 |
HOME |  |
SCHEDULE | |
PROGRAMS | |
KIDS & FAMILY | |
LOCAL | |
SUPPORT KCET | |
ABOUT US | |
SHOP KCET |  |
| About Us | Contact Us | |
 |
|
 |
          |
|
|
 |
 |
||
|
|
Life & Times Transcript
09/07/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Landlords who don't just turn a profit in poor neighborhoods. They may just turn around some lives. George Pino>> The children are going to either run the city or ruin it, so we have to do something at this time to hopefully help them run it. Val Zavala>> And then, you might not recognize his name right away, but we guarantee you'll know the songs. The music of composer Harold Arlen. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> 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 Zavala>> Question: Can landlords in poor neighborhoods make a profit without being slumlords? Well, in fact, they can not only turn a profit, they can help turn lives around. How? By combining a little social innovation along with apartment renovation. Toni Guinyard met two real estate investors whose successful model could inspire other landlords. [Film Clip] Toni Guinyard>> Just follow the voices of children inside this Baldwin Village apartment complex and chances are you'll end up here, a Resource and Study Room in an unexpected place, inside a one-bedroom apartment. It's open four days a week to youngsters who call the complex home. [Film Clip] Toni Guinyard>> The Resource Room is believed to be one of a kind. What makes it different is its location, the children it serves and the deal being offered to attract teachers to work and live here. Joe Killinger>> We take a percentage of the units off the market. We put school teachers in them and then we discount their rents. And for the discount rents, we ask them to tutor the kids that live in the building. Toni Guinyard>> Joe Killinger is CEO of Learning Links Centers, the real estate investment and management company that bought the building and operates the Resource Room. It was his idea to take apartment units off the market, in this complex, units that rent for $850 a month. One unit now houses a teacher. The other provides children a place to study and be tutored. Joe Killinger>> You have to have a social conscience and be willing to, instead of having this extra $850 a month, be willing to be giving that back to the community for this room for the kids to be here. George Pino>> I think that a lot of people see investors or capitalists as not giving back to the community or not having any heart and I don't see that there's anything wrong, that you shouldn't be able to do so. You know, I think that it's a win-win situation for everybody. Toni Guinyard>> George Pino and Joe Killinger are the men behind Learning Links Centers. In May 2003, they purchased this apartment complex in Baldwin Village. George Pino>> Some might call us a strict landlord. I'd like to prefer thinking that we put responsibility on the tenants. This is a team effort. It's not just us owning the building and you're living here and we're taking money from you. This is a team effort where we want to build something. Toni Guinyard>> On one hand, you're saying we're socially responsible. On the other hand, you're saying we're in this to make money. So which is it? Joe Killinger>> We came in it to be socially responsible, but what we didn't really anticipate is how it lowered the maintenance costs, how the vacancy rates dropped. Toni Guinyard>> It appears people are talking about the transformation taking place here and the overall quality of life is changing. Joe Killinger>> We don't have the gangs hanging out on the corners anymore. Our apartment manager that used to be here said, Joe, just know that you are going to get held up at some point. It was my first week of living in this building. It was really a nice initiation. He said you will get held up here at some point. Toni Guinyard>> Meaning robbed? Joe Killinger>> Yeah, yeah. Toni Guinyard>> A lot has changed since then. What do you attribute all of this to? Joe Killinger>> Pride. These people are taking a lot of pride in the building that they're in. Toni Guinyard>> But in the beginning, Killinger's idea, buy an apartment complex in a low to moderate income neighborhood and put it to work for investors and tenants, was a hard sell. Karen Batiste>> At first I was skeptical and I was curious, but I saw for myself that he was serious and that he was doing what he said he was going to do. April Maddox>> I was very surprised. Toni Guinyard>> Why? April Maddox>> I was very astonished because you don't meet people that want to educate your children within the building. George Pino>> Everyone kept telling us we weren't doing this. No, they're not doing this. We still have tenants to this day. I think there's a couple of the older tenants that still think it's a mirage (laughter). Sharon Jordan>> This date is right here since he's been going here. I put him in another school. He's getting A's now. The other day, as a matter of fact, he said he got three A's, two C's and two B's. It wasn't me. Joe Killinger>> When we first opened, I had eight year olds that would sit here at the table and I would try and read with them. I thought I don't understand why this child isn't reading. Well, it turns out she couldn't read and we had some specialists come in. She just couldn't read at eight years old. Now according to her report card, she's passing. [Film Clip] Toni Guinyard>> Amani Afi is a substitute teacher by day, a Learning Links tutor after school. You'll find