Carl BB - Transcript - 45 Harbor Fwy
Tape HC1 004
00:11:49 My name is Carl BB and i live over here on the 116 of Main's. For the last twenty years. Do you like it? Yeah i love it. Are you using public transportation very often? Yeah i am yes. I use it everyday pretty much. It's ok you know, it's easier to get around i don't have to fight with a lot of the traffic. You know if i leave at a good time. Why are you using pt rather than a car? Well right now i don't have transportation, you know me and my old lady is having a, we're sharing a car. So to save a lot of gaz really, i use the public transportation. Cos it's much cheaper than the gaz, you know the gaz prices' is high.
00:13:00 Do i think it would be cheaper? If more people would use it? Personally i don't think, my opinion no. I think the price is really good right now. It's not bad really. I don't have a problem with it. I pay a dollar fifty cos i have a disabled pass. So i pay a dollar fifty for a day pass. No it's really bad, cos i stay here on 116thand the bus runs from Impreial on Main, so i stay two or three blocks off of where the main transportation is. Where the bus line is. Where i'm standing here now is broadway and imperial, i had to walk four five blocks to get here. to go down so i'd say the area for the community is really bad over there. It's public transportation you know you have to walk pretty good ways, so if it's raining, storming, you know you can really get wet before you get where you're going. I think they could improve it a little bit more, yes in that area. Because today the ...i'm living in is a lot of residencial area where there's a lot of elderly folks, retired and you know sit back. It's kindof hard for them to get back and forth. For me i can do the walk. But i don't believe they feel the environement is really safer here. It's ok, for me i can do it. 00:15:12 Do you think that riding the bus is safe? Yes, i haven't had any problems, i think it'll have been a lot better, since they've been having this camera on it, so if anything happens you can say you know. There's er, public transportation is sometimes safe. Global warming, i care a whole lot about it. You understand, erm the polution...here is pretty good i was just seeing a, hearing on the news that it's alot better, you know LA has become a lot better than it used to be so. I guess er with the buses using natural gaz, i think that adds on it as well. 00:16:20 No i don't have a problem with that at all. No i don't have a problem with that no. You know, i don't have aproblem with it. It's not a dislike or like all people, you understand i don't have a dislike in that area you understand, you know there are some bad people in a lot of different groups, when i come in contact with them i'll just try to avoid them and walk away. If i can if i can't then i'll have to handle the situation.We have a safety that can deal with that, i can come on the bus and i can talk to the driver and let him handle it. I feel pretty good on it i don't have any problem with that, with people no i don't. 00:17:14 What are your dreams and goals? right now i'm persuing a councelling career. Right now i'm going to school right now, over ....money, it's a court program, it trains you 6 months program's it's certified in an entry level a councelling, and a drug facility program or something like that you know what i'm saying. That's where i'm gueered at right now. 00:18:58 Public transportation is really good if you look to your left right now, you look at the traffic now, and we're talking about 3 o'clock at the round ten now going downtown is crowded. So pt, by me taking this bus right here, i can get here a lot quicker than a lot of them on that freekway can get. Still people are using car....they are using car, you can see it's very crowded now, you understand you got a lot of freeways now the 305 the 105 too would be pretty crowded, So yeah you know a lot of people wouldn't mind using pt if it would become alot more safer for them, you have to understand the older people. A lot of the young poeple, much younger age group like maybe 25 and under may have a problem because if they go to these different neighbourhood where these different gangs and sections, it may be a different... Don't you think it might improve the neighbourhood if tey...it seems to me like if people stay in their cars, they're kindof their own little world, they necer get in touch with other people. And it might be that they don't want to get in touch with other people and if there were better pt they would actually interact more yeah with the whole, the situation would change, i don't know. 00:20:28 My opinion on that and i think that it would, there's so much going on in our world today, in our society, there's just so much going on. They just opened up a brand new school, to where the latinos and the blacks are going at it. It's a brand new school, and see might be fighting for territory already, they're there to learn not to take over some territory, they're there to learn so that they can do better in life. How could you change that? that stuff really.....come from the top. With this....what's going on?i can't i dont' really want to speak too much on it. i don't have too much innersight on that just, have my personal opinion about it. And i don't want to be too personalised with it, i don't want to say too much, i don't wanna say the wrong thing. I think i could be improved a lot better. I think there need to be morte funding. and the work is....i mean