The Brief

As pollution from burning fossil fuels drives higher average temperatures and longer and more extreme heat waves, communities and officials are grappling with ways to adapt. One essential need? A cool space to go when it’s too hot to be outside.

But increasingly, that space is not one’s own home. And given our historically mild southern California climate, many Southlanders have no air conditioning — some 20% of homes in Los Angeles have no AC, for example.

But even if you do have AC, renters and people with lower incomes are more likely to live in older, poorly insulated housing and spend a disproportionate amount of their income on energy bills, forcing many people to have to choose between paying for cool air or other necessities such as food and medical supplies.

And then, there are the rising numbers of people being pushed into homelessness and insecure housing, such as RVs and other vehicles.

As the climate crisis collides with the twin crises of housing and affordability, cities like L.A. promote places like libraries, senior centers and parks as cooling centers. The trouble is, not many people use them. And when the power grid goes down, these places go dark too.

Enter the concept of a “resilience hub.”

These are buildings that are already well-used and trusted in a community, that can provide helpful resources outside of air conditioning, water and some board games to play. They’re retrofitted with solar panels and battery power so they can ride out a disaster. They’re chosen by the community and aren’t necessarily run by a government entity.

From Boyle Heights to Wilmington, grassroots groups across L.A. are establishing some of California’s first “resilience hubs.” At the same time, the city of L.A. is working to retrofit certain existing cooling centers in strategic areas to serve as “resilience hubs” as well.

Where to put resilience hubs

In Wilmington, the grassroots group Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) did extensive surveying and engagement work to establish the Tzu Chi Clinic as a resilience hub that will be retrofitted with solar panels and backup power. The clinic is right near a high school and is already highly used. And the Wilmington Senior Center is another resilience hub they established — it’s already been outfitted with solar panels and battery storage. Boyle Heights is also getting a resilience hub (but we’ll go back to this one later).

“Resilience hubs are different from cooling centers because they have more resources and more space for people to just come together,” said Romeo Clay, a 17-year-old organizer with CBE. He goes to high school right near the Tzu Chi Clinic and regularly spends time there.

“A resilience hub is a place for a community to come together and really build resiliency,” Clay said. “If they need housing, if they need help paying their bills, or they just need someone to listen.”

The city of L.A. is close to completing a retrofit of the Green Meadows Recreation Center in South Los Angeles. The building will have solar panels and battery storage, as well as be turned into a microgrid, to help power the city in times of need.

“That's really the ideal resilience center for the city,” said Chief Heat Officer Marta Segura. She said the city is using climate and socioeconomic data and CalEnviroScreen, a statewide tool that identifies communities with the highest pollution burdens, to identify which existing buildings can be retrofitted in the areas of highest need.

Los Angeles appointed its first chief heat officer on June 3, 2022. Marta Segura will help coordinate the city’s emergency response to extreme heat.

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Segura said the city is already struggling to staff and fund cooling centers when hours are extended during extreme heat waves. Retrofitting buildings is a far bigger financial lift.

“When we have money available, we are attempting to prioritize these areas because this is where we can make the biggest improvements in the shortest amount of time,” Segura said.

“We’ll not just get the best results from a public health perspective and reduce the risk of heat injury or hospitalization, but we will also begin to lower emissions because we're going to bring climate adaptation to those areas — more tree canopy, more shade," Segura said.

She added that increasing coordination with non-profits already working on establishing resilience hubs is needed, as well as identifying resources for the most vulnerable residents who may not have viable ways to actually get to these hubs. For example, Segura said the Department on Disability, as well as the Department of Aging, have transportation vouchers and can help provide equipment like ACs for people with disabilities.

Building community and climate resilience

For Joey Rodriguez, the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory on East César Chávez Avenue is already a resilience hub. He’s been coming here since he was 15. Now 20, he’s gone from intern to program coordinator for the non-profit, which offers free classes and paid opportunities in film, art, music and digital production for young people in the area.

