The Brief

Tree planting programs across the U.S. are on the chopping block as a result of federal funding cuts under the billionaire Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.

The cuts include $75 million to the U.S. Forest Service, $1 million to nonprofits in Nashville and $12 million to Philadelphia.

In Los Angeles, thousands of trees may now go unplanted.

“We’re taking a hit somewhere to close to $2.5 million, which for a small nonprofit is a big deal,” says Aaron Thomas,  director of urban forestry for North East Trees.

North East Trees is a tree-planting nonprofit that primarily operates in low-income communities in Los Angeles like Watts, Boyle Heights and Northeast and South L.A. They build parks, run cleanup events in the L.A. River and plant thousands of shade trees.

“Between 80 and 90% of our budget is from government grants,” Thomas said.

This year’s funding is largely spoken for thanks to grants from CalFire, but since “the Biden administration secured so much funding for urban greening, California decided to not use their own funding for these kinds of programs going forward,” he added.

North East Trees applied for federal grants for 2026, which Thomas says were approved. But with federal dollars gone, Thomas and his team will run out of funding by the end of this year.

That will mean abandoning projects to plant 1,000 trees in Watts and another 1,000 trees in eastern unincorporated L.A. County, Thomas said.

A woman shades herself on a street with few trees in Boyle Heights.

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Andrew Lopez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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A loss of essential infrastructure

Research has shown that people living near fewer trees die earlier.

One study found that just three trees can lower the chance of health-related deaths by 1%. With adequate funding, nonprofits like North East Trees can plant several hundred trees in an afternoon.

“If we can't continue to regenerate and rejuvenate our urban forests, we're in deep trouble,” said Esther Margulies, a professor of landscape architecture at USC.

“Trees  are essential pieces of our city's infrastructure,” she said. “They do everything from providing cooling, to retaining storm water, to supporting habitats, to promoting physical and mental health.”

Marguiles said the parts of Los Angeles with the fewest trees tend to be lower-income, and would feel the federal budget freezes the most.

“People who depend on transit, people don’t have air conditioning, kids walking to school in the morning… These people really need shade,” she said.

But the benefits of increased tree canopy are universal, she added.

“When temperatures rise and there is more heat, we see more chemical reactions that increase ozone and other substances that are harmful to our health,” Marguiles said, adding that some trees are able to also absorb some of these chemicals. “So the cooler we make our environment, the more we fight the urban heat island, the better our air quality will be.”

Aaron Thomas poses in front of the Ramona Gardens housing development where he has been planting trees for many years, photographed in 2022.

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Brian De Los Santos

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LAist

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‘A ricochet effect’

Millions of dollars of lost grant funding affects more than just the trees themselves.

North East Trees hires people in the communities where they work. And they purchase most of their trees from a nursery in Watts, supporting the local economy.

It’s not just North East Trees, Thomas said.

“The larger urban forestry community and other nonprofits, L.A. city, all of them are taking hits," he said. "Collectively, there will be a ricochet effect across all of our partners.”

Thomas said he anticipated budget cuts in the wake of President Donald Trump’s return to office. But, he added, when the cuts were announced, “it was shocking nonetheless.”

“Real people's lives — vulnerable people — will be hurt unnecessarily," he said. "That should not be okay with anyone."

Despite losing nearly 90% of their funding for next year, Thomas said their mission is as important as ever. He hopes private funding and state partnerships can make up some of the losses.

“We just have to work through this to make sure that our communities here in Los Angeles have the quality of life that they deserve,” he said. “Act locally, think globally. We can't let anything prevent us from doing that.”

For anyone who doesn't think Los Angeles is serious about pizza, they've never been to Pizza City Fest.

Now in its fourth year, the festival returns to L.A. LIVE's Event Deck this weekend — from 1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday — showcasing the full range of styles that define SoCal's pizza scene. The event was founded by three-time Emmy and 13-time James Beard Award-winning food reporter Steve Dolinsky, who has built Pizza City Fest into a three-city operation spanning Chicago, Nashville and Los Angeles. This year, 40 pizzerias will be offering unlimited tastings — general admission runs $99 a day, VIP $199. (Drinks, both alcoholic and NA, are also included in the price).

Who's going to be there?

