CSUN On Point

Dating apps have become huge over the last few years, and they really have changed the culture. Many say it is easier to find matches and love through online dating, rather than having to meet someone in person, especially in the age of the MeToo movement. People who don’t have time and money to go out can save so much time and effort. However, some people lie and exaggerate on their online dating bios, so some feel it can be hard to trust online daters.

“[Dating apps] really broaden the spectrum for what’s possible for people,” dating and relationship expert Jenna Ponaman said. “You know that the dating world is no longer about what is just in your community…There literally are an infinite amount of possibilities, so that’s really great. It promotes interracial marriages and couples… and it’s really a place where people can feel a little more courageous about what kind of person they want to be, or how they can express themselves.”

But Ponaman also said these apps may allow people to think that they don’t have to settle down or look for serious relationships. “People think, ‘well, I can be so brave, and I can also be so frivolous’,” she said, “‘and I don’t have to commit to anything if I don’t want to’… [Scrolling through dating apps] is really no different than flipping through a magazine, shopping for a shirt.”

Online dating can also be a quick way to make sexual transactions only, rather than taking the time to develop intimacy and love. Tinder is a popular app for this specific reason, but those who want more may have to put in more effort.

“People are still not building their relationship skills,” Parc Foundation counselor and instructor Kasey Carter said. “People aren’t asking the right questions before they express their interests. [For example,] do you know what their values are from their dating profile? Probably not. Do you know how they treat a waiter or a waitress? Because that shows you a lot about their character…You do know they like hiking, they do yoga, they are trying to be a vegan, and that they love their dog. [That’s good information], but that doesn’t help you have a relationship that is healthy and fulfilling.”

Lying has been an issue for online dating since it started. “Cat-fishing” is a problem on online dating sites around the world, and experts advise users to be very careful. But many people exaggerate about their age, profession, hobbies, ethnicity, height and accomplishments. Even users who aren’t criminals may not present themselves truly, or show who they really are.

“I’m all about honesty and authenticity,” psychotherapist and author Kelli Miller said. “I will have some clients who will put up photos from ten years ago. [I tell them] that’s not going to work, because then you’re setting yourself up [for disappointment]. I’m all about just being honest and upfront. If you have kids, say you have kids. Don’t hide it.”

Dating experts said dependency on cell phones and online technology may prevent two people from have a true connection. Relationships are about meeting, not chatting online. Cell phones may cause people to go out less, and some people don’t know how to interact, or how to approach strangers, without seeming sexist or creepy. The younger generation, in this new cell phone era, may not have developed proper manners, which are key to starting successful relationships. But Miller said even a phone call is better than judging someone only from an online dating profile.

Ponaman said she encourages her clients to go on several dates with people they meet online, to try to get to know them. She said people should experiment, and learn to look for partners with the traits they want. They should not just go out on dates because they matched with someone online, and then feel like they have to become attached to them immediately.

Miller, Ponaman and Carter all stressed that people must love themselves first, before they can love another.

“As a coach, I would encourage men and women to date more,” Ponaman said, “and that can be whatever they interpret it to be. But the reason for this is when we isolate to one person, we do get attached a lot faster and lot more, [but only] on that superficial plane. Whereas, if you have other options, you feel a little more free to say ‘well, if there are a few things I don’t like about this person, then that is okay, because I can do more research, with these other people, because I still have other options’.”

Moderator: Mareo Ahmir Lawson

Producer: Leslie Estrada

Anchor: Emmanuelle Roumain

Social Media Editor: Rudy Aguado

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mareo Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Roumain

The Pew Research Center says approximately one-quarter of all veterans say its difficult to transition from military life to civilian life, and nearly half the veterans who served after the September 11 attacks say their adjustment has been difficult.