“I was originally supposed to, according to my parents, be a doctor or a nurse,” Rodriguez said. So he was sent to Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School. But it didn’t feel right.

“I had always been the kid that went straight to school and straight back home,” Rodriguez said. “Prior to becoming a part of the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory, I had never really connected with my community. So once I found out that this place existed, I started coming and I never left.”

Now, it’s a second home.

Joey Rodriguez, 20, is program coordinator with the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory. Here he sits in one of the building's multiple studios.

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“It was a home to me immediately and I recognized that the other community members that I was around also recognized it as a home,” Rodriguez said. “So when it was officially named a resilience hub, it only helped elevate the work that we were already doing.”

To become an official climate resilience hub, the Conservatory partnered with local non-profit Climate Resolve to get funding to retrofit the space so it can have solar panels and battery storage to provide a safe place during power outages and disasters. Those additions are expected to be completed by mid-2024.

In the meantime, they’re operating as a cooling center and working with staff to implement climate education into their work in the long-run. They've hosted events on disaster preparedness training, the impacts of the climate crisis, and practical resources for community members to access things like rooftop solar panels installation, help paying utility bills, or access to AC rebates and other resources that can help community members navigate the climate crisis.

Andres Rodriguez, who also grew up in Boyle Heights, is resilience coordinator with Climate Resolve, the non-profit partnering with the Conservatory on the resilience hub retrofit.

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“Resilience, you're being proactive,” said Andres Rodriguez, resilience coordinator with Climate Resolve. “When you're adapting, you're reacting. Having those deep ties within the community, gives [the Conservatory] the ability to be there when a climate emergency happens.”

And the benefits go far beyond a safe place to huddle during an emergency. One example of the space’s intersectionality at work —they hired local artists to paint a mural with a non-toxic paint that can help absorb air pollution. That also launched their Mural Workforce Academy to train artists in mural painting.

It’s a far cry from a typical “cooling center,” which is generally made up of temporary seating, a cooler of bottled water, and some board games in a designated room away from other activities.

The Mid Valley Senior Center on July 14, 2023. It's a city-run cooling center in the San Fernando Valley.

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While a building retrofitted with solar panels and battery storage provides physical resilience, the space’s community building of the space is at the core of its ability to be a resilience hub, said Joey Rodriguez.

“What's the difference between a nice, fresh gym where you just huddle around and cool off versus this space? This space is made for us. It’s made by us,” said Rodriguez. “It's a cooling space, but it's also a healing space. It’s a healing space because we've made it that way."

Inside the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory, the walls are lined with posters and artwork.

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A historic space long rooted in community

Josof Sanchez, better known as Mr. OG, walks into the entrance hall of the Conservatory. It’s lined with photos of iconic musicians and artists. He points to a portrait of a young Ray Jimenez.

“Little Ray was one of the first producers here in East L.A.,” Sanchez said. “He was known as the brown James Brown.”

There are portraits of many who performed here, including the best East L.A. bands, such as El Chicano and Willie G. and Thee Midniters, as well as artists such as Stevie Wonder and Sonny and Cher — the former pair lived in the building when they first started making music.

Artists including Stevie Wonder, left, and Little Ray Jimenez, first portrait in top row, spent time in the historic building now known as the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory.

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For generations, this building has been a beloved and safe space for Eastside communities, particularly those experiencing marginalization. In the 1920s and 1930s, it was a resource center run by Jewish socialists. In 1949, it became The Paramount Ballroom, hosting local and internationally-renowned artists alike, then The Vex in 1980, where the east L.A. punk, rock and local music scene thrived. It was a place that challenged the racial segregation of the times, and served in opposition to the Hollywood scene, which largely excluded people of color.

Today, as a nonprofit that provides free and affordable arts programming for young people in the community, the place serves hundreds of families every year, many of whom have been impacted by gang violence and the criminal justice system, said Sanchez.

"We produce hope here," he said. "We're dream builders."

