Stop feeding them! A park population is going nuts
Makenna Sievertson
covers the daily drumbeat of Southern California — events, processes and nuances making it a unique place to call home.
Published May 12, 2025 5:00 AM
The ground squirrels dotted the grass across the park with their burrows scattered nearby.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Topline:
Tourists and residents strolling through Palisades Park in Santa Monica are greeted by a beautiful view of a sandy beach, the Pacific Ocean and the pier. Oh, and roughly 100 ground squirrels running across the lawn, and occasionally, directly toward you.
Why it matters: As cute as they may seem, ground squirrels can cause serious environmental issues, and human visitors sharing their snacks aren’t helping.
Why now: Gwendolyn Fogel lives in Santa Monica and visits the nearby farmers market weekly, but she told LAist this is the first time she’s seen so many squirrels in the park.
The backstory: Santa Monica has posted signs along the park asking people not to feed squirrels or birds. The red and white warnings say it “creates an imbalance in native ecology” and makes the animals more dependent on humans for food.
Read on ... to learn more about why the squirrel population matters.
Tourists and residents strolling through Palisades Park in Santa Monica are greeted by a beautiful view of a sandy beach, the Pacific Ocean and the pier. Oh, and roughly 100 ground squirrels running across the lawn, and occasionally, directly toward you.
It almost looks like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, just furrier.
As cute as they may seem, ground squirrels can cause serious environmental issues, and human visitors sharing their snacks aren’t helping.
How bad is it
Keira Powell and Corey Mooney, who were sitting on a park bench near the bluffs, told LAist they saw a squirrel crawl right up someone’s leg.
“Check your pockets before you go home,” Mooney said. “You might end up with a squirrel.”
Powell added that they’re nothing like the gray or red tree squirrels they’re used to back home in Boston.
“They eat the grass, almost like a grazing herd of, like, sheep or goats,” she said.
The squirrels seem to be everywhere, even on the paved paths for bicyclists.
Powell and Mooney had a hotel view of the park, and they said the little brown rodents seem to be on a set schedule — as soon as the sun and people come out, so do they.
Gwendolyn Fogel lives in Santa Monica and visits the nearby farmers market weekly, but she told LAist this is the first time she’s seen so many squirrels in the park.
A small sampling of the ground squirrel population across Palisades Park.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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An eager ground squirrel at Palisades Park in Santa Monica.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Listen
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Santa Monica's ground squirrels say hi
“ One of them just chased us, which I've also never seen squirrels, like, run after people,” she said. “ We both lived in New York and … deal with squirrels all the time. They don't chase after you, they run away from you.”
Christian Bussgen, Fogel’s friend, said they remind her of rats, but our interview was quickly interrupted by an especially eager squirrel.
What Santa Monica says
The city has posted signs along the park asking people not to feed squirrels or birds. The red and white warnings say it “creates an imbalance in native ecology” and makes the animals more dependent on humans for food.
The city of Santa Monica has posted signs along Palisades Park asking people not to feed squirrels or birds.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Tati Simonian, public information officer with the city of Santa Monica, said Palisades Park gets a lot of foot traffic and is just on top of the natural bluffs — which the ground squirrels like to burrow in.
“As visitors come to enjoy the view, we remind them that the park is part of a greater natural environment and request their help in maintaining the environment as much as possible,” she said in a statement.
When LAist asked if it’s normal for the squirrels to chase people through the park around this time of year, Simonian declined to share additional information.
Experts say we’re to blame
Marcia Rybak, of Coast and Canyon Wildlife Rehabilitation, told LAist that the squirrels in Santa Monica are unique.
“The trouble Santa Monica has, and will always have, with those ground squirrels on the bluffs is the ground squirrels are well established and very happy there,” she said in an email. “The population will remain stable based on the food supply. If people don't feed them then they will only breed as much as the land will carry.”
So in short, if you’re noticing more squirrels around Palisades Park, it's because we’re feeding them more and inadvertently encouraging them to stay in the area. So it’s best to keep your snacks to yourself.
But it's also spring — which means baby season.
There were several burrows with ground squirrel babies in Palisades Park as well.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Officially known as California or Beechy ground squirrels, they live together in burrows and prefer to forage on the ground, according to an L.A. County Agricultural Commissioner / Weights & Measures report.
The ones in our area usually begin to breed in December. But by June, the squirrels’ average of seven to eight babies per litter start to scurry out on their own.
“A good way to explain the difference in movement of ground squirrels versus tree squirrels is that tree squirrels disperse,” Rybak said in an email. “On the other hand, ground squirrels spread where babies dig burrows adjacent to the one they were born in. Ground squirrels do not travel much farther than 150 feet from their burrows.”
