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.

(

Andrew Lopez

/

Boyle Heights Beat

)

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.

(

Brian De Los Santos

/

LAist

)

‘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.”

Topline:

The backstory: Once a year, dozens of sound artists converge on the hill with views of the harbor below to perform their audio art, which can range from serene to “beautifully weird.”

What to expect: This year includes a performer bending a bar of tin with his bare hands to get it to emit what’s called a "tin cry" and synthesizer-based soundscapes that take inspiration from both the ocean and the industrial space below.

When to go: Soundpedro is free and lasts from 7-10 p.m. Saturday.

More info at the Soundpedro website.

You may know about Union Station as an L.A. landmark or as a transportation hub — but how much do you know about its rich architectural history?

To foster that interest and knowledge, Metro created a series of public tours of the station this spring.

“There's so much that you might just walk by without really having the opportunity to delve deeply into,” said Zipporah Lax Yamamoto, deputy executive officer of Metro’s art program. “[The tours are] a really wonderful opportunity to be able to spend time with the station, learn more about the historic landmark, which belongs to all of us.”

Union Station in Los Angeles

(

Myung J. Chun

/

Getty Images

)

Architectural style

It’s called Union Station because when it opened in 1939, it connected the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway.

While it was designed by father-and-son team Donald and John Parkinson, the architects who gave us L.A. City Hall, its style is very different. Union Station’s interior and exterior mixes art deco, Spanish colonial and other styles into a hybrid dubbed Mission Moderne.

As you begin the tour, entering from Alameda Street, tour guides ask you to look up at the decorative elements in the high ceilings. The beams and geometric patterns may look like wood — but they’re actually just painted to look that way.

A community destroyed by development

Along the way, the tour gives background on pieces created more than 30 years ago. These include "City of Dreams/River of History" by artists May Sun and Richard Wyatt in 1995. Sun’s piece uses remnants of the Chinese American homes torn down to build the station, a reference to the high price that community paid for this building’s construction.

Detail from "City of Dreams/River of History," created by artists May Sun and Richard Wyatt at Union Station.

(

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

)

“It was an enormous price. Chinatown ceased to exist in this area. … The families that lived here during that time are still around and maintain archives of that time period and the original Chinatown here, and we've worked with those families to have those objects on display,” Lax Yamamoto said.

Meanwhile, Wyatt’s large-scale mural includes the face of a Chinese man, along with nine other people of different races, ethnicities and ages; a nod to the diversity of the city since its founding in the late 1700s.

There are also stops to see new art installed for the World Cup.

A mural by Richard Wyatt at Union Station

(

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

)

There are three tours left in the series but the RSVPs have reached their maximum; however, Lax Yamamoto said Metro will decide whether to continue them based on what people have thought about the tours.

Meanwhile, Union Station is set to swell with people in the next couple of months as L.A. hosts World Cup games. The station is the site of an official FIFA-sponsored Fan Zone from June 25-28.

When I first came to the states many years ago, if I’d mentioned Arsenal, people would have thought I was referring to the U.S. military or something. But all that has changed. You can now watch U.K. premier league games in sports bars, most kids play soccer, and Ted Lasso is must-watch TV.

To which I say — welcome. We English are proud of the fact that soccer began with us more than 150 years ago. And every World Cup, we think, surely this will be the year that the trophy returns home — the year that we’ll win!

Queen Elizabeth II awarding the Jules Rimet World Cup Trophy to Bobby Moore after England won the 1966 World Cup final at Wembley.

(

Marc Atkins/Getty Images

/

Getty Images Europe

)

I mean it did happen … once… back in 1966. It’s such a long time ago the game was televised in black and white and shillings were still being used. My mother was nine months pregnant with my brother, and got so excited jumping up and down she went into labor and had him the next day. World Cup Willie they called him. Actually his name is David, but never mind.

Since then, every four years everyone in the U.K. watches the games with bated breath. And then something stupid will happen, and we’ll lose, like that time in 1998 when David Beckham (who played for England before he came to L.A. Galaxy) lost his temper and was sent off, and we’ll sit there, gloomy and despondent. I know because I was there in my friend’s living room in London, gloomy and despondent, thinking just once, just once, maybe could we please have a win?

