The Drew Carey Project, Volume 1 Transcript - Izzit.org

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The Drew Carey Project, Volume 1
Transcript
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Program 1: Traffic Gridlock
DREW CAREY: Hi, I’m Drew Carey, here at the corner of Sunset and Highland in Los Angeles,
California, one of the worst intersections in all of Los Angeles. It’s only a quarter after 4:00. They
already have a traffic cop in the middle of the intersection directing traffic. He’s here all the time. The
traffic goes all the way back in each direction blocks and blocks. There’s no end in sight to it. Los
Angeles, along with a lot of other cities like Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, you know, traffic is
the #1 concern, the #1 complaint among the people that live here and like a lot of places in America, it’s
only going to get worse. So, you live in LA, right?
MALE RESIDENT 1: I do.
CAREY: And what do you think about the traffic here?
MALE RESIDENT 1: It sucks.
MALE RESIDENT 2: It’s disgusting.
CAREY: Yeah. Everyone in LA complains about traffic but we didn’t want to talk to just anyone. We
wanted to talk to the poor soul with the most congested commute in LA. We asked John and Ken from
radio station KFI AM 640 for help.
DJ JOHN: So we teamed up with Drew and the Reason Foundation to start the Most Congested
Commute here in the LA area.
DJ KEN: Remember, not the longest commute. Those of you who have been stuck in a whole lot of
traffic is what we’re looking for.
CAREY: And you can’t have a car driving you there either. I don’t want to hear from Harvey Weinstein
about how bad his commute is.
DJ KEN: I hear people say this. The no. 1 reason they’d want to move out of LA…..
DJ JOHN: Traffic.
DJ KEN: ...is the traffic
CAREY: Yeah, but you guys like congestion because it keeps people listening to your radio.
2

DJ JOHN: Yeah. No, we freely admit that.
CAREY: Well, we heard plenty of traffic sob stories and finally found our contest winner. Meet graphic
artist Josh Lipking.
JOSH LIPKING: I do this every morning. Check out Sig Alert, Google traffic.
CAREY: Every day he kisses his wife goodbye—
LIPKING: Love you, girl.
JOSH’S WIFE: Love you, too. Bye—
LIPKING: Have a good day.
JOSH’S WIFE: You, too.
CAREY: And drives into hell.
LIPKING: That’s when, you know, you get this heart pumping in your chest. You start to sweat a little
and just kind of bite the bullet and just go for it.
CAREY: But he tries to make the most of the time he spends stuck in traffic.
LIPKING: So, this is a great little tool, 1-hand flossier. And it’s slow enough where, you know, people
are putting on their makeup, people are shaving. I had chicken for dinner last night.
CAREY: You know, if you get tired of the traffic in LA you can always take the bus if you have a day
and a half to get to work.
LIPKING: Oh, I’ve used transit.
CAREY: Josh actually gave his car away and he used public transit for over a year but it turned out the
bus was even slower than driving.
LIPKING: The transit out here is stuck in the traffic.
CAREY: So Josh eventually bought another car. Josh lives only 16 miles from work but it often takes
him an hour and a half to get to the office. At the end of the day, it’s the same fight to get back home - 3
hours a day! No one should have to live like this. We’ve got to find a way to speed up Josh’s commute.
CAREY: What would you do about traffic if you were the king of Los Angeles?
MALE RESIDENT 1: If I was the king of Los Angeles? Hmmm, well I think we’re pretty much
screwed.
CAREY: I’d make people use their gas pedal more and I’d make them pull all the way up to the bumper
in front of them.
3

