Firefighters battle a blaze at a cold storage facility in the Boyle Heights neighborhood June 22. Authorities declared a state of emergency as the fire intensified, prompting evacuations in the surrounding area. The fire started June 17.
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Ted Soqui
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CalMatters
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Topline:
After warehouse fires in both Garden Grove and Boyle Heights, records show state and local regulators knew the facilities; they had inspected them, approved plans, and resolved violations. How they used their authority is now a central question for neighbors in the surrounding areas seeking accountability.
Why it matters: Companies face layers of federal and state oversight designed to help prevent hazardous chemicals from escaping into surrounding neighborhoods. But records show that these two facilities, one in Orange County and one in Los Angeles County, had accumulated violations over years and continued operating.
What's next: Residents want accountability, but the legal bar to hold companies for environmental crimes is high. Criminal prosecution requires more than proving a rule was broken. Prosecutors need evidence of deliberate deceptions — falsifying reports, hiding violations, deceiving regulators.
Read on ... for an in-depth look at the regulatory and legal challenges residents face in getting answers to the problems their neighborhoods face.
Manuel Valle, 84, jumped on his bike and rode through his Boyle Heights neighborhood despite the protests from his worried children. The air was smoky, for the fifth day in a row; he pushed through fits of coughing to pass out 50 N95 masks to his neighbors.
The same day, officials told residents the air was not dangerous and the smoke was clearing out. Valle didn’t agree.
“This is a state emergency,” he said. “Treat it like a state emergency.”
Fire had ignited at a facility, operated by the company Lineage, which stores food before it’s shipped off to restaurants and grocery stores. Lineage uses the toxic refrigerant anhydrous ammonia, which posed a health risk in the early hours of the fire.
Weeks earlier and miles away, the Orange County Fire Authority issued an evacuation order affecting 50,000 Garden Grove residents when fire officials realized a tank at an aerospace manufacturing facility could either explode or leak large amounts of a toxic chemical into the air.
In both cases, records show state and local regulators knew the facilities; they had inspected them, approved plans and resolved violations. How they used their authority is now a central question for neighbors in the surrounding areas seeking accountability.
A lawmaker has proposed some reforms to chemical policy. But prosecuting companies for failing to follow environmental laws is difficult, and how far cities may go to protect residents isn’t clear.
“I don’t know what the local government is waiting for — for a tragedy to occur or something more serious or what … on top of what is already going on,” said Miguel Ocegueda Castillo, who lives near the Lineage warehouse.
A young boy watches firefighters battle a blaze at a cold storage facility in the Boyle Heights neighborhood June 22.
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Ted Soqui
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CalMatters
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Years of oversight, unresolved risks
Companies face layers of federal and state oversight designed to help prevent hazardous chemicals from escaping into surrounding neighborhoods. But records show that these two facilities, one in Orange County and one in Los Angeles County, had accumulated violations over years and continued operating.
In 2021 the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued GKN Aerospace multiple notices of violation, including for failing to maintain the required emissions records and operating some equipment without proper permits. The company later signed a settlement with air regulators and paid more than $900,000 — without admitting liability.
During the emergency, authorities gave residents conflicting information about whether the chemical methyl methacrylate had leaked.
“When you go home, you can feel safe. There was no contamination. … There was no leak,” Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County Public Health Officer told residents during one press briefing, even though early reports characterized the incident as a leak.
In Boyle Heights, the Lineage facility stores more than 12,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The chemical is a refrigerant that if inhaled, can cause severe eye and respiratory irritation, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting and, at high concentrations, death.
In the early hours of the fire June 17, the Los Angeles Fire Department told residents to shelter in place because of the risk of the chemical being released into the air. The order was lifted, and then imposed again.
Lineage said in a statement that it “proactively took steps to pump out the ammonia and transport it offsite” and that no measurable ammonia concentrations had been recorded in the community since the fire began.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told residents the air was not dangerous. But on the sixth day of the fire, an air monitor detected a hazardous spike of air pollutants.
Federal records show that the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health inspected Lineage in Boyle Heights the day the fire started. It wasn’t their first visit.
In 2020, Cal OSHA opened an investigation into the facility for violations of multiple safety standards. After Lineage lodged an administrative appeal, regulators fined the company $2,250 for violations related to process safety and respiratory protection.
