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People Over Profits System Properties helps clients with rent reduction, forgiveness Page 2

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System Property Development helps its clients with rent reduction, forgiveness

By Matthew Rodriguez rom humble beginnings come great ventures. This is never more evident than in the history of System Property Development.

In 1920, at the beginning of the economic boom known as the Roaring ’20s, the company’s founder, Jack Hazard, opened his small gas station on the corner of Sixth and Figueroa. Unfulfilled by simply pumping gas and looking for ways to make more money, Hazard began to charge truckers to stay overnight on his parking lot.

“This was back when there was no parking industry,” said System’s CEO, David Damus.

“He was a pioneer in developing not only the local parking industry but one of the first national parking companies.”

Through its 100-year history, System grew to become a company estimated at $250 million, representing clients such as Delta Airlines, Wells Fargo and the U.S. Postal Service and properties spanning the entire country, from Los Angeles to New York.

As a privately held company, not beholden to outside money, it realized that no matter what, in good times or bad, its community comes before profits.

“I think the culture of our company has been about our people,” Damus said.

After graduating from Vanderbilt Law School and working at a law firm in New York, Damus returned to his hometown of Los Angeles as the general counsel of System. Accustomed to the straight-to-business attitude from his old New York job, Damus was pleasantly surprised by System’s approach to its employees.

Rather than getting straight to business and hounding him for reports on his projects on his first day, then-President Tom Phillips sat Damus down and asked about his family.

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“I remember the first day I started in 1993,” he said. “I’d come from a big New York-based law firm and I was so shocked because this guy, the president of the company, came in and sat down in the office and the first thing he asked me was, ‘How are you and your family doing?’ I wasn’t used to that. I was waiting for, ‘Where are you on all your projects?’ and ‘What’s going on?’ and all this other stuff. That’s kind of the cultural difference at System. It’s a real community of people trying to help each other through good times and bad.”

Through all of the economic downturns in its 100 years, including the Great Depression and the Great Recession, the company never filed for bankruptcy.

Even now as the COVID-19 pandemic brings businesses across the nation on the brink of bankruptcy, System Property has endured without layoffs.

“We have not terminated anybody due to the pandemic,” Damus said. “We made a commitment to our men and women out in the field.”

According to Damus, instead of layoffs, everyone on the executive team who was making over six figures voluntarily took a pay cut.

“We wanted to support employees who didn’t make that cut over six figures and make sure that we didn’t have any pay cuts for them,” Damus said. “In a lot it’s brought a lot of our team closer together.”

In addition to the pay cuts, the company has bought boxed lunches for its employees and more importantly promised to pay for any COVID-19-related medical expenses not covered under insurance.

“If our team members have a deductible and they have to go to the hospital we pay that deductible,” Damus said. “If our team members need to get rapid tests, we pay

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During its 100-year history System Properties has served as the official parking company of the Academy Awards, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Olympics.

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of thousands of lost jobs and billions of lost 100% of the test.”

For their clients renting buildings and revenue. When Delta asked System for a spaces from them, with the drastic reduc- three-month rent abatement, Damus and his tion of business, Damus and System offered staff gave them six months.

“I just think it’s also good karma that peorent reduction and, in some cases, rent forple are going to remember how they were giveness.

“We’ve given them free rent through the treated in this pandemic,” Damus said. “Peopandemic to January and we’re forgiving the ple who are greedy probably aren’t going to rest,” said Damus about retail businesses in make it well on the other side versus people the San Marino/Pasadena area. “We’re not who understand that we have to be a part of going to try to collect it because it’s more (the) communities that we serve.”

EDITOR: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski important toEXECUTIVE us that they stay open for the System and their employees understand STAFF WRITERS: Andrew Checchia, Andres De Ocampo, Julia Shapero long-term health of that facility in that comthe need CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sara Edwards, Kamala Kirk for humanity and compassion, esmunity. They’re never going to Olivares, be ableStephanie to pecially ART DIRECTORS: Arman Torres in times like these. Instead of chasSTAFF Luis Chavez make up what theyPHOTOGRAPHER: lost.” ing profits, Damus and his company decided PHOTOGRAPHERS: Myriam Santos Even with CONTRIBUTING their big-business clients, like to care for those less fortunate than them.

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Michael Lamb Delta Airlines, they have given rent “We put our people ahead of profits this FOUNDER EMERITUS: Sue Larisabatement. year,” he said. “Our philosophy is we want to The airline industry has taken one of the double down in crisis, find opportunities, biggest hits during the pandemic, with tens but keep our team together.”

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski STAFF WRITERS: Sarah Donahue, Connor Dziawura, Matthew Rodriguez CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sara Edwards, Ellen Snortland ART DIRECTORS: Arman Olivares, Stephanie Torres CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER: Ryan Green/Netflix ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Michael Lamb FOUNDER EMERITUS: Sue Laris

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City attorney files suit to shut down illegal nightclub

By Sara Edwards A City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit against an alleged illegal underground nightclub operating out of a storefront in Downtown’s Fashion District.

