The Brief

In a step backward for transparency, the Los Angeles Police Department has delayed its release of previously-available crime data for more than a year.

Multiple organizations have requested the data after the LAPD stopped regularly releasing the detailed location of most L.A. crimes and the department’s online crime map quietly went dark in early 2025.

Court records and email correspondence shared with LAist show that SpotCrime, a crime mapping and alert provider, filed one of the first public records requests for the unpublished data in February 2025. LAist and nonprofit research organization RAND also submitted separate requests in the following months.

None of the organizations have received that data, despite public records requests and a lawsuit filed by SpotCrime asking a court to order its release.

According to court documents, SpotCrime alleges the LAPD has wrongfully withheld the crime data and engaged in an “unlawful pattern of delaying tactics” to prevent the release of public records.

LAPD still does not have a date for when the data would be made public, according to department spokesperson Norma Eisenman, who declined to comment on pending litigation. Court documents show the department has denied all claims of wrongdoing.

Why the records matter

The LAPD changed how it reports crime data on the city’s open data portal in early 2025 to no longer include location information down to the city block where crimes were reported.

Roland Neil from RAND said this kind of block-level data is very important for criminal justice researchers.

“ One thing, which is a major focus of the discipline of criminology over the past two decades, especially, is the fact that most crime tends to concentrate in a very small part of the city," Neil said.

He said that just 5% of what researchers call “micro places” — like city blocks or intersections — can account for half a city’s crime. Neil said that makes the block-level data critical when it comes to understanding exactly where crime is happening and determining what could be done to intervene.

The LAPD stopped providing this block-level data when it transitioned to the federally-mandated National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS.

Neil said local law enforcement agencies across California saw disruptions over the past few years as they each moved over to the new system, but some police departments were able to keep providing regular, detailed location data as they did before the switch.

San Francisco transitioned to the new system at about the same time as L.A., Neil said, and he can now search that city’s public website for information on crimes that happened just the day before with location data down to the nearest street intersection.

Meanwhile, RAND is still waiting for the LAPD to release its block-level data from months prior.

Jason Ward, director of the RAND Housing Center, told LAist he filed a records request for those records last October.

“They’re not saying no,” Ward said, “they’re just taking a very long time.”

Ward said he understands that the LAPD has limited resources to work on records requests, but he questions why the department would risk being seen as less transparent by allowing a delay in the release of information that used to be readily available.

He said he just wants the LAPD to continue providing what they had already been releasing for years: “accurate, geolocated crime data.”

This data isn’t just important for researchers.

Paul Nicholas Boylan is an attorney representing SpotCrime in the company’s lawsuit against the LAPD. He told LAist there are few things he believes to be as important to the public interest as crime data.

“It allows the public to decide whether they live in a safe space,” he said. “It allows them to determine whether or not law enforcement is doing a good or bad job.”

Why LAPD says the data hasn’t been released

Boylan said he has practiced First Amendment law for decades, but has never seen another case where an agency has taken so long to release public data without providing substantial justification for the delay.

The LAPD told SpotCrime in August that the records were unavailable, according to court documents and email correspondence reviewed by LAist — but not because the department didn’t have them.

“The data is not user-ready simply because that the raw data needs additional processing,” the department wrote to SpotCrime. The LAPD message also said the data would be published on the open data portal “as soon as practical.”

Seven months later, the data has not been released and Boylan is skeptical of the department’s argument.

Other agencies like the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department made the same transition to NIBRS, he said, but no other agency has taken as long to solve this problem.

He said there could be legitimate reasons any additional data processing has taken more than a year, but that it could also be due to incompetence or an attempt to hide information that could reflect poorly on the department.

SpotCrime has also argued that they never requested “user-ready” data, according to court records and emails reviewed by LAist. The company told the LAPD their request was for raw data, and additional processing they did not ask for was “not a valid reason for denying access.”

LAist was given a different explanation for why the records could not immediately be released.

The department initially denied LAist’s May 2025 request for detailed crime data in October, claiming the data in its raw form is exempt from disclosure because it “has the potential to lead to misguided public policy discussions or unjustified public panic.”

David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, told LAist at the time that he had never heard of such an argument. He said if taken seriously, it would “destroy” the entire California Public Records Act.