There were several groups of young squirrels in various burrows when LAist visited Palisades Park in late April.
A word of warning
Ground squirrels can cause some serious damage.
Their burrows, which can be up to 30 feet long and several feet below ground, can affect roads, structures and dams, to name a few.
If the population becomes unnaturally high, the squirrels can make a grassy area look more like a “pockmarked moonscape,” according to the L.A. County report.
Further north in San Luis Obispo County, Pismo Beach officials say they’re dealing with a squirrel problem in some parks after the city stopped using poison baits to manage the population, which has since “exploded.”
Specifically, the tunnels are making the Shell Beach bluffs collapse faster.
Rosemarie Gaglione, the city's public works director, said in an April 15 City Council meeting that she’s seen people feed the squirrels and watched them approach others looking for a meal.
“While they look cute, they’re not a great thing for the park,” Gaglione said. “ FEMA made the comment … that we need to take care of the squirrel problem because it's impacting the bluffs.”
Pismo Beach officials supported a public campaign telling people not to feed the squirrels and educating them on the damage the population is doing.
“Feed a squirrel and the bluffs [are] going to go away,” said Mayor Ed Waage during the meeting. “You won’t be able to sit here anymore.”
Other California cities are dealing with a squirrel population problem, which has "exploded" in some parks.
Mariana Dale
reports on the financial challenges facing educators — and public school districts. She covered the 2023 LAUSD strike.
Published January 31, 2026 7:19 AM
UTLA’s bargaining team has met with the district more than a dozen times since negotiations began last February.
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Ashley Balderrama
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for LAist
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Topline:
The leaders of the Los Angeles Unified teachers union now have the power to call for a strike if they can’t reach a deal over pay, benefits and student support with the district.
More: About 94% of United Teachers Los Angeles members who voted cast a ballot in favor of authorizing a strike. The results were announced Saturday. Union members include school psychologists, counselors and nurses.
What now? The strike authorization vote does not guarantee teachers will stage a walk out this semester. First the union must exhaust all steps of the collective bargaining process.
Why it matters: Among other proposals, the union is asking for raises and changes to the salary schedule so that newer teachers who complete professional development can earn increases more quickly. The district has said it cannot afford what the union has proposed.
Keep reading: For more on the next steps and what it means for LAUSD families.
The leaders of the Los Angeles Unified teachers union now have the power to call for a strike if they can’t reach a deal over pay, benefits and student support with the district.
United Teachers Los Angeles’ has about 37,000 members. Of those that voted, 94% voted in favor of authorizing a strike. The tabulation process lasted late Friday night, and results were announced overnight Saturday.
Union members, which include school psychologists, counselors and nurses, simultaneously voted to approve an agreement that preserves existing health benefits without increasing costs to educators.
The strike authorization vote does not guarantee teachers will stage a walk out this semester. First the union must exhaust all steps of the collective bargaining process.
Stephanie Castro teaches 7th grade English at Luther Burbank Middle School in Highland Park and voted for the strike authorization.
“ I will do what needs to be done to fight for these proposals,” Castro said. “I want to make it super clear to Angelenos that teachers don't want to go on strike. We absolutely would rather be in our classrooms with our students… We also know that things cannot continue as they are.”
In a statement Saturday, the district pointed to other recent agreements with its labor unions, while also citing fiscal challenges related to declining enrollment and other factors: "We recognize the real financial strain on educators and staff, but must make difficult decisions to preserve classrooms, student services, and long-term stability within finite resources."
How did we get here? And what happens next?
UTLA’s bargaining team has met with the district more than a dozen times since negotiations began last February.
The union declared an impasse in December, a legal step that triggers intervention from a neutral mediator appointed by the state’s labor relations board.
Wednesday, the mediator determined the two parties would move to the next step in the process, fact-finding, where a representative from the union, the district and the California Public Employment Relations Board collectively develop a recommendation to settle the negotiations.
The rejection of this panel’s recommendation could lead to a strike— or more negotiating.
A recent history of LAUSD strikes
March 2023: Teachers walked off the job in solidarity with striking school support staff.
As in previous contract talks, the proposals that cost the most money are those that take the longest to hash out.
The union is asking for raises and changes to the salary schedule so that newer teachers who complete professional development can earn increases more quickly. UTLA estimated before mediation, that this would amount to an average pay increase of 16% the first year and 3% the following year. The annual ongoing cost to the district would be about $840 million.