About 700 veterans attend CSUN. CSUN Veterans Affairs Coordinators Vanessa Ochoa and Noe Aguirre said there are plenty of veterans resources on campus. “We process applications, transcripts, do the evaluations, and they [veterans] make the decisions,” Aguirre said. “We’ve also been given the flexibility. If we need to make any exceptions [for admissions], we’ll go ahead and do that.”

Aguirre said one of the difficulties in providing services to help, is that many veterans and active duty military are so used to following orders that sometimes it is difficult for them to “accept their own decisions.” She described it as a form of brainwashing, caused by years in the service.

Dr. Abram Milton served in the United States Marine Corps for 23 years before retiring in 2016. He’s now a clinical psychologist at CSUN’s University Counseling Center.

“The transition services [personnel] they had back then weren’t as familiar with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as they are now,” Milton said. “A lot of the time, what we see in individuals is that they may have a traumatic experience that could be combat related, or even [from something like] a traffic accident,” Milton said. “When you are coming out of combat areas, there are [now] psychologists or many health professionals who help with PTSD.”

Veteran  and CSUN student Kevin Ogletree said he joined the military to follow a family tradition. Both his parents also served. Ogletree was in the U.S Army and the U.S Marine Corps for a total of seven years. He said his transition to civilian life was difficult. He didn’t have a good enough support system, and he had to drop out of his first attempt at college life. “It wasn’t until years later, now I have matured in life experiences, and I was able to come back to school in a better state of mind.”

Robert Graves, of Disabled American Veterans Department of California, said those who have spent years in the military don’t always know what life is like after the military. “When you leave the military itself, you leave behind your network of knowledge” Graves said. “When veterans with disabilities come out of the military, they don’t know how that will affect their placement in jobs, how they study in college, or how to reintegrate with their friends or their families.”

He said transitioning is a never-ending process.

Moderators: Leslie Estrada and Emmanuelle Yang

Producer: Mareo Ahmir Lawson

Anchor: Matt Roth

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mareo Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Yang

Every City Council District in Los Angeles is supposed to find a place for bridge housing, and every district has, except for ONE, and that’s the Northwest Valley. Bridge housing is paid for by $1.2 billion in funding from Proposition HHH, approved by Los Angeles voters in November 2016.  Since then, homelessness in the Northwest Valley has increased. Housing in the city has become very expensive, which most experts agree is a main cause of the increase in homelessness. According to Los Angeles Mission, 53,195 people in the Los Angeles County are experiencing homelessness. Three out of four are unsheltered. Over the last year, 9,322 people experienced homelessness for the first time. 

“It’s an issue that affects families, senior citizens, anybody from the spectrum of our society,”  San Fernando Valley homeless advocate Thomas Booth said. Booth said homeless people are often thought to be dangerous and alarming, but in fact, any one in any community can end up living on the streets.

“There is often a misconception,” said Ken Craft, CEO of Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission. “Everyone assumes that the homeless are either drug addicts, mentally ill, or that they are lazy, and they don’t want to work.”

Craft said his experience has allowed him to understand more fully why so many people end up homeless. Craft said the homeless are often people who are going through a hard time in their life, because of financial setbacks, health difficulties, or problems in their domestic situation, and those difficulties cause them to lose a stable home. But, Craft said, living on the streets, even for just a few days, can lead to exhaustion, despair and fear, then to mental illness, and sometimes to drug addiction. That makes it difficult to be open to receiving the care necessary to get back to a stable situation. It’s a good thing that there are drug addiction clinics that can help us during our journey.

It’s not always drug addiction and mental illness that lead to homelessness, Craft said. “We have discovered that some people fall into homelessness, and being homeless can be an onset to mental illness.”

Craft and Booth said they believe that housing is a necessary first step to help get people out of the streets, and into a safe and stable environment. “If we can get people into housing,” Craft said, “it will help with barriers leading to mental illness.” 

Different kinds of housing programs exist to help: affordable housing and supportive housing. Affordable housing is for people who need assistance with more than just housing. Supportive housing helps only with housing, by giving subsidies to those who need assistance.

