03/14/05

LC050314

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Something is killing our palm trees and replacements are hard to
find and expensive.

Timothy Phillips>> The landscapers, the palm brokers, the
landscape architects will hunt them down, search the valleys, go
into deserts, peoples' back yards looking for specimens so they
can have a complete landscape at the end of the day.

Val>> And then, can you be homesick for a place you've never
seen? How one young girl journeyed back to her homeland and it
wasn't what she expected.

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>> If you had to choose just one symbol that represents
Southern California, it would by far be the palm tree. Nothing
says Southern California like our beautiful palms and yet palm
trees, like so many Southern Californians, are not native to
this state and the ones that were imported and planted nearly a
century ago are now old and vulnerable. Hena Cuevas takes a
look at the tenuous future of this Los Angeles icon.

Hena Cuevas>> They tower over the city lining some of the most
famous streets in Los Angeles. The palm tree, a symbol of Los
Angeles that says here lives the California dream. But what
very few people know is they shouldn't even be here in the first
place and, as such, they're facing problems which might make the
palm tree a thing of our past.

Timothy Phillips>> They didn't occur here naturally. There
were no native palms to this region of California.

Hena Cuevas>> Timothy Phillips, Superintendent of the Los
Angeles Arboretum, oversees a vast collection of palm trees
including some of the oldest in Los Angeles.

Timothy Phillips>> Some of these have probably been here since
the late 1800's.

Hena Cuevas>> Many palm trees were introduced to the area in
the early 1900's. In 1926, they were placed all along Wilshire
Boulevard. Eleven years later in 1935, Arbor Day included the
planting of palms.

Timothy Phillips>> The big difference between growing a small
twelve-foot shrub or tree down a center of a street when you
have a thirty, forty, fifty, sixty story building, you grow a
palm that grows two hundred feet next to that and you really
have some architectural detail and lines that you couldn't have
with a regular tree. They're very straight and very narrow.

Hena Cuevas>> Some of the palm trees around the city are
already one hundred years old.

Timothy Phillips>> Now like all things, they get old. They
suffer from old age and are susceptible to illness.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> I think the palms sometimes themselves in how
well they do for such a long period of time fool people into
thinking that they will live forever.

Hena Cuevas>> Ken Pfalzgraf is the Urban Forester for Beverly
Hills, a city that's having serious problems with its palm
population. We all recognize its trademark palm-lined streets
immortalized in countless movies like 1984's "Beverly Hills
Cop". And although Pfalzgraf is also responsible for the almost
thirty thousand other trees that line the city streets, it's the
palm tree that holds a special place.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> I think they just say California.

Hena Cuevas>> When Beverly Hills was just a dream in the early
1900's, developers advertised streets with lots of trees. In
1906, four streets including Canon, Crescent, Palm and Rodeo had
rows of palms put in even before the homes were built. These
massive palm trees most commonly associated with Beverly Hills
are the Canary Island Date Palms from the Canary Islands off of
the coast of Africa. They are one of the hardiest species of
palm trees around and, even though they grow very slowly, they
can get to be over one hundred feet tall.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> It is the gem of the genus. It is easily
recognized by everyone amongst all trees. It has a specific
stature that lends itself well to an avenue planting.

Hena Cuevas>> But these majestic date palms are slowly dying
and not just from old age. Over the course of the last forty
years, Beverly Hills has lost nearly forty percent of its Canary
Island Date Palms. The cause? A fungus that lives in the soil.
The city first identified the problem in the 1980's and began an
aggressive campaign to try and stop it and control it.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> We know that it kills the tree. We know that
there is no cure.

Hena Cuevas>> What this particular fungus does is keep water
from reaching the top portion, or crown, of the palm.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> So therefore as temperatures increase, you'll
see that the palm begins to droop and wilt.

Hena Cuevas>> Just basically becoming dehydrated?

Ken Pfalzgraf>> Exactly.

