Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti on the work ahead of him; what the Rodney King beating trial teaches us about race and justice as the George Zimmerman trial begins; Glee's Matthew Morrison on his new album; how the NSA collects your personal information; what happens when you're deported; and more
#DearMayor: Mayor elect Garcetti shares his priorities for the city
During the transition, Garcetti says he's been out meeting with Angelenos. The answers to the city's problems, he believes, won't come from experts at City Hall, but from people who live and work in the city. "They have the answers," he says.
Do you have a suggestion for the mayor? Or a good idea? Share it with us in our special web feature, Dear Mayor.
Interview highlights:
On his top two priorities: Well, my first priority is to get out there and listen to Los Angeles. Not to go behind close doors as we've sometimes seen in past transitions and figure out all the answers to L.A.'s problems in a back room in City Hall, but to go out with six different meetings and a seventh one online where I'm listening to Angelenos.
I'll talk about my two top priorities, which are getting the economy back on track and making City Hall work for the people again. In other words, reforming City Hall, our culture, our customer service, technology and our systems. And also just really focusing on making this a more business-friendly place and a place where more jobs will come and will grow and a place where people will feel that prosperity that I grew up with in Los Angeles.
On education, a key concern for participants of Dear Mayor: I'd focus in two or three areas: One, being a strong voice in Sacramento for a higher level of education funding. We cannot continue to be near the basement in America. That is not the way to prepare the workforce for tomorrow.
Second, though — a real emphasis on vocational education. Preparing kids for good careers. That may be computer coding in a classroom that allows somebody to graduate without a college degree earning $70,000 in Silicon Beach at a start-up, or it may mean looking at aerospace and some of the aviation mechanics programs. We badly need to hire aviation mechanics. So a real emphasis on vocational ed.
And lastly, a real emphasis on technology in the classroom. I heard the president speak on Friday. He and I met when he was in Los Angeles, and he talked about a school district in North Carolina that was the second-poorest in the state but was the second-highest in performance because they had ditched the textbook altogether and given every kid a laptop. I think it's really important for us to prepare our children for the way we will learn and the way we will work in the future.
On infrastructure, another key concern of Dear Mayor participants: Well I ran on a platform of being a back-to-basics mayor — of getting those small things. In my own district, we've seen a remarkable transformation because we focused on the street-level health of the community — that basic infrastructure that attracted businesses and people to spend time in their neighborhoods again.
But I'm also going to be honest with Angelenos. This is a problem 70 years in the making. It will require money to pay for it. It will require us to be more efficient. Certainly we can boost the number of miles we pave, for instance, of streets, and I've promised 800 miles. But if we really want to attack 70 years of neglect, we're going to have to figure out a way to more comprehensively pay for that. Maybe with a bond in the future. Maybe with looking at a way we can take some money away from other things and pay it forward.
To me, that is the symbol of the decline of Los Angeles. The potholes that we have, our cracked streets. We have to invest in that as well as in public transportation. It's not just for cars — but the bike lanes and the walkable communities, the sidewalks. I was talking to a woman at our forum in South L.A. this weekend and she said, "I can't go for a walk in my own neighborhood. I am disabled and it's literally too dangerous." That's unacceptable in Los Angeles.
On L.A.'s financial situation and city technology: Well, I would say our [financial] problems are in remission. But they're not completely gone. Or to use another metaphor — we came pretty close to the cliff of bankruptcy and we backed away significantly. But we can still see that cliff. So while this year we've reduced what was the projected deficit by 90 percent, in the coming two or three years, we're going to see that deficit balloon again if we don't keep up the progress that we have of making sure we have pension reform, and that we have reasonable salaries and benefits for our employees.
But I also don't want to just go to our employees and say hey, what can we give up? I want to change the culture at City Hall to say what can you do to increase our efficiencies and revenues? How can we save money? I joked that we have cutting edge technology in Los Angeles during the campaign. But it's cutting edge from 1982. And if we can just do some simple things, for instance, to move our e-mail as we did a couple years ago away from city servers to the cloud — well, that saved us a million bucks that year that we can put into other things like tree-trimming or street-paving.
