Josie Huang
is a reporter and Weekend Edition host who spotlights the people and places at the heart of our region.
Published July 20, 2023 5:00 AM
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Bruce Lee family archive
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Topline:
Fifty years after he died at 32, we explore Bruce Lee's life in L.A. before he became an international superstar. During several eventful years, he befriended a wide cross-section of Angelenos: fellow Hong Kongers, Hollywood celebrities and martial arts enthusiasts.
Another side of Lee: The cultural icon is known for the string of blockbuster martial arts films he made in Hong Kong. Lesser-known is the period in the immediate years before he moved abroad. His dynamic life in L.A. - which spanned Hollywood lots to Chinatown — is captured in photos shared by the family.
In 1966, Bruce Lee was an exciting young martial artist from Hong Kong — a volcano of speed, skill and swagger who had caught the eye of Hollywood producers.
As acting opportunities began to emerge in Los Angeles, Lee and his young family left Oakland, where he’d been running a martial arts school.
One of their first apartments in L.A. was at the Barrington Plaza, a trio of gleaming white towers on the Westside.
Rent for their two-bedroom was more than a touch out-of-reach for Lee, even though he had landed a supporting TV role on a new ABC show, “The Green Hornet.”
Newly-arrived in L.A., Bruce Lee bartered martial arts lessons for reduced rent at the Barrington apartment complex.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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“[My parents] could not actually afford the rent there,” said Lee’s daughter, Shannon. “So they bargained with the property manager to reduce their rent in exchange for kung fu lessons.”
The arrangement wouldn’t last.
“They got kicked out when it was discovered by the property owner that the property manager had been cutting all these side deals with the tenants,” Lee said.
Just a few short years after this setback, Lee would break through as one of the world's biggest international action heroes with star turns in a string of Hong Kong blockbusters.
His shocking death at age 32 was even more sudden.
Thursday marks 50 years since Lee died from cerebral edema on July 20, 1973, weeks before his most famous and influential film, “Enter The Dragon,” opened in the U.S. Its success set off a martial arts craze, while shattering stereotypes of the submissive Asian.
The final fight scene in "Enter The Dragon."
Even in death, Lee is still one of the most famous Asian Americans, with a fandom spanning cultures and generations that embraces his films and philosophy exploring personal growth and adaptability.
Lesser known about Lee are his years in L.A., before he left for Hong Kong in 1971 to take the lead roles that eluded him in Hollywood – a period filled with exhilarating moments but also struggles.
Bruce Lee, shirtless, with an unidentified man, often sparred in the backyard of his house in Bel Air with his students.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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After the family was forced to leave the Barrington, they bounced around to homes in Inglewood and Culver City before settling in Bel Air.
To Lee’s disappointment, The Green Hornet ended after only one season, so he pivoted to working on sets as a fight choreographer. He also became a trainer to such stars as Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Steve McQueen, who became close friends.
Young fans pose with Bruce Lee, as one of his students, Steve McQueen, sits nearby.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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Lee didn’t just stick to Hollywood, he befriended a wide cross-section of Angelenos. He opened a studio in Chinatown where he taught Jeet Kune Do, a style of martial arts he developed.
He could also be spotted at dances organized by Chinese American college and grad students. A teenage cha-cha champ in Hong Kong, Lee whirled around partners like Gay Yuen, who studied at UCLA and ran in the same social circles.
“When the band would take a break, he would show off his martial arts moves, his strength and his skills,” Yuen said, recalling how Lee would get down on the dance floor to demonstrate one of his signature feats, the two-finger push-up.
Bruce Lee (center in dark shirt) poses with other martial arts enthusiasts at the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute he founded in L.A.'s Chinatown.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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Decades later, Yuen is the board chair at L.A.’s Chinese American Museum, which is presenting an exhibition timed to the anniversary of Lee’s death. Featured is a life-sized statue of him that will be donated this week to the Bruce Lee Foundation run out of L.A. by his daughter.
Elsewhere in L.A., Lee’s legacy is on display through murals and the seven-foot-tall bronze statue installed in Chinatown’s Central Plaza on the 40th anniversary of his death in 2013.
The 7.6-foot-tall bronze statue of Bruce Lee is installed in Chinatown's Central Plaza.
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ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
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AFP
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Bruce Lee is featured on a mural on Hollywood High School, next to Elvis Presley.
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GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images
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AFP
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The tributes serve as reminders of Lee’s ties to the city, a place where he planned to return after conquering the Asian box office.
“We left our dog here and everything when we went to Hong Kong,” recalled Shannon Lee. “Once [my father] had accomplished what he wanted to accomplish there, the idea was to move back and continue to pursue films.”
Bruce Lee poses with son Brandon and daughter Shannon. Brandon Lee grew up to be a rising film star before an accidental shooting during a production ended his life at 28.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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A life-changing invitation
Lee hadn’t started out seeking out a film career in the U.S. or to become an Asian American trailblazer.
Yes, Asian American. While primarily recognized as being from Hong Kong, Lee was born in San Francisco to parents who’d been touring the U.S. with a Chinese opera troupe.
He was raised in Hong Kong, and coming from a showbiz family, fell into acting as a child, racking up roles in some 20 films. But when he moved back to the country of his birth at age 18, his focus had switched to teaching martial arts. Having trained under kung fu masters in Hong Kong, Lee was thinking about starting a chain of self-defense schools.
In 1963, Lee opened his first school in Seattle, where he had studied philosophy at the University of Washington and met his wife, Linda.
