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Life & Times Transcript

6/21/07

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

East Los Angeles has culture, history and political clout, but it's missing one thing.

Senator Gloria Romero>> It's a vibrant community that understands its roots and is ready to take its place on an international stage.

Val Zavala>> And then, can an alcoholic hit man find happiness with a high-powered executive? Our critics take aim at "You Kill Me".

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.

Val Zavala>> East Los Angeles is taking one more step towards cityhood. Community leaders have asked for financial data to see if the community can stand on its own two feet financially. Right now, it's an unincorporated area of about a hundred forty thousand people. Hena Cuevas takes a look at what's behind this craving for cityhood.

Hena Cuevas>> A drive down Cesar Chavez Avenue takes you deep into East Los Angeles, or East L.A. as it's popularly known. Many consider this seven square mile stretch the heart and soul of Mexican American culture in the United States. After all, this is the birthplace of the musical group, Los Lobos.

[Film Clip]

Hena Cuevas>> And the Chicano movement of the 1970s. It's even been immortalized in film.

[Film Clip]

Hena Cuevas>> The 1987 movie, "Born in East L.A." starred Cheech Marin as a United States citizen who was mistaken for an illegal immigrant.

[Film Clip]

Hena Cuevas>> But for all of its notorieties, East Los Angeles is not even a part of Los Angeles. It lies within an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County. Now there are some who want to change that and have East Los Angeles become its own city. One of them is State Senator Gloria Romero.

Senator Gloria Romero>> It is a vibrant community that understands its roots and is ready to take its place on an international stage.

Hena Cuevas>> More than forty years ago, there was a similar push for cityhood. It was the late 1960s and East Los Angeles was creating its own political identity. There were the student walkouts of 1968 protesting the deplorable conditions at local schools.

[Film Clip]

Hena Cuevas>> There were the Chicano civil rights demonstrations in the 1970s. Today that political clout still holds. East Los Angeles is a mandatory stop for politicians searching for that Mexican American vote and, through it all, its population has grown from a hundred to a hundred fifty thousand.

Senator Gloria Romero>> If East Los Angeles were to incorporate right now, the city of East Los Angeles would be in the top ten of cities in Los Angeles County in terms of population. So the question is almost why not? Why hasn't East Los Angeles moved forward to become a city?

Hena Cuevas>> One reason has been financial. Could this area support itself as a city? Gloria Molina is a County Supervisor who represents East Los Angeles. She favors cityhood, but wonders if there is enough money here to support a government.

Gloria Molina>> There might be enough of a tax base, so hopefully there is. And if not, again, once you are a city, you are empowered to tax yourself. That is something that a Council and a Mayor can do and people can vote themselves any additional taxes that they want to have if they want certain resources available to them.

Hena Cuevas>> This is the new County Hall. It's where residents go to access county resources.

Gloria Molina>> Now you don't have to go across town. You know, if you have an issue that deals with building and safety, but you also have an issue that deals with the fire department, they're right there right next to each other.

Hena Cuevas>> So even though they're county services, you know you can come to this office and your questions can be answered.

Gloria Molina>> Absolutely, and it's all done here.

Hena Cuevas>> But still there's a general feeling that East Los Angeles has been neglected. A third of the residents live below the poverty level and crime is high. Police protection comes from the Sheriff. Fire service is the responsibility of the County Fire Department. But if the area becomes a city, all of those services and more become its responsibility. Trash collection, for example, as well as the maintenance of the public parks and libraries.

Gloria Molina>> I think there's pride in being a city. There's also responsibility and you have to understand that it's going to cost for those services. So we don't know and that's why they're doing the feasibility impact of whether that could happen or not.

Hena Cuevas>> One question facing any new city is how do you generate enough revenue to pay for all of those additional city services? One way is through business. But one of the challenges facing East Los Angeles is that it is mostly residential with a very high density population. So some are wondering where is all that new business going to go?