Feuer said it’s allegedly been the site for shootings, assaults and other criminal activity while operating in violation of the mandated closures due to COVID-19.

The club is hidden in an alleyway behind a large metal gate at 114 S. Main Street. It’s been packing crowds of people and advertising pole dancing, hookah, music and a full bar without a license and against the COVID-19 safety regulations.

“Our lawsuit seeks to permanently shut it down,” Feuer said in a press conference on December 14.

“Packing people into an indoor space, an unlicensed nightclub, during a pandemic is the height of irresponsibility.

That’s why licensed clubs are closed right

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now.”

To anyone passing by, the storefront appears to be closed. There’s a large mural that says “LA Party Society” that covers most of the wall near the building’s parking lot.

“We allege this club is a hub of violence and crime and that that violence and crime spills out into the streets in the surrounding community and puts everyone in that neighborhood at increased risk,” Feuer said.

Feuer said the nightclub has spread the word through as a “secret club” on Instagram. The account is allegedly tied to the illegal nightclub that had fliers with this information in July and in November with #lapartysociety and tagged another account @lapartysociety.

“Over the past few months, despite public health orders aimed at stemming the pandemic, we allege the nightclub has operated and been the site of violence that

LA City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit against an alleged illegal underground nightclub operating out of a storefront in Downtown’s Fashion District.

Submitted photo

spills out in the community,” Feuer said.

From July to September, there were five incidents, including a shootout and physical assaults.

The city attorney’s office filed the lawsuit against Frontier Holdings East LLC and Regal Group LLC, both of which have an ownership interest in the property, Feuer said. They are both managed by a man named David Tabah, a real estate investor

with multiple properties and two separate ongoing criminal cases. One of the cases, Feuer said, is tied to an alleged illegal marijuana dispensary that is next door to the nightclub.

Another defendant named in the official complaint is Yves Oscar Jr., whom, Feuer said, is an alleged tenant and operator of LA Party Society. Oscar was arrested in August on suspicion of sexual assault with an outstanding warrant and was allegedly carrying marijuana in his backpack.

Besides shutting down the alleged nightclub, Feuer hopes to identify it as a public nuisance and prevent the defendants from using the location unlawfully. The city attorney’s office is seeking civil penalties and fees from the defendants.

Feuer also said his office has communicated with the Los Angeles Police Department about having the power and water potentially shut down at this location and that no one has been arrested as a result of this case. “ There’s a statewide concern about clubs operating during a pandemic and we know that that’s an issue,” Feuer said.

“When it comes to clubs, in respect of their specific location in the city, I want to say that if our office is referred any matter about which there could be a potential unlawful gathering at an indoor gathering, we’re going to go after them.”

Property problems can be reported anonymously through lacityattorney.org.

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Covered will help NEWS - California COVID COUNT

Reported cases in DTLA and surrounding areas as of December 18 Chinatown: 354; Little Tokyo: 175; Los Feliz: 500; Silverlake: 1,498; South Park: 3,758; Wilshire Center: 2,361; Total confirmed cases in DTLA: 1,887 Total deaths in DTLA: 20 Total confirmed cases in LA County: 580,325 Total deaths in LA County: 8,664 The ICU capacity in the Southern California region has dropped to 0% as COVID-19 cases dramatically surge. The state is struggling to contain the virus, with 379 Californians dying in a single day, the highest number of fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic.

According to Johns Hopkins’ COVID-19 Daily Case Counts, if California were considered a country it would have the third-highest number of cases in the entire world. In Los Angeles County, on average, two people die every hour because of the virus.

When the novel coronavirus came to the United States in the spring, New York City be-

came the epicenter of the pandemic. Now, in the most infected state in the country, the greater Los Angeles area is the worst-hit metro area in the United States. On December 17, 14,418 new confirmed cases were reported.

To date, 580,325 people have been infected.

According to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, the seven-day positivity rate is at an alarming 19.6%.

According to the mayor, if this trend were to continue, hospitals will be overrun with patients and unable to adequately care for many of them.

Following the lead of Long Beach, the Los Angeles City Council is considering reinstituting the “hero pay” for grocery store employees. Long Beach passed a resolution providing grocery workers with an extra $4 an hour.

The LA proposal would require stores with 300 or more employees to pay an additional $5 an hour for hazard pay.

Information compiled by Matthew Rodriguez.

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Red flags didn’t alert domestic violence survivor

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski ak ina Ibrahim considers herself strong and head smart.

But the one-time Downtown LA resident began to question herself when her whirlwind love life—as she said— turned into a Lifetime movie.

“I ended up in a really crazy situation with someone with a criminal background,” she said. “He was a mass manipulator. There were eight women before me who told me they went through a similar thing, but I’m always looking for the lemonade.”

The red flags didn’t mean a thing, but she wants them to be visible for women who are suspicious of their partners.

“My work is in creative arts and wellness,” she said. “I had the courage to walk away.”