Hena Cuevas>> As the leaves, or fronds, begin to dry up, the
tree eventually dies. The fungus is native to California and
Pfalzgraf has been studying how it's spread from tree to tree.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> I know the palm tree can't do anything for
itself, so I've kind of made it my personal cause to let people
know there are ways that you can avoid the spread of this
disease.

Hena Cuevas>> The key, he says, is in the pruning of the
fronds. Trimming tools that aren't thoroughly cleaned are the
perfect vehicle to transfer the disease. He suggests using this
simple tube made from PVC pipe to sanitize the saws.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> And then the saw that you have used, it's
important to take a brush, brush the sawdust off of it -- the
larger pieces can hold the fungus -- and then simply place this
saw in your bleach.

Hena Cuevas>> So it's a mixture of bleach and water?

Ken Pfalzgraf>> Fifty-fifty bleach and water.

Hena Cuevas>> The problem with chainsaws, he says, is that the
oil used to lubricate them keeps the bleach water from
penetrating.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> This three dollar invention will save many palm
trees. This three hundred dollar invention will kill many palm
trees.

Hena Cuevas>> And it's not just this specific fungus. Other
diseases can also be transmitted with dirty tools. The
challenge for Pfalzgraf is not only to keep the fungus from
spreading, but to figure out how to replace the lost majestic
palms.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> The price of these trees has become quite
dramatic. The open market price of one of these trees tends to
be around four hundred dollars per foot of trunk.

Hena Cuevas>> Per foot of trunk?

Ken Pfalzgraf>> Per foot of trunk. So a ten-foot tree would
cost you about four thousand dollars. Then the cranes and the
trucking and installation costs and the like, that cost could
double.

Hena Cuevas>> It's estimated that it would cost about ten
thousand dollars to replace a single Canary Island Date Palm.
Beverly Hills has lost almost four hundred. According to
Phillips, there is a big demand for full-grown palm trees here
in Los Angeles as well as new developments in Las Vegas.

Timothy Phillips>> The landscapers, the palm brokers, the
landscape architects will hunt them down, search valleys, go
into deserts, peoples' back yards, looking for specimens so they
can have a complete landscape at the end of the day.

Hena Cuevas>> Pfalzgraf himself used to move palm trees in Las
Vegas. He says the slower the palm tree grows, the more
expensive it is.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> There is not a nursery where they've grown
Canary Island Date Palms from seedlings and put them in boxes
and they've gotten progressively larger and, at some point,
there are thirty-foot palm trees in a row waiting for someone to
buy.

Hena Cuevas>> The Canary Island Date Palm is one of the slowest
growing species and, as a result, Beverly Hills is considering
whether to replace them with a less expensive and disease-
resistant tree such as the California and Mexican Fan Palm.

Ken Pfalzgraf>> I believe that we have areas that have good
survival, but again, we're dealing with a tree that has a 150
year lifespan in its natural environment. This is,
unfortunately, not its natural environment, but of course, we'll
do everything we can to preserve what we have.

Hena Cuevas>> The Beverly Hills date palm problem is just one
example of the challenges facing Los Angeles's mature tree
population. Could this signal the decline of the city's
landscape as we know it?

Timothy Phillips>> We need to think ahead and start, you know,
specking these out in our future landscapes. New palms, younger
palms, they're going to be growing. There's going to be some
difference in height here, but we need to plan ahead and we
should have palms in Southern California to grace our landscapes
for years to come if we just plan right.

Hena Cuevas>> And make sure the palm tree remains the symbol of
the California dream. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
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Val>> She was only a fifteen-month old infant in a Chinese
orphanage when Martha saw this little girl for the first time.
Well, soon she was headed home to start a new life in the United
States. Nora is one of forty thousand Chinese babies adopted by
American parents across the country. But now these children are
getting older and some of them are getting homesick for a
country they barely remember.

Nora is now eleven and, last June, Martha and Nora went to China
together. Martha Groves is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times
and came back with video and pictures of their trip. Martha
says these days girls in China are being adopted more often by
Chinese families.

