The Brief

Gone are the rich, jewel toned thick carpets, gold embossed Qur’ans and the fig tree. Now, all that remains of Masjid Al Taqwa — the first mosque in the Altadena-Pasadena area — are soot, ash and charred twisted skeletons of chairs. A sign proclaiming the mosque’s name stands beside a burned, hollowed out billboard.

The place of worship and gathering was among many buildings destroyed by the Eaton Fire, which broke out Jan. 7 during an historic wind storm and grew to become one of the deadliest fires in Southern California’s history.

“It's a place where we come and we gather, but it's also our community … It's gotten me through some trying times and I've always known that I could go to the masjid,” said Najla Abdus-Samad, who grew up attending Masjid Al Taqwa. “Even when I didn't understand it, it was a place of openness where we could go and run around and it was safe.”

The skeleton of chairs at the former site of Masjid Al Taqwa which was destroyed by the Eaton Fire in Altadena.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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Now, mosque leaders, despite suffering losses of their own in the fire, are looking toward recovery and rebuilding as the full scale of destruction sinks in.

Early beginnings 

The mosque started as the Altadena-Pasadena Dawah Center in the 1970s by a group of Black Muslims leaving the Nation of Islam. The community was tight knit and used various locations to worship. But as their numbers grew, they needed a permanent home.

Daarina Abdus-Samad, Najla’s mother, was driving around Lake Avenue in Altadena and spotted the building which at the time was a thrift store. All it needed was a name.

Masjid is an Arabic word for “place of prostration” and Al Taqwa loosely translates to God consciousness or piety. The leaders agreed it would be a fitting name for their new home.

The tight-knit Masjid Al Taqwa community hopes to rebuild despite the loss of their place of worship.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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What remains of Masjid Al Taqwa, the first mosque in the Altadena-Pasadena area.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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Multigenerational place of community

Najla Abdus-Samad recalls Sunday school at the mosque and learning the Arabic alphabet.  

“We'd stay there for hours and we'd learn and we'd read the Qur'an and we'd play with each other,” she said, carrying her 1-year-old son Zavian Henderson.

“ I want him to grow up with what's right and what's wrong and the masjid taught me that. So not having the masjid, it's going to be a lot harder to teach him about a faith, about Allah that has carried me through my whole life.”

Jihad Saafir, the founder and executive director of Islah LA, a nonprofit offering education and housing in south Los Angeles, grew up in the Altadena-Pasadena area.

 ”This has always been my uncles, aunties. They helped raise me,” he said about some of the mosque’s early founders gathered to speak to LAist. “I lived right around the corner from the masjid at one point. I was the imam here. These are sites that I've seen growing up every day so to see them and to hear about them being burned down and seeing video and pictures, it's heartbreaking.”

Jihad Saafir, the founder and executive director of Islah LA, a nonprofit offering education and housing in south Los Angeles, grew up in the Altadena-Pasadena area.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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Rahil Siddiqui and Zayaan Qazi grew up attending Masjid Al Taqwa.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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For Rahil Siddiqui, 19, some of his best memories at Masjid Al Taqwa were around Eid, the festival marking the end of a month of fasting.

“ My father owned a restaurant nearby, so we would help with food for Eid,” he said. “We had this tradition where the kids would be able to put three gifts that they wanted, and the masjid would crowdfund in order to get those gifts and distribute it.”

And now as an adult, he helps keep the tradition alive, distributing the gifts on Eid morning.

Zeyaan Qazi, a student at USC, got her last Eid gift when she turned 18.

“ I've been helping the little kids paint their Eid bags, even like the little babies who can't even hold a paintbrush,” she said. “Now I'm older and I can help Sister Dolores plan the wish list and stuff the bags and decorate the gifts and it's honestly just such a tradition that I'm so excited to continue insha Allah (God willing) when we rebuild our mosque.”

Rebuilding and what the future holds

The loss is compounded for the likes of Aaron Abdus-Shakoor, one of the mosque’s early founders who also lost his home and business in the fire.