SoCal pizza isn't specific to L.A. What's most exciting about this year's lineup is how far it stretches — from Orange County and the Inland Empire to the San Fernando Valley and Santa Barbara. It’s a testament to the fact that good pizza is everywhere in the region; you just need to know where to find it.

As Dolinsky puts it: "You don't have to get in your car and drive all over Southern California to try all these great pizzas because they're all going to be made fresh, right there in one place."

Eleven out of the 40 pizzerias are making their Pizza City Fest debuts this year (marked with an asterisk).

Saturday

• Angel City Pizza (Venice)
• Anna Pizza (Valley Village)*
• Bianca Sicilian Trattoria (mobile truck — Arts District)*
• Bub & Grandma's Pizza (Highland Park)*
• Colossus (Long Beach, San Pedro)*
• Emmy Squared (DTLA)
• Esco's New York Style Pizza (Mid-City)
• Fat Lip Pizza & Beer (Corona)
• Fat Nattys (Los Angeles)*
• Joe's Pizza (Southern California)
• Mievè (Miracle Mile)*
• Mike's Firestone Pizza (Fullerton)*
• Old Gold Tomato Pies (Los Feliz)*
• Riip Beer & Pizzeria (Huntington Beach)
• Slice House by Tony Gemignani (Southern California)
• Thunderbolt Pizza (Long Beach)*
• Tribute Pizza (San Diego)
• Triple Beam Pizza (Southern California)
• Truly Pizza (Dana Point)
• Woodstock Farina (mobile truck — Oxnard)

Dessert: Lei'd Cookies (Culver City) and Uli's Gelato (Los Angeles)

Sunday

• Apollonia's Pizzeria (Mid-Wilshire)
• Bettina (Santa Barbara)
• Chi-Pie (Reseda)
• Detroit Pizza Depot (Hollywood)
• Due Fiori (Long Beach)*
• Little Dynamite (Mar Vista)
• LaSorted's (Silver Lake; Chinatown)
• Nonna Mercato (Long Beach)
• Ospi (Venice; Brentwood; Costa Mesa)
• Ozzy's Apizza (North Hollywood; Glendale)
• Naughty Pie Nature (Echo Park)
• Petramale Pizza (mobile truck — Venice)
• Pie Trap Pizza (Covina)
• PiiZaa (Mobile Truck- Torrance)*
• Pizzana (Southern California)
• Prime Pizza (Southern California)
• Prince St. Pizza (Southern California)
• Secret Pizza (El Sereno)
• Speak Cheezy (Long Beach)
• Two Doughs (Agoura Hills)

Dessert: Wanderlust Creamery (Los Angeles) and Levain Bakery (Los Angeles, Venice, Beverly Hills)

Styles upon styles

Esteban "ESCO" Gutierrez grew up in his father's Manhattan pizza shop. Now he's bringing that New York tradition to Mid-City L.A. — and to Pizza City Fest this weekend at L.A. LIVE.

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Susana Capra

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Courtesy Pizza City Fest

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Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of Pizza City Fest is the sheer range of styles on offer. Detroit, NY, Neapolitan, tavern-style, grandma pie — all under one roof. No dominant identity, and that's kind of the point. Unlike New York or Chicago, where pizza culture rallies around a single style, SoCal's scene is pluralist by nature. You've got Ozzy's Apizza repping New Haven-style, Esco's flying the New York flag, Detroit Pizza Depot doing what it says on the tin, and Bub & Grandma's doing their own artisan thing that defies easy categorization.

Keep an eye on Colossus, based in Long Beach and San Pedro, who earned a glowing review from the LA Times and is bringing a 100% sourdough crust to the fest — the kind of artisan approach Dolinsky says has defined the scene's evolution over the past four years.

And then there's PiiZaa — a mobile operation out of the Torrance Farmers Market whose name is apparently how the Vietnamese community pronounces the word. They'll be making a bánh xèo-inspired dish (a traditional stuffed crepe in pizza form) with turmeric, shrimp and pork.

As Dolinsky puts it, "That to me is very LA. Vietnamese culture meets Neapolitan pizza. That doesn't happen really anywhere else in the country." The fest isn't an argument for one style over another — it's an argument that SoCal can do all of them and do them well.

