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09/28/05
Val Zavala>> Coming up on tonight's Life and Times --
A major recreation area is getting smaller. Why are they draining the water out of Lake Perris?
Richard Sanchez>> There are areas in the foundation of this structure that do not have adequate strength when subjected to a major earthquake.
Val Zavala>> And then, we drop in on a one-of-a-kind café that's brewing up espresso and social change.
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>> You may never have been to Lake Perris, but millions of Southern Californians have. It's a man-made reservoir about eighty miles southeast of Los Angeles and it attracts swimmers, boaters and fishermen who love to come to its shores. The only problem is, there's going to be a lot less of Lake Perris to love. Roger Cooper headed to Riverside County to find out why.
Roger Cooper>> It's a picture perfect day on Lake Perris. Looking out at its blue waters, you'd never suspect that Lake Perris has problems. Sailboats still glide across its surface. Jet skis churn up that surface. Fish get nabbed and boat after boat is backed down the launch ramp. A whole lot of people love Lake Perris.
Ron Krueger>> We have 1.1 million people annually attend this park.
Roger Cooper>> And on the weekends?
Ron Krueger>> On any given weekend between Memorial Day and Labor Day on a Saturday, we might have fifteen thousand people in the park.
Roger Cooper>> But a radical change is in store for this popular lake. Officials have determined they have no choice but to pull the plug and drain a large amount of water from the lake. The draining process has already started and, when it's done in October, a whopping forty-two percent of the water will have been taken out of Lake Perris. The lake's surface will shrink by almost twenty percent to the area shown in lighter blue. The shoreline will move out to where you see these buoys and the water level will drop twenty-five feet, a distance equal to the height of this lifeguard tower we asked Park Superintendent Ron Creeper to stand beside for scale.
So why? Why does Lake Perris have to shrink? The answer lies deep inside the earthen dam they built to create this lake. The state did a study on Perris Dam recently and the results were a little scary. Richard Sanchez is an engineer with the Department of Water Resources.
Richard Sanchez>> We found, after extensive exploration and study, that there are areas in the foundation of this structure that do not have adequate strength when subjected to a major earthquake in the vicinity.
Roger Cooper>> And we're not too far from a fault?
Richard Sanchez>> No, we're not. Actually, the controlling fault is the San Jacinto fault zone and that's only five miles away from this site.
Roger Cooper>> A failure of Perris Dam could send lake water rushing toward the thousands of homes built right below the dam and produce problems all the way to Prado Dam near the Orange County line. Susan Sims of the California Department of Water Resources says that's why the state is wasting no time in taking out water.
Susan Sims>> The bottom line is that we get the water level down low enough that, in the event of a major earthquake, there's enough room between the top of the water and where we think the dam possibly could slump so that there wouldn't be an uncontrolled release downstream.
Roger Cooper>> State engineers say there is no immediate danger, but as a precaution, they want to prepare for the day a 7.5 quake might jolt through the lake.
Susan Sims>> But in the course of the next several weeks, we'll be getting the lake level down low enough so that we think that, even if that were to happen, there is plenty of room in the lake for the water to stay within the footprint of the reservoir.
Roger Cooper>> Mayor, what did you think the first time you heard they were going to drain your lake?
Mayor Daryl Busch>> Well, we were caught a little surprised because we didn't know it was coming.
Roger Cooper>> Daryl Bush, the Mayor of Perris, has lived around this lake for the last thirty years. And on the other side of that dam over there, building of houses has taken off.
Mayor Daryl Busch>> That's the major portion in our city right now, what's on the other side of the dam. But when we started building and we approved those buildings, there was no knowledge of any weaknesses in the dam. Of course, the city is concerned, but I don't think it's what we would call a problem at this point. They recognize that they have an issue. They're doing all the research and studies to make sure that nothing happens, and one of them is lowering the water on the dam.
Roger Cooper>> Lake Perris may look like it's been here forever, but it was created thirty years ago when this spot in Riverside County looked like this. The dam was finished in the early 1970's and water was allowed to flood in and the new lake filled up. Now Lake Perris is regressing part of the way back to how it once looked. The draining process had started only the day before our visit, but already visible was what park employees call the lake's bathtub ring, left behind as the water level drops. As you would expect, you can't lower the water level twenty-five feet without triggering some serious changes.