I think that we have a very backward city hall, so to do the things that I want to do — I've talked to our new controller Ron Galprin and our city attorney and the city council about what can we do to update city hall so we don't have to just ask taxpayers for more taxes or our employees for greater cuts. But we can actually look at a more efficient operation. And then second, boost our economy.
If we have people working, if we have businesses that want to stay, everything is possible. Which is why, that really is my number one emphasis: becoming a business-friendly place, getting to know our local CEOs, going to places like Texas and China and bringing business to L.A., instead of just seeing those places come and take business from us. So that will be really my No. 1, my No. 2, my No. 3 emphasis — is getting the economy back to work.
On union negotiations: I approach it in the same way that I did before the election when I was city council president: very respectfully, very collaboratively, but also very tenaciously. I think that — I don't care who's with or against me. I'm going to be a mayor in three weeks, and I'm here for everybody. And I'm going to have to work closely with our unions as well as every resident in Los Angeles. But what I will say is I'll tell the truth — both to the people of L.A. and to our unions, sit down like I did a few years ago when we were about to go off that cliff and say, "Look, these numbers are bad. If we don't something together, we will literally go bankrupt." And credit to those unions and to people of L.A.
Everybody realized we all had to sacrifice a little and we did back away from that cliff. Our work isn't done. So I'm going to go back to them and ask how can we together control our healthcare costs. How can we together make sure that our pensions don't balloon again? And what can we do to create a more efficient operation in the city of Los Angeles so we don't have a culture of no, a culture that lacks innovation?
I'm going to have a chief technology officer for the first time. We can negotiate things at the table that aren't just about salaries and benefits. We can negotiate collaboration. And to me, that's to some degree what's been missing. We've gotten through the tough times. Let's figure out how to get on track for the next decade, so that the next mayor after me doesn't look at a mess that he inherited.
On his former competitors, Jan Perry, Emanuel Pleitez and Kevin Brown: I've asked them to help me out moving forward. I just didn't want just their help in the campaign. I think Jan Perry, Kevin James, Emmanual have great things to offer this city in education, environment, and business. And I welcome the participation of all Angelenos. In fact, if I can plug our transition website: transition.lacity.org. If anyone out there is interested in working or being on a commission, finding out information if you have an idea to send to us, really I do want to listen to all the people, but those three folks will be intimately involved whether as a formal part of the administration or just close advisors. I hope that each or all will plan on staying in City Hall or coming to City Hall.
On his Transition website and ideas from citizens: It's remarkable how much wisdom is out there on the street. I've always said City Hall doesn't have the answers. But somebody who lives on a particular block, or works on a given street, or who drives through a particular intersection — Angelenos know the answers. And so we're going to continue that process. I'm going to look into continuing to do office hours like I've done for 12 years as a council member, as mayor, where people can come to meet with the mayor face to face. I'm going to continue to do my neighborhood walks that I've done as a council member, so don't be surprised if you live in the city of L.A. and I knock on your door one day and say, "Hey, it's the mayor, what can I do better and what are we doing well and what ideas do you have?" Because I think that's what keeps you continuing to innovate and most of the ideas I get come from everyday Angelenos.
On ending the gross receipts business tax: That [projected $400 million dollar] hole would only exist if we got rid of the tax and it had no impact on businesses staying or coming to Los Angeles. And in fact, we've shown research that if we keep this tax going, little by little, businesses leave. And if you talk to any accountant in the L.A. area and as somebody incorporating a new business, almost every accountant says, "Hey, why don't you do it in Beverly Hills, why don't you do it in Glendale, some place that doesn't have a gross receipts tax?" And for your listeners who don't pay that or know what it is, it's literally a tax that taxes your gross receipts — so you may lose money, and we still tax you. So why would you come to L.A.? Why would you stay in L.A. if you have an option to move?
