11/17/04

LC041117

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Who's space is it anyway? Does a new police crackdown violate
your inalienable right to park?

Anthony Williams>> Sometimes I park two or three blocks away at
two or three o'clock in the morning and then walk back home and
then have to get up in the morning and walk two or three blocks
to my car.

Val>> And then, amazing, crazy foods. His description, not
ours. Meet Los Angeles's raw food guru. Can we call him a chef
if he doesn't cook?

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

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>> In a city where the car is king, parking is no small
matter. In fact, illegally parked cars can make a huge
difference in the way traffic flows during rush hour and that's
why the city of Los Angeles has decided to crack down on parking
violators during rush hour. As Toni Guinyard tells us, they
aren't just writing tickets anymore.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> The sounds of car alarms crying in protest.
Consider it a rude awakening, compliments of the city of Los
Angeles. Vehicles parked illegally block the flow of traffic
are being targeted in a parking enforcement effort unlike any
crackdown car owners have ever experienced before.

Anthony Williams>> So when seven o'clock comes, they come
through and just start yanking them right away.

Toni Guinyard>> Just minutes after no stopping and no parking
zones go into effect along major thoroughfares, vehicles that
once may have only been given a second glance or, at most, at
ticket are now being towed. The cars are being moved off the
street to make way for rush hour traffic, catching some drivers
by surprise.

Dennis Garay>> He say what happened to my car? What happened
to my car? My car not here. I don't know.

Deputy Chief Rudy Carrasco>> Our objective is not to impound
the vehicle, not to issue the citation. Our objective is to
clear the lane and to facilitate that movement of traffic.
Vehicles will cue up behind that one parked vehicle. They will
attempt to maneuver around it and we've also seen traffic
accidents occur due to the fact that these vehicles are not in
compliance with the posted regulations.

Toni Guinyard>> It's part of Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn's
traffic action plan to clear streets of cars blocking traffic
during peak travel hours, generally from seven to nine in the
morning and three to six in the evening. All Department of
Transportation parking officers say they've always enforced the
no stopping law.

Sergeant Alan Thompson>> The only difference really is that we
have more officers out doing it.

Toni Guinyard>> Putting an additional thirty officers on patrol
is having an impact.

Sergeant Alan Thompson>> And we also are calling for tows on
every single vehicle, even on what would not be considered like
a main arterial street. If it has the peak hour zone in it,
then we will call a tow truck and have the vehicle removed.

Toni Guinyard>> In the first week of this hard-line approach to
parking enforcement, the number of vehicles towed and impounded
increased approximately forty percent. Frustrated drivers
trying to get to work may see this stepped-up towing as long
overdue.

Deputy Chief Rudy Carrasco>> It's been our experience that one
car can cause a twenty to thirty minute delay in travel time.
One car in the peak hour zone.

Toni Guinyard>> Some car owners in densely populated
neighborhoods see it as a problem with no solution. Too many
cars, too few places to park.

Anthony Williams>> Sometimes I circle the block four or five
times a night when I come in late and then I have to park in a
parking lot down here. It's also posted, you know, as private
property, so I'm taking a chance on parking down here. There's
been times that I parked two or three blocks away at two or
three o'clock in the morning and then walk back home and then
have to get up in the morning and walk two or three blocks to my
car.

Toni Guinyard>> So most mornings, Anthony Williams is caught in
what has become for many a game of musical chairs played with
cars. It's a game that begins just after the no stopping zones
go into effect. Get to your car before the tow trucks arrive
and move your vehicle before it's too late and, if you're lucky,
you gratefully accept a ticket rather than deal with having your
car towed. Williams has had his car impounded five times.

Anthony Williams>> And the thing is, if it's hooked up, it's
gone. There's no okay in the situation with them. You know,
it's like, well, it's seven o'clock. Your car is already hooked
up. I'm sorry. You just got to get it out of impound.

Toni Guinyard>> How much has it cost you each time?

Anthony Williams>> Anywhere between $162 to like $230.

