The Brief

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Pedal boats are expected to return to MacArthur Park next year, bringing back a longtime attraction as the city looks to draw more families and activity to the park. 

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks aims to have the watercraft on the lake before fall 2027, and possibly sooner, General Manager Jimmy Kim said. A firm opening date has not been set as the department determines what infrastructure needs to be repaired or built at the park.

“We want to make sure that all of the compliance requirements are in place, because we haven’t had boating there in such a long time,” Kim said.

Unlike in the past, the department would not run the rental operation and the city is negotiating with a vendor interested in operating the service, Kim said.

The city would handle some repairs, including making sure the existing dock is usable. Absent from the park is an adequate boathouse, so a new rental stand or similar structure would need to be set up for the operation. Other upgrades to the park are also in the works, including an iron fence that would encircle the green space.

Kim said he would like the boats to reflect the surrounding community, much like Echo Park’s swan boats and Hansen Dam’s duck boats have their own unique designs.

“I would love to have some type of cultural design, like Aztec, Latin inspired pedal boats there just because of what MacArthur Park represents and the community it represents,” Kim said.

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks aims to have the pedal boats on the lake before fall 2027.

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Gary Coronado

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The LA Local

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The city does not yet have a cost estimate for the infrastructure work needed to bring the boats back, but Kim does not expect the boat operation itself to have a major financial impact on the department.

The department plans to seek community input after an agreement with the vendor is signed, including on what the boats should look like.

Officials will also work through water-quality testing and boating safety requirements before the boats can return. Kim said weekly water-quality testing will be required and that the vendor would have to have someone trained in lifesaving techniques on site during operating hours.

“If somebody falls in accidentally, then having somebody there, they’ll be able to respond to it quickly,” Kim said.

The need for a lifeguard is not completely out of the realm of needed resources at the park. Officials estimate the lake is about 14 feet deep and in December a person drowned in the water.

For Jerry Young, 53, who was sitting near the lake with his bicycle recently, the water itself gives him pause.

“In this water? Nasty,” Young said. “Boy, this water is nasty.”

Trash and debris are visible along the edge of the lake at MacArthur Park. The city plans to bring pedal boats back to the lake before fall 2027.

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The LA Local

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Young said he has been coming to MacArthur Park since his early 20s and remembers when boats were still on the lake. He now lives on the Eastside but returns about once a week.

“The park was cleaner when it had the boats,” he said.

Asked whether bringing them back could help make the park feel that way again, Young was skeptical.

“They got a lot of work to do,” he said.

Young said he enjoys spending time at MacArthur Park because he likes being outside, but he wouldn’t bring his children there now.

“First of all, they have to get rid of the drugs,” Young said. “That’s first of all. They’re making the park look really bad.”

Boating has a long history at MacArthur Park, dating to when it was known as Westlake Park. The pedal boats have disappeared and returned several times over the decades. In 1997, 30 boats were brought back after roughly a decade away, with supporters arguing that recreation could help bring families back to a park struggling with drugs and crime. Recreation and Parks ultimately discontinued its city-run pedal boat operations in 2009 after years of financial losses, according to a 2011 department report.

The city sees the latest return of boating as one part of a broader effort to bring more people and activity to MacArthur Park.

“It’s not only boating, but it’s any type of activity,” Kim said. “We’re endeavoring to activate that park a lot more, working with our community members.”

A U.S. District judge will soon decide who controls hundreds of millions in federal funding meant to address L.A.’s homelessness crisis, as the Trump Administration looks to sideline the region’s embattled lead homelessness agency.

The court will determine whether the L.A. Homeless Services Authority can submit an application for $240 million in federal funding this year and, if not, who can step up to apply for the homelessness money instead.

Homeless services providers across L.A. County rely on the annual funding to pay for shelter beds, housing and services for 11,000 people, according to local homelessness officials.

This year, the crucial federal funds are in limbo after the federal housing department suspended the agency, known as LAHSA, from grant activity in June, citing mismanagement. LAHSA responded by suing the Trump Administration and asking the court to block the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s suspension while the broader legal fight plays out.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter is expected to decide soon whether to temporarily block the suspension and allow LAHSA to continue to receive federal funding and perform other responsibilities while the case proceeds to a trial next year.