Ron Krueger>> Well, with the reduction of the lake, we will be reducing the surface acres. So for public safety, we have to reduce the number of boats that'll be able to recreate on the lake. So we're looking at about a hundred fifty to two hundred vessels less than we normally have on the lake. Four hundred fifty vessels are usually on the lake at any one given time on a busy Saturday or Sunday. Now we'll have to carry about maybe two hundred to two hundred fifty vessels on the lake. The Moreno Beach swim area will be pretty much high and dry, so it will be closed, but we will also have the Perris swim beach available for the public to swim in.
Roger Cooper>> The water is gradually being released through this hundred foot high outlet tower ending up in the water supply distributed to Southern California. And that brings up another consideration. Lake Perris is the southernmost component in the vast California Water Project, the six hundred mile system of aqueducts and reservoirs that brings in our water from northern California. Will shrinking this lake create a shortage in our water supply? The Chairman of the Metropolitan Water District, Wes Bannister, says no.
Wes Bannister>> It should have very little effect on our water supply, Roger. It's a dent, but it won't be critical.
Roger Cooper>> Where there will be an impact is on the local economy which could shrink a little along with the lake.
Ron Krueger>> We expect about maybe a fifteen to twenty percent reduction in the number of total park attendance, so we're still looking at maybe nine hundred thousand people still coming and visiting the lake. Realistically, I guess you could equate that twenty percent reduction in the number of visitors as just a number less spending in the immediate area around the area just outside the park at gas stations and stores and whatnot.
Roger Cooper>> Lowering the lake is just the first step. Once it's down by forty-two percent, engineers will begin the long and costly process of figuring out how to reinforce the dam. At any rate, this is not a short-term fix? This will take some time?
Richard Sanchez>> That's totally correct. This is going to take years to resolve.
Mayor Daryl Bush>> I understand this could take up to ten years for this all to happen, so the lake could be reduced in size for a long period of time.
Ron Krueger>> We're still eighty percent full and that means, you know, we still have many activities here at the park for people to enjoy and have a well-rounded quality recreational experience.
Roger Cooper>> What do you think they'll find when the water drops?
Mayor Daryl Busch>> I don't know (laughter). That would be interesting. I never thought about that.
Roger Cooper>> No old outboard motors or rubber boots?
Ron Krueger>> We might find a couple of those.
Roger Cooper>> Eventually, Lake Perris can refill again to its current levels. At least that's what boaters and business owners hope. In the meantime, the residents of Perris seem resigned to living for the next decade with less lake and more land. Just part of life in earthquake country. On Lake Perris, I'm Roger Cooper 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>> Now for this Life and Times story update. You'll recall that we told you about Learning Links, a real estate firm that builds tutoring services into the apartment complexes that they renovate. Well, now it is celebrating the opening of its second tutoring center, this one at a Baldwin Village apartment complex. Learning Links buys and renovates apartments in low to moderate income neighborhoods. But instead of renting all of the units, it converts one apartment into a resource center for the children who live there. Teachers who are hired to work with the students also get a discount on the apartment's rent.
>> I think, ultimately, I'd love to see that people realize that what we're doing is not crazy (laughter) and that they can be either replicated, they can be done and it can give the children the opportunities.
Val Zavala>> This socially responsible approach to real estate investment is paying off. Vacancy rates and vandalism have dropped dramatically and the company is now licensing the resource center program and hopes the idea will spread nationwide.
Val Zavala>> He was a former gang member who became an award-winning writer who became a café owner. Luis Rodriguez opened up a community café in a rough neighborhood not known for its Starbucks. But can poetry, art and coffee really make a difference? I stopped by Tia Chucha's Café in Sylmar when it first opened to find out. Now tell us what was the whole idea behind this and what niche does it fill in Sylmar?
Luis Rodriguez>> Well, this is a combination café, bookstore, art gallery and performance space. We really try to even expand it to include film, radio, art theater and women’s healings, a lot of different things. I think the idea is to have a gathering place where people could deal with culture, ideas, books, literature, art, learn about art, participate, express themselves. That community was really of need --
Val Zavala>> -- So it’s way more than a coffee house or a place to get a latte (laughter).
