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Life & Times Transcript
06/16/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Inside the red tag zone at the Laguna Beach landslide. Should these homes be rebuilt? Ginger Kelly>> They're making it seem like we deserve it because we chose to build on a hill, and most of the people on that street lost everything and they have nothing left. Val>> And then, a heartfelt thank-you across the years. What's behind this concert commemorating the end of World War II? It's all coming up next 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 all watched in shock as scores of expensive homes slid down the hills in Bluebird Canyon and now the big questions remain. Should homeowners rebuild? Should taxpayer money be used to help? And has the hill stopped moving? Those are the questions our Orange County reporter, Roger Cooper, put to city officials, geologists and homeowners in Laguna Beach. Roger Cooper>> It's a cycle as endless as the tides. Yet another disaster in Laguna Beach. This time it's the June 1 landslide that destroyed homes and forced families to evacuate Bluebird Canyon. The slide came months after near-record rainfall, a shock to the families that lost their homes, and the danger isn't over. The concern here in Laguna now is that even at this time, days after it all happened, this earth is still moving. The streets that are buckled now could buckle more and more houses could head down this hill. Dr. John Foster>> I definitely wanted to see this and record it. I teach a class in landslides analysis. Roger Cooper>> Dr. John Foster is a geologist and professor at Cal State Fullerton. He's convinced this slide was a delayed reaction to record winter rains. Dr. John Foster>> And it soaks down until it gets to a point where it is basically supporting the rock almost like a boat in the ocean and it basically weakens the rock itself and causes it to slide like it's on ball bearings. Roger Cooper>> Displaced homeowners gathered at City Hall to be briefed by city officials and geologists. That's when reality was beginning to sink in. Ken Frank>> "Our guess is, realistically, if everything goes well, being positive, best case, somebody could start building a house in two years." Roger Cooper>> Ginger Kelly had just finished putting every cent she had into a hillside home that's now red-tagged and can't be entered. How are you bearing up under all of this? Ginger Kelly>> I'm handling it pretty well, but it's getting harder every day to handle it this well. Laguna Beach is a great city and, if we were to live somewhere else, I don't think we'd be getting the support that we have. Like everybody is saying we're rich and so we can handle it. Like Rush Limbaugh was saying that. Well, he needs to take another Oxycontin because we're not. This was my life savings and now I'm going to have to go back to work full-time when I was about to be able to spend time with my daughter. Randall Bell>> I think it's an economic mess because these people do not have -- generally, the insurance doesn't cover this kind of loss. Roger Cooper>> We made a trip inside the red-tagged zone accompanied by Randall Bell. Known as the master of disaster, he's hired to determine economic damages at disaster sites all over the world. Randall Bell>> Yeah, this is ground zero and these areas really kind of give me the heebee jeebies because I stood in an area like this about two years ago and, a few hours after we left, it dropped a hundred twenty-five feet (laughter), so you've got to take this stuff seriously. Roger Cooper>> Bell has documented his trips to disasters in a new book, "Disasters: Waste of Lives, Valuable Lessons". He says some property values may not drop. Randall Bell>> As far as the surrounding neighborhoods, you might be surprised to see how resilient they are. They may not be as impacted negatively or at all, which might surprise some people. The damages economically usually go right with the actual landslide area. Roger Cooper>> But the big question on everyone's mind is whether it makes sense to build back in such a dangerous area. With a lot of money, could all those houses be put back and be sound? Dr. John Foster>> Absolutely, and I expect that's what will happen. Roger Cooper>> But for a lot of money. Dr. John Foster>> For a lot of money. Roger Cooper>> UC Irvine professor, Dr. Judy Rosener, at the Mirage School of Business, has been watching the California disaster cycle for some time and opposed development there three decades ago. When you look at the Laguna slides, what jumps out at you? Dr. Judy Rosener>> Well, what jumps out at me was that I feel terrible because, thirty years ago when I was on the Coastal Commission, the Bluebird Canyon slides came up. We had jurisdiction there. We were giving permits. I remember that I voted against it because I heard geologists from both sides. Roger Cooper>> Dr. Rosener thinks the local officials who approve hillside building these days have trouble saying no because the requests come from people they know who are determined to live the California dream. No matter what happens in California, people