The Brief

It’s no secret that South L.A., like many parts of the city, faces a major equity issue when it comes to tree coverage. Roughly 13% of South L.A. is covered by a tree canopy compared to 23% across the rest of the city, contributing to higher temperatures, more air pollution, and reduced shade, among a host of other health and safety concerns.

While the data are important to understanding the disparity, a new study from researchers at the University of Southern California tackles the issue through a different lens, compiling interviews with stakeholders and community members in South L.A. about what they would like to see as trees are planted in the area.

“What we were really interested in is sort of coming to the table and just sort of asking people really open ended questions,” said USC urban planning professor and lead researcher Santina Contreras. “What are your needs? What are your interests? What are your priorities? What sort of challenges have you faced? What are your recommendations moving forward?”

Not as simple as just planting trees

As the saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” But when trees go into the ground without proper planning, issues like sidewalk upkeep, pruning, watering, and planting of invasive species can flare up.

That’s why Contreras said the aim of the study was “shifting the conversation a bit away from just ‘trees are good,’ and leaving it at that, and having a more detailed conversation about what's that going to involve.”

Residents brought up concerns regarding limited resources available for tree planting and maintenance, especially since South L.A. has historically been under-resourced in many aspects of city planning.

“We heard lots of stories about, ‘Yes, I would like them, but, am I going to be responsible for them? Who's going to water it? You know, what's the long term plan for maintenance?’” Contreras said.

Trees’ thorny association with other issues

Trees were obviously the focus of the researchers’ questions, but respondents also mentioned a host of other issues facing South L.A. Researchers then followed up on the concerns as they were mentioned.

“That's part of what's embedded in doing a really rigorous qualitative study is sort of seeing unprompted that these are things that lots of different people bring up,” Contreras said.

Rising rents and displacement in South L.A. neighborhoods were two of the issues that respondents brought up in conjunction with tree planting.

“I've also heard [people] say, ‘When we see white people coming in and planting trees, we know the rents are going up,’” said one participant quoted in the USC study. “So trees, on some level, represent gentrification, and gentrification means that they are going to have to leave.”

Money doesn’t grow on trees

Another common refrain had to do with allocation of resources to South L.A. neighborhoods overall, especially as funding and resources in the predominantly low-income region are already stretched thin.

“We have some quotes from folks that are talking about [how] trees are a value, but also, what does that mean in terms of getting access to housing and health care and all these other sorts of issues?” Contreras said.

Need for trees

Respondents also highlighted the benefits of sufficient tree cover, including more water capture, improvements in mental health, opportunities for connections with neighbors, and of course, the physical health benefits and cooling effects that more trees could bring to the urban canopy.

“That's something that I think is hopefully an important takeaway from this, really thinking about the holistic piece of how tree planting fits into planning more broadly for communities,” Contreras said.

Many of the study’s takeaways highlighted the desire for providing more sustainable tree canopy, including issues that may be familiar to tree planters anywhere.

“There's a strong interest in making sure that we have native species to California, as the people are very aware of all the different types of problems that we face from an environmental standpoint,” Contreras said.

While planting too much of one sort of tree isn’t ideal for biodiversity, researchers also highlighted the positive effects it can have on neighborhood identity and sense of place.

“People can say, ‘Hey, we're the [neighborhood of] yellow trumpet trees! We're the neighborhood of all the Hong Kong orchid trees!’” one survey respondent said. “It is beautiful. You look down a certain street, and you see all the jacarandas [that] bloom at the same time. You're like, ‘Oh, wow, what harmony!’"”

The researchers stopped short of making any specific policy recommendations — especially as South L.A. is made of diverse neighborhoods that may need different approaches — but they do plan to present the findings to local planners and officials in order to underline the concerns of South L.A. residents and start a dialog about best practices when it comes to planting more trees.

“It's a little more arduous, but it's more beneficial if you actually outreach and directly engage elements of the community in the tree planning, rather than having a top-down [process where] the city of Los Angeles comes through and plants trees…because you don't get the buy-in,” said another community member quoted in the report. “And you don't get the true benefit of using the trees to connect communities to make stronger, better communities.”

Should surgeons be allowed to perform euthanasia by removing patients' hearts and other organs while they're still alive?

The idea, dubbed "Death by Organ Donation," would enable euthanasia patients to donate organs for transplantation in a way that would make their organs more likely to be usable. It would also kill them.

"It would be an ethical thing to do because this is something the patients have chosen for themselves," says Dr. Robert Truog, a physician and bioethicist at Harvard Medical School who co-authored a paper outlining Death by Organ Donation in the New England Journal of Medicine. "They have very generously thought: 'How might my death help other people?' It's a very altruistic, generous thing to do.'"