The LAPD has not directly responded to LAist’s request for clarification on the claim that the data is exempt for such a reason, but appears to have abandoned the argument. The department told LAist on March 11 that “the Department continues to repair, sanitize, and review” crime and arrest data that may be released.

Boylan said he expects more answers to come out in court.

Whatever the LAPD claims is the reason for the delay, he said, “they're going to have to prove it.”

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

For Luis Mendiola, the kitchen is his happy place. It has been since he was a kid. The kitchen is warm and comfortable. The kitchen feeds him and keeps him safe.

“It’s like being in the womb. You are always protected,” Mendiola said in Spanish. And while Mendiola loves cooking in the kitchen, his wife, Veronica Lopez, enjoys serving customers.

Together, they’re running their dream restaurant in West Long Beach, Black Pork. Lopez describes Black Pork as “a multicultural, California-style” restaurant.

Before meeting in California and settling in Long Beach together, Mendiola and Lopez learned to cook in various professional kitchens from Mexico to London, Louisiana to Oregon. Drawing from their experiences around the world, they put together a menu of comfort foods: empanadas, mac and cheese balls, clam chowder, Cubano sandwiches, hamburgers, barbecue ribs, porchetta, Korean barbecue and more.

“We want to give people something different with our style,” Lopez said.

Veronica Lopez and Chef Luis Mendiola own and operate Black Pork restaurant in West Long Beach.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

The menu is a culmination of customer feedback over the last three years and what the couple just wants to make. Clam chowder holds a special place in Mendiola’s heart because it was one of the first soups he learned how to make, so when customers asked for a soup, it was easy to decide which one. The clam chowder was only supposed to be on the menu for a couple of months, but customers loved it so much they kept it as a regular menu item. The soup, like almost all of their food, is made from scratch and has a hint of spice from the splash of Tabasco and white pepper that Mendiola adds.

With a name like Black Pork, their pork dishes, of course, take center stage.

“The pork belly skewers are decadent; crispy but tender, the smoky flavor is perfect. Chef Luis makes some mouth-watering Cubano pulled pork, too,” Kate Maule, a long-time customer, said. “I honestly won’t order a Cubano sandwich anywhere else because it will never be made with the care Chef Luis takes.”

Inside Black Pork, a three-foot-tall black pig wearing a scarf and glasses greets customers as they walk through the door. A smaller pig wearing a bow tie stands on the counter next to the register. Illustrations of pigs line the left wall and figurines of pigs with wings sit on a shelf above the tables. Mendiola and Lopez’s nod to John Steinbeck’s Pigasus — a symbol of aspiration.

The pig motif and the restaurant’s name are a reflection of Mendiola’s passion for cooking with pork.

“[Mendiola] loves to cook with the pork because he says that you can work with everything: the head, the tongue, the feet, everything. You can do whatever you want,” Lopez said.

Cuban pork sandwich at Black Pork restaurant in West Long Beach.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

In the three years they’ve been open, Lopez said Black Pork has gained a loyal following from customers in Long Beach and surrounding cities.

“I don’t know why people come here, but I love that they do it,” Lopez said.

Maule said it is the food and the warm hospitality of Lopez and Mendiola that make Black Pork one of her favorite restaurants and keeps her coming back at least once a month since they opened in 2023.

“You don’t just go for a good meal. You visit friends, too,” Maule said. “Chef Luis and Veronica aren’t just chefs; they’re the best kind of people.”

Guava and spices (left) and peach ginger iced tea at Black Pork restaurant in West Long Beach.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

She appreciates how much care they put into every dish.

“You can tell Chef Luis put himself into all of his smoked meats; you can tell Chef Veronica puts her last touches on everything before that plate gets put in front of you. I rarely get that feeling anywhere else,” Maule said.

Christine Cabrera’s customers at PBS Pub in Wrigley, kept raving about the empanadas at Black Pork. When Cabrera and her husband, who help run the pub, finally went to Black Pork a few months after the restaurant opened, they planned on ordering their food to-go. But they dined-in after meeting Lopez and Mendiola.