Donald Shoup>> Well, towing is pretty drastic. It should be a
last resort.

Toni Guinyard>> UCLA Professor of Urban Planning, Donald Shoup,
is no stranger to parking-related issues. He teaches
Transportation Economics. His latest book is titled "The High
Cost of Free Parking".

Donald Shoup>> Most people don't realize that their parking
spaces cost more than their cars, but they expect the parking to
be free.

Toni Guinyard>> Professor Shoup says there is no such thing as
free parking and car owners who are getting their vehicles towed
are learning that lesson the hard way.

Donald Shoup>> We have a high population density and we're very
car-oriented, so that combination gives us an awful lot of
traffic congestion and, if a lot of people are going to live
close together and drive, the streets can't be used for parking.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> But in urban communities, on-street parking has
become expected over time, something many car and homeowners
take for granted, something they now want the city to review.

Ratna Dissanayake>> We don't have any parking space now.

Toni Guinyard>> So where do you park?

Ratna Dissanayake>> I don't know what to do. People have to go
to school. They have to go to work. Very big problem now.

Toni Guinyard>> On Parthenia Street in Northridge, the hours
for no stopping zones have been changed to include the evenings.
Cars parked outside homes are being ticketed and towed.

Maria Garay>> My daughter, she came outside and talked to him
and said why do you do it? Why do you pick on my car?

Dennis Garay>> What happened to my car? Tomorrow I am working
and I don't see it. What happened?

Maria Garay>> No parking in the front of your house? Not
anytime?

Donald Shoup>> Whenever we hear about people complaining about
a parking shortage, they're complaining about a shortage of free
parking exactly where they want it. Well, if you can have a
free parking space in front of your house for nothing
(laughter), of course, you're going to think that anybody taking
that away is really infringing on your rights.

Toni Guinyard>> While this aggressive traffic enforcement plan
is being credited with helping ease the flow of traffic during
the rush hour, it's also being blamed for causing problems not
just to homeowners, but also to business owners.

Rosario Shuler>> People have to leave and go and try to find
parking.

Toni Guinyard>> On any given day, you'll find cars parked
bumper to bumper along this stretch of La Brea Avenue outside
Rosario Shuler's hair salon. Depending on what time of day
customers arrive, they're getting caught by the stepped-up
traffic enforcement effort. Shuler is concerned that it will
eventually impact her business.

Rosario Shuler>> You can't park in the front and then, if you
go in behind the salon in the residential area, it's also a time
limit which is six o'clock unless you have a parking permit, so
I have a real problem.

Toni Guinyard>> So the customers scramble, not unlike how
residents in some neighborhoods scramble as well, to avoid the
tow trucks standing by.

Rosario Shuler>> I've actually seen them tow. A lot of times,
they have no mercy. A lot of times when you go and try to talk
with him, you say, come on, please, the lady was under the
dryer, she did not know. I mean, it wasn't intentional that she
sit here. You know, it's just minutes. If they've already
started, a lot of times they won't even allow you to stop it.

Toni Guinyard>> And car owners are now being warned.

Sergeant Alan Thompson>> This really isn't a sweep. We're just
enhancing our patrol activities in this area, so this is going
to be ongoing until we keep the streets clear.

Toni Guinyard>> Parking enforcement engineers plan on using a
geographic information system to plot where the most violations
take place. Then they'll drive the routes to verify if traffic
flow has gotten better.

Deputy Chief Rudy Carrasco>> We've driven them prior to our
efforts to measure the amount of time that it takes to travel
those major streets. We're going to drive them again in thirty
days and measure the time.

Toni Guinyard>> Measure the time it takes to get from point A
to point B in a city with so many cars. I'm Toni Guinyard for
Life and Times.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
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Val>> For decades, Northern Californians have been watching as
much of their water heads south to thirsty Southern California.
A lot of the water comes from the Delta which is a massive water
system that empties into the San Francisco Bay. Well, now
there's a new plan for how to use that Delta water. Could it
mean a truce? Environmental reporter, David Garcia, tells us
what this new plan means to Southern California cities.

