

Melanie Stephens>> Especially for them from Guatemala, even
from some of the rural areas in Mexico whose first language is
an indigenous language.

Val>> Santos Cua is a perfect example. He grew up speaking his
native Guatemalan tongue, Guiche. His parents couldn't afford
books for school. Today he works in a jewelry store warehouse
downtown.

Santos Cua>> The truth is, if you can't read or write, you can't
find work. People who have studied take advantage of us. They
pay us very little.

Val>> But how does a student who doesn't read or write in
Spanish or English learn to use a computer? The answer? Very
quickly.

Marcos Cajina>> In a matter of fifteen minutes, they were able
to get on the computer, type in their user name, their key words
and begin the program. Because the program is designed for them
not to be involved with the keyboard and only learn to use the
mouse, the time that they take to learn this is very short, they
are able to achieve their goals which is to learn to read and
write.

Val>> Marcos Cajina is the principal developer of the program.
It was based on the center's fourteen years of teaching
experience.

Marcos Cajina>> The very first lesson begins with educacion,
which is education, and education happens to have the five
vowels in it. Gradually they begin to build up from one lesson
to the next the entire alphabet and learn to read and write at a
fourth grade reading level.

Val>> Rosa Gomez is from Mexico. She came from a family of ten
where the father drank and didn't earn much. She recently
applied for a job caring for the elderly, but was rejected.

Rosa Gomez>> They needed me to be able to read the labels in
order to dispense drugs or give messages, that kind of thing,
and that's what motivated me to come and study because this is
the only way to find a job.

Santos Cua>> I work downtown at a jewelry store and warehouse.
I'm not able to read and write, but thank God, He's given me
intelligence. I'm able to speak. I can work in warehouses, any
type of place, clothing and jewelry stores, appliance stores,
anything.

Melanie Stephens>> And the students are incredibly frustrated
because they get lost constantly in Los Angeles. They can't
read the street signs. If they miss their bus stop, which they
recognize by cues, you know, visual cues, what's on that street
corner and what's on that street corner, if they miss it, that's
it. They are completely and utterly lost.

Val>> With illiteracy, one of Los Angeles County's biggest
challenges, this computer program could make a huge difference.
It's much less expensive than hiring a teacher and students
progress at their own pace. Some of them finish in a matter of
weeks.

Marcos Cajina>> They are able to come in the mornings, in the
afternoons, in the evenings, on Saturdays. They could actually
go to the library on Sundays. They could do it during the day
or in the afternoon. It's really flexible.

Val>> The center has made LEAMOS available to other schools and
organizations and has gotten interest from some unlikely places.

Marcos Cajina>> For example, Nantucket. The East Coast called
us to bring this program to the Salvadoran immigrants living on
the island.

Val>> Once basic reading and writing is mastered, the students
move on to more advanced classes in Spanish, English, financial
and health literacy and computers.

Rosa Gomez>> I was scared because what if I touched the wrong
key and messed up? I didn't know how to use the mouse, so I was
very nervous when I first used it, but not anymore.

Val>> And although these dedicated students have never had a
formal education, life has taught them one vital lesson: being
literate will change their future.

Rosa Gomez>> It makes me very happy to know something. Now I
go out with my daughter and I'm able to read the signs and my
daughter is also very happy that I'm learning more.

Val>> As for Santos, he wants to learn to read and write so he
can get a better job and read the bible.

Santos Cua>> I'll learn to read and write so, in the future,
one of these days it will help me tremendously and thank God for
the help from the teachers and the school for teaching us. God
bless them. I don't have money to pay them to teach us, but God
will repay them.

Val>> So far, about seventy immigrants have completed the
computer program. If you'd like more information, you can go to
their website at centrolatinoliteracy.org.

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>> For over two decades, they've been making more than
music. They've been making a social statement in the arts.
They are the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles and, on this their
twenty-fifth anniversary, Donna Branch of Glendale Television
takes a look at this renowned singing group.

[Film Clip]

Bruce Mayhall>> I'm Bruce Mayhall, Artistic Director of the Gay
Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. I moved to Los Angeles in August
of 2001 from Reno, Nevada. It's been a really wonderful
experience. It is really a marvelous community of people,
wonderful musicians, gifted artists in many areas of
entertainment, but also a very warm and open group of people who
are really concerned about each other and concerned about
building bridges between this community and other communities.