“We hit it off with [Mendiola and Lopez], ordered appetizers, and left with full bellies and hearts,” Cabrera said. Now, Cabrera and her husband are one of the many frequent customers at Black Pork and sell their empanadas at their pub.

“We are a community of small businesses. Our neighbors aren’t just people who live here, but also people who believed in the neighborhood enough to invest here, which makes it even more important that we lean into helping other small businesses that have that same dedication,” Cabrera said.

Black Pork’s owners said they work 12 hours a day, six days a week and run the restaurant by themselves because, “it’s something that we do with all the love in the world,” Lopez said.

Black Pork, 1916 W Willow St., is open Mondays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Starting Saturday, Nov. 7, the 63-year-old Vincent Thomas Bridge will shut down until at least March 2028 for major construction. Workers will replace its deck, which has become “severely deteriorated” from thousands of vehicles driving across it daily.

The Vincent Thomas, which connects San Pedro to Terminal Island, is the state’s fourth-longest suspension bridge. It handles an estimated 53,000 vehicles — including 4,600 heavy trucks — each day.

The bridge is often the quickest route between San Pedro and Long Beach. Detours along Anaheim Street or Pacific Coast Highway could double many people’s commute times.

Tate Allen and his San Pedro neighbors have begun referring to the closure as “Harborgeddon.”

The Vincent Thomas Bridge will close to traffic starting Saturday, Nov. 7 in San Pedro, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.Allen, with help from Claude AI, even put together a website bearing that name that has a countdown clock and a map of suggested detours.

Caltrans’ official detour recommends that drivers from San Pedro use the 110 Freeway to access Harry Bridges Boulevard, then take the 47 Freeway at Henry Ford Boulevard or the 710 Freeway.

That’s likely the route most truck drivers entering and exiting the Port of Long Beach will take, Allen said, and commute times could vary widely depending on the time of day.

He currently travels from San Pedro to his downtown Long Beach office three days a week. Once the bridge closes, his 15-minute drive will likely take 30-45 minutes, Allen estimated.

Ahead of the bridge closure, Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents District 15 including San Pedro and Wilmington, pushed for road improvements along the detours to prepare them for increased traffic.

In Wilmington, those efforts included “slurry sealing along Alameda Street and Harry Bridges Boulevard, with concrete repairs in some locations,” Sophie Gilchrist, the councilmember’s spokesperson, wrote in a statement.

McOsker is also asking the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to monitor traffic on Anaheim Street after the bridge closes and identify short-term and long-term fixes “if problems arise,” Gilchrist wrote.

Why is this happening now?

Caltrans began forming this plan after a 2021 inspection found that the bridge deck condition had dropped from “fair” to “poor” in part because of heavy truck traffic from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

That ultimately led to the $750 million bridge deck replacement project, which will also replace the center median, railing, fencing and install new seismic sensors and utilities on the bridge.

Caltrans officials say a full bridge closure was the most palatable of several unsavory options. Plans to just close the bridge at night would have stretched construction to 48 months. A mix of weekend and overnight closures to keep one lane open ranged between 25 and 32 months.

What does this mean for locals?

Business owners in San Pedro are worried that lengthy detours will frustrate potential customers and lead to a dip in sales.

Stephanie Crawford, who has owned Creative Pet Supply in San Pedro for the past 26 years, said construction on the 47 Freeway off-ramp just up the road from her business has already hurt.

Lately, she’s had “quite a few” customers from Long Beach asking how they’ll be able to visit her store once the bridge shuts down.

She’s been telling customers: “We’ll still be open, if you can get to us.”

The Vincent Thomas Bridge will be closed for repairs for over a year, starting Saturday, Nov. 7, in San Pedro, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.The closure might also be a headache for the historic Warner Grand Theatre in downtown San Pedro, which is just finishing up renovations of its own, albeit at an inopportune time, said Liz Schindler Johnson, executive director of the Grand Vision Foundation – a nonprofit arts organization that markets the theater’s events.

On average, roughly 10-15% of their audience comes from Long Beach, Schindler Johnson said. She’s hoping they won’t be put off by the longer drive, especially because the shows primarily take place on weekends.

Two of her eight employees typically commute over the bridge to their San Pedro office and are bracing for added drive time, she said.