Slice House by Tony Gemignani will be serving at Pizza City Fest at L.A. LIVE this weekend.

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Susana Capra

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Courtesy Pizza City Fest

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Beyond the slices

When you get tired — or full — of stuffing your face with delicious slices, Pizza City Fest has you covered there too.

Saturday's programming kicks off with "The Dough Whisperers" at 2 p.m., featuring Nancy Silverton and Aaron Lindell of Quarter Sheets in conversation about the craft of dough, followed at 3 p.m. by a home baker's masterclass demo from Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow of SF's Flour + Water — plus a Silverton book signing after.

Sunday brings a backyard pizza oven demo at 2 p.m. from Daniele Uditi of Pizzana. At 3 p.m., Esteban Gutierrez, Sean Lango, and Vito DeCandia make the case that great New York-style pizza doesn't require a New York zip code — moderated by Noah Galuten.

The details

• Pizza City Fest runs Saturday and Sunday at the Event Deck at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles, 1–5 p.m. both days.
  
• General admission is $99 per day; VIP tickets are $199 and include one-hour early entry, access to an exclusive lounge, preferred panel seating and a swag bag.
  
• All tickets include unlimited pizza tastings, beverages, desserts and admission to all panels and demos — yes, that means drinks, both alcoholic and NA.

First-timer? Dolinsky's advice: "Go to the places that are furthest from your home ... go to the places from Corona, the IE and Covina. Who knows when you'll go there?"

Tickets at lalive.com/pizzacityfest.

In the flurry of ticket-buying that engulfed Los Angeles when Olympics sales started earlier this month, questions about the coming re-sale market loomed large.

As locals balked at ticket prices that averaged in the hundreds and went as high as $5,500, some wondered if re-sale would push costs for prospective fans even higher. Others wanted to know if they'd be able to easily recoup their money for the tickets they had splurged on. And then there was that 24% service fee — would that be charged on the resale market, too?

Officials with Olympics organizing committee LA28 have been tight-lipped about how the official resale market will work, saying only that it will launch in 2027 and have an "official marketplace" by AXS and Eventim and other platforms, including Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets.

But re-sale policies for past Olympic Games and the coming World Cup's eye-popping price tags could provide hints as to what's coming for the L.A. Olympics ticket market.

If these touchstones are any indication, fans could see even higher prices when the L.A. Olympics re-sale market opens next year. And fees — both ubiquitous and loathed across live music and sports events — will likely keep popping up every time a ticket sells or re-sells.

How have Olympics tickets been re-sold in the past?

The International Olympic Committee told LAist that host committees and host country's laws dictate rules around ticket re-sale — and in the U.S., major hikes in ticket prices on secondary markets are the norm.

The two most recent Olympic Games did not allow tickets to be re-sold for a profit on official platforms, in compliance with Italian and French local laws, according to the I.O.C. Instead, Olympics organizers in Milano Cortina in 2026 and Paris in 2024 provided a re-sale market where fans could put up their tickets at face value.

In Paris and Milan, ticket re-sellers came out in the red after being charged a 5% service fee to re-sell the ticket. LAist reviewed one person's receipt from the Paris Games who re-sold two 100 euro tickets to an archery event for €200, and got back €190. A number of fans struggled to re-sell their tickets, according to news reports.

"A lack of demand in the secondary market has left many holding tickets they cannot sell, while organisers have continued to release more tickets," the Financial Times reported just before the 2024 Olympics began.

Tickets that were re-sold included a fee for 10% of the ticket value for the new purchaser.

Olympics tickets have been re-sold for higher prices when the host country allows it, though.

At the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canadians could re-sell their tickets at any price, according to the New York Times. An article from the time declared, "Olympic Ticket Business Gets a Taste of Internet Capitalism." The Vancouver organizing committee also charged a fee on each transaction.

The L.A. Games seem poised to look more like Vancouver than Paris, since the L.A. lacks the ticket regulations of recent European hosts. In all recent cases, organizers charged fees on resold tickets, indicating the 24% service fee on 2028 tickets could be on secondary markets, too.

At a Los Angeles City Council meeting last week, LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said he didn't know how much of that fee would be going back to LA28. Hoover has repeatedly pointed out to critics that LA28 needs to deliver the Olympic Games under budget, otherwise taxpayers in L.A. and California will end up paying for cost overruns.