We put forward a plan already as a council member through our business tax advisory committee, to get rid of this over the next decade and a half. But to cut it in half in the first few years, to send a really strong signal that we won't be No. 88 out of 88 cities in L.A. County anymore, that we're open for business. And in our past experience, when we cut it in particular areas, like in Hollywood, we are able to waive the gross receipts tax for entertainment companies when I was a council member there, and we attracted Technicolor, TV Guide, a whole host of folks — Jimmy Kimmel Show — to Hollywood, because they knew they didn't have to pay that high rate or pay it at all. So we got much more money in our coffers from the sales tax, the property tax, the economic activity that comes from people actually being in L.A. So it will pay for itself as long as we do it carefully over time and I'm very committed to making sure that happens.
Santa Monica College students react to shootings
The mood was somber Monday, as Santa Monica College students returned to campus after the shootings that left 5 people dead and several others injured on Friday.
KPCC's Corey Moore spoke with students who were studying for finals at the campus library.
26-year-old David Iwamizu, a first year at SMC, was on campus to take a Chinese final. He was on a bus on Pico Boulevard headed to campus Friday when he heard gunshots and sirens and saw helicopters. He had planned to study at the library that day.
Addressing speculation that the alleged gunman, 23-year-old John Zawahri might have suffered from mental issues, Iwamizu said he thinks more should be done in the U.S. to help people who are mentally ill.
"We can make laws, we can bring more police on campus but that's not going to stop people that have problems from committing these acts, so I really think we (as a nation) should take measures to help people like that and prevent them from doing acts like this. That's the solution. Just making laws against it... it doesn't really work."
Another student, 19-year-old Psychology major Tony Ruiz, was on campus Monday morning to take his English and Political Science finals. He wasn't on campus at the time of the shooting Friday, but his friend who was near the library when the shooting took place, called him crying. Ruiz said he felt uncomfortable being back on campus but said "we have to move on."
"Feels kind of dark and scary. For some reason I can feel like... people have a lot of fear... they're just worried today... walking down [on campus] I just feel the whole incident happening again."
A Santa Monica College commencement ceremony is scheduled for 6 pm tomorrow evening.
Police are still piecing together evidence in the shootings, which began when gunman John Zawahri allegedly shot and killed his father and brother.
The gunman then headed towards Santa Monica College, where he shot and killed 68-year-old groundskeeper Carlos Franco and shot his 26-year-old daughter Marcela Franco.
He was then shot and killed by police.
Race and the trial of George Zimmerman
Today is the first day of the trial in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.
One Febrary 26, 2012, 17-yo Martin was walking back to his father's house when George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, thought he looked suspicious and followed him.
Their encounter ended with Martin shot dead, and Zimmerman claiming he fired in self-defense. Martin was unarmed.
But amid this case is the issue of race: Martin was black, and African-Americans throughout the country believe he was racially profiled.
These sensitive issues are coming to the fore as the trial begins, and for blacks in LA it's hard not to see some parallels between what happened to Trayvon Martin and what happened to Rodney King more than two decades ago.
Loyola law professor Laurie Levenson explains what those involved in the George Zimmerman trial could learn from this city's past.
And Darnell Hunt, professor of sociology at UCLA and author of, "Black Los Angeles," describes how this case on the other side of the country is hitting close to home for black Angelinos.
Cheap thriller kills at box office. Oz in 3-D? On the lot with Rebecca Keegan
The Purge, a thriller/horror film made for about $3 million, took in almost $40 million this week, beating big-budget films like Fast & Furious 6, and The Internship. LA Times film writer Rebecca Keegan breaks down the reasons why it was the little film that could.
And Warner Bros. is re-releasing its 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz, in a 3-D version. Film historians are aghast, but imagine seeing those creepy monkeys flying at you, or the Wicked Witch's nose right in your face.
On The Lot is our weekly look at the business of Hollywood, and airs every Monday on Take Two.
