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Life & Times Transcript

01/24/06

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Something has to be done to relieve traffic congestion in Orange County, but does it have to be done through a state park?

Eddie Rose>> It means more housing, more development, more air and water pollution, more traffic congestion and not less. It's a fraud that's being perpetrated on the people of south Orange County.

Patricia Lochrie>> Not true, not true. Everything has been addressed.

Val Zavala>> And then, give two thousand teenagers cameras for thirty days and what do you get? A compelling look at what life is like for kids in the digital age.

These stories and more next 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>> So which would you choose? A shorter commute or the peace and beauty of open space? Well, those two issues have clashed in Orange County over a proposal to put a toll road through a state park. Which of these two quality of life issues will win? Roger Cooper takes a look at the tug-of-war.

Roger Cooper>> If you want to get an argument started in Orange County these days, a surefire way to do it is to bring up the Foothills Toll Road, the plan to extend it south through a state park. She's for building it and he is not.

Patricia Lochrie>> I have the position I have because it's sorely needed. If you've ever been on the I-5 and been caught in traffic, you know how badly it's needed. The people here are going to be overcome with new housing in the next twenty years and overcome with more people on the I-5.

Roger Cooper>> What about that?

Eddie Rose>> The toll road is a farce. It does nothing whatsoever to alleviate traffic congestion. What the toll road does is facilitate more development. It means more housing, more development, more air and water pollution, more traffic congestion and not less. It's a fraud that's being perpetrated on the people of south Orange County.

Patricia Lochrie>> Not true, not true. Everything has been addressed.

Roger Cooper>> It's the issue that brought overflow crowds to this public hearing held at Mission Viejo's council chambers.

Ken Ryan>> "We're going to move into public comment. Thank you for that report."

Roger Cooper>> After a decade of studying alternative routes, the Transportation Corridor Agency, the TCA, has made a decision. The toll road that now ends at Oso Parkway should be extended sixteen miles south to join I-5 just below San Clemente, but the path it would take is controversial.

The new road would go through San Mateo Beach State Park, through the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy and near one of the most acclaimed surfing spots on earth, the place surfers call "Trestles". Assemblywoman Mimi Walters says the project is mandatory to relieve congestion on the 5 before it becomes a parking lot.

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters>> "This four billion dollar infrastructure investment is a great example of balance, of how a major road can be financed and built, a road that is environmentally sensitive, built with local funds, with no increase in taxes. Studies show that, if nothing is done to improve traffic by 2025, the I-5 will experience travel levels similar to the gridlock on the 91 Freeway today."

Roger Cooper>> But not everyone was convinced.

Larry Porter>> "You've heard that this road is being presented to relieve traffic. That's not the truth, is it? This road is to go through this pristine, beautiful, magnificent last watershed and it really is to enrich the well-being of the few at the expense of the many, knowingly destroying one of the finest beaches in the entire world."

Roger Cooper>> Opponents claim that the TCA has not looked carefully enough at non-park alternatives, such as widening the 5 Freeway.

Michael Fitts>> "We've contended and still contend that feasible, non-toll road alternatives exist that would address Orange County's long-term traffic challenges while preserving San Onofre State Beach Park and Orange County's fast-disappearing natural environment."

Roger Cooper>> Others like this Mission Viejo resident say the new road can't come soon enough.

Gail Reavis>> "God help us all, I think it's going to go through. Pick the plan that is going to be least invasive and the least hurtful for the maximum amount of people. I think the plan that you've got going right now satisfies that."

Roger Cooper>> But Board Chairman, Ken Ryan, thinks the TCA has struck a good balance.

Ken Ryan>> We're so fortunate in Orange County. Our quality of life, of great residential neighborhoods and attractive places to work and beautiful open space and recreation opportunities, and also mobility, are really key ingredients. We've evaluated a number of different alignments and have tried to really find balance.

Roger Cooper>> Advocates for our State Parks disagree. They are against sending the road through the park and near its campground. Members of the State Parks and Recreation Commission voted nine to zero to ask the governor to oppose it. That state commission, by the way, is chaired by none other than Clint Eastwood who used to surf San Onofre in the 1950's. Rich Rozelle is District Superintendent for State Parks.

Rich Rozelle>> "Unfortunately, your staff and your consultants would prefer to construct a road, a six-lane toll road, through the heart of San Onofre State Beach. They recommend alignment that would destroy roughly three hundred acres of pristine parklands. This alignment will forever change a quiet and isolated park experience. If you can listen to the quietness in this room now, that's what the public currently enjoys out at San Mateo Campgrounds."