The district has said it cannot afford what the union has proposed and has offered annual increases of 2.5% the first year and 2% the second year with a one-time payment of 1%.
“Significant distance remains between what the District can responsibly offer and what UTLA proposes,” read a Jan. 28 statement from LAUSD.
The union’s other proposals include more investment in arts education, legal aid for immigrant families, and staff to support students’ mental health.
Castro, the middle school teacher, said she notices a difference when her students have access to the school’s psychiatric social worker and other wraparound services.
“It allows them to be fully present in the classroom,” Castro said. “They're not so worried about things that are happening outside of it and can really focus on that essay that they need to write or developing a thesis statement.”
Are you a UTLA member? Share your thoughts on why your union needs a new deal — or doesn't — with me via email.
Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published January 31, 2026 6:14 AM
The Bonaventure, view from one of the pedways leading to an entrance.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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Topline:
Looking for things to do this week? How about spending a couple hours inside Harry Style’s latest music video?
What? The video for Aperture features the Westin Bonaventure hotel, the mirrored, futuristic-looking behemoth on Figueroa Street in downtown L.A.
So? The building offers a pretty unique experience in and of itself for how visually and spatially disorienting it is.
It's not everyday you can credit one of the world's biggest pop stars for rekindling your memories of a place.
So, thank you, Harry Styles, for reminding us of the mesmerizing, confounding, iconic and the brashly weird wonders of the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown L.A.
Last week, the singer returned to pop music after a four-year respite with the surprise release of a new album. Along came the first music video for “Aperture,” a breezy electronic number that unfolds as a non-sequitur romp through a sleek hotel — beginning as an inexplicable chase, then breaks into a long, nifty dance sequence, and crescendos in a hat tip to Dirty Dancing.
The absurdity makes for a nice fit.
In the video, when Styles steps onto the escalator before realizing he is being followed, a distant recognition went off in my head.
The escalator at the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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The Bonaventure has no bad angles.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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That hunch grew more certain when he and his pursuer tumbled down a spiral of staircases that's almost Hitchcockian in its composition.
Spiraling staircase inside the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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The Bonaventure's curved skylight.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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And later, when the two somersault through a cocktail lounge with Los Angeles twinkling in the backdrop, the setting could only have been The BonaVista, the revolving restaurant (yes, it really spins) on the 34th floor of the Bonaventure.
Making a cameo
Styles is the latest among a long list of artists and moviemakers to make use of the location. In 1993's In the Line of Fire, Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich had their big shoot-out finale there, and managed to squeeze in a little repartee inside one of its famous capsule elevators. More recently, Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s "Luther" and Maroon 5 and LISA's "Priceless" prominently featured the hotel.
Bonaventure under construction in the mid-1970s.
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Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection / LAPL
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The Bonaventure in 1987.
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James Ruebsamen
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Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection / LAPL
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Since it opened inJanuary 1977, the behemoth — towering hundreds of feet over Figueroa Street with some 1,400 rooms and the reigning title as Los Angeles's largest hotel — all but demanded the attention.
The Bonaventure was built between 1974 and 1976 in the midst of Bunker Hill's redevelopment that started two decades back with land seizures through eminent domain and the evictions of thousands of low-income Angelenos.
The ambition was to remake the urban core into a world-class arts and cultural destination.
The atrium of the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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Architect and real estate developer John C. Portman brought his signature vaulting atrium to the task. For the Hyatt in his hometown of Atlanta, that feature was 22 stories high. For the Bonaventure, the atrium was seven.
Raw concrete of the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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The staircases.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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Portman's idea was to create a city within its walls, and populated his creation with shops, restaurants and other amenities so people simply wouldn’t have to leave.
The Bonaventure’s interior has been described as Brutalist in style, a raw concrete maze of dangling lounges, shooting columns, swirling staircases, curved walkways, glass elevators and seemingly dead ends. Its mirrored and cylindrical exterior has been called postmodern and futuristic.
Bonaventure in 1977.
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Tom LaBonge
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Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL
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The Bonaventure in 1989.
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William Reagh
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Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL
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A returned visit
I have always thought of it looking a little dated, like a sad disco ball.
A few days ago, I went to the Bonaventure again for old times’ sake. I took this same walk several times a week for six years, when I worked downtown in the mid-aughts. Back then, this network of pedways was really our only way to get to any place for coffee or lunch.
View of the Bonaventure taken from the 3rd and Fig. pedway.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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The Bonaventure was one of our options, with its food court on the fourth floor. Sometimes, I spent my lunch simply walking its various floors, entranced by the vast, hushed space that felt somehow endless and somewhat abandoned. I have always thought it was the perfect setting for a chase scene.