But the idea is controversial for a variety of reasons, including because it goes against fundamental principles that have guided organ donation for decades. The Dead Donor Rule requires that patients must be dead before any organs are removed. Doctors also can't kill patients in the process of removing organs.

The rule has long generated intense debate, including disputes over how to precisely determine when a person is dead, as well as the development of new ways to extend the lives of dying patients and recover usable organs for transplants.

At the same time, many countries, including Canada, the Netherlands and Spain, have made it legal for doctors to help patients die through euthanasia.

"What if they chose to be organ donors? The problem is that under current standards doctors must not cause death in the process of procuring organs for transplant," Truog says.

So hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys can only be removed from euthanasia patients after they have received a lethal dose of drugs, which makes their organs, especially their hearts, much less useful for transplantation.

"Why would it not be OK for patients to say, 'I've chosen to die by a lethal injection. Isn't there some way I can help others?' They should be able to donate organs as a lasting gift to others. And denying them that option doesn't seem to make any sense," Truog says. "I would say a more appropriate framework is that for patients who are choosing to die from euthanasia they could also choose to have euthanasia linked with organ donation."

A "creepy idea" that might have merit

Euthanasia involves doctors administering lethal drugs to cause the death of a patient. The practice is illegal in the U.S., but a growing number of states have legalized assisted-suicide, in which doctors give patients lethal drugs to take at home.

Instead of a doctor administering lethal medication to a patient, Death by Organ Donation patients would end the patient's life by anesthetizing them and then removing their organs while they are still functioning.

"So the organs would still be in ideal condition," says Truog says.

Some other bioethicists say the argument could have merit.

"The concept of death by donation is an extremely troubling notion at first glance. It's a creepy idea," says Ruth Faden, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University. "But in fact if you look at it critically in terms of the foundational ethical considerations, it's not as disturbing as it first appears."

That's because, she says, of the spread and acceptance of euthanasia and the desires of some of those patients to be organ donors.

"If we're committed to respecting the autonomy of individuals at the end of their life. And if they prefer to maximize the good their bodies can do at the end of their life, that's the ethical justification for death by donation," Faden says. She adds it would be important for strong safeguards to be implemented to ensure full informed consent and to protect patients from abuse.

A shift could undermine patient trust

But some other bioethicists are horrified by the mere notion.

"This is asking surgeons to take a living person into the operating room and to come out with a dead person, which I think is murder," says Lainie Friedman Ross, a bioethicist at the University of Rochester. "There are limits to consent. And one of the things we're not allowed to do is consent to saying that somebody else can just murder you."

Others worry this approach would undermine trust in both organ donation and end-of-life care at a time when some potential donors are already wary because of controversies about organ procurement efforts.

"You could be doing real damage to both the physician-assisted suicide system and the organ donation system," says Lori Andrews, a bioethicist and professor emerita at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "It might give people the image that these are vultures that no longer wait until you die to attack. It does give up visions of body snatchers from prior centuries."

Critics also fear that allowing Death by Donation for euthanasia patients could open the door to someday saying it would be acceptable practice for physician-assisted suicide patients and even potentially hospice patients.

But others argue that for now this approach could be considered for at least some euthanasia patients.

"If there are people who want to donate organs, this would be the way to maximize their wishes and their altruistic goal to help others," says Dr. Carter Winberg, a Canadian critical care physician working on his master's degree in bioethics at Harvard who co-authored the New England Journal of Medicine paper. "These are people who are already consenting to voluntary euthanasia and already consent to organ donation. That warrants a new conversation about whether this is possibly ethical."
Copyright 2026 NPR

With the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening in Exposition Park this fall, residents who share the South L.A. ZIP code will be able to visit for free with a new pass, officials announced Thursday.

Some members of the community will also be invited into the museum for a preview day a little more than a week before the Sept. 22 grand opening.

Other tickets are going up for grabs starting next week, with members of the museum getting priority access before general admission opens to the public the following week.

CEO Tracey Bates told LAist the 300,000-square-foot building feels comforting, intimate and familiar once you walk inside. Its collection represents more than 40,000 works, and Bates said it platforms artists you may have never seen in a museum before.

“I think as an Angeleno, the sheer love of what this city is built on — storytelling, filmmaking, illustration — is something to really come and take in,” Bates said. “And hopefully inspire you to become a creative when you leave us.”

Here’s what you need to know to get in.