Luis Rodriguez>> Much more, much more. It’s really, like I say, a cultural center combined with a business.
Val Zavala>> Very good. Let’s see what you’ve got here. You’ve got some --
Luis Rodriguez>> -- Over here we have a bilingual children’s book section, illustrated. Again, this is to try to introduce the community to books that they probably couldn’t find. There is no bookstore in the northeast San Fernando Valley.
Val Zavala>> I couldn’t believe that. There is no bookstore in this whole area?
Luis Rodriguez>> No movie house in this area, no real cultural center, so we’re creating a real vast need. There is now, by the way, since we opened, another bookstore has opened and an art gallery has opened, so things have happened since we opened here.
Val Zavala>> Ah, the art gallery. This is very nice.
Luis Rodriguez>> It’s very important because we wanted to have people be aware about art and how art can be expressed in many ways, photography, paintings, visual arts, statues, sculptures, but also it’s something that artists do and make a living out of it. So we have here a photography group from East Los Angeles and this is one of the exhibits that we are showing.
Val Zavala>> So these were shot by young people?
Luis Rodriguez>> Yeah, young people in East Los Angeles. Very beautiful, the work that they did.
Val Zavala>> Beautiful.
Luis Rodriguez>> There is this talent in these communities. There are great gifts that people have, but, again, without a place for it to be shown or to be expressed, it’s almost like it’s just sitting there.
Val Zavala>> Ah, the written word. Now that’s your thing.
Luis Rodriguez>> Right. I am an author, I am a poet, I have children’s books, I have memoirs, I have fiction that I love writing. I personally think words have saved my life.
Val Zavala>> Now for people who don’t know you, don’t know your story, haven’t read the book, you come from a pretty rough background and you said reading and books changed your life. How so? Give us a little autobiography.
Luis Rodriguez>> Well, you know, I was a very troubled kid. I mean, from going to jail, in the gangs, using drugs. I was in drugs for seven years. I was in and out of institutions.
Val Zavala>> How old were you?
Luis Rodriguez>> I started drugs when I was twelve. I started gangs when I was eleven. I started stealing when I was seven. I was very young. I was living in South Central and then the East Los Angeles community out in South San Gabriel. But you know what happened is that, when I was in jail about sixteen years old, I started to write my thoughts and I even started to draw. Art was very important for me to express what I was going through.
At a certain point when I was at the age where I felt I needed to make a change, get out of drugs, don’t go to jail no more, start having a family, grow up, do something, words primarily was the way that I was able to find my path out of it. Because you have to find some way for you to get out. Otherwise, you get stuck. You don’t know that there are ways out.
Val Zavala>> And you found it.
Luis Rodriguez>> I found it. It took me a while.
Val Zavala>> And you ended up writing an award-winning book.
Luis Rodriguez>> Yeah, it took a while to finally get to the point where I'm actually writing books. My first book that came out, I was thirty-five years old.
Val Zavala>> So I can see now why you're able to put this together because you were influenced so much by art and it was your way out, so you're obviously helping to give --
Luis Rodriguez>> -- Exactly. Helping to give back to others.
Val Zavala>> That's fantastic. Tia Chucha's Café also has three computers, especially important for a community with such low computer usage. Then there are music classes, workshops for women, and there is something uniquely Latino, a community alter. This is "Expression of War".
Luis Rodriguez>> Yeah. It was this person's idea about this whole war, what they felt, the fire, probably the danger and anger that you might feel in the war.
Val Zavala>> We ran into a teacher from Sylmar High School. She says Tia Chucha's is one of the best things that has happened to this neighborhood.
Manon Tree>> From my point of view, this is the only happening place for kids in Sylmar. They have all kinds of access to books and literature here. They have open mike which is a real big deal for them. Our kids are very poetic. They write, they're smart, they're expressive and we have no theaters in Sylmar. We have nothing here, so Tia Chucha's is like a real unifying place for them.
Val Zavala>> The open mike she mentioned is every Friday night.