On my latest visit, the lines and curves were clashing and crisscrossing in ways that I hadn't before noticed. Culturaltheorists have famously written about the disorientation the building is said to inspire — how easily you can feel lost.
And what a privilege it is.
Thanks, Harry, for the nudge to go and spend a couple leisurely hours getting lost in a quintessentially Los Angeles riddle.
Everyone should do it.
Keep up with LAist.
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Robert Garrova
explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published January 31, 2026 5:00 AM
USC dramatic writing professor Oliver Mayer.
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Julian Conde
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Topline:
Oliver Mayer is an award-winning playwright and professor of dramatic writing at USC — and he's been named by his students the "most calming professor" at the school.
The backstory: Mayer won a competition at the university set up by the Trojan Health Club and mental health company Calm to find the most tranquil teacher.
The prize: He was awarded the opportunity to record a Sleep Story for Calm app users.
Read on ... to listen to a sample of his calming narration.
Oliver Mayer is an award-winning playwright and professor of dramatic writing at USC. But recently he found out his students love him for yet another talent: the "most calming professor."
“Are my students falling asleep in my class?" he said, joking.
Mayer won a competition at the university set up by the Trojan Health Club and mental health company Calm to find the most tranquil teacher. Students voted him most calming professor and he was awarded the opportunity to record a Sleep Story for Calm app users.
The professor said, for him, it means more than ever to be considered a voice of calm, especially in what he calls the “upside down days” we’re living through. And Mayer also enjoyed being a twilight tour guide for his city.
“I do love the idea that not only might I be calming someone with a route through Los Angeles, but I’m also hopefully inspiring students and everyone else to explore their cities, Los Angeles and otherwise,” he said.
Mayer's sunset trek includes an audio journey to the Griffith Observatory: “Our climb ends. Here we are: The perfect place to fall asleep under the stars," he says on the recording.
"And we easily find a spot to park.”
Maybe the most calming words an Angeleno can hear.
Makenna Sievertson
leads LAist’s unofficial Big Bear bald eagle beat and has been covering Jackie and Shadow for several seasons.
Published January 30, 2026 4:17 PM
Jackie returned to the nest after one of the eggs were confirmed to have cracked on Friday.
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Friends of Big Bear Valley
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YouTube
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Topline:
Big Bear’s famous bald eagle nest has taken a turn — both of Jackie and Shadow’s eggs have been attacked by ravens.
What happened: Via livestream, a raven could be seen in the nest poking a large hole into, and potentially eating, one of the eagle eggs.
Why it matters: Jackie and Shadow have a large fanbase.
“Our hearts are with Jackie and Shadow always and we wrap our arms around them,” Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media and website manager, wrote in a Facebook update. “Our hearts are also with you eagle fam, we know how you are feeling now."
Big Bear’s famous bald eagle nest has taken a turn — both of Jackie and Shadow’s eggs have been attacked by ravens.
In the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake, a raven could be seen poking a large hole into, and potentially eating, one of the eagle eggs. The intrusion was noticed on a popular YouTube livestream run by the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley.
Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media and website manager, confirmed the crack in Friends of Big Bear Valley’s official Facebook group, which has nearly 400,000 members, after Jackie and Shadow were away from the nest, and eggs, for several hours Friday.
Voisard told LAist one of the eggs may still be partly intact, but both eggs are believed to be breached. Jackie returned to their nest shortly after the raven left to lay on the remaining egg, according to organization records.
“Our hearts are with Jackie and Shadow always and we wrap our arms around them,” Voisard wrote. “Our hearts are also with you eagle fam, we know how you are feeling now."
“Step away from the screen when needed,” she continued in the post. “Try and rest tonight.”
How we got here
Jackie laid the first egg of the season around 4:30 p.m. last Friday and the second egg around 5:10 p.m. Monday as thousands of eager fans watched online.
Bald eagles generally have one clutch per season, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley. A second clutch is possible if the eggs don’t make it through the early incubation process.
For example, Jackie laid a second clutch in February 2021 after the first round of eggs was broken or destroyed by ravens the month before.
Jackie and Shadow may have the left the nest unattended Friday because they knew on some level "that not everything was right," Voisard wrote.
"We are hopeful however, because bald eagles can lay replacement clutches if something happens early enough in the season," she continued. "The fact that the raven came to do its job so quickly may be just what Jackie and Shadow needed."
A raven is believed to have breached both eggs in Big Bear's famous nest.