Rebecca Liu Morales, a spokesperson for Lineage, said the company stores food, not hazardous materials, and said it was not responsible for the fire. She said the fire started when a contractor was working on the rooftop solar array, which provided power to the city.
“The health and safety of our employees and the communities we serve is our top priority,” she added. “Our industry is heavily regulated and inspected, with over 200 routine regulatory inspections by various agencies conducted of our North American operations alone between 2024 and 2025.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department is investigating the cause of the June 17 fire. The city department of Building and Safety is also investigating, and the workplace safety investigation remains open.
Luck, rather than strong protections, has saved residents from catastrophe in both Orange and Los Angeles counties, said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics.
Industrial infrastructure has grown near residential communities, Williams said. But state and local oversight of hazardous substances has not kept up.
“I don’t think anybody really thought: Wait, we have these warehouses, a warehouse here, a warehouse there, and what happens if there’s an earthquake and we lose containment at four anhydrous ammonia tanks in one square mile at the same time?” Williams said.
Filling in regulatory gaps
Federal and California laws are designed to protect communities from accidental releases, when a spill or an explosion or a leak releases hazardous chemicals into air, soil or waterways.
The federal Clean Air Act’s Risk Management Program requires companies handling dangerous chemicals in significant amounts to develop preventive and emergency plans for just these situations — and file those plans with regulators. California goes even further: Its risk management program sets stricter thresholds and more demanding requirements than federal law — meaning California law holds facilities to a higher standard, and state regulators have more tools and more authority to act than their federal counterparts.
But critics say even California’s stronger standards have significant gaps that state officials have allowed to persist.
Reactive chemicals, such as the methyl methacrylate stored at GKN, often fall outside of both the federal and state accidental release programs. In Garden Grove, regulators required no risk management plan.
Anhydrous ammonia is a different story. It’s a listed chemical, one of the core hazards state and federal programs aim to regulate. Federal and state environmental protection officials confirmed Lineage in Boyle Heights is part of both programs.
Local agencies called Certified Unified Program Agencies are the layer of oversight closest to the ground. In California, they’re responsible for knowing what hazardous chemicals companies store where, and in what quantities. Local agencies must inspect those facilities regularly and keep emergency plans on file, so that a fire department showing up to a warehouse blaze should already know what’s inside.
Neither local agency has fully disclosed its oversight of these facilities. In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department did not answer questions about its oversight of Lineage Logistics, despite repeated requests by CalMatters.
In Garden Grove, records obtained by CalMatters reveal that the Orange County Healthcare Agency has inspected GKN more than a dozen times over the last decade and issued violations related to hazardous waste regulations that were later corrected. The facility had emergency plans that were approved in May, weeks before the incident, records show.
State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat whose district includes Garden Grove, introduced Senate Bill 883 in the weeks after the GKN episode. It would require the state Office of Emergency Services to maintain a statewide inventory of facilities storing reactive chemicals, add methyl methacrylate to the state’s risk management program, require CalEnviroScreen tool to track facilities that pose an explosion risk and update current environmental review law to ensure that storage sites that have a risk of explosion aren’t exempt from review.
“We must learn from this incident, address the gaps it exposed, and take steps to ensure it never happens again,” Umberg said, in a statement announcing the legislation.
The bill is moving through Assembly policy committees.
The GKN emergency prompted a federal response. The Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the facility on June 10 — but experts say determining whether anyone committed a crime is often difficult after an industrial accident.
An aerial view of downtown Los Angeles with smoke from the smoldering storage facility in Boyle Heights on June 22.
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Ted Soqui
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CalMatters
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Legal remedies are a challenge
Residents want accountability, but the legal bar to hold companies for environmental crimes is high.
Criminal prosecution requires more than proving a rule was broken. Prosecutors need evidence of deliberate deceptions — falsifying reports, hiding violations, deceiving regulators.
The federal government goes after “those that are lying, cheating and stealing,” said Ethan Ware, an attorney who represents companies investigated for environmental crimes. “There’s more to it than just the environmental violation. There’s some effort to deceive, or to hide, or to get enriched by lying on documents.”
That bar gets even higher when no specific rule is broken — when prosecutors argue a company has a general duty to keep people safe. “What the government is saying is you have complied with all of these hundreds and thousands of regulatory requirements, but we still think you pose a risk to the community,” Ware said. “That’s a hard sell to a jury, to a judge, to anybody.”