Josof Sanchez, or Mr. OG, left, and Julie Matsumoto, right, host a radio program out of the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory and run a non-profit for local young people called Operation Street Kidz.

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Sanchez, a Vietnam veteran and former probation officer who grew up in Boyle Heights, is a motivational speaker who runs his own radio show — The Mr. OG Show, but OG stands for “opportunity giving” instead of “original gangster." Through his organization Operation Street Kidz, he works with young people impacted by gangs and the justice system.

When I visited on a recent afternoon, young people were mixing music on laptops during a class, others were recording or live on air in one of the building’s many studios.

“My mission is to speak into the lives of young people and their parents and let them know that they're somebody, they're unique, they're rare," Sanchez said. "That’s what this place has done."

Lack of funding

In 2021, the state launched the Community Resilience Centers program to support and speed up resilience hub efforts. This year it’s set to fund a first round of projects.

The idea is to fund a wide array of resilience hubs that are centered in communities hardest hit by climate impacts, said Coral Abbott, the program's manager at the Strategic Growth Council, the state agency that's in charge of facilitating the effort.

“We wanted to think about how to make this program help communities get themselves set up to respond to whatever emergencies they're most at risk for,” Abbott said. ”Rather than say like, we want to see ‘X’ number of applications from local government or a community-based organization, we are really trying to have the underlying criteria be understanding what communities priorities are, understand how they were involved in selecting these sites because we want them to be places that they trust and are willing to go.”

But the program, originally allocated $160 million, has already seen significant cuts — the first round makes $98 million available and there’s no guarantee the program will continue, said Amar Azucena Cid, a deputy director with the Strategic Growth Council.

“Funding definitely impacts how we plan, especially if we're thinking about setting up this program as a long-term program with real solutions that I think communities are really looking forward to,” she said.

Cid said the state’s climate bond, which may be on California voters' ballots in 2024, could ensure the funding stays for at least a second round.

“I think the hard part with standing up a new program of this magnitude is folks want to test it out and I think that's what we were hearing from the Department of Finance,” Cid said. “I firmly believe that this is something that can be stood up long-term, but I think on the budget perspective it is like, let's get that proof of concept going and then we can move in towards what that looks like for long-term funding.”

Abbott said the department already expects funding to run out this first round.

“The amount of funding we have is not going to meet the demand,” she said.

The Los Angeles Metro Board unanimously voted Thursday to proceed with developing a 14-mile-long subway under the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s one of the first significant steps in what city and county leaders are describing as the region's most consequential transit project and perhaps one of the most important in the country.

Metro staff said in a report to its board that it has secured funding through county tax measures for about 14% of the $24.2 billion it’s preliminarily estimated to cost to build the route, which will involve extensive tunneling. They added the cost estimate would be updated as further refinements are made, but having this amount of funding secured is “not uncommon” for projects early on in development.

Still, leaders underscored that while the need for a rail link between the Valley and Westside couldn’t be overstated, staff for the countywide transportation agency should remain mindful of financial constraints and push for cost reductions through the next several years before shovels hit the ground.

“Ambition matters, dreaming big matters, but honesty matters too,” L.A. City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who also is a member of the Metro Board, said during Thursday’s meeting. “We can't afford to approve transformative projects without being clear about the path to funding and delivery.”

The price tag certainly is “eye-popping” and Metro’s “largest project to date,” as Ray Sosa, the chief planning officer for the agency, recently wrote in an op-ed about the project.

With today’s vote progressing the project, the Metro Board enthusiastically endorsed the investment, for now, in theory.

The project and selected route 

The Sepulveda Transit Corridor, as the project is known, was conceived to relieve Angelenos of the sometimes 90-minute drive between the Valley and Westside via the 405 Freeway, provide a crucial artery to connect with other regional rail and bus routes and link residential areas to job centers.

In June 2025, Metro released its draft environmental review of five different subway and monorail options. Of the more than 8,000 public comments Metro received, fewer than 70 expressed opposition to the project as a whole, according to agency staff.

