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Life & Times Transcript
9/12/07 Announcer>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Another picture perfect day at a world-famous beach, but what lies beneath the mansions of Malibu? Michelle Mehta>> All these illegal pipes that are being discharged by the homes around here, Malibu has done either nothing or very little to actually tell the homeowners to stop the discharging of these pipes. Announcer>> And then, an accidental history of Los Angeles. The LAPD archives become a rich source of images from the city's past. 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. Sam Louie>> The city of Malibu conjures up images of warm sandy beaches surrounded by some of Hollywood's biggest stars, but there's another side to Malibu that environmentalists say needs to be cleaned up. Surfrider Beach in Malibu. It's known as one of the most popular surf spots in southern California. On this day, throngs of beachgoers and surfers soaked up the sun, but some environmental groups say that the coastline along Malibu is not always in such great shape for the public. Tracey Egoscue>> For the last two years, there has been a high amount of bacteria contamination in Malibu and it's been going on actually for decades. But in the last two years, it has been extremely bad. Sam Louie>> Tracy Egoscue is with Santa Monica Baykeeper, a nonprofit agency dedicated to preserving and protecting the ocean waters from pollution. Tracey Egoscue>> Well, you don't just have the effect on surfers or swimmers or even casual waders, but you also have a huge effect of the pollution reeking on the kelp forest system and the marine life that depends on the ocean. Sam Louie>> And it's especially significant here, as the state has designated Malibu's coastline as an Area of Special Biological Significance, or ASBS for short. Michelle Mehta>> The city of Malibu has the largest mainland's ASBS. It's twenty-three miles, almost the whole coast of Malibu. Sam Louie>> Michelle Mehta is with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Michelle Mehta>> One of the biggest problems with Malibu is that this is an Area of Special Biological Significance that we're standing in right now. So this is supposed to be held to a higher standard because of its fragile ecosystem and biological integrity. There's supposed to be no waste discharged here. You know, just up in Paradise Cove one-third of the time that they monitored. Sam Louie>> The discharge comes from pipes that flow from storm drains or private homes. Michelle Mehta>> All these illegal pipes that are being discharged by the homes around here, Malibu has done either nothing or very little to actually tell the homeowners to stop the discharging from these pipes. Tracey Egoscue>> For approximately ten years, we've had a volunteer army, so to speak, walking up and down these beaches cataloging all of the illegal drains in the Area of Special Biological Significance. There are over seven hundred illegal drains in this area of Malibu. Sam Louie>> As a result of the continuing discharge, environmentalists have filed a notice of intent to sue the city of Malibu and Los Angeles County. Tracey Egoscue>> Speaking on behalf of the Santa Monica Baykeeper, we just were fed up. Michelle Mehta>> The beaches that are monitored all up and down Malibu where there's supposed to be no waste being discharged, we see exceeding anywhere from thirty percent, you know, upwards of thirty percent of the time that the beaches are being monitored. The water is failing health standards. Sam Louie>> Malibu city officials acknowledge that the pipes are there, but they insist they're legal. Jennifer Voccola>> You will find homes that have pipes discharging below them or large corrugated pipes discharging over the bluffs. Those were constructed and installed years before the city was in existence. That was based on the standards at that time. Sam Louie>> Jennifer Voccola is the Environmental Programs Coordinator for the city of Malibu. Voccola says that the discharge that's found from the pipes is due more to urban runoff than with waste from a homeowner's septic tank. Jennifer Voccola>> There isn't runoff from septic tanks into the ocean that we are aware of at this time. If we did know that, we would pursue active enforcement on any septic system that ran into the ocean. Michelle Mehta>> Storm water, basically a lot of these pipes that we see, and the creek right here, that's the number one cause of beach water pollution in the United States in general. Sam Louie>> Environmentalists agree that storm water is the main contributor to pollution in the creeks, lagoons and the ocean. But they also point the finger to malfunctioning septic systems. Mark Abramson>> The entire city of Malibu, with the exception of a few small developments, is almost exclusively on septic systems. If those things are not functioning properly and even in some cases when they are, you get high nutrients, nitrates, phosphates, also fecal matter that gets into the system