A federal criminal investigation into an industrial accident is unusual — and the Garden Grove investigation may not lead to charges. The broader federal enforcement landscape has also changed.
A 2026 report by the Environmental Integrity Project found that the number of civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in cases referred by the EPA dropped to just 16 in President Donald Trump’s first year in office — 76% less than in the first year of the Biden administration. Only 12% of facilities with air pollution violations received any kind of enforcement action from EPA or state agencies in the last year.
That federal shift matters for Lineage, which has faced at least three civil enforcement actions in recent years, but none that resulted in criminal charges.
Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $37,500 for three violations at a Riverside facility, two related to its handling of hazardous materials and emergency plans.
Also last year, the company paid $3,420 to settle alleged violations at a Vernon facility, including that the company didn’t correct a critical safety system deficiency it identified during a 2021 audit.
In 2023, the EPA fined Lineage more than $172,000 for alleged violations of the federal Risk Management Program at an Iowa facility. The EPA said in a news release that the company “failed to correctly document the worst-case scenario in its risk analysis, failed to comply with accidental release prevention requirements, and failed to document emergency response coordination with local authorities.”
In 2024, a Lineage warehouse in Washington burned for 60 days. Hundreds of neighbors to the warehouse reported health problems, and some residents filed civil claims. But the company has not faced criminal charges.
The limits of local power
Weeks after an evacuation sent tens of thousands of people from their homes in Garden Grove, GKN Aerospace came to a City Council meeting. The company had not spoken publicly since the evacuation.
Resident Rodrigo Garay held up a thin red cross blanket.
“This is what I used for the whole week to sleep on,” he said/ “And I’m sure that you slept on really nice beds with your $260,000-a-year salary.”
He and other residents wanted to know why the city wasn’t doing more to ban GKN and other facilities like it from their city.
Miles away in Boyle Heights, Lineage neighbors are also raising concerns about their schools, homes and playgrounds being so close to warehouses and other industrial facilities.
“We shouldn’t wait until after this disaster for Boyle Heights residents to know what was in the facility in their backyard,” said local City Council member Ysabel Jurado.
The frustration in both cities points to a hard truth. The people with the most immediate stake, both residents and city officials, may have the least power after a facility is already operating.
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove on May 22.
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Ethan Swope
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AP
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City officials can update their general plans and rezone property to keep facilities they consider a threat to public health and safety away from their residents.
But the Constitution limits how far that authority extends to facilities that are already there. Businesses have a general right to not be over-regulated out of existence, said David Waite, an attorney who specializes in local land use law.
“Where it gets tricky is we have existing uses — such as the GKN facility — that were duly permitted and duly authorized under the existing zoning on that property,” Waite said. “That rezoning effort cannot just simply bar that existing use without running afoul of constitutional takings arguments.”
Cities can try revoking a facility’s permit by proving it is a public nuisance. But that requires showing an ongoing threat, not a one-time event, Waite said.
Garden Grove and Boyle Heights are largely communities of color. Garden Grove ranks among the top 20% of the state’s most environmentally burdened communities, according to CalEnviroScreen; Boyle Heights is in the top 10%.
In Garden Grove, the city’s response has been cautious.
Garden Grove spokesperson Johnathan Garcia said the city is “exploring with its attorneys and engaging in the deliberative process regarding its options in consideration of its authority under the constitution, federal and state laws.”
“What is the point of bemoaning that you don’t have more local control if you don’t use the authority you do have in times like this?” Mai Nguyen Do, a research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, asked the council.
In Los Angeles, Jurado is calling for an investigation into what went wrong at the Lineage facility and introduced a package of motions, including calls for a public report on the cause of the fire and the facility’s compliance history, increased public transportation service in the area to reduce the amount of time residents are outdoors and funding for neighborhood councils to distribute air purifiers and other protective equipment.
“When a major industrial fire happens here, it’s not viewed as an isolated incident. Residents see it as part of a larger pattern,” Jurado said. “That’s why I have said from the beginning that this is not just a fire response issue. It’s a public health issue, it’s an accountability issue, and it’s an environmental justice issue.”
This story was produced in collaboration with Boyle Heights Beat, a founding community newsroom of The LA Local, a nonprofit covering Los Angeles communities.
Laura Anaya-Morga, Isaac Ceja, Claudia Koerner, Alejandra Molina, Isaiah Murtaugh, Jessica Perez, Steve Saldivar and Nathan Solis contributed to this story.