Metro staff in January published its recommendation to move forward with further study of a modified version of one of the subway options.

That’s what the transportation agency’s board approved Thursday.

The route is projected to see as many as 124,000 rides per day and reduce the total amount people would otherwise travel by car by nearly 800,000 miles a day.

An end-to-end trip on the proposed route between Valley and the Westside is slated to take 20 minutes, with trains arriving every 2.5 minutes at peak times.

The 405 Freeway during rush hour March 10, 2022, in Los Angeles.

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Station locations for the proposed train would connect to the Metro D, E and East San Fernando Valley rail lines, the Metrolink stop in Van Nuys and also the G bus rapid-transit line. Crucially, the route also will stop at UCLA, which over the years had become a non-negotiable necessity among students and other advocates of the train.

“Higher education deserves to be easily accessible for everyone,” Mariela Diaz, a UCLA commuter student who described herself as low income, said at the meeting Thursday. “Future UCLA students deserve to have their first on-campus station.”

As it’s currently planned, there wouldn’t be a stop providing direct access to the Getty Center, for which the museum had been publicly campaigning.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who has a seat on the Metro Board, asked Thursday that agency staff report back on “transportation alternatives to address fast and last-minute connections to the Getty Center.”

The proposed route would run from Van Nuys to the Westside.

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Report details economic benefits 

A report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation details how construction would generate as much as $40 billion in economic output and spur more than $16 billion in labor income countywide.

You can read the full report, commissioned by L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman’s office, here. 

Leaders urge continued engagement and not to compromise on vision 

Today’s vote directed Metro staff to focus on the proposed route for forthcoming technical and environmental analyses and clearances, as well as to further refine design and cost estimates.

There also will be continued community engagement.

Yaroslavsky amended the item the board approved Thursday to include language asking Metro staff to, among other tasks, report back on a community engagement plan focused on the communities that might be impacted by tunneling or construction and to maintain a publicly accessible outreach calendar.

Metro’s final environmental documents, which will be the culmination of the continued engagement and study, will be subject to future approval from the board.

Los Angeles City Councilmember and Metro Board member Katy Yaroslavsky advocated for continued community engagement as the countywide transportation agency pursues the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project.

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When construction starts, the focus will first be on the middle segment of the train running from the G-line stop in Van Nuys to the future D-line stop in Westwood.

The additional segments on the north and south sides of the route would be built afterward.

Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who also is on the Metro Board, urged that the full route be built as envisioned.

“Phasing is a given, but the true value of this line will not be realized until it is fully built out,” Padilla said.

The Port of Los Angeles reported another standout year in 2025, handling 10.2 million container units and being the busiest port in the country for the 26th year in a row, despite industry challenges.

“2025 was a year like no other, from accelerated dips in volume to record highs,” Gene Seroka, executive director at the Port of Los Angeles, said. “It truly was a roller coaster.”

The highlights came at the annual State of the Port in San Pedro on Thursday. It was also the first State of the Port since the Trump administration adopted its tariff and trade policies.

Seroka laid out a vision for the upcoming year that included expanding the port and reaffirming its environmental commitments

“We are moving more cargo than ever before with the lowest pollution footprint on record for every container shipped,” Seroka said.

The Port of L.A. is in an agreement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Port of Long Beach to achieve zero-emission operations at both ports. The ports also adopted the Clean Air Action Plan in 2006, which has since cut overall emissions of diesel particulate matter by 90% and nitrogen oxides by 73%, according to the Port of L.A.

The past 12 months marked a volatile year for the port amid changing tariffs, according to Seroka.

“The global trade map is being redrawn," he said. "Shifting trade policies are creating uncertainty and volatility, and the maritime supply chain is at the center of it all. But here's what hasn't changed: Cargo remains the lifeblood of the US economy.”

In July, Port of L.A. officials reported import traffic jumping to 32% in June compared to the month prior. The yo-yoing volume came as many customers tried to get in as much as they could in response to the tariffs.