CAREY: On the “John and Ken Show,” I suggested other ways to bust congestion, like letting private
companies pay for roads.
DJ KEN: Well, how would that help?
CAREY: Well, first of all, taxpayers wouldn’t have to pay for the road. Like I was talking to somebody
from the Reason Foundation at dinner and I go what do you think we should do about something like the
101 and he goes just double-decker it and I go “Who’s going to pay?” and he says, “Let a private
company do it and they can charge people to ride on the road. You can get a Fast Pass and you pay 5-
bucks.”
DJ JOHN: Sure, the top deck could be for the tolls.
CAREY: Yes. And if you privatize it, you can have different companies bidding—I would love to own
a freeway in LA
DJ JOHN: The Drew Carey Freeway?
CAREY: Yeah—Maybe the Drew Carey Freeway would look something like this snazzy double-decked
toll road in Tampa, Florida or maybe I’d build my road underground. Here’s a tunnel that’s being built in
Paris. Tunnels that run underneath Australian cities help people get around town. The private sector paid
for all these.
LIPKING: Life would be much happier without the congestion.
CAREY: So, let’s build the Josh Lipking tunnel. Double-deck one of the freeways he uses or, hey, how
about building some special express lanes like the one accountant Cedric Allen uses.
CEDRIC ALLEN: Oh, this piece of paper - this is the billing statement for using the 91 Express
Lane,168 total trips valued at a cost of $548 which people see that and they’ll go, “WOW, you spend that
much?”
CAREY: The 91 Express Lanes isn’t your typical toll road. A private company built it in the middle of
the 91 Freeway in Orange County, California. The express lanes run right next to the regular lanes so
drivers can choose to use them or not and you don’t have to stop at toll booths. Tolls are collected
electronically from this gadget that hangs overhead. When traffic gets bad the price of the toll rises. The
OCTA owns the 91 Express Lanes. Here’s spokesman Ted Nguyen.
TED NGUYEN: The average toll is about $2.76. The low end is about $1.50 and the high end is about
$9.50.
CAREY: Sounds pricey but each day about 40,000 people pay the toll because the special lanes let them
zoom past slow-moving traffic. Mailman Demetrius Mikes battles through congestion on his way home
but once he hits the express lanes his commute speeds right up.
DEMETRIUS MIKES: To me it saves you about an hour and a half to two hours.
CAREY: Traffic often keeps parents from picking up kids at day care on time. Imagine paying five
bucks for each minute you’re late. Cedric knows all about that.
4

ALLEN: On an average week we would probably spend about $40.00 per child times three. That’s
$120.00 a week for being a few minutes late.
CAREY: $120.00 a week. Once he started using the express lanes Cedric almost never had to pay late
fees, so paying a little can end up saving you a lot of money and time.
DEMETRIUS MIKES: Oh, with the extra time I do my school work, you know, talk to my son, just
time to relax.
ALLEN: Have more time to prepare a decent meal. I have more time to spend with the family and
possibly even get in a movie before going to bed at night.
CAREY: Unpredictable traffic makes it hard for Josh to make plans even with his wife but with an
express lane, he could always make it home in time for dinner.
LIPKING: The 91 Toll Expressways—I think that’s a great idea.
CAREY: So, let’s see. Express lanes, tunnels, double-deckers, anything else we could do to get Josh
home fast?
MALE RESIDENT 2: There has to be some other ways to travel, like they should the use the air.
CAREY: Use the air? Hmmm—
CAREY: Hey man, I’m Drew. Nice to see you. How are you? Getting ready for the easiest way to
work you ever had in your life?
LIPKING: Yeah, let’s go for it.
CAREY: Yeah, come on. Follow me.
CAREY: Hope the helicopter doesn’t crash. The best words to show at my funeral though if it does.
LIPKING: This is the way to go. I’ve got to get my stuff set up to do this every day.
CAREY: Do traffic report.
LIPKING: Ten (10) west bound looking slow. Josh Lipking, Traffic Copter 12 in the sky.
LIPKING: So, that was a blast, huh?
LIPKING: Yeah, exactly. Thanks.
CAREY: At the end of the day, Josh rode the chopper back home. So long, 90-minute commute.
LIPKING: My commute - only 9 minutes. I have no idea what it even looks like in my neighborhood at
5:00 p.m. I’m going to go inside, have some dinner with my wife. This is the greatest thing. Thanks a
lot.
5