through groundwater. Sam Louie>> Mark Abramson with Santa Monica Baykeeper shows us what can happen to the Malibu Lagoon when urban runoff collects during the hot summer months. Mark Abramson>> I mean, you can see directly under the flow and all this area what we call scum or foam. Again, if we're talking about a clean water source, you generally don't see that kind of crud on top of the water, for lack of a better term. Sam Louie>> When the water level is high, the lagoon empties into the ocean. But with the heat, the water in the lagoon stays stagnant, trapping the debris and creating conditions ripe for extra algae. It's the algae that environmentalists say can wreak havoc on the ecosystem. Mark Abramson>> When algae decays, it creates this organic muck on the bottom. You can see how dark and dank the water is here and you can smell it. Jennifer Voccola>> I can't necessarily speak to whether our system would correct the algae problem or not. We have feasibility studies that show this area is not contributing from the septic systems to the lagoon. Sam Louie>> As part of the city's clean water program, Malibu built its first storm water treatment facility in February. Bob Brager>> This facility here is a six million dollar storm water treatment facility. What it does is capture storm water from three different areas of this Malibu Civic Center and it treats it and removes sediments and also bacteria by using the ozone process. Sam Louie>> Bob Brager is the Public Works Director for Malibu. He says that the treatment facility processes fourteen hundred gallons of water a minute. Bob Brager>> It removes some trash that may fall into storm drains and then it also filters out any suspended solids. Then it disinfects using the ozone process. In that way, the water quality that is discharged back into the creek is very much improved. Sam Louie>> In addition, the city of Malibu has plans for a fourteen acre clean water project to be created here on this empty field. Michelle Mehta>> If you can collect this storm water before it reaches the creek or the ocean, you can treat it. Sam Louie>> As a result of their stepped-up efforts, city officials believe that it's led to more A ratings for water quality at places like Surfrider Beach. Still, the city and Los Angeles County could face a potential lawsuit of up to twenty million dollars unless environmentalists see enough improvement. Tracey Egoscue>> This is such a massive problem and they've just waited too long. So we would like an accelerated schedule. We would like an accelerated fix and we look forward to working towards that. Jennifer Voccola>> I will gladly investigate any pipe that is reported to me that it's discharging. Any time that it's reported to the city that there is a pipe discharging, we'll send an inspector and we'll follow through in code enforcement procedures. Sam Louie>> Has the city ever fined a homeowner? Jennifer Voccola>> We have not fined a homeowner because of this. We haven't received reports of this. Michelle Mehta>> Nobody is saying the problem can stop immediately. Rather, we'd like for them to be on a schedule so that, within a few years, these problems are being stopped. Sam Louie>> I'm Sam Louie 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>> It's a problem that's been with us for decades, the learning gap between minority students and white students. Now a new study shows that even middle class and upper middle class minority students don't achieve as well as their white counterparts and that's caught the attention of the California State Superintendent of Schools. So what's at the heart of this learning gap? For a provocative conversation around our Kitchen Table, we brought Austin Dragon, President of the Southern California Republican Club, together with John Rogers from UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access. Our debate is kicked off by Joe Hicks from CommUnity Advocates. Joe Hicks>> Guys, it looks like the whole discussion around this achievement gap is intensified with the Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell saying that it's just not issues of poverty, but that there may be issues of culture that's informing a fairly wide learning gap between black and Latino kids at the lower end and white and Asian kids at the upper end. You've been around education issues for a long time. In your view, what do you think is informing that gap? John Rogers>> I think the primary thing that informs the achievement gap is an opportunity gap, that African American and Latino students in California receive fewer resources than white and Asian students, that they go to fundamentally different schools, for the most part, than white and Asian students, schools that are more crowded, schools that have far more under-prepared teachers, and that leads to lower performance. Joe Hicks>> Austin, I got a hint that you may disagree with that. What's your take? Austin Dragon>> I totally disagree because even when you look at upper middle class blacks and Latinos, particularly in