An abortion-rights activist holds a box of mifepristone pills as demonstrators from both anti-abortion and abortion-rights groups rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington on March 26, 2024.
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Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
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AP Photo
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Topline:
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Sunday requiring California community colleges with health centers to provide access to abortion medication starting in 2029. A previous law already requires public universities in California to offer abortion pills.
Why it matters: Through the Community College Student Right to Access Act, California will extend the reproductive health service already required for public universities in the state. No specific dollar amount is mentioned in the new law, only that the implementation of abortion medication at community colleges will rely on the Legislature appropriating funding. Community colleges were left out of Senate Bill 24, a law that was signed in 2019 and took effect in 2023, requiring University of California and California State University campuses to provide on-campus abortion medication at their health centers.
Implementing the law: While the law requires community colleges with health centers to start offering abortion medication, it does not require that it happens on campus, unlike the law for UC and Cal State campuses. Instead, community colleges have multiple options.
Read on... for more on the new law.
Community colleges in California will be required to offer abortion medication through campus health centers starting in 2029, under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday.
Through the Community College Student Right to Access Act, California will extend the reproductive health service already required for public universities in the state. No specific dollar amount is mentioned in the new law, only that the implementation of abortion medication at community colleges will rely on the Legislature appropriating funding.
Community colleges were left out of Senate Bill 24, a law that was signed in 2019 and took effect in 2023, requiring University of California and California State University campuses to provide on-campus abortion medication at their health centers. The new law, authored by Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, a Democrat from San Francisco, will require abortion pill access at community college campuses with existing health centers. Today, 92 out of 115 community college campuses have health centers.
“We are closing a critical gap by ensuring that community college students, one of the most diverse and economically vulnerable populations in our state, have the same access to care as their peers at four-year institutions,” Stefani said during the Assembly Health Committee hearing in April.
Students at UC, Cal State and community college campuses on the Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board supported the bill as part of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, a national advocacy and reproductive justice organization. The student board works to expand education outreach for reproductive healthcare across the state.
“The system is clearly moving towards the better,” said Angelica Campos, a San Francisco City College student and advisory board member, in response to the governor’s signature.
Implementing the law
Medication abortion can be taken 10 to 11 weeks after the day of a person’s last period. It accounted for more than half of all U.S. abortions in 2023, according to Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health.
Community college health services leaders were initially concerned about implementation due to the locally controlled model of the community college system. For this reason, community college health centers do not operate in the same way as university health centers.
While the law requires community colleges with health centers to start offering abortion medication, it does not require that it happens on campus, unlike the law for UC and Cal State campuses. Instead, community colleges have multiple options. They can prescribe the medication onsite via a licensed provider on staff or telehealth. The health center can utilize partnerships with an offsite provider who can prescribe abortion medication. Or, they can offer a “warm handoff” directing students to resources off campus, with follow-up care on their campus. Implementation cost will depend on the model community colleges choose to adopt.
Some community colleges, like El Camino College in Torrance, already have a “robust” healthcare system, according to Susan Nilles, faculty coordinator of El Camino College Student Health Services and a nurse practitioner. While the campus doesn’t currently offer abortion medication, Nilles said she does not anticipate challenges to comply with the law.
“We’re fortunate enough to where we can handle something like this. It’s nice to know that legally, we’re backed,” Nilles said.
College of the Redwoods, located in the Northern California coast city of Eureka, is one of the 23 community college campuses in the state without an on-campus health center. That campus relies on telehealth services, community partnerships and referrals to local healthcare organizations. Students can currently access medication abortion services through referrals from their telehealth provider, TimelyCare.
Stephanie Freyermuth, manager of Basic Needs, Housing Insecurity & Wellness at the college, said due to campus size, rural location and lack of medical community resources, she does not believe College of the Redwoods will adopt in-person services, including abortion medication, in the immediate future.
Dr. Rosafel A. Nogra, who serves as director of De Anza College's Student Health Services in Cupertino, said the law is an opportunity to expand their health center’s reproductive healthcare. The campus doesn’t offer abortion medication onsite currently. Instead, it offers services through the Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment Program provider that offers confidential reproductive health services at no cost to students who meet certain requirements.
