How do things work now? Currently, people have to wait until their first day of leave to apply for it. The legislation lets Californians do the paperwork up to a month ahead of the expected leave, to reduce stress when a baby is imminent.
Why hasn't it been implemented? It's bundled into a major overhaul of California's Employment Development Department, which administers unemployment, paid family leave and disability benefits. That project launched in 2022 and is slated to cost more than $1.2 billion.
why it matters: For now, expecting parents and others who need to take family leave will still need to wait to apply. In practice, this means people can go weeks before getting state payments while on family leave.
California passed a law allowing new parents to apply early for paid leave. When will it take effect?
The shift sounds simple enough: Currently, people have to wait until their first day of leave to apply for it. The legislation lets Californians do the paperwork up to a month ahead of the expected leave, to reduce stress when a baby is imminent.
But it's bundled into a major overhaul of California's Employment Development Department, which administers unemployment, paid family leave and disability benefits. That project launched in 2022 and is slated to cost more than $1.2 billion.
In an email, an EDD spokesperson said that the changes in the new law will be incorporated "in system upgrades as part of the EDDNext modernization effort," but did not provide a date. Spokespeople for Senator María Elena Durazo, who sponsored the legislation, and Gov. Gavin Newsom's office both referred LAist to EDD for answers.
For now, expecting parents and others who need to take family leave will still need to wait to apply. In practice, this means people can go weeks before getting state payments while on family leave.
What's the EDDNext modernization effort?
The effort to remake EDD and upgrade its technological systems is a years-long process that was launched in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the project's deputy director Ron Hughes, who spoke on a podcast about the program last year.
" We're introducing lots of changes in technology in a very short period of time," he said.
According to a recent report from California's Legislative Analyst's Office on the state's 2025-2026 budget, in the next fiscal year it's expected that a new project will replace EDD's current systems for disability insurance, paid family leave and unemployment insurance.
Is it normal for changes to family leave to take time?
The delay in implementing a change to family leave is typical, according to Katherine Wutchiett, a senior staff attorney with Legal Aid at Work and expert on paid leave. She cited a 2022 law that increased leave payments for workers who take time off to care for a new child or sick family member. Those changes just took effect this January.
Another example: a 2022 law requires EDD to collect demographic data for recipients of disability benefits. Those changes might not begin before a July 2026 deadline.
"It's my understanding that with the technological systems the EDD has, sometimes it takes some time to implement changes to the system," Wutchiett said. "It's not unusual for bills that impact paid family leave and state disability insurance to take a few years to go into effect."
Why was this law passed in the first place?
The law allowing Californians to apply early for paid family leave is meant to help working class women and people who can't afford to take a few weeks off unpaid while waiting for their benefits to kick in.
"Workers who do not have the savings to cover several weeks of expenses without their regular income while waiting for…benefits are less likely to take leave from work," according to a fact sheet from Durazo.
The new legislation will let people apply 30 days ahead of when they expect to take leave. It requires that the state pay benefits within 14 days of receiving a claim, or as soon as leave begins.
Lower income workers take leave at lower rates than higher income workers, according to a 2022 report from the California Budget & Policy Center. "This is especially the case for workers with low wages who are disproportionately women, Black, and Latinx Californians," that report states.
In a report on maternal health equity in California released this month, 47% of Black and Latina women reported difficulty accessing or not being able to access paid family leave for their child's birth.
According to Shakari Byerly, who directed the research, that number is even higher — 51% — for survey respondents on Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance for low-income people.
"It really underscores the importance of economic supports for the ability of women to have healthy birthing experiences," she said.
Erin Stone
spent a recent Saturday and Sunday with groups on opposing sides of the project, reviewed official documents, and spoke with leaders from Pasadena, South Pasadena and Los Angeles to report this story.
Published July 6, 2026 5:00 AM
The Arroyo Seco is one of the L.A. River's largest tributaries, winding 25 miles from the San Gabriel Mountains to the confluence in Lincoln Heights. Its water has long been contaminated with unsafe levels of bacteria.
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Topline:
Pasadena and South Pasadena have proposed a project to clean contaminated water from the channelized Arroyo Seco, but to build the necessary infrastructure, they’d have to remove nearly 140 mature trees, more than half of which are invasive and highly flammable. And a portion of the cleaner water would end up irrigating a public golf course.
What's the controversy? The golf course irrigation has been a major point of contention raised by a group of residents on the Los Angeles side of the Arroyo. They have campaigned on social media and in weekly stakeouts to stop the project, which would significantly alter a small creek near the popular San Pascual Park.
Other opponents: Leaders of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians-Kizh (Quiichi) Nation have also rejected the Arroyo Seco Water Reuse Project because the area is sacred and home to burial sites, said tribal chairman Andrew Salas. The tribe sent a formal opposition letter last year.
