The Brief

Lockdown has been lifted at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, allowing for limited activities after violence broke out Friday night at the Downey facility.

The disturbance broke out at about 8 p.m. Friday night, involving 13 youths at the detention center. According to L.A. County probation officials, a group of young residents attacked the staff, while one 18-year-old escaped the premises before he was quickly recaptured and booked by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

No serious injuries were reported.

Lockdown of the facility was lifted Saturday, allowing for residents to participate in meals, schooling and recreational activities.

Troubles at juvenile facilities

The latest incident came after a gun was found at the facility last week.

The Downey juvenile hall was recently reopened to house some 300 youths transferred from two detention centers — in Sylmar and Lincoln Heights — after regulators found their conditions “unsuitable."

But Los Padrinos was itself shut down in 2019 due to security, staffing and other issues, causing families of detained youths to question the transfer.

“Any time you move a large number of youths, especially to a new facility as we have in the last week or two, there is a potential for problems and we plan for those,” said Interim Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa in a statement. “But Friday night’s disturbance was an emergency that required an immediate and strong response. I’m thankful that no youth were seriously hurt, and with the help of other law enforcement agencies, we were able to reestablish order.”

Viera Rosa said he will push to expedite for the hiring of off-duty or retired peace officers at the detention center.

The city of Irvine is one step closer to adopting an ordinance to protect grocery workers from being laid off during a store ownership change.

The City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday night (Aug. 11) to direct city staff to draft the ordinance. Councilmembers James Mai and Mike Carroll opposed the move.

The law would apply to grocery stores that are less than 15,000 square feet and employ more than 300 employees nationwide, according to memo from the council to the city manager. If a store is sold, new management would be required to keep employees for at least 90 days. Businesses that don’t follow the law could face fines.

Irvine’s proposal extends protections in place in California since 2024 for grocery store employees who work at markets larger than 15,000 square feet. For example, under Irvine's proposal workers at stores with smaller footprints like Trader Joe’s would qualify for these protections.

What officials had to say

Councilmember Melinda Liu said the city has a responsibility to protect residents.

“This is a protection of local workers and not an anti-business proposal,” Liu added. “This is not something that is going to turn any business away from the city of Irvine.”

Carroll, one of the two council members opposing the ordinance, said it seemed like local overreach.

“The way I look at it, my job is to focus on parks, police, public works, and property land use,” Carroll said. “This feels like something that needs to be taken up by the state.”

What’s next? 

City staff will draft an official ordinance for a first reading at the next Irvine City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Where: City Council Chamber, Irvine City Hall
Address: 1 Civic Center Plaza, Irvine
When: 4 p.m.
How to participate: Visit the ICTV page for information on remote viewing and how to submit public comment

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Pedal boats are expected to return to MacArthur Park next year, bringing back a longtime attraction as the city looks to draw more families and activity to the park. 

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks aims to have the watercraft on the lake before fall 2027, and possibly sooner, General Manager Jimmy Kim said. A firm opening date has not been set as the department determines what infrastructure needs to be repaired or built at the park.

“We want to make sure that all of the compliance requirements are in place, because we haven’t had boating there in such a long time,” Kim said.

Unlike in the past, the department would not run the rental operation and the city is negotiating with a vendor interested in operating the service, Kim said.

The city would handle some repairs, including making sure the existing dock is usable. Absent from the park is an adequate boathouse, so a new rental stand or similar structure would need to be set up for the operation. Other upgrades to the park are also in the works, including an iron fence that would encircle the green space.

Kim said he would like the boats to reflect the surrounding community, much like Echo Park’s swan boats and Hansen Dam’s duck boats have their own unique designs.

“I would love to have some type of cultural design, like Aztec, Latin inspired pedal boats there just because of what MacArthur Park represents and the community it represents,” Kim said.

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks aims to have the pedal boats on the lake before fall 2027.

