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Life & Times Transcript
02/23/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Sizing up "A-Town". Are people willing to live in a high-rise to stay in Orange County? Rich Knowland>> Going vertical north of twenty or thirty stories tall will allow some people that might have the only choice to own a home to drive out to the Inland Empire and give them a chance to come back and live in Orange County, in the heart of Orange County. Val Zavala>> And then, no stars or publicity machines, but they still got Academy Award nominations. Our critics size up three Oscar contenders you might have missed. 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>> Orange County is on the rise literally. High-rise living may soon compete with traditional single-family suburban homes, but there are some safety issues involved when you live on the 35th floor. Orange County reporter, Roger Cooper, takes us to the biggest high-rise development called "A-Town". Roger Cooper>> Think of Orange County and you think of the suburbs, orange groves, single-family homes and office parks. Tall buildings are something you see in places like downtown Los Angeles, Chicago or Manhattan. But big change is in the works. Wait until you see what they've started to build in Anaheim just a long fly ball away from Angel Stadium. It's a fifty-acre mixed-use development to be called "A-Town" and "A-Town" will have tall buildings. Not just two, not three, but eleven residential towers reaching as high as thirty-five stories. Thirty-five stories, almost three times taller than what has passed for a big building in Orange County. Finally some competition for the Crystal Cathedral. Rich Knowland is a Regional Vice President of Lennar, the company that's building "A-Town". You're going to go up. Why? Rich Knowland>> Well, we think it's time for Orange County to grow up both literally and figuratively. There is a market for this. There is a lifestyle that people in Orange County are ready to embrace and that is living in a more of a high-rise maintenance-free kind of lifestyle, a place you can lock and leave to go to work, to go visiting, to travel. Roger Cooper>> "A-Town" will have a mix of townhouses, lofts, high-rises, shops and restaurants. The interesting thing about "A-Town" is how massive a project this is. Picture forty acres, all of it being demolished all at the same time. To get a good look at the "A-Town" site, we went up on the roof of a nearby building with Anaheim Mayor, Curt Pringle. He says the time has come for Orange County to look at all its housing options. Curt Pringle>> I live in a single-story house and I'm happy about it and I believe suburban living is a great option, but I also believe urban living is a great option too. In Orange County, I think we have matured enough to say that people should have that choice as well where you can live in a high-rise residential tower, twenty-five hundred square feet, twenty stories in the air. You even have an ocean view from Anaheim at that height. Or you can live in a single-family home in one of the great neighborhoods of Orange County. Roger Cooper>> Why go vertical? Part of the reason is that Orange County has finally run out of available land. Rich Knowland>> Number one is commute. There's very little land available in Orange County, so people that are wanting to live in some type of affordable fashion are finding themselves spending two to four hours on the freeway going out to the Inland Empire. Going vertical, especially what we're talking about, north of twenty or thirty stories tall, will allow some people that might have the only choice to own a home that drive out to the Inland Empire and gives them a chance to come back and live in Orange County, in the heart of Orange County, near their jobs. Roger Cooper>> But this reach for the sky is not just happening in Anaheim. People already live in these newly-completed twin high-rises along the 405 in Irvine with more on the way nearby. There are plans to construct Orange County's tallest building, a thirty-seven story office tower in Santa Ana. In all, some thirty-four high-rise buildings are on the drawing board for Orange County right now. The arrival of all these tall buildings will bring with it a new era of challenge to firefighters. This is a Bronto, Anaheim's tallest aerial apparatus capable of reaching twelve floors up. But in many of the new buildings, people will be living thirty-five floors up, a fact that doesn't escape Fire Marshall Jeff Lutz. When it comes down to it, though, firefighters have to climb those stairs all the way to the top. Jeff Lutz>> That's true and we look at about one floor per minute, so a typical firefighter climbing up that high takes, you know, quite some time. Roger Cooper>> Los Angeles's First Interstate Bank fire in 1988 and the World Trade Center on 9/11 showed how difficult fighting high-rise fires can be. And fire officials in Orange County are now figuring out what sprinkler systems and other firefighting features they will require developers to design into their tall buildings. Jeff Lutz>> We're looking at the possibility of having certain stashes of equipment or caches of firefighting equipment and tools that may be stored in the buildings as opposed to being carried up into the buildings by the firefighters. Roger Cooper>> That includes a booster system for emergency radio. Curt Pringle>> And we passed an ordinance to require a building over a certain height to have that booster capacity so that those radios for the emergency responder can be heard on all floors. Roger Cooper>> Anaheim will also need new fire stations and more firefighters to handle this new high-rise