Picture living in a bustling neighborhood where all your friends, basic needs, and even your job are reachable by a quick walk or bike or bus ride. (Something many people experience, possibly for the first and last time, on college campuses.) In such a city, parking areas may have been reclaimed as urban greenways, chance encounters with neighbors might be more common, and small local businesses would proliferate and thrive.
This vision is sometimes referred to as “the 15-minute city."
The backstory: This is a concept pioneered by Franco-Colombian scientist and mathematician Carlos Moreno. It means basically what it sounds like: Instead of expecting residents to get in their cars and drive long distances to work, run errands, and take part in social activities, cities should instead be designed to provide those kinds of opportunities in close proximity to where people live, reducing overdependence on cars and increasing local social cohesion.
By contrast: Picture living in a bustling neighborhood where all your friends, basic needs, and even your job are reachable by a quick walk or bike or bus ride. (Something many people experience, possibly for the first and last time, on college campuses.) In such a city, parking areas may have been reclaimed as urban greenways, chance encounters with neighbors might be more common, and small local businesses would proliferate and thrive.
This vision is sometimes referred to as “the 15-minute city,” a concept pioneered by Franco-Colombian scientist and mathematician Carlos Moreno. It means basically what it sounds like: Instead of expecting residents to get in their cars and drive long distances to work, run errands, and take part in social activities, cities should instead be designed to provide those kinds of opportunities in close proximity to where people live, reducing overdependence on cars and increasing local social cohesion.
“We have been able to observe the concrete effects of proximity, density, social mix, and ubiquity on both residents’ quality of life and the vitality of neighborhoods,” Moreno writes in a new book, The 15-Minute City: A Solution to Saving Our Time and Our Planet, which published yesterday. In the book, his first to be published in English, Moreno chronicles the history of how cities came to be fragmented through zoning policies and highway construction, the origins of his 15-minute city concept, and how the idea is becoming a reality all over the world.
Before and after pictures from Moreno’s book show the transformation of Piazza Dergano in Milan. In 2018, the city reconfigured the space for residents to walk, gather, and play, instead of simply park their cars.
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Courtesy Wiley
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But, he told me, this book is not a manual for the right way to design a 15-minute city. Every local context is different.
In the U.S., fragmentation is often a direct result of redlining policies that served to racially segregate cities and hoard resources away from lower-income neighborhoods of color. Some critics point out that if urban planners don’t take those histories into account, and let communities lead revitalization efforts, then a concept like the 15-minute city could further exacerbate inequities. However, if it’s done right, the approach could help address those harmful legacies.
“It’s an invitation to reinvent our lifestyles and urban practices to build a better future, where sustainability, equity, and well-being are at the heart of our concerns,” Moreno writes in the book. I spoke with Moreno over Zoom and e-mail about the growth of the 15-minute city concept, some sources of backlash, and whom he hopes to reach with his new book. His responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q. Tell me a bit about how you first got interested in cities and urban design.
A. Very good question. I’m not an architect or urbanist. I am a mathematician and computer scientist. I have developed a lot of different technologies for the intelligent control of complex systems. Just after the emergence of the internet, in the 2000s, I had a lot of requests from mayors for transforming lampposts, lights, doors, windows into smart equipment. I became one of the European leaders of the smart city.
In 2010, I decided to drop off smart technologies to examine a different way — the design of services in cities. I decided to continue to work in cities, but not from the technological angle, because technology is not enough for fighting against climate change, poverty, and social exclusion. We need to develop more local services. We need to develop more local jobs and to have more friendly neighborhoods and greener neighborhoods as well. And to reduce the role of individual cars, to reclaim the public space, to develop local commerce, to develop cultural activities.
I proposed this term “the human smart city” in 2012. And in 2015, the city of Paris hosted COP21, the big conference of countries for signing the Paris Agreement.
Anne Hidalgo was the mayor of Paris at this moment and, along with Mike Bloomberg, decided to convene mayors in parallel to COP21. With this amazing summit of mayors in Paris, cities said, “We are at the center of the problem — and we have the solutions. We need to change not only with technical measures, we need to change our lifestyle.” The cities signed an agreement [to support ambitious climate goals at the municipal level]. A few months after this, in October 2016, for the first time I proposed to cities to change this lifestyle through an ambitious urban plan for developing more local services. And I called that the 15-minute city.