The biggest commercial arteries are on Whittier and Atlantic Boulevards. Whittier has mostly small older businesses while Atlantic is known for its car dealerships. But the area doesn't have any big box stores that generate hefty tax revenues. There's not even a supermarket.

Gloria Molina>> I know that people would love to see major grocery stores here and they'd love to see the big box, but that means that they might have to turn over their house. Somebody's going to have to go in order to make room for a huge Costco or something like that.

Gustavo Camacho>> Well, this establishment is a great example of the potential that East Los Angeles has.

Hena Cuevas>> Gustavo Camacho works for Senator Romero, but he's also the President of East Los Angeles's Chamber of Commerce. He says there might not be a lot of vacant lots, but there are still plenty of properties that could be developed.

Gustavo Camacho>> You don't have to displace anyone. You don't have to go through a residential. What we need to do is that we have a lot of these old buildings that are deteriorating.

Hena Cuevas>> Camacho says that East Los Angeles faces competition from surrounding cities to attract retail. The cities have an advantage. They don't have to go through the county to get approval.

Gustavo Camacho>> Unfortunately, it's not a business-friendly community, so a lot of these national brands or just some other mom and pop businesses that are in other areas won't locate themselves for the simple fact that, you know, it's just too difficult to do business in East Los Angeles currently.

Hena Cuevas>> If East Los Angeles were a city, he says, it could approve projects a lot faster.

Gustavo Camacho>> We're speaking with some of the national brands. They want to come in. They're ready. They're in line to come in, but they just want it to be a little easier for them to establish themselves.

Hena Cuevas>> He points to businesses such as Coffee Bean as the kind of companies that East Los Angeles wants to attract. Plus, he says the car dealerships bring in a lot of revenue with the big ticket items they sell.

Gustavo Camacho>> We're trying to promote that whole idea of "buy East Los Angeles" where you buy in East Los Angeles and you keep your money in East Los Angeles. The sales tax comes back to this community.

Hena Cuevas>> For Romero, the current push for cityhood is all about banking on the East Los Angeles brand.

Senator Gloria Romero>> It's exercising clout. Remember that East Los Angeles has marketing. It has name ID. It is real. I've seen presidential aspirants come to East Los Angeles. They know that it means something very powerful.

Gloria Molina>> There's a sense of pride and empowerment from just the term of being a city and being in control and self-determination, but there are many people who may be just as satisfied now and are unsure as to what it means or what the differences will be.

Hena Cuevas>> Once the economic study is complete, petitions for cityhood could start circulating. If approved, the issue would go on a ballot. Ultimately, it will be up to the residents of East Los Angeles to decide and, with an identity that needs no introduction, who knows? Cheech Marin's new show could be called "East L.A. 90022". I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> For East Los Angeles to become a city, it has to get approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission. If they determine that East Los Angeles is financially viable, then the cityhood question goes to the voters.

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>> President Bush is determined to get an immigration reform bill through Congress this year. That's one of the reasons why the proposal came back from the brink of failure. Well, last week we heard from a supporter of immigration reform and now we're going to talk to a critic.

He is Joseph Turner, Western Regional Representative for F.A.I.R., or Federation for American Immigration Reform. I met him in Riverside where I asked him what his main objection to the proposed bill is. As the legislation stands right now, what is the most troubling clause or aspect to it from your point of view?

Joseph Turner>> Well, very simply, you have a Senate that has put this plan together basically behind closed doors without going to committee and they're trying to ram this down the American peoples' throats without having a thorough debate on the matter. You know, when you're going to have a bill that's going to impact generations to come in this country, we believe you should have a very earnest debate and that's not being done.

Val Zavala>> You don't think there's been a debate? I mean, it's been in Congress floundering and going back and forth for months and months.

Joseph Turner>> It hasn't actually. No, it actually has not. This actual bill only came to light a couple of weeks ago. At first, they were trying to pass it within forty-eight hours. Again, this never went through committee. This never went through the normal process because they were trying to run this through as quickly as possible. Now you have the Senate trying to bring it back before the Fourth of July holiday, so it's very troubling.