CAREY: Such a happy ending or is it? We can’t keep flying Josh to work so it’s back to the gridlock
grind for him first thing tomorrow. Now, we could build some express lanes, tunnels, and doubledeckers.
Taxpayers wouldn’t even have to pay for it. Then Josh, bus riders, and other commuters could
escape congestion every day and, hey, if we could beat gridlock in LA, we could beat it anywhere, but if
you’ve live in Los Angeles as long as I have, you really shouldn’t have much hope. It’s okay, though,
because I have a helicopter.
For Reason.tv, I’m Drew Carey and I’m out of here in a helicopter.
Banner:
Drew got home in 7 minutes.
It took the crew 75 minutes.
But who’s counting?
For a list of additional resources to use with this video go to
www.izzit.org/products and click on the The Drew Carey Project, Volume 1 video.
6

Program 2: Living Large: America’s Middle Class
DREW CAREY: Ah-h-h, isn’t life in America great? But maybe I’m just an out-of-touch rich guy.
Wonder what it’s like for the middle class in America?
CNN LOU DOBBS: What’s left of our middle class may be on the verge of collapse.
CNN NEW YORK ANCHOR DESK: The American dream is under siege.
CNN LOU DOBBS: Corporate America posting record profits so why in the world are middleclass
Americans suffering from declining pay and standards of living?
CAREY: Well, that’s a good question, Lou. We headed to California’s Castaic Lake to confront some
fat cats as they played around in the water with hardly a care in the world.
TOURIST: Ha, ha, ha.
CAREY: Nothing but fast toys, Hummers and Escalades. Of course, their owners were happy to brag
about them.
BOAT OWNER 1: It’s a Yamaha. It’s a twin-engine high output.
CAREY: Ever seen the price tag for a 27-foot boat?
BOAT OWNER 3: Oh, it cost $50,000.
BOAT OWNER 2: It’s a special boat like for wakeboarding.
MALE 2: Well, you need something to tow it, right? Ha Ha Ha.
BOAT OWNER 2: Every day that they wake up, they believe that this day is going to be better than
yesterday.
CAREY: Yeah. Well, today is going to be better than yesterday if all you gotta to do today is go
wakeboarding. This rich guy sees the world through rose-colored designer glasses, probably a trust fund
kid who doesn’t even have a job.
INTERVIEWER VOICE: What do you do for a living?
BOAT OWNER 2: I’m a gardener.
CAREY: A gardener? Well, this guy’s gotta be a fat cat CEO.
INTERVIEWER VOICE: What’s your job?
BOAT OWNER 3: I sell building materials.
7

INTERVIEWER VOICE: So you must be like a corporate CEO or something, right, to support
something like this?
BOAT OWNER 1: Uh, no. Law Enforcement.
CAREY: A cop with a big boat and a Hummer. Ah ha. Here’s an auto mechanic who must be
struggling. He’s got no boat.
INTERVIEWER VOICE: Yeah, do you have a boat like this or—
MALE 1: No. I have motorcycles.
INTERVIEWER VOICE: Yeah. What kind of motorcycles do you have?
MALE 1: Oh, Hondas, Harleys, Suzuki. Got ‘em all.
CAREY: The boat belongs to his buddy, a truck driver. How can guys with regular jobs afford all this?
Maybe we just happened to visit the lake during the lottery winners’ reunion.
MICHAEL COX: Well, that is America’s middle class today. It’s amazing the amount of stuff they’re
able to own and their consumption levels that they achieve today compared to the past.
CAREY: Economist Michael Cox is co-author of Myths of Rich and Poor, Why We’re Better off than We
Think. He says the middle class is doing great but that’s not what we hear on TV.
CNN LOU DOBBS ANCHOR 1: The problem is their wages are low, they…
CNN ANCHOR 2: They’re reeling from stagnant wages.
MICHAEL COX: So many things wrong with that. First of all, those wages don’t include the benefits
that we bargain for - we demand.
CAREY: Even if you add in benefits, how much you earn is only part of the story. How much things
cost. Now, that’s another important part.
MICHAEL COX: Is the cost of everything going down? No. Is the cost of the vast array of things that
Americans purchase going down? Absolutely.
CAREY: What? That’s not what other people say.
CNN LOU DOBBS ANCHOR 3: It’s dangerous. It’s a vicious, vicious cycle. Everything’s going up.
CAREY: Money is how we usually measure the cost of living, but Cox thinks we should use something
more important to us—our time.
MICHAEL COX: Really, the best way to measure cost is in terms of work time. How long do I have to
work in order to afford to buy something? So, let’s just take a product, for example, the cell phone.
CAREY: The classic ’80s movie Wall Street takes us back to the early days of the cell phone when
corporate big shots went cordless with their $4,200 bricks.
8