Roger Cooper>> But toll road officials point out that no camp sites will be lost, that sound walls like these will protect the park atmosphere.

Roy Stearns>> "But it's close enough, we believe, that nobody is going to want to camp next to a freeway with a sound wall. We think it's going to chase people away."

Roger Cooper>> A coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, opposes the path the road would take. They say the area is inhabited by endangered species like the Gnatcatcher and the few Arroyo Toads in existence. But the TCA's Director of Environmental Planning, Macie Cleary-Milan, maintains that protection of species has been thoroughly addressed. She points to a conclusion by the Federal Fish and Wildlife that the species will not be jeopardized.

Macie Cleary-Milan>> You know, we have been working for many, many years with all the different federal resource agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Fish and Wildlife, CalTrans, as well as Camp Pendleton, to come up with a balance, a preferred alternative that will balance the environmental needs without disrupting the community and providing traffic relief for the citizens of Orange County.

Roger Cooper>> Nature lovers like bird photographer, Gary Meredith, remain unsatisfied.

Gary Meredith>> "So here it is. Does the TCA really care about this area or does the TCA only care about building this road for the developers? I personally think it's for the developers."

Ken Ryan>> We have done everything that we think is required in terms of the environmental analysis. I mean, I've got a box of documents that you'd need a wheelbarrow to carry that we've gone through in terms of the evaluation that's taken place.

Roger Cooper>> As for the surfers, their worst nightmare is that the road will alter sand flow down San Mateo Creek, wiping out the magic combination of conditions that creates great waves at Trestles. TCA sediment consultant, Dave Skelly, says it won't happen.

Dave Skelly>> "The difference between the pre-project delivery of sand to the shoreline and the post-project delivery to the shoreline is very small when compared to the amount of material that's moving along that shoreline. I say that it's insignificant. The project will have no measurable effect on surfing resources. Thank you."

Rich Rozelle>> "But those assurances are just on paper. What happens if, in fact, he's wrong? What happens if this world-class surf break is destroyed or damaged in perpetuity?"

Roger Cooper>> Laguna Niguel Mayor, Cathryn DeYoung, supports building the road, but she suggests the impact on Trestles should be studied further.

Mayor Cathryn DeYoung>> "I would ask the TCA to consider working with the Surfriders Foundation to hire a mutually agreed upon engineering firm to analyze whether there will, in fact, be an impact on the surf break at the beach."

Roger Cooper>> Once the environmental impact report is final, the toll road extension faces additional hurdles, including review by the Coastal Commission, but road construction could start in 2007 with completion in about 2010. In Mission Viejo, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> Don't expect this battle to be resolved soon. Transportation officials have put off a vote on the environmental impact report and the governor's office says it wants more time to take a look at the issues.

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times".

Hena Cuevas>> As the population ages and we live longer, there is a concern about the lack of independence that comes when we're no longer allowed to drive a car. How do you get to the grocery store, to a doctor's appointment or even to visit friends and family? Now a new program in North Hollywood aims to help seniors who can no longer get behind the wheel. We met up with Helen Kerschner of the Beverly Foundation to talk about this new program that aims to bring seniors and volunteers together.

Helen Kerschner>> There is a difference between driving expectancy and life expectancy. For women, it is approximately ten years. For men, it's about six years. So that means that they may have to stop driving. We all may have to stop driving and that time arrives around eighty-five or ninety.

I have to say that it's a traumatic experience for anybody who has to stop driving. It breaks your heart to talk with family members, to talk with older adults, who aren't able to drive because it means independence and giving up their independence. It means a loss of control. It means all kinds of negative things. It means terrible things if you don't have any transportation options in the community.

Hena Cuevas>> And it's also becoming more of a problem as the population ages and the longer we live.

Helen Kerschner>> Well, it is. That is exactly what people are concerned about today.

Hena Cuevas>> It's estimated that more than twelve percent of the United States population is sixty-five or older and, according to the United States Bureau of the Census, the number of those over the age of eighty-five will double by the year 2030.

Helen Kerschner>> The future is really, really pretty grim unless we figure out how to deal with older driver issues and transportation options for the communities.

Hena Cuevas>> You also just recently got money to launch a pilot program -- you mentioned that it was eighteen months -- that does work with volunteers. How is that one going to be set up in North Hollywood?

Helen Kerschner>> What we are doing now in the organizing phase is we're identifying the kinds of drivers that we might encourage older adults to recruit. The older adults will recruit their own drivers. The drivers then will need to provide a little bit of information about the fact that they have a valid driver's license and that they have insurance. Then the program itself will reimburse the drivers. But the reimbursement goes to the rider and then the rider gives the reimbursement to the driver.