“We don’t want to go back to remote work if we can help it,” Schindler Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Allen is trying to stay positive. The longer drive, he said, will give him an excuse to catch up on audiobooks and check out a new grocery store — the Northgate Market along Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington.

Construction of the green metal fence around MacArthur Park will begin Monday, Nov. 16, with work scheduled to continue through fall 2027.

The city announced the start date Nov. 4, saying crews will install an 8-foot fence around the park’s perimeter. Nearby residents and businesses can expect some noise, dust and vibration during construction, although the city said mitigation measures will be in place.

Crews will work Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the park will remain open while crews are working. 

The fence is the city’s latest attempt to tackle longstanding problems at MacArthur Park, including drug use, homelessness and crime.

The city first approved plans for the fence in October 2025, and the proposal has since drawn both support and criticism from residents and community groups.

Some say they hope the fence will make the park safer, while others question whether it will actually improve conditions there. Police and city officials say the fence will give them more control over the space and make it easier to enforce the law.

Ana Luz Vazquez, a street vendor near MacArthur Park, said her main concern about the fence is what will happen to the unhoused people who stay in the park throughout the day and whether the city plans to address that issue directly.

She is also concerned that construction during the day could affect her ability to work because of traffic, less parking availability and loud noise.

Vazquez said she would prefer construction to take place at night so it would have less of an impact on street vendors.

“If they’re working in the day then how are we supposed to come here and who is going to help us survive,” Vazquez said.

Construction will happen in two phases

Phase 1

• Alvarado St. from W. 6th St. to Wilshire Blvd.
• S. Park View St. from Wilshire Blvd. to W. 6th St.
• Wilshire Blvd. from Alvarado St. to S. Park View St.

Phase 2

• Alvarado St. from Wilshire Blvd. to W. 7th St.
• S. Park View St. from W. 7th St. to Wilshire Blvd.
• Wilshire Blvd. from S. Park View St. to Alvarado St.
• W. 7th St. from Alvarado St. to S. Park View St.

Existing trees will be protected and monitored during the work, according to the Department of Recreation and Parks. Traffic control measures will be in place during work hours, and crews will post temporary “No Parking” signs near active work areas in advance.

Services at the park are expected to remain the same throughout construction. The schedule could change because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances, according to the city.

The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.

After the fence is installed, the city plans a second phase focused on adding decorative elements. Officials have said residents will have an opportunity to provide input on the design.

Residents with questions or concerns about the project can contact Recreation and Parks at RAP.PublicInfo@lacity.org or (213) 202-2700.

The post MacArthur Park fence construction to begin Nov. 16 appeared first on LA Local.

The California Coastal Commission voted Thursday to allow transportation authorities to build a quarter-mile-long seawall just south of San Clemente State Beach to protect the coastal railroad from rising sea levels and coastal erosion. The plan also includes a major influx of sand for local beaches.

Why this matters

The tracks that carry passengers on the Pacific Surfliner between Orange County and San Diego have shut down frequently in recent years due to rising sea levels and erosion. Rail authorities have dumped thousands of tons of boulders on the beach to buttress the tracks. Now, they’re hoping a seawall will buy them time to come up with a more permanent solution. Not everyone is happy about the plan. Critics say seawalls cause waves to refract and dig deeper, ultimately stripping away even more sand in the long run.

What else do I need to know?

Environmental groups and local tribal authorities say the emergency work has already ruined the beach. To mitigate the negative effects, authorities will haul in close to 700,000 cubic yards of new sand to San Clemente beaches over the coming year.

What's the official reaction?

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley released a statement hailing the decision. “Today’s unanimous approval from the California Coastal Commission marks a major milestone to save our critical coastal rail corridor and restore San Clemente’s iconic beaches following decades of erosion and inaction,” Foley said. “The placement of 690,000 cubic yards of sand represents the region’s largest beach nourishment effort in decades and demonstrates our commitment to long-term coastal resilience."

She added: “Wide sandy beaches provide a natural buffer for our rail corridor while protecting our coastline, expanding public access, and supporting our local economy. Through continued collaboration with our state, regional, and local partners, we will advance lasting solutions that protect our beaches and preserve this vital transportation corridor for future generations.”