And we continue our tradition of showcasing artistic and cultural performances with a rising young star from the philippines, whos making a name for herself in the us. Mika gorospe sings her new single for us today. Well, if there is one topic or issue that is important to every community group, its water and our precious water resources. And the Santa Clara Valley Water District is certainly aware of that. With me right now is nai hsueh, the district five representative on the Water District board of directors, a registered Civil Engineer who was elected to the board after more than three decades with the Water District, rising from Junior Engineer to chief of the capital programs division, and she is known for her passion for the Water District services. Welcome to the show. Nai hsueh thank you for having me. Robert and quite a Success Story of your own. Nai thank you very much. Robert give us an idea here, youre having this Asian Community day. What are some of the things that you want to address to the community . Nai well, since the completion of the advanced Water Purification center, the Water District has offered ongoing tours for the Community Members with the intent that getting people to actually see the plant, and they understand the technology thats in place so that feels safe, and theyll remove this obstacle sometimes we all have of Drinking Water that source is coming from the sewage. So, in addition to this regularly offered tour, we have Community Events thats specific for different ethnic groups. We had a very successful hispanic open house last year, and then the next one we planned is for the Asian Community thats scheduled for july 15. Hopefully, the audience will have the opportunity to participate. Robert i know its a relatively new thing, and its interesting because, you know, the Water District and all the services it provides is a big part of the community, yet never really thought about it as being involved in the community the way that its getting involved now. What are those cultural obstacles, though . Where did that come from, do you think . Why are they reluctant . Is it sort of universal in the sense of just thinking about where water comes from, and you just dont want to think about it . Nai i think its probably more universal. And i wouldnti wouldnt say the Asian Community has a bigger obstacle compared to the rest of the community. And in fact, i think that for asian communities, first of all, its very diverse. Robert yes. Nai i dont want to use a broad brush and then say everybodys the same, no. And for some of the immigrants coming from asia, like hong kong or singapore, actually using purified water out of a sewer is not something they find odd about because they are in existence, theyve been drinking it for some time. Robert sure. Nai so, for in that regard, its really theres no issue there. And then also, i think that theres a lot of technical people in the Asian Communitytechnical people, i mean people in the engineering science, science field, that because of their background, if they see the technology thats important in filtering the water, in treating the water, and then the testing of the water thats coming out of the end of the process, the clarity of the water, i think its very easy for that group of people to accept. But then, of course, there are people that, like people in my age group that i grew up in asia, that when i was young, that my mother always said that, do not drink water out of the tap because theres yeah, yeah, because the treatment process 50 years ago is just not that up to date. Robert thats right. They carry it over. Nai they do, they do carry over. But so, this open house on july 15, we will have technical staff on site explaining the treatment process, and answer all kinds of questions, and actually people get the opportunity to taste the water, yeah. The last open house i attended, that many people said, water tastes good, yeah, so its robert which is pretty much the bottom line. I remember the mayor, sam liccardo, he drank the water, and that made much more of a difference than all the analytical reports and all the other statistics. Nai and then an interesting fact is that in santa barbara, that theyve been doing this for a decade already. The water is too pure, that they had to add some mineral back into the final product so that it drinks like the water out of the tap. So, thats just something thats interesting to know. Robert you know, when we were looking at some of the pictures, i mean, the technology and just the look of the plant and everything was kind of impressive. And i would imagine it will make an impression on people, even if they are somewhat reluctant. Has the technology changed a lot, or is it basically just seeing the technology thats been in place for a while . Nai the technology has been in place for a while, yeah. Robert theyre just getting a chance to see it up close now. Nai exactly. And then, since this is a time that we do need it, looking into the future, so its not like this is a brand new technology, we started using it. Its actually very similar to the Treatment Technology of the Drinking Water treatment plan that we currently have in santa clara county, its