Read on ... for details about the project and to learn how you can weigh in.
Along the Arroyo Seco, on a strip of land where three cities come together, a fight is escalating over water.
Pasadena and South Pasadena are proposing to clean contaminated water from the channelized stream, but to build the necessary infrastructure, they’d have to remove nearly 140 mature trees, more than half of which are invasive and highly flammable.
And a portion of the cleaner water would end up irrigating a public golf course.
That fact has been a major point of contention raised by a group of residents on the Los Angeles side of the Arroyo. They have campaigned on social media and in weekly stakeouts to stop the project, which would significantly alter a small creek near the popular San Pascual Park.
Leaders of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians-Kizh (Quiichi) Nation have also rejected the Arroyo Seco Water Reuse Project because the area is sacred and home to burial sites, said tribal chairman Andrew Salas. The tribe has opposed the project since its inception and sent a formal opposition letter last year.
“Long before the channeling of the Arroyo Seco, the natural springs, the sacred springs that were there, it was a traditional gathering place,” he said.
Though the city of L.A. itself has no financial stake in the project, one City Council member has called for the project to be abandoned.
Most everyone agrees that the Arroyo Seco’s water needs to be cleaned and that nature around it should be restored. But how to do that — well, there’s the rub.
Opponents of the project are hoping to protect a small creek in a densely wooded area that straddles L.A. and South Pasadena, near San Pascual and Arroyo parks.
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How we got here
The Arroyo Seco — or “dry stream” in Spanish — is a 25-mile winding stream that has little water much of the year but can swell to a torrent with rains. That’s why, in the late 1930s and '40s after devastating floods, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lined much of the channel with concrete.
Pollutants flow into the Arroyo from millions of homes and businesses and miles of freeways and streets that crisscross the watershed. The river has repeatedly received an “F” grade for bacteria contamination in report cards by nonprofit Heal the Bay.
Federal and state law requires California to identify and clean up water bodies that don’t meet quality standards. In 2010, the state adopted bacteria limits for the Arroyo Seco, and identified outfalls (essentially drains) with high levels of contamination. One of those spots was where the San Rafael creek flows into the channelized Arroyo, and it was within Pasadena’s city limits.
Over the years, Pasadena and cities along the upper Arroyo worked to develop a management plan — by 2016, it was approved by the state. In 2019, the cities of Pasadena and South Pasadena secured an initial grant for a joint project to clean water from the arroyo.
This spot where the San Rafael creek flows into the Arroyo Seco has been identified as having high bacteria levels.
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What will the project look like?
The cities’ engineers identified two sites, both largely inaccessible or unused by the public. They dubbed the first the San Rafael site — about 1.4 acres in Pasadena where the San Rafael creek empties into the Arroyo Seco.
Just downstream, they identified a sliver of densely wooded open space in South Pasadena they thought could be rehabilitated. They called those 2 acres the San Pascual site. They developed plans for both areas to build wetlands with native trees and plants, walking paths, as well as underground infrastructure to treat the water for zinc and E. coli and filter out trash. Construction, they said, would take less than two years.
In recent years, Pasadena and South Pasadena secured nearly $15 million for the project.
Renderings of the Arroyo Seco Water Reuse Project
Renderings and maps from the draft environmental impact report show how the cities of Pasadena and South Pasadena plan to carry out the Arroyo Seco Water Reuse Project, if it goes forward.
Renderings show what the proposed San Rafael site, in Pasadena, could look like. At the bottom left, is what the site currently looks like. This site has little opposition, and would open a space currently inaccessible to the public.
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A rendering shows what the San Pascual site is proposed to look like. About a half acre of the site is within L.A. city limits, sparking controversy. At bottom left is what the site looks like now.
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This map shows the proximity of the two sites that make up the Arroyo Seco Water Reuse project proposed by Pasadena and South Pasadena.
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Opposition grows
One problem? About a half an acre of the San Pascual site is within the city of Los Angeles.
And about 10% of the water captured and treated would end up irrigating the nearby public golf course in South Pasadena, according to the draft environmental impact report. Today, water from the arroyo already helps keep fairways green at the golf course through a diversion that’s been in place since the stream was channelized nearly a century ago, officials said.
“It should be noted that the amount of water supplied to the Golf Course for irrigation will remain the same pre- and post-construction,” the draft environmental impact report states.
The blue icon on this map from L.A. County land records marks the strip of land that has generated the most controversy about the Arroyo Seco Water Reuse Project. These 2.2 acres straddle both L.A. and South Pasadena. There are no plans to alter the surrounding parks and baseball fields.
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The Arroyo Seco Water Reuse Project by the numbers
According to the draft environmental impact report, the two project sites could:
Treat 534 acre-feet per year of runoff. (By comparison, the entire city of L.A. uses about 500,000 acre-feet of water per year)
Capture 320 acre-feet per year of stormwater to recharge groundwater.
