California - The bankrupt State - VPRO documentary - 2010

California is a strong brand the place of dreams movie stars and new beginnings with a heavenly climate but the Golden State is running out of money and so is the city of Los Angeles public services are being cut unemployment is rising and many people that lost their homes in the economic crisis but optimism and the belief in the power of America seem unaffected who are the pioneers of the new America in the making and how do they see the future like to donate a donation firefighters often I like to do nicer Porter's anything else Ernie hey donations meant to the firefighers Los Angeles County Fire Department and loose change Porter's anything else about the fire department needs money yes no we're suffering through the massive budget cuts LA County LA City where basically anywhere California there's lack of equipment we're cutting back I mean would you like to have a house burning and nobody come to save you it wouldn't be too good like to donate he donation firefighters we faced a huge deficit this year in the city at one point close to a half a billion dollars deficit in the upcoming year what we've had to do is reduce many of the services potential that would have look at how we get back to the core services what a municipality is supposed to provide we were almost potentially going to get down to zero on a reserve fund with that what that means is if we had any kind of emergency we had some natural disaster which unfortunately Los Angeles often has had an earthquake fires we wouldn't have the cash to be able to respond this is a crisis that we're facing in this country and the state in the city and that we don't want to become a third world country we can be eternally optimistic but if your optimism is blinding you to necessarily some of the problems that you face it just it's going to be a revolving door in a cycle that we can't get out of la was a huge hotbed in regards to the hosts of crime bars it's been a very large amount of people that have been millions of people I would say that been affected by this so as you can see there are a lot of people here asking for assistance and these fairs are something that are going on a monthly basis within the alley area so this is still a tremendous need out there where do people go after they are thrown out of their house where many people go either they move in with family or they just try to look for somewhere to go rent so a lot of things where you've seen is that people have been moving in you have any two or three families living in one unit because a lot of people have either maybe so if you haven't lost their home today they've lost their jobs so we're seeing a lot of kids coming back home to their parents home we're seeing families combine because the situation is very difficult right now I think Oak Park has always been one of my favorites and I think that's why we started going over there once we realize we could legally Park there because for me like that's where I grew up so it feels very like home to me I feel comfortable there I just love it I love all the big oak trees it just makes me feel like my childhood so peaceful Hey Baby you want hamburgers Justin about hotdogs hotdogs yeah I think the kids are prefer hot dogs watch out Justin you can't come over here someone's gonna get really hot what'd you doing today hi where'd you Trek though I was working at a hotel as a reservations agent it was a really good job and I loved it in school we learned at California is I think it was the seventh largest economy in the world not just the country of America but just to say to California when I started working it was so easy to find jobs I mean I'd walk in somewhere hey you hiring like and they'd have work for you to do it was no problem at all and since I've been back it's incredible to me how much the town has changed how much how many more people are in their cars how many more people are on the streets how many more businesses are closed down you know empty storefronts and it's just bad you guys ready to eat yeah Taylor before we actually uh we were living here in Santa Barbara and a two-bedroom apartment for year and a half then no how long did it take I mean you bought us your job it was it was so fast it was I lost my job in two weeks later she lost her job and then and then it was tried two weeks after that we were in a motel I mean it was it was fast I'm an electrician and when all the housing market crashed um worked out really really hard to find and just haven't really gotten any better sense well they give us food stamps you can only buy food with it and I think they give us 600 a month for that so that's actually quite a bit of food it's pretty much the only thing we have is we have a lot of food but how many places that cook it so this is the only place that I've found so far that we can cook actual food our refrigerator an RV doesn't work our heater doesn't work burners don't work hailer I said stay inside Justin come on oh well that's good honey but we're not gonna come back and play here we're gonna go over to the parking lot yeah yeah yeah nice well it's either dinner or bed's hailer yeah we still gotta eat you're just tired you feel good after as soon as we started thinking about the idea of buying an RV but the last of our money and everything we started looking for where we could park and we started noticing there's just a ton of RVs in this town and they're on the streets and when you go by at 2:00 in the morning they all have their generators running clearly people are living in them they're not like they're for when people are on vacation like you might think people are living in them and I didn't realize how many people until we started doing this especially for families or people with children who are living out of their car and Santa Barbara has this great program the safe parking program where they provide people with a parking space like this where it's off the road where we're not going to get harassed by people probably won't get broken into and we won't get harassed by police or ticketed or towed or anything like that we're totally safe sleeping here so that's basically the program I mean it has its limitations of course it's only here during