MALE CHARACTER OF MOVIE: My wife tells me you made a move on Darien.
CAREY: Few regular people could afford cell phones because the average worker had to sweat for 460
hours to buy one. Boy, how times have changed.
MICHAEL COX: So this $50.00 phone is less than 3-hours of work; 460 then, 3 now. Huge declines in
prices enabling these things to be afforded by the middleclass and many other products, too.
CAREY: Only the rich owned cars a century ago, but today average Americans can afford shiny SUVs.
In terms of time, the cost of a car has fallen by more than 70%. The story is the same for necessities.
Food is 84% cheaper. Clothing is 87% cheaper.
MICHAEL COX: So food’s going down. Clothing is going down. Housing is going down in cost. We
look at the houses and we see that they’re much more expensive in money terms, but the houses are also
two-and-a-half times as large as back then and they have all the amenities.
CAREY: Today, the typical new home comes equipped with a dishwasher, stove, microwave, fireplace,
central heat and air and a bunch of other amenities that weren't standard in homes 50 years ago, let alone a
century ago. The falling cost of living allows regular Joes to own boats, vacation at lakes and fly around
the world. We checked it out. The cost of a cross-country flight has plummeted by 95%.
MICHAEL COX: When the flights first came out, they were the exclusive purview of the rich, the jet
set, but now the jet set includes just you get on planes and look, there’s people there of all income levels.
CAREY: Such progress and yet so many middleclass Americans feel lousy.
CNN NEWS REPORTER: And only 19% of middleclass Americans feel they are getting ahead in life.
CAREY: Gee, I wonder why? Maybe they’d be in a better mood if news programs weren’t packed with
doom and gloom but, you see, bad news gets ratings.
4-DIFFERENT ANCHOR DESKS: whether they’ll ever have the kind of . . . all the days. . .
CAREY: Remember the auto mechanic who collects motorcycles?
MALE 1: Works good. Plenty of it. Just got another raise. Everything is good.
CAREY: Even folks who say things are going well for them are often convinced times are tough for
everyone else.
MALE 1: Yeah. There’s some big guys and then there’s the poor people and there’s really no
middleclass anyway.
MICHAEL COX: These are things that they hear about propagated in the media.
MALE 1: I guess the middle class is always getting squeezed.
CAREY: Sure seems like he’s been watching a lot of TV.
9

CBS SUNDAY MORNING: …squeezed is what a lot of middle class Americans are these days.
CNN ANCHOR 4: …the middle class squeeze.
CBS REPORT PUBLIC RESPONSE: There is a squeeze.
CAREY: If middle class folks aren’t getting squeezed, they’re told they’re victims of war.
CNN LOU DOBBS: Corporate American escalating its war against the middle class.
CAREY: And it’s always more difficult to…
CBS REPORT PUBLIC RESPONSE: …make ends meet.
CNN LOU DOBBS: …make ends meet.
CNN REPORT PUBLIC RESPONSE: It’s very, very difficult to make ends meet.
MICHAEL COX: But if you’re willing to settle for a living standard of the 1970s, it’s easier to make
ends meet. It’s not the high cost of living. It’s the cost of living high. It’s the fact that we insist on
having so much more.
CAREY: Too bad putting things in perspective is rarely considered newsworthy.
CBS NEWS REPORTER: But today much of the American middle class is struggling.
CAREY: It’s much easier to stir up anxieties.
CNN REPORTER REPORT: The Iraq War may be Democratic voters’ top issue but economic anxiety
comes next and…
CAREY: And bad news doesn’t just get ratings. It also gets votes.
CNN REPORT – HILLARY CLINTON’S SPEAKS: While productivity and corporate profits are up,
the fruits of that success just hasn’t reached many of our families. It’s like trickle-down economics but
without the trickle.
MICHAEL COX: If your life is bad, it’s clearly cruel and unfair. Vote for me and I’ll help.
CAREY: It’s a bipartisan theme.
PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAK: The fact that our dynamic economy is leaving working people behind…
MICHAEL COX: There are people suffering out there and there’re always been people suffering out
there. There will always be people suffering out there. The poor you’ll always have with you, but how
does it compare to the past? Americans are richer today than in any time in history. We should really be
thankful that we live in a society where we don’t have to work day and night in order just to be at a living.
10