In a crowded hearing in Los Angeles Aug. 6, Carter appeared to be searching for a middle path that would acknowledge legitimate concerns about LAHSA’s history of dysfunction but avoid what he described as “the stark, god-awful situation of 11,000 people hitting the streets” if none of L.A.’s federal homelessness grants came through this year.

“If that occurred … I’d want to know what’s happening on the national level with HUD,” Carter continued. “And I want to know if Los Angeles was being punished.”

A woman pushes her belongings past a row of tents on the streets of Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2021.

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What’s the backstory? 

LAHSA applies for and distributes federal funding for the entire regional homeless response system, including various other local government agencies and hundreds of nonprofit service providers across 85 cities within L.A. County.

The federal government argues LAHSA should not get to play that role anymore because it failed to meet federal oversight requirements, pointing to longstanding concerns about the agency's financial management and accountability.

“We simply cannot continue to fund failure,” said Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney, in court last week. “We are the federal government, and it is our money.”

LAHSA’s attorneys and local officials dispute the characterization the agency had violated any federal grant requirements. They said the suspension was abrupt and politically motivated.

“The actions will hurt the unhoused in Los Angeles and all of the stakeholders that service them — and that is the whole point,” Keri Curtis Axel, an attorney representing LAHSA, argued during the hearing last week.

Scott Turner, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, speaking at the Dream Center in Los Angeles in August 2026.

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Aaron Schrank

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How does L.A. receive federal homeless dollars?

LAHSA is a joint powers authority established by the city and county of L.A. to coordinate and manage public homelessness funds. One of LAHSA’s many responsibilities is serving as the region’s designated applicant for federal homeless assistance grants.

That responsibility was delegated to LAHSA by a separate, federally-mandated regional body called the L.A. Continuum of Care.

Run by a 21-member board, the L.A. Continuum of Care is responsible for setting regional funding priorities and designating the local entity that applies for federal homelessness grants. Continuums of Care are required across the country to apply for and receive federal money.

The under-the-radar coalition is the one forum where various government agencies and nonprofits are forced to sit down at the same table and collectively set priorities for how to spend homelessness funding.

“HUD chose instead to drop a bomb into the region and disrupt the most stable part of the homeless services response system,” said Shayla Myers, an attorney representing the L.A. Continuum of Care, who intervened in the lawsuit.

After it suspended LAHSA, the region’s chosen applicant, HUD said the local Continuum of Care no longer met federal requirements, and “remedial action” was necessary.

HUD proposed opening the application process up to allow homeless services providers to ask the federal government for money directly, bypassing LAHSA entirely.

The federal housing department has said it would delay starting that direct application process until after an order from the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Myers called the suspension of LAHSA an “end-run around the congressional mandates” that require the decisions be made locally.

“This is just HUD’s latest attempt to take community control away and insert its own priorities into that funding stream,” she said.

LAHSA Commissioner Stephanie Graves and Gita O'Neill, LAHSA's interim CEO, at the press briefing for the 2026 homeless count at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Commission Room in Los Angeles, on July 24, 2026.

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If not LAHSA, then who?

LAHSA’s attorneys argue it’s the only agency equipped for the task, and point out that HUD has consistently awarded it grants for decades.

City and county officials have offered to potentially step up and submit the application in LAHSA’s place, but last week Carter, the federal judge, questioned their ability to do so, especially on such short notice.

Until last week, the deadline to submit the application for federal funding was Aug. 26, a factor pressuring Carter to act quickly.

That changed a day after the L.A. hearing, when a federal judge in Rhode Island struck down HUD’s grant regulations for this year's federal funding competition.

With that ruling, the application deadline no longer exists.

This year’s grant application process will start over after the federal government publishes new regulations later this year.

In the short-term, LAHSA is asking for temporary relief on the suspension from federal grant activity while awaiting trial.

Ultimately, the homelessness authority is hoping for a permanent injunction throwing out its suspension by HUD as illegal.