the night time but it's a good program so we can come here anytime after 7:00 p.m. but then we have to be gone by 7:00 a.m. you're angry at somebody for ending up in this situation oh no um can you do I mean he lost his job and then I lost my job like I'm a little mad at us we're not having more of a savings but we never made me try and that was kind of all we could scrounge together by the time this happened to us but um I mean everybody's hurting for jobs my employers were so kind to me and they let me go they were so nice they felt so bad they just had to do it and his had to - so I can't be mad at anybody I just you know we just are trying to find work you know if either one of us can get a job then we should be a lot better off Rocko well the class divisions are getting so much further you know it used to be that you really could be born with nothing here and like work your way up the ladder and I've been reading so much on the middle ladder rungs are just like not there anymore there's just becoming more and more of a divide and we know in history that it's never good for countries and there's that much of a divide between the people with money and the people you know when the people without are doing really you know the worst of the people without money do the angrier they're going to become the more desperate they're going to become you know they're just becomes more robberies more crime you know eventually I mean in history eventually they would just rise up as I mean it would you know it could be very problematic if that continues in Miami Justin Christine that's rise from the beginning safe parking program hi how are you doing good how are you good and I saw you parked down here and thought I'd come and check on you and see what I could do there are a lot of people who are losing their homes you can see all the for lease for sale for rent signs everywhere it wasn't like this a few years ago some people are very depressed I mean it's depressing to lose your job in your home and maybe some of your possessions you know it's a very degrading thing for people to go through when they start losing all the things that they knew or and had worked hard for Candace hi how are you doing are you still over at Casa Esperanza this is Jess and he and his two sons who are 14 and 15 live on the bus and they've been in a program about four years how you doing good yeah you need anything oh yeah six tires he has six new tires for the boss huh yeah yeah you need to get that money together I talked to my boss and he doesn't have any cash that's always his story well no it's true I mean we didn't get very much this year from the city or from any people will usually donate yeah so things have been pretty bad now while food bank day is Thursday so I'll come by and see on Thursday after the food bank in the afternoon drop off some food and stuff how did you end up in business uh the dot-com bubble and I lost my houses and everything eventually and this is what we had left to live in software engineering software engineering and then you were fired no then my company went on business I was the CEO of a major comm well professor looks like there's a show today ha ha testing we're having a problem though I don't know if this microphone is working it please young man the mother Teresa of Social Work in California if you can say glockenspiel without smiling Don Pardo what do they get they worked for CBS News he was Dan Rather's film editor and worked for CBS LA you look familiar which parking lot are you at you do have to eat my box yeah ah oh you're all ready to do collections for food and everything huh I tried it once it didn't work do you guys have spare change uh-huh give you I don't have any I'm sorry I don't have a thing Hey he's in love fire power I that's from the sixties you don't feel that the city governments should be taking care of these people well the city government and the city and many cities across the country and especially in the state of California is in the red right now to the tune of several millions of dollars and so don't think it's up to the government and I think we've just seen the tip of the iceberg here in California there's going to be less and less money so it's going to take more people being creative thinking outside of the box and doing something to be a part of the solution instead of the problem another guppy not yeah lots of puppy dogs around today hey yeah dog I was working at a hotel I was working at this hotel here the best Parker's Doubletree yeah it's a little embarrassing to know he like parked across the street in my RV and I always hope I don't see some of the people that I used to work with running around the lawn did you ever I haven't no luckily yeah you like to say hi where we go in DJ what's your biggest fear that the kids will and eventually you know they will still be doing this when the kids are old enough to realize the situation we're in that it'll somehow embarrass them it's cool that's my fears that it embarrass them that they'll be embarrassed or they'll be ashamed of their parents or their home hmm that make you cry um I don't like to look at life like fears I like to look at it just challenge that so my biggest challenge is to get us back out of this situation I'm in jobs club which you know I go every morning 8:30 in the morning I have to be there I'm usually there for about an hour hour and a half each other.you resumes and how to talk to him employee they videotape you so you can see what you look like when you're doing a resume excuse me coming through guys with real thank you I feel frustrated just because I feel like I'm letting my own family down I'm posed to be the person that's taking care of them there's so many jobs out there that we don't get opportunity to have um in this in this state I can't be a cook I used to be a cook when I was in high school and if you don't speak Spanish you don't get to be a cook the immigration problem I think is one of the largest problems to are to California and California is upset right you have to go back to a it's supposed to be is hiring your own citizens for a proper wage instead of having these citizens that are coming from a different country and working for half that way how often do you come