just adding two more steps to make it even more cleaner because the source water has more stuff in it, so justso, but the technology, the principle of it is basically in place for a while. Robert good, well, i think itll be very interesting for people to see up close. Nai yeah. Robert thank you very much for being here, explaining it. Nai okay, thank you. Robert all right. Well, the Santa Clara Valley Water District is having its Asian Community day on july 15, from 10 a. M. To 2p. M. At the Silicon Valley advanced Water Purification center. Thats at 4190 zanker road in san jose. Tours will be conducted in english, chinese, and vietnamese. Find details on how to register on nbcbayarea. Com. Well, next, the farm life in the city, the start of veggielution coming up. Robert weve been talking veggielution, basically connecting people from diverse backgrounds through food and farming to build community, in this case in san jose. Joining me to talk about this is esther ng, the neighborhood Harvest Program manager for veggielution, and emily schwing, the Development Communications manager for veggielution. Great to have you here. As you can tell, i love to say veggielution, it just soundsvery good name. Give me an idea, first of all, for people who havent heard about it. Ive seen it many times, but for people who havent, give us a quick background and history of it. Esther ng yeah. So, veggielution started out with three san jose state students who wanted to connect people through food and farming. And they found this land at emma prusch farm park, and were able to get a hold of a sixth of an acre. And over time, its just grown. It started in 2008, so now were in 2017, and we have about 6 acres, and weve grown 3. 9 acres. And throughout the whole land, we use it to do, like, programming for the communities in the area, and yeah, were continuing to expand and get to know the neighbors around East San Jose as well. Robert you do plan to keep it local . Do you plan to keep it as one thing for san jose right now . Emily schwing yeah, were very placebased with our with our location in East San Jose, in emma prusch farm park. So, were focused on almost putting roots down in where we are to help lift up the Community Around us, yeah. Robert now, my family were famers, my grandparents and my parents to a certain extent. And, growing up in palo alto and sunnyvale, we were talking earlier about how much agriculture there was at the time. So, the asianamerican and Pacific Islander communities i would imagine are a big part of the people who want to see this happen, right . Esther people who walk through, you know, we have a lot of vietnamese families, a lot of chinese families who come through, as well as latino families, especially being East San Jose is very diverse. And they all love it. They walk through and like, this is great. Like, you know, we always have produce growing, and you know, we have programs for the kids, so they bring their kids to the youth garden. And you get to seeyeah, they just really enjoy that aspect of the gardening, and being outdoors, and seeing all the produce grow as well. Robert i can understand why the older generations kind of connect to it, but i see a lot of young people out there when i go by and when ive been there. Why does it work . Why does it work as a connection for young people . Emily i think its the difference between what they usually see in the san jose area versus what it used to be. And itsthere seems to be theres a lack of, how do i say, outdoor space, so this is an open outdoor space. Since we are in a city park, it is open to everyone, so its attracting, you know, people as an open space. Robert its location almost seems so advantageous to a certain extent because when i was driving by, and its just surrounded by freeway and urbanization, but i just noticed over the years how much bigger its gotten, you know what i mean . I remember at one time, i noticed it, and i thought it was, okay, you know, a Community Garden of some kind. And now, it looks like this fullblown project. How do people get involved . Im sure people, when they look at it, they wonder, how can i get involved . How do they . Esther yeah. So, one way that they can get involved is through our neighborhood Harvest Program, which is the one i coordinate. But volunteers come on a saturday morning, and we actually go harvest fruit not on the farm, but in the neighborhoods around us. So, its all about cultivating our urban food force. You know, theres that contrast of, like, all these buildings rising up, but we want to take care of the fruit trees in the area and make sure, you know, we are part of the solution to food waste. So, volunteers come for about 3 hours, and they love it. They love, you know, going to harvest fruit, and they get to take some home as well. Robert ah yeah. So, its actually the center of, like, a lot of smaller ones throughout the area, right . I mean, theresyou canpeople have their own, i guess, urban farms. Esther i mean, people have, like, their fruit trees in their backyards and their front yards. You know, sometimes people dont take care of it, sometimes they do. A lot of people just want to donate. Robert yeah. I remember during the medfly