Neighborhood pass

Angelenos who live in the museum’s 90037 ZIP code will have exclusive access to the “LM37” pass, which allows free tickets to be reserved for themselves and one guest.

A portion of tickets will be set aside for passholders for the opening and beyond, according to officials.

The LM37 program launches in August. Those interested in registering for the pass should sign up here.

There will also be a special community preview day on Sept. 13 for partners, local business owners and civic leaders. Officials said tickets to the preview day will be handed out through local government officials, community partners and directly to registered passholders.

“We really wanted to make sure our neighbors were some of the first people through the door to thank them,” Bates said.

Priority access

Founding members will get the first shot at snagging tickets, starting with the highest tiers.

People who got the Insider membership for $375 and Alliance membership for $600 will have access to tickets starting at 10 a.m. July 14.

Priority tickets will be open to all members by 10 a.m. July 15, including the $140 Access tier and $270 Social tier.

Members will also get a preview from Sept. 5 through Sept. 11 before the museum officially opens to the public later that month.

You can find more membership information here.

General admission

General tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. July 21. Visitors will be able to reserve a spot from the opening date through the end of next February.

Adults will cost $25 and people aged 65 and older will be $21.

All tickets are timed entry, and you can share them with your party if you buy more than one. You’ll have to create an account to accept and access the shared ticket. Whoever purchases the tickets will be required to keep at least one in their account, according to museum officials.

Tickets for children, founding members, active-duty military, personal aides or attendants and EBT cardholders will be free.

Bates said one of the key missions of the museum is inspiring the next generation of storytellers, and the free options help get as many people through the doors as possible.

“We just want to make sure that nobody is limited to come to the museum and enjoy what we hope the museum will inspire in everybody,” she said.

You can find more ticket information here.

More to come

More tickets will be released once museum officials get a sense of how the first several months sell, and next year’s programming will also be announced at a later date.

Bates noted that the 2028 Olympics will bring in visitors from around the world. She said that if people’s first trip to South L.A. is for the Lucas Museum, she hopes they will come back and spend time in the rest of Exposition Park, including the Natural History Museum and California Science Center.

“With the wealth of cultural events that are going to be happening over the next two years, the Super Bowl and LA28, there's just so much going on,” she said. “We're just very proud to be a part of this rich history of Los Angeles.”

The U.S. may be knocked out, but that doesn’t mean the World Cup action in L.A. is slowing down one bit. Pick your new favorite to root for, then head to one of the fan fests to find friends from all over the world. This weekend, Venice Beach and Whittier Narrows are both hosting events with big screens, food, music and more.

Music-wise, Friday it’s your prerogative to go old-school with Bobby Brown at the Saban Theatre, or see Bone Thugs-N-Harmony at the Garden Amphitheatre. You can go a bit more new-school with DRAM at the Blue Note, or rock out with Belmont at the Roxy. Plus, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore are at McCabe’s.

Licorice Pizza’s Lyndsey Parker is a long-time Adam Lambert fan, so you can find her at the Bellwether Friday night, catching the former Idol and current Queen frontman.

On Saturday, 5 Seconds of Summer with the Band CAMINO play the Forum; Wolfmother make their howling return at the Wiltern; the I Love Oldies fest is at Pershing Square Park with the Chi-Lites, Heatwave, the Stylistics and the Delphonics. Joji is at the Intuit Dome, and Flying Lotus is at the Blue Note — those two shows are happening Sunday, too.

Also on Sunday, 93-year-young Willie Nelson will be at the Pacific Amphitheatre; Wynonna Judd and special guest Melissa Etheridge are at Great Park Live; and bluegrass star Molly Tuttle plays the Majestic Ventura Theater.

Elsewhere on LAist, you can read up on the taco spot aiming to be the next In-N-Out, learn about where you’re most likely to get a parking ticket in L.A., and the Olvera Street shopkeepers have something to say about that reported World Cup business “boom.”

Events

MUSE/IQUE: Defiantly Joni

Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12
Mark Taper Forum 
135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: FROM $40.25; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy MUSE/IQUE

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LA ensemble MUSE/IQUE takes on iconic songstress Joni Mitchell’s history and hits in this career-sweeping look. From “Chelsea Morning” to “Both Sides Now,” the ensemble, led by Artistic Director Rachael Worby, combines visuals and expert musicians to bring cultural history to life onstage as part of the CTG: FWD series at the Music Center.