David Garcia>> The Sacramento Bay Delta in central California.
Over 700,000 acres of waterways, levies, wetlands, farms and
homes. This unique area has been a catalyst for California
development since 1839 when John Sutter explored the Delta in
search of land for other migrating Europeans, and 1848 when
James Marshall discovered gold and touched off the California
Gold Rush, the greatest mass migration of people ever recorded.
Today there is something even more precious than gold in the
Sacramento Bay Delta and that prize is water.

Terry Tamminen>> Well, the Bay Delta complex is really the
lifeblood of the state of California. First of all, it's one of
the most important natural ecosystems in the entire West Coast.
It's part of the Pacific Flyway. It's sustained salmon
fisheries and many other commercial and recreational fisheries,
but it also sustains our human lifeblood. It's where very much
of the water for Central and Southern California comes from that
feeds our agricultural region, our manufacturing regions, and,
of course, our growing urban populations.

So it really is extremely important that we get the whole Bay
Delta and its management right. As California grows, half a
million more people every year, we know there's going to be a
lot more competition for water. And if we don't get our
management structure right, somebody is going to lose out.

David Garcia>> The basis for this revived interest in the Delta
is new legislation approved by Congress, the first such
legislation in a decade. It authorizes roughly four hundred
million dollars for water quality improvement projects, levies
and ecosystems designed to better manage the water in the Delta
and overseen by a joint federal-state partnership known as Cal-
Fed. It certainly sounds good, but why should we in Southern
California care about a Delta hundreds of miles away when water
agencies here are scrambling to find water during the worst
drought in half a century? In other words, what's in it for us?

Tim Quinn>> Every place in California is in the same situation
that we are. So what Southern California is looking for in a
Bay Delta solution through the Cal-Fed process is the ability to
get more water out of the system when it's wet and the fisheries
are safe so that we can put it into storage in Southern
California in which we've invested several billion dollars in
the last ten years. And we're also looking for more water
through voluntary water transfers with agricultural regions and
others that have ample supplies during periods of drought when
we don't. So we're, in general, looking for water in ways that
are compatible with restoration of fisheries and protecting the
environment in Northern California.

Terry Tamminen>> Moving water from one part of California where
it's plentiful to other parts where it's not is not really a
particularly good use of our resources. Forty percent of the
electricity that we generate in the state of California is used
to move water, so every time we waste a gallon of water, we're
also wasting kilowatts of electricity and we all know that that
is in scarce supply. So it's much more logical for us to
develop water supplies closer to where their being used, but
being careful not to over-draft the already over-taxed aquifers.
We've got to look at this system as a large and complex web of
life where all of the parts are interdependent.

David Garcia>> Again, sounds good and, just when you might
think it's all finally a done deal, guess what? There is the
threat of a new court battle.

Barry Nelson>> What we want is very much what the agencies
committed to four years ago when we finalized that Cal-Fed plan.
That plan was very specific in terms of what the agencies were
going to do and not do. It's also very committed and very clear
that the process would be an open public process based on good
science. Unfortunately, a small set of agencies and a few water
districts have decided that, rather than making decisions in
public, they want to make decisions the old-fashioned way in the
back room.

David Garcia>> So it's the smoke-filled back room. That's what
you're --

Barry Nelson>> -- and that's what we're seeing now. The old
way of doing business was designed to benefit just a few folks
who were inside who have the high-priced lobbyists. The Cal-Fed
experiment is making those decisions in public to provide broad
public benefits and, unfortunately, what we're seeing is
especially the Bureau of Reclamation and a few favored water
districts going back into the back room and cutting old-
fashioned water deals.

David Garcia>> Is that a viable allegation?

Terry Tamminen>> I really don't think so. There are quarterly
meetings of the Bay Delta Authority which actually I'm on and I
get briefing materials that thick for every meeting. Very
public meetings which last hours and we take public testimony as
well as the panel itself talking about the various issues.
There are obviously work groups that go on, but again, all of
them are publicly noticed.