the black community, you're still seeing those gaps. So they have the resources, they have the best teachers, they live in safe communities and all of that, yet they're still under-performing when they're compared to their white and Asian counterparts. So it's not an issue of resources. It's not a lack of opportunity. It is really a value system. Again, there is not the focus on the serious business of education. One of the studies we saw from UC Berkeley, they went out to look at the students. The parents asked, "Well, what's going on? We're doctors, we're lawyers, we have the best for our children, yet they're still not performing. What's going on?" It really is a value system. Joe Hick>> Bill Cosby, in his sort of pop comedic way, made this argument that parents aren't parenting, we got to get serious about education, that's the key to the future. The allegation coming from Bill Cosby, who's for some reason really zeroed in on this issue, is that's not going on to the extent that it should be. Do you think that there's any component of culture that is part of this issue of this gap? John Rogers>> I'd like to take Bill Cosby into the schools in South Los Angeles and East Los Angeles that I've been visiting recently with high school students. In those schools, I see high school students that are very engaged, that want to learn, that sometimes don't have the conditions in place for them to learn. Students I was working with did a survey of other young people and eighty percent said that they wanted to do well in school because they wanted to make their parents proud. Those sound to me like engaged students, students that want quality education, but haven't been provided it. Joe Hicks>> So, Austin, what's the problem? Why aren't these kids performing at the levels that we expect them to or want them to? Austin Dragon>> In certain communities, they will think that education is either boring or that getting a good education is trying to be white. I mean, that is a big component. You know, education is not that important because I'm going to get a record deal or whatever. So if you have that -- Joe Hicks>> -- or to fight dogs. Austin Dragon>> Or kill dogs or whatever (laughter). So if you have that component where people think, "Well, I can't bring books to the classroom because that's not cool" or "I'm not going to do homework because, you know, that's for squares" or whatever the term that's used now -- Joe Hicks>> -- brainiacs. Austin Dragon>> Then you will never, no matter how much funding, the best teachers, the best principal, small schools, large schools, whatever, if that is the mindset going in, we'll never be successful. That has to be basically addressed. Joe Hicks>> What's wrong? John Rogers>> I would argue, if the problem of underachievement was a problem of culture, we wouldn't see white students in California under-performing relative to white students across the country. White students ranked forty-seven out of all the fifty states in their performance in eighth grade on reading. Is it because they have cultural problems or is it because, in California, we have more students for every teacher, we have more students for every counselor, we have more students for every librarian than in any other state? I think we're under-investing in our schools and causing inadequacies and inequalities as a consequence. Austin Dragon>> I would say that that's the same excuse that's used all the time. Again, my number one question is, how much should we be spending? John Rogers>> Well, I think we have some good answers to this. There was a set of studies that were done out of Stanford last year. Two million dollars was spent on these studies and, basically, they found that -- Joe Hicks>> -- they should have put that money into education (laughter). John Rogers>> I would think so too. Basically, they found that we're dramatically under-spending relative to other states. We spend seventy-five cents on the dollar of what other high-wealth states spend. We need to spend twelve or thirteen thousand dollars per student if we want the outcomes that the state is -- Joe Hicks>> -- but, John, they're spending that in D.C. They're spending fourteen thousand per student and the schools in D.C. suck. Yet we look at parochial schools that often spend ten thousand dollars per pupil and get far more results. John Rogers>> Joe, here's where you and I would agree, I think. The funding is necessary, but not sufficient in order to make the change. We need more resources, we need to lower class sizes, but we also need exactly what was laid out before. We need to have small schools with a lot of support for the students, with well-trained teachers, with teachers that care about the students, with communities that are brought into play in deciding what's going to go on in the school. We can create success. We've seen success in schools in South Los Angeles like View Park High School. We've seen success in San Diego at the school like The Preuss School. Despite that it's seventy-five percent Latino and African