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Gary Coronado

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The LA Local

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The city does not yet have a cost estimate for the infrastructure work needed to bring the boats back, but Kim does not expect the boat operation itself to have a major financial impact on the department.

The department plans to seek community input after an agreement with the vendor is signed, including on what the boats should look like.

Officials will also work through water-quality testing and boating safety requirements before the boats can return. Kim said weekly water-quality testing will be required and that the vendor would have to have someone trained in lifesaving techniques on site during operating hours.

“If somebody falls in accidentally, then having somebody there, they’ll be able to respond to it quickly,” Kim said.

The need for a lifeguard is not completely out of the realm of needed resources at the park. Officials estimate the lake is about 14 feet deep and in December a person drowned in the water.

For Jerry Young, 53, who was sitting near the lake with his bicycle recently, the water itself gives him pause.

“In this water? Nasty,” Young said. “Boy, this water is nasty.”

Trash and debris are visible along the edge of the lake at MacArthur Park. The city plans to bring pedal boats back to the lake before fall 2027.

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Hanna Kang

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The LA Local

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Young said he has been coming to MacArthur Park since his early 20s and remembers when boats were still on the lake. He now lives on the Eastside but returns about once a week.

“The park was cleaner when it had the boats,” he said.

Asked whether bringing them back could help make the park feel that way again, Young was skeptical.

“They got a lot of work to do,” he said.

Young said he enjoys spending time at MacArthur Park because he likes being outside, but he wouldn’t bring his children there now.

“First of all, they have to get rid of the drugs,” Young said. “That’s first of all. They’re making the park look really bad.”

Boating has a long history at MacArthur Park, dating to when it was known as Westlake Park. The pedal boats have disappeared and returned several times over the decades. In 1997, 30 boats were brought back after roughly a decade away, with supporters arguing that recreation could help bring families back to a park struggling with drugs and crime. Recreation and Parks ultimately discontinued its city-run pedal boat operations in 2009 after years of financial losses, according to a 2011 department report.

The city sees the latest return of boating as one part of a broader effort to bring more people and activity to MacArthur Park.

“It’s not only boating, but it’s any type of activity,” Kim said. “We’re endeavoring to activate that park a lot more, working with our community members.”

Long Beach is taking feedback on its plans to enshrine a major symbol of the city’s contribution to hip-hop.

Anyone interested in the look and feel of the future VIP Records Park is being asked to participate in a workshop at 6 p.m. Aug. 13 at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at 1950 Lemon Ave.

The 90-minute workshop will include a presentation and discussion on the park’s design process. There will also be an update on the refurbishment of the “World Famous VIP Records” sign, the longstanding symbol of the city’s contributions to West Coast rap, which will be displayed at the park.

Conceptual designs will likely be shown in a second workshop this fall, with final designs unveiled by next spring ahead of construction meant to be finished by that fall.

This comes as the latest installment in the storied saga surrounding VIP Records, a venerable record shop that vaulted the careers of artists like Snoop Dogg, Warren G and the late Nate Dogg. Despite its past success, VIP had to move from its original location in 2018. The sign remains in city storage.

Ahead of the 2028 Olympics, the city has chosen the VIP sign to be among its cadre of capital projects meant to showcase the best examples of its local culture and pride, approving money for the sign’s refurbishment in January and setting out a plan to honor the store’s history.

The new park, a grassy, quarter-acre lot at the southwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, sits across the street from the famous record store’s former location, now a 7-Eleven. A weathered fence wraps around it, with small hills running through its center.

The vacant city-owned lot that Long Beach plans to turn into a park that includes the VIP Records sign at the southwest corner of Anaheim Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Photo by John Donegan.

Ideas for the new park are up to the public but also proposals by contractors. On the project’s bidding page, city officials have budgeted $235,000 for the sign’s restoration, installation and site improvements. They must also replace fencing as needed and remove the “Long Beach Poly Tech” sign that’s already at the park.

