The Brief

A crowd clad in green jerseys took over the street in Boyle Heights last Thursday to watch Mexico battle it out with South Korea in a World Cup showdown made for Los Angeles.

The block party on 1st Street at Mariachi Plaza watched Mexico win its second game of the tournament 1-0. But nearby, a fire that sparked at a massive frozen warehouse run by Lineage Logistics was in its second day of burning.

A week later, as Mexico prepares to play its third match against the Czech Republic Wednesday night, the fire's not fully out. Questions about air quality and public health in the communities closest to the warehouse remain. The disaster is complicating an otherwise jovial time in Boyle Heights, a predominantly Latino neighborhood that's gone all out for the World Cup.

"The community loves the World Cup," said Anthony Correa, who works at the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory on Cesar Chavez Boulevard. "So it's really awkward to have this fire because everyone wants to be outside, the safest thing in the immediate area is to be inside."

Boyle Heights has hosted a World Cup watch parties to celebrate Mexico as it plays in the global tournament.

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Last week's block party seems to have avoided the worst of the smoke, despite taking place just a day after authorities issued a shelter-in-place order for the area around the warehouse. Alissa Walker, who writes the Torched newsletter about L.A.'s mega-events, attended and described a "fine" air quality index and no smoky smell.

"But on Friday, the shelter in place order was reissued," Walker wrote. "The ominous cloud was back."

The on-again, off-again smoke and bad air carried into this week. On Tuesday morning, Cesar Chavez and 1st Streets were quiet and hazy. Street vendors and storefronts were selling Mexico jerseys.

Outside Boyle Heights City Hall, residents lined up for assistance at tents set up by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado's office. That morning, Jurado had addressed the City Council, saying her constituents needed more information to determine what outdoor activities were safe. Experts say air quality indexes measure the concentration of particulate matter in the air, but not what exact toxins are in them.

" They deserve to know what risks remain, and they deserve clear information they can understand and use to make decisions for themselves and their families," she said.

At Brooklyn Avenue Pizza in Boyle Heights, bartender Rodrigo Luna said the restaurant had been forced to close its outdoor area due to the smoke. The empty patio on the sidewalk was draped in national flags from around the world, but had no tables or chairs. Still, he said, there was a big crowd inside for the Mexico game last week.

Crowds packed a block party near Mariachi Plaza to watch Mexico defeat South Korea one day after the fire sparked.

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Luna lives in Boyle Heights, and says he's had itchy eyes and trouble breathing since the fire broke out.

" Hopefully they stop it pretty soon," he said from behind the bar.

Green jerseys have taken over some streets in Boyle Heights as Mexico plays in the 2026 World Cup.

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Some groups including the Boyle Heights Chamber of Commerce, which organized last week's World Cup watch party, have expressed concern that the fire and the air quality issues it produces are disrupting small businesses in the neighborhood.

"Small businesses are struggling due to the Lineage fire, many of them are closing and they're worried about how they're going to pay their bills this month," said Rudy Espinoza, the president of the community organization Inclusive Action, in an Instagram video promoting a fund for those businesses and vendors who might be losing out during the fire.

At Casa Fina, a Mexican restaurant near Mariachi Plaza, just a few customers were seated for lunch on Tuesday.

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At Casa Fina, a Mexican restaurant near Mariachi Plaza, just a few customers were seated for lunch on Tuesday. Server Mario Mosqueda gestured to the empty tables.

" This day is very, very slow," he said.

He wasn't sure if the fire had anything to do with it, but said he hoped it would be a packed house for Mexico's match on Wednesday evening. When Mexico played South Korea, he said he netted the most in tips he'd made all year — nearly $600.

Mosqueda said he wasn't much of a soccer fan. But it's the World Cup. So he was wearing his Mexico jersey anyway, with a smile.

Two icons of Los Angeles are coming together in Alhambra for a food pop-up this weekend — each has carved a unique place in Asian America.

On one end you have Kogi, bringing its Korean-Mexican fusion kimchi taco and blackjack quesadilla — and its food truck — to the collab. On the other is Sam Woo, old-school purveyor of Cantonese taste lending its char siu and roast duck from its OG location on Valley between 5th and 6th.

Together, they represent two generations of immigrant entrepreneurship that reshaped how L.A. eats.

“The best way to do it would be to come together like Voltron, but be ourselves separately,” said Roy Choi, chef and founder of Kogi BBQ. “So don't do anything to your roast duck. Don't do anything to your char siu. Don't do anything to our blackjack quesadilla. Don't do anything to our taco.”

The mash-up features two items – roast duck kimchi taco, and char siu blackjack quesadilla. The best-of-both-worlds concept extends to where the food will be served.

“ My whole vision was for Kogi truck to be parked in front,” said Karen Cheung, daughter of Sam Woo’s original owner.