Carter said he was interested in setting a trial date as early as February 2027.

Many immigrants come to Southern California to start businesses. But with federal raids targeting them and the cost of starting an enterprise rising due to inflation, learning how to become an entrepreneur has become increasingly challenging.

Some small business owners are getting help navigating this tough economy from the government of the country where they were born. Mexico’s consulate in Los Angeles held a graduation ceremony on Tuesday for its yearly Consular Entrepreneurship Program for Mexican Women Abroad.

It took place in a lecture hall at the consulate’s MacArthur Park offices without the musical fanfare of academic ceremonies but very much with the same feeling that the graduates accepting their certificates of accomplishment marked a learning milestone that will open better economic opportunities for this target demographic.

Consul General Carlos González Gutiérrez said the program’s goal is to help “the mothers, the women who are at the center of our community and who want to develop their own businesses … in order to raise a family.”

Consul General of Mexico Carlos González Gutiérrez, left, talks about organic soaps with a small business owner who graduated from the consulate's business training program.

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This is the program’s seventh year. A total of 112 women have now participated in the program. Organizers and graduates told LAist that this year’s training felt more significant due to the tension in Latino immigrant communities in the wake of federal raids that ramped up last year, along with sharp cost-of-living increases.

Help with business plans, finances and permits

The program enlists professionals working in credit unions, small business development groups and businesses large and small to train budding entrepreneurs.

Maricela Martinez is the director of Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas.

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“It is important for me to learn about taxes, how to register the brand, how to promote and do branding,” said Maricela Martinez, who signed up for help with her musical group, Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas.

She’s run the band for 20 years, but nearly stopped after the pandemic and federal immigration enforcement led many Latinos, she said, to forgo mariachi entertainment.

Martinez was one of about nine graduates who showed off their businesses in a post-graduation reception. The tables were filled with products ranging from rosemary-infused essential oils and organic soaps to desserts and notary services.

“I signed up for this program because I had the dream of having my own business,” said Saray Pallares, who stood behind marketing material she created for her budding notary business. “I am a single mother of four.”

Saray Pallares signed up for a business training program offered at the Mexican consulate in L.A. to start her notary business, La Firma Latina.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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The items on Pallares’ table included a black polo shirt embroidered with her business’s branding. Her company’s name, La Firma Latina, can be translated as The Latina Firm, or The Latina Signature.

Pallares said she learned the most from training given by a marketing professional with a Guadalajara-based restaurant chain that has opened in Montebello. Sharing a culture and language with the trainer and the other budding entrepreneurs gave her the kind of support she felt was missing from business classes she took at community college, Pallares said.

Help mustering up courage as a woman and an immigrant

Extensive arrests of immigrants in Southern California by federal agents last year sowed fear in immigrant communities. But some of the participants in this program said that’s not holding them back.

“That's more of a motivation to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep pushing back,” Pallares said. “I was thinking of having my business name in English, and I said, ‘No, I want to help my community. I want them to be able to say I trust her because she speaks Spanish.’”

That environment has been another roadblock for these participants, who also need to balance their work at home with their entrepreneurial dreams.

Claudia Shah, a consultant at the L.A. County-based Small Business Development Center and a program trainer, said that this program has its own challenges. Twenty-nine women started the course, but only 15 reached graduation, she said, because of family and work responsibilities as well as the fears women have that keep them from finishing the course.

“[For] some of them, it’s the language. Some of them, it’s technology,” Shah said. “Fear is always there, not knowing what to expect.”

Wendy Alvarez, right, describes her graphic design business at the offices of the Mexican consulate in L.A.

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Shah said some even asked whether registering their businesses could lead to negative consequences for their immigration status.

But for those who completed the course, she said, the positive economic ripple effects will be felt in their households, their neighborhoods and the region.

The city of Irvine is one step closer to adopting an ordinance to protect grocery workers from being laid off during a store ownership change.

The City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday night (Aug. 11) to direct city staff to draft the ordinance. Councilmembers James Mai and Mike Carroll opposed the move.