The LA Downtown News is calling her ex-boyfriend “Marcus Smith,” as charges have not been brought against him. Smith and Ibrahim met in Downtown LA while she was walking her dog. She eschewed partying and prayed for a husband. To rid her body of toxins, she was fasting to make a “huge lifestyle change.” Ibrahim thought the changes would bring a boyfriend to her. She was right, but it was the wrong one.

“He asked for my number,” Ibrahim said.

“I said, ‘I don’t give my number to men who hang out on the street corner.’”

Smith told an elaborate story about how he was recovering from surgery to treat injuries sustained in an accident. The two exchanged Instagrams.

When Ibrahim arrived home, she, naturally, looked through his page and found he was a branding expert who had worked with A-list celebrities, people she’s worked with in the creative arts world.

Ibrahim teaches dance and yoga and is an award-winning author of children’s books. Smith suggested the two do business.

“He said, ‘I have feelings for you. I want to take you out on a date,’” she recalled.

“I don’t like mixing business and pleasure. So, we would meditate, talk, go to the beach and do yoga together. Then he asked me on (what turned out to be) the first date.

“I said I would go out with him. We went

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to a magic show and had a great time. The next day we went to church. We took a photo at church. I posted the photo and I get a phone call from another woman who was in a relationship with him.”

The woman said he mixes business and pleasure. She was the owner of “his” branding company and she was romantically involved with him.

“I don’t do messiness like this,” Ibrahim said. “I don’t get involved with men who are with multiple women. I said I wasn’t interested.”

Smith defended himself by saying the woman was a liar and stalker who tries to sabotage his relationships.

Pandemic trip Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Ibrahim and her friend didn’t want to stay Downtown, so they took off to Texas. Leery of traveling alone, Ibrahim and her friend invited Smith.

“We had the time of our life,” Ibrahim said. “We went to see a Buddhist monk.

DECEMBER 21, 2020

There were elements of our prophecy that overlapped. I’m thinking, ‘This is the guy.

This is the guy I prayed for, and the Buddhist monk confirmed it.’”

Meanwhile, Smith was posting on Instagram and Ibrahim was receiving random messages from ghost accounts saying to stay away from him.

“He’s dangerous,” one of the messages read. “You’re not the only girl.”

Smith contended they were from the same jealous woman.

The trio returned to Downtown LA and Ibrahim decided she had enough. There were too many girls and too much drama.

“The level of his lies is something I had never experienced in my life,” she said.

“He began begging and crying, asking me to call this friend, call his mom, his grandmother. He was trying to get all these people to vouch for him. Many of

DECEMBER 21, 2020

those calls incriminated him even more.

He kept knocking on my door, bringing me flowers, candy, wine and designer sunglasses.

“We continued to engage with each other.”

The first argument Fast forward a couple of months when Smith and Ibrahim had their first argument over texts between her and a male friend.

He violently threatened her friend and attempted to kick in his door.

“He flipped my bed,” she said. “He made me feel unsafe. He wouldn’t let me leave the apartment. The next day, I got my stuff and went to a hotel. I called my mom and I told him he needed to return my keys and car.”

Ibrahim said she didn’t need his love and was in a great place before she met Smith.

But she gave him another chance.

“I agreed to give it another chance if we go to therapy every week and if he’s doing individual therapy,” she said. “He found a therapist and she was excellent. He said in the accident, he suffered a traumatic brain injury.”

Ibrahim told Smith he needed to respect her.

“The arguments started getting worse.

I wasn’t willing to comply with his (crap),” she said.

The power struggle Meanwhile, the therapist was nudging Ibrahim by passing along articles on narcissism and borderline personality disorders. This relationship was only Ibrahim’s second relationship, as her last one was 10 years ago.

“I don’t have a wide scope of dealing with men,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if this was normal, but he clearly had a temper.”

During the quarantine, Smith proposed with a 2-karat diamond ring, and Ibrahim pushed the red flags aside. She thought she found her husband.

“My mother was (mad),” she recalled.

“She could see it and smell it a mile away.

She said, ‘This man is trying to destroy you.’”

Her response?

“I love the guy,” Ibrahim said. “I don’t know how else to explain it. I asked for certain qualities and he showed up with those qualities. We got engaged, did a big

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elaborate photo shoot, but he was just trying to establish himself alongside a successful woman. That is his MO.” Again, another fight. Smith took Ibrahim’s phone, which upset her all night. A friend called 75 times to make sure she was OK. Smith wouldn’t let her answer.

“We would get in these arguments and take the phone,” she said. “He was afraid I was going to call the police. He even poured water on me.

“Lesson, girls: Know your legal rights.

That’s false imprisonment.”

Smith said taking her phone wasn’t illegal and Ibrahim started a pattern of leaving him. Ibrahim quickly learned he had a fear of abandonment.

Ibrahim knew she had to leave before somebody was hurt. She could no longer take his smell. When she woke, she made breakfast, and when he left for work, she booked a flight to her hometown. When Smith arrived home and Ibrahim told him of her plans, he destroyed her personal items and stole her car.