Martha Groves>> I've become friendly with Jane Brown, an
adoption social worker, who says there are a few options for
these children from China. These days, a lot of Chinese people
are adopting the foundlings in the orphanages or just off the
doorstep literally. Beyond that, there are also options for
same-race families within China, extended family members within
China, same-race families overseas, but even though Jane is an
adoptive Caucasian mother herself, she says that really the last
option for these Chinese girls should be adoption by a white
family overseas.

One aspect that I've learned about trans-racial adoption is what
one psychologist calls psychic homelessness and I've started
seeing some evidence of that. You know, some of these signs are
subtle and some of them are very blatant, but with Nora, I
definitely started seeing signs before I'd heard the expression
of psychic homelessness. She was at an age where I found out
from Jane Brown and others that it's very typical for children
to start having adoption-related issues and, at that age,
they're able to articulate some of what's going on with them.
It's almost this primal loss that's springing up. She literally
shrieked one day, "You're not my real mom. I wish I were back
in China with my real family."

Swallow is our guide and Nora has a swallow made out of sugar
candy. The group that organized our tour is called Our Chinese
Daughters Foundation and it has a slogan: "We specialize in
helping your child fall in love with China." At first, some of
Nora's friends that she made on the tour and Nora were very mad
at China. It was hot, it was sticky, it was smoggy, it was
miserable, it was hard work to do this tour. But eventually,
they really all caught on and they ended up loving China. That
is for sure.

Nora Groves>> From the books that I've read over the years
knowing all the places and seeing pictures, it made me like
actually feel like I was a part in the book. Like I wanted to
know what it looked like personally and everything. It was cool
because I saw the Great Wall, a lot of pictures of the Great
Wall, and the warrior people. I got a lot of pictures and now
getting to see it, it was like cool.

Martha Groves>> Naturally, for a trip like this, you do a lot
of planning and, when that happens, your expectations go up. My
expectations were to be blown away by China and to just have a
wonderful family experience and I was so psyched for this trip
and I was so present every moment that we were there. It was a
moving, powerful, emotional experience, especially getting to
see my daughter's orphanage. Back in here somewhere is the
institution. We were just there to see where the little
cottages where the kids lived have been torn down.

The highlight of the trip for me was clearly seeing my
daughter's orphanage. We were in a small nursery with sixteen
babies and our four families that were headed to Taiyo and, all
of a sudden through all the clatter, I heard my daughter's
Chinese name. I turned around and there she was getting a hug
from a woman with salt-and-pepper hair and I realized this was a
caregiver who had brought my daughter to me in 1994 and here she
was ten years later in the orphanage calling my daughter by her
Chinese name.

Nora Groves>> Dear Diary, yesterday we went to my orphanage.
It was so cool that some caregivers remembered me. They are so
nice. We got to play with the babies. They were also much fun.
My favorite was a baby that was in the corner on the left side.
That baby played with me for a long time.

Martha Groves>> I couldn't have asked for more, that she was
thrilled and happy to be in China when she was there and that
she's thrilled to be home. In a way, I hope that Nora realizes
that she has two homes. China is her first home and Los Angeles
is now her home for I hope a very, very long time.

Nora Groves>> Dear Diary, I love China. I wish I was there
right now, but I love being home. I liked touring. It was
okay. I just struggled on the big tour.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
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Life and Times
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You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val>> We've all heard the phrase "less is more" and now
thousands of Americans are discovering that less stuff is more
freedom. They are part of the Simplicity Movement which
actually started seventy-five years ago with the publication of
the book "Voluntary Simplicity". In this story from the Life
and Times Vault, we meet one woman who has made a clean escape
from materialism.