Q. How have you seen the idea of the 15-minute city catch on in the past several years?
A. When I proposed this concept in 2016, a lot of people said, “Professor Moreno, this is a good idea, but this is a utopia.” The norm is to have long distances, long commutes. And maybe it is uncomfortable, but people at the end of the month have a wage, and they have the possibility for having a normal life.
As a researcher, I have experienced this concept in three districts in the east of Paris. I have observed that it is possible to change a city. The mayor of Paris [Anne Hidalgo] embraced this concept in 2019 for her re-election campaign. At that moment, we didn’t have a city with this concept implemented. Hidalgo took this concept in 2020, and she announced in June 2021 the big picture for five years in Paris. She proposed a concrete plan with different measures: local shops, local commerce, [safe] streets for kids, to ban cars in front of the schools, to open the schoolyards during the weekend. We have generated new districts: Clichy-Batignolles, La Félicité.
This is the growth of the 15-minute city inside of Paris. But at the same time, during COVID, the C40 Cities embraced this concept. The C40 is the global network of cities for fighting climate change.
We have, today, 293 cities in progress of implementing this concept. But not necessarily under the same name. In Utrecht, Netherlands, it’s the 10-minute city. In Dubai, the 20-minute city. In China, it’s the 15-minute circles of life. We have a lot of different nicknames, but the idea is the same: to develop a happy, polycentric, multiservice proximity. This is my motto.
Piazza Minniti, another square in Milan that was reclaimed for bikes, pedestrians, and play.
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Courtesy Wiley
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Q. I was also interested in your chapter on small towns. I think there’s a perception that the 15-minute city is only possible in already dense areas. How can small towns or rural areas adopt similar principles — and what are some of the different considerations?
A. The 15-minute city concept for urban areas is also the 30-minute territory for smaller towns and rural areas. It is also successful, although less well-known. Last weekend, I was at a conference in the south of France with small rural towns with less than 5,000 inhabitants, to talk and act in this direction.
In less densely populated areas, distances are generally greater and services less concentrated. The focus could be on efficient alternative methods of transport such as electric bikes, shuttle services, or car-sharing solutions to make travel more convenient without relying solely on the car. Using multifunctional spaces that can serve different purposes depending on the time of day — for example, a space that serves as a market in the morning, a café in the afternoon, and a meeting place in the evening — can be effective. Small towns and rural areas can also benefit from increased use of technology to access services such as telemedicine, online education, and digital government services, reducing the need for physical travel.
Q. I feel like I have to ask — the concept of the 15-minute city was seized on last year by right-wing conspiracy theorists, who painted it as a guise for government control and surveillance. Why do you think it’s been spun that way?
A. Yeah, this is a good question. At the same time, this was a hard period for me, for my wife, for my children. The first point, I think, that the conspiracy theorists have taken up, is efforts to reduce the role of the king car. To dare to attack the king car is, for the conspiracy mongers, an attack on individual freedom. I’m not in a war against cars, but we need to reduce the place of cars. The second point is related. The conspiracy mongers are climate skeptics, climate denialists. Today, scientists are a target of the denialists, because we said we have climate change, and this is irreversible. We have a lot of places with great risk if we continue to live with the same habits, if we continue to have this massive production and consumption.
The third point was about COVID. Because of COVID, we had this lockdown. When I proposed this question of proximity, the climate denialists, the anti-vaccine, the people that said that COVID-19 was a Chinese gun, considered that my idea was proposing a new lockdown. This is totally false, this is totally insane.
We have been living in very dark times. The dark face of humanity has become totally visible. The conspiracy mongers today are, today, with digital technologies, with fake news, with the bubble of false ideas, the denialists of science. I am just a scientist. But for climate denialists, we are the enemy, the scientists.
Q. Who would you say your intended audience for this book is?
A. This book is aimed at anyone interested in cities and ecosystems. It’s a book of work, knowledge, and deepening the concept, but it’s open to all disciplines because it’s written in a language that’s accessible to everyone. As I like to do, it also includes a lot of personal anecdotes, stories from my own life, and elements of the history of cities that even very erudite people don’t necessarily know.