Matthew Morrison of 'Glee' drops new album, 'Where It All Began'
Matthew Morrison has made a name for himself playing Will Shuester, the Spanish teacher-turned-singing coach in the hit Fox Series "Glee." But now he's trying out his hand at being an honest to goodness singing star with a new album called, "Where It All Began."
How can nuclear waste be safely stored longterm?
Last week, Southern California Edison announced it had shut down the San Onofre nuclear power plant for good. That raises the question of what will be done with the radioactive material there.
For now, the spent fuel will be stored on site, but there are no current longterm plans for storage of nuclear waste. James Acton, senior associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment, joins the show with more.
Horne V. USDA: Supreme Court rules in favor of California raisin farmers
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on Horne V. the Department of Agriculture. At the heart of this case is the California raisin.
Thanks to a government program dating back to the Great Depression, raisin farmers have had to surrender a share of their crops to the government. Those farmers get little or nothing in return. One Fresno farmer named Marvin Horne refused to comply and the government hit him with nearly $700,000 in fines.
Horne took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. For more on what the court did with it, we're joined by Karl Manheim, professor of Constitutional Law at Loyola Law School.
Leaked NSA program reveals the government may be monitoring you
Last week, news of an NSA program to monitor American citizens' communication became public knowledge.
Over the weekend, the leaker was revealed as former CIA employee Edward Snowden.
Major tech companies like Google and Yahoo! have claimed to know nothing about the program, but there's speculation that might not be the whole truth.
While a lot has been leaked, there's still a lot we don't know.
Here to talk about what we do know about PRISM is New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau. He's also the author of the book Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice.
After deportation, lives can quickly slide into despair
Last year, the Obama administration deported 400,000 people from the US. Many were sent to border cities like Tijuana. Deportees often dropped off with little money, few belongings and no ties to the city. From the Fronteras Desk in San Diego, Adrian Florido says, once there, many of their lives quickly become desperate.
Last year the Obama administration deported 400,000 people from the United States, many sent to border cities like Tijuana. They’re often dropped off with little money, few belongings and no ties to the city. Once there, many lives quickly slide into desperation.
Juan Manuel Alvarez is 25. On a recent afternoon he was walking through Tijuana’s red light district, where he tries to make a living shining shoes. Other than his tattered clothes, his one possession is his shoe shiner’s kit, which he carries everywhere. His fingernails are perpetually stained with black polish.
Alvarez was deported from the U.S. last year, and since then, he’s been stranded in Tijuana, living in a shelter a short walk from the border, trying to collect enough for a bus ticket back to his hometown in Sinaloa. But the funds are scarce.
He pays for food and a bed at the shelter. And there are setbacks.
As we walked he told me he was recently picked up by police, taken to the station and told to shine the boots of 15 officers.
“Not a single one paid me,” he said, his eyes filling with tears and his voice with anger.
Like Alvarez, many recent deportees in Tijuana face frequent conflict with the municipal police in their daily struggle to eke out a living. It’s hard for many to come up with the 15 pesos each day — about a dollar — that it costs to stay at a shelter.
Margarita Andonaegui runs a hall that serves breakfast to more than 1,000 deportees each morning. She says many recent deportees have no choice but to wander the city, sleep in the same clothes, not shower or shave. If they’re arrested, as they often are, police might confiscate nice clothes and shoelaces.
“Within five days, these people who arrived in the city clean, within five days they are indigent,” she said. “Who’s going to help them or offer them work when they look like that?”
Every afternoon, dozens of such deportees linger at a barren plaza near the border fence. They go there to wait for handouts of food.
On a recent day, a group of Mexican evangelicals arrived, dressed in white. But the food would only be distributed after the deportees sat through a lengthy, fiery sermon.
Felipe Gomez was in the audience.
“We have to listen to this imbecile’s sermon just to get something to eat,” he said, as the missionary paced back and forth, his oration rising to the level of a scream.
Gomez said the missionaries were taking advantage of the deportees’ desperation.
Indeed, deportees are among the most vulnerable population in this gritty, sometimes corrupt and violent city. They often depend on charity and are at the mercy of police, who arrest them for loitering, which is all many deportees can do.