Hena Cuevas>> It's similar to the TRIP program that's been running in Riverside County for the past ten years. With TRIP, seniors are paired with volunteers who drive them around. In the new North Hollywood program, older adults themselves will be hiring friends and family. The drivers will get paid using program funds.

Helen Kerschner>> It provides transportation where the volunteer driver can go to the door and help the senior get to the vehicle. He can go through the door and help the senior out of the house and into the vehicle. He may go through the door of the destination and actually may stay with the person at the destination if they need it.

That's a kind of transportation that's very difficult for a public or a para-transit service to provide and it's the kind of transportation that these people who are no longer able to drive who really need that support. Because the same limitations that made it difficult for them to drive make it very difficult for them to access traditional transportation options.

Hena Cuevas>> And also one of the advantages would be the fact that they actually know the person that's coming over to help them.

Helen Kerschner>> And that's probably the most important point. This is their neighbor. It's their friend. It might be their family member. A person who wouldn't be able to take that rider or that senior to their destination if they didn't have that little bit of help. So it's a two-way thing. The driver may need that little bit of reimbursement, but the rider may also need a little bit of help in terms of being able to offer something for the ride. So it's a win-win situation for everybody.

Hena Cuevas>> And also it's not just the quality of life, but also not feeling like you owe something to the other person especially after you've asked a neighbor multiple times to take you places.

Helen Kerschner>> It has an impact on peoples' willingness to ask somebody for a ride and on the drivers' willingness to drive. It may be that the rider never asked the driver before. We have found, in many of these volunteer driver programs that reimburse, that the drivers don't want the reimbursement. It isn't for money, but this program provides that option so that you can offer that money.

Hena Cuevas>> One of the potential concerns is the part about liability. If you get called to help somebody and that person falls, or if you have a car accident, how is the program going to be handling that?

Helen Kerschner>> Well, that is the first question that people usually ask when they talk about any kind of transportation service. There is a possibility, and there are insurance companies. There are pools in California. There are national insurance pools that insure nonprofit organizations and will insure this kind of volunteer driver programs.

Generally, there is a theme that the volunteer driver's insurance is the first line of insurance. So the volunteer driver really, if there is a crash, then the volunteer driver's insurance would be the insurance that would be needed if in fact there were a medical bill or something like that. If it exhausts whatever the fees are or whatever the charges are that exhaust that volunteer driver's insurance coverage, then the umbrella policy that's purchased by the program itself, by the program sponsor, would kick in.

Hena Cuevas>> The test program will begin in March and will run for a year.

Helen Kerschner>> This is a movement around the country. I think communities are beginning to say that we have to do something for today's seniors and tomorrow's seniors. We need to gear up because there are greater and greater problems that we see over the last ten years and we will see them in the future, so therefore we must do something about this. I think the hook has always been, if you have an aunt or uncle or some family member or if you are personally experiencing this, there is no better call to action for somebody than to have that personal experience or see the anguish of a dear one who is having to deal with this.

Hena Cuevas>> Helen Kerschner, thank you very much for sharing information about this very important topic for all of us.

Helen Kerschner>> Thank you so much for coming today.

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 started with ten thousand photographs and narrowed it down to the best three hundred fifty. Three hundred fifty photographs were taken by high school and junior high school students in California and it reveals a lot about the lives they lead and these kids are not from Beverly Hills. Vicki Curry talked with Bob Pletka, the project's creator who brought these photographs together in a book called "My So-Called Digital Life".

Vicki Curry>> Bob Pletka, you put together this book, "My So-Called Digital Life". How did this project come together?

Bob Pletka>> I was a part of our research team at California Polytechnic University and we were studying the current conditions of K-12 education. What we were finding was pretty disturbing and I guess it bothered me. One of the things we had was that almost two-thirds of our students saying that school was meaningless. We found out that about thirty-two percent of all kids nationally drop out of school.

Vicki Curry>> Wow.

Bob Pletka>> That's a tremendous amount of kids that just completely disengage. For me, that was pretty, I guess, disheartening and I wanted to do something about it. They needed an opportunity to tell their stories to a group of adults and professionals that kind of could foster their own dreams and could kind of bring out their potential. Also, I wanted a chance for the parents and educators to hear what's inside and what the kids are thinking.

We gathered together about two thousand students from thirty-two different schools from across the state. We had students from Catalina Island. We had students that were a part of a drug rehabilitation school. We had students from the inner cities, from the suburbs, from farmlands, all kind of coming together. What we did is, we gave them digital cameras and we sent them out and asked them to go out and capture photographs of their schools and their communities, photographs that would represent their own experiences, their own feelings, their own beliefs about those people and about those places.