Service costs may vary among colleges
The previous law requiring medication abortion services at public universities established the College Student Health Center Sexual and Reproductive Health Preparation Fund with private funds, which provided a $200,000 grant to each campus student health center to implement services. Community colleges were left out of that law because there was not enough capacity to extend funding to them all, Connie Leyva, a former Democratic state senator from Chino and the author of that bill, told CalMatters in a phone interview.
"Comfort is really important, and I think students sometimes feel more safe going to somewhere they're more familiar with, and oftentimes that's campus."
— Angelica Campos, San Francisco City College student and member of the Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board
The cost for abortion medication at UC and Cal State campuses varies. Some Cal State campuses give it to students for free. For UC students, medication costs are covered by the required on-campus UC Student Health Insurance Plan.
Cal Poly Humboldt's costs are free due to grant funding from the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, while Sonoma State covers the cost with mandatory student health fees and part of the implementation funding. Cal State San Marcos charges students $20 to $28 for the prescription.
Sonoma State listed their cost as $50 on their health center website but Tim Grace, director of the student health center, told CalMatters in an email it was free. After CalMatters asked about the cost, the college confirmed the medication is free and the website was updated.
The cost for abortion medication at community colleges will depend on how much the Legislature appropriates in the state budget for 2029 and may vary among campuses.
Bringing awareness to students
The law will require all campuses, both community colleges and universities, to inform students that abortion medication services are offered at their health centers. This was another component left out of the previous law.
Four years after she left office, Leyva said that she still receives calls from people frustrated by the lack of advertising about reproductive health services on campuses.
“That part of the bill is tangible and I think that can make a big difference for a lot of young women,” said Leyva, who is now the executive director for KVCR public media in San Bernardino.
The new law will require all campuses to post about medication abortion availability on their websites. Currently, all UC campuses have abortion medication listed on their websites. All Cal State campuses have it on their websites except Chico State, which does not explicitly mention abortion medication and instead highlights birth control and “comprehensive care tailored to specific gender-related health needs” for men and women. Chico State Media Relations Coordinator Michael Drummond said the school will comply with the awareness requirements outlined in the law.
Cal Poly Humboldt student Kaylee Luna works as the Sex, Health and Body Educator at the Women’s Resource Center at her university. Luna connects students to sexual health and reproductive resources on campus. While she was aware abortion medication was provided on campus, she didn’t know it was free until she researched it for her job. From her personal perspective, she feels abortion medication and reproductive resources aren't talked about enough.
“I don't think that students on campus are really aware of that. I mean, no one's really talking about it or, you know, making (social media) posts or flyers,” Luna said. “I feel like it is still a touchy subject for some folks but I don't think there's much awareness and I think there should be.”
Faith Chinnapong says in her work alongside college students as a California-based organizer for Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, she sees the knowledge gap across campuses.
“It's common to meet a student who is completely unaware of the services on her own campus," Chinnapong said. “When campuses especially are in these rural areas, it makes it more difficult for these young people to be able to go and seek these services, especially when they're working multiple jobs and taking care of their family.”
Students like Campos working on the Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board have heard student concerns first-hand. According to her, access can make all the difference, and going offsite can be a deterrent for some seeking care.
“Comfort is really important, and I think students sometimes feel more safe going to somewhere they're more familiar with, and oftentimes that's campus,” Campos said.
Moving forward
The new law won’t take effect for more than two years, and only upon appropriation of funds by the state Legislature.
“Even if we’re not gonna see the changes potentially overnight, it’s really good that we’re here doing the foundational work,” Campos said.
Now, groups like Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board will work towards bringing more awareness about the law to students and campus health centers.
“Students should have the option to whatever they choose to decide on how to care for their bodies and having that access would just make it all the better on campus,” said Vanetta Godinez, a San Diego City College student and board member.
Noelle Doblado and Skylar Stock are contributors with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
Vape components and products on display at Smoke and Gift Shop in San Francisco on June 25, 2019.
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Justin Sullivan
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Gov. Newsom signed a law prohibiting the sale of disposable vapes, a measure meant to prevent lithium battery fires at landfills and recycling centers.
Fines: Retailers and distributors found breaking the law would be fined $500 for the first violation and as much as $2,000 for subsequent violations.
The backstory: About 12 million disposable vapes are sold nationally every month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2016, a lithium battery started a fire in a San Mateo County recycling facility, costing it $8.5 million and driving up its annual insurance cost by almost $3 million. In addition to anti-smoking and healthcare groups, waste management authorities and environmental advocacy organizations supported the measure.
