The Brief

Transportation is the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, and passenger cars, SUVs, and light-duty trucks account for more than half of all transportation emissions.

If you want to reduce your climate impact, this can present a dilemma. Walking, biking, and public transportation are the most climate-friendly ways to get around, but cars rule the roads in most of the nation. So ditching your car might not seem realistic.

“It’s a really entrenched problem that’s really hard to get out of. We built all of these roads and highways and then basically made them the default option,” said Alexa Sledge, the associate director of communications at Transportation Alternatives, a New York City-based nonprofit. “It’s most likely not your fault that you rely on a car and highways to get to work.”

But even if you can’t single-handedly transform the U.S. transportation system, there are many steps you can take to help build a future where walking, biking, and riding mass transit are viable — and popular — options in your own community. Though this change can’t occur overnight, it is possible to make a difference over time.

“When we make it quick, easy, cheap, fun to do these things, people will pick them over cars,” said Sledge.

Learn more about transportation opportunities and challenges in your city

As the executive director of the nonprofit National Organizations for Youth Safety, Jacob Smith works on issues of road safety with marginalized young people — a group that is particularly affected by road crashes. He believes that to make a difference on transportation, you need to start by reflecting on your own mobility patterns — how you get around and what factors influence this — and learning about those of others.

“The first step is just getting to know your community and surroundings. Where’s the nearest grocery store if someone’s walking? Where’s the nearest human services [center] where families go that are taking the bus?” he said.

Talking to people who use different forms of transportation about what works well and what doesn’t is also important, Smith believes. “We have to create a mindset of, what are the alternatives that other people are required to experience?”

These discussions can be eye-opening, according to Meg Fencil, the director of engagement and impact at Sustain Charlotte, a nonprofit focused on Charlotte, North Carolina. Her organization uses a tool called a walkability audit to gauge how pedestrian-friendly different neighborhoods are, often involving local community members in the process — and giving them the chance to learn from one another. “It’s really fascinating for the people that do mostly drive around their own neighborhood to see from the perspective of that person that doesn’t drive,” she said.

Read: American society wasn’t always so car-centric. Our future doesn’t have to be, either.

Experiment with different ways of getting around

If you typically drive to meet your daily needs, experimenting with walking, cycling, and taking public transportation is a good way to learn more about what’s working and what’s not in your local transportation system. It can also serve as a form of advocacy in and of itself, providing an example for others.

If you’re interested in testing out a cycle commute to work, Fencil advised seeking out low-hanging fruit such as trying a promising bike route on days such as Sundays, when traffic is relatively light — ideally bringing a friend who’s a confident cyclist along for support.

The same logic applies to trying out public transportation, she said. Taking a few test runs on the bus before committing to a full commute day can help calm anxieties about how to manage things like buying tickets and making transfers.

Kendra Ramsey, the executive director of CalBike, a statewide bicycle advocacy organization in California, advises the cycling-curious to seek out local groups that help people learn how to safely bike for transportation. “Where I live, the city puts on a course every few months for people that are trying to get into [bike] commuting, to help them with these skills,” she said.

At some schools, parents organize bike buses to promote cycling in their communities and help children learn to bike safely. On designated days, children from certain schools meet at a designated location and bike to school together (with adult supervision). “Making that a fun and great option for kids is a way to be that change, and also just showing people that [biking] is safe,” said Transportation Alternatives’s Sledge.

Online resources such as these urban cycling safety tips from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public can also provide helpful information for getting started on a bike.

Drive with non-drivers in mind

When driving, you can help make the roads more welcoming to non-car traffic by going slowly, choosing a small vehicle, and paying close attention to bikers and pedestrians.

