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Life & Times Transcript

11/30/05

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Security at the Port of Los Angeles aims to keep terrorists from getting in, but what if people who live there need to get out?

Noel Cunningham>> There is no -- and I must emphasize this -- there is no specific evacuation plan that can cover every scenario.

Val Zavala>> And then, step back in time without leaving town. We'll show you a street of Painted Ladies just a stone's throw away from the freeway.

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>> We all saw it happen after Katrina hit, the chaos that follows when hundreds of thousands of people try to evacuate all at the same time. Well, now a Los Angeles site is working on an evacuation plan of its own for as many as a quarter of a million people. What part of town are we talking about? Toni Guinyard takes us there.

Toni Guinyard>> The Port of Los Angeles is the third busiest port in the world and what happens here could impact the lives of every person in the country.

Janice Hahn>> I think people need to understand that, you know, that one out of twenty-four jobs is related to this port. It's a hundred twenty-two billion in cargo annually. And you begin to realize that everything you're wearing and eating, much of that came through this port complex. It's America's port.

Toni Guinyard>> Los Angeles City Councilwoman, Janice Hahn, lives in San Pedro. The port complex is in her City Council district. She would like nothing more than have the rest of the state, if not the world, take note that they have a stake in keeping the port safe. After 9/11, it was identified as a potential terrorist target.

Janice Hahn>> We're not secure at this port. It's probably one of the most vulnerable entryways into America and everyone knows that.

Toni Guinyard>> And suddenly conversations about the port focus primarily on security, but somewhere in the conversation a detail was lost. How to execute a mass evacuation in the event of a terrorist attack, manmade or natural disaster.

Janice Hahn>> We have about a hundred fifty thousand people who live in San Pedro and Wilmington, which is directly adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles. We also have about five thousand men and women who work on the docks on a daily basis and I'm very concerned that, in the event of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, we will be unable to evacuate this area quickly and safely.

Toni Guinyard>> Do you know where to go? Do you know what you would do?

Lonna Calhoun>> No, I don't. The only thing that I know is that I'd better be darn sure that I'm able to protect myself and my family for whatever length of time it would take to get emergency help.

Toni Guinyard>> Lonna Calhoun has lived in the area for thirty years. She serves on the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council. She also chairs a joint neighborhood council committee on port security and safety. It was only after she began asking a lot of questions that she learned there were a number of evacuation plans in place, but not a comprehensive one.

Lonna Calhoun>> We can't have nine independent plans out there. We have to have one comprehensive plan. We have to have a chain of command. We have to have a warning system.

Toni Guinyard>> Now, years after 9/11 and in the shadow of the bungled evacuation of Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans, did the need for a coordinated evacuation plan take on greater urgency.

Lonna Calhoun>> It would be chaos. It would be absolute chaos. There is no formalized communication plan yet. There is no emergency notification system that is really guaranteed to work. There is no chain of command fully established and our infrastructure is completely inadequate for any type of evacuation.

Toni Guinyard>> The vulnerability of the port and area neighborhoods really hit home when a tsunami warning was issued June 2005.

Janice Hahn>> In a way, I'm glad that that happened because it gave us a real test case, a real test case. That night, I was on the phone with the Coast Guard, with the port pilots, with LAPD, and it was clear to me that night that we did not know what to do, that we were not talking to each other, that we did not have a plan.

Lonna Calhoun>> The first responders, you know, are taking actions now to try to come up with a good plan and that encourages me.

Toni Guinyard>> Encouraged because concerns are being heard --

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> By the Coast Guard. It's designated as the lead federal agency for maritime homeland security. It established the Central Area Maritime Security Committee and, from it, the Los Angeles-Long Beach Port Evacuation Subcommittee was born.

Tony Migliorni>> On the federal side, we have everybody from the FBI, Coast Guard, PSA, Customs. Really, you name the agency that works within the port complex and they are represented along with the industry.

Toni Guinyard>> There are roughly forty agencies represented on the Area Maritime Security Committee. Of those agencies, most already have individual evacuation plans. But with thousands of people working in the port complex and thousands more living in nearby communities, a coordinated evacuation plan is essential.

Noel Cunningham>> We have designed the entire community into sectors and the fire department would actually identify those sectors that would need evacuation.

Toni Guinyard>> Noel Cunningham is Director of Operations and Emergency Management for the Port of Los Angeles.

Noel Cunningham>> They don't know that these agencies have been working together not since 9/11, but since 1993 when the first terrorists hit the World Trade Center, with the van bomb in the World Trade Center.

Toni Guinyard>> The port has been the site of disaster drills, everything from a mock plane crash to a terrorist attack, but a large scale evacuation of the port and port area neighborhoods is something you can plan for, but not fully test until the worst case scenario happens.