her here most weekday afternoons bouncing from student to student, determined to give each one some one-on-one instruction. [Film Clip] Amani Afi>> I think it makes them enjoy education more, to know that it can be more fun in a more relaxed environment, and I think maybe they appreciate having somewhere to go after school. Toni Guinyard>> So this ends up being a story not only about a successful real estate business venture, but also about making a promise to a community. A lot of people originally had doubts about what Joe and George set out to do. Few have doubts any more. Derrick Jackson>> Those guys are true saviors because they come in and, when they came in with the kids and everything, they're truly doing good with the kids. Sharon Jordan>> I'm going to tell it like it is. I'm really real. Because if I didn't like it, I wouldn't even came and knocked on the door. Toni Guinyard>> You've been accepted. Joe Killinger>> Yeah. Well, we had to prove ourselves at first. We came out here and we told the people what we were going to do and we couldn't do the Resource Room right away. We kept telling everybody no and that unit is going to be a Resource Room. I can't tell you how many I got of these looks. Toni Guinyard>> I'm sure you got more than that (laughter). Joe Killinger>> Yeah, we'll see (laughter). But when it went in and then people started seeing we're actually doing it and the teachers started showing up, even then it was a little slow. But now, they're here. Toni Guinyard>> To understand how this project became a personal mission, Pino says you need to understand more about Joe. He's from a small town in Nebraska, population 280. George Pino>> He has a little bit more in common with the neighborhood and the children here than what some people realize. [Film Clip] George Pino>> He had, I think, under two hundred dollars in his pocket when he got here, slept the first couple of nights in his car. He made himself. You know, it's not like anything was given to him. So he sees the opportunities that he can have and the kids can have. The kids in this neighborhood also had the same feeling. You know, they had the feeling that I can't do this. You know, you have all the breaks. You know, you were given this. And that's not true. Joe Killinger>> I didn't graduate college. It made it difficult. We're just hoping to create something that will make it a little easier for these guys. Toni Guinyard>> Killinger dropped out of college because he ran out of money, a situation he wants these children to avoid. So he and Pino founded the nonprofit Education Advantage Foundation to work in conjunction with Learning Links. The goal? Expanding the free after-school tutoring program now and providing college scholarships later. George Pino>> The children are going to either run the city or ruin it, so we have to do something at this time to hopefully help them run it. Toni Guinyard>> Learning Links has already purchased five apartment complexes and they're looking to expand. Joe and George are eyeing this Glassell Park neighborhood and communities in Nevada, Arizona and Texas. It's an odd mix redefining the meaning of landlord-tenant relationships. I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times. Announcer>> 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 Zavala>> Many of us have been glued to our television sets watching the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and we can't help but notice that most of the victims are African-American. So it didn't take long before charges of racism emerged, especially as relief and rescue efforts took longer and longer. Joe Hicks is a long-time civil rights activist and writer. He works for Community Advocates in Los Angeles. I asked him for his thoughts on the race issue. Joe Hicks>> Well, I think what took place is we're all watching these images on the screen and in the newspaper and what was, I think, stated at some point -- we'll get to that -- was kind of the obvious. It's clear what we're seeing were mostly poor and black people at least in the context of New Orleans. In Biloxi, you'd see snips and bits and pieces of that, but we were seeing this incredible scene unfolding at the Convention Center, at the Super Dome. Val Zavala>> In fact, I was surprised to learn that New Orleans population is what -- Joe Hicks>> -- over sixty-seven percent black, twenty percent poverty rate in New Orleans, eighty-five percent of all those who are poor in the city of New Orleans are black. Val Zavala>> Wow. Joe Hicks>> My understanding is -- I'm trying to piece all this together -- who in fact opened the flood gate of discussion of race or puts it on another television station -- who one night during the coverage says, "Why are all these images we're seeing of people and this devastation of people", he said, "are poor and black?" He said, "very poor and very black", for emphasis, which I thought was really interesting. After that, other television commentators, once he opened the flood gates, they began to comment on the racial aspect. Why are so many of these people poor and black? Then, of course, once that was publicly stated nationally, some racial advocates began to pick up that tone and began to say, hmmm, maybe the reason why the response was late, as critics are saying, is that the composition of the people was exactly that: poor and black. So once again, we have the station people saying that some conspiracy took place at some point to slow down or ignore the emergency relief efforts because these people are black