you know. I don't think, you can't say anything wrong i mean, it seems like you want to improve it, you want to . ...i would like to improve it but i'm not in the position to improve it. My thought is just my thought but having something you know forced behing it and having something you know, how to go by doing these different things, saying you know, i wouldn't want to interact with these different groups, what the find is now, what the problem is, say why we can't get along. A lot of our.....a lot of haven't done anything to another person, say you and i, we haven't done anything, we're ....today, but in reality do you really like me or do i really like you. Do i have any predudice towards you do you have any prejudice towards me? So i don't know where all that come from, i'm learning now that it can come from way back brought up, you know what i'm saying....who is in the position? i think the politics, i think they could improve it a lot better. We looking at what's going on in the worldn today, christians not liking muslims or not liking, not wanting to get along with the muslim world, this that don't want to interact, see i can't understand that. And a lot of us grew up looking at that type of stuff, we just don't know. 00:23:23 Do you think the politicians are taking the responsability? No they surface can i think it's all just surface can. Not for the people i think they're for themselves. I don't think they're for the people. It's a pity. Yeah it is. You know i had a chance to be at one of the programs down town and i have seen the big mess with the homeless down there, to where, this country being as rich as it is, why we have so many homeless people here and so many people out on the street. This being one of the richest country i can't understand that. Yeah thta's me neither. We do this film to figure out what people think, a lot of people think it should be different. I think it should be. They told us, the politics talks about peace, worl peace. Where are the peace...? we're out to find another country, another peace, where is it? You know, i don't know. The next one alright? yeah. 00:25:59 It's more wide out, it's more spread out here. Is it more spead out like there? No it's very different it's much tighter. Here it's much spread out. Just like here right now you're in Watts, Two or three lines there you might be in Gardena, Carlson is real close i mean, it's spread out but it's close not like NY. NY is really congested. It's more opened. Do you think that makes a difference that here it's less packed less, more spread out, that this is why pt doesn't work. Or is it more because of the culture you know like, people are just not used to it. A lot of people get cars, because it doesn't come every minute, every five minutes, it may be 20 to 30 minutes, so bus like this imperial bus may take an hour i mean thirty to 35 minutes to run because it has a local line, then there's 45, 45 runs from over here, down to the other side of the Lequent hights, and that's only a 10-15 mile rayon which this one here runs 20 to 25 miles, so thta may be more, d'you understand, so i'm just. This is a quicker line, plus there' smore people on this line using this line, than that one over there. And i guess that's pretty much like MTA really looks at it. It looks at the amount of people who uses the pt. And Broadway is one of the busiest day because this bus line here goes straight into downtown, you know. And it's like an hour away, 45 minutes away. Do you think there are any people for example tourists, taking the bus from example downtown LA to the airport? Yes, the bus the fourty, there's a lot, there's the 42, i mean not the 40, the 42, they use the 42 to go to the LAex, from downtown, and there's maybe a few others who goes down there, do they have to change somewhere, the 42 runs all the way from downtown maybe from the union station all the way to the LAex, well there's a stop closer to the LAex, to where they can get off and take the airport buses. It's just knowing, having the schedule and knowing it, the different directions, the train is making it much easier for us to get back and forth. The train runs from Norwalk to LAex, well Elsagondo, you can get off over here there's a stop around LAex, to get another bus to by 5 or 7 minutes to get to LAex. 00:29:35 It's not that bad, i thought it was worse to be honnest. You have t understand, the only thing is quick, you have to understand, but being here so long, i pretty much know the schedule. Just like, we've been standing here for the last 30-35 minutes and we have seen 3 buses pass going downtown within that amount of time so this is pretty busy right about now. What about week ends, week ends probably would be a little bit different in the morning, and then the afternoon they start slowing off. It's just like at night they start backing off with the transportation you know. the 20-30 minutes you have to wait 40 minutes. And in the morning they're pretty quick. 00:30.28 What about night? Do you feel safe on the public transportation? Yes i do. I just get off, like i said i would have to walk 4-5 blocks around, anybody would be afraid, not knowing of the unknown. A lot of us get afraid of the unknown. And i don't know what's ahead of me untill i get there, i won't know until i reach that point. I'm just asking you because a lot of people told us about it's kind of dangerous in this area, like for example the police came upto us and said, you better don't do shooting here, and other people said yeah, you better leave around 4 o'clock. Why? i don't know, it's just like what you said the unknown, see for us it's the unknown, we're not from here, so we get scared pretty easily. I don't know why they did that. I don't know. I don't even know why i'm doing this. Well it's very nice of you, i really don't know what's behind it. Politicians tell us one thing, then there' s something else behind, here it could be the same thing, i don't know but the questions seems like it's, ok questions. 