Noel Cunningham>> There is no -- I must emphasize this -- there is no specific evacuation plan that can cover every scenario.

Tony Migliorni>> Another concern for the port area is that we have really three ways in and out from Terminal Island and all three are bridges. So that is another concern in that, if these bridges do get backed up, how do we deal with those kinds of issues?

Toni Guinyard>> And there are a lot of issues to deal with. Determining who's in charge, establishing evacuation routes and staging areas, getting vessels out of the port, transporting people who have no transportation.

Janice Hahn>> Do we know at this point everyone in the city of Los Angeles that is dependent on public transportation?

Toni Guinyard>> And topping the list, communicating with the public. How best to alert everyone there is a threat, then provide information after the alarm is sounded.

Noel Cunningham>> We do have a call-back system that we could exercise. We also would use the --

Toni Guinyard>> -- that's the automated system?

Noel Cunningham>> That's the automated system that will call back residents. The phone rings in the home.

Lonna Calhoun>> A lot of people talk about, will we have the telephone systems and the automatic dialing? I'm sorry. Those things did not work in Katrina. In a major disaster, those things are not going to work. We want a siren system and we want drills in our schools just like in the old days.

Janice Hahn>> I think a siren plus signage all along the coastline telling people that, if you hear this, you know, get out of here and get to higher ground. I think that would be valuable.

Noel Cunningham>> A lot of folks are afraid of that system because of panic.

Toni Guinyard>> And panic is exactly what they want to avoid. Conflict over the plan is expected, but it's also accepted as part of the process in planning for a day they hope will never come.

Noel Cunningham>> So it does require some balancing. How do you secure the port, provide for evacuation, but yet keep the port open at the same time to keep the commerce moving? That's the part of the equation that's often not addressed and is not thought of by the general public.

Toni Guinyard>> Issues not addressed until now. 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>> It's unconscionable, but it happens. As many as three hundred thousand children are recruited into armies, taught to kill and to fight in wars they don't understand. One of those children was Oscar Torres who was caught in the middle of El Salvador's gruesome civil war in the 1980's.

Oscar Torres, unlike many of his playmates, survived. He turned the story of his childhood into a beautiful and frightening film called "Voces Inocentes", or "Innocent Voices".

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> It's the story of how children are recruited into armies. In El Salvador, every male child dreaded his twelfth birthday. That's when the army would come for you.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> I talked with Oscar Torres about his journey and what it was like growing up in a war zone.

Oscar Torres>> You still find games to play. You still seek out a love to fall in love with. You still seek out your homework to do. But we ended up that our lives got kind of switched around a little bit when the war began because now you can no longer do homework at a table. Now you have to do it laying down on your tummies because, though there was shooting going on outside, you've got homework and you still have to do it. And my mom still had to feed us, so she ended up cooking for us on her knees and bringing the stove down to our lower level to stay low, and sleeping under the beds with the mattresses against the wall. But then again, even in the middle of all that, a child still creates all this world.

Val Zavala>> And tell us what happens to young men, young boys, when they reach age twelve.

Oscar Torres>> Well, when the war began, they were recruiting children of age sixteen and up.

Val Zavala>> This was the government?

Oscar Torres>> Right, the government side of it. The other side, which was the rebel side, were at that point taking volunteers. No longer than that, another couple of years or three years, the army started losing a lot of soldiers, so they went and started recruiting younger, so the age came down to twelve. That's where, you know, all of us started this fight against it.

[Film Clip]

Oscar Torres>> We found ways. At the end, we're not able to keep out, but we found ways to stay out of it as long as we could. One of them was hiding on rooftops, for example.

[Film Clip]

Oscar Torres>> One of the things that happens in the war is that choice is taken away and the only two that you have at that moment, at least where we lived, was you had one of the two. You could either go to the army or go to the guerrillas. In my town particularly, the army was committing most of the atrocities. They were abusing and raping girls, so the army for us was not a choice because friends --like my friend in the movie -- you see Antonio taken away, then he will come back six months later completely changed.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> Oscar, or Chava in the movie, is played by Carlos Padilla. Eventually Chava and two of his friends are captured by government troops who believe they're sympathetic to the rebels. This is one of the film's more disturbing scenes. Chava and his friends are taken to a river bank.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> In the end, Chava himself must choose.

Oscar Torres>> And at that very moment, a soldier comes and literally sits right in front of us firing his rifle, but we were not visible. We had a choice to choose and we went for the gun, but I guess at that moment, I couldn't do it.

Val Zavala>> Oscar's mother, played by Leonor Varela in the movie, manages to get the money to send her son to safety in the United States. Oscar made the trip north and joined an uncle in Los Angeles.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> In Los Angeles, Oscar started going to movies and fell in love with film.