My aim is threefold: to present the concept as it emerged, by looking back at the history of modern urbanism, looking in the rear-view mirror and learning from many thinkers and doers; to explain it in detail, using the example of Paris, my city, which popularized it thanks to the commitment of Mayor Anne Hidalgo; and to go around the world, on five continents, with all kinds of examples to show that this concept does not depend on the size or density of places, nor on the political party or local governance — but that it is a humanist path for urban planning based on the quality of life of the inhabitants, faced with the ecological, economic, and social challenge for which it is urgent to change our way of life before it’s too late.
Q. What impact do you hope the book will have in the world?
A. I wrote this book as a bottle thrown into the sea in the image of my life. I wanted to offer the best of myself in a humanistic way, with a broad vision of our problems, without being dogmatic or sectarian about this or that. It is just a look at science, explaining the facts, making observations, and looking to the future, how we live and how we’d like to live differently.
I’ve been asked to register trademarks, patents, and licenses, create manuals, launch a competition. None of that interests me. A book is a profound part of yourself that you decide to share with everyone. It is written to reflect, not to proselytize. As a scientist, researcher, and teacher, I like to delve into the subject, to delve deeper, to pass on my knowledge with passion, commitment, and rigor, but without locking anyone into a single way of thinking.
And read: Moreno’s new book, The 15-Minute City, which published yesterday
A parting shot
This infographic was first shared as part of a press conference that Moreno, Hidalgo, and Paris’ deputy mayor, Jean-Louis Missika, held in 2020. Moreno credits it with sparking international interest in the 15-minute city concept, noting that it has been shared, adapted, and translated into different languages all over the world. As he writes in his book: “It clearly and visually illustrates the 15-minute city’s concept, showing how essential services such as shops, schools, parks, and public transportation can be accessed nearby, making daily life easier for residents.”
How LA's Indonesian Muslims found a spiritual home
By Avidha Raha | The LA Local
Published September 22, 2026 10:00 AM
Imam Honest Qashidi outside the Masjid At-Thohir mosque in Pico Union.
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Avidha Raha
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The LA Local
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Topline:
Without a mosque, the community prayed at the Indonesian consulate for years. Now the Pico Union mosque is their own third space.
The backstory: For years, Indonesian Muslims in Southern California gathered at the Indonesian Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard for prayer. The congregation transformed a diplomatic space into a temporary spiritual refuge. The arrangement worked, but there was always a longing for home. “The idea is you want to have a space where you belong, be someone who is regular, and have a safe space. Those are things where you can grow as an individual,” said Honest Qashidi, 33, who serves as the resident Imam at Masjid At-Thohir.
Why it matters: For Indonesian Muslims living across Los Angeles, it has become a kind of third space somewhere between the private world of home and the demands of work and public life. That distinction matters in Los Angeles, where the Indonesian community is substantial but geographically dispersed. Unlike communities with a concentrated ethnic neighborhood, Indonesian Angelenos do not have a single “Indonesia Town” around which daily life revolves, Qashidi said. The mosque on Kenmore Avenue is that constant for the community.
Read on... for more on how L.A.’s Indonesian Muslims found a spiritual home in Pico Union.
From the outside, the Gothic architecture of Masjid At-Thohir does not immediately announce itself as a neighborhood mosque.
The white facade, arched windows and steep roofline are now home to an Islamic community of Indonesians in Pico Union.
For years, Indonesian Muslims in Southern California gathered at the Indonesian Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard for prayer. The congregation transformed a diplomatic space into a temporary spiritual refuge. The arrangement worked, but there was always a longing for home.
“The idea is you want to have a space where you belong, be someone who is regular, and have a safe space. Those are things where you can grow as an individual,” said Honest Qashidi, 33, who serves as the resident Imam at Masjid At-Thohir.
Women pray inside the mosque.
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Avidha Raha
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The LA Local
)
For Indonesian Muslims living across Los Angeles, it has become a kind of third space somewhere between the private world of home and the demands of work and public life.
That distinction matters in Los Angeles, where the Indonesian community is substantial but geographically dispersed. Unlike communities with a concentrated ethnic neighborhood, Indonesian Angelenos do not have a single “Indonesia Town” around which daily life revolves, Qashidi said. The mosque on Kenmore Avenue is that constant for the community.