Mahjong Social

Sunday, July 12, 1:30 p.m. 
Hammer Museum 
10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

A game of mahjong underway at Intergenerational Mahjong in Monterey Park.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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Clack clack clack! Fit in an afternoon of film, play and connection with Mahjong Mistress, whose instructors will be on hand to lead mahjong tables, teach beginners and welcome everyone to the centuries-old tile game. But first, catch a screening of Edward Yang’s Mahjong (1996), a “fast-moving portrait of Taipei in the ’90s where every interaction feels like a high-stakes game.”

Music of the Films of Wes Anderson 

Friday to Sunday, July 10 to 12
Hollywood Bowl 
2301 Highland Ave., Hollywood 
COST: FROM $15; MORE INFO

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Courtesy the LA Phil

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I’m going to come right out and say that this is the music event of the summer at the Bowl for a certain aging hipster crowd of Angelenos to which I definitely belong. I realize it’s going to be 90 degrees, but Margo Tannenbaum would still be in her fur coat and thick eyeliner, and so should you (well, a fake fur coat, anyway). A cast of indie stars of stage and screen join the fun, including Juliette Lewis, Rufus Wainwright, Beck, Jackson Browne, Jason Schwartzman and Steve Zissou himself, Bill Murray.

Centennial Festival 

Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
L.A. Central Library 
630 W. 5th St., Downtown L.A. 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Is there a better birthday party than one for a library? The L.A. Central Library is a survivor (see: Susan Orlean’s The Library Book), and what better way to celebrate than with a bevy of L.A. bands from the Linda Lindas to Lucy Kalantari & the Jazz Cats. Plus tons of activities and exhibits like Luceros y Penumbras: The World's Largest Pop-Up Book, created by L.A. artist Daniel González, about growing up in Boyle Heights.

Bad Hair

Saturday, July 11, 2 p.m.
North Hollywood, address on RSVP
COST: FROM $45; MORE INFO

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Courtesy Bad Hair

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Watching Bridgerton, I was blown away by the elaborate wigs and hairpieces — how do they do it?! Learn how to make your own bird’s nest or macaron-inspired wig at the new creative event Bad Hair (though it kind of looks more like "insanely fabulous hair," if you ask me). Guests take wigs and make them into original, wearable artworks with all kinds of unusual accoutrements. Join the group’s inaugural event at Miniluxe in North Hollywood.

Rail Giants Train Museum

Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12 
L.A. County Fair Complex 
1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy Rail Giants Train Museum

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Train fiends, this is for you. The second weekend of the month means the Rail Giants Train Museum is pulling into the L.A. County Fair Complex. Check out steam locomotives, the largest surviving diesel locomotive, plus the historic Arcadia Depot and much more train lore.

UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art 

Ongoing 
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa 
COST: FREE, MORE INFO

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Estate of Raymond Saunders

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UC Irvine Orange County Museum of Art

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Three new exhibits recently opened at the always-free OCMA. Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden takes a sweeping look at Black artist Raymond Saunders' painting work, Staging California in Early Hollywood acknowledges the artistry of set designers and painters in the early studio system, and Jon Serl: As One Many examines his work from 1940s rural California through the late 20th century. All three exhibits are on view through the summer.

Rhythm & Flow 

Saturday, July 11, 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. 
Aliza Hotel 
710 Rose Ave., Venice 
COST: $25; MORE INFO 

Get up early and hit the Pilates mat for a special reset by the beach at the Aliza Hotel in Venice. A mat Pilates flow class starts at 9:30 a.m., followed by a restorative sound bath from 10:15 to 10:40 a.m. and a live DJ set from MANDAS.

L.A. Pizza Run Club: West Hollywood

Sunday, July 12, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Prince Street Pizza
9161 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood
COST: $30; MORE INFO

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The LA Countdown

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Eventbrite

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If you love pizza and running, then we've got an event for you. Our friend at the L.A. Countdown, aka gourmand-about-town Luca Servodio, is hosting a charity fun run/walk from Prince Street Pizza to Bar Next Door, benefiting Soccer Without Borders. There's a three-mile run or a mile-and-a-half walk option, finishing with Bar Next Door's bar pies and Henry's Secret Ice Cream (the first 30 sign-ups get a free half-pint). And don’t worry if the running isn’t your thing; you can just come for the food and cocktails part. -Gab Chabrán

This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass.

The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program's graduates don't earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor's degree.

"If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers," said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in a recent statement.

But this new test, known as "do no harm," raises some thorny questions about the purpose of college. Like: Is it just about making more money?

Some advocates for postsecondary arts education think not.

"Earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle," said Lee Ann Scotto Adams, executive director of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a nonprofit that studies the careers of arts graduates.