always seem willing to go back and to rebuild. Randall Bell>> Right. We call that idea the Malibu function or the Malibu factor because there are areas in Malibu that are constantly being hit by big waves, by mudslides, by fires, by floods, and the people keep rebuilding over and over and over again. Laguna Beach has the same kind of mentality. Roger Cooper>> If people are determined to rebuild, should the taxpayers subsidize them through low-interest loans and infrastructure? Dr. Judy Rosener>> If people decide to build in a hazardous area anywhere, should they not assume the liability? Why should that liability be borne by others who have nothing to do with that area? It seems to me the building of those roads in Laguna and the shoring up is not just going to be the Laguna taxpayers. Roger Cooper>> Let me ask you a blunt question. Should houses be built over there? Dr. John Foster>> Houses probably should not be built over there in the natural condition they're built. I've looked at some reports on some of the homes. Even the fill conditions that they're actually on are not compacted properly. Randall Bell>> As far as coming back in and rebuilding, it's happened in Malibu and it's going to happen here in Laguna Beach. Roger Cooper>> Should they? Randall Bell>> If they can accept the risks. If you're going to be upset when these kinds of things happen or it's going to ruin your life, then my advice is don't. But if you can handle the risk and take your chances, because there is a chance, then, you know, that's your call. Go for it. Roger Cooper>> But you're a geologist. You know the danger as well as anybody. Can you blame somebody for wanting to have that view over there? Dr. John Foster>> No, I don't blame anybody. I used to live here and I wanted the view over there. No, I understand why people want to be there. I understand why they want this environment. Sometimes this comes with it. Roger Cooper>> Is Laguna Beach worth it? Ginger Kelly>> Yes. Laguna Beach is one of the last small towns left and I'm not originally from Orange County and this is the best place to live in the entire world. Roger Cooper>> And the cost? Thirty years ago, it took four million dollars in federal money to reinforce Bluebird Canyon's hillsides. Who will pay for this disaster in today's dollars is still being ironed out. In the meantime, homeowners say they are not to blame. Ginger Kelly>> We took every precaution that we were told to take and now to come to find out we're adjacent to a slide zone. There's no way to know and people in the press and everybody is saying that we deserve it. We didn't deserve this. We're homeless. Dr. Judy Rosener>> Should we be willing to pay the price for a few people to have a lovely view and build a house on top of a hill? I'm not sure about that and I think this is a debate we have to start thinking about. Roger Cooper>> A popular reaction in Laguna Beach to the landslides can be found as close as the Hobe Surf Shop where t-shirts are being sold that say "And Bluebird Canyon Shall Rise". And on the flip side, a pop quiz: "What Disaster Can We Overcome? Flooding, fire, landslides, all of the above. Would you consider living elsewhere? Never." In Laguna Beach, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times. Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times". Val>> I'm here in front of the beautiful San Gabriel Civic Auditorium where a very special event is about to take place that brings together two cultures that normally don't associate with each other, the Chinese community and the Jewish community. It was a full house. The orchestra was tuning up for this commemorative concert, the sixtieth anniversary of VE and VJ Days, victory in Europe and victory in Japan. Rita Feder Attermann arrived early. She would be taking the stage at intermission to thank the Chinese community for saving her life. She was born in Germany. In the late 1930's, Hitler began his reign of terror. The Chinese Consul General in Vienna, a man named Feng Shan Ho, took the rare step of issuing lifesaving visas to twenty thousand Jews. Rita's family was among those who escaped the holocaust and took refuge halfway around the world in Shanghai, China. Rita Feder Attermann>> Hitler came to power in 1933 and things were getting very bad for the Jewish people and, by 1937 and 1938, they were smashing synagogues, they were taking Jews to concentration camps. Unfortunately, my father didn't have the foresight to see what was coming. We all thought it would pass. And in 1939, we were fortunately asked to leave the country and became stateless. Nothing was open to us. Nobody wanted us. China was the only country that allowed us to migrate. We arrived in China on my eleventh birthday in August and, lo, here we were, hot, muggy, miserable. We were very fortunate that somebody had obtained a room for us. The four of us moved into that one room. No flush toilets, no running water, but we were happy to be there. [Film Clip] Val>> These are current day pictures of the room that the Atteremanns lived in. Not much has changed and one of the doors still has the metal plate that