But when a proposal to put affordable housing in the Northwest Valley reached the community, some parents said they were upset about “homeless” people living in residential neighborhoods, and they said they feared for their children. “There is no known statistics that signify in increase in crime rate [in areas with supportive housing],” Booth said.

Now developers of the proposal to build bridge housing in the Northwest Valley must continue to try to convince residents and voters to accept their plan.

Moderator: Rudy Aguado

Producer: Emmanuelle Yang

Anchor: Matt Roth

Social Media Editor: Leslie Estrada

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mario Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Yang

The Aliso Canyon gas blowout in 2015 is the largest natural gas leak in American history. Hundreds of Porter Ranch residents living a few miles away were affected by the blowout — mentally, physically, financially and politically.

“I am still worried about this situation,” CSUN Sustainability Institute’s Professor Loraine Lundquist said. “It’s still affecting residents in my neighborhood. It’s still leaking; it’s still causing all kinds of problems, and it’s still a risk when it comes to earthquakes, and it’s a fire hazard. We are still working to get the facility shut down.”

The chemicals released by the blowout have caused many health problems for the residents, and research on the long-term impact is still being conducted. “The biggest problems in terms of the people’s health is not the methane,” said Lundquist. “It’s all the other stuff that was released with the methane, because the methane is stored in depleted oil wells, and it has other chemicals that are included in it.”

SoCal Gas didn’t tell Porter Ranch residents exactly what chemicals were being leaked, Lundquist said. “SoCal Gas is actually not required to release information to the community, so we don’t actually know what all chemicals are stored in there, but we do know there are toxic, volatile, organic chemicals that occur in oil.”

Nearly four years after the gas blowout the residents of Porter Ranch remain concerned. Certain chemicals in oils can cause cancer.

“There are five teachers at Castle Bay Elementary School that we know had no cancer history in their families,” Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council member Cheri Derohanian said, “and five out of 34 teachers got cancer. One of them passed away.”

Derohanian said she recently moved to Granada Hills to get away from the gas leak, and because her children wanted to attend Granada Hills High School. She said her former neighbors have health issues anytime there is a gas leak.

When the gas leak first happened, in October 2015, many Porter Ranch residents left the area temporarily.

“We did not know what was going on,” Derohanian said,  “and my children were running the mile [track and field event] that same week in school. The school didn’t know [what was going on], and nobody else knew either. It was ridiculous that the gas company did not have a way to tell the residents.”

Some residents decided to relocate permanently, because they felt too sick to live near the gas field. Hundreds filed lawsuits, including some Los Angeles County firefighters who helped the residents evacuate their homes. “Out of 30,000 Porter Ranch residents, at least 10,000 have filed a lawsuit,” Derohanian said.

Many environmental activists are following the lawsuits. The Sunrise Movement’s Becca Lieb and Save Porter Ranch Co-Founder Matt Pakucko both said shutting down SoCal Gas facilities is the way to prevent another blowout from happening.

“The facility wasn’t really needed in the timespan of when the blowout happened,” said Lieb. “Some solutions would be to shut it down and to fully embrace the transition to clean and renewable energy… I hope that after the facility is shut down, people who are living in that community feel the difference in their air, and are able to enjoy the beautiful environment of the Valley.”

Pakucko said many other SoCal Gas facilities around Los Angeles “are in worse shape [than Aliso Canyon. The green energy solution is not just going to be for [the benefit of] the North Valley. It’s for everybody.”

“Shut down all these facilities,” Pakucko said, ” because the same chemicals are coming out of all SoCal Gas facilities…the chemicals are making people sick.”

Anchor: Leslie Estrada

Moderator: Matt Roth

Producer: Emmanuelle Yang

Social Media Editor: Leslie Estrada

Reporters: Rudy Aguado, Leslie Estrada, Mareo Ahmir Lawson, Matt Roth and Emmanuelle Yang