Read on... for more on the new law.
Throwaway vapes will be illegal in California under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed this week that’s aimed to reduce the risk of battery fires at landfills and recycling centers.
Retailers and distributors found breaking the law would be fined $500 for the first violation and as much as $2,000 for subsequent violations.
Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, a Thousand Oaks Democrat, introduced the bill to curb the proliferation of hazardous waste — particularly the highly flammable lithium batteries inside e-cigarettes, which can ignite at trash facilities and put workers at risk.
The batteries “cannot easily be removed, so they pose costly and hazardous safety issues at every point in the waste stream,” she said during a June hearing. “We do not throw away our phones or our laptops after one week of use, and we should not treat other lithium devices any differently?”
About 12 million disposable vapes are sold nationally every month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2016, a lithium battery started a fire in a San Mateo County recycling facility, costing it $8.5 million and driving up its annual insurance cost by almost $3 million. In addition to anti-smoking and healthcare groups, waste management authorities and environmental advocacy organizations supported the measure.
“The growing vape crisis is posing an existential threat to our waste and recycling system,” said Nick Lapis of Californians Against Waste, a co-sponsor of the bill. “Even if managed responsibly, this is a staggering waste of the finite natural resources that go into making them.”
Residents also end up absorbing the cost of the fires e-cigarettes cause in garbage facilities, through higher garbage rates and taxpayer-funded cleanups, Lapis said.
Law enforcement groups, business groups including the California Business Roundtable and the California Chamber Of Commerce and an industry group representing convenience stores and gas stations opposed the measure.
Referring to a June report from Zurich Insurance UK, an insurance company, that found that fires originating from vapes are still rising in the United Kingdom despite a 2025 ban on disposable vapes, Alessandra Brichetto of the California Fuels & Convenience Alliance said that disposable vapes that are already illegal are the source of most of the litter and fires the measure attempts to curb.
Banning the limited number of legal disposable devices would also push consumers to buy illicit vape products, said Brichetto.
“That’s the fundamental flaw in this bill,” she said. “It assumes eliminating the legal market eliminates the problem. It doesn’t.”
Most Republican lawmakers also voted against the bill. In her opposition to the bill, state Sen. Shannon Grove said that the true issue is burning batteries, like the 2025 fire at the Moss Landing battery storage facility, which “cause catastrophic health impacts to communities.”
“We need to start to make a real difference in the issue of climate change, contamination in our air,” said the Bakersfield Republican during an August floor vote. "So let's take on real challenges, colleagues, and not just banning vapes.”
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The Montana Ave. Art Walk goes down this Saturday in Santa Monica.
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Courtesy Montana Ave. Merchants Association
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In this edition:
David Lynch at Pace Gallery, the Pacific Air Show flies high in Huntington Beach, sword yoga, an all-Native American comedy show and more of the best things to do this week.
Highlights:
David Lynch helped to define modern-day Los Angeles through his influential films, his daily weather report on KCRW and his visual art in painting and photography. It’s that last part that’s explored at the Pace Gallery's new exhibit (their La Brea space is one of my favorite new galleries in the city), with a spotlight on the space between Lynch’s films, his photography and his paintings.
Whoosh! That’s the sound of dozens of planes flying high, doing Top Gun-style acrobatics overhead at the annual Pacific Air Show in Huntington Beach. Of course, it’s free to see the planes (they are in the sky), but snag a seat on the beach for direct vantage points, live commentary, access to food and drink venues and more.
Do you fantasize about being a swashbuckling hero in a swordfight? Or the maiden who gets rescued? It’s all as-you-wish in this romantasy-themed sword yoga class that blends elements of kung fu, yoga and sword fighting — props provided.
I yelped out loud twice this week; first while watching Jeopardy! — there was a clue comparing Shohei Ohtani to Babe Ruth (here for it!) — and the second while wistfully wishing I was in Dublin watching U2 serenade a crowd on Grafton Street when they launched into a tribute to the late Glen Hansard.
Closer to home, I checked out the new karaoke venue Mic Drop (in celebration of our Licorice Pizza host Lyndsey Parker’s birthday). Fun fact: The space used to be Larrabee Studios, which was originally owned by Carole King.
Here are the music picks from Lyndsey at Licorice Pizza. Don't forget that Saturday and Sunday there’s the big Neverender Festival at the Observatory Festival Grounds, featuring Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive, Sunny Day Real Estate, Pup, Thursday, Destroy Boys and many more.