challenge. "A-Town" is breaking new ground not only in how tall it's being built, but also how it's being built. The city has created an area called the Platinum Triangle where developers have special zoning that allows them to renovate. Curt Pringle>> In fact, we gave incentives for the developers to come in and build what they thought was a responsible market approach. What would the market respond to? Well, in fact, we did not use any eminent domain. None of the area where the new residential development is taking place is in a redevelopment area. So, in fact, many of those traditional tools that a lot of cities have said are the only way you get revitalization, we used none of them. We used a market approach. Roger Cooper>> The approach has met blazing speed. All this development has come about in just over a year since the City Council created the zone. Curt Pringle>> And really what's happened over the last year is really unbelievable. Seventy-five hundred units have been approved and among that mix are about fourteen twenty-plus story residential towers. Rich Knowland>> The genius of the Platinum Triangle is the city having the vision to really look and understand that Orange County doesn't have a downtown, so they had created the Platinum Triangle overlay zone. The good news is that they had old industrial buildings and we were paying top dollar for those, so it turned out to be a win-win not only for us, but for the property owners that sold land in the Platinum Triangle. Roger Cooper>> But a question remains. Can you still have a California Orange County lifestyle thirty-five stories up in the air? Curt Pringle>> Oh, I think you can. I mean, if you think about parking your car, not leaving the building, going into a nice entry lobby, going thirty stories up, feeding your cats and visiting with your family, then going to the ground floor and walking along the streets, wide sidewalks, outdoor dining, a coffee shop or a bookstore, all along the way, that type of living is exciting to a lot of people. Roger Cooper>> You're telling me from your 35th floor penthouse that you can see Catalina? Rich Knowland>> You see Catalina, Santa Monica, downtown Los Angeles. It is a stunning view that nobody in Orange County, frankly, has ever seen because we've never built this tall in Orange County. So it's going to be exciting to see when it's finished. Roger Cooper>> Who would have thought it? Orange County is entering the elevator age. Demolition for "A-Town" will be done by this fall and that's when Orange County starts building tall. In Anaheim, 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, 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". Val Zavala>> If you failed the California bar exam, you're in good company. A Harvard law professor failed it and so did Los Angeles's mayor. Minority students are even more likely to fail the bar exam and that's where help from a dedicated coach can make a big difference. Hena Cuevas>> Al Jenkins, a former prosecutor, saw a serious problem in our legal system and decided to fix it not in a courtroom, but in the kitchen of his Los Angeles home. Al Jenkins>> "Everybody turn to the first page in this document, last paragraph." Hena Cuevas>> These law students are studying for the toughest exam of their lives, the bar. They're here because only thirty percent of African-Americans pass the dreaded bar on the first try compared to almost seventy percent for whites. The drilling coming from this man is precisely what they're here for. Al Jenkins>> "All right. I'll be dictating, you'll be copying what I say." Hena Cuevas>> Jenkins, sixty-nine and retired, takes a tough approach to coaching. Holly Hightower>> One of my girlfriends said some guy said are you going to go to that mean guy (laughter)? She said, as long as we pass, we don't care, and we don't (laughter). Hena Cuevas>> This is Holly Hightower's first session with Jenkins. Like two-thirds of black law school graduates, the bar is the one test she hasn't been able to pass yet. Next July will be her third and, she hopes, last try. Holly Hightower>> At this point, I've got to cross my t's and dot my i's. I've got to really pay attention to what it is that I'm doing wrong with the essays. Al Jenkins>> It's a dirty little secret that lawyers want everybody to think that law is so complicated, but it really isn't. Hena Cuevas>> Most bar exam prep courses cost about two thousand dollars. Jenkins doesn't charge a penny and he doesn't have to advertise. Al Jenkins>> It just evolved. The word got out that I was providing a free service that was allowing people to pass the bar exam. So you got to ask them. I don't know how they find me. The phone just rings and it rings and it rings. Hena Cuevas>> And it hasn't stopped ringing especially after he was featured in an article in People Magazine. Now he's getting calls, some from as far away as Washington, D.C., but they have to be persistent since he doesn't own an answering machine and refuses to communicate via the internet. Al Jenkins>> They have to let me harass them for one session. After that, they can then submit essays through the mail or call and ask questions by phone. Al Jenkins>> "Read this paragraph." >> "It is very important to note that sub-issues are every bit as important as the issues themselves when it comes for all concerned." Hena Cuevas>> Twice a year, he offers three sessions a day starting at one o'clock and going until ten p.m. Al Jenkins>> "Underline identify, underline analyze." Hena Cuevas>> Passing the bar exam is what turns law school graduates into practicing attorneys. This building houses the offices to the State Bar of California. Membership to the Bar gives attorneys the right and