here looking for jobs every day every day what do you look at usually Craigslist monster calm just any job ads on the internet anywhere I can find jobs well I have putting out app resumes and filling applications and no returns it's the handbook for job search I think that if you've actually maybe graduated high school or had a couple jobs this stuff would be pretty repetitive and kind of insult you and your intelligence in a way that they wouldn't have now they got a teacher there to teach you stuff but they're not really teaching the normal person anything that's going to help them in the real day getting a job that says you have to bathe and shower prior to interview we're clothing that is clean pressed in a well fitted wear appropriate clothing that Footwear make sure your hair is clean and combed hands are clean brush your teeth freshen your breath no gum we're supple perfume and cologne if any tattoos you have to cover them if you can I rarely get to take a shower as it is right now or my suit is there but it's not pressed you know I my polished shoes probably aren't the most polished but you know you do what you can and that's just the hard with a job market you let's do a driving lesson nice so funny well here's the thing is is that we're getting in our car to drive two blocks like if this is locked everything because we could have walked two blocks but know that we're gonna take two cars to go a few hundred meters it's less than 100 meters that's just wrong right let's park here we can leave it public free it's true the crazy part is how delicious it is smells really good now that's Talent mmm what we just did pick public fruit from the streets of Los Angeles in in in the neighborhood of Silver Lake we all live in this neighborhood and that's how we began we just made a map of all the trees that were like this one what's so great about this particular neighborhood is that these trees were planted a really long time ago by we don't know who but the public because there's no law about the sidewalks about who owns a space this is the city and behind the walls is the people's property so in this area there's no law that says that you can't do this and so in the City of LA they say that it is not illegal to pick this fruit people want locally produced and nothing is more local than this right combined with a terrible economic situation so of course it's going to change the way people live in the cities everywhere this is like this is this trees perfect for a la carte car culture because I have to do is drive by and stick out your hand and then drive away but I threw fertilizer on this tree um a few weeks ago you did yeah I did Thank You Matias yeah so the peach tree that we just picked we call a drive-by fruit because you can you can sit as you're driving and just pick fruit from the window of your car here you have a very different kind of public oh yeah here we go yeah the fruit vendor is really yummy because they puts like cup in salt and cayenne pepper people that I know that have lost their homes they they are okay in a way they do lose their house they do lose the money and the time they put into their homes but the people I know have changed they've moved to other cities they have moved in with family they there's a connectedness that wasn't there ten years ago we were very detached and people were more interested in objects and now people are more interested in experience over there that's a dragon fruit right there those cactus really yeah no these are the bananas yeah and there's a little there flowers yeah these are the bananas in the sea they're coming so this is crazy because it'll it'll just keep going to the sidewalk this one's really good but it's so public you know what's so cool about this place and these people is that these this is like the epitome of you know like the generous yeah he planted all the stuff so they could share it with his neighbors yeah he planted an avocado incredible yeah you guys share all your fruit have you ever had the grapefruit from around the corner on marathon no we haven't really done too much foraging around the neighborhood eat of people here we have Meyer lemon and we have Eureka lemon and we have bartender lime and that's a navel orange and in the back we have tangerine and blood orange and on the other side of the yard we have tomatoes and tomatillos we have broccoli red cabbage brussel sprouts artichokes I think maybe one out of every three people doesn't have a job right now in Los Angeles it's pretty close to that what about you yeah I lost my job last year along with a bunch of my friends at the same time the university system let a lot of people go you were teaching yeah I taught University for 16 years since I was a kid and yeah that times over I think a lot of situations that happen in our lives that we they seem insurmountable and and and we just we get stuck in them or we just can't see beyond them so so what I want to encourage everybody to do today is to think about not everything that is faced can be changed that's true these are certain things life that we can't write but nothing can be changed until it is faced so try it try to face it whatever it is however small or large it is try it and take little baby steps towards towards facing whatever challenges whatever demons whatever we hold within ourselves all right that's the pop thanks all of these are gonna be for today yeah this side that side and this taupe okay these are added because they haven't confirmed but then they confirmed to you all of our files mm-hmm I don't know is a yellow but I don't know wasn't be here this guy's gonna be here for sure Ruffy shall hey Shannon too many good those yeah so you're gonna be next okay you up face um I got this the first time I went to jail um this one you Ernest by killing somebody wanna trace it no no no and then this one is for for love no love the game love the game or no why do you want to get them removed future I don't know I don't want to told me back when I get job you know and it makes people look at you differently a lot differently Lance I don't want that trying to change my life she was a little grouchy too I'm progress since I've been out realizable doors in all different directions yeah l hang on oh boy I