Kogi x Sam Woo

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From Chinatown to everywhere

Restaurants come and go, but Sam Woo has remained the byword for Cantonese barbeque in Los Angeles and beyond for more than four decades.

On Christmas Day 1979, new immigrant Peter Cheung opened a stand serving take-out roast duck, char siu and the likes in Chinatown, bringing the family craft from Hong Kong to L.A.

“At the time, it was just my dad, my brother, and me,” Cheung, 67, said in Cantonese. “We hired a cashier and a meat cutter, that was about it.”

Cheung also brought over the Chinese name from the family business back home. It means “three harmonies” – among earth, heaven, and man. The English name Sam Woo was chosen because it sounded like the Cantonese words.

Sam Woo in Alhambra.

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In the late 1970s, his clientele was mainly Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants in the then-bustling enclave, with a small handful of customers coming in from Monterey Park.

Back then, he said, “All the restaurants were concentrated in Chinatown.”

As the Chinese-speaking diaspora expanded to the San Gabriel Valley, so too did Sam Woo. Cheung opened a Monterey Park location in 1981 (now closed) and the Alhambra outpost on Valley Boulevard in 1983.

Today, Cheung and his family own and operate four locations across the L.A. region — the oldest in Alhambra.

That little storefront served a loyal legion of eaters, including my family, who moved to Alhambra in the early 1990s — and a kid named Roy Choi.

Roy Choi, left, hands out food from his Kogi BBQ truck in Maywood in January 2024.

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Allen J. Schaben

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When Roy met Sam

Choi was hanging out in Alhambra and nearby 626 cities during high school and into college, at all-night Asian cafes and their parking lots where a subculture centered around modified Japanese cars took root.

“It was the cafes and the barbecue spots back in Alhambra that were early on in having a kind of a meeting ground for young Asian youth,” Choi said. “It might have been the birth of the AZN movement, you know what I'm saying?”

One place he always ate at was Sam Woo.

Strip mall signs in San Gabriel point to a majority Asian population in this part of Los Angeles.

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“One of the top five things to eat for me is roast duck or roast pork over rice with the sauce that drips down into it,” he said. “That's where I started really eating barbecue  — and this is before I was a chef.”

Forty-three years since it opened, the hole-in-the-wall in Alhambra has not been changed — inside or out. Karen remembers hanging out at the shop with her sisters growing up, filling small containers of sauces while their parents ran the operation.

“ When you walk into Alhambra, you feel like you are going back in time,” Karen said. “That's what people remember Sam Woo as, like the Mahjong clock, or the vintage menu that you do not ever see anymore. That's people's memories.”

Chef Roy Choi cooking inside Sam Woo in Alhambra.

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Courtesy Kogi BBQ

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Sam Woo in Alhambra.

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How the collab fell into place

Choi wrote about eating at Sam Woo among other culinary adventures in L.A. earlier this year for the Financial Times.

Karen, one of Peter’s four children, read the story – and fired off a DM.

“I was like, ‘We're so honored. Out of all the restaurants you could talk about, you mentioned Sam Woo,” Karen said. “‘Let's do a collab.’”

Six months of planning later, with hundreds of pounds of char siu ready to be cooked, the crossover is happening.

“The inspiration is how delicious their food is [and] the longevity of their restaurant,” Choi said, whose Kogi has redefined fusion cooking and the food truck experience for 19 years and counting.

“We wanna bring something really special to Alhambra," he said. "Just a moment that you could say, ‘I was there.’”

The U.S. is easing its restrictions on Iran's World Cup team, allowing the squad to travel into the country two days before its next match, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.

The team will still be required to leave after Friday's match in Seattle, a department spokesperson said. A spokesperson for the Iran Football Federation confirmed that the team will leave its base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, on Wednesday for Seattle.

"This was planned on our end," Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, told The Associated Press. "We were going to look at how the first two movements went, and if they went smoothly, we would extend the extra day in light of the longer travel time."

The policy change was first reported by NBC News and comes as officials from both countries negotiate over how to end the war in Iran.

Iran's squad has complained about the travel restrictions levied on the team, and the challenges it has faced since the outbreak of war. Iran in March sought to move its group-stage matches to Mexico, with which it has diplomatic ties. Its request to move its base camp from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana was granted two weeks before the team's arrival. Several team officials and members of the support staff have been barred from traveling into the U.S. with the team.

For the first two matches, near Los Angeles, the team was not permitted to travel until the day before. Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei repeatedly said that restriction disadvantaged the team, especially when it had less than 24 hours on the ground before its noon match Sunday.

"Right now we need recovery more than anything," Ghalenoei said through an interpreter after the 0-0 draw against Belgium. "The conditions have been extremely hard for us."

It's not uncommon for teams to travel a day before the match, and it's in line with FIFA regulations, which state that "each team shall travel from its team base camp to the match venue one day before matchday (MD‑1) and in exceptional cases on MD‑2, and shall return to their team base camp after the match (on MD/MD+1)."