Seroka said to meet the demands of tomorrow, the Port of L.A. needs to build bigger, smarter and more sustainably.

Pier 500 and the Maritime Support Facility are part of the port’s plan to boost capacity and improve efficiency.

Another essential part of building smarter, Seroka added, is the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

“The bridge needs redecking to make it safer for the 50,000 vehicles that cross it daily, but here's the bigger issue,” Seroka said. “We also need to raise it or replace it to unlock our full capacity north of the bridge.”

Plans to raise the bridge during the redecking project, however, were nixed last November by the state’s transportation agency, according to the L.A. Times.

Seroka said the port was working with the governor's office and California Transportation officials to establish a formal partnership exploring all options, which could include building a new crossing.

Among other future projects, the port is looking to break ground on the Avalon Pedestrian Bridge next month to connect visitors to the new Wilmington Waterfront Promenade.

Before it passed last year, a major new California housing law that allows more apartments near public transit stops faced stiff opposition from Los Angeles politicians.

L.A. elected leaders are continuing to fight it, arguing the law jeopardizes efforts to expand local transportation infrastructure.

The latest round of resistance comes from the L.A. Metro Board of Directors, which voted Thursday to formally oppose local implementation of the law, SB 79. The only members who declined to join in opposition were L.A. County Supervisors Janice Hahn and Lindsey Horvath.

The transit agency recently published a staff report that recommended the board stand against a bill that seeks to clarify certain points on how SB 79 will be implemented.

The Metro staff report went beyond asking for technical tweaks to the legislation. One of its suggestions called for “exempting Los Angeles County from SB 79.” Another recommendation suggested “limiting the bill’s applicability to the Bay Area as a pilot project.”

‘Absolutely ridiculous’ say housing proponents

Advocates for more housing development said that seeking to override the law, which takes effect July 1, would be counterproductive for L.A.’s troubled transit agency. They said resisting new housing will reduce the number of riders living within walking distance of a Metro stop.

Azeen Khanmalek — executive director of Abundant Housing L.A., a co-sponsor of SB 79 — called the report’s recommendations “absolutely ridiculous.”

“We can't just continue this recalcitrant opposition in perpetuity,” Khanmalek said. “We really hope Metro is on board and wants more riders near their transit stations.”

But Metro’s Board of Directors is made up of elected leaders who have, in some cases, already made their positions on SB 79 clear.

Before Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law in October, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass asked him to veto it.

Two other board members, L.A. City Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Imelda Padilla, voted with a slim majority of the council last year to oppose SB 79.

Metro says law will boost transit opposition

About three-quarters of all residential land in incorporated L.A. County is zoned for single-family homes. But under SB 79, some of those neighborhoods could now be eligible for dense apartment buildings, as long as they lie within a half-mile of a major transit stop.

The Metro staff report said SB 79 could harm the transit agency’s expansion goals by galvanizing housing opponents against new light rail stations and dedicated bus lanes.

“SB 79 has become a catalyst for local opposition to Metro’s transit projects,” the report said. “By linking increased housing density to both existing and future transit investments, the law has intensified resistance from some cities and community groups that now view new transit projects as a trigger for state-mandated upzoning.”

Asking for tweaks, or total exemption?

The report also called on state lawmakers to clarify the term “light rail transit,” which could affect how SB 79 will apply to neighborhoods around Metro’s A, C, E and K rail lines.

At an earlier Metro meeting, Board Vice Chair Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker supported calls to carve L.A. County out of the law.

“We’ve found that the effort to have one-size-fits all planning didn’t work,” she said. “It is ingenious to suggest that any modifications be tested in the Bay Area first.”

Hahn said she supported asking for more moderate amendments to the SB 79 clean-up bill, SB 677, but she did not think lawmakers would take seriously calls for a countywide exemption.

“It doesn’t feel like we’re willing to dialogue,” Hahn said. “I would just like to see some amendments that feel a little bit more realistic.”