Through Wednesday, Dec. 23 Pace Gallery 1201 S. La Brea Ave., Mid-Wilshire COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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David Lynch
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Pace Gallery
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David Lynch helped to define modern-day Los Angeles through his influential films, his daily weather report on KCRW and his visual art in painting and photography. It’s that last part that’s explored at the Pace Gallery's new exhibit (their La Brea space is one of my favorite new galleries in the city), with a spotlight on the space between Lynch’s films, his photography and his paintings. Lynch understood the darkness and the light of L.A. like none other — do a Mulholland Drive rewatch and then head here.
The Longest Table
Sunday, Oct. 4, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Pampas Ricas Blvd. (between Sunset and Chapala), Pacific Palisades COST: FREE; MORE INFO
The Palisades is making its way back after the fires, and a big part of that is the community spirit that has always fueled the beach cliff enclave. Join neighbors at The Longest Table, a free community potluck at some VERY long tables with chairs and tablecloths on Pampas Ricas Blvd. between Sunset and Chapala. Bring your favorite dish to share and pull up a chair.
Hola México Film Festival
Through Saturday, Oct. 3 Various locations COST: VARIES; MORE INFO
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Roberto Girault Facha
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Hola Mexico Film Festival
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The 18th annual Hola México Film Festival includes films from across Mexico, including a closing night screening of the new rom-com Amarte outside at Plaza de Culturas y Artes, featuring a performance by Spaghetti Cumbia. The full film lineup is here.
Montana Avenue Art Walk
Saturday, Oct. 3 Montana Ave. Between 6th St. and 17th St., Santa Monica COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Art pop-ups, interactive displays, food, music and more will take over the swish Montana Ave. shopping district in Santa Monica. It’s all part of Santa Monica's celebrations commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Historic Route 66.
Sword Yoga with Weapon Up
Monday, Oct. 5, 7 p.m. Clark Building 861 Valley Drive, Hermosa Beach COST: $45.67; MORE INFO
Do you fantasize about being a swashbuckling hero in a swordfight? Or the maiden who gets rescued? It’s all as-you-wish in this romantasy-themed sword yoga class that blends elements of kung fu, yoga and sword fighting — props provided.
America(!) the Beautiful(?)
Saturday, Oct. 3, 8 p.m. The Ford 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E.,Hollywood COST: FROM $35; MORE INFO
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Courtesy For Freedoms
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Art activism collective For Freedoms brings together a night of soul, jazz, hip hop and poetry exploring what being American means today (it’s complicated!). The night includes a DJ set by artist-storyteller Kai the Universe, Xochimilco recording artist and activist Xiuhtezcatl, curator Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and a performance by surrealist blues poet Aja Monet. This is one of six events developed by Joseph that aim to create “a shared story of who we are and who we are becoming.”
Joey Clift: We’ve Been Here the Whole Time
Saturday, Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Elysian Theater 1944 Riverside Drive, Silver Lake COST: $19.61; MORE INFO
Native American satirist Joey Clift is celebrating his new book — We’ve Been Here The Whole Time! A Not So Sacred Guide to All Things Native America — with an all-Native comedy show at the Elysian. The night features stand-up from Brian Bahe (Ghosts), Kristin Chirico (Buzzfeed), Jim Ruel (Showtime's American Indian Comedy Slam) and more — plus a live book talk between Clift and Julie Fiveash (The Froggy Librarian), moderated by Darrell Dennis (Just For Laughs). The show benefits ChapterHouse LA.
Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares
Thursday to Sunday, Oct. 1-4 The Wallis 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills COST: FROM $53; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Nobody Cares Is a Comedy
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Broadway star Laura Benanti is mixing her big voice with a stand-up comedy show — and it works. If you follow her on Instagram, you’re already familiar with her hot takes on perimenopause, accompanied by song. The Tony-winning Supergirl actress performs at the Wallis this week, followed by a short run at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa from Oct. 8-11.
Pacific Air Show
Friday to Sunday, Oct. 2-4 5252 Bolsa Ave., Huntington Beach COST: FROM $20; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Pacific Air Show
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Whoosh! That’s the sound of dozens of planes flying high, doing Top Gun-style acrobatics overhead at the annual Pacific Air Show in Huntington Beach. Of course, it’s free to see the planes (they are in the sky), but snag a seat on the beach for direct vantage points, live commentary, access to food and drink venues and more.