“For the elders, it’s where they find their nostalgia. It’s a home away from home. But folks that grew up here, and trying to make sense of what it means to belong in a place; that is the aim of what I am trying to do in this space,” Qashidi said.
A gift to a father and community
Built in 1920, the building once served as the place of worship for the Los Angeles Samoan Community Christian church.
When that congregation left the neighborhood, the church’s pastor negotiated a deal in 2017 to sell the building to the Indonesia Muslim Foundation, the nonprofit group that coordinates activities in Los Angeles for the Indonesian Muslim community.
The nonprofit purchased the building for approximately $1.8 million, according to Qashidi.
Today, the historic structure is home to what many Indonesian Muslims in Los Angeles had long been missing: a mosque of their own.
A devotee praying from the Quran in the almost empty hall after the main prayer is over.
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Avidha Raha
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The LA Local
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Qashidi said, “The pastor wanted this space, if it were to be passed down, it would still stay a space of worship.”
The sale and conversion of the building was made possible by Indonesian billionaire Garibaldi Thohir, former CEO of Alamtri Resources Indonesia, one of the world’s top coal exporters. Garibaldi studied at USC and his brother, Erick Thohir, was also educated in Southern California.
The doors at the mosque officially opened in March 2022 after several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The mosque was named “At-Thohir” to honor their late father, Mochamad Thohir.
“When we were studying in Los Angeles around 2015–2016, my father often visited,” Garibaldi said at the mosque’s opening, according to reporting from Indonesian media. “When he was going to Friday prayers, he often complained about the lack of a mosque nearby owned by the Indonesian community. That’s why we promised to make it happen.”
‘I will make food every single Friday’
Calling At-Thohir simply a mosque misses the spectrum of events inside. Located not too far from Pico Boulevard, the mosque shares the neighborhood with other religious institutions like the Sae Han Korean Church and the Pico Union Shalom Ministries.
Food is a big part of the social life, turning prayer gatherings into opportunities to linger over familiar flavors. Every Friday, after the prayer, lunch is served in the backyard. Home-cooked Indonesian food items like bakwan, satay, soto ayam, perkedel, tahu kuning, telur balado and tempeh.
Lola Kamelia, left, Resy Ismail, Raninta Nailah and Lily Yulani serve lunch on a Friday after prayer.
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Avidha Raha
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The LA Local
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Lily Yulani, 53, one of the women who helps with food every week, joked about her teenage son’s pronunciation of perkedel, a simple mashed potato patty dish.
“My son cannot pronounce P-E-R-K-E-D-E-L yet, so he calls it C-R-O-C-O-D-I-L-E,” Yulani giggled.
Resy Ismail, 65, the woman in charge of serving and preparing food on Fridays, said that much of the food is donated, but she will not let that stop her from giving back to the community.
“Whether there is a donation or not, I will make food every single Friday,” Ismail said.
Ismail is a rantang chef and brings the food from her home in stacked, metal containers. She is proud to serve the community and initiated the meal system in the mosque and continues to coordinate with whoever wants to contribute to the weekly food distribution. Together, they bring different home-cooked items to put together a meal for the visitors at the mosque.
Imam Qashidi said that in a multicultural setting food becomes a gateway to culture. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he attended high school in Jakarta, Indonesia, completed his undergraduate degree in Egypt and is currently pursuing a degree in Islamic Studies from Bayan Islamic Graduate School.
“When you are in America, and you grew up with whatever background you have, the starting point is just food,” Qashidi said.
The lunch is served to the guests at the mosque.
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Avidha Raha
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The LA Local
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Third space
Apart from food being the most visible marker of community within the diaspora, there are regular Islamic studies classes on weekends taught by Qashidi. There are also workshops on calligraphy, immigration rights, digital literacy and Canva.
Additionally, there are also dance and music classes that do not happen inside the mosque, but in the adjoining auditorium.
People can enroll in a traditional plate dance, or musical performances like Angklung and the Bedug, a large drum traditionally associated with communities in Indonesia.
Raninta Nailah, 13, a Pico Union resident and food distribution volunteer, tries to come to the mosque whenever she’s not in school.
