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Life & Times Transcript
08/04/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --People want big homes, but what happens when big starts bugging the neighbors? Should limits be put on "McMansions"? Sivert Glarum>> It's like fast food houses. They just go up incredibly fast. They're incredibly generic and they're incredibly out of scale with the neighborhood. Val>> And then, they are digging into Guatemala's brutal past searching for the remains from massacres. Can this painful past also bring healing? These stories 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've all seen them. Huge new homes crammed onto relatively small lots and out of sync with the rest of the neighborhood. They're dubbed "McMansions" and some people think they should be restricted. As Sam Louie tells us, one person's mansion is another person's monstrosity. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> Sivert Glarum considers this part of the San Fernando Valley the ideal place to raise his family. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> The Glarums moved into their house in Valley Village two years ago. It's close to the city, yet secluded enough to have quiet tree-lined streets. Sivert Glarum>> It's three bedrooms. It's one story. We just really love the kind of suburban rural atmosphere here and the trees and, you know, the beautiful houses and the beautiful lawns. Sam Louie>> Many of the homes here are modest, ranch-style houses built during the 1930's and 1940's, but the Glarums are noticing what they consider a disturbing trend: quaint, small homes being sold and replaced by big new houses nearly twice the size of the average home here. The lot next to the Glarum's used to have just one home, but now there are three new houses going up on the same property. Opponents of these types of houses have given them a nickname: "McMansions". Sivert Glarum>> I don't know how the term got started, but it's just a huge boxy house which looks like it was designed in about five minutes. It's like fast food houses. They just go up incredibly fast. They're incredibly generic and they're incredibly out of scale with the neighborhood. My back yard, when I first moved in, was completely secluded. Now we have a McMansion to the south of us and we have a McMansion to the west of us, so we've got zero privacy in our back yard. We just have houses staring down upon us. Helen Catledge>> We thought there was going to be one house and then it turned out to be two houses and then it turned out to be three houses. Sam Louie>> Seventy-four year old Helen Catledge lives across the street from the new development. She's been in Valley Village since 1962 and believes greed is motivating the development. Helen Catledge>> They're not interested in the area. They're interested in making money, so it's a money thing. The whole thing is money. Sam Louie>> How hard is it for you to walk out of your front doorstep to see these three big homes staring at you? Helen Catledge>> It's like a nightmare. I walk out and I just wonder where I am sometimes. Sam Louie>> As for Glarum, he's reminded of where his neighbors are every time he steps outside. He estimates there's only six feet separating the new homes from his property line. His future neighbors will also have a direct view of his back yard from their upstairs window. Sivert Glarum>> This is the bathroom. It's "Hi, neighbor, how's your bath?" Sam Louie>> Since construction began last December, Glarum added extra plants and bushes. Sivert Glarum>> We wound up ripping up all the vegetation we had here before to get something higher just to screen us so we'd have a little privacy in the hot tub and the pool from the folks staring down below. Then we put in some other trees that are going to take a while to grow. I mean, when it's all said and done, it's going to be a couple thousand dollars just to get the privacy we had six months ago. Sam Louie>> But some of them have started to wither. Sivert Glarum>> We put these plants in for more privacy, but as you can see, we're losing so much sunlight from these three huge mansions that the plants are just, you know, dying on the vine here. Christopher Alan>> You walk right in and you see all of the finished work. Sam Louie>> But the view looks different from the other side. In Valley Glen just a few miles away, developers like Christopher Alan say it's unfair to place the blame on them. They feel they're just responding to the booming housing market and a buyer's desire for more space. Christopher Alan>> So they want the amenities that they have realized in Valencia or Calabasas. They want them here in the Valley and that's what we're providing. Sam Louie>> Alan is with Dasher Lawless, a company that's building this fifty-four hundred square foot house. He says the five bedroom, six bath home is designed to reinvigorate the neighborhood. Christopher Alan>> The amenities that are put on this home including the landscaping and including the type of imported stone and tile that goes in, as well as the additional square footage of the home, will bring up the property values. This house will sell somewhere between a million six and a million seven. Sam Louie>> How do you feel when people characterize these homes as "McMansions"? Christopher Alan>> Look, that's a simplistic term designed for, you know, emotional reaction. The fact of the matter is, the "McMansion" tries to make an analogy between a Big Mac, as an example, something that's fast food and cookie cutter being put out that would necessarily not be of the quality that you would want. Well, that's simply not the case. If you walk in this house and you see the exotic hardwood floors, all of the attention to details as far as crown moldings, you would recognize that this is nothing but a custom home. Sam Louie>> Alan concedes the upstairs patio will give the owners a view of their neighbor's rooftops and yards, but he's planting trees to take care of that. Christopher