Residents examine a model of the proposed Wilshire/Crenshaw development during a Sept. 23 community open house.
(
Hanna Kang
/
The LA Local
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Topline:
An empty lot at the southwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Crenshaw Boulevard could soon transform into nearly 200 affordable apartments.
More details: Abode Communities, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, is developing the Koreatown-adjacent project in partnership with Metro, which owns the property. The development would include 194 income-restricted apartments and two manager units for households earning between 30% and 60% of area median income.
Why now: Metro acquired the property in the 1980s for potential future transportation projects. It was later used for construction staging for the D Line subway extension. The development is now part of Metro’s effort to build 10,000 homes on agency-owned property by 2031, including at least 5,000 income-restricted homes.
Read on... for more on the plans for this housing development.
An empty lot at the southwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Crenshaw Boulevard could soon transform into nearly 200 affordable apartments.
Abode Communities, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, is developing the Koreatown-adjacent project in partnership with Metro, which owns the property. The development would include 194 income-restricted apartments and two manager units for households earning between 30% and 60% of area median income.
Construction is projected to begin in 2028 and continue through 2030, with apartments expected to begin leasing that year, according to the project’s current timeline.
The project will include 69 one-bedroom, 76 two-bedroom and 49 three-bedroom apartments, along with a 6,200-square-foot flex-use transit plaza connecting two bus stops, a shared community room, landscaped open space, a community garden, play areas and bike facilities.
The proposed 196-unit affordable housing development at Wilshire Boulevard and Crenshaw Boulevard.
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Rendering courtesy of Koning Eizenberg Architecture
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Plans also call for two bus shelters and extended bus bays. Residents would park along Crenshaw Boulevard, with more than 100 parking spaces planned in an underground garage.
The site is located in Windsor Village, within the Park Mile Specific Plan area, just outside Koreatown.
Rick Kim, Koreatown Youth and Community Center’s director of economic development services, said their organization will provide its knowledge of the surrounding community as a development partner. KYCC also plans to connect future residents with its programs as a service provider.
“We have services for kids and family services around a wide range of social needs — after school programs, preschool programs, mental health resources and personal financial literacy, so we figured it just all made perfect sense,” he told The LA Local. “We are trying to figure out exactly how and what type of resources would most benefit the residents.”
Metro acquired the property in the 1980s for potential future transportation projects. It was later used for construction staging for the D Line subway extension. The development is now part of Metro’s effort to build 10,000 homes on agency-owned property by 2031, including at least 5,000 income-restricted homes.
Metro received eight proposals for the property in 2025 before selecting Abode Communities to develop the site.
The project is subject to planning rules for the Park Mile area and additional historic-preservation review because of its location in Windsor Village, a designated historic district.
The buildings would be taller along Wilshire Boulevard and gradually get lower toward the single-family homes to the south, according to Troy Fosler, a principal at Koning Eizenberg Architecture.
At a recent community open house, residents left design suggestions, including requests for bulky item pickup, pet washing stations, additional setbacks near neighboring single-family homes and limiting the Wilshire frontage to six stories.
Tracy Park lives about two blocks from the site, which is currently an empty lot. For her, the development would bring new activity to a property she has watched for years.
Park, 43, attended the September open house at the Korean Resource Center with her husband and their two children.
Tracy Park, 43, and her husband, Ben Bowes, 49, at the Sept. 23 community open house for the proposed Wilshire/Crenshaw development.
(
Hanna Kang
/
The LA Local
)
“I’ve been seeing that lot for a very, very long time,” she said. “I was really curious what was going to happen with it because it’s in such a prime location and it’s so central to our little community.”
“We want our children here to also see that there’s planning like this going on,” she added.
Park said she supports adding affordable housing to the area, which she described as densely populated. She sees a sharp contrast between the wealthier neighborhoods north of Wilshire and people experiencing homelessness along the boulevard.
“We see these rich, huge mansions right in Hancock Park, just north of Wilshire, and then walking along Wilshire every single night, we hear our homeless neighbors struggling or sort of asking for food or suffering in the heat,” she said.
Kim said more community meetings are planned before construction.
“We’ll continue to have more engagement sessions between now and the groundbreaking because we want everyone who lives and works in the area to be aware of the situation and have a say in how we can best move forward,” he said.
