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Life & Times Transcript
08/29/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- It could slice precious minutes off the commute, but what will taking the 710 Freeway underground do to the neighborhood? Doug Failing>> As far as air quality is concerned, it is the single most important project that's being proposed here in Los Angeles County. Mary Ann Parada>> We just know that this is going to destroy our town. Val Zavala>> And then, southern California has a new garden spot. We visit the craggy corners and hand-carved bridges of the new Chinese Garden at The Huntington. 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>> There is an example of this in almost every city in southern California. A project that would benefit the many is stopped by the few. Example? The 710 Freeway going through Pasadena. For decades, planners have wanted to finish the 710, but it's been stopped by local activists who want to save an historic neighborhood. So which one should win out? Well, now there's a dramatic new solution, but will it fly? Hena Cuevas brings us the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the 710 Freeway. Hena Cuevas>> Nearly ten years ago, visitors to South Pasadena were treated with this sign that read "One of America's Most Endangered Places". And what is endangered in Pasadena? These historic homes, about fifteen hundred of them. They're in the path of a plan to expand the 710 Freeway, a call that's been going on for decades and so has the opposition. One of those fighting the freeway is long-time resident, Clarice Knapp. Clarice Knapp>> It takes the whole wide swath and then it starts coming up at an angle here to take this house on the corner. Hena Cuevas>> What would it do to these two homes? Clarice Knapp>> Gone, gone. The other three would be isolated during construction. It could be ten years of construction and they would be isolated and uninhabitable. Hena Cuevas>> The opposition has managed to stop the freeway project, but at the same time, a four and a half mile gap between the 710 and the 210 Freeways has meant congestion for thousands of commuters. But now planners say they have a solution. Instead of going over ground, go underground. Dig a tunnel. Doug Failing>> As far as air quality is concerned, it is the single most important project that's being proposed here in Los Angeles County. Hena Cuevas>> Doug Failing from Caltrans is working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA, on the feasibility study for the tunnel. The underground passageway would start near Alhambra and end in Pasadena. Portals at either end would allow traffic to enter and exit the tunnel and giant smokestacks would clean emissions coming from the ground before releasing the air back to the surface. Roger Snoble>> If we could complete the gap, then it's one of the biggest projects from a standpoint of reducing congestion and reducing air pollution. Hena Cuevas>> Roger Snoble is CEO of the MTA. Roger Snoble>> In the last ten or fifteen years, the tunneling technology has advanced immensely. Primarily in Europe and in Asia both, they have really looked for tunneling particularly using boring machines as a way to alleviate some of the problems. Hena Cuevas>> It's an expensive proposal with an estimated cost of about three billion dollars. It would also take over ten years to complete. Roger Snoble>> So we've been going back to the communities now to show them the results of the study to let them know that, you know, this probably could be done and this would be an answer and be much less disruptive. Doug Failing>> At this point in time, what we're trying to do is just be very honest with everyone. This is a very preliminary study, here is what a tunnel might look like. A tunnel does appear to be technically feasible. Hena Cuevas>> So they're taking their proposal to the cities engulfed, this time Pasadena. Doug Failing>> "This draft study is being circulated through all the additional cities that we talked to several years ago when we first talked about doing this study. The comments that we receive back from the city and you citizens are very important." Hena Cuevas>> And they've gotten plenty of comments like those from resident, Mary Ann Parada. Mary Ann Parada>> "When the 719 tunnel is completed near the year 2025 or 2030, the traffic on the completed gap of the 719 will be three hundred thousand trucks and cars a day. That's an additional three hundred thousand." We're just 3.4 miles wide, so we just know that this is going to destroy our town. Hena Cuevas>> Seventy-four year old Parada has been fighting the plans for expansion for forty years. She says it's because she's lived through it before. Mary Ann Parada>> When I was nine years old, I lived in the freeway path near Chinatown and they took my home away. They took everybody's home away. We were dispersed. That was the first freeway west of the Mississippi. Hena Cuevas>> Now she's afraid it's going to happen all over again. Mary Ann Parada>> So even if there is no surface route, we're still talking