 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 have 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? Hey Donations! Like to donate! Hey Donations! To the firefighters of Los Angeles County. You know, like to donate, sir. Any change, quarters, anything helps, sir. Hey Donations, ma'am, to the firefighters of Los Angeles County Fire Department. Any loose change, quarters, anything helps, ma'am. The fire department needs money? Yes ma'am. We're suffering through the massive budget cuts. L.A. County, L.A. City, basically anywhere in 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! Hey Donations! To the firefighters of Los Angeles County. 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 we'd 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. 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's just going to be a revolving door and a cycle that we can't get out of. L.A. was a huge hotbed in regards to the whole subprime bars. It's been a very large amount of people that have been millions of people I would say that have 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 there is still a tremendous need out there. Where do people go after they are thrown out of their house? 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 having two or three families living in one unit because a lot of people have either maybe some of these people haven't lost their homes but they've lost their jobs. So we're seeing a lot of kids coming back home to their parents' home or 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 realized 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 and it's so peaceful. Hey baby, do you want hamburgers Justin? Or do you want hot dogs? Hot dogs. Yeah I think the kids would prefer hot dogs. Don't tell Justin you can't come over here son. It's going to get really hot soon. What are you doing Daisy? Hi. Hi, where'd your truck go? I was working at a hotel as a reservations agent. It was a really good job and I loved it. In school we learned that California is, I think it was the seventh largest economy in the world. Not just the country of America but just the state of California. When I started working it was so easy to find jobs. I mean I'd walk in somewhere and say hey you're hiring 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 many more people are in their cars, how many more people are on the streets, how many more businesses are closed down, empty store funds and it's just sad. You guys ready to eat? Before we actually, we were living here in Santa Barbara in a two bedroom apartment for a year and a half. Then how long did it take? I mean you both lost your job? It was so fast. I lost my job and two weeks later she lost her job. And then? And then it was probably two weeks after that we were in a motel. I mean it was fast. I'm an electrician and when all the housing market crashed it worked out really really hard to find. And it just hasn't really gotten any better since. 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 not many places to cook it. So this is the only place that I've found so far that we can cook actual food. Our refrigerator and RV doesn't work. Our heater doesn't work. Burners don't work. Taylor, I said stay inside. Justin come on. Well that's good honey but we're not going to come back and play here. We're going to go over to the parking lot. Well it's either dinner or bed Taylor. We still got to eat. As soon as we started thinking about the idea of buying an RV with 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 two in the morning they all have their generators running. Clearly people are living in them. They're not like there 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. Santa Barbara has this great program, this 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. We won't get harassed by police by people who are 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 p.m. but then we have to be gone by 7 a.m. You're angry at somebody for ending up in this situation? Oh no. Can you do? I mean he lost his job and then I lost my job. I'm a little mad at us for not having more of a savings but we never, I mean we tried and that was kind of all we could scrounge together by the time this happened to us but I mean everybody's hurting for jobs. My employers were so kind to me when they let me go. They were so nice. They felt so bad but they just had to do it and his had to too so I can't be mad at anybody. We just are trying to find work. If either one of us can get a job then we should be a lot better off. Well the class divisions are getting so much further. It used to be that you really could be born with nothing here and work your way up the ladder and I've been reading so much on the middle ladder rungs they're just not there anymore. They're just becoming more and more of a divide and we know in history that it's never good for countries when there's that much of a divide between the people with money and the people. The people without are doing really, the worst that the people without money do the angrier they're going to become the more desperate they're going to become you know there just becomes more robberies more crime you know eventually, I mean in history eventually they would just rise up or something you know it could be very problematic if that continues in my opinion. Justin, Christine, Taraz from New Beginning State Parking Program. Good, 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, 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 and had worked hard for. Candace, hi. How are you darling? 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 our program about four years. How are you doing? I'm doing good. Good. Yeah, you need anything? Yeah, six tires. Yeah, six new tires for the bus, huh? Yeah. Yeah, you need to get that money together. I talked to my boss and he doesn't have any cash. Yeah, 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 of the people who usually donate. So things have been pretty bad. Well, food bank day is Thursday so I'll come by and see on Thursday after the food bank in the afternoon and drop off some food and stuff. How did you end up in these books? The dot-com bubble and I lost my houses and everything eventually and this is what we had left to live in. What were you doing? Software engineering. And then you were fired? No, then my company went out of business. I was the CEO of a major dot-com. Well, professor, it looks like there's a show today. Testing. Yeah, I'm in a problem now. I don't know if this microphone's working yet. Ladies and gentlemen, the mother Teresa of social work in California. If you can say Glockenshfield without smiling, Don Bardo, what did they get? He worked for CBS News. He was Dan Rathers, film editor and worked for CBS LA. You look familiar. Which parking lot are you at? Do you want to see my box? Yeah. 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. You do? I don't have anything on. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I don't have a thing. All right. Peace and love. Power, power. That's from the 60s. You don't feel that the city government 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 I 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. Puppy dog's around today. Yeah, dog. I was working at a hotel. I was working at this hotel here, the Festparkers Double Tree. Yeah, it's a little embarrassing to now be parked across the street in my RV. I always hope I don't see some of the people that I used to work with running around the lawn. Ever? I haven't. No, luckily. Yeah. You like to say hi. What's your biggest fear? That the kids will eventually, you know, that we'll still be doing this when the kids are old enough to realize the situation we're in. That it'll somehow embarrass them at school. That's my fear, is that it'll embarrass them. That they'll be embarrassed when the kids are there. That, making them cry. I don't like to look at life like fears. I like to look at it as just challenges. 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 or an hour and a half. They teach you how to do resumes and how to talk to an employee. They videotape you so you can see what you look like in person. Excuse me. Coming through, guys. Coming through. Thank you. I feel frustrated just because I feel like I'm letting my own family down. I'm supposed to be the person that's taking care of them. There's so many jobs out there that we don't get an opportunity to have. 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 to our... to California. And California is upset, right? You have to go back the way 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 wage. How often do you come here looking for jobs? Every day. Every day. What do you look at? Usually Craigslist, monster.com, just any job ads on the internet, anything where I can find jobs. A lot of putting out resumes and filling applications and no returns. It's a 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've 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 an interview where clothing that is clean, pressed and well-fitted, wear appropriate clothing and footwear, make sure your hair is clean and combed, hands are clean, brush your teeth, freshen your breath, no gum, wear 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, my polished shoes probably aren't the most polished but you know, you do what you can and that's just the hard with the job market. Jesus. Let's do a driving lesson. That is so funny. Well, here's the thing is that we're getting in our car to drive two blocks like if... This is Los Angeles because we could have walked two blocks, but no, we're going to take two cars to go a few hundred meters. It's less than a hundred meters. That's just wrong. Let's park here. Public fruit. It's true, the crazy part is how delicious it is. Smells really good. Now that's talent. Ooh. What we just did is pick public fruit from the streets of Los Angeles 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 the 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 tree is perfect for LA car culture because what I have to do is drive by and stick out your hand and then drive away. But I threw fertilizer on this tree a few weeks ago. You did? Yeah, I did. So the peach tree that we just picked is called a drive by fruit because you can sit as you're driving and just pick fruit from the window of your car. Over here you have a very different kind of publicity. Oh yeah, here we go. The fruit vendor. It's really yummy because they put salt and cayenne pepper on them. People that I know that have lost their homes they are okay in a way. They do lose their house, 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. 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. These are all their flowers. These are the bananas. See, they're coming. This is crazy because it'll just keep going to the sidewalk. This one's really good because it's so public. You know what's so cool about this place and these people is that this is the epitome of the generous citizens. He planted all the stuff so that he could share it with his neighbors. He planted an avocado. Incredible. We do. Have you ever had the grapefruit from around the corner on Marathon? No, we haven't really done too much foraging around the neighborhood. Here we have Meyer lemon and we have Eureka lemon and we have bartender lime and that's a naval 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, Brussels 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 in university for 16 years since I was a kid. Yeah, that time's over I think. A lot of situations that happen in our lives that they seem insurmountable and we just we get stuck in them or we just can't see beyond them 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. There are certain things in life that we can't 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 facing whatever challenges, whatever demons whatever we hold within ourselves. Alright, that's the thought. All of these are going to be for today? Yeah, this side, that side and this too. I added them because they hadn't confirmed but then they confirmed. I don't know who's going to be here but I don't know who's going to be here. This guy's going to be here for sure Rafi Shahishanin. Yeah, so you're going to be next. Okay, you're welcome. My face. I got this the first time I went to jail this one, yourness by killing somebody you know and this one is for love love the game, love the game you know Why do you want to get them removed? Future, I don't want it to hold me back when I get job it makes people look at you differently a lot differently and I don't want that, I'm trying to change my life. I'm progress since I've been out I've got a couple of doors in all different directions I don't hang out with nobody, I go to work good for you, congratulations that's a big deal, did 14 years his case got overturned Stanford took his case, Stanford Law School you said? Stanford Law School. Is that that group that does that? That specific, they look at these cases I think so, yeah that is them Well that's what they did for him They did it for me, it took my case took them 2 years to give me the courts They did a declaration for my whole past, I've never been in trouble violence, they've proved all that to the courts So how long were you in? 14 years or something you didn't do Well I did it but it doesn't cost 25 years of life for radio, you know Oh right, okay So the judge that told the GA this man don't deserve 25 years of life for a radio he's a repeal offender but for petty crimes 25 years I'm letting this man go When I walked out of the county jail out the back door I walked up the street and walked back towards the county because society is differently I'm still adjusting I don't go out as much because it's dangerous out there in society I always look at my surroundings the buildings, the streets surrounding people around me the cars the phones, iPods everything's different What are you working