designated the room as the Attermann's. Rita Feder Attermann>> My father was a tailor. He worked in that room. We had no stove. We had no kitchen. My mother had to learn to cook on a Chinese hibachi. But the Chinese people were kind. They allowed us to follow our religion. They allowed us to practice our way of life as much as we could. We had a very hard time in China, extremely hard, but I had a good time. When you're eleven, twelve and thirteen years old and everybody is in the same position, because I didn't know any better. Val>> They thought they would be in China for only a couple of years, but their stay in Shanghai stretched out to eight years. Finally, she and her brother were able to come to America. Rita Feder Attermann>> In 1947, I came here. I had relatives here which I had never met and they sent affidavits for my brother and myself. We came on a German quota. My parents were born in Poland and could not come to this country because the Polish quota was closed. Val>> So you came without your parents? Rita Feder Attermann>> With my brother. Val>> Just you and your brother. Rita Feder Attermann>> Just me and my brother came to this country by ourselves on a troop transport ship. Val>> And you settled in -- Rita Feder Attermann>> We settled in Los Angeles because we had relatives here. My brother found a job, I found a job and I practically kissed the ground when we arrived here. Val>> So what's happening tonight that is so wonderful? Rita Feder Attermann>> They're having a concert and they're honoring the holocaust and they're honoring people who saved lives. [Film Clip] Val>> The United Musicians Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles led by conductor, Zhang, played "Ode to the Red Flag" by Qi Ming Lu. [Film Clip] Val>> At intermission, Rita took the stage to tell her story. Rita Feder Attermann>> "I'm here on behalf of myself, my family and twenty thousand other Jewish people that were allowed to come to China and save our lives." Val>> A Chinese interpreter translated. [Film Clip] Rita Feder Attermann>> "China was the only country that would accept us. It was very far away in a different land. I spent the best part of my life, until I was nineteen. I grew up there and I learned a lot. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I'm here and I want to say thank you again to China, to the Chinese people, for having accepted us and letting us live amongst them and, most of all, being kind to us because, after the war when we found out about the holocaust and all the families that were left behind and lost, we were twice as thankful. We had no idea how cruel people can be against each other." Val>> Rita and her daughter have traveled back to Shanghai. This is the front door to her family's apartment building and this is a plaque in her old neighborhood commemorating the stateless refugees who once lived there. Their visit even drew the attention of the local newspaper. Rita Feder Attermann>> I have been back to China with warm feelings even though we had a very, very poor life. Rita Feder Attermann>> "In closing, I would like to say thank you to all of you for befriending our people, and the best thing is that I learned how to eat with chopsticks real well (laughter). Thank you again and please enjoy the concert which is in honor of a wonderful, wonderful cause. And as we Jewish people say, we hope never again." [Film Clip] 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. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week, "Heights", is an ensemble drama set in New York City. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by film critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com and Peter Rainer, past president of the National Society of Film Critics. Peter, what did you think of "Heights"? Peter Rainer>> "Heights" rarely reaches the heights. It's kind of a lugubrious movie that takes place in essentially twenty-four hours. James Marsden and Elizabeth Banks play a couple. He's an over-achieving lawyer and she's a photographer who are about to get married. It's a mixed marriage. He's Jewish and she's not, and that's somewhat of an issue as well as the sexual issues that develop in the course of the movie between them that are the clue to the film's mystery. I won't say any more than that, but it does kind of give a certain spin to what goes on in the film, almost a whodunit quality as more and more lies come into play. Elizabeth Banks' mother is played by Glenn Close who is playing sort of a diva actress, multi-Oscar winner. It's the only really entertaining thing in the movie. She's very good at playing haughty, ego-maniacs. But overall, the movie is a kind of complacent, by the numbers, sexual roundelay. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Henry? Henry Sheehan>> Very lifeless. It's a Merchant Ivory film and their movies do have this kind of painterly quality and I don't mean they're picturesque (laughter). What I mean is like nothing is moving. I thought there was actually one other good performance in the movie. That was George Segal as a rabbi. He played the part strictly for laughs and it was interesting to see this kind of explosion of vitality because, really, all the characters in this movie were like the sum total of their problems and a problem is not as interesting as a person. No matter how complicated that problem is, it's not going to elevate a dull conception. Larry Mantle>> Our next film is "Pure". It tells the story of a boy's struggle with his mother's addiction to heroine. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Henry, what did you think of "Pure"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, this is the "Billy Elliott" of junk. It's about a boy about ten years old and he's going to get his mother off the stuff and they're going to go to a football game, and that's pretty much what happens in the movie (laughter). There is no real plot to speak of. The boy is played by Harry Eden, a young actor who won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival, and he deserves it. He's really the whole star of the show. I mean, everything that happens is really shown for how it affects him. His mother is played by the American actress, Molly Parker, a stone cold junkie, and you always wonder how did the family progress to this part where they're all together? Well, the reason they're all together is so we can see Harry being cute getting his mother off junk. Larry Mantle>> Peter? Peter Rainer>> It's a kind of formulaic movie that could have been much better than it is. The core situation, the boy trying to get his mother off junk, is stereotypical in a lot of ways, but still powerful. The boy isn't bad in the film if it had been shot, I think, more from his point of view so we could have really seen what was happening with him. At one point he tries junk so he can relate to his mother and what she's going through. That's a potentially very powerful scene. But it doesn't really add up to very much because the direction is so flat. In the end, you just kind of know that there's this, you know, uplifting, virtuous aspect of the movie so that it all kind of is going along in a predetermined way that I think does a disservice to the free-form nature of the material. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, we have a teenage lesbian love story, "My Summer of Love". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Peter Rainer, "My Summer of Love"? Peter Rainer>> I liked the film a great deal. It's a beautifully shot picture that has a lot of lyrical qualities. The nature of the movie is these two young women who become friends over a summer. Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt are the actresses. One is a kind of working class. Her brother runs a saloon and he finds Jesus, so he turns the saloon into a kind of religious gathering place. He had been a real hell-raiser, so this kind of separates out his relationship with his sister who wants him to be the old brother and not this new guy. So she gravitates to this more upper-class friend and they develop a kind of romantic relationship as the film goes along. This could have fallen into a kind of, you know, hazy soft porn kind of picture, but it's much better than that. The director, Paul Pavlikovsky, did a movie a number of years ago called "Last Resort" that also had Paddy Considine who plays the brother in this film and it's equally good. He's terrific with actors and I think has a really good eye. Larry Mantle>> Henry? Henry Sheehan>> Well, it is a very well acted film and Nathalie Press, in particular, who plays the working class girl, is almost virtuosic. But I do think in a lot of ways, this is kind of a male fantasy film about what a relationship between two young women would be like. I mean, it's kind of like Lady Chatterley's girlfriend. I mean, there are scenes of them going swimming in this, you know, idyllic little swimming hole, and the trees and the light is diffused through the green leaves. They try on each other's clothes in their underwear. They have everything but a tickle fight. So it was hard to believe in terms of anything that would be generated from within one girl towards another. Larry Mantle>> Thanks for joining us for another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Peter Rainer, past president of the National Society of Film Critics, and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Please join us again in a couple of weeks for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val>> And, of course, you can hear a full hour of FilmWeek every Friday morning at 11:00 a.m. on KPCC public radio. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you tomorrow. 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 -- We hear constantly that the way to fight crime is to add more cops, but where will they come from? >> We've noticed that we are reaching crisis levels or at least a crisis point in terms of hiring difficulties and, rather than wait for the train to crash completely after a derailment, we want to make sure and try to fix this problem before it gets there. Val>> That's next time on Life and Times. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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