Bruce Lee's wife Linda, seen sparring with him at a rental in Culver City, was also a student of kung fu.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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The second school was in Oakland, where he was living at the time he got a life-changing invitation in 1964.
Celebrity karate master Ed Parker asked him to showcase his skills at a tournament in Long Beach.
At the inaugural International Karate championships, a rapt audience inside the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium watched Lee debut the one-inch punch:
Applause filled the auditorium as Lee effortlessly performed two-finger push-ups.
Entree into Hollywood
Lee’s explosive strength and precision left a strong impression on a particular martial arts enthusiast in the crowd. Jay Sebring was a celebrity hairstylist who famously dated the actress Sharon Tate. His high-powered clients included a Hollywood producer named William Dozier who was looking for a young Asian male to play the son of the fictional detective Charlie Chan.
Sebring enthusiastically recommended Lee for the role and in 1965, Lee traveled from Oakland to the 20th Century Fox studio for a screen test, where he demonstrated kung fu moves on an unsuspecting crew member.
It was Lee’s first foray into Hollywood, thanks in no small part to Sebring.
Several years later, the hairstylist would forever be entered into lurid Hollywood lore: he was among those murdered by the Manson family in the summer of 1969, along with Tate.
Man About Town
The Charlie Chan spinoff never got made. Dozier, the producer, instead secured Lee a supporting role on The Green Hornet as Kato, the masked crime-fighting valet to the titular hero.
Bruce Lee landed his first TV role as Kato in "The Green Hornet."
The ABC show lasted only one season, running from 1966 to 1967. But being on the first of many Hollywood sets offered invaluable lessons, Lee’s daughter said.
“In Hollywood, he learned a lot about process, filmmaking and scriptwriting and camera angles and shots, which informed his ability to make the movies in Hong Kong later,” Shannon Lee said.
Post-Kato, Lee stayed in the Hollywood orbit, choreographing fights on film sets and teaching martial arts to celebrities. He earned enough money to buy a ranch in Bel Air, where his family would live until they relocated to Hong Kong in 1971.
After "The Green Hornet" was canceled, Bruce Lee found work as a fight choreographer.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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He also spent a lot of time in Chinatown, where people spoke his native Cantonese and the dim sum tasted like home. His daughter said he got his hair cut by a barber named “Little Joe” for years.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would visit Bruce Lee's home in Bel Air to train.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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Bruce Lee performs opposite Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in fight scene in Game of Death was released after Lee died.
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Bruce Lee family archive
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It was on College Street that Lee opened his third martial arts school in 1967. The students were a tight-knit group who would dine together in Chinatown after training, his daughter said. They would also train with Lee at his homes, mingling with celebrity students like Abdul-Jabbar.
Yuen of the Chinese American Museum said among the young people who used to hang out in Chinatown, Lee was known for having been on TV and being particularly advanced in martial arts. Other than that, “he was just like another person in the group," Yuen said.
In June, a new Bruce Lee mural was unveiled on Hope Street in downtown L.A. to promote the Max show "Warrior," which was conceived by Lee.
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Bruce Lee Facebook page
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“It wasn't like, ‘Wow, Bruce Lee,’ right?” Yuen said. “The boys would be challenging him and go ‘Hey, when are we going to fight?’ and they’d spar, kiddingly.”
Only when she stops to think about it does Yuen realize how surreal it is to see someone from her youthful past become a global cultural icon, one that her museum is honoring as a symbol of strength in the face of anti-Asian violence and discrimination that persists today.
“There's someone like Bruce Lee, who says 'We're going to fight back,'” Yuen said. “And for that, we’re thankful.”
David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, where a massive post-fire rebuilding effort is underway.
Published April 1, 2026 4:44 PM
Fencing lines a sidewalk next to a home under construction.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Topline:
As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Council member is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.
Who’s behind it: Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.
The details: The plan calls for returning the 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.
Read on … to learn whether economists think the proposed tax relief could make a difference.
As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.
Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.
The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.
The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”
Would it make much of a difference?
Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.
“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”
Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.
Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.
“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”
What’s next for the proposal?
The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.
The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.
The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September. Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.
About the deal: The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate. Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.
What's next: Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects. Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS. If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.
Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.
Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.
"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.
The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.
Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.
"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.
Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.
"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."
Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.
"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.
Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.
Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.
Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.
"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."
If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.
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Logan Cattaneo, 6, poses for a photo with the Dodgers mascot during Dodgers Dreamteam PlayerFest at Dodgers Stadium in 2024.
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Michael Blackshire
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The Dodgers Foundation says it's expanding Dodgers Dreamteam, its program for underserved youth. The foundation says the program will be able to serve 17,000 kids this year, 2,000 more than last year.
Why it matters: Now in its 13th season, the program connects underserved youth with opportunities to play baseball and softball and provides participants with free uniforms and access to baseball equipment. It also offers training for coaches in positive youth development practices, as well as wraparound services for participant families like college workshops, career panels, literacy resources and scholarship opportunities.
How to sign up: For more information and to sign up, click here.
An aerial view of snow-capped trees after a winter snowstorm near Soda Springs on Feb. 20, 2026.
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Stephen Lam, San Francisco Chronicle
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via Getty Images
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Topline:
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season. It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
What happened? Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
Why it matters: Experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains. State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs. “I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.
It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.
On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.
“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”
Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.
“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”
‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’
In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.
“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”
Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.
“That means we can get more work done,” he said.
It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.
Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.
“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”
‘A haystack fire’
Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.
Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”
“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.
Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.
But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.
How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.
“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”
