Jacob Margolis
covers science, with a focus on environmental stories and disasters, as well as investigations and accountability.
Published August 1, 2023 7:26 AM
The Desert Museum Palo Verde doesn't provide as much shade as other trees, but it sure is beautiful.
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Topline:
L.A.’s urban forest was established during a time when water seemed plentiful and climate change was barely a footnote in scientific journals. Now, it’s being threatened.
The experiment: There’s an experimental plot at UC Riverside where trees are being tested for their resilience to hot and dry conditions so that we have a better idea of what might do well as climate change worsens.
The results: The tests are expected to continue another decade, but so far trees including the red push pistache, the desert willow and the honey mesquite appear to be doing well.
The failures: The Texas live oak’s not looking too good in scorching hot riverside, but is apparently doing well in test plots in the more temperate coastal areas.
On a recent triple digit summer day, I made my way out to a dusty field at UC Riverside, the research center of California’s citrus universe.
The UC Riverside Citrus Research Center is lined with row after row of citrus trees. It's also home to the Climate Ready Tree test plot.
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Row after row of tangerines, oranges and pomelos —11,000 in total — baked under a heat dome. Off in the distance, wildfire smoke passed in front of the San Bernardino Mountains, which had been covered in thick snow just a few months ago.
The dusty field is just one of the many plots that the university uses to trial new trees, grow budwood for distribution and come up with solutions for devastating problems like Huanglongbing, a bacteria driven greening disease that’s threatening trees world wide.
However, I was there to check out a block of 48 trees sitting along a fence that look nothing like the thousands of citrus around them. Inconsequential at first glance, you could easily imagine them along any road in Los Angeles, but that’s kind of the point. The trees are being tested to see if they can survive our hellishly hot and dry future driven by climate change.
Where, how and why these trees are being tested
There are 12 different types of trees and four of each at the UC Riverside test plot.
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It’s a collection of 12 different species — four of each — pulled from around the world and being run through the gauntlet by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Planted seven years ago, they were given supplemental water to help them get established, but since then they’ve had to survive on their own through record-setting heatwaves and drought years.
The Texas, or escarpment, live oak was struggling and nearly dead at the UC Riverside plot. It's reportedly doing better at a plot along the coast.
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The trees are being assessed for a number of factors including attractiveness, whether they provide good shade, how much work it takes to maintain them (less pruning means lower maintenance costs) and whether they can survive without much water.
The experiment is expected to run for at least 20 years, but visit the plot today and it's clear which trees are thriving. Surprisingly, just because a tree comes from a hot climate doesn’t mean it’s going to do well.
“What kind of choices are we going to be able to make in the future?,” said Natalie van Doorn, U.S. Forest Service scientist and co-creator of the experiment known as Climate Ready Trees. “Are we going to have enough water to make that decision that yes we want to keep watering our trees?”
If not, we’ve got to have viable candidates that we know will thrive and provide critical tree cover, which for residents, can be a matter of life or death.
Why L.A.'s hundreds of thousands of trees matter so much
Trees are an absolutely critical part of our infrastructure. They have a marked impact on human and ecosystem health.
The red push pistache had one of the densest canopies at the test site.
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Trees can:
Help drop temperatures in urban areas by as much as 45 degrees
Reduce energy use
Suppress noise
Improve air quality
Sequester water
Help provide homes to all sorts of creatures, all according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Which is why any sort of major threat to the more than 700,000 street trees planted across the city of L.A. is of major concern, and that's what climate change is doing.
Much of our urban forest, as it’s known, was planted over the past 100 years as the region developed. As people migrated from other parts of the country they often wanted to plant the trees that they were familiar with, though that could mean species from wetter climates.
The sweetgum tree, whose spiky seed balls you’ve likely stepped on while walking through a park, is a decent example. It’s originally from the eastern area of the country and doesn’t love drought conditions, thriving in the moist soils of the Mississippi Delta. More than 25,000 of them are planted across the city, according to a tree inventory.
A red pistache
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The flowers of the desert willow are a beautiful pink.
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“I think in general, many of urban forests contain what I would call legacy plantings that occurred after World War II, when people were building homes and moving in and planting trees. And so those trees now, maybe 40, 50, 60 years old, they were planted when water was abundant. They've grown accustomed to having water and of course they're not necessarily as well adapted to hot dry conditions,“ said Greg McPherson, retired research scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, and one of the creators of the experiment.
We were long able to satisfy a broad range of moisture requirements because we imported and dumped all but unlimited gallons of water all over our landscapes, often in an effort to keep our lawns green.