go to work come home and that's it good for you she congratulations that's a big deal did 14 years this piece they don't return Stanford took his case Stanford Law School after law school don't think that there is that that group that does that that specific they look at these cases think so yeah that is a DNA and all that's what they did for him did it for me took my case to them two years given the courts they did a declaration for my whole pass under a bench or violence they proved all that to the courts so how long were you in 14 14 years for something you didn't do well I did it but it doesn't cost when he fires life I like a radio you know all right okay so the judge had told a DA this man observed 25 years life for a radio he's a repeat offender but for petty crimes and 25 years I'm letting this man go when I walked out of the county jail not the back door I walked up the street and walk back towards the county because society is differently I'm still adjusting I don't go out as much because it's dangerous out in society I always can look on my surroundings the buildings the streets um surrounding people around me on the cars the phones iPods everything's different pretty working on this to block this this that to all the lot of it okay and we're doing this ideas that is we start to fade or it okay and up here and all this okay go to drop you remember how it all works right here and how it feels yeah you want to squeeze Bowl I got this tattoo and I was just a kid and all the rest was done in prisons at the time I wanted to be a gangster at that time you know started drinking really young EADS we stayed wherever I could I was homeless mostly downtown laid I thought up an alley to the streets parks box headed hard okay sound alright alright alright good luck alright thank you you're very welcome these games so I live at home my mom and dad have my own room I got my own gym in the backyard I got weights you know I got my fix it all the way I wanted my room looks like Circuit City I got TVs and bone boxes and walking out of the CD players and nice clothes and stuff this is dubbed under her head and I accomplished all this in the year you know it's luxury bud and I worked for two what he was growing up he was a good kid yeah now I'm glad he's back on course again that he paid for his mistakes but he overpays of mistakes anyway but thing is that now then but now he's warded his 40s now and he lost all his or his youth being locked up to misty it's not fair at all so somebody owes him but he can't get his life back that he took from him that was that let's do it when I was in prison and you know they talked about the deficit how people lost their houses and everything because of the crisis I got a look I found a job so I hold on to that job and I you know and I just like you know I try not you know yes sir no sir and do my job you know and they're on time actually I'm posed to be I work at 3:00 I'm there about 2:00 2:15 just sitting there and start work I sit in my car and read my Bible and then uh I go in there having a little cup of noodle soup and start work and I worked 48 hours a week six days a week I make 300 almost 400 a week and with that I pay bills with it and I go pay the bills right away soon as I get them I never wait I get them and I go pay the bills the next day as soon as I get my check I go pay bills so all we have to worry about anything like that here around here this is all filling up with new stuff sweatshirts jeans brand new jeans socks t-shirts you know you got a lot of stuff yeah but yeah stuff that I never had you know and that's not it there's more all new stuff and t-shirts and tight tank tops and t-shirts and stuff like that and and I see something I'll buy it bank card checking and bank card so it's like I don't have to worry little more you know it's like I can buy it if I wanted you know I don't have to robber steal one more I think the only certainty in today's day and age that is that things are going to be in a state of constant flux and uncertainties so my own philosophy with what's raising my own children is that you know the most important capacity is to be adaptive and to know how to learn but the fact that you know these economic crises the fact that you know jobs are moving between countries in a way that's completely unpredictable that we really don't know what the future holds in terms of the sort of opportunities that are out there that to me seems like the one certainty that we have for today's kids I work at the University of California so we have felt the economic crisis for sure there's been huge budget cuts but this idea that that public university is going to be there is one of the finest educational institutions that supplies education at low cost this model is coming under challenge as the University of California is facing these budget shortfalls having to raise tuition and increasingly relying on private money for funding for my own kids I'm extremely hopeful because I think that for them they're really able to take advantage of a lot of the opportunities that the new media environment has to offer so much of this access to knowledge is happening in very private settings if you have a family that doesn't have a computer or going to the school library for an hour every other day is not the same as having a smartphone always connected to the Internet being able to be on MySpace and Facebook with your friend all the time that gap is really huge and the school is not really a context that can mediate that disparity anymore um these two computers are connected well I can go to both at the same time and my mouse can connect between for your real s or your virtual bitch girl yeah what well cuz I can play with her however I want but these guys um they're only yeah I can only do what the computer program I think what we're moving towards is towards digital technology becoming a very sort of pervasive part of everyday life so that we don't really think about the distinction between the real and virtual as something radically different I think the worst case scenario is that these sort of technologies will accelerate the divide between the more privileged and less privileged and I think a city like LA is a place where you might see that happening