the privilege to practice law in the state. According to a survey they conducted in 2001, less than three percent of the attorneys practicing in the state are black. Jenkins is determined to raise that three percent. Al Jenkins>> "First page, read out loud to me, please, including the head notes." Hena Cuevas>> Their first lesson? During the next few weeks, nothing is more important than this exam. Holly Hightower>> "Your bar review preparation must take priority over all other activities. Family problems, money problems, problems with friends and emotional problems must be allowed -- Al Jenkins>> -- "must not." Holly Hightower>> "must not be allowed." Al Jenkins>> Why is it that the average person who wants to pass the California Bar believes they can do so without learning the law? I always say that some people believe that they can go to heaven, but nobody wants to die to get there. You have to learn the law to be a lawyer. Karen Nobumoto>> "And did I show you this part in the D.A. notes?" Hena Cuevas>> Karen Nobumoto is one of his success stories. She's a Deputy District Attorney for the city of Beverly Hills and remembers all too well what it was like to study under Jenkins. Karen Nobumoto>> Grueling (laughter). He was very difficult, but in a very loving way. He made it clear that he had an expectation from me as the student, which meant that nothing, even children, family, parents, nothing was more important for the next two months than studying for the bar exam. Hena Cuevas>> Nobumoto graduated from law school in 1989. That summer, to prepare for the bar exam, she contacted Jenkins. Karen Nobumoto>> I knew that Al was very successful because I'd worked with him through the minority Bar Association, so I felt like the best security that I could have was to do exactly what he told me to do. Hena Cuevas>> And she did, writing essay after essay which she would drop off at his house. Karen Nobumoto>> The next day, I could come back and pick up all the critiques and the essays and anything he suggested I do. If he suggested I do it, I repeated and corrected that exam or I dropped off seven more. Hena Cuevas>> And all that hard work paid off. She was among the successful one-third passing on her first try. What do you think made the difference in you passing it the first time? Karen Nobumoto>> Probably someone like that to scare you to death. He basically told me he expected me to study seventeen hours. I went, seventeen hours? How can I do that? Hena Cuevas>> A day? Karen Nobumoto>> Yes. How could I do that? But the fact was, since he had an expectation I'd go to seventeen, it scared me so bad that I never, on any day, studied less than twelve hours. Hena Cuevas>> Fear is one motivator, but Jenkins also instills confidence. Al Jenkins>> I always like to mention to them that dumb lawyers pass the bar all the time. There are an awful lot of dumb lawyers out there. Dumb lawyers pass because they know they're dumb, so they work hard. Hena Cuevas>> Part of the reason so many blacks don't pass the bar, he says, is their own expectation of failure. Al Jenkins>> They believe that there's somebody out there trying to keep this exam from them. It's my position to tell them that that is not true, that the bar is passable, that it is not the same as rocket science. Hena Cuevas>> How do you convince them? Al Jenkins>> Just talk to them and rant and rave. I scare them straight (laughter). Hena Cuevas>> Jenkins graduated from Cal State Los Angeles with a math degree. His career change started with something most try to avoid: jury duty. Al Jenkins>> Two weeks on jury duty, I said to myself, now that's what I want to do. It fascinated me. Hena Cuevas>> So at the age of thirty-six, he went back to law school. He graduated from Loyola at forty, passed the bar on the first try and went to work in the D.A.'s office. Al Jenkins>> I would meet students in the cafeteria around six-thirty and stay with them until about seven-thirty or eight and go to court. I'd meet them at lunch hour and then, at night, I'd tutor from seven-thirty until eleven. I did that five days a week, then I did it on the weekends. Hena Cuevas>> He estimates he's tutored about two thousand students. Thanks to their hard work and his help, his success rate is seventy percent. Karen Nobumoto>> He is a gift. For him to do this for so many years and have such a success rate, there's no reason not to participate. It's free, it works and it's done with love. Al Jenkins>> People have offered to pay me and I tell them that money cannot pay for time. Time is more important than money and the impact I'm having, the legacy I'm leaving, is much more valuable than money. Al Jenkins>> "Say again." Holly Hightower>> "One thing is absolutely certain. You cannot pass the bar if you do not know the law." Hena Cuevas>> For the time being, Jenkins limits his services to African-American students. There are enough of them to keep him more than busy for years to come. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times. 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. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. All of our films this week are Academy Award nominated and we begin with one of the nominees for Best Foreign Language film. Coming from Germany is "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" starring Julia Jentsch in a true story. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Jean Oppenheimer of New Times and Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor joining us as well. Peter, what did you think of "Sophie Scholl"? Peter Rainer>> This is a strong picture. It's based on, for the most part, real transcripts that have recently been uncovered in Germany of Gestapo interrogations between Sophie Scholl, who was sort of an icon of the anti-Nazi movement in Germany during the war, and her interrogators. It's a very straightforward picture. It's a little bit dry. Julia Jentsch, who plays Sophie, gives a very stalwart, you know, straightforward performance, but I think you don't see enough of the kind of happy coed that she reputedly was behind all of the façade. Her resistance to the Nazis and then her sort of valiant righteousness once her work is uncovered is, I think, a bit too one-note and that makes it, I think, more of a docudrama than a full-fledged drama itself. Larry Mantle>> Jean, do you agree with that? Jean Oppenheimer>> Yeah, I don't feel too differently. I mean, to me, what gives this film its tension and the emotional impact that it does eventually have is the fact that it's a true story and that it is based on these actual transcripts and reports from the interrogation. The fact that she is so calm and composed is a little, well, unnerving. I didn't quite understand at the beginning this little half smile that plays on her lips throughout and you wonder what is she thinking? But what became very apparent to me and why I think the film does work is because, as she goes along, you realize where that comes from, which is her absolute conviction that she is doing the right thing and that these are her beliefs. In the end, I found that it did become emotional, but I do agree with Peter that it's not flat, but a little dry. Larry Mantle>> Film number two this week is also in the Best Foreign Language category. From South Africa, a movie written and directed by Gavin Hood and adapted from a novel by Athol Fugard. The movie is "Tsotsi". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Jean, what did you think of "Tsotsi"? Jean Oppenheimer>> I actually liked it a lot. This is a tale of violence and redemption that I think packs a very unexpected emotional wallop by the end of the film. I really think the film works on a number of different levels. I mean, one is really the hard-hitting and just violent depiction of those who are living on the margins of society. Also, this is a sort of taut, tense drama, and finally it's sort of a classic tale of redemption. I think one thing that makes it work so well is the performances. Neither of the two leads had ever been in a motion picture before and they just give superb performances. So the film worked extremely well for me. Larry Mantle>> Peter, do you agree? Peter Rainer>> No, I don't. I think this is a very splashy, somewhat empty movie. The director has done a lot of rock videos. He's film school trained in UCLA, I believe. You know, he's not exactly an indigenous off-the-streets filmmaker and I think the movie is getting a lot of points for being something that it really isn't. I didn't find any psychological depth whatsoever with the Tsotsi character, the main kid who's a blank throughout who does this horrific thing in the beginning and then really -- you know, the redemption for me was valueless because I didn't see how he got from A to B or C to D or anything. You know, I think overall it's a big empty movie about an important subject, black on black crime and the shanty towns and a lot of important issues, but I think it's sort of flagrantly exploitative. Larry Mantle>> And here it is perhaps the front runner for Best Foreign Language Oscar. Peter Rainer>> It will probably win. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, we have the category of Best Documentary. "Street Fight" tells the behind-the-scene story of the contentious race for mayor of Newark, the city in New Jersey. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Peter, were you captivated by the world of "Street Fight"? Peter Rainer>> Yeah. It's a very interesting kind of nuts and bolts, down and dirty documentary about the New Jersey mayoral race in 2002. Corey Booker, who's the challenger to the incumbent, is a really, you know, interesting character who has a gift of gab and he's up against a guy who's really part of a very heavy political machine there, Sharpe James. I think the problem is that, if anything with the movie, it's a bit too partisan to Booker because the other guy provided almost no access whatsoever to the documentary crew. In fact, most of the time when he's filming him, you see a big hand from one of his goons over the camera lens telling him to get lost. I mean, by default, it becomes rather part of the documentary and I'm not sure we're getting the whole story about Booker either, cynic that I am, but it's a fascinating movie. Larry Mantle>> Jean, what did you think? Jean Oppenheimer>> I thought it was really riveting and I was appalled and shocked at the out-and-out lies that the incumbent mayor is making against Booker. I agree with Peter. I mean, I didn't feel that you were really getting one side because it's so obvious why you're getting that one side. But it's a good lesson in what we call democracy and this is not the type of thing that you think you see or will see in America, but it's actually happening. I thought it was quite riveting filmmaking. Larry Mantle>> As always, we thank you for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Jean Oppenheimer of New Times and Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor. Please join us again next week at this same time. You'll hear our critics' picks for the Academy Award on FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> KPCC broadcasts a full hour of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven a.m. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. 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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