Supply about 30 acre-feet of water for irrigation at the South Pasadena golf course, fully meeting its annual water needs.
The cities put together their first plans for the project in late 2023. But early on they did little community outreach on the L.A. side, and none in Spanish, and soon passionate opposition arose.
In 2024, Los Angeles resident Clara Solis sued the cities to stop the project. To avoid litigation, Pasadena agreed to do a full environmental impact report. In early May, the city released a draft for public comment.
But opponents like Solis say the revised plan is essentially the same and doesn’t go far enough to protect mature trees and existing wildlife habitat.
A few planks of wood and metal casing mark where water has been diverted from the Arroyo Seco to irrigate a downstream public golf course. The diversion has existed since the mid-20th century, when the arroyo was first channelized.
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A diversion from the Arroyo Seco that's existed since the late 1940s sends water from the river to this creek, which eventually goes underground to irrigate a downstream golf course.
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A wild haven in the city
The San Pascual site is surrounded by several parks — the main section of San Pascual Park, on the L.A. side, just across the channelized river from the proposed project site, and Arroyo Park on the South Pasadena side.
On a recent weekend, the parks were full — people set up picnics on the grass, parents cheered as their kids played baseball. Runners made their rounds.
Solis has lived nearby for more than 20 years. When her children were growing up, they’d spot fish and frogs in the creek and sit under the trees, listening to the birds. Today, she and her dog, Summer, often see a blue heron.
Clara Solis, along with her dog Summer, picks up trash along the Arroyo Seco in June.
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To her, unlike the more manicured parks surrounding it, this spot is a rare wild gem in the middle of the city.
“ There's one huge oak, we call it the mother because it's so big, and she's going to get cut down, and it's just heartbreaking to us,” Solis said.
And construction will undoubtedly affect L.A. residents, whose neighborhoods are closest to the San Pascual project site.
“South Pasadena and Pasadena are not sensitive to the people of Los Angeles,” said Robert Acosta, who lives across the street on the L.A. side. “No one ever sent notification to me that they were going to do this.”
The mother oak.
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Small fish and tadpoles can be found in the creek running through the proposed project site near San Pascual Park.
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That’s why Solis and other volunteers launched the group Save San Pascual Park.
With the help of social media and local organizing, they built a movement and collected signatures. The group has accused Pasadena and South Pasadena of using the project to steal water and land from L.A. and say it's a case of environmental injustice.
The all-volunteer group Save San Pascual Park has been posting signs at the San Pascual site.
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In late May, the group successfully urged L.A. City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents the area, to formally oppose the project. The L.A. City Council sent her resolution back to committee.
L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis and state Sen. María Elena Durazo had more success — they both sent letters requesting Pasadena extend public comment, which the city granted for 30 days.
How to weigh in on the Arroyo Seco Water Reuse project
The deadline for public comment is now Aug. 1. Comments can be emailed to cmonde@cityofpasadena.net.
But not everyone is against the project. Pilar Reynaldo, who has lived in nearby Garvanza for 14 years, fully supports it.
“ I have reimagined the Arroyo many times with the removal of invasives and the plantings of natives,” said the avid walker and certified master gardener, “and I'm really excited about this project because it would do exactly that.”
She argued that the planned sites would ultimately better support local wildlife — and nearby residents.
“The South Pasadena site has only been inhabited by unhoused people who have set many fires, which presents a real danger to the community,” she said. “ I've never seen anybody other than unhoused people and a man masturbating.”
Catching pollution at the source
On a recent tour hosted by Save San Pascual Park, a group of about a dozen people walked along the Arroyo Seco toward the San Rafael site upstream. Clara Solis pointed out a small pipe leading out of the San Pascual horse stables into the Arroyo.
Solis argues that stopping pollution starts at the source — such as the stables, Johnston Lake and a golf course upstream — not through large infrastructure projects after the fact.
A pipe and ditch directs water from the San Pascual stables towards the Arroyo Seco. It's one of many likely sources of high bacteria levels in the stream.
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Pasadena, though, argued that’s impossible — and that state law restricts their options. The city has tested San Rafael Creek and fixed leaky sewer mains, Pasadena city engineer Brent Maue said. Still, fecal bacterial levels remained high.
“We're forced under the law to reduce pollutants, and unless you can find the point source that's causing it, then you have to build a project at the compliance point, and that is where the water comes into the Arroyo Seco,” he said.
For decades residents, engineers, scientists and environmentalists have debated how to balance engineered flood and pollution control with restoring the Arroyo to a more natural state.
Tim Brick, executive director of nonprofit Stewards of the Arroyo Seco, has long pushed for restoring the stream to largely its original state to support wildlife and recreation. That could in turn improve water quality, as plants, trees and soils can filter out pollution.