American students, it outperforms every school in San Diego County. Joe Hicks>> What would be your solution, Austin, if they came to you and said, "We're going to make you Superintendent of Schools in the state of California." What would you do to try to close this "racial learning gap", you know, to try to make sure the kids are performing where they need to when they graduate? What would you do? Austin Dragon>> Well, there are several things. One is there has to be more discipline in a lot of those schools. One of the things you'll hear from teachers and principals is that, if you don't have discipline from day one, again, everything goes out the window, so discipline has to be a factor. Another thing that you'll hear teachers say is that, "We don't have enough of the teachers that will back us up." A generation ago, the teacher, the parent, everyone, was on the same page. Now you'll have situations where, "Oh, my child didn't do that." You know, we all heard and we've all seen that. So basically, we need everyone on the same page, teacher, principal, the parents, everyone doing the same thing. Then the other thing is just to look at the curriculum. If we have schools that have those kinds of deficiencies, whether it's reading, writing, arithmetic, all of that, then that's where there should be more of a focus. To me, the resources is how you structure the curriculum to make up for those deficiencies. That's what we need to focus on. Joe Hicks>> What would you do? Same question. You're made king of education in the state of California. What would the first few things be that you'd do? John Rogers>> Focus like a laser on two different things. One is the fact that we have a climate of scarcity that needs to be addressed. We need to create conditions through more investment in the schools so that all students have decent teachers in front of them, decent school facilities and the materials that they need. The second thing I would do is to direct the majority of resources toward Latino and African American students to ensure that we can enable all students to be successful. Right now, we're providing Latino and African American students with less. We need to provide them with more. Joe Hicks>> Well, I'm not sure we solved it today, but we took a whack at it. Guys, thanks for coming in and talking about this today. We're just flat out of time here. Appreciate it. Austin Dragon>> Thank you. 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>> It's a crime writer's dream, eighty years of crime photos, mug shots, evidence and, of course, murder victims. Everything from mobsters to modern day gangsters, and Vicki Curry got a peek when she headed down to the LAPD photo archives. Vicki Curry>> It's a nondescript room jammed with boxes, thousands of them, stacked shelf upon shelf, row after row. Inside these boxes is the history of Los Angeles. This is the City Records Center in downtown. It holds a hundred fifty years worth of city documents, including photographs taken by the Los Angeles Police Department. Lieutenant John Thomas>> Just by coincidence, these crime scene photographers captured something, you know, for eternity about a people and that's the people of Los Angeles and the men and women who serve on the Los Angeles Police Department. Vicki Curry>> Lieutenant John Thomas and photographer, Merrick Morton, took on the task of sorting through the LAPD images in 2001. Since then, they've gone through nearly sixty thousand of an estimated one million negatives. So once you start going through these photos, what happens? Do you just start going through them and putting aside ones that you think are interesting? Merrick Morton>> Yeah, yeah. It's always what we consider interesting shots. Lieutenant John Thomas>> There are so many different ways you can go, you know, when you're actually looking through something that's what I kind of think is an accidental historic record because they weren't intending for this to be, you know, historical. It was just evidence, but you get a glimpse of so many things by looking at these photographs. Vicki Curry>> The project began when Morton and his wife, Robin Blackman, wanted to create an exhibit for her Echo Park's gallery, Fototeka. Morton had been photographing street gangs for the LAPD since the early 1980's and he figured the department had a collection of crime scene photographs that would make for an interesting exhibit, but when he spoke with the city archivist -- Merrick Morton>> She said to me, "Well, I think that hell will freeze over before the LAPD will give you any images to look at." Vicki Curry>> Meanwhile, Thomas was trying to get into the archives for his own research on the history of the LAPD. Lieutenant John Thomas>> Word got back to me that there was somebody else looking to gain access to some of the negatives for, you know, historical and artistic purposes of putting them on display, and that person happened to be Rick Morton. Vicki Curry>> The two joined forces and got permission from the police chief at the time, Bernard