Val Zavala>> What particular part of it is most aggravating to you?

Joseph Turner>> Well, it's very simple. It's amnesty. Whenever you put those who have broken the law in position as more advantageous than those who have played by the rules, and that's what you're doing when you allow illegal aliens who have broken the law to leave the country and then come back and live here as long as they want while other people who are trying to come to this country legally are forced to reside in their own country and wait years through the process, that is amnesty. It is patently unfair and you're communicating one simple message and that is that crime pays.

Val Zavala>> But there are those who say, "No, this isn't amnesty. They're going to be imposing some pretty, you know, hefty fines on people, people who don't have a lot of money to begin with. They're going to have to meet certain criteria to qualify for this Z Visa and that it's not amnesty."

Joseph Turner>> Well, first of all, it's patently false. The 1986 amnesty plan, which everyone agrees is amnesty, nowhere does it say amnesty in any of the bill's language, yet that had fees and also a lengthy process before you become a citizen. You weren't granted instant citizenship.

However, today the same steps are being taken and we're being told that that's not amnesty. Take the fine, for example. These fines are less than the current fines on the book, the current punishment on the book, for violating our immigration laws in coming into this country illegally.

So what you're saying is, we're removing a five thousand dollar fine for illegal entry and a possible prison sentence and replacing it with a five thousand dollar fine for coming into the country illegally. It's smoke and mirrors. It's a bait and switch.

So to actually say that these people are truly being punished for violating our laws is patently untrue. I mean, it begs the question: if they are truly being punished, why would an illegal alien leave the country, go back to their native land and enter the process legally like everyone else who's trying to play by the rules?

Val Zavala>> Because they'll never get in.

Joseph Turner>> Obviously, it's because they're being put in a better situation with this amnesty plan because they're allowed to stay in the country, correct? So, obviously, if you're put in a situation where you're better off than those who are playing by the rules, it's amnesty, pure and simple.

Val Zavala>> A guest worker program. They're talking about that pretty seriously, allowing them to come in and work for two years, I believe, and then go back. Is that something that you think is a good idea? Is it a way to control, at least, some of this illegal crossing?

Joseph Turner>> No. Guest worker programs have shown time and time again that they are failures. The reason why they're failures is very simple. If you're not going to secure your border and you're not going to enforce laws against employers who are breaking immigration laws by hiring illegal aliens, then you're simply undermining each guest worker program that comes into being.

So regardless of whether or not you think a guest worker program is the right way to go, if you do not have border enforcement and you do not go after the employers, it's destined to fail.

Val Zavala>> But what if they also accompany it with really enforcing the border, putting up laws and a lot more security along the border? Would that help make a guest worker program more effective?

Joseph Turner>> Well, the key is that you said "what if". What if a lot of things? What if, in 1986, our government actually enforced the rules they put on the books by saying they're going to go after employers, by saying they're going to secure our borders? Our government has shown no willingness to enforce those rules, enforce what they say they're going to do. So until the government decides it's going to secure our borders and go after employers, then we can talk about this stuff later.

Val Zavala>> Another thing they're looking at is revising the criteria by which legal immigrants are allowed in, giving more credit, more points, to those people who are highly skilled, highly educated, have more resources, and fewer points to family reunification for, say, lower skilled immigrants. Would you go along with that?

Joseph Turner>> No, in a simple word, because we're talking about a bureaucratic nightmare. We're talking about the government engaging in some sort of point system. I don't know how subjective these points are. Our government can't even keep somebody we know who has TB out of the country and we're supposed to expect them to have some sort of sliding scale criteria?

It's so convoluted and beyond comprehension, I don't think it's really workable and I think the American people see through it. They want very simple policies. They want you to secure the border, go after the employers, and then we can talk about other issues. But instead, our government bureaucrats want all kinds of gobbledy-gook, all kinds of legalese on the matter, in essentially an attempt to dress up a pig with lipstick.