about homes that will have to be taken out to put the tunnel in. Yes, there will have to be at least two hundred homes demolished in El Sereno at the site of the south portal. We're at the site of the south portal. Hena Cuevas>> Two hundred homes is better than the fifteen hundred homes that the freeway project proposed. Mary Ann Parada>> It's better, but it's not right, it's not right. Hena Cuevas>> But it's not just the homes, Parada says. It's the disruption and the constant noise. Mary Ann Parada>> They told us it will take ten to twelve years working twenty-four hours a day to dig the muck out and to truck the muck out. This is a neighborhood that, for ten years to twelve years, is going to be, first of all, demolished or maybe demolished later and then they're going to have to live with a ten to twelve year construction and deconstruction period. I don't know anybody who'd want to live here. Hena Cuevas>> But Failing argues that the noise would be no more than that of the construction of a tall building, except it would go on for a decade or more. Doug Failing>> The construction of the tunnel itself would be twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Once you start a tunnel, you don't want to slow down until you're done. But that's a hundred to a hundred fifty feet below ground, so that disruption to the people is real minimal. Hena Cuevas>> Another concern is the ventilation system for the tunnel. There would be about four stacks, each a hundred feet tall, about the size of an eight to ten-story building. Doug Failing>> So we'd have to look at what can you do to make it not look like an industrial smokestack? Can you make it look like a water tower? Can you make it look like a clock tower? There are some things that can be done. Can you bring in landscaping? Do you have the room to bring in landscaping and trees to help mask part of it from view? Hena Cuevas>> The tunnel would be similar to the one being built in Boston, a project that took fifteen years to complete. On June 10, a portion of that tunnel collapsed and killed a woman in her car. How much did it affect trying to sell this idea when you heard about what happened in Boston with the tunnel there? Doug Failing>> I have concerns about what's happening in Boston. We're not in the process of selling anything at this point as far as the tunnel, but we are out trying to see if there is regional interest. Boston has some issues with quality control. There are some things that we would have to make sure we put in place to make sure that what happened in Boston wouldn't happen here. Hena Cuevas>> Parada and Knapp, together with other residents, are working on a response to the tunnel study, even going as far as hiring their own tunnel experts. The report is due mid-September. But connecting the 210 and the 710 Freeways is about more than just relieving surface traffic or congestion through downtown. According to Knapp, it's all about business. Currently, semis coming from the Port of Long Beach take the 710 and have to take a detour to join back up with the 210. If both freeways were connected, they argue that those could be moved a lot quicker and much more efficiently. Snoble and other transportation planners are trying to convince residents to think long-term. Roger Snoble>> There will always be nay-sayers. I mean, there will always be some people that say no, no way, no how, we don't want it no matter what, and that's the nature of the beast. What we have to make sure of is, if the vast majority of people want it, we can ultimately get it done. Clarise Knapp>> It's not solving a problem. It's creating at least as many problems as it's trying to solve. Hena Cuevas>> So will the tunnel ever be built? It's a classic case of desires of a particular community colliding with the needs of the larger regions. Still, Knapp and Parada say they've fought the freeway for four decades now and they're willing to start a new effort to preserve their neighborhood. I'm Hena Cuevas 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're looking for wise advice on how to get old, you'd ask somebody who's healthy, happy and elderly. Well, nobody fits that bill better than Art Linkletter. Remember Art? Well, he's ninety-four and still going strong and now he's teamed up with his friend, Mark Hansen of "Chicken Soup" fame and together they've written a book called "How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life". Art Linkletter and Mark Hansen are examples of successful aging. They point out that this generation is living longer than any in history and they're teaching that a vital, meaningful and fun life is possible, no matter how old you are. You have teamed up and written a book called "How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life" and it covers everything from A to Z, so where did you begin? Art Linkletter>> Would you like to know our secret of how we could cover everything? Val Zavala>> Yeah. Art Linkletter>> Tell her our procedure. Mark Hansen>> He always gives me the heavy lifting (laughter). We interviewed the thirty-eight great