“Home, nothing was salvaged, office, nothing was salvaged, and other homes that I'm involved in, they were totally destroyed,” he said. “It is devastating. It's completely gone. It's flat. These areas are flat to the ground.”

Despite his personal losses, Abdus-Shakoor is thinking about the congregants. He is working to secure a place for the Masjid Al Taqwa community to continue Friday Jummah prayers (congregational prayers that Muslims offer like Sunday service). Ramadan is a few weeks away and he’s looking to lease a property so they can continue the free daily evening meals.

Delores and Aaron Abdus-Shakoor are early founders of Masjid Al Taqwa which was destroyed by the Eaton Fire along with their home and office. Here they stand with their son Jihad Abdus-Shakoor and his wife Desha Dauchan.

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Saafir has launched a LaunchGood campaign through Islah LA to crowdfund for the Masjid Al Taqwa’s needs, with the funds earmarked fortemporary housing, clothing, hygiene products and foods for those who have lost homes. The mosque is also raising funds to rebuild.

“ I think it’ll come back, but it's going to be years. It's not going to be overnight. It's going to take time because there's so many properties that were destroyed,” Abdus-Shakoor said. “It's a process of planning and building and getting permits and going through that system.”

Altadena is a tight-knit and diverse community where people have been able to achieve homeownership. Many residents who've been impacted by the Eaton Fire hope to rebuild.

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Darina Abdus-Samad, agreed, adding that the masjid has to rebuild, even if it’s with a tent or rug, because “the family is strong.”

“It just has to make us stronger. We can't let it go someplace else,” she said. “So much love and work has been put in it and you can feel the feeling when you come into our (masjid) — we've had families come from different places into our masjid and say, OK, this is home.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Housing needs for current and future residents, environmental justice, access to local commercial corridors and preserving Boyle Heights’ cultural legacy will be priorities as the neighborhood grows, according to its newly updated community plan.

In a 14-0 vote, city leaders last week officially approved the update to the Boyle Heights Community Plan, which acts like a blueprint for the future of one of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods. The multidecade effort to update the document is its first change since 1998.

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado spoke to the greater City Council during a June 24 meeting and pointed to the history of Boyle Heights residents being left out of conversations that impact their neighborhood. For the updated plan, she said neighbors and other stakeholders worked to mold it into a positive asset for the community of roughly 85,000 people.

“This plan reflects years of community advocacy for stronger environmental protections, more thoughtful land-use decisions, greater compatibility between industrial and residential uses, affordable housing antidisplacement measures and investments that allow families to remain in the neighborhoods that they built,” Jurado said during the meeting. 

Jurado spoke as the Lineage warehouse fire was still burning next to homes. She stressed the future of the neighborhood didn’t necessarily have to mirror its past.

“No community plan can undo generations of inequitable land use decisions overnight…” Jurado said, referring to the residential neighborhoods around the industrial zone that endured smoke from the fire for days. “A community cannot thrive if families are asked to bear environmental burdens that [other communities] aren’t forced to accept.”

The plan will allow for 13,000 new homes, attract 12,000 more work opportunities, and accommodate 37,000 additional residents in Boyle Heights through the year 2040, according to a press release from L.A.’s Planning Department.

The latest update incentivizes developers to build in the proposed zones by the L.A. River that will allow more mixed-use structures, such as apartments above small businesses. The plan will also offer opportunities for legacy small businesses to be relocated to the new development area to further preserve the culture and identity of the neighborhood. 