so I think that is the worst case scenario I think the best case scenario is that it will actually help bridge them of those divides you my name is Laura Burkhalter I'm an architect and I've been thinking about the urban paradigm my whole life because I believe that there's another way my dream is that the city becomes a city for people instead of a city for cars and money and power that the city is built by people for people I envision infrastructure for people for example bicycle freeways where you could cross the city from one end to the other with without a single traffic light I guess the crisis helped us out we had a baby on the way and we were looking to move into an apartment to rent and it was so expensive reason you can't afford it you know we started thinking well maybe now it's the time to look at all the stuff that foreclosed on and bank owned and no one wants it so we were lucky to get this place for less than half of what it would have been two years before and we get to share it with our friends with our community and grow food I think a lot of people are starting to turn onto the idea of growing their own food too because it's really probably better for you obviously than the things that you buy from the supermarket that are from out of the country or grown a lot of pesticides or something thousands of next really cost-effective Nestle yeah it's much more cost-effective and I think that's why people are also getting behind it right now because not you I read something I forget it's like a sixth time you use six fold ear money mmm right like let's say you buy tomato plant for three dollars the amount of tomatoes you get from it is like only six times more than what it would cost you to buy the tomatoes right it is also making people aware that they can do it in their part it because no everyone is fortunate I have like an amazing space like this and like I'd love to be able to learn how to grow like little plants on my balcony or you know something like that I would do that when we have the space on my balcony and it's absolutely the case that produce is expensive now way more than it used to be for righties being more conscious and doing it again yeah yeah I mean well is it expensive it's the amount can afford to go to Whole Foods exactly this is what I'm saying I think after the crisis I think in anyone's mind whether you're an entrepreneur or a person a citizen of any nation status is how do you become empowered and self-sufficient because we have this crisis and people were dependent upon a system and now I think there's a lot of a lot of people are lost and trying to figure what happened and what's going on I think the best cure I guess or what I think is action and how do you be self sustainable how do you empower yourself I think the system has made us believe that very powerless that we're just at the mercy of the system but we're not because the system can only exist with us buying into the system and if we don't and we start creating our own reality then the system can no longer exist that way this is our workout for the day what I think it takes to get anything done is first of all for people to start bearing to imagine what would a cool city be like what would it be like to live in a really awesome city what would that look like and then step two is to start taking some action just a door right here no that's the how friend this is a half bro let's maybe let's find out what the door yeah that's good alright here sister that looks rectangular right yeah I could take it this way kind of toss it I'll toss it up okay the sense of community is becoming much more important than it used to be people depend on each other they didn't used to depend at all everyone was like off to themselves and looking for their own interest and now people need each other this is a bedroom and Lauren will live here first I think one of these this one might be getting it up which one is the long one this one's longer if it's you you don't have a bedroom now I do but I'm moving out of place so and then to be offered to live here and I would definitely live here yeah oh one is super long this one this one you like I grew up in a commune and we were very much on top of each other and I think this one will take care of some of the issues that I think happened in the more typical commune setups so I want to find out if it's possible to have a you know kind of a more modern version of how to live in a city communally in the seventies people they felt like everyone has to follow one thing is I'm a vegetarian you all have to be vegetarians if I don't drive a car one has to not drive a car it was more ideological and now I think it's more practical in a way you know about farming I'm learning learning as I go chicks beautiful and so meditative kind of go on my zone I think that gold rush is over yes people don't have the possibility to go after it because there's no nothing of value that you can just like flip and make quick cash so that's the whole premise of gold rush is that the end of the American Dream no I think the American Dream is bigger than that I think that's just one part of the American Dream that's been the expression of the American Dream in the past you know couple decades but I don't think that's the whole American Dream I think the American Dream has to do with a self-expression to freedom and it's been caught up in this kind of want to have you know materialistic aspect of the American Dream but I think Americans are very optimistic people and they they will get back up so I think the freedom is now being redefined and I think that's still the American dream is freedom but maybe it's freedom from the system maybe it's you know having your own solar cells and your own power and not having to pay into the system and having ways to get around that's not part of the gasoline company's profit it's another kind of freedom one thing about Americans is that they're very flexible I think it's going to take longer for the rest of the world to accept a new identity for America than it is going to be for Americans to accept the new identity because people change their lives all the time here and that it's kind of the way it is and oh this is over what's next you know let's start over