Val Zavala>> So how do you respond to those who say, "Look, we have an economy that is dependent upon a very large, let's face it, low-skilled, low-wage worker, but without them, we'd grind to a halt"?

Joseph Turner>> Well, one is, the same people who are saying that we're dependent on low-skilled, uneducated workers are the same ones that say that we need to provide our children with a twenty-first century education for a twenty-first century economy.

I mean, it defies logic to say that importing millions of people who are poor and uneducated is somehow beneficial to our country when we are told time and time again that you need an education to compete in the workforce.

Val Zavala>> Well, maybe we need both. Maybe we need both dishwashers and, you know, computer programmers (laughter).

Joseph Turner>> That's what we have teenagers and unskilled Americans for (laughter).

Val Zavala>> Are you so sure that Americans would take those jobs if illegal immigrants were not here doing them?

Joseph Turner>> Well, who were doing the jobs beforehand? I'll go one better. The same people who are making these arguments are the same ones that say we need to put these illegal aliens on a pathway to citizenship and make them Americans. So it begs the question: if you're turning illegal aliens into Americans, who's going to do those jobs that the illegal aliens are not going to do anymore?

Val Zavala>> So it seems as though you're against guest worker programs, you're against pathway to citizenship. What are you for? What is the answer if you don't like anything that's on the table right now?

Joseph Turner>> It's very simple and I'm glad you asked the question. As an American, I want our laws enforced and I do not want government bureaucrats and elected politicians telling us that they're going to give us new laws that they're going to enforce when they won't enforce the current laws that are already on the books.

It's very simple. Here's what I'm for. Secure the border. You've got to stop the bleeding. Go after the employers and punish those who are breaking the law and then we can talk about other things. But until you accomplish those two objectives, everything else is a moot point.

Val Zavala>> So enforcement comes first, get everything secured and then deal with the remaining problems which you think would be a lot less.

Joseph Turner>> Undoubtedly.

Val Zavala>> Well, Joseph Turner, thank you very much for your thoughts and we'll see what happens.

Joseph Turner>> Thank you very much for having me.

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.
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You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Ted Chen>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Ted Chen in for Larry Mantle. Our first film this week tells the story of the kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl. "A Mighty Heart" stars Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman.

[Film Clip]

Ted Chen>> Joining me this week are critics Andy Klein, film editor of CityBeat, and Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media. Andy, what did you think of "A Mighty Heart"?

Andy Klein>> I was pretty impressed by this film, Ted. It's a very difficult kind of project. It has the same sorts of potential pitfalls as "United 93". First of all, how do you deal with this in an non-exploitative way, and secondly, everybody knows how it ends. I mean, it's the kidnapping and execution of Daniel Pearl and I don't think many people walking into the theater are going to think he's going to come out alive.

Director Michael Winterbottom really does a good job, I think, by concentrating on sort of a police procedural film as the authorities try and locate him and find his kidnappers. Angelina Jolie gives a good performance. The problem is that I never for a split second forgot that it was Angelina Jolie. You just can't overlook her starring in this while watching this and it does get in the way a little.

Ted Chen>> Jean?

Jean Oppenheimer>> It didn't get in the way for me. I think she's a very good actress. The only thing that bothered me, actually, was the way her lips sort of pursed which I don't know if that was supposed to be the character or not. I hate to make this confession on television, but I always found Mariane Pearl very cold-seeming and unemotional. I never really understood it.

That is addressed in this film, but very subtly and in a very smart way, I think, with having somebody else comment on it and then, at the end, where you do see her break down. I give the film a lot of credit for not trying to make her seem different than, you know, apparently she is.

I also think that you really get a sense of how dangerous it is for journalists to be over there and how alien the culture is, which would be true in any number of places. But to go over and not speak the language at all, I think would just be terribly scary and you feel that everybody is sort of against you. I thought it was a very, very well-made film.

Ted Chen>> Our next film is the sequel to "Bruce Almighty". Morgan Freeman returns as God and orders an uptight Congressman to build an Ark. Steve Carell stars in "Evan Almighty".