on? This, the block the block, this that this, that all of it all of this, that so we start to fade right up here and all this Do you remember how it all works right? Yeah and how it feels You want a squeeze ball? I got this tattoo and I was just a kid and all the rest of it was done in prisons at the time I wanted to be a gangster at that time I started drinking at a really young age doing stay wherever I could I was homeless mostly downtown L.A. I bought up an L.A. too the streets parks box I had it hard All right man, good luck You're very welcome So I live at home my mom and dad have my own room I got my own gym in the backyard I got weights I got my fix it all the way I wanted my room looks like Circus City I got TVs and boom boxes and walk mats and CD players nice clothes this is the stuff I never had and I accomplished all this in a year you know it's luxury and I worked for it too when he was growing up he was a good kid and I'm glad he's back on course again and he paid for his mistakes but he overpaid them but the thing is that now he's 40 now and he lost all his youth being locked up to me it's not fair at all somebody owes him but he can't get his life back that he took from him that's what's sad when I was in prison they talked about the deficit how people lost their houses and everything because of the crisis I got lucky I found a job so I hold on to that job and I just like yes sir and no sir and do my job at the same time actually I'm supposed to be at work at 3 I'm there about 2, 2.15 just sitting there to start work I sit in my car and read my Bible and then I go in there and have me a little cup of noodle soup and start work and I work 48 hours a week 6 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 as 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 I don't have to worry about anything like that around here this is all filled up with new stuff sweats, shirts jeans brand new jeans socks, t-shirts you know you got a lot of stuff stuff that I never had you know and that's not it there's more all new stuff t-shirts tank tops t-shirts stuff like that unless you see something I'll buy it a bank card checking a bank card so it's like I don't have to worry no more you know it's like I could buy it if I wanted it you know I don't have to rob or steal no more I think the only certainty in today's day and age is that things are going to be in a state of constant flux and uncertainty so my own philosophy with raising my own children is that the most important capacity is to be adaptive and to know how to learn but the fact that these economic crises this 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 the public university can be there as 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 now in 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 going to the school library for an hour every other day is not the same as having a smart phone 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 these two computers are connected and well I can go to both at the same time and my mouse can connect between both are you a virtual bitch? my virtual bitch why? well because I can play with her however I want but these guys can only do what the computer programmed them to do I think what we're moving towards is digital technology becoming a very 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 technologies will accelerate the divide between the more privileged and less privileged and I think a city like L.A. 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 my name is Laura Burkhalter I'm an architect and I've been thinking about the urban paradigm my whole life because I believe in the city anyway 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 without a single traffic light this kind of 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 we said we can't afford it we started thinking well maybe now is the time to look at all the stuff that's 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 and our community and grow food I think a lot of people are starting to turn on to the idea of growing their own food too because it's 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 thousands of miles away and it's really cost effective it's much more cost effective and I think that's why people are also excited right now because I read something it's like a six time you six fold your money let's say you buy tomato plant for three dollars the amount of tomatoes you get from it is like six times more than what it would cost to buy the tomatoes it's also making people aware that they can do it in their apartment because not everyone is fortunate to have an amazing space like this and I'd love to be able to learn how to grow little plants on my balcony I would do that we have this space on my balcony and it's absolutely the case that produce is expensive now way more than it used to be for a variety of reasons especially being more conscious and doing organic eating well is expensive I mean who 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 state is how do you become empowered and self-sufficient because we have this crisis and people are dependent upon the 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 we're 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 work out for the day what I think it takes to get anything done is first of all for people to start daring 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 does the door right there no, that's the half round this is the half round maybe let's find out where the door is 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 off to themselves looking for their own interest and now people need each other and Lauren will live here first I think one of these this one might be getting enough which one is the long one you don't have a bedroom now I do, but I'm moving out of the place and then to be offered to live here I would definitely live here one is super long 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 happen in more typical commune setups so I want to find out if it's possible to have a more modern version of how to live in a city communally in the 70s people they felt like everyone has to follow one thing if I'm a vegetarian you'll 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 it's just beautiful and so meditative it's kind of go on my zone I think that Gold Rush is over people don't have the possibility to go after it because there's nothing of value that you can just 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 of the American dream in the past couple decades but I don't think that's the whole American dream I think the American dream has to do with self-expression to freedom and it's been caught up in this kind of want to have 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 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 a new identity because people change their lives all the time here but it's kind of the way it is and oh this is over what's next you know let's start over