As a designated historic landmark, officials say the sign will undergo restoration that meets federal standards, which may include “repainting, electrical repair, repair of acrylic, replacement of globes, repairs for rust and other damage, and other similar work.”

Another $500,000 is set aside for the redesign of the park and its plaza. Its redesign, once complete, will act as an extension of the store’s legacy and be used as a communal space for parties, gatherings and other events.

VIP founder Kelvin Anderson has spent years raising awareness about the importance of his shop, making several pitches to donors and officials to help create a state-of-the-art museum with room for a recording studio, printing space, restaurant and live music.

Before its time in storage, the sign accompanied the VIP Records store in Long Beach — the flagship of 14 locations across Los Angeles County. Snoop Dogg, Warren G and the late Nate Dogg recorded their first four-song demo at VIP. After he signed his first label deal, Snoop Dogg recorded part of his “Who Am I? (What’s My Name)” video on the store’s roof.

Today, a majority of VIP’s customers — nearly two-thirds, according to Anderson — are tourists traveling to Long Beach. It’s now at 1028 E PCH, a smaller storefront just a few doors down from the original spot.

As part of the approval for the sign’s repairs, the City Council in January OK’d a $170,000 licensing agreement with VIP Records to display the sign on city property for five years.

It looks like a cross between a Day of the Dead fever dream and a heavy metal album cover: skeletons in Mesoamerican garb seated around a dining table, with the one wearing an Aztec headdress in the center, holding up an ear of corn like an offering to the gods.

It's the poster for Disciples of the Corn, Evil Cooks' annual dinner honoring Mexico's regional cuisine. Now in its fourth year, the dinner taking place Sept. 12 at Cal State L.A. puts 32 courses spanning 32 Mexican states on the table, paired with seven drinks, for $250 a ticket.

Organizing the event is Alex Garcia, the chef and co-owner of Evil Cooks, the heavy metal-inspired taqueria and James Beard semifinalist he runs with his wife and business partner, Elvia Huerta, in El Sereno.

The mission

Garcia's reasoning for the dinner was to push past the idea of Mexican food being simply tacos, burritos and tortas — spotlighting instead a series of dishes from each of Mexico's 32 states.

The format has steadily evolved. Originally conceived as a fixed roster of "12 disciples" — or chefs — it now rotates them each year. This year, 80% are new, each bringing their own interpretation of a regional dish.

Not every chef is Mexican-born, but all have roots there. Garcia says the dinner is less about strict authenticity than each chef's own interpretation.

This year's Disciples of the Corn IV poster promises "32 bites of Mexico" — and a full table of L.A. chefs to deliver them — on Sept. 12 at Cal State LA's Diablo Grill.

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Courtesy Disciples of the Corn

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The lineup

The slate of chefs represents a who's who of local L.A. restaurant talent. Returning are Danielle Duran of Amiga Amore (Highland Park) and Garcia, alongside Huerta.

New additions include Ray Garcia of Broken Spanish Comedor (Culver City), Thomas Ortega of Amor y Tacos (Cerritos), Luis Navarro of Lola's (Long Beach), Rachel Verharst of Idyllwild Tavern (Burbank), and Ellen Ramos of Santa Canela (Highland Park) handling desserts.

"We're all part of different regions of Mexico that actually build the whole thing up," Duran said. "It's about highlighting where we're from."

Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta, the organizers of the Disciples of the Corn dinner, plate dishes at last year's dinner.

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Liz Luna

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Courtesy Disciples of the Corn

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The venue

This year's move to Cal State L.A.'s Diablo Grill brings Garcia and his team a full kitchen, 50-plus seats and a bigger production team — a welcome shift from last year, when the dinner was squeezed into the compact kitchen at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes near Olvera Street. The dinner also landed in the middle of a summer of heightened ICE enforcement and protests in downtown L.A., a climate Garcia described as a nightmare.

Garcia doesn't hold back: This, he promises, will be "the most amazing dinner you're gonna have" all year.