experts in the world in each one of those disciplines and we put it together. We interviewed the top gerontological sexologists. We interviewed the top person on Alzheimer's. We interviewed the top anti-aging doctor -- Art Linkletter>> -- and our weightlifter. Mark Hansen>> And we interviewed our good friend, Jack La Lanne who's ninety-two. He says, "I get up at five. I get out of a hot bed, leave a hot woman, go to the hot gym and do a thousand pushups just to start the day." And he's sold a hundred fifty million juicers. Art Linkletter>> I'll take it from here. Mark Hansen>> Please (laughter). Art Linkletter>> Obviously, we didn't just have big long interviews with them for the inclusion in the book, but we took paragraphs, we took sentences. We sprinkled them all through the book here and there. The book is not just the two of us talking about this big, big subject because we don't know all about it and, what we do know, I know more about than he does because I've lived it. He's still a kid, you know. Mark Hansen>> And I like it that way. Val Zavala>> Let's start with work. You have a chapter called "Work and Money or the Only Thing That You Should Retire is Your Car". Art Linkletter>> We did great on this one. Mark Hansen>> What we wrote is the line that you want to retire retirement and get into requirement, meaning we want you to be passionately, vitally alive. If you have a choice of who you want to converse with, Val, on the show, do you want somebody that's dead and goes yes or no or do you want somebody that is sitting at the edge of their chair and is wound up tight about whatever they're doing, right? Well, that's where we are and we're saying that everybody has the right to be in their right livelihood, their right enjoyment and their right experience in fullness of life with passionate purposefulness. We're saying that we don't see that in a lot of people because we're the first people that have ever said, hey, look, let's talk about aging and successful aging because no one ever got to be old before our generation. I mean, you were just telling us that your mother is at the vanguard of this thing. Remember, the first thousand years of human life, everybody was dead at eighteen. Then Art said, you know, back with his buddy, FDR, you know, everybody was dead at forty-seven. Well, he's doubled life expectancy and is planning on going to a hundred thirty. Val Zavala>> And you are how old? Art Linkletter>> Ninety-four, ninety-four, and I feel like sixty. I work, I play, I swim, I ski, I run businesses, I have a wife. We've been married for seventy years. He's just starting out. How many years? Mark Hansen>> Twenty-seven years. I'm a neophyte. Art Linkletter>> You're a honeymooner. Mark Hansen>> You told me that those first twenty-seven were the hard ones (laughter). Art Linkletter>> Well, they were the ones where you find out where you agree and where you disagree, and you agree not to disagree. Mark Hansen>> There you go. Val Zavala>> Now you can't be happy in your older years without being healthy, so with your chapter that deals with the body or with health, you say, "Never let anyone help you out of a chair." Mark Hansen>> What happened is, Sophia Loren, who's his affectionate friend, you know, says to never let anyone help you out of a chair. We bought into it because all you are is your state of consciousness manifesting on a full-time basis. Therefore, your state of mind creates your state of results. So if you have a young state of mind, you're going to be active, you're going to be self-employed, self-enjoyed, you know, and self-sufficient, which is what we're calling the Ten Empowerments. Then you go forward in life with great relish. Art Linkletter>> And self-enjoyment is what I get when I hear the words Sophia Loren. Val Zavala>> (Laughter). Mark Hansen>> We think the chapter everyone is going to read first is on human sexuality because everybody is in line wanting to know what Dr. Freud said. We're not saying what Dr. Freud said. We're saying how do you have a healthy, rip-roaringly good sex life? Val Zavala>> What is the advice you give? Art Linkletter>> I advise them to find a place where there's a large supply of Viagra tablets (laughter) like my garage. Val Zavala>> (Laughter) All right. So let's go from sex to God. You talk a lot about what difference spirituality or faith makes in one's life. Art Linkletter>> People who have a sincere spiritual faith, a feeling that there is something more important than us, helps you in your health field. There have been double blind type tests of thousands of people who have been sick. One of them who'd been prayed over and they were prayed with got an alarming and amazing amount of good out of it. Mark Hansen>> That work was done by our buddy, Dr. Larry Dossey, who's a top oncologist. When we did "Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul", we had a hundred and one ways to beat cancer. Larry found out that it didn't matter who prayed, whether they were Buddhists, Christians, Jews. It didn't matter. Any prayer works. Arguments against that is