There was one meeting where some of the members of the Bay Delta
Authority got together just offline and just said, hey, why
don't we get together and brainstorm a little bit some of the
things that are blocking progress in some of our Bay Delta
projects and maybe talk about that and bring it back to the
group. That type of thing probably does go on, but anything
where people, after they've done their brainstorming, they do
bring it back to these public sessions and there's nothing wrong
with people trying to reach some consensus and avoid some of the
dogfights in advance if they can then come in and present a more
unified proposal to the larger group which then is fully vetted
in public.

David Garcia>> Everyone involved says it's all about balance,
taking care of everyone's needs, but still preserving the Delta.
Even so, the rush is on for the new treasure in the Sacramento
Bay Delta and that treasure is water.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
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Life and Times
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Val>> Atkins, South Beach, macrobiotic diets. It seems every
year a new food fad sweeps the nation and Southern Californians
are quick to dig in. So is the person you're about to meet just
another flash in the frying pan? Oops, don't say frying pan
around this chef. His kitchen has no stove, no oven, no
microwave and not even a toaster.

His name is Juliano and he's Los Angeles's raw food guru. He
runs an upscale restaurant in Santa Monica and you won't find a
stove or oven here. Everything on his menu is made from raw
food. Nutrition-conscious customers sit down to linguini,
enchiladas, Kung Pao noodles and even something called "No mad
cow, salmonella, e-coli, or destroy the rainforests for graze
land cheeseburger". Juliano has also written a book extolling
the virtues of a raw food and, as you're about to see, he's a
true believer. I thought I'd stop by to see how tasty this raw
revolution really is. Okay, Juliano, what are you going to make
for us here?

Juliano>> Today we're going to make a cheeseburger and French
fries. It's raw and organic. It's the most amazing
cheeseburger you'll ever have. There will be no chance of
getting any type of, you know, food sickness or airborne
diseases or any of that because our burgers are made out of
mushrooms, almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds. Our mayo is
made out of macadamia nuts. Our mustard out of mustard seed and
fig. Our catsup is fresh heirloom tomato catsup. So this is
like the most perfect cheeseburger. After you eat it, you will
want to go to yoga and you will get skinnier. This is really
what happens when you eat truly natural, from nature to nurture
the body, food.

Val>> So you don't cook this hamburger at all? What do you do
with it?

Juliano>> Well, we do have -- here, I'll show you this. We do
have a food dryer. It just dries food. This is not warm at
all.

Val>> A food dryer? It's dehydrated.

Juliano>> Yes, it just dries. It like replicates the sun. It
just does what the sun does. Like this bread, we could have
made it in the dehydrator, but actually we bake our bread on a
rock in Palm Springs for ten hours and we sprout it for three
days.

Val>> This was on a rock in Palm Springs?

Juliano>> A rock in Palm Springs. We just take seeds and
spices and you mush them together and then we use a machine, but
you can use a mortar and pestle. You press it onto a rock and
you come back in ten hours.

Val>> Now I have a question, though. Why can't you use a rock
in Santa Monica?

Juliano>> Well, because, you know, there's not enough sun.
It's like Palm Springs is really hot and really dry. It's like
the desert. On a really sunny day, though, you totally could,
but it's not every day sunny. I mean, you've got to just work
with the weather. So we're just going to build the cheeseburger
here.

[Film Clip]

Juliano>> When you eat it, you will actually never need a
doctor or dentist. As every living creature, plant, animal and
insect, has never been to a doctor and dentist, so is that right
of yours if you eat raw food. You must follow the law of nature
for raw food.

Val>> How long have you been eating that food?

Juliano>> Sixteen years. I will never eat a bite of cooked
food again. It is full of metal. It is poisonous. That food
is designed to send you to the hospital and that is it. That is
all that food is designed to do. To send you to a hospital to
create industry. The only way I can get like fifty grand or a
million bucks out of you is to sell you a house, a car and then
after that, medical procedures. That's all that's left.