“It’s very close to my community and I feel safe,” Nailah said. “I come to Saturday school here for social studies and I feel good because I have been learning new stuff.”
Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove on May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated.
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Ethan Swope
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AP Photo
)
Topline:
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required more polluting facilities built near homes and schools to undergo environmental review — a decision that keeps in place looser rules he championed to speed up development in California.
Why it matters: The bill authored by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, responded to fears raised by a chemical incident in Orange County that led to evacuation orders for 50,000 people. It would have narrowed an exemption of the California Environmental Quality Act that covers a broad swath of advanced manufacturing sites. Only facilities handling the final stages of production would have kept the exemption.
Why now: In his veto letter on Friday, Newsom said Senate Bill 954 would have effectively repealed the advanced manufacturing exemption. “Protecting communities and strengthening California’s advanced manufacturing economy are not mutually exclusive goals,” he said. “The exemption was designed to advance both and should be given a meaningful opportunity to work.”
Read on... for more on Newsom's veto.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required more polluting facilities built near homes and schools to undergo environmental review — a decision that keeps in place looser rules he championed to speed up development in California.
It would have narrowed an exemption of the California Environmental Quality Act that covers a broad swath of advanced manufacturing sites. Only facilities handling the final stages of production would have kept the exemption.
In his veto letter on Friday, Newsom said Senate Bill 954 would have effectively repealed the advanced manufacturing exemption.
“Protecting communities and strengthening California’s advanced manufacturing economy are not mutually exclusive goals,” he said. “The exemption was designed to advance both and should be given a meaningful opportunity to work.”
Newsom added that if problems arise, the Legislature should address them through targeted changes “not by preemptively rolling back our progress.”
Blakespear in a statement said she’s disappointed by the veto and will raise the issue again next year.
She pointed to the near disaster GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove as an illustration of the danger.
“We should not have to wait for another emergency before recognizing that sweeping – and rushed – exemptions from environmental review need reasonable guardrails,” she said. “Protecting communities and workers is not an impediment to economic growth – it is part of responsible growth.”
Roots in last year's budget fight
The veto is a setback for legislators who advocated for fixing last year’s major overhaul of the state’s landmark environmental law, which Newsom had a heavy hand in shaping and pushed through by threatening to withhold budget funds if lawmakers refused to act.
Lawmakers went along with the overhaul, but expressed concerns about an unprecedented, broad exemption for polluting manufacturing sites from strip mines to clean energy projects.
Environmental advocates said the bill would have still allowed for manufacturing developments, with guardrails to protect communities.
“It's really unfortunate that we have to wait until something bad happens before we make an adjustment,” said Kim Delfino, a lobbyist for environmental justice groups. “A foundation of environmental law is the precautionary principle: that we try to protect instead of waiting for something bad to happen. This is flipping it on its head.”
Asha Sharma, deputy director at Sierra Club California, said California is losing “an important opportunity to protect communities that are once again being asked to bear the risks of industrial development without the safeguards and public participation they deserve.” .
Business and industry groups, including the Bay Area Council and the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, opposed the bill and praised Newsom’s veto, arguing it would stunt economic development.
“From autonomous vehicles and clean energy systems to revolutionary medical devices and digital technologies, advanced manufacturing is building the future and creating the good-paying, high-skilled jobs that California desperately needs,” said Libby Schaaf, chief executive of the Bay Area Council.
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A high-profile fight between California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Paramount Skydance resolved Monday with a settlement that clears a path for the company to continue with its planned acquisition of another century-old studio, Warner Bros. Discovery. The fight was the latest chapter in the battle for Hollywood, which has been a priority for California lawmakers and the last three governors.
CA production tax credits: California has taken several steps since the 2000s to retain studios like Paramount. In 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the state’s first California Film and Television Production Tax Credit. The program allocated $100 million per year to eligible film and TV production companies through 2017. In 2014, lawmakers passed a new version of the Film and Television Production Tax Credit program, more than tripling the credits to $330 million annually through 2020. In 2025, lawmakers increased the yearly credit to $750 million per year until 2030.