As I stood in the plaza, several municipal police in pickup trucks cruised by, scoping it out. Gomez said they generally don’t harass people while the missionaries are around.
Tijuana police acknowledge they are tough on the deportees. They claim deportees are responsible for three-quarters of the city’s crime. But police do also reach out.
At a recent meeting at a deportee shelter, an officer named Victor Alvarez listened to complaints of police abuse from a dozen men.
One man said an officer had stolen 300 pesos from him, about $25 — the price of nearly a month's stay at a shelter.
“Write down the patrol car number, the zone you were in. You should take it to the station and report that officer, because those officers give the rest of us a bad name,” Alvarez told the group.
The men laughed and said that was pointless.
Most deportees just try to avoid the police — if they can.
A man named Jesus, who was deported 18 months ago, showed me how he avoids police. He took me to the Tijuana River, a concrete channel that runs along the border fence and carries a stream of putrid green water.
The river is where the most desperate deportees end up, often after succumbing to drugs.
Not long ago police destroyed makeshift tents that deportees had pitched in the channel. After that, Jesus dug a hole in the thick bed of sand that has accumulated at the edge of the concrete channel.
He reinforced it with wood panels on the side so it wouldn’t cave in. He put a roof on it, covered it in sand and planted little bushes on top. He crawls in and out through a circular opening just wide enough for his body. He covers the opening with a large wooden disk. Inside, he’s laid down bedding, and even rigged a little hanging light bulb powered by a AA battery.
“If there’s a police raid, I know they won’t find me in here,” he said.
From afar, you can’t tell the hole is there.
The bank of the Tijuana River channel is pocked with these holes, which look better fit for gophers. Every morning when he crawls out of his, Jesus can see the U.S. border fence, just a few steps away on the other side of the river. He said he’ll cross it again some day.
Choosing farming over college
This weekend marks graduation day for many college students. But for a growing number of young people, college is no longer an aspiration. For the California Report, Helena Liikanen Renger introduces us to a student who's choosing to forgo a college education.
On a sunny Friday morning The Learning Garden of Venice High School is full of busy teenagers: one of them watering the lettuce, another one planting new seeds.
“These purplish lettuces are chards. That’s a patch of carrots. We planted them not too long ago. Then you have this wavy lettuce over here. We have a lot of this,” 18-year-old Calder Katz explains.
The daily landscaping class is his favorite. “Farming and growing things, that is almost like being a parent, you know,” he says. “You plant these seeds, you nurture them and you make them become as good as possible. You make them the best that they can be.”
For Calder, who lives in Mar Vista, actually enjoying a subject in school hasn’t come easily. He has never really wanted to fit in.
“I try to be different. I have always thought that being weird is really cool,“ he says. But in school being different isn’t always appreciated: Calder is expected to follow the rules and complete assignments like everybody else, which for him is sometimes hard to understand. He would prefer learning in his own way.
“School hasn’t been my focus,” he says. “Learning is my focus. I love learning. I really think that the whole school system is sort of fitting a person into a box. Like writing an essay. That’s such a standardized thing. You have to have five paragraphs, the introduction, core paragraphs and then the conclusion. Maybe you don’t want to write it that way. Maybe you want to start it like a movie, where it starts in the end. That doesn’t fly with schools.”
Calder hit bottom five years ago, when he failed seventh grade. “Nobody else did that,” he says. “That is a really hard thing to live through next year, because everybody knows. You get picked on.”
Katz’s father, Alan Katz, is an artist and understands his son’s frustrations with school. “We are all like rejects from the school system,” he says. “We are alternative thinkers. We tend to learn our own ways and school puts you into a rigid regimentation, which is geared toward creating a product rather than a human being.”
Katz has even encouraged his son to not rush into college but rather to first see the world. “I think kids go into college way too soon,” he says. “They need to spend some time and explore the world and find out what they are interested in. Not just do what their parents say.”