Sarah Jacobson lives in West Los Angeles, works thirty-five
hours a week, has raised two children and likes bike riding,
hiking and backpacking. A typical life, until you step into her
living room. Yes, there is a crate and a lamp here. She likes
to read and write. But there are no chairs or couches. Friends
know to bring a cushion if they don't want to sit on the hard
floor. There's no TV, no stereo, no radio, no computer, and
that's the way Sarah likes it.

Sarah Jacobson>> I can leave my doors open here. I don't have
to worry about people coming in and taking anything and it's
just a sense of freedom for me.

Val>> Sarah hasn't always lived in such sparse surroundings.

Sarah Jacobson>> When I was growing up, my parents didn't live
this way. Living in Woodland Hills when I was married, I had
furniture, I had a swimming pool, I had stuff.

Val>> Sarah had long seen herself as an environmentalist. Then
one day she was traveling through an unspoiled forest in
Humboldt County when she came face to face with a sawmill.

Sarah Jacobson>> I was just appalled and thought what am I
doing to contribute to this? I was just thinking of my
purchases, the type of purchases I make, all the wood products,
and I just thought I need to stop doing what I'm doing, that
this is going to end. So I started implementing the conclusion
I came to. Just sitting there one afternoon for about an hour
and a half really doing a lot of soul searching.

Val>> That was fifteen years ago.

Sarah Jacobson>> I just slowly stopped buying. I slowly
started re-evaluating what was really important in my life and
what my values were and living more in tune with my values. So
it was easy, but I didn't give up everything at once. It was a
process and it still is.

Val>> Sarah Jacobson isn't alone. A growing number of people
see themselves as part of something called the Voluntary
Simplicity Movement.

>> "How many of you would like less stuff to worry about? All
right, great. Well, then you're in the right place. Welcome to
No Purchase Necessary, Building the Voluntary Simplicity
Movement.

Val>> An overflow crowd jammed into a USC conference room in
September to hear a daylong series of speakers tout the joys of
less stuff.

Cecile Andrews>> "Now I always think that the definition of
simplicity seems obvious."

Val>> Cecile Andrews is one of the gurus of the movement and
author of "The Circle of Simplicity".

Cecile Andrews>> "I have a friend who has a twenty-something
son and one day he said to his mother, "What's that thing your
friend Cecile is involved in, that self-depravation movement?
(laughter)" I worry that a lot of people think that and really
I think probably you sense -- and that's why you're here -- that
what we're really talking about is just the opposite, that we're
talking about how you can really enjoy your life, that you do
the things that really bring satisfaction instead of our
constant scurrying for stuff and status."

Val>> The Simplicity Movement has its books, "The Simple Living
Guide", "Voluntary Simplicity", "Your Money or Your Life" and
even its celebrity, actor Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed Begley, Jr.>> "This is it right now. This is it. We have
to find those moments and cherish each other and spend time with
our families and our friends and that's what it's about. It's
not about more stuff. If stuff made you happy, there'd be
nothing but happy people living in Bel Aire and unhappy people
living in the bush. Guess what? That's not the case."

Val>> As this day's crowd suggests, the Simplicity Movement is
white, middle-aged and middle-class and these are the people its
leaders most want to reach.

Cecile Andrews>> This is a movement for people who already have
enough, but don't realize it, who want to keep going on. And
when people say, well, it's just the yuppie liberation movement,
what would you rather we be doing? Would you rather we kept
working? Would you rather we kept spending? No, I don't think
so.

Val>> These people already realize they have enough. They're
gathered tonight at Sarah Jacobson's for what they call a
Simplicity Circle. They find the monthly meetings are a good
way to support each other in their escape from stuff.

John Rizzo>> "All we would ever do during our birthdays is we'd
send each other gifts and I didn't want to do that anymore. I
didn't want to spend money to just send gifts."

Val>> John Rizzo has asked his East Coast family to send him
letters instead of presents.

>> "It had meaning to you about your family and not just
another thing, too many things."

Sarah Jacobson>> "With me, it's a social justice issue. I
won't have anything in here from China just because of the human
rights abuses. So people know do not buy anything because it
will probably go back. Not that I don't appreciate the thought,
but ethically I can't have it in here. So I'm extremely
difficult to shop for and I never shop."

