The Brief

Tracy McDaniel has worked at Kaiser’s West Los Angeles Medical Center for 26 years. She used to live a few blocks from the hospital on the west side, a quick 15-minute drive to her job as a financial counselor for low-income patients. But five years ago, that changed.

“My rent was going up every year, and it got to the point where I could not afford where I was living,” McDaniel said.

When the rent for the one-bedroom apartment she shared with her husband climbed to $2,000 a month, they couldn’t balance the books, especially after her husband had a car accident, lost his income and disability payments stalled.

“We were just losing everything,” McDaniel said. “I had to move to the Valley to find cheaper rent.”

Now she drives more than 30 miles to work, sitting in traffic for an hour and a half or more. Though her expenses have evened out a bit, she said she still has to work double shifts to make ends meet. McDaniel, who grew up in Crenshaw, said the experience has been traumatizing.

“I’ve lived here all my life … It was just traumatic for me to have to go as far as I went, it broke my heart,” McDaniel said. “But my hand was forced.”

It’s one reason why McDaniel took part in labor protests on Monday, sitting in a circle of fellow health care workers as part of a planned act of civil disobedience outside Kaiser’s L.A. Medical Center in Hollywood.

Kaiser Permanente employee Tracy McDaniel protests alongside SEIU-United Healthcare Workers at Labor Day demonstration outside of Kaiser Permanente in Hollywood.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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Long commutes: Bad for workers, bad for climate

The fact that people can’t afford to live where they work has been a throughline in labor actions this summer.

Not only are workers being displaced due to high costs, but forcing workers farther from job centers and reliable transit also exacerbates the climate crisis and local air pollution. Long commutes and a car-centric culture are main reasons why pollution from the tailpipes of cars and trucks is California’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Around 13% of people that commute into the west side drive over 50 miles to work there,” said Chase Engelhardt, a policy expert with nonprofit Climate Resolve. “How many people commute in because our housing policies do not allow them to afford to live here?”

Cheer Liv, a respiratory therapist at Garfield Medical Center in Monterey Park, took his two young children to a rally that health care workers held on Labor Day to protest low wages and staffing shortages.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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Research has shown that unaffordable housing is the leading cause of homelessness in L.A. County. That’s why Engelhart said affordable housing near transit or job centers is essential to both supporting workers and cutting climate pollution.

“Transportation is one space, housing is another, and both of those really tie into homelessness,” Engelhardt said. “Shortening those commutes, bringing resources closer to communities, bringing communities closer to resources and housing people is the prevention strategy of homelessness.”

Whole families uprooted and displaced

McDaniel isn’t the only one in her family who’s been displaced from home due to unaffordable rent and high living costs. She said her daughter, who was also a health care worker here in L.A., ended up moving to Atlanta because L.A. rent was just too high and she couldn’t support herself and her young children.

Now, McDaniel doesn’t get to see her daughter and grandchildren nearly as often.

“I’m missing my grandchildren,” McDaniel said. “I have to save every dime I can to try to go to Atlanta during the holidays so I get to see my kids.”

She said because they’re so short-staffed at work — a major issue McDaniel and other protesters are fighting Kaiser on — she often just can’t get the time off to visit.

“It’s just one thing after another,” McDaniel said. “It’s frustrating, every day.”

Alysa Liu’s comeback at this year’s Olympics — and her stunning gold medal win — has rocked the world of figure skating, making headlines due to her joy while performing and her commitment to mental health on and off the ice.

Though she primarily trained in Oakland, Liu, who’s also a psychology student at UCLA, has used a facility in Lakewood as one of her home bases away from home. The 20-year-old started training there as she came back from retirement and prepared to take the gold medal (not that that was necessarily her goal, to hear her tell it).

It’s part of a long history for the Rinks-Lakewood ICE, which has also hosted many champions and Olympians over the years, including Mariah Bell, Nathan Chen, Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon, and counts prominent figure skaters among their staff.

“ We're not unfamiliar with Olympic ties,” said Braden Overett, the skating manager at Lakewood ICE, though he also clarified, “that does not in any way diminish the fun and the coolness [of Liu’s win].”

Lakewood ICE’s place in this year’s Olympics

Working with her coaches remotely, Liu started to drill down on perfecting her skating while also attending classes at UCLA. And though she moved on to her home base at Oakland Ice Center as the Olympic training started to ramp up, the staff who worked with her at Lakewood ICE kept cheering her on.

Overett said that he loves highlighting the Olympic connections at the rink, which may not be obvious to everyone who skates there.

“It's always fun just to connect the dots, right?” Overett said. “It's like going to a restaurant and then you find out later it's your favorite actor's restaurant.”

Ashleigh Ellis runs the nonprofit Unity Ice Academy, which focuses on increasing access to figure skating for kids of all backgrounds at Lakewood ICE.