The law would apply to grocery stores that are less than 15,000 square feet and employ more than 300 employees nationwide, according to memo from the council to the city manager. If a store is sold, new management would be required to keep employees for at least 90 days. Businesses that don’t follow the law could face fines.

Irvine’s proposal extends protections in place in California since 2024 for grocery store employees who work at markets larger than 15,000 square feet. For example, under Irvine's proposal workers at stores with smaller footprints like Trader Joe’s would qualify for these protections.

What officials had to say

Councilmember Melinda Liu said the city has a responsibility to protect residents.

“This is a protection of local workers and not an anti-business proposal,” Liu added. “This is not something that is going to turn any business away from the city of Irvine.”

Carroll, one of the two council members opposing the ordinance, said it seemed like local overreach.

“The way I look at it, my job is to focus on parks, police, public works, and property land use,” Carroll said. “This feels like something that needs to be taken up by the state.”

What’s next? 

City staff will draft an official ordinance for a first reading at the next Irvine City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Where: City Council Chamber, Irvine City Hall
Address: 1 Civic Center Plaza, Irvine
When: 4 p.m.
How to participate: Visit the ICTV page for information on remote viewing and how to submit public comment

Long Beach is taking feedback on its plans to enshrine a major symbol of the city’s contribution to hip-hop.

Anyone interested in the look and feel of the future VIP Records Park is being asked to participate in a workshop at 6 p.m. Aug. 13 at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at 1950 Lemon Ave.

The 90-minute workshop will include a presentation and discussion on the park’s design process. There will also be an update on the refurbishment of the “World Famous VIP Records” sign, the longstanding symbol of the city’s contributions to West Coast rap, which will be displayed at the park.

Conceptual designs will likely be shown in a second workshop this fall, with final designs unveiled by next spring ahead of construction meant to be finished by that fall.

This comes as the latest installment in the storied saga surrounding VIP Records, a venerable record shop that vaulted the careers of artists like Snoop Dogg, Warren G and the late Nate Dogg. Despite its past success, VIP had to move from its original location in 2018. The sign remains in city storage.

Ahead of the 2028 Olympics, the city has chosen the VIP sign to be among its cadre of capital projects meant to showcase the best examples of its local culture and pride, approving money for the sign’s refurbishment in January and setting out a plan to honor the store’s history.

The new park, a grassy, quarter-acre lot at the southwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, sits across the street from the famous record store’s former location, now a 7-Eleven. A weathered fence wraps around it, with small hills running through its center.

The vacant city-owned lot that Long Beach plans to turn into a park that includes the VIP Records sign at the southwest corner of Anaheim Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Photo by John Donegan.

Ideas for the new park are up to the public but also proposals by contractors. On the project’s bidding page, city officials have budgeted $235,000 for the sign’s restoration, installation and site improvements. They must also replace fencing as needed and remove the “Long Beach Poly Tech” sign that’s already at the park.

As a designated historic landmark, officials say the sign will undergo restoration that meets federal standards, which may include “repainting, electrical repair, repair of acrylic, replacement of globes, repairs for rust and other damage, and other similar work.”

Another $500,000 is set aside for the redesign of the park and its plaza. Its redesign, once complete, will act as an extension of the store’s legacy and be used as a communal space for parties, gatherings and other events.

VIP founder Kelvin Anderson has spent years raising awareness about the importance of his shop, making several pitches to donors and officials to help create a state-of-the-art museum with room for a recording studio, printing space, restaurant and live music.

Before its time in storage, the sign accompanied the VIP Records store in Long Beach — the flagship of 14 locations across Los Angeles County. Snoop Dogg, Warren G and the late Nate Dogg recorded their first four-song demo at VIP. After he signed his first label deal, Snoop Dogg recorded part of his “Who Am I? (What’s My Name)” video on the store’s roof.

Today, a majority of VIP’s customers — nearly two-thirds, according to Anderson — are tourists traveling to Long Beach. It’s now at 1028 E PCH, a smaller storefront just a few doors down from the original spot.

As part of the approval for the sign’s repairs, the City Council in January OK’d a $170,000 licensing agreement with VIP Records to display the sign on city property for five years.