CAREY: We can spend more time with family and friends because it takes less time for us to buy the
things we need, so if you look at it that way, the future will be even better than today. So, don’t worry.
You’ll still be able to tell your kids how tough you had it compared to them.
For Reason.tv, I’m Drew Carey.
For a list of additional resources to use with this video go to
www.izzit.org/products and click on the The Drew Carey Project, Volume 1 video.
11

Program 3: Dance Ban
DREW CAREY: Hi, I’m Drew Carey. I was in the moving Robots with Halle Berry. I’m Craig, the
yellow robot, and Halle’s the cute silver robot. Halle Berry starred in Bullworth with Warren Beatty who
co-starred with Goldie Hawn in Shampoo who was in First Wives Club with Sarah Jessica Parker who
was in Footloose with, you guessed it, Kevin Bacon.
Remember Footloose? It’s that film from the ’80s about high school kids fighting for the right to dance.
Quaint, right? Well, believe it or not, we found our very own Footloose story in the Arizona desert.
Somehow they knew we were coming.
SPENCER BELL: Well, my name is Spencer Bell. I’m a junior at ASU. I’m going to the William P.
Carey School of Business for business management.
DALE BELL: Well, my name is Dale Bell and I, along with my son, Spencer, built the San Tan Flat
Steakhouse here in Queen Creek, Arizona.
SPENCER: The idea for San Tan Flat kind of came along. My dad and I were driving in a car and my
dad turned to me and said, “You know, Spencer, what do you want to do with your life? What do you
want to do for a job or profession?” And I turned to him and I said, “Well, you know, I want to get into a
business, a small business, where a Wal-Mart, Costco, another big box store is not going to beat me up
out of it.” He turned to me and said, “Well, the only business that I know of where you can do that is the
restaurant business.”
DALE: When he suggested he’d like to go into small business I thought it’d be the perfect thing for him
to learn a small business and the difficulties involved in that and be part of the American dream. We have
one neighbor that actually lives on the property that joins our property and his name is Paul Younger and
he’s a beekeeper. Paul initially was the only person who showed up in opposition to our rezoning.
PAUL YOUNGER: I opposed it because of the lights and the noise and the smells and traffic and
everything else I thought would be detrimental to our lifestyles here.
DALE: When we were approved (our plan was approved by the county supervisors) we actually received
a standing ovation.
PAUL: When the meeting was over and it became obvious that he was going to get approval, I asked
him to please have some consideration for the neighbors here and he assured me that he would.
SPENCER: It was exciting - exciting to finally see the doors open.
PAUL: I was really pleasantly surprised. The impact was very minimal and it’s been a convenience to
have him close by.
DALE: When people would walk into the courtyard and see those bonfires and this atmosphere, this
ambience, from all these old wagons and buggies and all the antiques that have been collected here, the
word that most often was mentioned was “awesome.” People would say this is awesome.
12