Val>> Sarah does have one possession she's not ready to give
up, a car she calls a truck.

Sarah Jacobson>> I have a truck basically for hauling stuff. I
do a lot of hauling. I do a lot of backpacking. I use it for
gear, so it comes in handy in a lot of respects even though it
eats up a lot of gas.

Val>> Ironically, Sarah sells credit card services to merchants
though she hasn't a credit card to her name. But her real love
is the Simplicity Movement. She's realistic enough to know that
most people would not adopt her no-furniture lifestyle.
Nevertheless, she's committed to spreading the message and
organizing Simplicity Circles.

Sarah Jacobson>> Time is a big issue with people, having time
to do what's really important. Even if it is to go to the mall,
people tell me it's all they can do to catch up on the weekend
just to do their laundry, do their grocery shopping, get enough
rest and get ready for Monday morning again.

Val>> It's part saving the planet and it's part getting more
out of life. Sarah hopes the idea will spread, but in the
meantime, she's glad to be living in harmony with her own
beliefs.

[Film Clip]

Val>> If you've still got too much stuff around the house,
there's always that American tradition, the garage sale. Life
and Times commentator, Cris Franco, went sidewalk shopping and
came up with some treasures.

Cris Franco>> Aside from an afternoon of Botox injections,
there is nothing more Southern Californian than a garage sale.
So like a modern archeologist, I went to go visit a few of these
front yard bazaars to see what they said about our "life and
times".

We're very hopeful-natured, as reflected by all the exercise
equipment for sale. First we hope that this gizmo will help us
lose weight and then we hope that somebody else will buy it from
us.

There are tons of old toys. Oops, at a Los Angeles garage sale,
nothing is ever referred to as old. It's "vintage", or a
"collectible" or a "classic".

It's a sad day when a man sells his Barbie Dream House. I
should know.

I don't know why people buy old clothes. Why would I wear
someone else's ill-fitted, fading t-shirt when I can just wear
my own ill-fitted, faded t-shirt?

And a garage sale brings out the window dresser in all of us.
Look at how creatively this gate becomes a clearance rack.
Looks like the clothes all tried to get away and they got all
caught up in the electrified fence. "Nothing escapes the gate
of doom."

This woman, Kathy, has my memories in her hand. Long before
there was a war between the blue states and the red states,
there was the war between the Blue Stamps and the Green Stamps.

Security isn't a big issue at most yard sales. Winona Ryder
could easily abscond with this big-button phone or this complete
set of dishes. However, with Uncle Bob standing -- or rather
sitting -- watch, I had to pay a whole dollar for this album.
It was an impulse buy. I've no idea who Freddy Quinn is or why
he's flying in a plane. I mean, for a dollar, how bad can an
album be?

[Film Clip]

People who are moving off and have big ticket items for sale
like furniture or appliances. But you know, not everything is
for sale. Mary wouldn't sell her dolls and what motivates most
merchants? Money.

This is Susan, the self-proclaimed garage sale queen, totally
organized with signs and purchase conditions. She makes about
four hundred dollars per weekend. Susan and hubby are a very
happy couple and why not? They've got a tree that grows
dresses.

And P.T. Barnum? He was right. Some people will tell you the
tallest tales to sell you their junk -- or collectibles. The
seller of this head said it was a magic talisman bringing great
luck to whomever owned it and rubbed its head. Right. Who was
crazier? Her or the nut that paid her a dollar for it? I'm
feeling lucky.

Val>> Hey, Cris. Have I got a bargain for you. 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 --

What's behind the shortage of specialists in Southern California
emergency rooms?

>> I remember sitting down and just kind of waiting there for
about probably an hour. Then I got put on a bed and got my arm
held up and I probably waited there for about six hours.

Val>> That's next time on a special healthcare edition of Life
and Times.