“ That's just very much how the skating world is. It's very small, you never know who you're going to run into at any time,” Ellis said. “ Could you imagine just being on the ice with a national champion and Olympic skater of any sort? It's just so inspiring for the kids to see that and be within the vicinity of that.”

And Liu wasn’t the only 2026 Olympic figure skater who's used the facility. Li Yu-Hsiang, the Taiwanese national champion who represented Chinese Taipei in Milan this year, also trains in Lakewood.

The rink’s coaches

The small world of skating means that even novice skaters can take classes from world-class skaters: 1976 Olympic silver medalist Dianne de Leeuw teaches there, as do national medalists (and future Olympic contenders) Starr Andrews and Josephine Lee.

 "To get to see them and to get to share ice with them just has a layer of magic that you can't replace and you can't get anywhere else,” Overett said. “ You see the turnover of generations, and it brings in a huge element of history.”

What Liu’s win means for the skating world

Ellis is already using Liu’s example to stress the importance of mental health to the kids and families she works with, like one parent who was worrying about her child taking two weeks off skating due to pneumonia.

“I was like, ‘Alysa Liu took two plus years off and she just won the Olympic gold. Do not worry about it this two weeks,’” she said.

A bipartisan bill aimed at protecting pets during disasters has been introduced in Congress, with a Southern California representative citing the rescue efforts of local organizations during last year’s L.A.-area fires.

The PETSAFE Act of 2026 — which stands for Providing Essential Temporary Shelter Assistance For Emergencies — would expand the use of emergency management funds so local governments can plan for evacuations that move animals to safety, as well as provide veterinary care and rescue equipment during disasters.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) helped introduce the bill earlier this month with several House of Representatives colleagues, including Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida and Democrat Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada.

Chu, who represents Pasadena and Altadena in the 28th Congressional District, said when the Eaton Fire tore through her district, many families delayed evacuations because they couldn’t bear to leave their pets behind.

She told LAist she’ll never forget seeing the cats, dogs and other animals with burned feet and singed fur who were being cared for by Pasadena Humane in the aftermath.

“But to think, if there is even one more thing we could do to keep our precious pets safe, wouldn't we want to do that?” Chu said. “So this PETSAFE Act could go a long way towards making sure that our loved pets can indeed survive a disaster.”

About the bill

Pasadena Humane teams looked for pets and wildlife in Eaton burn zones, dropping off food and water along the way.

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Courtesy Pasadena Humane

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The PETSAFE Act now has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The bill would amend the Emergency Management Performance Grant program to increase the federal cost share for certain animal-related preparedness activities from 50% to 90%.

Supporters say this would lower barriers and make it more affordable for communities to roll out emergency protection plans for people and pets.

Specifically, the PETSAFE Act would allow state, local and tribal governments to use grant money awarded by FEMA toward pet supplies, crates, veterinary equipment, emergency generators and training, among others.

Pet owners whose homes are under disaster-related evacuation orders can be faced with an “impossible choice” — leaving their pets behind or staying home with them, which risks the owner’s own safety and complicates rescue efforts for first responders, according to Chu’s office.

The bill aims to address the challenges pet owners and first responders face without authorizing new federal spending, according to Mast’s office.

How we got here 

Chu said local shelters, including Pasadena Humane, and communities across California stepped up to care for all kinds of animals during the Eaton Fire, which ignited in January 2025.

Pasadena Humane helped more than 1,500 pets and wildlife during the fire and in the aftermath by providing shelter, medical care and emergency resources.

A horse was housed in the organization’s garage when Chris Ramon, Pasadena Humane’s president and CEO, ran into its owner walking down Raymond Avenue for miles.

“Part of me likes to think that this won’t happen again,” Ramon told LAist last month. “But the realist in me realizes … disaster preparedness is something that just is an ongoing conversation for us at Pasadena Humane.”

Chu also cited the work of the ASPCA, which helped more than 530 animals during the Eaton Fire, including goats, parakeets, pigs and a gecko, according to the organization.

She said local organizations did “tremendous” work and “lovingly cared for” the rush of animals affected by the fire.

“But what we would want to do is to make sure that there is an even better system for animal evacuation and ways to ensure that pets could be safe,” Chu said, adding that would relieve the burden on places like Pasadena Humane.

Other laws aiming to protect pets

This is not the first time last year’s fires have led to new legislation focused on protecting pets during emergencies.

A new state law known as the FOUND Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, was inspired by Oreo the Pomeranian, who reunited with its Pacific Palisades owner in an emotional, viral video during the Palisades Fire.

The law requires cities and counties to include procedures for rescuing pets during mandatory evacuations in their next emergency plans, which need to be updated every five years to qualify for FEMA assistance.