CAREY: Dale and Spencer soon found out, however, that not everyone was excited to see San Tan Flat
open.
DALE: We weren’t breaking any laws but Pinal County apparently decided that they did not like us and
decided that they wanted to put a noise ordinance in, as they did have a neighbor complain about some of
the noise, and they put one of the strictest in the state of Arizona. In fact, the sound of a sewing machine
is louder than we are allowed to be with our country western music venue here.
PAUL: Dale called and asked me if the music was too loud, if it was bothering me or anything else and I
really hadn’t even noticed it that much.
CAREY: In addition to the noise levels, the County hassled Dale and Spencer about everything, from the
size of their parking lot to the number of signs along the road and the kind of wood they burned in their
fire pits. Dale and Spencer’s efforts to comply cost them more than a hundred thousand dollars but
County officials still weren’t satisfied. They decided to invoke a 60-year-old ordinance.
DALE: Dancing they said in Pinal County is illegal if it’s done outdoors.
(Music: “There’s an Arizona county where some taverns. . .”)
CAREY: Based on the County’s ruling which Dale and Spencer are fighting in court, each day San Tan
Flat patrons are caught dancing, Dale and Spencer must pay a $700.00 fine. Over the course of a year the
fines would total more than two hundred thousand dollars.
DALE: Well, there’s no logic behind why a government would not want to allow dancing that I can
come up with.
MALE PATRON 1: I think it’s ridiculous. Dancing is a natural God-given right.
FEMALE PATRON 1: Dancing is so much fun.
FEMALE PATRON 2: Why stop it?
FEMALE PATRON 1: It’s good music. You might as well dance and have fun.
FEMALE PATRON 3: All I have to say is: “Look at the crowd.”
MALE PATRON 2: Dancing is part of life.
FEMALE PATRON 4: I think that it is…it’s bad business as far as the County is concerned . . .
(MUSIC)
DALE: We have - we’ve asked everyone, everyone that we know that might have a clue as to why Pinal
County would attack this family-friendly good business and no one has been able to come up with a
logical explanation.
PAUL: Maybe someone is trying to use our County regulations to harass San Tan Flats into either
submission or into some sort of a bankruptcy or financial situation where it has to be put on the market
13

and sold and there are people around here with money that would probably be interested in buying it at a
real cut rate.
DALE: Had it not been for the government’s assault upon this venue, this would’ve been a - just almost
a dream come true for a small businessman because it was met with so much support and praise.
SPENCER: Because of this experience I see how government can be so abusive of its power even on a
small local level. It doesn’t have to be federal. Even our Pinal County government is just way overstepping
their bounds.
DALE: They’re going to have to take me on all the way to the Supreme Court of this state and wherever
else we can go beyond that, if necessary, because I don’t believe the government has any right to tell
people they can’t express themselves and they can’t dance. [Music: “liberty . . . “]
CAREY: So if you ever find yourself in Arizona on the road between Phoenix and Tucson, swing on by
San Tan Flat. I hear it’s a great place to dance.
For Reason.tv, I’m Drew Carey.
(Music: “Yes, everywhere there’s freedom, there’s someone who wants to take it and in Arizona, it’s
Pinal County…)
Banner: Pinal County officials refused to comment on this case and declined our request for an
interview.
For a list of additional resources to use with this video go to
www.izzit.org/products and click on the The Drew Carey Project, Volume 1 video.
14