Ibrahim still left. He begged for forgiveness over the phone while she was with her mom, whom she called her “accountability partner.” Ibrahim went to healing retreats and had acupuncture and massages to help her heal and get past the pain.

Ibrahim knew in her gut she had to call one of the women who reached out to her early in her relationship with Smith.

“I said, ‘Hi, this is Sakina,’” she said. “She started crying and said, ‘I’ve been praying for you every day since I sent you that message a couple months ago. He is evil.

I’m glad you got away.’”

She, too—like eight other women—received an engagement ring. Smith latched onto women by telling them he’s an expert in their field.

Ibrahim finally broke free of the, as she called it, chaotic and tumultuous relationship.

“Finally, I believed this was a dangerous man,” she said. “I have the ability to protect myself physically, but emotional scars take longer to heal. I want to encourage women to follow their guts and not be blinded by men. Red flags are there for a reason, to get us to go the other way. I wish I had never experienced any of this, but I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Many women aren’t as lucky as I am. I have learned a very big lesson. It can happen to anyone. Please value your life and walk away from toxic and abusive men during the early signs; it could save your life and your well-being.”

Domestic violence help Domestic violence help is available through Catholic Charities of Los Angeles Inc. and its Good Shepherd Shelter.

For more information, visit catholiccharitiesla.org/good-shepherd-shelter or call 213-235-1460.

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DECEMBER 21, 2020

SHELTON’S OPINION

Digital Denial: The unsettling truths exposed by ‘coded bias’

By Ellen Snortland odles of people, joined by a coalition of religious organizations, gathered at a nonviolent protest in front of the wedding cake-like architecture of Pasadena City Hall. We were there protesting the murder of George Floyd and many others. It was the end of May, there was beautiful spring weather, and I was standing front and almost center. I remember wondering, “Is my face being scanned by someone?” Probably. I had friends who didn’t want to attend because of that very reason.

I would not let anything prevent me from being in the socially distant and masked crowd of thousands—people of all colors, ages and sizes. I exulted in the excitement; the fierce calls for justice; the wafting odors of shampoo and aftershave; some people’s dogs decked out with protest harnesses.

We were chanting, singing, being together. There was nothing obvious to fear from the crowd. Surveillance?

That’s not so obvious, a frightening factor that goes beyond protests.

Which brings me to the striking new documentary film “Coded Bias.”

We go about our daily lives on a spectrum of trust regarding our computers and smartphones and the tech that powers them. One end of the spectrum is unconscious of it; the other end is paranoia. As with many things, many of us are in the middle.

Enter “Coded Bias,” which has already made a big splash and put the Silicon Valley Google-Facebook hegemony and its white male bias under a veritable social microscope. The film could be called “Coded by Us,” the “us” in this instance being predominantly cis white men of privilege. Up to now, it was a given that artificial intelligence reflects so-called “natural” intelligence. This film reveals so bril-

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liantly the hidden side of AI and its algorithms—mirroring its creators’ bias and bigotry—and how that flawed tech is being used to negatively impact lives worldwide.

D i re c t e d b y S h a l i n i K a n t ay y a , “Coded Bias” was a hit at Sundance.

It features the ebullient and whipsmart Joy Buolamwini, who as a child dreamed of one day joining MIT’s legendary Media Lab. Joy had seen a whimsical robot the lab had created, and realized that was the life for her, then made it happen. Ms. Buolamwini is the Queen of Tech Nerds who is so kinetic on screen. I wanted to stay with her for hours.

One aspect of the film is tracing Joy’s journey from Media Lab computer scientist to becoming a digital activist via her nonprofit, the Algorithmic Justice League. It started innocently enough when Joy decided to create a fun art project: a mirror that would recognize her face. What she found was that her dark skin rendered her, wait for it… invisible. Then she tried looking into the camera while wearing a white mask and voilá! The more she dug, the more she found that AI and its attending facial recognition algorithms (another word for “rules”) reliably only recognized white male faces. The metaphor of “being invisible” as a woman of color couldn’t be more apt. You can’t make this up, right?

You may wonder, “Who cares about algorithms?” These days, companies use them to hire and fire; universities to sort through admissions; law enforcement to assess threats. In “Coded Bias,” you see first-hand the hiring process using these algorithms that automatically rejects anyone who is not white and male. Seriously.

In a particularly upsetting scene, a young Black man on London’s

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streets is detained because a facial recognition surveillance “bot” thinks he looks like a suspect. He is only 14 years old and is visibly shaken by the plain-clothes cops who yank him off the sidewalk. They grill and fingerprint him, regarding him as a criminal.

In other words, the AI-based system treated him just like a bigot would in real life.

Silicon Valley tech nerds are notoriously sexist and racist and don’t have much interest in transforming their cultures as it works for them. In fact, one of the film’s “talking heads” is a recently fired woman of color who worked at Google. A highly regarded researcher, Timnit Gebru was sacked after criticizing Google’s approach to minority hiring and the biases built into today’s artificial intelligence systems.