That is until this past decade, when drought and water cuts became the norm.
What happens to water-stressed trees
The flowers of the maverick mesquite.
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The flowers of the desert museum palo verde.
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Water-stressed trees are more susceptible to pathogens and insect attacks, and are, predictably, more likely to die than healthy happy trees. One only need look to the Sierra Nevada to understand how bad things can get. More than 100 million trees have died over the past decade in part due to drought stress.
There are no clear mortality estimates for LA’s urban forest over the past decade, so we can’t say whether extreme conditions have led to more tree deaths in our area. And unless we had a widespread, granular tree tracking program, it’s going to be tough to determine why an individual tree is lost.
There are hundreds of thousands of street trees across the city, and urban trees face all sorts of challenges trees in our forests don’t. Yard tools can damage them and lead to the introduction of disease, poor pruning practices can lessen tree resilience and sometimes people just cut them down because they want to redo their yards.
That said, conditions are becoming more challenging for our urban forest and we could be on the path to greater die off as a result. Longer, more sustained droughts are becoming more common, meaning less water for irrigated landscapes, and more extreme heat days mean trees require more water to survive.
While this palo blanco, originally from northern Mexico, was looking OK, another one was struggling substantially.
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Odds are we haven’t seen the worst of it. Even though we’ve had a handful of water cuts over the past decade, lawns are still green and trees still often getting supplemental irrigation.
Given how bad cuts got before this wet year, it’s easy to imagine a point where outdoor watering is limited to the point that lawns start to finally die off and the trees that rely on that same supplemental water start to die too.
“The roots of those trees are near the surface because turf is irrigated in frequent, but not heavy doses. So the water stays in the upper surface of the soil and that’s where the roots are,” McPherson said.
Depending on the variety, trees can take decades to become established and provide meaningful shade. If we’re planting something today with the expectation that it’ll survive in the lawn-less future we’re charging towards, it’s important to find species that can thrive on minimal supplemental inputs.
Our need for more resilient trees
McPherson’s efforts to find what the experiment is calling ‘climate-ready trees’ began about two decades ago, when he recognized what the existential threat of warming trends could mean for our urban forests.
The Desert Museum Palo Verde doesn't provide as much shade as the other trees, but it's nice to look at and likes hot weather.
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“I began in 1999 when I got a 18 wheeler full of desert trees from Arizona shipped up and planted them all around Sacramento and Davis, and really started evaluating their performance,” said McPherson.
Some, like the Palo Verde, even though it can thrive in hot climates, struggled.
“It just grew so fast that the top would outgrow the roots and it would blow over in our wind,” he said. “Some of them worked, some didn’t. But that led to the idea that we need to evaluate more species”
The rosewood tree had a sizable canopy that provided good shade.
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In 2015 he and van Doorn got a grant to begin trialing trees at a test site at UC Davis, and eventually along the coast in Irvine, and in the scorching hot environment of Riverside.
So which trees have been thriving?
Though the experiment still has a number of years to go, I made the trip to the Riverside plot because out of the two Southern California plots, I wanted to see which trees were doing the best in the most extreme conditions.
Many were thriving, but three stood out because they looked healthy, cast wonderful shade and were quite attractive. They’d be wonderful along any street.
The Red Push Pistache was the first to catch my eye in part because it had one of the thickest canopies and beautiful leaves. It’s originally from Arizona.
The red push pistache seemed to be thriving.
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The canopy of the rosewood, originally from India, rivaled the pistache and the Desert Willow, native to the southwest, put out gorgeous pink flowers.
A rosewood tree.
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The desert willow was thriving at the test plot.
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The Honey Mesquite, also native to the southwest, was covered in bright yellow flowers and teaming with so many bees that the whole tree appeared to vibrate.
The honey mesquite can be invasive in some environments.
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The ghost gum, a type of eucalyptus from Australia was also well established. However, because of their oil content eucalyptus tend to burn violently in wildfires. Maybe not the best choice for fire prone locations. And the tecate cypress is native to the region and looks like it could be trimmed into a hedge. It's struggled a bit at the plot.
The ghost gum is a type of eucalyptus from Australia.
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The Tecate Cypress is native to Southern California and could work well in a hedge.
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Then there were the ones that appeared to need more maintenance, like the Palo Verde, which I see planted in drought tolerant landscapes across the area. It can thrive in hot conditions, and with a bit of pruning it might’ve looked better. Problem is it didn’t provide much shade.
And, to me, the Texas Live Oak looked to be an outright failure, as they were close to dead. It's reportedly done better in cooler conditions at the team's other test site in Irvine.