David Beckham's infamous 1998 red card in the England vs. Argentina game.

(

Richard Sellers/Allstar/Getty Images

/

Getty Images Europe

)

The last World Cup, I went to Ye Olde Kings Head in Santa Monica to watch England play. At 7 a.m. it was full of people already on their third pint of beer. And when the team got through to the next round, the gentle men of England ran outside the pub, whipped off their shirts and started weaving through traffic, singing football chants and acting like hooligans. I really couldn’t decide if I was embarrassed or if it felt like home.

Anyway, this time, since I’m now an American citizen, it’s in my contract that I need to support Team USA. I’m a dual citizen, though, so I’ll also be cheering for England. If by any chance Team USA and England play each other, my two selves will be watching, with a cup of tea in one hand, and a cold brewski in the other, and the polarities will explode, or something. But what will probably happen is that both teams will be eclipsed by Brazil or France playing the beautiful game… beautifully. Cheers.

Stereotypes die hard. Los Angeles actually has a massive public transport system serving the region, which boasts the world's longest light rail line in the form of the 58-mile long Line A (or for old-timers, the Blue line) and tons of buses.

But if you opt to engage in the gladiator sport that is L.A. driving — a reminder you're going to need to park that thing too.

Here's where we come in.

Curb parking

No surprise, our curbs are painted in different colors with different restrictions.

Heads up: Red, White and Blue curb regulations are in effect 24/7, unless otherwise noted. And additional restrictions could apply if posted on a sign, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

Red Curbs — Nope

• No stopping, parking or standing 
• Doesn't matter if there's a driver or passenger inside the car

Yellow Curbs — Depends

• For commercial loading only
• Vehicles with a commercial license plate can park here, but only if they are actively loading or unloading stuff, for a maximum of 30 minutes
• Restrictions are in effect Monday through Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. unless otherwise posted on signs
  
  • That means you can park in yellow zones after 6:00 p.m. with no restrictions, unless otherwise noted
• Vehicles without a commercial license plate may load and unload passengers or baggage, for a maximum of 5 minutes

White Curbs — You gotta get going fast

• Passenger loading only for a maximum of 5 minutes

Blue Curbs (Accessible Parking Zones) — If you have the placard

Those famous 'clashing' L.A. parking signs

Before we move on to other facets of parking in Los Angeles. We want to take a moment to address a persistent complaint about confusing parking signs that are often clustered together.

When you encounter this phenomenon, we suggest patience. You don't need a degree in math, probably just a pen and paper.

For the sign in the video, here's when you can and cannot park (we think):

• No parking on Mondays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. because of street cleaning
  
  • all other days you can park between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., but please be aware there's a 2 hour parking limit
• Every night, you can stop your vehicle for 10 minutes only for passenger loading between 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
  
  • If the curb is not white, then you can park outside of the 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. window without that restriction
• You can park for 2 hours:
  
  • Between Tuesdays and Saturdays between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
  • But remember on Mondays, parking is prohibited from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. because of street cleaning
  • On Sunday, you can park for 2 hours between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Heads up: When in doubt, find somewhere else to park.

Meter parking

LADOT says it operates some 38,000 parking meters in the city. Sometimes it feels as if there are as many meter enforcement people out there.

There are different ways to pay — coins, credit cards, and via text or an app at a number of meters.

Heads up: If a meter is broken, meaning it cannot accept coins or a credit card, then you can only park for free up to the posted time limit.

Other no-no's

Here are several other no parking rules, pulled from this list from LADOT

• In alleys, except for to unload things or passengers
• Within 15 feet of a fire station driveway or fire hydrant
• No double parking
• In a center median strip, unless signs indicate otherwise

Parking on a federal holiday

Certain city parking regulations are not enforced on national holidays. They are enforced on state holidays.

• Time Limit
• Parking meters
• No Parking with specified days and times only
• No stopping with specified days and times only
• Street sweeping (also not enforced the day after Thanksgiving and after Farmworkers Day)

If a national holiday falls on a Saturday it will be observed by the city on a Friday. If it falls on a Sunday it will be observed by the city on a Monday. Parking restrictions are not enforced on both the holiday and the observed holiday.