Oscar Torres>> When I came to this country, the first six months I couldn't go to school because I didn't have my birth certificate with me. I ended up going to see movies, like three movies a day in downtown Los Angeles, three movies for five dollars at the time. So I learned a lot of my English in the first six months by watching films. For some reason, film became my escape during that time, especially being without my family here. I left my mom behind and my brother. I always found refuge in film.

To this day, when I have a bad day or something, like two hours -- many times, I found the answer to that question through a movie. Like, for example, there is a film called "The Son of the Bride", an Argentinean movie, that came out four or five years ago and, through that film, I found an answer to a question I was looking for at that moment in my life and it changed part of me. So that's always been my passion for film. I don't have a plan B in my life. I haven't had it for awhile.

Val Zavala>> It's always been film.

Oscar Torres>> Since about the last ten years.

Val Zavala>> But still, pulling it off is incredible. I mean, there are people who have been writing screenplays all their lives and they can't get it produced. You know how tough it is.

Oscar Torres>> I've been blessed. I mean, first of all, I've been blessed by having got out of the war and then I've been blessed with having been able to recognize the moments where I need to step in. You know, there was a Spanish reporter that asked him, "How do you make it?" Because, again, like them, also there are thousands of them trying to make it. And he said, "Persevere".

Val Zavala>> In Los Angeles, Oscar got into acting and met the acclaimed Mexican director, Luis Mandoki. He showed him his script.

Oscar Torres>> He recognized it. He recognized his own journey in it and he says, "Whatever it takes, we're going to get this movie made." It happened so fast. Six months after I met him, we were in pre-production mode.

Val Zavala>> That is really fast.

Oscar Torres>> It is an amazing thing. You know, I feel that, when a story has a necessity to be told, it does.

Val Zavala>> In the movie, Chava vows to bring his family to America. In real life, Oscar has succeeded. The family he left behind is now reunited and he is working to get "Voces Inocentes" nominated for an Academy Award. Why not? Why not go for it?

Oscar Torres>> You know, I say that to every kid out there and to everyone that's out there, not just the kids. Whoever is out there even considering a little bit of a dream, however big or small it is, ask yourself this: "Why not?"

Val Zavala>> Well, heaven knows, after getting through war, to the United States, through school, script written, movie made, maybe the Oscar will be easy, huh (laughter)?

Oscar Torres>> Hey, why not (laughter)?

Val Zavala>> Oscar, thank you so much, and best of luck.

Oscar Torres>> Thank you, Val.

Val Zavala>> "Innocent Voices" is showing at select theaters. You can find out more about the film by going to its website at innocentvoicesmovie.com.

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.

Hena Cuevas>> Just off the 101 less than a mile from downtown lies a neighborhood that boasts the title of Los Angeles's first suburb and also one of the first neighborhoods to fight for the preservation of their buildings. Taking a walk through Angelino Heights is like taking a walk back in time. It's just a short drive off the 101 Freeway. Turn a corner and suddenly it's like a movie set come to life.

Planaria Price>> A lot of people drive by here and they think it's a museum. They think that we're caretakers of it.

Hena Cuevas>> Planaria Price and her husband, Murray Burns, have lived in Angelino Heights for more than thirty years. Together they have restored almost thirty homes.

Planaria Price>> I love being right near downtown Los Angeles. I love the diversity of it. I love it.

Hena Cuevas>> Back in 1886, Angelino Heights was just another plot of land until it was turned into Los Angeles's first suburb. Its big appeal? It provided easy access to downtown. The Hill, as it became known, quickly became an affluent neighborhood attracting bankers, merchants and real estate developers. But in a city like Los Angeles, not known for preserving its architecture, --

Murray Burns>> The Victorians that were built in the flatlands got demolished. These weren't demolished because they were up on this hill and it was much harder to reconstruct on a hill, so the developers just went to the valley.

Hena Cuevas>> The area slowly fell into disrepair as construction moved westward into the San Fernando Valley. But in the 1970's with the arrival of people like Price and Burns, the neighborhood got a new lease on life.

Murray Burns>> I think the first step was lobbying the city government around 1980 to create historic preservation.

Hena Cuevas>> In 1983, the residents were able to get the area designated as an historic preservation. Today there are signs indicating "Here is Los Angeles's highest concentration of Victorian era residences." That historic designation means there are restrictions on what can be done to any of the eight hundred structures in the neighborhood.

Murray Burns>> This preserves the exterior of the buildings only, not the interior.

Hena Cuevas>> What are the rules for the inside?

Murray Burns>> There aren't any.

Hena Cuevas>> How does that make you feel?