A desert museum Palo Verde
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A live oak
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Go see the trees yourself
Each tree in the private research plot has a counterpart located in parks across the region, in an effort to help determine how they do when they’re not babied.
“If you were looking at reference versus park sites, the reference sites are doing better as far as survivorship and growth. In the park sites there just is a lot of variability,” said van Doorn.
Warnings and advisories: Extreme Heat Watch Sunday morning through Tuesday evening in Coachella Valley
What to expect: Some morning clouds followed by a sunny afternoon. Temperatures to reach the mid-80s for some areas and up into the triple digits in some parts of Coachella Valley.
Read on ... for where it's going to be the warmest today.
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Sunny, partly cloudy some areas
Beaches: Mid-60s to low 70s
Mountains: Mid-70s to low 80s
Inland: 82 to 89 degrees
Warnings and advisories: Extreme Heat Watch Sunday morning through Tuesday evening in Coachella Valley
Warm temperatures are on tap again today as we head into a toasty weekend with temps set to reach the triple digits in desert communities.
L.A. County beaches will see daytime highs from 67 to 72 degrees. It'll be between 69 and 76 degrees along the Orange County coast. More inland areas like downtown L.A., Hollywood and Anaheim will see temperatures from 75 to 81 degrees.
Meanwhile, the valleys will see varying temperatures. Areas closer to the coast will see highs from 78 to 83 degrees, and further inland, temps will stay in the upper 80s, up to 89 degrees.
Meanwhile in Coachella Valley, temperatures will rise to 101 to 106 degrees.
Looking ahead to the weekend, the valleys will reach the 90s for Mother's Day, up to 100 degrees in the Antelope Valley too. Come Sunday, an Extreme Heat Warning kicks in for the Coachella Valley, where temperatures will stay in the low 100s, with up to 109 degrees possible. Make sure to stay hydrated!
Before today, the D Line ran until Koreatown, largely parallel to the B Line.
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Topline:
The first phase of the Los Angeles Metro D Line extension opens today, with the public able to start riding to the three new stations at 12:30 p.m.
The new stops: The three new Wilshire Boulevard stops are located at La Brea and Fairfax avenues and La Cienega Boulevard. The first phase of the extension will stretch D Line service from downtown L.A. to Beverly Hills. Before today, the D Line ran until Koreatown, largely parallel to the B Line.
Free fares: The entire Metro system — including bus, rail, bike share and Metro Micro — will be free starting Friday morning through early morning Monday. If you’re using Metro Bike Share, make sure to input the code 050826.
Celebrations at the new stations: KCRW DJs and food vendors will be at each of the new stations and the Western Avenue station in Koreatown. Throughout May and June, there will be activations at the new stations, including salsa dancing and basket weaving classes.
More to come: Two additional extensions of the D Line, currently forecast to open in 2027, will add four additional stations through Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood Village.
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Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published May 8, 2026 5:00 AM
Jessica Wang (center) stands with her mother, Peggy (left), and father, Willie Wang (right), at the Gu Grocery storefront in Chinatown.
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Topline:
Jessica Wang has been waiting nearly two years for the City of Los Angeles to approve permits for Gu Grocery, a Chinese-Taiwanese grocery store and community hub in Chinatown.
Why it matters: In a neighborhood where half of residents are low-income and one in five are seniors 65 and older, Chinatown has lost multiple grocery stores in recent years — including its last two full-service markets in 2019 and Yue Wa Market in fall 2024. Gu Grocery would be the first to offer EBT-eligible prepared foods, filling a critical gap for seniors and low-income families who rely on walking to shop.
Why now: Wang launched a GoFundMe campaign in mid-April after spending more than $200,000 on a buildout, permits and rent on a space she can't operate. The community response was swift — 134 donors raised nearly $12,000 in two weeks — but money can't solve her core problem: she's still waiting for at least seven final city inspections with no opening date in sight.
What's next: Wang hopes to open by Father's Day — her general contractor dad's birthday — with a phased approach: prepared foods only through a takeout window, then slowly stocking shelves as revenue allows.
Jessica Wang has experienced delay after delay for nearly two years as she tried to open Gu Grocery in Chinatown. Her father, a contractor, had told her it would take nine months.
Instead, she says, there have been issues with city permits, inspectors, inaccurate information, illness and wayward appliance installers which have pushed things back.
The community didn't take nearly as long. In two weeks, 134 donors contributed nearly $12,000 to keep Wang afloat. But money can't solve her problem — she still needs the city's approval to open the doors.