Fear of cars is a major barrier to getting people out of their cars. For a study published in the journal Transport Reviews in 2022, researchers set out to understand why relatively few people in the United States and similar countries get around by bike, given the substantial health and environmental benefits of cycling. Analyzing 45 reports discussing reasons that people choose not to bike, the authors found that the top barrier to cycling was a reluctance to “[ride] on the road alongside motor vehicles.” Specifically, they cited fear of motorist aggression, perceived risk of injury, and high traffic density

These fears are justified. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, road crashes are the leading cause of death for young people globally, and more than half of the individuals killed are pedestrians, cyclists, or motorcyclists. In the US, cyclist and pedestrian fatalities have risen in recent years. And though bicycle trips make up only 1% of all journeys in the U.S., cyclists account for more than 2% of people killed in crashes.

You can minimize the risk to pedestrians and bikers in your community by considering your own driving habits. Driving slowly is part of the solution. Research has shown that when pedestrians are struck by cars, vehicle speed affects their chances of survival. One report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that at 23 miles per hour, pedestrians face a 10% risk of death, while at 42 miles per hour, this rises to 50%.

Driving a small car can also help, as large, heavy vehicles pose greater risks for walkers and cyclists. A 2021 paper in the journal Economics of Transportation estimated that pedestrian fatalities increased by 1,110 between 2000 and 2019 due to the rising popularity of SUVs.

Find and support others working on these issues locally

Plugging into local networks can provide opportunities to learn from others with deep knowledge of transportation issues and get involved in ongoing projects.

“We’re really encouraging people to figure out who else is working on [walkability] locally and seeing where they can weigh in and help,” said Mike McGinn, the executive director of national nonprofit America Walks and a former mayor of Seattle. “I will bet you there’s somebody in the community doing the work. And if there’s no one, give us a call [at America Walks] — we’ll talk to you about what you can do to get started on your own.”

McGinn noted that since transportation is closely linked to many other issues, groups focusing on topics like urban planning, housing, and equity can also offer valuable ways to contribute.

To search for resources in your area, start with these directories from America Walks, The League of American Bicyclists, and YIMBY Action.

Pay attention to politics

For CalBike’s Ramsey, one of the most important things you can do to improve mobility options is vote. “Understanding what the priorities are for folks running for office, asking questions, and holding them accountable for actually investing in the transportation infrastructure for bicycling, for walking, high-quality transit … that’s a critical, critical step,” she said.

Communicating with current policymakers is also important. McGinn said that his years in the Seattle government taught him that policymakers need to hear directly from people who want to prioritize transportation options other than cars.

“A lot of elected officials seem to believe — because the voices are often quite loud — that people that are driving represent the majority sentiment in the community,” he said. “So when they hear complaints about lower speed limits or a safety redesign of a street or a bus-only lane or a bike lane, those public officials hesitate to make the change they should make. It is just critically important for the supporters to be showing up as well.”

Communicate about sustainable transportation

Not everyone has time to volunteer with local organizations or go to city council meetings — and that’s OK, McGinn said. Simple actions such as talking to neighbors about the importance of walking, biking, and public transportation or speaking up on social media about changes you’d like to see in your community’s transportation system are also important.

Even something as basic as thinking carefully about the language used to discuss different mobility options can help spread important ideas. “I actually don’t like the term ‘alternative transportation,’ because to me that suggests that walking, biking, and using public transportation are somehow outside the norm of the way that folks should get around their community,” said Sustain Charlotte’s Meg Fencil.

Being deliberate about language and messaging is particularly important in a society where people grow up surrounded by cars, making auto-centric transportation seem both natural and inevitable. At the National Organizations for Youth Safety, one of Jacob Smith’s priorities is to help people see beyond this framing.

“We have to actively build the consciousness of young people to understand that they can re-imagine what their transportation system looks like — and they can envision what a future looks like that’s not dependent upon cars,” he said.

This story was originally from Yale Climate Connections, which you can find here.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday backed a proposed fan boycott of World Cup matches in the United States because of the conduct of President Donald Trump and his administration at home and abroad.

Blatter was the latest international soccer figure to call into question the suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott in a post on X that supported Mark Pieth's comments in an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund.

Pieth, a Swiss attorney specializing in white-collar crime and an anti-corruption expert, chaired the Independent Governance Committee's oversight of FIFA reform a decade ago. Blatter was president of the world's governing body for soccer from 1998-2015; he resigned amid an investigation into corruption.