Alan>> Because what will happen in the couple of years is, when we plant all of this, the trees will grow up like this and then the neighbors will have their privacy back. Sam Louie>> Alan says many are quick to point the finger at him, but do nothing about the homeowners who neglect their properties. For example, this nearby house is overgrown with weeds and bushes. Christopher Alan>> If there are issues about property values going down, there should be issues with that house. That is detrimental to the neighborhood. It's bad for property values, yet nobody is complaining about that. Sam Louie>> Because of the influx of newer and bigger homes in older communities, some neighborhoods now have laws restricting the size of redevelopment. In Valley Village and Valley Glen, there are few restrictions on how big new homes can be. However, in the Sunland-Tujunga area, city council has imposed building limitations. Los Angeles City Councilwoman, Wendy Greuel, represents the Sunland-Tujunga area where residents have strongly opposed big homes, some looking like apartment buildings. Wendy Greuel>> One thing that's important for people to understand is that we do regulate right now how much you can build on your property, how high it can be, how much the setbacks. But we never contemplated that people would be building almost from property line to property line. Sam Louie>> Greuel's job is to balance private property rights with the interests of the community. In the end, city council sided with the established homeowners of Sunland-Tujunga. It passed a new ordinance in late July that limits development of a basic single-family home to forty percent of the lot size. Wendy Greuel>> What we're saying is that we want to make sure that the homes that are built fit into that neighborhood and that community, preserving peoples' property rights and, at the same time, really preserving the rights of your next door neighbors and the community as a whole. Sam Louie>> Back at Valley Village, residents are encouraged by the new law in Sunland-Tujunga. Bill Canterbury and his family live right behind the three new homes going up on the one lot. He plans to rally neighbors together in their fight against "mansionization". Bill Canterbury>> What I'm fighting for is to preserve the nature of the neighborhood because I think there is value in the community and not just value in peoples' specific homes. Sam Louie>> But Mara Lenkov disagrees. She recently bought a newly-constructed home with her family. At twenty-four hundred square feet, it's large enough for her to raise her two daughters. Mara Lenkov>> Personally, I don't find it an eyesore. I think, you know, these houses blend well with the whole neighborhood. And the reality is, families need more space now. Sam Louie>> At this point, Sunland-Tujunga is believed to be the one neighborhood in the Los Angeles area with laws limiting mansionization. But as long as there's a strong demand for bigger homes and people looking to preserve the character of a neighborhood, this debate is likely to lead to more regulations in other communities. I'm Sam Louie 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>> There are more than a hundred twenty-five thousand Guatemalans living here in Los Angeles County. The vast majority of them came to the United States to escape the horrific violence of a thirty-six year civil war in Guatemala. Many of them left behind loved ones who were executed or killed in massacres. Well, now the bones of thousands of Guatemalans are being exhumed and Saul Gonzalez traveled south to find out more. Saul Gonzalez>> On a forested hillside in the highlands of western Guatemala, the villagers of Chuinimachicaj gather to grieve and pray, asking God to bless the work about to begin here. That work is a dig. Forensic anthropologists, with the help of villagers, are searching for evidence of a massacre, the remains of people killed by government soldiers here over two decades ago when this country was in the grip of a vicious civil war. Francisco Sukhena>> On the fifth of May 1982, the soldiers gathered together the poor men buried somewhere here, tortured them and then brought them here to kill them. Saul Gonzalez>> Francisco Sukhena, a lay pastor in the village who survived the massacre, says such incidents were common in those years because of the government's belief that Indian villagers were helping leftist rebels. Francisco Sukhena>> It was the same all around this area, the massacres, the violence. Such a complete sadness was to be found here. All of the time you lived with such fear for your family, but where could we go? Saul Gonzalez>> About three hours into the work, the forensic experts begin finding human remains, first small fragments of bone, then clothing with skeletal pieces beneath the fabric. As the digging continues, skulls are soon unearthed. These remains represent just some of the two hundred thousand people who were killed during this country's thirty-six year long civil conflict, a conflict that ended with the signing of peace accords in 1996. Now that the fighting has stopped, a group called the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, which is directing this exhumation, is on a mission to find and identify the war's innocent victims. Dr. Fredy Peccerelli>> This is the cranium that's currently being reconstructed. Saul Gonzalez>> Forensic anthropologist, Fredy Peccerelli, is the Foundation's founder and director. He sees Guatemala as one vast human rights crime scene. Dr. Fredy Peccerelli>> Every single time we go into a community and conduct an investigation, we find out that every other community that surrounds it also wants an investigation to be carried out, because one person was killed, because the entire community was wiped out, because ten people disappeared. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. Saul Gonzalez>> After remains are exhumed in the field, the team's work moves here to its headquarters, a one-time private residence in Guatemala City that's been turned into a no-frills forensics laboratory. This is where the experts attempt to both identify remains and determine how people were killed. Dr. Fredy Peccerelli>> Each remain has a specific case number and then those are handed over to each anthropologist who will begin by laying out the remains on the table and then conducting an analysis that entails the determination of sex, stature, age, eventually getting down to the reconstruction of the remains to try to establish the trauma, the trauma that contributed to the cause of death. Saul Gonzalez>> Since Peccerelli founded the Forensic Anthropology Foundation in 1997, he and his small group of colleagues have recovered and examined over three thousand skeletons. They say most of the remains they analyze show clear evidence of execution-style killings against civilians. Danny Guzman>> This is an adolescent around fifteen years of age. He has an entry wound here in the back of the skull. The projectile entered here and came out through the face. Dr. Fredy Peccerelli>> I would say that anyone who has the slightest bit of training can see the first day that they stepped foot into this office that we are talking here about very violent crimes and very repetitive crimes. Saul Gonzalez>. When the war raged, the worst violence occurred in Guatemala's western highlands, home to the country's large Mayan Indian population. It was here, Peccerelli says, that the government's conflict with leftist guerrillas turned into a merciless war against the country's indigenous people like the villagers of Chuinimachicaj. Dr. Fredy Peccerelli>> It falls within a strategy of genocide. The idea wasn't only to wipe out the possibility of communism. It was also to wipe out certain groups of people and those groups of people were the indigenous Mayan of Guatemala. Anyone who the army felt was a threat was to be wiped out. That included children. It included women. It included the elderly. It basically included everyone. Saul Gonzalez>> This country is just starting to confront the human costs of its civil war. Many of the conflict's victims are honored at Guatemala City's Catholic cathedral. Here the names of thousands of the dead, vanished and tortured are etched in the marble columns. Around the city, it's also common to see walls plastered with the photos of those who vanished. They are people believed to have been abducted and killed by the military during the war. Forensic anthropologists who investigate war crimes and human rights abuse cases say their work is about far more than identifying remains and determining the causes of death. It's also about honoring the memory of victims and making sure that their lives, as well as their deaths, are not forgotten. Sharon Solis>> Ultimately, all of these victims are really our victims. They are a part of our national memory. Saul Gonzalez>> Forensic anthropologist, Sharon Solis, says her greatest responsibility is returning respect to the dead. Sharon Solis>> Of course, that's probably the most important part of the work. It's something that we owe to the people who suffered these deaths, to find them and return them to their families so they can be buried with dignity. Saul Gonzalez>> However, their work has earned these forensic experts enemies, people who want to keep evidence of past atrocities buried and forgotten. Dr. Fredy Peccerelli>> We receive phone calls and letters. The letters are very clear: "We've let you exhume all these bodies in peace, but now your families are going to exhume your bodies and the bodies of your children in tears. None of these cases will ever go to court", etc. etc. The words weren't so polite. Very specific: "We know where you move. We know where you live. You are being watched." Saul Gonzalez>> And yet you continue? Dr. Fredy Peccerelli>> The work is too important. If we just stopped the work, whoever is making these threats would win, and this work is a lot bigger than one individual. It has become part of the reconstruction of Guatemala. Saul Gonzalez>> Although prosecutions of those responsible for massacres and other war crimes are very rare in Guatemala, Peccerelli and his colleagues hope the evidence they're gathering will one day be used to bring killers to justice. The forensic anthropologists estimate that the search for victims in Guatemala's one-time killing fields could last another thirty years. Val>> Our thanks to Saul Gonzalez and Religion and Ethics News Weekly for that story. 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 is directed by Jim Jarmusch, who's a real pioneer of American independent films, and it stars Bill Murray. The movie is "Broken Flowers". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Andy Klein of City Beat and Valley Beat, and Scott Foundas of the L.A. Weekly and Variety. Andy, what did you think of "Broken Flowers"? Andy Klein>> I really liked this film, Larry. Bill Murray plays Don Johnson and the name is supposed to invoke Don Juan very clearly who's this fifty-ish guy who's been a commitment phobe his whole life. His latest relationship has just broken up. The girl has stormed out. At the same time as that happens, he gets an anonymous letter that's typed -- so he can't tell by the handwriting -- from some former girlfriend saying you have a nineteen year old son I never told you about and he's interested in meeting his father. But there's no hint as to who this was, so he draws up a list of the possible women. His next door neighbor who fancies himself a detective forces him to go on this road trip and makes all the arrangements. Bill Murray is a depressive character here. So he goes on this road trip and meets with his ex-girlfriends in hoping to figure out which one is which. It's a really intriguing film, very low-key performance by Murray, and very, very good. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Scott? Scott Foundas>> I liked it too. The movie is actually quite funny, but the laughs are so subtle that you almost need a magnifying glass to catch some of them. The first time I saw the film, I didn't realize actually how funny it was. When I saw it again, I picked up on more of it because it's so deadpan. It's so minimalistic and things that other directors would sort of maybe play up as kind of more obvious slapsticky kind of situations. It's just done completely flat and it's that much funnier as a result, and Murray is terrific. He's giving another sort of master class in acting minutia here and he's brilliant at it. Larry Mantle>> Next up is the southern family drama, "Junebug". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> What did you think of "Junebug"? Scott Foundas>> Well, you know, it's funny, Larry, that the same week that "Dukes of Hazzard" is opening, there's another movie about the culture of the south that couldn't be more different. This film, "Junebug", which was in Sundance earlier this year, is about a man named George who is returning to visit his family in North Carolina for the first time in quite a while, so long in fact that he's gotten married in the interim and this is the first time that his family is going to be meeting his wife who's actually a British-born Chicago-based art dealer. You have a premise that sort of suggests another one of the run-of-the-mill movies about big city folk descending on the sticks, but actually this is an incredibly warm, heartfelt picture in which the characters are incredibly original and incredibly dignified. There are no southern caricatures here. It's a movie about a family that's actually in quite a bit of disrepair, more than you catch on at the beginning, and how they all sort of work through their problems. It has a spectacular performance by a young actress called Amy Adams who plays the very pregnant sister-in-law of the main character. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Andy? Andy Klein>> I was really under-whelmed by this. The only thing I felt was incredible in it was indeed Amy Adams who kind of walked away with the film. Larry Mantle>> She's the find of the film? Andy Klein>> Absolutely. I mean, she really keeps the film alive and, thank goodness, because otherwise I thought it was DOA. Yeah, it was heartfelt and kind of just bland to me. I didn't find most of the characters that interesting. The lead character was, to me, just a brittle, unpleasant person who we were supposed to like a good deal more than I was able to. There's also a terrific performance, very, very understated, by Scott Wilson playing the father in the southern family. He's a terrific actor who just doesn't get enough work. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, the Hong Kong film, "2046", from director Wong Kar Wai starring Tony Leung. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "2046", Andy? Andy Klein>> This is the latest film from Wong Kar Wai who's best known in the United States for "In the Mood for Love" a few years which was actually a hit, and "Happy Together", a few years before that. He's a Hong Kong director who's unlike almost anyone else in Hong Kong. He's distinctly an Art House director. This film sounds like a science fiction film, but it's not. There are scenes in the future that are in fact visualizations of a serial novel being written by the hero who's played fabulously by Tony Leung who was also in those other two Wong Kar Wai films. It's really kind of a formless film about this guy looking back on all these lovers he's had and leaping back and forth in time. It's very slow. It's all about mood and nobody can create a mood as well as Wong Kar Wai does. It's beautifully shot, a little slow-paced, but, boy, I was totally wrapped up in it. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Scott? Scott Foundas>> You know, this is actually a sequel of sorts to "In the Mood for Love" in which Tony Leung plays sort of the same character that he played in the earlier film and sort of not. But you do, by the end of the movie, get the gist that he's sort of hung up still over the romance he had with Maggie Chung's character in the original movie and he's never quite gotten over it and he's drifting through these affairs with these various other beautiful women, including Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi who all look fabulous. The movie is like a magazine photo shoot come to life on the screen. It has style to burn, but I found it incredibly cold and un-involving in all the ways that I thought "In the Mood for Love" was almost a perfect romance, a sumptuous, erotic fever dream of a movie. This movie, I found simply an exercise in style. I was bored by it after about twenty minutes. I'm in a distinct minority, I have to say, in the world of film critics about this one, but nevertheless, I will remain in a minority. Larry Mantle>> And you like Wong Kar Wai's work generally? Scott Foundas>> Generally, I do, but I think that he is, you know, despite his stylish flourishes, a director who would do well to remember that, as Orson Welles once said, "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations." Larry Mantle>> And we thank you for joining us for another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC for critics, Scott Foundas of the L.A. Weekly and Variety and Andy Klein of City Beat and Valley Beat, inviting you to join us next week at this time for the next edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val>> And don't forget there's a full hour of FilmWeek on KPCC Friday mornings at 11:00 a.m. 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 need for more schools is a given, but what do you say to owners of homes and businesses forced to give up their property? >> We feel like David and Goliath. Here's Plaza Community Center and we've got all the services that serve our families and here's Los Angeles Unified School District which is a gigantic entity. Val>> That's next time on Life and Times. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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