Val>> (Laughter) That's quite a conspiracy theory you've got
there.

Juliano>> It's not a theory. It's a hundred percent of the
population winds up in the hospital and they go to the doctor a
lot. They go to the dentist a lot. And they wind up sick and
fat and bad teeth. No plant, animal or insect has ever been to
a doctor or dentist one time ever. Has ever brushed its teeth
or gotten a checkup and, when they die, they die in perfect
shape with perfect teeth. So there you go, there's the deal. I
mean, they have no doctors. They're fine. We have millions of
doctors. We're sick.

Val>> Now what is the difference between raw and health foods?

Juliano>> Well, our food is raw, but it does not taste healthy.
I like my food to taste like junk food. I mean, you know, I'd
rather get cancer than to be stuck eating broccoli for the rest
of my life, okay? No, this food tastes like junk food. It's
like the best, most decadent flavors and tastes that nature can
offer. Health food is just like this thing created, again, by
the medical industry, by the conspirators, to make you think,
oh, brown rice forever? We don't use rice. We're not into it.
We're not into carrots. We're not into any of that --

Val>> -- no carbohydrates?

Juliano>> No. We're not into carrots, not into starchy foods,
carrots, bananas, corn, none of that stuff, potatoes, seedless
fruit, all trippy, weird stuff, we don't use it. We use really
good high-quality power food that, when you eat it, you will
never need a doctor and dentist. You will never need that whole
aisle in the grocery store that's got aspirin, Tums, Rolaids,
you know. None of that stuff. A little of this food, some
flossing and you're set. You know, you're just like, two
hundred years later, we'll like hang out and we'll have like
some tea and do some yoga.

You can make anything. If you want to come over here and check
something out, look at this. These are mango noodles. Look at
that. Mango noodles. Just mango on a mandolin and, boom, you
have noodles. We can make a pasta out of that.

Val>> What is this? It looks like chocolate.

Juliano>> Oh, this is chocolate mousse and we use real cacao
beans. You mix it with macadamia nut and we make chocolate.
This is white seaweed crème. This is like the sweetest, best
pudding you'll ever have and we can make this out of white
seaweed actually.

Val>> What is that?

Juliano>> Candied Fuji apples. We make them ourselves. We
slice Fugi apples thin, soak them in orange juice and then
dehydrate them in the sun. It's fig and honey sauce. I mean,
it's really amazing. We make all kinds of cheeses and creams
out of everything you could imagine. There's no nut or seed we
don't use except for peanuts.

Val>> All right, how's our hamburger doing?

Juliano>> Our hamburger is pretty much done. We'll put a
little parsley on there.

Val>> We don't have to worry about it having gotten cold while
we were talking, right?

Juliano>> Definitely not. All right, and boom. Look at that.
The only cheeseburger in the world that is good for the rain
forest. This is an amazing thing that we're fighting right back
with.

Val>> All right. The final taste test, in this case, both.

Juliano>> I'll hold it for you.

Val>> All right. I'm going to make a mess.

Juliano>> That's okay. That's totally cool. Just bite hard.
It's okay. Good job (laughter). You did a fine job there,
little girl (laughter).

Val>> That's right. You don't believe in napkins, you don't
believe in napkins here.

Juliano>> No, we have napkins, we have napkins.

Val>> Oh, you do?

Juliano>> Yeah, we do. Here you go.

Val>> That is really good.

Juliano>> That is new food. It tastes like nothing else.
Sure, we call it a cheeseburger, but it doesn't really taste
like a cheeseburger. You want the same old thing again and
again? New, amazing, crazy food.

Val>> Well, raw food is nutritious and tastes really good, but
that cheeseburger will set you back $24.00. And that's our
program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times,
thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

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.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

They're calling him a golden boy. Find out how this Vietnamese-
American is blazing a new trail in politics.

>> Democrats may be making inroads in the 1990's, but the
twenty-first century, I believe, is the century of the
Republicans.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.