Ironically, Ms. Gebru was a co-leader of Google’s Ethical AI team! That would be like firing a house inspector for reporting a termite infestation. On a positive note, some major compa-

nies have hired Ms. Buolamwini and her team to help them delete their mechanized chauvinism.

The film’s theme resonated with me, as I have been trained to see bias after years of studying media and its hidden coding—the subtle messages that become obvious once you break the code. Here’s a classic example: The most recent Costco Connection magazine cover features an altruistic, tall white man standing next to an Indigenous woman. He is named; she remains nameless.

Do we really want to allow the unfettered and nonconsensual capturing of our faces for commercial and law enforcement profiles? This column is too short to dive that deep. That is why you really must see “Coded Bias.”

Ellen Snortland has written “Consider This…” for a heckuva long time, and she also coaches first-time book authors! Who knew? Contact her at ellen@ beautybitesbeast.com.

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Business briefs

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski UBS hires three financial advisers UBS Wealth Management USA hired three financial advisers, including Carl Nelson, who will be based Downtown.

“We’re committed to being the firm of choice for best-in-class advisers, and all three of them exhibit the same culture of excellence that drives us to go above and beyond for our clients,” said Justin Frame CFP, Los Angeles/Orange County market head at UBS Wealth Management USA. Frame joined UBS six months ago after 24plus years at Morgan Stanley. Since joining the firm, he has actively been working to hire financial advisers with strong local roots. Nelson is no exception.

Nelson has more than 16 years of experience in the financial services industry and joins UBS as senior vice president-wealth management. He has significant private banking experience, focusing on UHNW individuals and families, and attended Cal State

Northridge. Nelson will join the Summit Wealth Management Group at UBS, a signature team of seven financial advisors in the Downtown LA office.

Koreatown shopping center sold CBRE announced the $57.5 million sale of the 80,046-square-foot shopping center in Los Angeles’s Koreatown to a private investment company.

Michael Shustak, Derrick Moore, Chris Caras and Phillip Sample with CBRE’s Downtown Los Angeles office represented the seller, a private developer.

California Marketplace, a three-story retail property located in Koreatown at 450 S. Western Avenue, is anchored by a Korean grocery store and features an adjacent four-level parking structure. At the time of sale, the property was 86% leased to 25 tenants, including Gaju Market, Pacific City Bank, Myungrang Hot Dog and BMB Medical.

“Despite the unprecedented turmoil in the retail market brought on by the coronavirus

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“The public’s needs have been changing during COVID-19, and this center has been successfully able to adapt to these dynamic conditions, including increased grocery store traffic and use of common areas for dining,”

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Shustak said. “This open-air design also allowed social distancing through the use of escalators and parking structure entry points, increasing its utility beyond that of the usual multi-level center or indoor mall seen in Koreatown.”

He added, “The excellent teamwork and communication between the sales team and the trustee Richard Laski of Wilshire Partners and his attorney Aram Ordubegian of Arent Fox were essential in closing this transaction successfully.”

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Photo courtesy Clean Cause

The Berrics, Clean Cause support addiction therapy

By Sarah Donahue nyone who is familiar with The Berrics knows that it’s not uncommon for the legendary skatepark, lifestyle brand and media company to partner with others to generate hype within the skateboarding world.

But when Steve Berra, professional skateboarder and co-founder of DTLA’s The Berrics, received two cases of Clean Cause’s sparkling yerba mate and learned about its mission, he knew teaming with this brand could potentially make a huge difference in the skate scene and beyond.

Austin-based Clean Cause sparkling yerba mate was founded in 2015 by entrepreneur and recovering addict Wes Hurt with a mission of supporting individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

Clean Cause directs 50% of its profits to fund scholarship initiatives for recovering addicts, affording them the opportunity to focus on seeking employment and establishing a long-term road to recovery.

When Hurt flew out to LA and met Berra and the team, Hurt said he realized, “Our hearts are aligned from a mission standpoint.”

On December 2, the two brands announced that they’ve officially joined forces to promote the Clean Cause message of supporting individuals in recovery.

“We’re just in awe and very grateful because it’s not something that you would expect to be able to partner with at this stage in our infancy,” Hurt said.

Since its inception, The Berrics, also co-founded by professional skateboarder Eric Koston, has always been about the community, Berra said.

Over the years, The Berrics has teamed with a number of different brands. However, considering where the world is at right now and how things are changing with a new generation of skateboarders entering the scene, “I thought this was

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Professional skateboarder and co-founder of The Berrics Steve Berra poses with Clean Cause founder Wes Hurt in The Berrics skatepark, located along the Los Angeles River Downtown.

Photo courtesy The Berrics

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Sean Davis skateboards in front of a Clean Cause mural at The Berrics skatepark.

Special to the LA Downtown News

the best opportunity to introduce a product and a brand that we work with that actually really cares about people’s well-being,” Berra said.

This is important to Berra because “part of the reason I still do The Berrics is because I just care so much about the skaters out there.”