Will LA28 go the way of the World Cup?

Ticket sales for this summer's World Cup provide another window into where Olympics ticket prices could go.

FIFA decided not to cap re-sale prices in the U.S. and Canada for 2026 — a change in policy compared to past World Cup tournaments, according to The Athletic. (In Mexico, ticket re-sales are limited at their face value). That led tickets to be listed for way higher than their original price on the resale market, with FIFA making 30% in fees on each ticket that was re-sold.

The price tag for tickets to this summer's tournament has stoked indignation in fans and local officials alike. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani even launched an effort during his campaign asking FIFA to cap resale prices.

FIFA has also caught flak for increasing ticket prices using dynamic pricing, adjusting ticket prices based on demand. A Congressional coalition led by L.A. Democrat Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove wrote FIFA President Gianni Infantino a letter in March asking him to change course on ticket prices.

"The extreme high demand for World Cup tickets should not be a green light for price gouging at the expense of the people who make the World Cup the most-watched sporting event in the world," the coalition asserted.

Infantino has defended the prices, calling the U.S. market "very special."

Ticket prices under scrutiny

The spotlight on Olympics tickets comes as ticket sales and the companies that control them in the U.S. face growing scrutiny.

Just this month, a jury found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which merged in 2010, overcharged customers and acted as a monopoly. California was one of dozens of states that sued the company.

" What we've seen is the public reaching their own breaking point," said Morgan Harper, with the American Economic Liberties Project, a progressive group that has pushed to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation. "The prices were getting so high that people were like, 'Wait a second. Is it now also gonna be unaffordable to even go to a concert?'"

In California, lawmakers are considering legislation to limit ticket prices, including one bill to cap re-sale at just 10% above face value. Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-SF) introduced the bill, which is aimed at preventing price gouging. In an interesting twist, Live Nation has backed the bill, and critics say it will ratchet up prices by limiting competition.

Even if that bill passes, it won't apply to L.A. in 2028. The legislation specifically excludes sports and the Olympic Games.

Companies that create and manufacture personal delivery devices, those cute bots you see on public sidewalks, have been working on growth plans for years.

Cities, on whose public sidewalks the delivery bots travel, are only now catching up to regulating them and charging the companies fees.

That's what's happening in Glendale, where, City Councilman Dan Brotman says, “[The delivery bots] just appeared out of nowhere. The company that operates [them] never reached out and talked to us."

He and other council members, he said, want to know if the delivery devices make it harder for Glendale residents using wheelchairs to use public sidewalks.

“I also am curious who is getting the financial benefit from these,” he said.

Glendale’s City Council asked city staff last month to draft two proposals, one with regulations and fees and the other pausing the operation of delivery bots while the council studies their impact. Brotman said staff may deliver those proposals to him and his colleagues in the months to come.

The two largest cities in LA County, at two different stages

The City of Los Angeles approved rules for personal delivery devices a few years ago, including flat permit fees. The City Council has since asked staff in the Department of Transportation to revaluate those rules and make suggestions.

One idea being considered — charging companies for every bot trip instead of the flat fee.

A delivery robot sits next to the bike path by the beach

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Courtesy Coco

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L.A. City Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez successfully introduced the motion last year to have the regulations revisited. 

“[The companies are] starting to put movie ads or show ads, and if they're generating revenue off that, we want to know what that looks like but also be able to have a fee for them,” Hernandez said.

That report should be presented to the City Council later this year, she said. 

She’s also keen to hear from the public about their views on delivery bots. 

Companies that make the devices argue they’re providing an essential delivery service to residents while cutting down on the number of vehicles on the road making the deliveries.

“We currently pay fees in Los Angeles, Chicago and West Hollywood as part of their permit programs and are open to similar models in other cities,” said Vignesh Ram, vice president of policy at Serve Robotics, by email.

Starship Technologies' delivery robot exits the elevator in the company's office.

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Meg Kelly

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NPR

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The company is now operating in Long Beach; Ram says it notified the city before beginning to operate there.

A City of Long Beach spokesperson told LAist its business licensing, planning and public works teams are currently working on recommendations for regulations. Those should be presented to the City Council early this summer.