Wang signed the lease at the end of 2023, envisioning a Chinese-Taiwanese grocery store and community hub where seniors could use EBT to buy fresh tofu, where kids from nearby elementary schools could stop by after class, and where her mother, Peggy, could teach neighbors how to make their grandmother's pickles.
Now, more than two years into a five-year lease, and nearly out of money after paying for permits, buildout, and rent on a space she can't operate, Wang launched a GoFundMe campaign a few weeks ago. The response showed the community believes in Gu Grocery and wants to see it succeed. But she's still waiting for at least seven final inspections by the city before she can open.
The story of Gu
The name "Gu" carries layered meaning: the character 菇 means "mushroom" in Chinese, a traditional symbol of prosperity, while the sound "gu" also means "auntie" in Mandarin — honoring intergenerational caretakers. Wang's mission for the space is to provide a place to purchase Chinese-Taiwanese pantry staples and prepared foods, and to host community workshops.
The communal aspect is central to Wang's vision of social entrepreneurship, not solely focused on profit. In addition to workshops, Gu Grocery plans to accept EBT and offer senior discounts for those on fixed incomes.
"I wanted a space where I could share knowledge and share culture and also just learn from the community," Wang said.
Ultimately, she hopes to convert the store into a worker-owned co-op.
Wang grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and worked as a pastry chef at San Francisco's State Bird Provisions before a pre-diabetic diagnosis at age 29 prompted her return to L.A. She began volunteering with API Forward Movement, a local nonprofit focused on health equity and food access in AAPI communities, and saw firsthand the need during COVID food distributions at L.A. State Historic Park.
Chinatown had lost its last two full-service grocery stores in 2019.Last fall, the neighborhood lost another: Yue Wa Market, a small produce shop that had served residents for 18 years before rising rent and pandemic losses forced it to shut its doors. The closures hit especially hard in a neighborhood where, according to American Community Survey data, half of the residents are low-income and one in five are seniors 65 and older — many of whom rely on walking to shop.
Jessica Wang (center, in black) and her mother Peggy (left, in white and red) smile while serving customers at a farmer's market pop-up for Gu Grocery.
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Permitting woes
Much of bringing Gu Grocery to reality has been made possible by support from Wang's friends and family. Her father, Willie Wang, serves as her general contractor. When plans were submitted to the city in March 2024, he told her the buildout would take nine months if everything went smoothly.
Instead, she’s experienced delays from all directions, from slow bureaucracy, to issues with contractors. A hood installation contractor rescheduled multiple times, she said, then doubled his price the day before a rescheduled appointment. Drywall contractors said their workers had been detained by ICE and never returned.
The process hasn't just taken time — it's been expensive. One inspector approved a makeup air unit for the kitchen hood system, she said, only to have a senior inspector overturn the decision and order a complete replacement at nearly $6,000. Her father paid out of pocket — even as he was recovering from March surgery to remove a cancerous lung growth.
"Who would have thought that something an inspector asked us to do would be completely overturned by another inspector?" Wang said. "That's just so wild."
LAist has reached out to the city's Department of Building Services for comment but has not heard back.
The financial toll
Wang estimates she's spent more than $200,000 so far — more than $100,000 on buildout and permits alone, plus a full year of rent on a space she can't operate, equipment, insurance and taxes.
She draws no income from Gu Grocery. To cover personal expenses, she teaches fermentation workshops through her other business, Picklepickle, though that work has been inconsistent lately. Her health insurance doubled this year. The GoFundMe money, she said, is a "rainy day fund" in case she needs it to pay future bills.
The financial strain has touched her entire family. Her mother, who received a small inheritance when Wang's grandparents died, got scammed late last year trying to grow that money to help with the store. Targeted through online ads, she was convinced by an "investment tutor" based in Taiwan to hand over cash to a stranger in a parking lot.
"I didn't realize this would become part of what it's like to have aging parents in the age of technology," Wang said. "But it's scary how they get targeted."
Black sesame noodles from Gu Grocery's popup menu. Wang uses black sesame for higher nutritional value and plans to offer the dish as one of the prepared foods when the store opens.
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Rice balls with house pickles from a Gu Grocery pop-up. Wang has been teaching fermentation and pickling workshops for 15 years and plans to serve pickles alongside all meals when the store opens.
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Addressing Chinatown's needs
Once Gu Grocery opens, it won't operate as a full-service market — there won't be a meat counter. Instead, it will function like a corner store with a focus on healthy prepared foods: butter mochi, sesame noodles and daily congee.
"Something that Chinatown has never had was prepared food that is EBT eligible," Wang said.