“I’ve never done drugs,” Berra said. “I don’t drink. I’ve been a pretty straight arrow my whole life. When I saw what (Clean Cause) was doing, I just thought it was just so important, something that we could get behind a million percent.”

Having grown up in a poor family in the Midwest, Berra said he was well acquainted with the influences of drugs and alcohol and did everything in his power to avoid falling into the trap.

Berra moved to Los Angeles at the age of 16, where he landed his first sponsorship with a skateboarding shop called Blockhead. Two years later he became a professional skateboarder, establishing himself as one of the original team members of Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse Skateboards at the age of 18.

In skateboarding, there has always been the element of the “party animal” lifestyle, Berra said. Peer pressure with drugs and alcohol within the skateboarding scene is a problem he has always been aware of, he added.

“This is something that I’ve been vocal about my entire career, because I’ve seen so many guys that were much better at skating than me fall by the wayside from drugs and alcohol,” he said.

“They become less interested in it.”

Berra had enough foresight when he was young to say to himself, “I’m not going to let my life be ruined by drugs and alcohol.”

Hurt is not a skateboarder, but Donovan Dresti, western vice president of marketing with Clean Cause, was formerly a professional skateboarder. He said he has also seen skateboarders get taken by the grips of drugs and alcohol

and believes there is a much-needed change in the skate scene.

“Skateboarding alone, it’s plagued by drugs and alcohol,” Dresti said. “I’ve seen it my entire career. I’ve lost friends.

I’ve seen careers just completely fall off the radar. It’s been tough to watch.”

“The lifestyle of skateboarding—it can really get you,” Dresti said. “It got me for a few years. I just got caught up in it.”

Enjoying a casual beer is fine, but when you go too far left, that’s when you need a lot of support, he said.

“I think this partnership will really make people think about their future and how easily affected they can be without them even knowing it,” Dresti said.

It’s “amazing” to have people like Berra, Koston and Hurt come together to “amplify the cause” within skateboarding, he added.

Clean Cause directs 50% of its profits into addiction recovery efforts and by doing so has created a sustainable source of funding, Hurt said.

The brand created “Clean Kickstarts,” a sober living scholarship initiative program that helps individuals coming out of homelessness, rehab or incarceration secure employment and establish and maintain a recovery routine.

Hurt explained his journey to recovery, living through a brief phase of homelessness and going to rehabs, and how he became inspired to use his gifts and skills to support others by creating Clean Cause.

“A lot of us go to rehab or even jail or wherever it is, and we get a fresh renewal and zest for life and want to rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. “We see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

However, if people go right back into the environments they came from, seeing the same people, places and things, it’s likely that they’ll fall back into their old habits, he said, adding, “It’s just natural environmental pressures.”

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This is the major issue the Clean Cause scholarship program seeks to address, he explained.

“Addiction is a big, big problem and it requires a big, big solution,” he said. “We are not the solution, but we are going to be a part of it,” he said.

So far, Clean Cause has granted over 1,700 scholarships to people in the recovery process by directing funds of more than $850,000, according to information from Clean Cause.

“The way I look at those scholarships, it’s not 1,700 people we’ve given anything to—it’s 1,700 people that all of us invested in,” Hurt said.

The business model creates a “virtuous cycle” that “manifests that whole picture” of recovery, Hurt said.

When someone takes an action as simple as buying a can of Clean Cause, not only are they purchasing a pick-me-up for themselves, “You’re investing in these people to go and increase their chances of staying sober,” he said. “You’ve energized recovery and it’s in a real way.”

Drug and alcohol addiction is “the billion-pound elephant in the room,” Hurt said.

Our current culture doesn’t discuss it or take enough action to combat the problem, he added.

“We all know addiction is happening,” Hurt said. “We all know people struggle.

We all know all of us go through certain extended pain varying levels, depending on how directly it impacts you.”

Simply talking about addiction issues can help to reduce the stigma and encourage people to get the help and support they need, Hurt said.

“People want to hear this message and I think people are yearning for it,” Berra said.

As a leader of the “Mecca of skateboarding,” Berra said he understands the impact of teaming up with certain brands. Many consumers of The Berrics’ media are youths, which makes it that much more important to raise awareness and create content centered around important causes like these.

It’s important for people to know that they’re not wrong for having addiction issues and that there is support out there, Berra said.

“There’s been so much pain and challenges in 2020, the only way is up,” Hurt said.

“We are all in. We’ve got something we’re fighting for. We’ve got something worth uniting for.”

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From left to right, Guppy (played by Vivien Blair), Rewind (Isaiah Russell-Bailey), A Capella (Lotus Blossom), Missy Moreno (YaYa Gosselin), Fast Forward (Akira Akbar), Ojo (Hala Finley) and Slo-Mo (Dylan Henry Lau) are among the 11 kids who team up to rescue their superhero parents in “We Can Be Heroes.”