[Film Clip]

Ted Chen>> Jean, what did you think of "Evan Almighty"?

Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, as Dorothy would say in "The Wizard of Oz", "Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my" (laughter). As you said, this is a sort of sequel to "Bruce Almighty". But whereas "Bruce Almighty" was very irreverent in its tone, "Evan Almighty" is really a straight-out family film, very mainstream.

I think it's a mixed bag. I think there was just some wonderful laugh-out-loud humor in it, you know, really spread throughout the whole thing. I think there was also some very silly humor when they do a montage of the Steve Carell character hitting his thumb repeatedly and falling off piles of wood repeatedly. I mean, probably children may like that, but it wasn't something that worked for me.

But I do think that Steve Carell is very sweetly amusing and endearing and, in the end, I found it quite emotional seeing all those animals and seeing them walking to the Ark and I really almost started crying, but I love animals. So I think it's a mixed bag, but worth seeing.

Ted Chen>> Our third film is another adaptation of a Stephen King story. It's about haunted hotel rooms and stars John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. The film is "1408".

[Film Clip]

Ted Chen>> Andy, what did you think of "1408"?

Andy Klein>> Kind of fifty-fifty on this one. You know, this is the umpteenth Stephen King adaptation and, like so many of them, it's about a writer who's, you know, got all kinds of psychological issues. He insists on checking into this haunted hotel room for the climax of a book he's writing debunking haunted hotel rooms. Room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel turns out to be the real thing. John Cusack is kind of going through the motions here. Sam Jackson, who's featured prominently in the trailers, is in all of maybe two scenes.

The first half is very scary, much more psychological, much more like a Polanski film. But at a certain point, it's clear that we're in some kind of Twilight Zone different world which I found much less scary. There was less there to relate to our own real anxieties. So about halfway through, it began to flag for me. But for that first half, I was jumping.

Ted Chen>> Our final film this week is a comedy about a hit man with a drinking problem who takes a job at a mortuary. "You Kill Me" stars Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni.

[Film Clip]

Ted Chen>> Jean, how did you like "You Kill Me"?

Jean Oppenheimer>> This was an unexpectedly delightful film. I thought it was very deftly handled and I really give director John Dahl a lot of credit for being able to balance the many different tones in the film. I mean, this has comedy. There's romance. There's mobsters and violence and killing. He and his actors really serve it up in just perfect amounts of each.

One of the keys, I think, to the film's success is that the characters take themselves completely seriously and play it absolutely straight although the lives they lead and the situations themselves in are pretty bizarre.

Ben Kingsley is the probably the last actor that I would think of to cast in this kind of comedy or maybe even any comedy. He gives Frank, his character, the most unexpected edge and a very believable vulnerability. He never condescends to the character. His comic timing is perfect. Tea Leoni is wonderful. Dennis Farina is a real hoot and Wilson's great.

Ted Chen>> Andy, did you like "You Kill Me"?

Andy Klein>> I liked it probably a little less than Jeannie because the mixture of tones didn't come across quite so well for me. Actually, Ben Kingsley is the first one I would think of for this kind of part because it's very much the comedy version of, say, the character he played in "Sexy Beast". I mean, Ben Kingsley walks in with that intensity that is terrifying, given that he's sort of this slight little guy and he can play these characters who are scarier than a monster.

The deadpan humor, the balance, didn't quite get me as much as I had hoped. It's one of those things where I think seeing it a second time in a different mood might make all the difference. This really is kind of a "Sopranos" thing, contrasting the sort of hard world of gangsters with the soft sensitive world of AA and programs like that. I may give it a second shot to see if it works better for me a second time.

Ted Chen>> And that's another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Ted Chen in for Larry Mantle with critics Jean Oppenheimer from Village Voice Media and Andy Klein from CityBeat. Join Larry next week for another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> For a longer version of FilmWeek, you can tune in to KPCC public radio Fridays at eleven a.m. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. We'll see you tomorrow.

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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