Program 4: National City
JOSE VARGAS: I got in trouble when I was maybe - when I was maybe 15, 16 years old, I got arrested
for armed robbery with a firearm. I just didn’t know better. I grew up in a family which I thought being
in a gang was being part of being - being - that was the every-day of life. My grandmother was a gang
member. My grandpa was a gang member. I didn’t know better.
DREW CAREY: You know, I live in a really nice neighborhood, thankfully, and the people in my
neighborhood, their kids have very good lives, very bright futures, but everyone knows that life is much
harder for kids who grow up in inner cities. They often come from poor, single-parent homes and too
often get involved in gangs and criminal activity. We went down to National City, California and met
some really great people who’ve devoted their lives to helping at-risk kids in their neighborhood.
VICTOR NUNEZ: National City is a very nice neighborhood, a lot of single-family homes. We do
have a gang problem and we have problems with drugs as in any other community. The Community
Youth Athletic Center pretty much started out in 1991 in the backyard of Mr. Carlos Barragan, Jr. and
Carlos Barragan, Sr. Pretty soon, we had so many kids that we had to find a bigger building. With the
help of UPS and the Barona Band of Mission Indians, we were able to expand to the facilities that we
have now. We handle about a thousand kids per year and they are all at-risk kids. All these kids are kids
that have been kicked out of various other programs. They come to us. They need a family and we
provide them the family. We provide them the guidance and we provide them the ability to succeed in
life.
VARGAS: My name is Jose Vargas. I got involved in the gym probably approximately around 1997
after I was - I was released from Rancho del Campo and now I’m applying for the National City Police
Department and hopefully everything goes well. Hopefully next time I talk to you guys I’ve passed and
I’m a police officer.
NUNEZ: There’re many benefits to the kids that come through here. The biggest benefit is that we will
not see these kids in the prison system or the criminal justice system.
CAREY: The CYAC is a great example of ordinary citizens taking responsibility for improving their
community. You’d think city officials would do everything possible to support their efforts but, instead,
the city wants to replace the gym with a swanky high-rise condo. Jeff Rowes is an attorney for the
Institute for Justice, the non-profit public interest law firm that represents the CYAC.
JEFF ROWES: Right here in National City is really one of the most egregious examples of the abuse of
eminent domain that I’ve encountered since I joined the Institute for Justice.
NUNEZ: What they’re saying is this is what we’re going to do and we want you to cooperate with us. If
not we’re going to eminent domain you and take your property.
ROWES: Eminent domain, as you might know, is the traditional power of government to take property
for a public use. Really, public use has traditionally, until about the end of the Second World War, really
just meant a public use. In other words, the government could take your property for a road or a school or
a post office or a military base or a public park.
15