and poor. After all, as it got put into place, of course America doesn't care about its black and poor people or black people in general. Val Zavala>> Then adding to the fuel to the fire was the rapper. His name, again, -- Joe Hicks>> -- Kanye West, who said -- Val Zavala>> -- who said, straight out -- Joe Hicks>> -- said what I think was being said in a lot of quarters because, again, this ongoing sort of Bush-bashing that's been happening for years. He says openly at this televised benefit that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Now he said a lot of other things. "And they're sending", he said, "the National Guard down to New Orleans to shoot us." This is pretty -- Val Zavala>> -- pretty inflammatory. Joe Hicks>> This is pretty inflammatory kind of stuff. Val Zavala>> To what extent is justified or is it not justified at all, looking at this through the racial prism? Joe Hicks>> Well, it's a real leap in logic to believe that, at some point, George Bush, the head of FEMA, the heads of the National Guard, the heads of the Homeland Security agency and the governors, by the way, of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana got on some conference call and said, hmmm, you know, it's mainly black people. They don't really count. We know. Yuk-Yuk. Let's just kind of slow down the effort. Let's not worry about how fast we can get relief efforts there. It's not like anybody who really believes that conversation took place to raise their hands. Val Zavala>> No, they say it more subtle than that. Joe Hicks>> Well, but still there has got to be some allegation that there was a conscious effort through conversations unstated or not that the relief effort was not going to be ramped up as aggressively because of the race of people there. I simply don't believe that and I think that most good Americans don't believe that that was the thought process through officials or, at various levels, local, state and federal. Now we can be critical of how fast the relief got there. The question is, was the pace of the relief effort based on the skin color of those needing help? I would suggest that it is not. Val Zavala>> Now, of course, there's this bureaucracy and chaos and the difficulty of launching a relief effort. But in addition to that, the reason why some of the victims were poor and African-American, you say goes back to something much deeper and that is our whole failure to eradicate poverty. Joe Hicks>> Well, you know, what's in line to meet this question of why are these black and poor people suffering in New Orleans is the larger question of why, in almost every major American city, are there populations of poor and black people? Now there are poor people of all complexions, but the concentration of poverty in a disproportionate sense clearly is black. I was looking at some fascinating data that says that, between 1960 and 1996, over five trillion dollars have been spent in poverty eradication programs in America, yet the poverty rate has dipped almost not at all. It's gone up, it's gone down, a little bit, back and forth -- Val Zavala>> -- recently it's gone up. Joe Hicks>> Across the line, and recently it's up again. So despite all this spending over the years, it has not affected the bottom line in terms of extricating people out of that condition. Much of that money clearly did not do at least what taxpayers thought their paying those dollars could do, which was to eradicate poverty. Lyndon Johnson had something called The War on Poverty that launched, in fact, much of the spending and clearly it has not affected the bottom line almost at all. Val Zavala>> So when a disaster hits and you've got structural poverty, those people that are part of that group are going to be disproportionately victimized. Joe Hicks>> Of course. Val Zavala>> So that's what's happened. Joe Hicks>> Of course. Val Zavala>> So it's just highlighted the fact that we have failed really to eradicate poverty. Joe Hicks>> Well, you know, what you're seeing in New Orleans could be replicated in almost any major American city, given the possibility of flood, of fire, of earthquake. That scenario is awaiting in Chicago. It's certain to take place here in Los Angeles. It could take place in New York. It could take place in Atlanta. I think what gets lost here by this focus on race is a lot of suffering and a lot of courage and a lot of wonderful stories, American stories about American people who are struggling in this disaster. How do we find a way to help these people put their lives back together again? I think that's going to be the big job in the coming future. What do we do? How do we rebuild New Orleans? How do we preserve that vital culture that was so alive and vibrant in New Orleans? I think we have to make sure we find a way to preserve and make sure it's there for future generations. Val Zavala>> Big challenges ahead. Joe Hicks>> Huge. Val Zavala>> Joe Hicks, thank you so much for your thoughts on this. Joe Hicks>> Good to be with you. Announcer>> 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 Zavala>> He's written more than four hundred songs and one of them was recently named the song of the century. He is Harold Arlen and he ranks right up there with Porter and Gershwin. Vicki Curry talked with Harold Arlen's son about the man who wrote "Over The Rainbow". [Musical Clip] Vicki Curry>> You know the songs, but who's the performer singing them? He's the man who wrote them: Harold Arlen, maybe the most famous American composer you've never heard of. Sam