In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, "If we consider everything we've discussed, there's only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA! You'll see it better on TV anyway. And upon arrival, fans should expect that if they don't please the officials, they'll be put straight on the next flight home. If they're lucky."

In his X post, Blatter quoted Pieth and added, "I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup."

The United States is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico from June 11-July 19.

The international soccer community's concerns about the United States stem from Trump's expansionist posture on Greenland, and travel bans and aggressive tactics in dealing with migrants and immigration enforcement protesters in American cities, particularly Minneapolis.

Oke Göttlich, one of the vice presidents of the German soccer federation, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in an interview on Friday that the time had come to seriously consider boycotting the World Cup.

Travel plans for fans from two of the top soccer countries in Africa were thrown into disarray in December, when the Trump administration announced an expanded ban that would effectively bar people from Senegal and Ivory Coast following their teams unless they already have visas. Trump cited "screening and vetting deficiencies" as the main reason for the suspensions.

Fans from Iran and Haiti, two other countries that have qualified for the World Cup, will be barred from entering the United States as well; they were included in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles hits a big milestone this year: It’s turning 100 years old.

The century-old landmark has been through a lot of changes since opening, but how we got this iconic library in the first place is a saga in its own right.

A scrappy start

To understand what it took to get here, we’ll go back to 1872. Back then, the city of L.A. only had about 6,000 residents. Dirt roads were everywhere and agriculture was king.

The region was still fresh off the transition to American rule, and local leaders were just starting to dream up what the city could look like, especially in the downtown area.

There was no “LAPL” during this time — a group called the Los Angeles Library Association attended to local reading needs. John Szabo, current L.A. city librarian, says that early system was pretty bare bones.

“ It was a very small one room library with a handful of books,” he told host Larry Mantle on LAist 89.3’s AirTalk.

That was in the Downey Block building at Temple and Main streets, which is where the Federal Courthouse stands today. There were newspaper racks and shelves with about 750 books, while another space had checkers and chess — because what more do you need to fuel young minds?

The Downey Block building circa 1897.

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Courtesy The Huntington Digital Library/Ernest Marquez Collection

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The city needed a lot more because of rapid growth, but money was an issue. To help meet the demand, the association became an official city department in 1878. That allowed local officials to fund their new “Los Angeles Public Library.”

Over the years, LAPL would open satellite “reading rooms” and branch libraries. However, the main collection was expanding quickly. The books were essentially couch-surfing for years. They moved four times into different rented spaces, including into City Hall in 1889.

This was a temporary home that lasted for a couple of decades. Then, the effort to build a central library picked up steam. One of those was with a plan to put it in Pershing Square, but the project went awry. So the collection moved again — this time into a department store building (while it was still running), between women’s clothes and furniture, where it stayed for six years.

A new, innovative library

When Everett Perry, an energetic city librarian, took the helm in 1911, he lobbied for years for a central library to be created.

Finally, a decade later, voters passed a measure for a $2 million bond to pay for a new dedicated building. That would become the Central Library we have today. L.A. was a little late among large U.S. cities for getting a central library, but it finally opened in July 1926.

The Central Library's rotunda and ornate ceiling, which is designed to mirror the mosaic pyramid on the exterior roof.

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Los Angeles Public Library/Los Angeles Public Library Legacy Collection

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The building was designed by New York architect Bertram Goodhue with art deco and Egyptian influence, common motifs of the time.

It’s elaborately decorated with murals, mosaics and sculptures. For example, black marble sphinxes sit inside and a mosaic tile pyramid  with a handheld torch makes up the roof. Szabo says it was well received by Angelenos.

“ Of course I’m biased, but I think it’s the most beautiful library in the world,” Szabo said. “ [It was] a great sense of pride in a growing city, sort of putting L.A. on the map.”

Sithy Yi fled genocide in Cambodia and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1981. She was detained earlier this month at a regular immigration check-in in Santa Ana, and her lawyer, Kim Luu-Ng, says Yi is being held unlawfully at the Adelanto detention center.