Every Sunday, crispy waffles, breakfast “stanwiches” and a wagyu pastrami brisket on rye await you at Stanley's, a to-go window on Fountain Avenue in Hollywood.

Michelin-starred chef Michael Tang has worked in renowned kitchens like Leopardo in Los Angeles and Quince and Saison in the Bay Area. But now he’s bringing fine-dining technique to nostalgic diner fare at his new pop-up, creating food that's, as he puts it, "approachable instead of esoteric."

The self-funded operation, which is named after his father, is all about embracing constraints: a to-go format, less expensive equipment, and tighter margins. For Tang, those limitations became creative fuel.

"I'm figuring out my voice and developing a style," he said.

The food: technique meets nostalgia

Tang has been obsessed with creating the perfect waffle for two years, aiming for something "fully crispy outside, moist inside, not overly dense." The result is a hybrid that borrows from Belgian Liège-style waffles, studded with pearl sugar that caramelizes on the hot iron, while using an American-style batter rather than dough, resulting in a lighter texture.

When I tried it recently, it was sweet and eggy, with the caramelized sugar creating pockets of crunch along crispy edges. It costs $5, yet comes with French Bordier maple butter. "Why serve something that doesn't taste special?" he said.

Meanwhile, for his $13 pastrami sandwich, he makes the pastrami himself, taking on a challenge others avoid. "The fridge space is insane for pastrami production," he said — one reason most restaurants outsource to specialty purveyors.

Stanley's pastrami sandwich: eight-day Tajima Wagyu brisket on Bub and Grandma's sourdough.

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His eight-day process starts with Tajima Wagyu brisket, brined to season the meat evenly without over-curing. After brining, he applies a custom spice blend, then smokes it over California red oak and almond wood.

The effort shows. Served on Bub and Grandma's sourdough, Tang offers fatty or lean slices — I asked for both. I'm picky about pastrami in Los Angeles (it's hard to nail unless you're Langer's), but Stanley's version delivers: meaty, flavorful, with a proper fat ratio that doesn't turn greasy.

Tang also offers a vegan pastrami made from celery root, which takes four days instead of eight because vegetables are more porous. The choice wasn't random: celery root, apple, and horseradish, topped with a miso mustard that adds brightness, pairing well with the pastrami spices. I sampled it alongside the Wagyu version — it was delicious and substantial enough to satisfy anyone, vegan or not.

The sleeper hit

But the revelation came from an item Tang recommended I try: the Shumai Slam, also $13. The shrimp-and-pork croquette on a Martin's potato roll didn't initially catch my eye — until I noticed the steamed egg.

The Shumai Slam didn't initially catch my eye until Tang insisted I try it.

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As the name suggests, the shrimp-and-pork filling is an ode to Cantonese dim sum, with familiar notes of Shaoxing rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil. That alone would be impressive, but the steamed egg elevates it entirely.

Tang steams eggs in a hotel pan until they look almost like cheese slices, then lays them across the sandwich. The result is velvety smooth and intensely eggy, elevating the entire sandwich beyond its humble components. I haven't stopped thinking about it and now I want steamed eggs on all my breakfast sandwiches.

Sourcing with purpose

Stanley's breakfast beverages.

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The housemade sodas, sourced through farmers' markets, use "seconds" — bruised peaches and imperfect fruit still good for juicing. The coffee soda, made from a local roaster, tastes more like an espresso tonic: robust, cool, refreshing. I'd order it again, despite not being a regular cold brew drinker.

On good days, Tang and business partner Ivana Ruslie pay themselves minimum wage if they hit about 55 customers per pop-up. The rest of the week, they hustle through consulting work, private dinners, and R&D projects.

It's the new chef playbook: multiple income streams instead of single paychecks, community over prestige, sustainability over stars. Tang's redefining success on his own terms — though he admits he wouldn't say no to an angel investor with brick-and-mortar dreams.