NUNEZ: If the city was coming in and saying we’re going to build a road here or we’re going to build
something that’s going to benefit everybody, I don’t think we could really fight with it, but what they’re
doing is lining the developer’s pockets and lining their pockets.
CAREY: Brad Raulston is the Director of Redevelopment in National City, California.
BRAD RAULSTON: There’s two key boundary lines. There’s the redevelopment plan area which is the
red line which was the whole redevelopment area and then there’s the area within that where the agency
has the ability to use eminent domain. Within that footprint of the ability to use eminent domain, as I
understand it, there are six or seven hundred parcels in that area.
ROWES: The typical eminent domain story is a modest neighborhood or a modest collection of small
businesses that a wealthy developer wants so the developer can transform it into high-rise condominiums
or a big box store.
RAULSTON: I believe our residents want redevelopment. They want to see their city move forward.
They don’t necessarily engage in the details of that such as eminent domain. I mean, to be honest with
you, I’m not sure that - I’m not sure how many of the residents would - would know what that even
means.
CESAR ANDRIGUEZ: Yes, my name is Cesar Andriguez. I’m past president for three terms here at
the National City Eagles 2712 and the eminent domain concerns me very deeply because of our roots here
in National City and I think it’s an unjust issue that not is only going on in National City but throughout
our country, of government officials and private developers coming in and just wiping us off the map.
MICHAEL RAMOS: Just right from the very core of my heart I think it’s wrong to take away
somebody’s property when they don’t want to sell it.
RAMOS: So any time you move, it’s bad thing and this is my street traffic where people - we’re on Mile
of Cars and we’re the closest motorcycle shop to the world’s largest naval base.
How many hours of sleep have I already lost? You know, I’ve lost a ton of hour of sleep. You just sit
there. You can’t - what’re you going to do? There’s enough uncertainty in business anyway and then
literally not just pulling the rug out from underneath you but pulling the concrete slab and the land that
you’re working and building on. That makes it tough, you know, so….
RAULSTON: The benefits of redevelopment are predominantly economic.
NUNEZ: If all you’re looking at is money and that’s it, I’ll agree with it that they, you know what, get
rid of everybody here, but that’s not what life’s all about. That’s not what this Constitution tells us.
RAULSTON: The argument against eminent domain is an easy one to make because it’s fundamental to
property rights which are fundamental to the American way, the American dream.
NUNEZ: As you can see, we have a boxing ring. We teach these kids not to give up, to fight for what
they believe in.
CAREY: On June 19 th , 2007, the CYAC held a public rally to protest the City’s plans.
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ROWES: The government should not be taking your hard-earned property and your American dream to
give to rich people to build condos for other rich people.
CROWD: Yeah! (Applause)
ROWES: National City often talks about blight. They say that everyone here is blighted. They have
two-thirds of the city under a blight designation and it’s been like that for almost 40 years. Take a look
around. You people are Americans.
CROWD: Yeah! Yeah!
ROWES: You’re not blight.
CROWD: Yeah, right. (Applause) Save our gym. Save our gym. . . .
MALE RESIDENT 1: I think it’s a shame what the city’s trying to do our gym. They’re trying to take it
away from us. A lot of people have a lot of, you know, hope and dreams when they come to the gym, you
know, to get through their everyday lives and, you know, it’s a shame that the city’s going to try to take
that away from us, you know.
MALE RESIDENT 2: That’s my home right there, you know. You know, I’ve started at 8-years old.
For them to take it away, it seems pretty - it’s pretty tough.
CROWD: Save our gym. Yeah! Yeah! Whooo—
CAREY: Following the rally the City Council held a public hearing regarding their redevelopment plans.
DEVELOPER SPOKESPERSON: We hope to be concluded by next March and now we’re ready to
move forward on some of the remaining portions, including Chula Vista National City and, of course…
NUNEZ: That last hearing that we had here, one of the kids came before you and told you, “I was the
one that was tagging your places. I was the one that was breaking into your homes and so forth, but
because of CYAC, I changed my life.”
MALE SUPPORTER 1: You can bring in an incredible beautiful condo tower with lots of tax money
but it’s not going to do the same amount of good that we’re doing. Just consider that. Have open minds.
Take a leap of faith, okay? Just, please, keep supporting us. Do the right thing. Save our gym. Thank
you very much. [Applause]
MALE SUPPORT 2: When it’s all said and done, Your Honor, we’re not going to move. We’re going
to stay here. (Applause) We’re going to stay in the location we are right now. (Applause) because our
home…. (Applause)
RON MORRISON (MAYOR): I understand what you’re saying, but I think the impression is being
given out there that we’re trying to kick the kids out and you know this by using children in abundance
your get these 2 things, and you get a lot of sympathy and you get cameras when you do that and there’s
been I think a lot of approach to go out there and try to sensationalize this as if the city was doing
something bad to you and I’m here to state for everyone, right here and now, that is really a bad rap that
some irresponsible organization is trying to give the city because we have worked diligently and we will
continue to work diligently to find a good location.
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CAREY: On July 17 th , 2007, the National City Council voted to move forward with their plan to
redevelop the city using eminent domain.
RAULSTON: We had a Council person last night who sort of spoke to eminent domain being a tool and
that he equated it to being sort of like a police officer’s gun, that’s best when never used, but needed in
order to sort of keep the peace.
ROWES: The threat of eminent domain is like having a gun put to your head when you’re negotiating
the sale of your home. It’s just not a negotiation at all. People just don’t have a choice when eminent
domain is on the table.
NUNEZ: Our whole focus has been the kids. We are not going to quit and we’re not going to let them
down. They know that we are a family and this time we will take care of them. They may not have a
both mother and father at home, but we are here for them. We are their family.
CAREY: For Reason.tv, I’m Drew Carey.
Banner: In late August, in the face of intense public apposition, the developer of the condo project
announced that he would revise his plans and build around the Community Youth Athletic Center. So the
gym remains, for now. Unfortunately, the promise to keep the gym safe from bulldozers is not legally
binding and the site still can be condemned by the city at any moment. Indeed, National City’s leaders
recently again declared the entire area “blighted” and gave the city the power to seize the gym for private
developers at any time up until 2017. The community Youth Athletic Center has filed suit in California
Superior Court challenging the city’s blight declaration against the gym and nearly 700 other properties.
For a list of additional resources to use with this video go to
www.izzit.org/products and click on the The Drew Carey Project, Volume 1 video.
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