Luu-Ng said Yi was ordered by an immigration court to be removed from the country in 2016, but her removal was withheld out of concerns she would be tortured if she returned to Cambodia.

After 10 years complying with ICE instructions and initiating a still-pending visa application, Luu-Ng claims that federal immigration officials detained Yi two weeks ago as a form of punishment and to instill fear in immigrant communities.

Yi is one of potentially hundreds of people with pending visa applications meant to protect victims of crime or human trafficking whose status has been abruptly put at risk by immigration policy changes ordered by the Trump administration, Luu-Ng and other immigration attorneys told LAist.

Yi cannot be deported back to Cambodia, her attorney said. Luu-Ng said immigration officials have not told her where Yi might be deported to and says her detention is unconstitutional and inhumane without a plan of where to send her. Luu-Ng has filed a petition in federal court arguing for Yi to be released from detention.  Federal officials have not yet responded in court.

”I think this case asks a very simple question,” Luu-Ng said. “Can the government jail someone when it has no real plan to deport them?

“The Constitution says no."

ICE has not responded to LAist’s request for comment on this story.

Escaping violence

Sithea San, Yi’s sister, remembers the day her family was forced to leave their home.

According to her recollection, the Khmer Rouge approached them at gunpoint April 17, 1975, saying they had to leave before American forces were expected to bomb their city, Phnom Penh.

The Khmer Rouge was a Communist regime that brutally tortured, murdered and starved more than a million Cambodians in the 1970s. A United Nations-assisted tribunal began investigations in 2007 and found surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The family left that day thinking they would be gone for only three days. Their horrific experience would last years, until they arrived in the U.S. as refugees in 1981.

Sithea San recounted how Yi, the eldest sister who was just 9 years old when they left their home, used to steal food to keep her family alive in Cambodia.

After getting caught stealing by the Khmer Rouge several times, San said her sister was given a final warning: If she got caught again they would kill her entire family. They led Yi to a place where they said she, her mother and two sisters would all be buried.

Yi was subjected to forced labor and torture at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, which she later described to Luu-Ng in 2016 as she fought in immigration court to be allowed to stay in the U.S.

Yi still carries scars from where guards would burn her with cigarettes, Luu-Ng told LAist. She said Yi has other scars that lie deeper.

Safe from the Khmer Rouge, troubles continue in the US

San said her family came to the U.S. in 1981, sponsored by her uncle. They arrived in California with just $10.

Yi’s mother and sisters had all become U.S. citizens by 1990, San told LAist, but Yi’s path to legal residency was more complicated.

San said their family did not understand it at the time, but Yi suffered from PTSD. She began to have seizures after they escaped Cambodia, which often prevented her from going to school once they arrived in the U.S.

Yi was also bullied at school, leading her to drop out, her sister said.

Far from Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, she again became a victim of abuse. Yi fell into a cycle of domestic violence, Luu-Ng told LAist, and she was severely abused by multiple partners over the years.

In 2011, Yi was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to probation. The abuse she faced at home continued and after being so severely beaten by her partner that she could not walk, Luu-Ng said, Yi missed one of her probation appointments.

She said that probation violation led to about a year in state prison, and from there Yi was transferred to ICE custody for removal proceedings.

Protections for victims of torture

Luu-Ng began working under a United Nations grant to help survivors of torture in immigration proceedings in 2009, and first met Yi in 2013.

She had talked with survivors of torture camps in Germany, Poland, Afghanistan and many other countries, but the story of what Yi and her family went through still left her shocked.

“ I've spoken to a lot of survivors of torture,” Luu-Ng told LAist. “Sithy’s story impacted me very, very deeply.”

Luu-Ng took on her case and argued in immigration court that Yi fell under protections granted by the United Nations Convention Against Torture — commonly known as CAT — banning anyone from being deported to countries where they will most likely be tortured.

The judge presiding over a 2016 hearing agreed.

“ We literally walked out of court within 30 minutes,” Luu-Ng said, “even the government counsel acknowledged the grave humanitarian concerns with this case.”