Addressing environmental harms

The plan also includes updated building code guidelines to ensure that:

• Potentially disruptive or hazardous industrial uses along streets that serve as boundaries between industrial areas and residential neighborhoods are discouraged
• Facilities that handle hazardous materials near residents and schools are phased out
• Qualifying development projects conduct soil testing to ensure that lead and arsenic are removed from the soil prior to any ground disturbance

Housing, jobs and neighborhood character

The plan update also features the following tools to “promote affordable housing, economic development, and maintain the community identity” in the neighborhood:

• Prioritizes new production of housing development along commercial corridors and near transit stations to reduce automobile dependency, while safeguarding existing residential neighborhoods
• Incentivizes units for a range of lower-income households, including families of four that make less than $16,000 annually, and family-sized units for intergenerational housing needs 
• Adopts new zoning standards that promote corner shops, or tienditas, that provide groceries and household goods within a walkable distance of the surrounding residential neighborhood
• Strengthens local business and job growth potential along major corridors with new regulations that limit the size of commercial spaces to support mom-and-pop-style businesses and neighborhood grocery stores rather than big-box stores and chains
• New zoning standards that require design features on new development to be compatible with and reflect the existing character of historic and potentially historic buildings, such as those along the historic Brooklyn Avenue corridor

The updated Plan was initially approved in September 2024 and preserves access to incoming affordable housing while safeguarding housing in existing residential neighborhoods.

The plan update also incorporates the New Zoning Code, a more flexible zoning system designed to promote sustainable development and equity across L.A. neighborhoods. Boyle Heights is the second L.A. neighborhood to utilize the new code after downtown. 

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado and members of Eastside LEADS speak at a town hall at the Boyle Heights City Hall on June, 10, 2026.

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Residents’ hopes for implementation

At a June 10 town hall at Boyle Heights City Hall, various community groups and organizations met with Jurado and the Eastside Leadership for Equitable and Accountable Development Strategies (LEADS) coalition to discuss the plan.

At the end of the meeting, attendees broke into groups to talk about issues they wanted addressed and what neighborhood identity and culture would be important to preserve as the community plan is implemented.

Daniel Jimenez said that his table discussed “how important it is for us to be able to have affordable housing in our neighborhoods.”

In addition to affordable housing, others shared that the plan should ensure adequate parking for new developments, create more green spaces and programming for youth.

Fanny Ortiz, a longtime Boyle Heights resident, said, “In order for us to live and thrive in our community, we should be able to have housing with dignity.”

According to a representative from Jurado’s office, the plan will take effect later this summer. 

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Every Wednesday morning, at a coffee shop near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue, a line begins to form. 

People aren’t just coming to South LA Cafe for coffee, they come for the groceries that will ensure their respective households have enough food for the week.

The food giveaway at the cafe, co-founded by Joe Ward-Wallace, has become a weekly stop for hundreds of residents. What started as a coffee shop has grown into a community hub addressing food insecurity through consistent grocery distributions and local support.

Each week, South LA Cafe distributes 200 bags of groceries, many filled with fresh produce, meat and a mix of pantry goods. 

Most of the people in line are the elderly and families because the distribution happens mid-morning during the week.

“Usually a bag of groceries can feed a family of four for about a week,” Ward-Wallace said. “It gives them the essentials so they can survive … We hope for a lot of people.”

Volunteer Kiki Miller distributing strawberries into each bag of groceries.

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As of 2026, South LA Cafe has five locations across LA. It opened its fifth location on Vermont Avenue in October 2025. 

“It’s become more than a coffee shop. It’s become a movement in every community.” Ward-Wallace said.

That growth is supported by a system that depends heavily on volunteers. From packing bags to organizing supplies, the weekly food drive requires constant coordination.

 “Every bag has fresh produce in it… so it requires a huge volunteer network,” said Kiki Miller, a volunteer.  “People are constantly coming in to prep and pack bags.”

The need for that support continues to grow as many families struggle to keep up with the rising cost of living. Rent, transportation and supporting a family can quickly add up, making food one of the hardest expenses to afford consistently. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food prices have risen by 3.1% overall during the last 12 months. Grocery prices increased by 2.4%, while dining out saw a 4.1% increase.

There is also a stigma attached to seeking food assistance. Some people feel like spaces like this are not meant for them, or they feel embarrassed to show up at all.

Ward-Wallace understands that feeling personally.

 “I used to be in those lines … and I was embarrassed,” he said. “If we’re going to have a community space, people are going to feel welcome. No one should feel bad for needing food.”