Parks. They then started the massive job of sorting through negatives that date back to 1925, images ranging from crime scenes and forensic photographs to mug shots and staged training pictures. Merrick Morton>> The very first step is going through the database that the city has. Here we have images from 1928 and then from 1929 and you see, on this sheet here, they said that they were supposed to be destroyed in 1948 and 1949. But for some reason, as I said, it actually slipped through the cracks and they were saved. So when we first came in here, we were actually told that there was a good chance that there wouldn't even be anything in here at all. Vicki Curry>> Some of the oldest boxes contained highly flammable decomposing nitrate negatives. The fire department wanted to destroy all the negatives taken before 1955, but Morton and Thomas convinced officials that some of them could be saved with proper storage. Merrick Morton>> It wasn't really the ideal area to be stored, so we were able to transfer approximately about three hundred thousand negatives over to an archival storage facility. Vicki Curry>> Once they started going through the boxes, the team found a treasure trove of local history. Lieutenant John Thomas>> That's probably the most fascinating part about doing this is getting a sense of, you know, how things have evolved in the city of Los Angeles. It's very addicting because you can literally do this for hours. I mean, once you get started going through, you never know when the next great shot you're going to find will be. Merrick Morton>> 1957, so this is the first time that these have been gone through in probably almost fifty years. Vicki Curry>> To give the project more artistic credibility, the team brought in a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The photographs were first exhibited at the Fototeka Gallery in September 2001. Merrick Morton>> There were quite a few photographers out there who had a great sense of training or, in other words, I guess the easiest term would be that they had a great eye. Lieutenant John Thomas>> That's the interesting thing. In the earlier photographs, the crime scene photographers would allow so much more into the picture than you'd get today. Oftentimes, you have people standing in the background. You'd get kids that would be in the crime scene. It was quite common for them to take the entire crime scene from a panoramic perspective. There are some certain images that I can be convinced that are art, but by and large, I still see them as crime scene photographs. Most of what you're looking at is pretty mundane. Some of the stuff gets very graphic, but you find these gems that make it all worth it, you know, after searching for several hours and you pull out one photograph that's as stunning as a bridge over the Los Angeles River and all of a sudden it's like, yeah, this was worth it. It's a complete package of history, art and everything else. Merrick Morton>> I often like the forensic images that are very simple. Some of the crime scene images, I like a lot too, that are a little more graphic, I must say. There's this one mob hit that you would think came out of "The Godfather". Lieutenant John Thomas>> For me, some of the more humorous ones are my favorite. That gives a glimpse of what police work was like through the years and, as I mentioned before, what Los Angeles was like through the years. Merrick Morton>> It's always nice to come across the Central Avenue. Anything on Central Avenue is always good. Lieutenant John Thomas>> Yeah, especially from that time period. Vicki Curry>> Since 2001, the exhibit has traveled across the United States and Europe. Lieutenant John Thomas>> It gets people beyond the yellow tape. It takes the lay person to a place that they often don't get a chance to venture to. Merrick Morton>> I also think that it's the film industry that creates this because, as we see films, we see a fantasy version of crime and this is the reality of it. Vicki Curry>> And because it is reality, Morton and Thomas are always aware of the delicate subject matter. Lieutenant John Thomas>> So you have to be sensitive to the fact that these, by and large, are crime scene images and you walk a very thin line between what is decent and what is proper and what is appropriate out of respect for the victims. That's been a concern from the very beginning, protecting the integrity of the archives and not over-commercializing them. Vicki Curry>> But for John Thomas and Merrick Morton, their top priority is preserving the LAPD photo archives for future generations. Lieutenant John Thomas>> That's probably the biggest concern that we have, you know, and just ensuring that, you know, they're going to be around. It's the story of Los Angeles. It's the story of the Los Angeles Police Department. It's the story of a people, the city of Los Angeles, how it evolved, and you can find all that in these images. Val Zavala>> 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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