LAist reached out to ICE and an attorney who represented the agency, but they did not comment on the case.

Luu-Ng said Yi is not eligible for asylum status because of her conviction, but she has never heard of anyone being deported after receiving CAT protection.

“ Individuals who receive CAT withholding typically are allowed to live out the rest of their lives in the United States with a work permit,” she told LAist.

Even so, Luu-Ng said Yi also applied for a U visa in 2022 to further protect her from being deported. U visas are intended to give temporary immigration status to crime victims who have cooperated with law enforcement. Luu-Ng said Yi did cooperate with law enforcement in a case against one of her abusers and should qualify for a U visa, but she said they can take eight to ten years to be granted in some cases. She is still waiting for a decision on whether Yi’s visa will be approved.

Jennifer Diep, San Croucher, Sithy Yi and Sithea San attend the book release for "Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back," by Katya Cengel. The family was featured in the book.

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Courtesy Sithea San

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A policy change puts Yi’s future at risk

The Immigration Center for Women and Children (ICWC) and other immigrant rights organizations sued the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, in October of last year over new immigration enforcement policies on how immigration agents treat victims of abuse or human trafficking.

The group claims in court documents that the new policy “has allowed, for the first time in decades, the detention and removal of survivors of these violent crimes as a routine matter, without regard for the many protections Congress put in place for them.”

Erika Cervantes, a staff attorney for The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, is part of the legal team representing ICWC in the case. She told LAist that until early 2025 there was a presumption that victims who came forward to help law enforcement would be protected.

She said that U visas and T visas — another type of visa for victims of human trafficking — have strengthened law enforcement by allowing victims to be comfortable coming forward and telling police about their abuse without risk of being deported.

Then, in January, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the “total and efficient” enforcement of immigration laws. ICE shortly followed with a memo that removed previous requirements for agents to identify whether their targets are victims of crimes that might qualify them for protections against deportation.

Cervantes said the memo also cuts protections that had been in place for victims who are waiting for their U and T visas to be approved. Attorneys for ICE previously had been instructed to not seek deportation of U and T visa applicants unless there were “exceptional or exigent circumstances,” according to the new ICE memo, but Cervantes said the new memo removes the presumption that victims would be protected.

“ [The memo] essentially green lights targeting this vulnerable community who went out of their way to share their story, go through this visa process,” Cervantes said. “There’s an about face, and now they’re being put behind bars.”

Cervantes said the ICE memo has affected hundreds of people, and ICWC is asking a federal judge to set aside the policy changes.

“ We're trying to challenge the administration's attempt to criminalize victims,” she told LAist.

Detained by ICE

Yi’s detention on Jan. 8 came as a complete surprise.

According to her sister, Sithea San, she had helped the government when she came forward as a victim and always went to her monthly check-ins with ICE.

“ She complied with every single thing that the government asked her to do,” San told LAist.

In November, two months before her detention, Luu-Ng and San went with Yi for her check-in with ICE. Luu-Ng said they were concerned at that time that Yi could be detained because they saw reports of other people being taken from their families during check-ins.

After discussing Yi’s case with Luu-Ng, the immigration officials at the Santa Ana facility said she would need to start wearing an ankle monitor, but she was free to go home. Luu-Ng recalled one official telling her that as long as Yi didn’t tamper with the ankle monitor or violate any conditions of her electronic monitoring, ICE would not detain her.

“We went out and everyone was in tears, relieved,” Luu-Ng said.

Yi continued to check in, and Luu-Ng thought she would be fine because she was following ICE’s instructions. The next two months Yi went to her check-ins without a lawyer, but her sister still came along.

At her January check-in, San said they saw people crying in the waiting area. She said Yi approached them and tried to comfort them.

Then after waiting about an hour, ICE called Yi into a back room, alone.

Yi can’t read in English, San said, and sometimes she struggles to understand when people talk to her. San wanted to accompany her sister to be sure she understood any questions she might be asked.

Instead, she was stopped at the door.

“ And then I heard the sound . . . the handcuffs,” San said. “And that moment I feel like, am I dreaming? Is this real?”