Co-founder of South LA Cafe, Joe Ward-Wallace, stands outside the cafe.

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That perspective shapes how South LA Cafe operates. The grocery program meets immediate needs, but it also prioritizes removing stigma around asking for help. 

“Why do they have to go somewhere else?” Ward-Wallace said. “We can do it right here in our own community.”

For volunteers, the impact is easy to see but meaningful.

“I might not be able to fix everything, but today I can come feed someone,” Miller said.

For more information on South LA Cafe’s Wednesday grocery giveaway, including how to receive groceries or volunteer, visit the cafe’s website. 

This story was produced under The LA Local’s Youth Journalism Program. To learn more or to get involved, click here.

Should surgeons be allowed to perform euthanasia by removing patients' hearts and other organs while they're still alive?

The idea, dubbed "Death by Organ Donation," would enable euthanasia patients to donate organs for transplantation in a way that would make their organs more likely to be usable. It would also kill them.

"It would be an ethical thing to do because this is something the patients have chosen for themselves," says Dr. Robert Truog, a physician and bioethicist at Harvard Medical School who co-authored a paper outlining Death by Organ Donation in the New England Journal of Medicine. "They have very generously thought: 'How might my death help other people?' It's a very altruistic, generous thing to do.'"

But the idea is controversial for a variety of reasons, including because it goes against fundamental principles that have guided organ donation for decades. The Dead Donor Rule requires that patients must be dead before any organs are removed. Doctors also can't kill patients in the process of removing organs.

The rule has long generated intense debate, including disputes over how to precisely determine when a person is dead, as well as the development of new ways to extend the lives of dying patients and recover usable organs for transplants.

At the same time, many countries, including Canada, the Netherlands and Spain, have made it legal for doctors to help patients die through euthanasia.

"What if they chose to be organ donors? The problem is that under current standards doctors must not cause death in the process of procuring organs for transplant," Truog says.

So hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys can only be removed from euthanasia patients after they have received a lethal dose of drugs, which makes their organs, especially their hearts, much less useful for transplantation.

"Why would it not be OK for patients to say, 'I've chosen to die by a lethal injection. Isn't there some way I can help others?' They should be able to donate organs as a lasting gift to others. And denying them that option doesn't seem to make any sense," Truog says. "I would say a more appropriate framework is that for patients who are choosing to die from euthanasia they could also choose to have euthanasia linked with organ donation."

A "creepy idea" that might have merit

Euthanasia involves doctors administering lethal drugs to cause the death of a patient. The practice is illegal in the U.S., but a growing number of states have legalized assisted-suicide, in which doctors give patients lethal drugs to take at home.

Instead of a doctor administering lethal medication to a patient, Death by Organ Donation patients would end the patient's life by anesthetizing them and then removing their organs while they are still functioning.

"So the organs would still be in ideal condition," says Truog says.

Some other bioethicists say the argument could have merit.

"The concept of death by donation is an extremely troubling notion at first glance. It's a creepy idea," says Ruth Faden, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University. "But in fact if you look at it critically in terms of the foundational ethical considerations, it's not as disturbing as it first appears."

That's because, she says, of the spread and acceptance of euthanasia and the desires of some of those patients to be organ donors.

"If we're committed to respecting the autonomy of individuals at the end of their life. And if they prefer to maximize the good their bodies can do at the end of their life, that's the ethical justification for death by donation," Faden says. She adds it would be important for strong safeguards to be implemented to ensure full informed consent and to protect patients from abuse.

A shift could undermine patient trust

But some other bioethicists are horrified by the mere notion.

"This is asking surgeons to take a living person into the operating room and to come out with a dead person, which I think is murder," says Lainie Friedman Ross, a bioethicist at the University of Rochester. "There are limits to consent. And one of the things we're not allowed to do is consent to saying that somebody else can just murder you."

Others worry this approach would undermine trust in both organ donation and end-of-life care at a time when some potential donors are already wary because of controversies about organ procurement efforts.