So what they would do is, they'd take those photographs, they'd go online and then they'd upload their photographs and start blogging and sharing and comparing their stories and contrasting their experiences with other students from these different diverse places. Kind of from that perspective, it kind of helped them to see where they were going and where they had come from. Then we also had a video crew that actually talked to and interviewed the kids as this experience was going on.

Josue Avalos>> It just, you know, gave me a better appreciation to be thankful for what we have here in this school.

Dizya Goel>> You never took the time to really notice around this school what goes on, so it was like this, with this project, you notice like other things that you never noticed before.

Cate Gorton>> I think I learned how other people view life, sort of how some people can take pictures that really reflects how they think and what they do and like who they are.

Adrian Arellano>> When they took their photographs, they showed what was really going on and they were also showing the bad and the good and not just one side.

Tori Holder>> You could show people how you feel and what you want to express, like you don't have to like write it or say a lot. It's the picture and it's there and like they understand.

Bob Pletka>> We also have one class that then took all these images and they were the ones that actually put together the book. So they were mentored by this publisher and the publisher would call down, would email the kids, students would send in different layouts and different designs and send it to the publisher. The publisher would then respond and say, "Hey, no, this needs to be done" or "This needs to be tweaked." So about four months of working with this publisher, this one high school class did all the layouts, they did the design, they picked the themes for the book and had a great opportunity really to work closely with a professional in this field.

Vicki Curry>> I see in the book, in addition to photographs, there seem to be essays or different quotes from the children. Tell me about that component.

Bob Pletka>> Sure. One of the things the kids needed to do is, first, they started with their photographs and that really served as a point for them to reflect then on their own lives and their own experiences. So the book then is really a combination of their photographs, the essays and then, in some cases, we've pulled out portions of an essay, maybe a paragraph, and then, for each photograph, there's also a caption. So every photograph that was submitted, students were expected to put in a caption about that. This book, then, is really a compilation of those essays and those captions and the photographs.

Vicki Curry>> So how did the kids react, both at the beginning of the project and then after they were done?

Bob Pletka>> Well, I think in the beginning, they were pretty excited. They were excited to be able to work with the professional photographers in that kind of sense that their work was being viewed and valued and that they were getting feedback and that what they were saying would have an impact on their community and would have an impact ultimately on their teachers and their parents as well. I mean, there were some messages that our kids sent to their parents and sent to the educators kind of through the book and through the narratives, through the photographs that they took. There were some messages that they wanted to send and I think the kids were really excited about that opportunity.

Vicki Curry>> What were some of the messages that the kids were sending through this project?

Bob Pletka>> Well, one of the things -- we had a diverse population and we had students from the inner cities. One of the messages that they sent was how difficult it was to learn in communities that were violent. Another thing is, kids talked about the meaninglessness of school. Where is this all going? What is the purpose of this? Yeah, one day it might make a difference, but when I'm bubbling in these sheets and simply copying notes, what's the purpose of this? I think they're looking for that. I think the kids, through the project, were looking for answers to their questions.

Several of the kids talked about this new connected society and really feeling a part of this kind of global economy and that they had friends all over and that they use their Instant Messenger and they had real-time connection with their cell phones. Yet, while they had all of this connection, when they talked about their schools, they felt isolated and cut off. A lot of the kids said that they wished that schools were places that they were more connected into the larger, broader communities.

Vicki Curry>> What are some of the images that stand out for you?

Bob Pletka>> My favorite photograph is this picture of this boy and he's out on this girder about ten feet above the ground. Here's this kid up there alone. There's nobody around and he's out on this ledge and you know it's precarious because, at any moment, he could fall. To me, that just kind of symbolized this whole group. This whole group of students are looking, teenagers looking for meaning and looking to make it through their lives and looking to make the right choices and knowing that sometimes they won't and being afraid that, if they fail, there's some really severe consequences for that failure. It's like this moment of realization that it may not just all turn out okay.

I think, at this age when kids are teenagers, they're looking for a sense of identity, so part of what school and education is meant to do is to help them form that identity so that they can become, whether it's a professional photographer or a journalist or a scientist, that we give them the skills and the processes, but also the hope and the potential to reach those things, their American dream.

Vicki Curry>> Bob Pletka, creator of "My So-Called Digital Life", thank you so much for taking the time to come and speak with us.

Bob Pletka>> Thank you very much, Vicki. I appreciate it.

Val Zavala>> You can see more images from "My So-Called Digital Life" or read an excerpt by going to their website at santamonicapress.com. 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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