San said she told the ICE agents that her sister had CAT protections and a pending U visa application, which she showed them. She said they told her it didn’t matter.

When San was later able to visit her sister in detention, she said Yi told her the ICE agents tried to coerce her to sign legal documents she couldn’t understand and threatened that things would get worse for her if she refused.

She said Yi didn’t sign the documents.

“So unfair”

Yi would not be in this situation under any other administration, said Mariko Khan, who is on the board of the nonprofit organization Cambodia Town, where she met Yi about 15 years ago.

“ Things would've been taken care of years ago and she certainly would not have had to be corralled at her check-in,” Khan said. “I mean, that's so unfair.”

Khan said Yi has been a consistent volunteer with Cambodia Town, which serves the largest Cambodian community outside Cambodia itself.

Khan had heard about some of Yi’s background over the years, and she learned that Yi had first found counseling when she was in prison. Having a background as a mental health professional, Khan said she was amazed to see Yi’s improvement.

“ I think it shows a lot of character and integrity that she could, given all that she had suffered, actually get better,” Khan said.

Yi has also been a mainstay with the Cambodia Town Parade. Khan said Yi had led a group of up to 30 women in the parade’s “Stop the Hate” event for the past three years.

Sithea San said Yi planned on coming to her house on Jan. 8 to work on the choreography for this year’s parade after they went to check in with ICE.

Fear in local communities

Manju Kulkarni is the executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, and she says people being detained by masked agents in the streets and others being held at their immigration appointments reminds some in Southeast Asian communities of the governments their families once fled.

Federal agents have repeatedly detained people at scheduled immigration check-ins over recent months, including Eaton Fire survivor Masuma Khan, 60-year San Diego resident Kazem Majd and dozens of others across California.

“ Communities that are made up often of refugees who escaped an American war in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam . . . are faced with the familiar terror,” Kulkarni told LAist. “Terror from which they thought they had escaped.”

Kulkarni and Luu-Ng told LAist they are deeply concerned that if Yi is deported to a third-country, she will then be sent by that country back to Cambodia despite an immigration judge already acknowledging she would most likely be tortured.

Reuters found that 22 people who were deported to Ghana as a third-country were then sent to their country of origin last year, despite court orders in the U.S meant to prevent that from happening.

For now, Luu-Ng is focused on getting Yi out of detention.

When San visited her sister at the Adelanto detention center on Jan. 18, Yi said she’d just had a nightmare, with scenes from her time under the oppression of the Khmer Rouge.

She told San being detained reminds her of those times, and she tries to keep her mind on other things.

“Remember during the Khmer Rouge,” San told Yi. “You know what we do. We need to have hope.”

Yi told her sister she had been trying to fill her time by teaching the other detainees how to do traditional Cambodian dances.

“How do you do it? How do you get the music?” San recalled asking Yi.

“She said she just sings.”

Topline:

The background: Some Altadena residents were left with sticker shock after the small Las Flores Water Company, which only has about 1,500 customers, proposed charging an extra $50 a month for the next five years to keep from going bankrupt. After a recent meeting at which more than 200 residents showed up, Las Flores Board President John Bednarski said the board will "deliberate at one of our upcoming meetings to take into account the feedback that we got."

Why it matters: Not only did the fires destroy homes and businesses, but also critical infrastructure. Small private water companies, such as Las Flores and two others that serve unincorporated Altadena, have received limited insurance payouts and don’t have access to as many state and federal grants to rebuild, experts say.

What’s next: Bednarski said the company is interested in consolidating with neighboring water companies and is lobbying the public water district it purchases much of its water from, Foothill Municipal, to allocate some state funding to restore one of the company’s reservoirs. Outside of charging customers a new surcharge, Bednarski said additional funding is needed not only to restore, but also shore up their infrastructure to withstand future fires, earthquakes and other disasters.

How to keep up with the changes: Customers of Las Flores can check the company’s website for the latest agendas on upcoming board meetings and votes.

Go deeper: Water company's fire recovery plan gives Altadena residents sticker shock. Here's what's happening