Luis Rodriguez>> "Welcome, everybody, to Tia Chucha's open mike poetry night."
Val Zavala>> People come and show up with their poems.
>> "So many people to help, but do you help any? Do you see promise in the eyes of the youth or do you vote to criminalize them in the voting booth?"
Val Zavala>> Some come with their guitars. Luis's contribution tonight? A poem about the Fourth of July written by a slave.
Luis Rodriguez>> "There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour."
Val Zavala>> Can a place with coffee, books, culture and a stage really change a community? Luis Rodriguez has no doubt.
Luis Rodriguez>> "Just think it's a kind of a sentiment to think about now when we know that this country is under a very strong pressure to be something it's not. We have people lying about war and we have people taking away civil liberties, so really what we're trying to do here at Tia Chucha's and with yourself is to voice your dreams, voice your concerns, voice what you feel has to be said. We need to fight for that for everybody. This is what this country is all about. Thank you very much."
Manon Tree>> There's no drugs or alcohol here and no cigarettes here and the kids don't do anything when they're here except be here and get involved, so this is a good place and I'm really happy about that. Man, Luis, since he came here and has done this, it's a great thing.
>> "Is your mind used for amusement or do you use it as a tool? Are you willing to stand up and fight for righteousness or is your life devoted to trying to impress everyone around you by material possessions...."
Val Zavala>> Tia Chucha's Café is still going strong. You can check out the happenings there on their website at tiachucha.com.
Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:
Life and Times
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Val Zavala>> She's become the unofficial spokesperson for the less than glamorous life in Van Nuys. Sandra Tsing Loh. We've seen her go through dating, jobs and marriage. Well, now she's entered a new stage in life. Vicki Curry talked with Sandra Tsing Loh about her new one-woman show, "Mother on Fire".
Vicki Curry>> Sandra Tsing Loh, your work so often over the years has been autobiographical and now your latest show deals with motherhood. So what are you trying to do with this play?
Sandra Tsing Loh>> Well, I think with this particular piece, I think living in Los Angeles right now is a fascinating, amazing time. It really is a melting pot and not in the la-de-da. It really is. I mean, there are a lot of different tribes packed together in one city and I think that it mostly works. But the experience of living in this city is just kind of like an exploration or a journey that I don't know if the whole country is going to go through eventually for the future of it, but this is what's happening.
So I think what I found just in the process of Los Angeles is there, again, I was just trying to get my daughter into kindergarten and we live in Van Nuys which is not one of the "good" school districts. I think that once you enter the world of parenthood, there are all these secret codes and tribes and little pockets and places that people get into and you soon learn that the good school districts are in La Canada, South Pasadena, Calabasas and the real estate is high accordingly and the private schools are this, that and the other.
In Van Nuys, it's a poor school district and, like most of LAUSD, it's quite Hispanic -- Hispanic or Latino, whichever -- the faces seem to change in every piece of thing that I read. Now in the LAUSD, it's like less than one in ten of the students are white, which is quite shocking, which is true in all the big cities, it turns out. So it's a journey that I began. I think that we hesitate to speak about many of the things that are actually happening because everything is so loaded. People are so terrified about mentioning some of the basics they see in front of them when they look at schools. It's totally not discussed.
And theater is like the safe place to do it. I mean, like radio would be hard, newspapers hard. Theater is the only place where it's like a little Town Hall. I love this theater. It's a ninety-nine seat. I've played in larger theaters recently, but the larger a theater gets, then you want to not exactly trim your message, but you want to make sure that you don't alienate the Sunday matinee audience and this and that. There's a good place for that kind of theater, but I knew that in a ninety-nine seat, we could let it rip.
The thing about theater is that we're all in the room together so that we may go through a roller coaster, but at the end of my piece, we should all feel okay and hopeful that this is a place where you can speak things in the moment. People can react, they can hear each other react, they can know it's okay and then go on from there.
Sandra Tsing Loh>> "I feel a madness coming over me. Frantically, I buy the Los Angeles Guide to Private Schools. Fingers trembling, I page through every school and here's what I find. That all the good schools, all the progressive schools, all the recommended schools basically start at ten thousand dollars per year. And if the brochure says children are taught Independent Thinking, add one thousand dollars. Peaceful Conflict Resolution, add one thousand dollars. Honoring Diversity -- oh, that's a big one -- add two thousand dollars.