Other attempts to keep production in CA: This year, when the film and television production tax credit clashed with an initiative to cap corporate tax breaks, lawmakers carved independent film producers out of the groups subject to a new cap. In July, the “Select Committee on Growing and Retaining the Creative Economy in California” was created. On Saturday, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2319 to create a new tax credit for post-production work, including editing and visual effects.
A high-profile fight between California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Paramount Skydance resolved Monday with a settlement that clears a path for the company to continue with its planned acquisition of another century-old studio, Warner Bros. Discovery.
The deal comes after Paramount threatened to leave the state over an antitrust lawsuit led by Bonta and attorneys general from 11 other states that sought to block the $111 billion merger.
Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison reportedly told senior leaders of the company “clearly we’re not wanted here,” during a meeting in August. However, California has taken several steps since the 2000s to retain studios like Paramount.
The fight was the latest chapter in the battle for Hollywood, which has been a priority for California lawmakers and the last three governors.
Here are some ways the state has tried to keep its storied industry:
Program 1.0: In 2009, in response to other states beginning to offer financial incentives for motion picture production, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the state’s first California Film and Television Production Tax Credit. The program allocated $100 million per year to eligible film and TV production companies through 2017.
Program 2.0: In 2014, lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 1839, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law, creating a new version of the Film and Television Production Tax Credit program and more than tripling the credits to $330 million annually through 2020.
2018 expansion: In 2018, Brown again authorized an extension of the program for another five years, through 2025. Following the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down productions, Gov. Gavin Newsom boosted the credit temporarily to $420 million annually.
2025 increase: Hollywood was struggling following the “quadruple-whammy” of the COVID-19 pandemic, a writers strike, deadly wildfires and growing production incentives from other states that lured movies out of California. In response, lawmakers increased the yearly credit in 2025 to $750 million per year until 2030. Newsom championed the boost, saying the industry was “on life support.”
This year, when the film and television production tax credit clashed with an initiative to cap corporate tax breaks, lawmakers carved independent film producers out of the groups subject to a new cap.
In July, Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas of Salinas created the “Select Committee on Growing and Retaining the Creative Economy in California” to, in part, keep film and television production in the state.
On Saturday, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2319 by Burbank Democrat Nick Schultz to create a new tax credit for post-production work, including editing and visual effects.
Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, a Democrat representing Hollywood, said he was delighted a deal was reached to keep Paramount in California, but that the state needs to do more to retain the industry. Zbur is chair of the state’s new Assembly committee focused on keeping film production in California.
“Now that other states are realizing what important, family-sustaining jobs these are, they're competing very aggressively for these jobs,” he said.
Zbur said the committee will explore new state incentives during its first meeting, which he expects will take place in October in Los Angeles.
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published September 22, 2026 5:00 AM
L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn at the launch of the "Keep L.A. Covered" event in Lynwood in September 2026.
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Christian Galeno
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L.A. Care Health Plan
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Topline:
Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, many Medi-Cal enrollees will face new work requirements and eligibility checks — the result of sweeping federal changes that could affect more than 1 million L.A. County residents, according to organizers of a new countywide outreach campaign.
New requirements: If you are a Medi-Cal enrollee between ages 19 and 64, you may soon need to show you're working, volunteering, going to school or in a job training program for at least 80 hours a month or otherwise earning income to keep your public health insurance coverage. Some recipients will also need to prove that they're eligible every six months instead of once a year. Parents of children 13 and younger, pregnant women, older adults and people with disabilities are largely exempt from the requirements.
How to prepare: Organizers of a new campaign called "Keep L.A. Covered" say people are more likely to lose coverage because a notice went to an old address or went unanswered than because they stopped qualifying for Medi-Cal. They encourage enrollees to update their address and phone number with a county Medi-Cal office, watch their mail, and respond promptly to Medi-Cal notices in yellow or white envelopes
How we got here: President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — formally H.R. 1 — in July 2025, and it reduced federal Medicaid funding while adding a requirement that people who receive benefits work or show they are going to school, volunteering or seeking job training. The new requirements and six-month renewal rules apply to adults 19-64 covered through Medi-Cal’s Affordable Care Act expansion, according to county officials.
Support offered: The countywide campaign aims to train community leaders to warn Medi-Cal recipients about renewal notices. The first training is Oct. 27, hosted by Maternal Child Health Access. County officials say people and organizations can sign up at www.keeplacovered.org.