"You could be doing real damage to both the physician-assisted suicide system and the organ donation system," says Lori Andrews, a bioethicist and professor emerita at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "It might give people the image that these are vultures that no longer wait until you die to attack. It does give up visions of body snatchers from prior centuries."

Critics also fear that allowing Death by Donation for euthanasia patients could open the door to someday saying it would be acceptable practice for physician-assisted suicide patients and even potentially hospice patients.

But others argue that for now this approach could be considered for at least some euthanasia patients.

"If there are people who want to donate organs, this would be the way to maximize their wishes and their altruistic goal to help others," says Dr. Carter Winberg, a Canadian critical care physician working on his master's degree in bioethics at Harvard who co-authored the New England Journal of Medicine paper. "These are people who are already consenting to voluntary euthanasia and already consent to organ donation. That warrants a new conversation about whether this is possibly ethical."
Copyright 2026 NPR

With the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening in Exposition Park this fall, residents who share the South L.A. ZIP code will be able to visit for free with a new pass, officials announced Thursday.

Some members of the community will also be invited into the museum for a preview day a little more than a week before the Sept. 22 grand opening.

Other tickets are going up for grabs starting next week, with members of the museum getting priority access before general admission opens to the public the following week.

CEO Tracey Bates told LAist the 300,000-square-foot building feels comforting, intimate and familiar once you walk inside. Its collection represents more than 40,000 works, and Bates said it platforms artists you may have never seen in a museum before.

“I think as an Angeleno, the sheer love of what this city is built on — storytelling, filmmaking, illustration — is something to really come and take in,” Bates said. “And hopefully inspire you to become a creative when you leave us.”

Here’s what you need to know to get in.

Neighborhood pass

Angelenos who live in the museum’s 90037 ZIP code will have exclusive access to the “LM37” pass, which allows free tickets to be reserved for themselves and one guest.

A portion of tickets will be set aside for passholders for the opening and beyond, according to officials.

The LM37 program launches in August. Those interested in registering for the pass should sign up here.

There will also be a special community preview day on Sept. 13 for partners, local business owners and civic leaders. Officials said tickets to the preview day will be handed out through local government officials, community partners and directly to registered passholders.

“We really wanted to make sure our neighbors were some of the first people through the door to thank them,” Bates said.

Priority access

Founding members will get the first shot at snagging tickets, starting with the highest tiers.

People who got the Insider membership for $375 and Alliance membership for $600 will have access to tickets starting at 10 a.m. July 14.

Priority tickets will be open to all members by 10 a.m. July 15, including the $140 Access tier and $270 Social tier.

Members will also get a preview from Sept. 5 through Sept. 11 before the museum officially opens to the public later that month.

You can find more membership information here.

General admission

General tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. July 21. Visitors will be able to reserve a spot from the opening date through the end of next February.

Adults will cost $25 and people aged 65 and older will be $21.

All tickets are timed entry, and you can share them with your party if you buy more than one. You’ll have to create an account to accept and access the shared ticket. Whoever purchases the tickets will be required to keep at least one in their account, according to museum officials.

Tickets for children, founding members, active-duty military, personal aides or attendants and EBT cardholders will be free.

Bates said one of the key missions of the museum is inspiring the next generation of storytellers, and the free options help get as many people through the doors as possible.

“We just want to make sure that nobody is limited to come to the museum and enjoy what we hope the museum will inspire in everybody,” she said.

You can find more ticket information here.

More to come

More tickets will be released once museum officials get a sense of how the first several months sell, and next year’s programming will also be announced at a later date.

Bates noted that the 2028 Olympics will bring in visitors from around the world. She said that if people’s first trip to South L.A. is for the Lucas Museum, she hopes they will come back and spend time in the rest of Exposition Park, including the Natural History Museum and California Science Center.

“With the wealth of cultural events that are going to be happening over the next two years, the Super Bowl and LA28, there's just so much going on,” she said. “We're just very proud to be a part of this rich history of Los Angeles.”