Arlen>> Because he's not as well-known as some of the other composers and lyricists of that era, we really want people to recognize the name, to know who put pen to paper. Vicki Curry>> Sam Arlen is Harold's only child. To celebrate the centennial of his father's birth, Sam made it his mission to trumpet Harold Arlen's contribution to the Great American Songbook. Sam Arlen>> He wrote about five hundred fifty songs altogether. You have this great music that went on with a life of its own, but my dad was actually a quiet man. He wanted his music to do the talking, which it did, but his name is not up there on the forefront. [Musical Clip] Vicki Curry>> He was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York in 1905. His father was a cantor and his family shared a duplex with an African-American family. Sam Arlen>> Harold grew up hearing the cantorial music, learning classical music and also being exposed to early jazz, early hot music, so to speak, and he loved it. He just grabbed it and loved it. Vicki Curry>> When Harold was nine, his mother bought him a piano, but he didn't really take to it until a few years later when he learned a ragtime piece. At fifteen, he began playing wherever he could around town, eventually landing in a band called the Buffalodians. [Musical Clip] Sam Arlen>> And he always wanted to be a singer. That was mainly what he wanted to do and that is what he started to do. When he first moved to New York City in the mid-1920's, he started as a singer and singing other composer's songs. Vicki Curry>> But that would soon change. In 1929, he had a part in a show called "Great Day" and one day he filled in for the rehearsal pianist playing for the dancers. Harold Arlen>> "They used to have a standard vamp that went something like this -- I wanted to simplify it and I did this -- And I got tired of that and one day I did this -- some foolish publisher heard it, gave me a contract and it became --" [Musical Clip] Sam Arlen>> And that was really the first hit that my dad had. It all happened by accident, actually. [Musical Clip] Vicki Curry>> But a fortuitous accident for Arlen. He said later that songwriting better suited his temperament than performing. [Musical Clip] Sam Arlen>> He would write when the mood struck him. It was never a nine to five type of situation. He could be playing golf and a melody would come to his head and he'd take out a little jot paper and write this idea down and, when he went back home, at the piano he goes to create. Vicki Curry>> With the success of "Get Happy", Arlen and his partner at the time, Ted Koehler, were suddenly in demand. They found themselves writing music for the Cotton Club between 1930 and 1934 and Arlen's Jewish musical tradition began fusing with jazz and blues. [Musical Clip] Sam Arlen>> When Harold starting working for the Cotton Club, he would spend a lot of time with the performers because the performers were African-American and he was writing for these performers in these shows. He would pick up their dancing techniques and the way they sang. [Musical Clip] Vicki Curry>> In 1933, Arlen took a year off from the Cotton Club to work on his first movie assignment, "Let's Fall in Love". [Musical Clip] Vicki Curry>> It was the first of many forgettable movies that produced unforgettable Harold Arlen songs. [Musical Clips] Vicki Curry>> After a few years in Hollywood, Arlen finally got a job on a memorable movie. [Musical Clip] Sam Arlen>> The initial idea on the original book of the "Wizard of Oz" was to be very light, very happy, very upbeat. So all the songs were completed before "Over The Rainbow". Harold felt that it needed something in there because you had that transition from dreary Kansas to Oz and the black and white to color. Of course, the producers, the directors, etc., they weren't too keen on this. They felt it would slow the motion picture down. Everybody liked it, but they felt still it wasn't quite right, except for really one of the producers there. The first three previews of the motion picture, the song was cut. Finally, one of the producers went to the head of the studio and said, look, this song has to stay, and the rest became history. [Musical Clip] Vicki Curry>> That was the beginning of a long relationship between Harold Arlen and Judy Garland. They produced more movie magic when Arlen, along with Ira Gershwin, wrote the music for "A Star is Born". [Musical Clip] Vicki Curry>> As his many hit songs made careers for many singers, Harold Arlen continued to remain behind the scenes. Sam Arlen>> You'll hear all the time "Over The Rainbow". It's Judy Garland's "Over The Rainbow". She introduced it and is the most well-known for that song. You have Frank Sinatra's "One For My Baby" or Frank Sinatra's "I've Got The World on a String" and the list goes on. [Musical Clip] Sam Arlen>> The performers deserved that credit for introducing the song in a wonderful talent, but somebody put pen to paper and Harold was the one to do that. It's important. It's our heritage. It's this body of work. Number one, he deserves the recognition which he didn't get and, number two, it deserves to be promoted. People need to know about the music and this is what our responsibility and our legacy is. [Musical Clip] Val Zavala>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> 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. Sponsored in part by:  | |
|
Home | Features | Arts | Health/Science | OC Edition | L&T Blog | Archives | About Us | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use |