But Iran had asked for more time to acclimate to host cities and recover after matches, especially for the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) trip to Seattle. The team is scheduled to train on Thursday at the University of Washington.

"We don't ask for much. We just ask for the same procedure as for all the other 47 teams," Iran captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh said Sunday. "Hopefully we can bring everyone who is involved and help us with us."

The Iran team has also said it experienced difficulties entering and exiting the U.S. each time it made the 127-mile (204-kilometer) flight between Tijuana and Los Angeles. The typically short trip took five hours the day before its first match against New Zealand, team captain Mehdi Taremi said.

Hours before Sunday's match against Belgium, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox News the Iranians had "tried to get somebody in yesterday" who had direct ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. In a statement, the soccer federation vociferously pushed back, calling the claim "an outright and undeniable lie."

Iran's players and coaches have mostly steered clear of outright commentary on the war. "We are here for football, not politics," Ghalenoei said Saturday. But the team hasn't shied from highlighting the victims of a deadly missile strike on an elementary school at the start of the war in the Middle East, likely launched by the U.S.

Players wore gold-colored pins with the number "168" on their jackets when they disembarked in Mexico on June 7, referencing the number of people killed in the attack, mostly young girls. They left a goodbye note in the locker room at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, after their match Sunday, calling for peace "among all nations" and with the hashtags #168 and #minab, the school's name.

At Iran's last training session Tuesday in Tijuana before departing for Seattle, four small flags had been stuck into the turf, each bearing the number 168.

It's unclear whether Iran's upcoming opponent, Egypt, will also be allowed to arrive in Seattle two days early. After its 3-1 victory against New Zealand in Vancouver Sunday, Egypt asked to fly directly to Seattle. FIFA denied that request, citing a lack of security resources to accommodate the last-minute demand. Egypt returned to its base camp in Spokane, Washington, a 45-minute flight from Seattle.

Egypt's national team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Traffic around Dodger Stadium is notorious.

During 81 home games a season, lines of cars inching toward the stadium lead to gridlock on local streets in Chinatown, Solano Canyon, Echo Park and Lincoln Heights. The problem is a simple numbers game — the reigning World Series champs attract an average 50,000 fans per game for a parking lot with 16,000 spaces. Most fans drive, as the 300-foot climb into Chavez Ravine from nearby streets makes walking or biking impractical. 

Fans and residents can now weigh in on a survey launched by the L.A. Department of Transportation (LADOT) to ease stadium traffic and identify ways for fans to get to the stadium without their cars. 

The survey features questions about fans’ transportation patterns and preferences, where they commute to games from around L.A. and Southern California, feelings about personal safety on the way to the stadium, and comfort using different modes of transportation. Residents who complete the survey will be entered for a chance to win a $50 gift card. 

Residents can also provide feedback in person at three events through mid-July: 

• Kick It in the Park at Echo Park Lake on June 26 from 11 a.m. to  8 p.m.
• Park-to-Park Open Streets Community Event at Wilshire Boulevard between MacArthur Park and Lafayette Park on July 10 from noon–5 p.m. 
• Community Open House at the LA Lotus Festival at Echo Park Lake on July 11 from 4–7 p.m. 

The department will publish its recommendations to ease traffic in the fall. The effort dovetails with nearby transit and pedestrian improvements as part of the Sunset Boulevard and Cesar Chavez Safety and Mobility Project. 

Why now — and where the gondola project stands

The transportation study is a direct response to the proposed 1.2-mile gondola system, officially called The Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LA ART). Spearheaded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, the project was pitched as a way to reduce traffic congestion and offer free rides to ticket holders. District 1 Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez introduced a motion in 2024 directing the city to pause any action advancing the gondola project until the department completed an assessment of traffic around Dodger Stadium. The City Council approved the motion with an 11–2 vote. 

In November 2025, the L.A. City Council voted 12–1 to formally oppose the project, a motion that went unsigned by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Despite opposition by the council, the gondola project continues to work through the approval process from local and state agencies.

In December 2025, the L.A. Metro Board voted to recertify the project’s environmental impact report at a meeting attended by hundreds of opponents and supporters of the project. The council will wait for the completion of the transit study before taking any other formal action.

Community organizers of the Stop the Gondola coalition say the project would negatively impact parks and neighborhoods around the stadium, uprooting trees and obstructing the sky along the way. Members of the coalition also point to a UCLA Mobility Lab study which found that the project would only decrease traffic by less than 1%. 

Separate from LADOT, Los Angeles State Historic Park published a draft of amendments to its general plan in May, which would allow the gondola to go over the park. Residents can provide feedback on those amendments through July 22 via mail and email. A virtual open house to learn more about the project is also available on its website.

Take LADOT’s survey before July 13

• Fill out the transportation study survey before July 13.
• Email any questions about the study to dodgers-stadium@lacity.org.