Herbert Gettridge became known as “The Wizard” among the elite craftsmen who built and maintained New Orleans’ distinctive architecture. In “The Old Man and the Storm,” FRONTLINE follows Mr. Gettridge and his family as they struggle to rebuild their homes and their lives after Hurricane Katrina. Watch on air and online beginning Tues, Jan 6, 2009.

Six months after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, producer June Cross came across 82-year-old Herbert Gettridge working alone on his home in the lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood devastated when the levees broke in August 2005. Over the next two years, Cross would document the story of the extended Gettridge clan–an African-American family with deep roots in New Orleans–as they struggled to rebuild their homes and their lives. Their efforts would be deeply impacted by larger decisions about urban planning, public health, and the insurance industry, by the decisions of policymakers about federal funding for rebuilding the Gulf, and state and city plans for dispersing those monies. The moving personal story of Mr. Gettridge and his family reveals the human cost of this tragedy, the continued inadequacies of government’s response in the aftermath of Katrina, and how race, class, and politics have affected the attempts to rebuild this American city.

Extended Footage: Clip 2

Va. Man Spends $1 Million on Inaugural Package for Disadvantaged

By Michael E. Ruane (Washington Post Staff Writer)

It was billed as the biggest, most eye-popping of the inauguration hotel packages: the JW Marriott’s $1 million “build-your-own-ball” offer. You get 300 rooms, four suites, $200,000 worth of food and drink, and a primo site overlooking the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route.

Reporter Tracy Chung tells the story of South Central Farm in Los Angeles, which used to be the largest urban farm in the United States. Today, however, that land is empty, bordered by train tracks and warehouses. 

See what happened to the South Central Farmers who used to till the urban plot.

pictured above: Students learn in a cheerful room, part of a campus that sits in an area of seafood and produce wholesalers, social service agencies, single-room-occupancy hotels and auto-parts shops.

A downtown arts center signals constancy and community.

By Christopher Hawthorne / Architecture Critic (LA Times)

“In this neighborhood the most radical thing you could do was make a white building,” architect Michael Maltzan told me on a recent afternoon as we toured the campus of Inner-City Arts, where his firm completed an $8.5-million expansion earlier this fall.

The ICA complex — which indeed has the surprising brightness of a soap-opera actor’s teeth seen up close, or the pages deep inside a newspaper that has yellowed on top — offers classes in the arts to students bused in from a number of public-school campuses. Its 1-acre site, at 7th and Kohler streets near the edge of downtown’s skid row, is surrounded by seafood and produce wholesalers, social service agencies, single-room-occupancy hotels and auto-parts shops. Bunker Hill’s gleaming, mirrored-glass towers loom quite visibly to the northwest, but at ground level these blocks are dominated by roll-down security doors and loops of razor wire.

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pictured above: Students line up Saturday before the start of the Operation Graduation Winter Commencement Ceremony at USC’s Bovard Auditorium. The ceremony presented at-risk teens with high school diplomas and GEDs from alternative education programs run by the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

At USC on Saturday, 170 at-risk teens — young mothers, juvenile camp inmates, troubled students — are awarded their high school diplomas and congratulated by keynote speaker Magic Johnson.

By Seema Mehta (LA Times)

Tevin Bradley ran with the wrong crowd, started doing drugs when he was 14 and picked fights so frequently that he was kicked out of a continuation school for troubled teens. So when the 17-year-old received his high school diploma Saturday, it symbolized not only academic achievement but also a radical life change.

“I didn’t see myself getting here,” said the Bellflower teen, clad in a burgundy cap and gown. If not for a dedicated teacher and his parents, he figures, he would have ended up “in jail or on the streets. Not here.”

Bradley was among more than 170 teenagers who completed their high school education through alternative programs run by the Los Angeles County Office of Education. They were honored at an afternoon commencement ceremony Saturday at USC’s Bovard Auditorium with parents, siblings and friends cheering as they crossed the stage to the familiar strains of “Pomp and Circumstance.” 

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As I continue to navigate down the path of community change through the vehicle of CLIMB, we constantly partner and build relationships with like-agencies as well as individuals/companies looking to be a part of the solution.

I recall in 2005 when I first set out to start the organization and began constructing the strategy/vision, I had a short-list of individuals, companies, and organizations that I reached out to with intentions of creating youth programs and sustaining relationships that will position CLIMB as a part of the “solution”. On this list, there was a particular organization spearheaded by the USC Football Coach Pete Carroll: A Better LA. Impressed by his community awareness and action, I have since then developed a relationship that in due time will reflect a shared interest in community service.

Just recently, Pete Carroll was featured on 60 Minutes (CBS): highlighting not only his success on the field, but also his involvment in the surrounding South LA community. 

pictured above: An EDAR belonging to Christopher Raynor sits near Pacific Coast Highway and Temescal Canyon Road. “This is one of the greatest damn gifts you could ever give to anybody,” Raynor says. (Ken Hively, Los Angeles Times)

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New report finds that the groups are doing better on meeting application requirements for UC and CSU but still trail whites and Asians.

By Larry Gordon (LA Times)

Despite recent improvements, Latino and black students continue to lag behind whites and Asians in becoming academically eligible to enter California’s two public university systems, according to a state report released Tuesday.

The study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission also showed that female high school seniors still do significantly better than males in taking required classes and earning grades and test scores that could gain them admission to the University of California and California State University systems. 

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Dear  Los Angeles City Family,

You and your kids, grand kids, nephews, nieces, siblings and cousins ages 12-21 are invited to be part of the largest environmental event in the west presented by Million Trees LA, the Department of Public Works, the Port of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and many other participating City departments.

GET YOUR GREEN ON at the 2008 Environmental Youth Conference

December 13, 2008, Saturday

8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Los Angeles Convention Center — South Hall

This green education event is for the youth and by the youth. Highlights include a keynote speech by Alec Loorz, 14 and the youngest Inconvenient Truth speaker trained by Al Gore; 100 green exhibit booths; meet and greets with environmental professionals; environmental vehicles on display; an Artist Alley featuring teen artists with environmentally-themed work and/or green art media; surprise celebrity guests and elected officials.

All are invited to come with the family and learn all about environmentalism through tree plantings, green jobs, and buying eco-friendly. Admission is FREE and so is parking if you bring a copy of the event flyer.

For more information, visit www.milliontreesla.org today. Please feel free to forward this information to all interested parties.

I just recently enjoyed an interview of Magic Johnson on the Tavis Smiley Show. I really have no idea how to respond or how to communicate the feeling it gave me after viewing the clip, but the only real word I can think of is motivation.

It’s truly inspiring to see someone like Mr. Johnson have such a positive effect on the urban community, more specifically Los Angeles. Seeing the difference, knowing the difference, and sharing the same interest in the community leads me to be nothing but admirable for his many efforts and business happenings. Wow.

As I treck through this thing called life and map out my plan of business and community involvement, I will always be a student of “the game”, learning and absorbing, observing and executing.

When time permits, please view the link and be inspired just as I was:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=tavi08s18bfq591