Update on the King Drew Trauma Center; Vote on Final Phase of Playa Vista; The Foothill South Tollway in Orange County; Gender Gap Narrows in Presidential Election Polls; Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge
Update on the King Drew Trauma Center
The Los Angeles County Supervisors voted yesterday to move more slowly toward the closing of the trauma unit at King Drew Medical Center. Larry's guest is KPCC reporter John Rabe.
Vote on Final Phase of Playa Vista
The Los Angeles City Council is scheduled to consider a plan today to build the second and final stage of the long-debated mixed-use development at Playa Vista. The 1.1 billion dollar project known as The Village would include 2,600 housing units 175,000 square feet of office space and 150,000 square feet of retail space on an 11-acre site. Larry's guests are: Steve Sugarman, spokesman for Playa Vista; Bruce Robertson, Director of Ballona Valley Preservation League; and J. William Gibson, professor of Sociology at Cal State Long Beach.
The Foothill South Tollway in Orange County
Larry Mantle discusses the proposed toll road that would cut through the length of San Onofre State Beach’s northern section that represents more than half of the park’s land area. There are 6 routes that the Transportation Corridor Agencies could choose from for this plan, and 3 of them include the route through San Onofre. Opponents of the toll road fear that it would degrade the park, spoil Trestles, the estuary, and San Mateo Creek with the noise from a concrete flyover and contaminated storm runoff. Proponents maintain that they can preserve the environmental integrity of the area, but that the road is necessary due to the congestion on Interstate 5. Larry is joined by Lisa Telles, Director of Communications for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, and Mark Cousineau, Chairman of the Orange County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.
Gender Gap Narrows in Presidential Election Polls
More women tend to vote democratic in presidential elections, but recent polls show that the gender gap is narrowing; with more women deciding lately to cast their votes for Bush. How have American men and women tended to vote in elections past, and what issues tend to appeal to each gender? And what messages should Bush and Kerry be sending to men and women to attract them in this election? Larry Mantle talks with political scientist Xandra Kayden, and Linda Feldman, Washington correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor.
Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge
In Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003 preeminent scholar, prolific author, and California State Librarian Emeritus Kevin Starr provides an encyclopedic look at the Golden State during a time of unprecedented upheaval – a period that included extreme gang violence in LA, civil unrest, earthquakes, fires, the spectacular rise and fall of Silicon Valley, and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor. In Coast of Dreams, Starr asks: Is California an aberration, a sideshow or, worse, a case study in how things can go wrong for the United States? Where is California going and what will it become? And, if California is a microcosm of the United States, where are we headed this election year and beyond? Larry's guest is author Kevin Starr.