The Brief

First, there was President Trump’s executive order to release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in the Central Valley, a move the Feds walked back after farmers and water experts decried it as wasteful, ill-conceived — and an unnecessary risk factor for levees in the region.

The mandate, said Nicholas Pinter, a professor of applied geoscience at UC Davis who studies California’s levees, amounted to “hydrologic insanity.”

“The volume they were initially starting to release and the lack of warning to local officials — it’s hard to characterize it as anything but insane,” he said.

Then came this week’s atmospheric rivers, which keep people like Pinter on watch during California’s rainy season.

That’s because the condition of California’s levees is, by and large, already precarious. In its 2019 infrastructure report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state’s levees a "D," citing that despite significant investments, much more work is needed to rehabilitate and improve them.

With more rain in the forecast, here’s what to know about California’s levees...

What are levees?

Levees are barriers constructed alongside rivers, streams and other waterways to prevent land and property from flooding, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Levees generally take the form of either an earthen embankment or a floodwall made of concrete or other materials.

Levees are different from dams, which are built across waterways to hold back and collect water in reservoirs. When water is released from a reservoir, it can put levees downstream to the test.

And the consequences of levee failure happen fast. By some accounts, 80% of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2004 due to levee breaches, with water depths reaching 7 feet.

In California, levees are managed by a patchwork of federal, state and local agencies, as well as by private landowners. This means that information about the condition of levees across the state can be difficult to find.

“Some levees were simply built haphazardly and aren’t easily found on any map or database, let alone information about their quality and current condition,” said Ann Willis, California’s regional director of American Rivers.

Two of the major players in levee management in the Golden State are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has a hand in managing approximately 2,300 miles of California levees, and the state, which manages about 1,550 miles of levees, mostly in the Central Valley.

A construction project to stabilize and add height to the Pajaro levee takes place on Aug. 20, 2024, after a breach in the levee flooded the community of Pajaro in 2023.

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The Army Corps’ National Levee Database contains information on over 1,600 federal, state and local levees in California and paints a picture of the communities those structures protect: more than 5 million Californians live behind levees, which protect about 3,000 “critical structures,” like schools, fire stations and electric substations and about 750,000 acres of agricultural land.

How safe are levees?

While levees are a common part of California’s infrastructure, Willis said it’s important to remember that at the end of the day, they’re just human-made structures trying to hold back a powerful force of nature, whether that’s an atmospheric river or 2 billion gallons released from reservoirs with little warning.

That doesn’t mean all levees are on the brink of collapse, Willis said, but it’s a cause for ongoing and increasing concern.

“There are certainly areas where work and maintenance is being done to strengthen the levee system,” she said. “But that is really more of an exception. And this problem is really not going away.”

Trouble is, most people don’t know it. “I think people see a levee and assume that they have a level of flood protection that doesn’t exist,” she said. “Levees aren’t a guarantee. The best protection is to not be in the floodplain in the first place.”

Even though the Central Valley’s levees seem to have withstood the water that flowed after Trump’s surprise executive order, the brief surge put stress on an already precarious system, Willis said.

“The decision to release this much water this quickly,” she said, “increased the flood risk of the communities that the Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with protecting.”

As Pinter put it, “That risk never goes away.”

California saw the consequences of that risk in 2023, when a levee along the Pajaro River that was decades overdue for maintenance failed during a winter storm, flooding a Monterey County community that housed a vulnerable farmworker community of about 1,200.

That same year, winter storms threatened to breach a levee in the Central Valley town of Corcoran, which would have put the city of about 22,000 underwater.

These recent levee failures point to a growing concern in California: as climate change brings more intense storms, the state’s levees are not prepared to handle them.

“There is no infrastructure that was built for a climate-changed future,” Willis said.

On the bright side, Pinter noted, things have started to improve: “There is awareness in California that there was not 20 years ago.”

Who is most at risk?

Nationwide, a disproportionate number of people of color, people with less education and people living in poverty live behind levees, according to a 2023 study by the American Geophysical Union.

The study found that Hispanic people were the most overrepresented group living behind levees nationwide.

In California, this frequently means that low-income people, migrant farmworkers and undocumented people are disproportionately impacted, according to Michael Méndez, assistant professor of environmental policy and planning at UC Irvine. Many of those at risk are in the Central Valley, where hundreds of levees protect farmland and agricultural workers.

“Our communities that are low income are not able to prepare or safeguard from these disasters because they’re not being provided with adequate resources to do so,” he said.

“These are some of the most disenfranchised and stigmatized populations that are seen as being less worthy of infrastructure, resilience and upgrading,” he said. “It doesn’t happen by accident or by coincidence that time and time again, the same communities are being hurt.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.