Murray Burns>> Well, personally, I think it interrupts the harmony, the beauty, of the buildings. But the way many people want to live right now is to have a huge kitchen, a spa in the bathroom, and it's not possible the way these houses were built.

Hena Cuevas>> But not all the homes are original to the area. This one, built in 1872, is the oldest and belonged to Los Angeles's first chief librarian. In 1992, it was moved from downtown into Angelino Heights. This other one was moved in the mid-1970's and is still being restored, a sign of just how long it takes to bring these houses back.

Murray Burns>> The move-ons are welcomed because we're trying to reconstruct for future generations what the street would have looked like in the 1880's.

Hena Cuevas>> Restoring one of these homes back to its original glory isn't easy. Not only does it require the time and the patience to get the permits from the city, it can also be quite expensive. A lot of these homes require a new roof, a new foundation, new electrical, new plumbing, and these can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But tackling makeovers of this magnitude is not for everyone.

Planaria Price>> You should find a good psychiatrist and a lot of wine. Seriously, it is a passion. It is a commitment. I don't think it's a great money-maker, but it's something that you produce art and you produce a beautiful life.

Hena Cuevas>> Price got into the area by chance. Thirty years ago, she had just come back from Europe and was looking for a place to live when she stumbled upon Carroll Avenue.

Planaria Price>> And it was so much like Europe. I didn't know that Los Angeles could have these magnificent houses. It was not magnificent. Everything was very, very rundown.

Hena Cuevas>> Even though the area and the buildings were rundown, she saw a lot of potential, so she decided to buy this house.

Planaria Price>> This house had a little "For Sale" sign on it and I was able to buy it for nothing and it started. The rest is history.

Hena Cuevas>> And so began the long and painstaking process of restoration. The house, like many others in the area, had been subdivided into apartments. No detail was spared.

Planaria Price>> We wanted to be really perfect, so rather than going to Home Depot and buying some little hinge or some kind of light fixture that kind of looks original, we're going for the real thing.

Hena Cuevas>> And all that hard work paid off. The house turned out so beautifully that it is now featured on the WB television show, "Charmed", which takes place in San Francisco.

[Film Clip]

Hena Cuevas>> For Price, it's a source of pride to see what her neighborhood has become.

Planaria Price>> I'm really happy and really lucky that it actually came true. It really came true.

Hena Cuevas>> And even though the neighborhood is so close to downtown and surrounded by low-income housing, Burns says crime is no worse than in other areas.

Murray Burns>> There is some of the kind of normal crime that you would find. Occasionally a burglary, occasionally a stereo taken from a car, but it's the safest neighborhood that I know of in the city.

Hena Cuevas>> Once a month, the Los Angeles Conservancy offers tours of the area, but Burns and Price are always happy to share their love for old homes.

Planaria Price>> We feel that we're so lucky that we happen to be here, the right place at the right time, and we want to kind of share our good luck with people in Los Angeles and all over.

Murray Burns>> We feel like the houses really belong to the city of Los Angeles and, whenever anywhere possible, if we see that we can show somebody or somebody's grandchildren the house, we'll invite them in.

Hena Cuevas>> It's a way for them to show them by keeping the neighborhood true to its past that's been made new once again. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> It is called the "mother road" and for good reason. It delivered millions of future Californians to the Golden State. I'm talking about Route 66 and, for the past fifteen years, San Bernardino has brought Route 66ers together for an event that attracts nearly half a million people. We thought we'd go along for the ride.

[Film Clip]

John Coute>> Well, in the beginning, Route 66 was developed to develop the United States on the west coast and east coast. It was the main thoroughfare from Chicago to Southern California. Well, we've tried to relive as much of that as we can. We still take many trips across country in our hotrods. We go to Louisville. Many times, we've been back into Oklahoma City.

[Film Clip]

John Coute>> The Route 66 Rendezvous has a lot of history in California right now. We were voted the number one feature attraction two years ago in the state of California. The cars that are qualified to be in the Route 66 Rendezvous are generally 1973 and older vehicles and we encourage all makes and models. We have no preferences. We have everything from customs to hotrods to low-riders to race cars. They're all welcome. We're just car nuts and we want them all here.

[Film Clip]

John Coute>> It's unlike anything else on the west coast. We now have over five and a half miles to cruise your hotrod and you've got tons of people involved. There's over half a million spectators here and I can guarantee you that you will have a good time. This is what this was all about back in the 1950's when people got in their cars with their families and their friends and went cruising up and down E Street in San Bernardino. You'll see more grins in the next mile than you could ever see anywhere else in the country. "I got my kicks on Route 66."

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> The Route 66 Rendezvous happens every September in San Bernardino. 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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