Photo courtesy Ryan Green/Netflix

Director Robert Rodriguez hopes to inspire next generation with new film

By Connor Dziawura hot topic in the movie industry in recent years has been the growing shift from traditional theatrical releases to at-home distribution via internet streaming services—especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect it has had on theaters.

Director Robert Rodriguez, who is known in part for the “Spy Kids” series and 2005’s “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl,” is embracing that change with his new film, “We Can Be Heroes,” which premieres on Netflix on Christmas Day. “I don’t think I would’ve done a movie just for theatrical,” Rodriguez said, acknowledging that younger audiences tend to rewatch films like this. That’s a problem when it comes to theaters and kids can only see a film once—maybe a couple more times if their parents allow—before home release, he said.

“But the parents know that once it comes out on video, the kids can just watch it as many times as they want … That doesn’t help us so much for the box office,” Rodriguez explained. He said “Sharkboy and Lavagirl” didn’t do well in theaters for that reason, only garnering its own “rabid fan base” later on home video.

“It didn’t make financial sense a lot after a while to make those, because it wasn’t able to ever tell how many kids were actually watching it and benefit from that,” he said, noting that Netflix, on the other hand, can see how many times films like this are rewatched.

So, Rodriguez said he was happy when the streamer approached him to make his

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first film for younger audiences since 2011’s “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World.”

“I was just over the moon,” Rodriguez continued. He was so eager to get back into the genre that he came up with a title and story on the spot.

That film is “We Can Be Heroes,” in which alien invaders kidnap Earth’s superheroes, known as the Heroics, leading their kids—who have abilities ranging from time control to elasticity—to team up to escape government protective custody and rescue their parents.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Pedro Pascal, Adriana Barraza, Boyd Holbrook, Christian Slater, Sung Kang, Hailey Reinhart, Christopher McDonald, J. Quinton Johnson, Brittany Perry-Russell, Jamie Perez and Brently Heilbron are part of the adult cast, with Taylor Dooley reprising Lavagirl and JJ Dashnaw stepping in as Sharkboy (previously played

by Taylor Lautner).

“I love making those movies,” continued Rodriguez, who not only directed but wrote, produced, edited and served as the cinematographer for “We Can Be Heroes.” “I love that kids can just go right to it as many times as they want; they don’t have to be driven to a theater or beg somebody to take them. They can watch it opening day, Christmas Day; everyone around the world can watch it. And I know they’re going to just eat it up because they’ll have such easy access to it. So that’s what really got me back.”

Two of the younger cast members—YaYa Gosselin, 11, and Vivien Blair, 8—are already rewatching it, thanks to preview access.

“We filmed this like a year and a half ago, so I’ve been waiting for this moment for

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so long; and I just can’t wait for Christmas Day for me and my family to cuddle up and have some hot cocoa and watch ‘Heroes’—it’s literally the dream day for me,” YaYa said.

In fact, her sisters love it so much that “they just want to watch it over and over and over and over again.”

Vivien, who is “so excited” for its official release, estimates having already seen it four or five times by early December.

In the film, she plays Guppy, the newly introduced daughter of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. While she wasn’t familiar with Rodriguez at first, she said she watched “Sharkboy and Lavagirl” the day she got the audition and “Spy Kids” the next morning—plus, her mom did “a lot” of research on the director.

“It was really so amazing,” Vivien said of her character’s relation to the two heroes. “I mean, Taylor Dooley was so nice. JJ Dashnaw, who plays Sharkboy, he actually is also the stunt coordinator. … So, he’s a big part of the movie and I’m really glad to have him on our team.”

YaYa, who leads the young heroes as Missy Moreno, the daughter of Pascal’s Marcus Moreno, was similarly thrilled to work with the older cast.

“To have your dad as the Mandalorian is so cool, and I totally nerded out when I saw him. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, he plays my dad,’” she said, referencing Pascal’s role in the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” (Rodriguez recently directed an episode of the show, too.) She recalled three days filming with just Rodriguez and Pascal as likely being her favorites of the entire experience.

She “learned so much” from Chopra Jonas (who plays Ms. Granada, the director of the Heroics) and Barraza (Missy’s grandmother) as well, adding, “And honestly, from everybody, all of the adult cast, I learned something from each of them, and I feel like that’ll stick with me my entire career.”

Considering it her first “big” role, YaYa views the film as different from her work on other projects, though.

“I feel like a lot of the TV shows and films that I’ve been in are very serious, most of them are rated R, and so this was a very, very, very different experience from all of those,” said YaYa, who has appeared on series such as CBS’ “FBI: Most Wanted,” Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” and USA Network’s “The Purge.” Vivien, on the other hand, may perhaps be best known by audiences for her role in the 2018 film “Bird Box.” “I’m just so happy that I have a film that I can show to my sisters and my friends and

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my family—a movie that’s family friendly and that the entire family can watch,” YaYa said.

Though films targeted at younger audiences are hardly new for Rodriguez, he is also known for his work on the “Sin City” and “Machete” films; “Alita: Battle Angel”; “From Dusk Till Dawn”; “Desperado”; “The Faculty”; and “Planet Terror,” his installment of the “Grindhouse” double feature with Quentin Tarantino.