crisis, we were shocked at how many people had fruit trees like in their backyard. You didnt even realize how many. Esther people have a lot. Robert yeah. Tell me something, youre pretty young to be involved in this and to have this kind of interest. What kind of background do you have that brought you to this project . Emily so, my background is ini did meteorology, actually my undergrad, then i studied environmental communications, focused on sense of place with my research, and how the environment affects our sense of place and our sense of identity. So, i was drawn to veggielution right away with this urban spaceor sorry, this agricultural space in the middle of an urban city, and how people connect to it, and how people associate with it, and how that kind of defines who they are and where they want to see their lives going. Robert it provides a balance. Emily it does, absolutely. Robert it really does, yeah. How about you, how did you get involved . Esther so, i actually grew up in san jose and didnt really hear about, you know, veggielution until i was in college in san diego. And then i studied human development, so i took a Public Health class, and i decided to look up, you know, what are some urban farms in the area. And they had veggielution internship opportunities. So, i decided to apply, and i really loved it, especially working with the kids and, you know, being a part of, like, the solution to, like, Building Social capital for the families, and seeing that its not just an urban farm where you can, like, you know, put in some hard labor, but its a place for people to connect, build relationships. And also think about, like, eating healthy, and what does that mean for their family and the communities around them. Robert yeah. I was thinking about how its sort of easy to preach to the choir, a lot of people who miss the agricultural aspects of the community, et cetera. But how about people who are sort of reluctant or maybe skeptical of how effective this is . What would you want them to think about when they think about this project . Emily yeah. And i agree with esther 100 , its about the community, right . The foodwe say the food is the platform to build the community. Or you know, our farm fuels all of our programs. So, we dont just think about it as that were a farm to just grow produce, but were a farm to grow community. And its we use the food, whether its out in the field people are harvesting, or the food that we use in our Community Cooking class, or a farm stand, its all about using the food to help connect, you know, the diverse individuals that live in East San Jose. Robert and you have an event coming up, right . Emily we do. So, fEast San Jose is our annual fundraising dinner on the farm, on june 11. And this year, were pretty excited, we have michelin star chefs from adega, the first michelin star restaurant of san jose. Were going to be doing a portuguese style picnic on the farm, for the dinner. And theres going to be a lot of activities and its a great way to see the farm in another light. Its going to be called farm fancy. Farm fancy dinner on the farm, yeah. Robert very good. Is it hard to maintain this project . I mean, you know, getting the right resources and all the things, these days it seems like its hard for everybody to kind of keep a project going. Is it difficult right now . You need help . Emily yeah, i mean, were always looking for donations and funders of any sort to help donate to veggielution. We have a website where you can go and donate. And this is what the fundraiser is also for, to help donate to keep all of our programs going, and so programs like neighborhood harvest, our Community Engagement programs, professional development, and Youth Education programs. Robert all right, very good. Well, well help you out with that, okay . I love it. Thanks for being here. Emily yeah, thank you. Esther thank you for having us. Robert veggielution invites you to its annual event, fEast San Jose, featuring live music, a gourmet dinner prepared by a local chef with fresh ingredients from veggielution and other local producers, as well as art in the garden with cocktails. Visit our website to register for this event. Up next, growing roses at the san jose heritage rose garden, so stay with us. Robert well, weve been talking about water and growing things, so how about roses . Asian Pacific America went on the road to showcase the san jose heritage rose garden, many of the roses having chinese ancestry. Heres that feature with the help of my colleague, mike inouye. Mike inouye beyond the noise of a nearby airport lies this unique plot of land known as the san jose heritage rose garden, a beautiful site tucked away just outside of downtown. Asian Pacific America paid a visit to the garden, where rose curator jill perry showed us around and talked about what makes the san jose rose garden unique. Jill perry we have more varieties than any other public rose garden in the us. We have many classes of roses that are not in other public rose gardens. The old european varieties, the onceblooming varieties, the victorianera roses are very uncommon throughout the country. Mike the garden contains approximately 2,600 varieties of