Channel: vpro documentary

Views: 803,154

Rating: 4.5914583 out of 5

Keywords: California dreaming, bankrupt golden state, bankrupt state, USA bankrupt, california documentary, bankrupt state documentary, Safe Parking Programme, Santa Barbara, Mizuko University California, american dream, new pioneers, Economy, Backlight Economy, Economy documentary, documentary, vpro documentary, vpro documentaries, vpro backlight, Free documentary, subtitled documentary, documentary subtitles, docu

Id: zKkJB8Etq54

Length: 49min 14sec (2954 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 08 2010

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[u/ModisDead]

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[u/MovieGuide]

Out of Omaha (2007)

    a.k.a. California Dreaming (2009)

Comedy [USA:PG]
Dave Foley, Lea Thompson, Vicki Lewis, Ethan Phillips
Director: Linda Voorhees

IMDb rating: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 3.4/10 (344 votes)

California Dreaming (also known as Out of Omaha) is a 2007 film written and directed by Linda Voorhees starring Lea Thompson, Dave Foley and Patricia Richardson. It was premiered at the 2007 Omaha Film Festival. (Wikipedia)

More info at IMDb, Wikipedia, Wikidata.
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[u/Nichijo]

Looks like yet another "California shattered dreams" movie.

When you run out of ideas, and have to make a movie, just dust off this old trope. It always sells to certain people who want to believe it doesn't suck that bad where they are.