In 2020, Wang surveyed seniors through API Forward Movement's Tai Chi fitness program to understand their shopping habits following the closure of local grocery stores. Many told her they now ride the bus to Super King on San Fernando Road in Glendale, nearly 5 miles away, for produce deals, or rely on family members to drive them to 99 Ranch in Alhambra. Some grow their own food in gardening plots, Wang said, "but they can't produce everything they need."
Willie Wang (left), Jessica Wang (center), and Peggy Wang (right) pose inside Gu Grocery. The signs display the store's values in both English and Chinese — Willie's reads "body health" and Peggy's reads "mushroom auntie," playing on the dual meaning of "gu."
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The community response
When she launched her Go FundMe in mid-April, she was overwhelmed by the response. "I have a hard time asking for help," said Wang. "So actually receiving help, it's very moving."
The donors range from former pop-up customers and friends to a range of assorted well-wishers — a musician who had her food once at an event, fellow food business owners, farmer's market regulars and even her insurance agent.
"The generosity is beyond my expectations," Wang said. "Some of these people only had my food once. People are showing their support truly in a personal way and really believing in the vision."
The GoFundMe money helps Wang stay "afloat for now," but she's had to rethink her opening strategy. She won't be able to afford full inventory when she opens. Instead, she plans a phased opening: prepared foods only, served through a takeout window, then using revenue to slowly stock shelves with the retail items she originally envisioned.
The community raised more than $14,000 in three weeks. After nearly two years of delays, Wang is still waiting for permits. She hopes to open by Father's Day — her general contractor dad's birthday. But she's learned to expect the unexpected.
Many donors sent her direct messages saying simply: "We got this, Jess, we got you."
Libby Rainey
has been tracking how L.A. is prepping for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Published May 7, 2026 4:06 PM
Statues by artist Robert Graham stand outside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
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Topline:
Olympics organizers have released a first look at plans for a celebration of arts and culture across Los Angeles during the summer of 2028.
What will it include? A poster series by local artists, film screenings across the city and a calendar of events including live performances and art installations at different institutions. The city of L.A. will also put on its own events, including culture festivals in each council district, in the lead up to the Games.
The backstory: Arts programming is a long Olympic tradition — starting in 1912 as artistic competitions and eventually evolving into festivals. The 1984 Olympic arts festival in Los Angeles was hailed as a huge success that changed the city's art scene.
Read on … for more on what's planned for 2028.
Olympics organizers have released a first look at plans for a celebration of arts and culture across Los Angeles during the summer of 2028.
Known as the "Cultural Olympiad," the programming will include a poster series by local artists, film screenings across the city and a calendar of events, including live performances and art installations at different institutions. The city of L.A. will also put on its own events, including culture festivals in each council district, in the lead up to the Games.
Arts programming is a long Olympic tradition — starting in 1912 as artistic competitions and eventually evolving into festivals.
When Los Angeles last hosted the Olympics in 1984, the city hosted a weeks-long spectacle that included more than 400 performances and launched with the unveiling of a sculpture by artist Robert Graham topped with two statues depicting the naked female and male form, each without a head. The statues still stand at the entrance to the Coliseum today.
A closeup of the statues by artist Robert Graham atop the Olympic Gateway Arch at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
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The 1984 festival is credited with transforming the city's arts scene. After the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion put on opera productions in the summer of 1984, local patrons launched L.A. Opera, which had its first season in 1986.
“That moment — when this city chose to present itself to the world not only through sport but through the full force of its artistic imagination — gave rise to an institution that has, for four decades, reflected the scale, diversity and ambition of Los Angeles itself," Christopher Koelsch, president of L.A. Opera said in a statement provided by LA28.
L.A.'s artistic contributions in 1984 in turn transformed the Olympics. John Williams composed the "Olympic Fanfare" for the Opening Ceremony, which is still associated with the Games today.
The legacy of 1984 means expectations for the 2028 Olympiad are high — but most details on what's in store are still to come. Some in Los Angeles have criticized LA28, saying that planning is lagging.
Another big question is funding. The city of L.A.'s initial plan for cultural programming estimates a budget of $15 million, which would cover local festivals in each council district. But the city also painted a vision for what it could do with $45 million in funding, including a seven-week arts festival across the city.
Documents from the city's Department of Cultural Affairs says full funding will depend on external partnerships, including LA28. LA28 told LAist that the Cultural Olympiad will be funded through private fundraising but didn't provide further details.
The first event associated with the Olympiad will launch in July 2027, when winners of the local artist poster contest are announced.