Bill Bowersock>> When the chorus was first born in 1979, it was
a huge political statement to stand up on that stage. Oddly
enough, it still is. It was very controversial. What comes
first? You know, are we first Los Angeles? Are we first gay?
And we wanted to put the "G" word first. It's been very
difficult in terms of fundraising (laughter) because a lot of
corporations will give money to the Seattle Men's Chorus or the
Heartland Men's Chorus, but giving to the Gay Men's Chorus of
Los Angeles is a little more controversial, so it's been
difficult in that way, but very important ultimately and the
right decision to make.

[Film Clip]

Santo Ragno>> Basically, the chorus has added a whole gay
family to me and, in the chorus, you have a huge age range of
people and backgrounds, but there's that common denominator.
We're all alike and we are a tight-knit family.

Eric Wallace>> The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles has been
around for twenty-five years now and it's often been an
evolution. My experience with them has been so profound that
we're often surprised by the response we get sometimes from our
concerts. Usually, when we sing outside of Los Angeles in
smaller communities, families that haven't ever spoken to their
children because their child was gay, they thought, oh, we'll go
to this concert and see what they're like. Oh, thank you so
much. We haven't spoken to our son or daughter in such a long
time. We now want to call them. That's a great experience we
have.

[Film Clip]

Brian Wyatt>> The Gay Men's Chorus is actually the first
resident company of the six resident companies at the Alex
Theatre. We've been now at the Alex Theatre for over six years.
We're very proud of being in Glendale. At first, there were
people who picketed and didn't like the fact that we were going
to be in Glendale, but the city has opened its arms and people
have been very kind to us here and the staff of the Alex
Theatre, I think, look forward to our productions every single
year not only because of the size of the audience we get, but
just because the group is a lot of fun to deal with.

[Film Clip]

Bruce Mayhall>> It's kind of a juxtaposition of outrageousness
and silliness and deep emotion that I particularly enjoy,
including in a concert.

[Film Clip]

Bruce Mayhall>> I think it's the full range of human emotions
that people experience all the time and rather than isolate that
experience to our life outside of performance, it seems to me
that it's really significant when a full range of our emotions
is brought into the performance.

[Film Clip]

Barry MacComb>> As a regional performing arts center, one of
our goals is to try to present as diverse of a range of arts-
oriented programming as possible each year.

[Film Clip]

Barry MacComb>> The Alex enjoys having a wide diversity among
our resident companies and the Gay Men's Chorus certainly plays
a major role as we formulate our season each year.

Nancy Dussault>> I started off singing in choirs. I mean,
that's how most singers get going anyway. But I love hearing a
big-voiced group sing and they have such a grand reputation.

Malcolm Gets>> I had done a solo with the chorus a few years
ago. I'd done one song in a one-night benefit a few years ago
and they were just magnificent. I was blown away by the guys.
It's really overwhelming to get to stand up there and sing that
beautiful song and to hear those guys behind me.

[Film Clip]

Jerry Herman>> I was called about a year ago and asked if they
could do an evening of my body of work. I had seen them before
and heard them before and I think they're extraordinary. I
think they are as good as any professional group of singers I've
ever heard in my life and I didn't have to say, well, I'll think
about it. I just said, wow, of course.

[Film Clip]

Bruce Mayhall>> I want people to go away feeling like it's
important for them to relate in a positive and constructive way
with people that are not like them, as well as with people that
are like them. I want them to be overwhelmed by a powerful
entertaining experience. I want them to have been through every
emotion that humans have during the course of that evening and I
want them to be impressed with the depth that the men bring to
that experience and the depth that this community can bring to
the broader community.

Val>> If you'd like more information on upcoming performances
by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, you can check out their
website. Our thanks again to Glendale Television and the Arts
Commission for that piece. 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.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

The rediscovery of a significant work by a famous muralist
raises the question: why was it painted over in the first place?

>> A black man with a child, a white woman with a child, at the
height of the Depression. These are messages that the
authorities did not want conveyed to the masses. It was too
provocative.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.