Back in the garden Katz’s landscape and horticulture teacher, Diane Pollock, holds fresh broccoli in her hands. “This is your chance to forge! Go and rob the garden!” she shouts. The students follow Pollock’s instructions and are soon snaffling cauliflower and green peas they found in the bushes.
“They need to explore,” Pollock says, smiling. “They need to enjoy what the earth is like so they can go out and work with and find out what is important to save their environment.”
Here Calder feels happy. He doesn’t have to write perfectly structured essays or follow unnecessary rules. “Miss Pollock is not a very strict person. She lets you be as creative as you want,” he says. “I would have never expected to be on the top of the class. I feel like I am actually quite useful. People come to me to find out more about gardening. I have never had that aura to me.”
Gardening has given Calder so much that, after his graduation in June, he will head to Sweden to work on an organic farm for three months. He is not in a hurry to continue his studies.
“I need to have these sort of breaks,” he says. “Having a year or so of just focusing on myself, focusing on learning more from the world and the people, not just teachers – I feel that would benefit me more than immediately going to college.”
Calder Katz believes that when he one day comes back from his journey, he will be a completely different person.
Immigration reform bill hits Senate floor
After seven months, the immigration reform bill will finally make it to the Senate floor this week. They'll begin debating it tomorrow and a final vote is expected before the July 4 recess.
National Journal's Fawn Johnson joins the show to discuss where the bill stands and what the sticking points are for Senate Republicans.
Chris Nichols shows off his bowling trophies
Now, a little peek back into 1950s L.A. history: The war was over, the car was quickly becoming king and post-modern architecture was just taking off.
Chris Nichols, editor at Los Angeles Magazine, loves to collect relics from this era and joins us here from time to time to talk about his collection.
He recently dropped by our studios to share a little piece of history from an iconic bowling alley called the Covina Bowl.
First off, what are we looking at here?
Well, they were two trophies from the Covina Bowl. They're 50's bowling trophies that have had a little accident, but they're so rare and so special that I have to hang onto them. I have to tell their stories.
Judging by their condition, I'd say they have quite the story to tell.
Well, they were in perfect shape until someone decided to break into my house a couple years ago. They destroyed these two amazing artifacts and only took a video game. I mean, take the money or the computer, but leave my bowling trophies alone!
What's the historical significance of these trophies?
They're from the Covina Bowl, and I love that they expressed the architectural motif. There's sort of a big, modernist, wood boomerang that they sit on. The boomerang is also the letter 'C' for Covina, which was used in their logo.
And what is the Covina Bowl?
The Covina Bowl is a massive, modernist city of bowling in an elaborate Egyptian, 1950's, modern style. It had 50 lanes, a coffee shop, a cocktail lounge, a beauty parlor and a barber shop. It was the most incredible, colossal height of the American bowling fad. Last summer, I invited the original architect of the Covina Bowl out for a tour. We brought a bunch of folks out to this Egyptian modernist city of bowling, and Gordon Powers came out and did a little tour explaining what the connection is between the Egyptian Ankh and the modernist zig-zag and all the unusual things that he poured into this place. It was also about how bowling exploded after World War 2 and became this huge phenomenon where it transitioned from a dirty saloon sport to a big family sensation.
It must have been something to see. What's the Covina Bowl like now?
It's still a bowling alley. It's still 50 lanes, it still does a lot of business and it's still open late. They have all the new neon or blacklight bowling signs and things that people want nowadays, but they still maintain this original 1955 building in tip-top shape.
I love that these trophies are made out of wood. Does the Covina Bowl still do that?
They have a case of their old trophies but no, certainly not. I love how dowdy and sturdy and early 50's they look in contrast to the sleek and futuristic lines of the architecture. at the time when the Covina Bowl was new, cars were still big, blocky, bulbous steel boxes. It's crazy to think about how extreme something like the Covina Bowl would've looked to people who were used to a traditionally dowdy, squared-off world.
Read about LA's Design Caravan with Chris Nichols here