roses, many of which were brought to the us from china and are found planted throughout the bay area. Jill most of them we found in cemeteries. I think they came with the Chinese Workers that came to california, and worked in the gold fields, and worked in the cities. Mike the garden is maintained mostly by volunteers. Jill invites anyone whos interested in learning about roses to come to the garden and volunteer some time. Jill come on down. We train people every weekend on saturday mornings. And also, if youre around wednesday mornings, there is a group here then too. And we train and supervise all the volunteers. Mike with summer fast approaching, the rose garden in full bloom, its a mustsee the next time youre in san jose. Robert and our thanks to the rose garden and mike, as well as lance lew and joe from the studio. Again, projects at the rose garden vary with the time of year, but you can join the volunteers, as you heard, every saturday and wednesday morning. Well, coming up, a 15yearold singing star from the philippines making her presence felt in america and in our studio. Mika gorospe is up next. The environmentally aware. The ones with their eyes on the sky and our air. They say our climates in need of repair. Why do they worry . Why do they care . The Energy Conscious people among us say small actions could add up to something. Humongous. A little thing here a little thing there starts to feel like a badge maybe millions can wear. Limiting showers to only five minutes. Turning off lights in a room unless theyre in it. Air filter changing, solar installing unplugging, dialturning, thermostatlowering offpeaktime users all joining forces. To help get our power from renewable sources. Who are all these caretakers, advocates too . The celebrated leadbyexample crew. Turns out, its californians its me and its you. and yeah, its him too dont stop now, its easy to add to the routine. Join Energy Upgrade california and do your thing. To the show. She is a 15yearold who hails from the philippines, and is now making a name for herself worldwide. Thank you very much for joining us. Mika gorospe thank you for having me. Robert give us a little bit of an idea in terms of where youre going right now, and how your careers going. Mika so recently, i just signed with mca music, and its a universal music group. And normally, the people who win the voice in the philippines, thats where they normally have the label to, but i didnt join the voice, i was just discovered. Robert very good. What are we going to hear from you . Mika my original called believe. Robert all right, thank you very much. Mika gorospe. Enjoy. Youre feeling down i know, ive been through it too it seems that life has just unfriended you and you scramble for ways to be liked you tried to reach out, and nobody seems to hear or care so, you weave yourself into the day getting lost and start to fade away and as your back falls and hits the bottom feel a wave of strength come to lift you up you got to roll and stand up, try to see your life through a better light find a way to believe youve got a lot of loving to give youre not alone, so stand up clear your mind from fears that cloud the night this road is where you need to be take it on and soon you will see believe the struggling fight, begin from the battlefield inside your mind the rock that pulls you down on your feet comes from the weight of your insecurities and as your back falls and hits the bottom feel a wave of strength come to lift you up you got to roll and stand up, try to see your life through a better light find a way to believe youve got a lot of loving to give youre not alone, so stand up clear your mind from fears that cloud the night this road is where you need to be take it on and soon you will see things that you see that you feel to be real they all come to life only if your heart wills the love that youve been asking for is already yours from those whove been there all along try to see your life through a better light find a way to believe youve got a lot of loving to give youre not alone, so stand up clear your mind from fears that cloud the night this road is where you need to be take it on and soon you will see believe were trying to turn screen timhere goes ive time. Were dolphins were making our local park a safe place for families. Were in super hero training were having more water and fewer sugary drinks. And we feel stronger. Im doing better in school. We feel happier. Small changes you make today can make a big difference in how you feel. And may help prevent obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. Start now to turn today into a better day. Were still going, and we feel better the administration has to answer, why now . Did President Trump record his conversations with comey . [ speaking french ] good morning and welcome to sunday today on this mothers day. Im willie geist. Hi, mom. Another busy sunday morning after a week of relentless news out of washington, the president hoping to pick a new fbi director this week after the dramatic firing of james comey. Well speak with chuck todd on that and more. North korea test fires another ballistic missile. Wee
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.