that, well, it's a placebo, so we don't know if it works or not. Well, he did five hundred in each test and Larry's about as good a scientist as exists, as far as I'm concerned. He's a friend, but he's a great scientist. Val Zavala>> But that would seem to indicate that, well, you should believe in God because it's practical, because you'll live longer, but it's got to be deeper than that, yes? Art Linkletter>> No, it gives you something to hope for. You believe that there's a heaven. You may just possibly feel that you should be a better person, not that you're definitely going to heaven. For instance, I asked Billy Graham the other day if he thought he'd go to heaven. He said, "Certainly." I said, "Well, I worry about you up there." He said, "Why?" I said, "Because they don't need preachers. They've got it made." He said, "The Lord will take care of that." But the fact is that those people who have the faith in whatever, whether they're Mormons or Catholics or Jews or even Muslims, if they have a faith, then they have a peace of mind that helps. Val Zavala>> So you've lived a long life, but you've clearly also thought about mortality. How would you like to die? Art Linkletter>> I would like to die comfortably at home with my wife and children around me and I would not want to have a terrible painful or debilitating disease and I would just say goodbye and here I am, Lord. Mark Hansen>> And if I may add -- Art Linkletter>> -- I almost did that (laughter). When I get into something like this, I could have died right here. Go ahead. Mark Hansen>> By the way, he is apt to do more eulogies than anybody. I mean, he's done everybody that's famous that you know. He did their eulogies. So I was goofing with him and said, "Would you do mine?" He said, "Of course. I can live to be a hundred thirty." I believe that you ought to be cremated. I've written into my trust and my will that all my body parts are given away. I am of Danish descent where we do not allow being buried because it's a waste of ground. As far as I'm concerned, I want to cut the silver cord, so I thought this through deeply. Then on my urn, it will say, "He lived, loved and served greatly." Val Zavala>> That's wonderful. Mark Hansen>> Yeah, I've written my own eulogy. I will send you a copy, so God forbid I do die early, you can give it. Art Linkletter>> I'll be glad to (laughter). Val Zavala>> The name of their book, again, is "How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life." 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>> They are the unsung heroes of the bug world, researchers whose work has saved crops from countless disasters. Anne McDermott goes to UC Riverside to visit the Insectary. Anne McDermott>> Oh, yuck. Look at this cockroach. Creepy, isn't it? Well, this is a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach and he's got thousands of relatives here at the Insectary at the University of California Riverside, relatives like the Stick. But don't worry. The folks here won't let them escape. On the other hand, they are let out from time to time to become movie stars. [Film Clip] Anne McDermott>> Yes, that's Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and you're about to meet some of his co-stars. [Film Clip] Anne McDermott>> Yes, the Insectary supplied about eight thousand American Cockroaches and about a hundred Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, all for this film, but fortunately the wiggly, crawling creatures didn't quit their day jobs, jobs as research tools. All kinds of insects serve the scientists at the Insectary. Dr. Paul Atkins, for instance, is conducting experiments with hundreds -- no, make that thousands -- of mosquitoes. What's the goal? Well, actually, to save the world or at least a sizable chunk of it. Dr. Paul Atkins>> And what we want to do is try and find ways to prevent them from transmitting these dangerous pathogens. Anne McDermott>> Malaria? Dr. Paul Atkins>> Malaria, Yellow Fever. Anne McDermott>> Diseases that kill people, thanks to mosquito transmission. Atkins says that he thinks he and other scientists are on the right track to getting a handle on this worldwide problem, though real success is likely still years away. Meanwhile, out in the field, Dr. Mark Hoddle and one of his students are collecting Glassy-Winged Sharpshooters. Dr. Mark Hoddle>> These adults are winged and they fly to the yellow because it's an attractive color to them because it mimics a plant. We're able to monitor their population densities or relative abundance throughout the year. Anne McDermott>> He collects them to figure out how to get rid of these bacteria-spreading pests. He's trying to save Napa Valley. Dr. Mark Hoddle>> This is a major concern for grape growers because grapes are extremely susceptible to this bacteria and Sharpshooters love feeding on grapes. Anne McDermott>> They're trying to eradicate this pest by introducing good bugs, bugs that will hurt the Sharpshooters' ability to reproduce. Dr. Mark Hoddle>> We went back to the home range and we found some small parasitic wasps which don't