She and Doug Dempster, the president of SNAAP, worry the new test might lead colleges and universities to preemptively slash low-earning creative arts programs in music, theater, studio art and design. Dempster says that could lead to a further devaluing of jobs that are critical to a well-functioning society.

"We know we need nurses. We know we need journalists. We know we need early childhood educators," he said. "We don't know how many artists we need, but I can guarantee that if you eliminate access, we will impoverish our cultural life nationally."

How the new standard will work

The new earnings test comes courtesy of last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a slew of big higher education policy changes meant to address rising concerns over the cost and value of college.

Higher education experts across the political spectrum told NPR the test sets a pretty reasonable expectation: In many states, federal data shows, graduates of bachelor programs will have to earn a minimum of about $30,000 and $41,000 a year for their program to pass.

"This is really a very low floor," said Christopher Madaio, a senior adviser at the nonprofit The Institute for College Access & Success. "I mean, high school earnings is not an exceedingly high metric for a program to meet."

Programs fail the test when they don't meet the earnings requirement for two out of three consecutive years.

The current test does not take student loan debt into account, which means there's no way to distinguish between a graduate who is struggling with low pay while being debt-free and a graduate who is struggling with low pay while also paying off tens of thousands of dollars in loans.

The Education Department says it will begin calculating the first year of graduate earnings in early 2027, and "some programs could be designated as low-earning outcome programs beginning in the 2028-2029 [financial aid] award year."

The kinds of programs that are likely to fail

According to Education Department estimates, the vast majority of undergraduate and graduate programs should easily pass the new earnings test.

But more than 800,000 students attend a program that would likely fail the measure, according to department data. Roughly half of those students are enrolled in for-profit schools, which already have a reputation for shortchanging students.

Other takeaways from the department's data:

• About 18% of undergraduate certificate programs, which often bill themselves as career-focused fast tracks, would fail the earnings test. Specifically, certificate programs in cosmetology and somatic body work have the highest predicted failure rates.
• Two-year associate degree programs have the next highest failure rate, at 6%. Associate programs that train specialized educators, including early childhood educators, are the most likely to fail. 
  
• Most traditional, four-year bachelor programs fare well, with roughly 1% failing the earnings test. When these programs do fail, it's often in areas like theater, music and studio art.
• About 4% of master's degree programs would fail, with the highest failure rates for programs teaching mental and social health services.

For one music teacher, it was "never about the money"

Some of the United States' most prestigious music programs — known for training the country's most talented young musicians — are among the 14% of bachelor music programs predicted to fail the new earnings test, according to Education Department data. That includes The Juilliard School in New York City, the New England Conservatory in Boston and Indiana University Bloomington's Jacobs School of Music.

The undergraduate music program that Cindy Flores attended at Portland State University (PSU) also wouldn't pass. Flores teaches mariachi music to middle and high school students at Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Cindy Flores smiles as she teaches mariachi to students at McKay High School in Salem, Oregon.

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Eli Imadali

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OPB

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Her path to becoming a full-time music teacher started with studying music education at PSU; then she got an educators license from Western Oregon University — and she used federal student loans to help pay for all of it.

She now holds close to $55,000 in federal student loan debt.

Flores said she wouldn't be where she is now without that access to federal aid.

"If it wasn't for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn't be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students," she said.

But given the new federal test, future PSU music students might not have the same access to federal student loans that Flores did.

She said she feels lucky to have found a job that she's passionate about and that pays a living wage. But, for her, a career in music was about much more than a paycheck.

"It is never about the money," she said. "I realized I wanted to have a career in music when I was in the eighth grade, because every music teacher I had were such good role models in my life and I wanted to be part of that community."

Defining success in the arts

SNAAP's Lee Ann Scotto Adams said the federal government's one-size-fits-all accountability approach doesn't make sense for students graduating from creative arts programs because wages aren't the only measure of success for studio artists, musicians and designers.

"Yes, you need to earn money to make a living, but we see our creative workers want the ability to have independence in their work. They want jobs that are socially conscious. They want to make an impact culturally," Adams said. "These are all metrics that fall outside of just straightforward earnings metrics."

She also takes issue with looking at earnings in the first few years after graduation. Adams points to SNAAP survey data that shows arts graduates often have unpredictable incomes at the beginning of their careers, but their pay tends to stabilize and increase over time.

"Looking at earnings as the sole metric of success is very limited, and that's because artists have nonlinear careers," Adams said. "For the most part, people who graduate from these programs move into careers that they're personally satisfied with."

Students considering any of the at-risk programs won't immediately lose access to federal aid. While the accountability test is being rolled out this month, its implementation will be phased in over the next couple of years.
Copyright 2026 NPR