Assembly Speaker Rendon receives death threats over single-payer bill decision, the 2020 Olympic trials to be hosted in SoCal, Angelenos on Obama Blvd.
State of Affairs: Assembly Speaker Rendon threatened, blue California could be seeing red
This week on Take Two's State of Affairs:
- Assembly speaker Anthony Rendon faced death threats, less than a week after putting the single-payer bill on hold.
- Just who is putting up the money for campaign ads? A new bill wants to tell you, but Democrats can't seem to agree on it.
- California Dems may have a supermajority, but could too much blue have people seeing red?
Guests:
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, professor of public policy at USC
Carla Marinucci, senior editor for Politico's California Playbook
Press the blue play button above to hear the full conversation.
For track and field champions, the search for Olympic gold starts at SoCal's Mt. SAC
As Los Angeles awaits an answer about hosting the 2024 Olympics, the track and field road to the next Summer Games will be going through ...Walnut, California.
Athletes representing the U.S. in Tokyo three years from now will first have to qualify at Mt. San Antonio College.
Mt. SAC Relays have been a track and field event for almost six decades.
Twenty world records have been set there, and now the stadium is going to go through renovations, expanding its seating capacity to accommodate the Olympic trials.
Brian Yokoyama is an executive board member of the Mt. SAC Project 2020 and the college's assistant track and field coach. He spoke to A Martinez about the history and importance of the venue in the track and field world.
What's the significance of the trials?
"For an athlete to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, it is a long process. The top three in each event will have an opportunity to qualify for the Olympic team, provided that they make the IAAF, which is our governing body, or Olympic standard. So as long as they have the Olympic standard and are top three in the United States, they will qualify for the U.S. Olympic team that represents us in Tokyo.
That's an unusual thing in the United States where it's head-to-head competition. Other countries just select athletes, ours is based solely on head-to head competition at the Olympic trials and that's what makes the trials such an exciting event to watch."
What makes Mt. SAC so special?
"Through the years, because of the Mt. SAC relays and other events, we had a day where we had six world records in a pre-meet in 1960. Six world records broken or tied, which has never happened in the history of the sport. Also, Carl Lewis, jumped six times over 28 feet and that has never ever happened or ever been redone, during the Mt. SAC relays. You know, so many national records, so many memories ... it's really a track & field hub for Southern California."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDW3bLntLGc&t=2s
Why have track & field fallen off?
"Back in the early days, in the '60s, '70s, the sport of track & field could pack the Coliseum out ... The sport itself has gone through a big transformation. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite met the modern sports culture and that's what we're going to try to do with this trial. We're going to try to bring the modern sports culture in with track and field and do some unique things ...
When you go to Dodger Stadium, you watch a baseball game, but there are also other things going on. It makes it a great fan experience and I think the sport hasn't done that. The trials are a unique thing, because of the way it's split up, you don't have to sit there and watch a 10-hour track meet. They'll be blocked into four-hour time blocks. We're hoping that we get some well-known artist to perform in a concert right after the event occurs, and also have interactive exhibits for fans to see while they're at the event."
Interview answers have been edited for brevity and clarity. To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
A South LA street is designated 'Obama Boulevard' and residents react
Residents of Rodeo Road in South Los Angeles learned this week that they'd soon have a new address -- on Obama Boulevard.
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to rename that three-and-a-half mile road after the former president. The street runs from Arlington Avenue to Jefferson Boulevard.
Several residents heard about the name change for the first time on the news. Marvette Cutchins has lived on Rodeo Road for 14 years and welcomes the change.
"I think that’s a good surprise, I like to be surprised. When I heard it on the news, I was happy... I remember when Santa Barbara got changed over to Martin Luther King, and I’m happy that it’s changing," she said.
But other residents, like Matthew Smedley, who has lived on the street since 1997, are less enthusiastic.
"Why this street? You know, why not another street? It's always been Rodeo Road since I've been here so… Obama Boulevard just doesn't sound right to me," he said.
City officials expect final approval for the renaming near the end of August.
Oaxacan traditions live on in LA through music schools
Los Angeles is home to the largest number of immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The LA Oaxacan community has a rich musical culture, supported in part by a tradition of schools that promote music education through brass bands.
Two years ago, Esteban Zúñiga had to stop teaching music in his garage. His neighbors kept calling the police and he was repeatedly fined. He went to court, and the judge dismissed the fines. But to stay out of trouble, he decided to save money from his landscaping job to soundproof the garage.
“It’s a lot, it’s a lot of investment. Why? Because it’s community work. It’s for our culture. I prefer my community or the descendants learning their culture, instead of being in the streets or getting hypnotized by the technology that we have," he said.
Tonight, in that soundproof garage, complete with air conditioning and a bathroom, Zúñiga teaches a group of fifteen students, ranging in ages eight to sixteen. Saúl Martinez is one of Zúñiga’s students. He’s eight years old and plays soprano saxophone.
Norma Policarpo is Saúl’s mother. She’s been bringing her son to Zúñiga’s music school for the past ten months. She says Saul puts a lot of effort into it, learns more every day and is persistent. She’s seen his progress, that’s why she keeps bringing him -- that, and the fact that her son is learning Oaxacan customs, and keeping its traditions alive.
Esteban Zuñiga and other teachers like him are replicating a tradition from Oaxaca called “Escoleta": A music school based in a village.
“Each village has one. The most important thing is, once they have an Escoleta, it’s music for everybody in their hometown, basically free, so they can keep passing the musical tradition," said Zuñiga.
That musical tradition is focused on the brass band, usually made up of twenty to thirty-five instruments -- trumpets, trombones, sousaphones, along with clarinets, saxophones, and two drums. Here in Los Angeles, there are more than a dozen Oaxacan brass bands, and each has its own Escoleta.
Zuñiga is preparing his students for a new brass band he’s forming. They’ve been practicing for six months. Once he’s worked with them for about a year, he says they’ll be ready to play in public.
Two miles from Zuñiga’s garage, there’s a storefront on Pico Blvd. Maqueos Music Academy is home to a thirty-piece brass band and a large dance troupe. They’re rehearsing for a traditional music and dance festival called Guelaguetza.
Estanislao Maqueos was director of his hometown’s municipal brass band. He moved to LA in 2000. After a few years working odd jobs and gaining the respect of the local Oaxacan community, he established his music school. Since then, he’s helped form several brass bands.
“It’s difficult for the children because they were born here and it’s another culture," Maqueos says. "We’re imposing our children to play our music and it’s hard, but after so much persistence, they do learn to love our Oaxacan music, they dance to it, and they make it their own.”
Maqueos says the goal is to help their children find their identity: “Even though they were born in this country, their roots are in Oaxaca, the roots of their parents are there, and part of their identity is this music.”
Oaxacan brass bands play at all kinds of private and public events -- from religious processions to dance festivals. Tonight, at the home of Maqueos Music Academy, there’s a party celebrating a baptism.
Nineteen year-old Yulisa Maqueos is directing the band. She plays clarinet and is the daughter of Maestro Maqueos. She says her father has built an impressive body of work.
“As immigrants, we come here with nothing and we work hard, and seeing how someone from the pueblo can actually succeed in any other way that a citizen could do it... I think it just gives me a feeling of hope that everything is possible.”
There are people who call Maqueos Music school “the hotbed” of brass bands in Los Angeles. In seventeen years, Maqueos has taught music to more than five hundred students. Still, he says he has bigger dreams: “I want to have a big band with strings, a complete symphonic orchestra.”