sting humans. They only attack the Sharpshooter. We have released those in California and those wasps have established. They're now spreading and they are causing apparently the decline of Glassy-Winged populations in this state. Anne McDermott>> This, of course, is just a small sample of what's going on in and around UC Riverside's Insectary. There are dozens of projects involving thousands of insects underway here. And don't forget the Entomology Museum where they have three million specimens on display. Lots of bugs and lots going on here, including the occasional moonlighting job. [Film Clip] Anne McDermott>> I'm Anne McDermott for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> Something remarkable is taking shape at Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, a huge Chinese Garden complete with a lake, rocks, bridges and fountains. It is by far the most challenging project The Huntington has ever taken on and, when it's finished, these twelve acres will be the largest classical Chinese Garden outside of China. We get a description of this remarkable garden in the making from Laurie Sowd, Operations Director at The Huntington. Laurie Sowd>> Most of the plant material that you see in your back yard and throughout southern California is Chinese in origin, so that prompted us to want to bring that into this beautiful landscape tradition. Chinese gardens are so heavily built, so plants are not always the first thing you notice in them, but they're incredibly important. Chinese gardens have five primary elements and you're seeing four of them here on site so far. You're seeing the water, the blood, of the garden and it's a very complicated process to engineer a lake that allows it to re-circulate itself and be just the right level of murkiness and pristineness. We don't want it to look like a swimming pool, obviously. Then you're seeing the bone, the skeleton, of the garden represented in the rocks. This beautiful, unusual looking rock that is all around the edges of the garden, of the lake, came from the Tai region near Suzhou, China. We imported it all. It's a very unusual rock. You don't see it typically here in the west and it is rich with visual symbolism. It's very sculptural in looks. The other thing that came from China which helped us to capture the authentic spirit of a Chinese garden is artisans. We've been working with teams in Suzhou, China since the very beginning, both on the design and construction of the garden. We brought over about twelve artisans this spring to put in place this amazing landscape rock with an aesthetic eye that is very different from ours in the west. It tends to be very uplifted and kind of precariously placed. They also put in place the third element of the garden, which is architecture of bridges. They hand-carved these solid granite bridges in China, in Suzhou, shipped them over to us and then came here and assembled and put them in place on the site. The fourth element we were just talking about is plants, and the fifth element of the garden is literature. That's an element you'll see ultimately when we put the pavilions in place in calligraphy and in the naming of pavilions and views with poetic beautiful names that conjure references to Chinese poetry, ancient tales in history. [Film Clip] Laurie Sowd>> Chinese gardens are heavily built. There will be a major courtyard consisting of several pavilions here at the south, including a tea house and a tea shop. Then several other pavilions around the site that are opportunities for viewing the scenery and that help to shape your view of the site and allow the garden to unfold to you as you walk along a zigzagging covered corridor, for example. [Film Clip] Laurie Sowd>> It's been an international collaborative project from the beginning, including the funding. We've gotten funding for this garden from Chinese and American communities locally, nationally and internationally. It's really been bringing together a very diverse group of Huntington participants. We've always welcomed many Chinese visitors, whether from abroad or from locally, but we're definitely seeing an increase and a huge amount of interest from those communities in this project. I think, thereby, they're experiencing the rest of The Huntington in a kind of richer manner as well. The Huntington is and always has been a place that brings together the humanities, art, literature, architecture, botany, and this garden is kind of a microcosm of those things coming together, those things that The Huntington has been doing for a hundred years. We're treating this garden really as what it is, a center of cultural memory and a center of rich, cultural interaction. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> The Chinese Garden isn't finished yet, but it's still open to the public for a special preview now through January 2007. After that, they'll close it for further construction. If you'd like more details, you can go to their website at huntington.org. 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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