Not only does he view films such as “We Can Be Heroes” and his other family-friendly works as a palate cleanser, but he said “it’s also closer to my identity.”

“I mean, I grew up in a family of 10. I have five kids of my own. I love those kinds of stories that the whole family could watch,” he explained, citing his parents taking them to family-friendly films as his favorite experiences growing up. Now making them, he said they “use the totality of your creativity.”

“We all have a duality,” he continued. “When we go out at night with our buddies, we’re ‘Machete,’ we’re ‘Sin City,’ but during the day with our kids, we’re ‘Spy Kids,’ we’re ‘We Can Be Heroes,’ we’re in that mode. I like separating those out and getting to have a career where I can do both, because that family is such a big part of my life. And getting to do these kinds of films that really nurture kids’ imaginations and creativity and inspire them to be better people through these characters, that’s important and it’s needed and it’s necessary now, because they really are the next generation that’s going to save this world that we’ve all obviously screwed up. So, we have to empower them and validate their ideas because we need them.”

While it’s too early to be certain, Rodriguez hopes to expand on the shared universe of “We Can Be Heroes” and “Sharkboy and Lavagirl.”

“I came up with a bunch of ideas for future movies, but we have to see how this one does, obviously. I would love to (make more), because we’ve already got a template for more,” he said. “I think it’ll do well, but until it happens, you really can’t say, and then no one can invest money in something until they know they know it’s working. So we’ll see. Hopefully everybody sees it and we can make more. I’d love to make more. They’re so fun.”

Double R Productions’ “We Can Be Heroes” releases globally on Netflix on December 25

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Bad Religion’s “Decades” airs through midnight Pacific Time January 2.

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Bad Religion celebrates 40 years with ‘Decades’

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski ad Religion’s 40th anniversary celebration was derailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So the legendary punk band is taking it to the web to honor its four decades with a four-part streaming series called “Decades” that started on December 12. The shows can be accessed through January 2.

“We had friends doing these online concerts,” said guitarist Brian Baker. “We were trying to find a way to do something, other than watching the band in a less-exciting venue with no other people watching them.

“We thought, ‘Why don’t we try to make more of a documentary with mostly live performance?’ We wanted to try to tell a story. We have too many songs to do a livestream, too. So we have four different events. There’s no way to pack all of this information into an hour. Like most things with Bad Religion, it took on a life of its own.”

The online streaming event was captured live at The Roxy Theatre in Hollywood. The celebratory episodes will include live performance footage, exclusive interviews, and a peek at their rehearsals leading up to the taping of “Decades.”

Bad Religion participates in an accompanying live chat during the premiere of each episode. Show-specific merchandise will be available for sale on the “Decades”/NoCap Shows page.

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The series is as follows: • The ’80s: Bad Religion performs songs from “How Could Hell Be Any Worse,” “Suffer” and “No Control.” They discuss what it was like being young punks in a world of Pacman, Reaganomics and Televangelism. Premiered December 12.

• The ’90s: Bad Religion performs songs from “Against The Grain,” “Generator,” “Recipe For Hate,” “Stranger Than Fiction,” “The Gray Race” and “No Substance.” This decade cemented their position as one of the most influential and prolific bands, but it didn’t come easy or without cost; the band discusses the growing pains and lessons learned. Premiered December 19.

• The ’00s: Bad Religion performs songs from “ The New America,” “ The Process of Belief,” “The Empire Strikes First” and “New Maps of Hell.” Returning home and charging forward into a new millennium, Bad Religion continued to awe with their prowess, releasing some of its most beloved material to date. Premieres December 26.

• The ’10s: Bad Religion performs songs from “The Dissent of Man,” “True North” and “Age of Unreason.” The COVID-19 pandemic cut short their plans to tour in support of “Age of Unreason,” and they are now performing material never seen live. The band discusses the gratitude they live with every day looking back on 40 years of being Bad Religion and the legacy they are still actively creating. Premieres January 2.

Photo courtesy Bad Religion

Baker said filming this series was the first and only time he’s been out of his house since the pandemic started.

“I had a little trepidation,” he said. “The idea of flying and doing it was a little weird for me. I survived though. It was also so nice to see everybody. This was the first year in 26 years I have not been on tour with Bad Religion.

“It had that high school reunion vibe.

One of the millions of bad things about this pandemic is the lack of social contact and engagement. Isolation is part of the way this thing is going to be dealt with.”

He’s hoping the news about playing

shows in late 2021 is accurate.

“The end of the year is a realistic assessment on when live music can come back in some sort of standard,” he said.

“I miss it desperately. In the meantime, we’re going to do more of these—if people like this format and it’s exciting to them. If it’s like watching commercial, we won’t do it again.”

“Decades,” a four-episode package, is $40; individual episodes may be purchased for $15. Episodes will remain up for sale and viewing through the conclusion of the series and available until midnight Pacific Time on January 5.

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