00:31:53 Did the police say that? Yeah well not just the police. Another person. Well with the equipement, a lot of people would look at that as different. They basically said we were an easy target. Somebody could show up and say...the truth, yeah you're right, you're saying people start to wondering what's going on. Yeah you are a target it's just like they're worried about that. I don't feel like that, because i'm a pity i'm .....but when i came here 20 years ago, probably i felt like that, but not any more. And he was right about that. it's like being a target. How do you change if you feel like a target? What is your behaviour? Fit in! Just try to fit in you understand you and i normally don't mix. Just be respectful. I don't have any right ot cross your boundaries just like you don't have any right to cross mine. If we sit standing here at the busstop, and you feel like you need to say something, just say it in a respectful way and see what kindof a respond you get. You get the negative respond, you apolagise and back off, you get a positive response like you did today, we can continue on. You know like when i was oversees it was the same way, i would try to fit out the people that i would feel confortable with. The ones that i didn't feel confortable with i would get away from them. Have you got children? No. Well i guess your friends, you talk about these kind of things, do i talk about these types of things? Yeah. How to interact with people to kind of...yaeh we talk about it, you understand we talked about it, about this like, you understand, talks about my likes, you know what i'm saying, type of people i like to be around, yeas. There's a like the key over here downtown is to the hispanics and the blacks are going at it. I don't have anything against the hispanics. The one who come with a positive attitude, you know i'm positive. The one not with the poesitive attitude i'd walk away from him. They probably feel the same way about the blacks. Somebody coming with a negative attitude they would kind of avoid. the ones with the positive attitude you may try to interact with. 00:35:01 There still is conflicts between hispanics and blacks and....yeah there still is, is a stake there yes. Why i don't know i can't really say. I cam about there and the stake was there. It's like today i'm in a pretty good mood i don't have anything against any of you guys, and we are from different colours, but i think we have the same blood, you have red blood and i do too. We both came from Africa originally i guess. That's what they say, a long time ago. i can't really speak for the mass, yeah there's a stake there, yes.
00:35:43 Do you think it will ever change? I would like to see it change. I don't know will it ever change. I would surely like to see it change. Yes i would like to see it change. Do the politicians do somehting about it? There was that going on there that a lot of under, not over the top they talk like they would like to see a lot of changes but i don't see them really doing very much. I listen to some of the talk shows, like Opera and like she is concerned, over her tv show, i could see a lot of work going on into her. Her talkshow. i'd like to see the change. The stake still seems to be there....the stake is still there, i think that stake would be there forever though. you know i don't know why, a lot of our property changed out the week. I believe that the ....the ...the blacks, i think that believe needs to be smashed, every man is equal, is supposed to be equal opportunity in lot of places, is not. Like few things like the place we come from there it's a little bit like that, if you have for instance a lot of these kind of people, and then othe kindof people which might be kindof different, whatever colour or culture, what often is happening is other people are moving away now, cos the unknown something, and as soon as the people are starting to move away, other people start moving away, what's happening in the end, you just have one kind of culture there, and then the stake is kind of growing, is kind of, well you know, it's there's many cultures here in LA, the main issue there is we don't know the different cultures. I don't know the latino culture. Latino do not know my culture. And to get educated in that area, you have to understand, i think they would enjoy a little bit more, i would probably enjoy else a little bit more. I think just get to know one another. They're different background from one another. It's like i don't know anything about you you don't know anything about me. you know it's kindof hard. My bus is coming i'm gonna catch this one. Thank you, very nice talking to you. I hope it's something that can help. Definitally, stay here for a while and see for yourself. That's what we're trying, you can see a lot happening from the top. If you don't talk to people you never find out what they think, thank you very much. Well see i could be looking at you with a different eye
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