And then there are the extras. If the children are taught Spanish, add seven hundred fifty dollars. French, add fifteen hundred dollars. Japanese, add twenty-five hundred dollars. If children are taught music, add two thousand dollars. If there are science labs and some vague but important connection to UCLA, add three thousand dollars. If there's an award-winning arts program with maybe some mention of trips to The Getty or Disney Hall, add four thousand dollars."
Vicki Curry>> So it sounds like your show is not as much about parenthood as it is about race issues or perhaps that you're now having to face race issues in a different way because you're a parent.
Sandra Tsing Loh>> Yeah. I mean, I think that, when you become a parent, everything comes -- your entire world view is challenged because I think I'm a democrat -- I can say that -- but you can have a very Utopian, a very relaxed form of being a democrat. As soon as you become a parent and your child is actually going through society culture, all the alarm bells go off (laughter).
I think it is something that we have to ask ourselves. We're kind of like "I would like my child to be in a school with many different tribes and peoples and whatever" and, as soon as you see your little girl growing up, you go, "No, it's a convent in Canada with nuns, with guns (laughter)." You start changing colors and stuff flies out of your mouth that you never thought and it's just an amazing journey.
Sandra Tsing Loh>> "But then I looked at parochial schools and a new formula emerges. Start at the same base, ten thousand dollars, but if the school is Catholic, subtract one thousand dollars. Lutheran, subtract three thousand dollars. Baptist, subtract five thousand dollars. Quaker, add five thousand dollars. I don't know why, but Quaker is a popular religion if it's taught in an old Quaker meeting house and it's really expensive. Add Shaker furniture, even more.
And then there are the religious requirements. If chapel is required, subtract fifteen hundred dollars. If chapel is optional, well, that relative religious freedom is going to cost you fifteen hundred dollars. But look at this. Classes taught from a biblical perspective, subtract three thousand dollars. That's a pretty good deal."
Vicki Curry>> So at the end of this journey through motherhood or getting your first child into school, what was your take on parenthood in Los Angeles after that?
Sandra Tsing Loh>> I think -- yeah, number one, I think it's the hysteria that I felt rising. Like driving on the freeway, looking at charts, going on the internet, talking to other parents. I think in Los Angeles, because it is a very big city, people crave community. People crave meeting with like minds. People crave those little havens which is a natural thing, but then sometimes you get into a little haven pocket at a park bench and I go, "If I don't send my child to Wonder Canyon School in Brentwood, we'll die."
Then I think the anxiety of people about schools is because they feel they've finally found a small neighborhood pocket in Los Angeles in the world and they'll be safe. But, of course, they have a waiting list of three hundred because everyone gets the same idea.
Sandra Tsing Loh>> "Through the grapevine, I'm told that the most exclusive west side school, Radcliff Holyoke for Girls, they actually teach my style of essay writing to eighth graders. The annual tuition for that school is twenty-seven thousand dollars which, yes, I know can actually feed an entire village in Rwanda. I guess that's what they mean when they say, "It takes a village", but never mind those Rwandans. I'm thinking ahead because the wait list for that school is at least five years long. Maybe our family can move up on the list, cut ahead of the competition if I start right now doing some guest lectures. I know that's a little "every child left behind" but my own, but you don't understand. I'm a parent in Los Angeles. It's a jungle out here."
Sandra Tsing Loh>> And I think it's similar with neighborhoods in Los Angeles that I have had for such a long time. It's not just my La Canada fantasy, but my South Pasadena fantasy. There's a community of people who love their community, so I think my middle-class thinking is do I have to move to South Pasadena as opposed to just start in your block where you are? I mean, the people that I meet. It is really this extraordinary melting pot and it's great. Optimism. Optimism. It's gone out of style and let's bring it back. I love the city, okay?
Vicki Curry>> Sandra Tsing Loh, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
Sandra Tsing Loh>> Thank you.
Val Zavala>> Sandra Tsing Loh's show opens this Friday at the 24th Street Theatre in Los Angeles. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks 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:
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