Listen
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Why Medi-Cal enrollees need to keep an eye on their mailboxes
Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, many Medi-Cal enrollees will face new work requirements and eligibility checks — the result of sweeping federal changes that could affect more than 1 million L.A. County residents, according to organizers of a new countywide outreach campaign.
If you are a Medi-Cal enrollee between ages 19 and 64, you may soon need to show you're working, volunteering, going to school or in a job training program for at least 80 hours a month or otherwise earning income to keep your public health insurance coverage.
Some enrollees will also have to prove they’re eligible every six months instead of once a year.
Parents of children 13 and younger, pregnant women, older adults and people with disabilities are largely exempt from the requirements.
What to do to prepare
Keep your address and phone number current with your county Medi-Cal office.
Watch your mail, and respond promptly to Medi-Cal notices in yellow or white envelopes.
If you're unsure what a notice means, community health centers and trained volunteers can help in person and in multiple languages, county officials said.
How we got here
Nearly 4 million L.A. County residents, or 41% of the population, rely on Medi-Cal — California’s version of Medicaid, a joint federal and state insurance program providing free or low-cost coverage to low-income people.
President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the "One, Big Beautiful Bill Act," a massive spending and tax bill, at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 2025.
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Samuel Corum
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Getty Images North America
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President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — formally H.R. 1 — in July 2025, and it reduced federal Medicaid funding while adding a requirement that people who receive benefits work or show they are going to school, volunteering or seeking job training.
The new requirements and six-month renewal rules apply to adults 19-64 covered through Medi-Cal’s Affordable Care Act expansion, according to county officials.
In June, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued the rule that implements the work requirement. CMS said in a news release that the framework is meant to promote economic stability and self-sufficiency.
“This rule helps Americans build skills and independence through work, education, job training, or community service, creating new opportunities for themselves and their families,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a statement.
Later that month, states including California sued to challenge the changes. In July, a federal judge denied their request to pause the rules while the lawsuit continues.
Last week, L.A. Care Health Plan, which administers Medi-Cal benefits for many county residents and other partners, launched “Keep L.A. Covered,” a public campaign to train community leaders, including pastors, teachers and health workers, to warn Medi-Cal recipients about renewal notices. The first training is Oct. 27, hosted by Maternal Child Health Access.
County officials say people and organizations that want to get involved can sign up at www.keeplacovered.org.
Paperwork hurdles
Campaign leaders say people are more likely to lose coverage because a notice went to an old address or went unanswered than because they stopped qualifying for Medi-Cal.
"One missed notice, one missed deadline, one moment of confusion can mean them losing their coverage, and it's not because they're no longer eligible," Martha Santana-Chin, CEO of L.A. Care, said at a campaign launch last week. "It's simply because they haven't been able to navigate the paperwork that's ahead of them.”
The state of California is already mailing letters about the changes, Santana-Chin said.
If the state can't verify compliance, it must send a noncompliance notice and give the enrollee 30 days to prove compliance or an exemption. Otherwise, the application may be denied, or the person disenrolled.
Advocates say the risk is greatest for people without a stable mailing address. Statewide, most people experiencing homelessness are eligible for or already enrolled in Medi-Cal, according to the California Health Care Foundation.
The 2026 Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority homeless count estimated more than 73,000 people were experiencing homelessness in L.A. County. Many would qualify for medical exemptions that would allow them to receive Medi-Cal benefits without proof of work or other requirements, but claiming an exemption requires clinical documentation and regular contact with the healthcare system, the foundation said. Federal guidance doesn't let states exempt people from the requirements solely for being unhoused.
Some details of the 80-hour monthly work requirement remain unsettled. The federal government is still writing the details on what counts as qualifying work, volunteering or education, Santana-Chin said.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects the requirement will reduce Medicaid enrollment nationwide by more than 3 million people. The federal agency assumes about 15% of enrollees will lose coverage, about 9% because they don't meet the requirement and about 6% because of paperwork or other administrative barriers. The actual effect depends on how states carry out the rules, according to a recent report from the federal agency.
The Congressional Budget Office, which analyzed the law using different methods, estimated the requirement would leave 5.3 million more people uninsured in 2034.