Some projects have helped, he said.
“But the city [of Pasadena], particularly in recent years, has not done a good job of following through with maintaining the restoration projects,” Brick said.
An egret stalks food in the Arroyo Seco on a recent weekend.
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Clean water for a golf course?
On their recent tour, the Save San Pascual Park group carefully made their way along the dirt path within the proposed San Pascual site. They ducked under branches and warned each other of poison oak. Under the trees, the sounds of the city faded, replaced by chirping birds, rustling leaves and flowing water.
The group walked past a huge oak — Solis’s “mother tree” — as well as invasive and highly flammable tree of heaven and Mexican fan palms, many charred by a recent fire. Several ducks drifted in the creek. Some trash peppered the greenery.
“ I don't see the neglect,” said Mount Washington resident Yael Pardess. “I see the beauty. I see the potential, and I think it's a place that really makes you forget you're in L.A.”
Most of this spot is technically in South Pasadena, but Pardess said the community alongside L.A. City Council District 14 has hosted cleanups here and removed “truckloads” of trash.
Mexican fan palms dominate the San Pascual site. Many are charred black from a recent human-caused fire.
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Pardess contends that the area just needs maintenance.
“There's so much life in here, and we cannot eliminate this gem, even for the sake of clean water,” she said. “The solution for a park that is neglected is not to destroy it, it is to restore it. They don't have the money for that. They have the money to destroy it.”
The group reached the end of the trail, where the water pooled into a small pond. This is where the creek goes underground to the downstream Arroyo Seco Golf Course, a public and popular course owned by the city of South Pasadena with green fees of $29 or less.
Water not used for irrigating the golf course would go into the project’s infiltration basins, where it would seep underground.
“Depending on local geologic conditions, infiltrated water may contribute to groundwater storage, support downstream aquifers, or reemerge elsewhere as groundwater seepage over time,” Maue said. “In other words, the project changes the pathway the water takes, but it does not simply remove that water from the watershed.”
The proposed project calls for planting only native trees, unlike these towering Mexican fan palms.
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The creek running through the proposed San Pascual site.
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What happens next?
For now, water quality regulators are not imposing fines, which could be as much as $10,000 per day, while they review the latest plans.
Reynaldo, the Garvanza resident, said she hopes a middle ground can be reached.
“It would've been great had the channel never been filled with concrete, but it was,” she said. “Now there are so many communities that have been built on the floodplain. I think that perfect is the enemy of the good, and these projects do not impede on the possibilities of, maybe in the future, they are able to take some concrete out.”
LAist intern Sena Chang contributed to this report.
The Huntington's corpse flowers, one of which is seen here in 2023, are preparing to bloom again.
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In this edition:
New-wave swing dancing, the Indiana Fever take on the Sparks, a rare corpse flower double-bloom and more of the best things to do this week.
Highlights:
Stinky and rare, the corpse flower is about to make its annual appearance at the Huntington Gardens. This year there’s a super unusual double bloom, so don’t miss your once-a-year chance to see — er — smell it.
Arguably the biggest name in women’s basketball right now — Caitlin Clark — heads with her Indiana Fever to Crypto.com this week to take on the L.A. Sparks.
Lindy hop your way into America’s 251st year with a night of dancing to some artists you might not think of when it comes to swing music — like David Bowie, Talking Heads, Hall & Oates, George Michael, and even Vampire Weekend and Olivia Dean.
The summer of Wes Anderson in L.A. (this weekend is the two-night Hollywood Bowl celebration) kicks off with a 30th Anniversary screening of Bottle Rocket at the Academy Museum.
The World Cup mania continues, and we’d be remiss to not keep you up-to-date on where to check out all the games — whether that’s watching in person or tuning in. I am almost at my soccer-watching capacity, but I’ll admit this New York Times story about how hosting the World Cup in the Americas means every team is someone’s home team really got me.
Keep the party going post-Fourth with music picks from Licorice Pizza. On Tuesday, the legendary Don Was is at the Lodge Room, indie singer-songwriter Thomas Dollbaum is at the cool all-ages Pasadena venue Healing Force of the Universe, and Souls of Mischief play their first of two nights at Blue Note Los Angeles (they’ll be there Wednesday, too).
Also on Wednesday, Royel Otis plays the Greek, and Kurt Vile plays the Novo, or you can feel like it’s “so yesterday” and fly to the Forum for the amazing early-2000s bill of Hilary Duff with La Roux! That’s happening on Thursday, too.
Wednesday, July 8, 7 p.m. Crypto.com Arena 1111 S Figueroa Street, Downtown L.A. COST: FROM $92; MORE INFO
Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever will be in town this week.
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Andy Lyons
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Arguably the biggest name in women’s basketball right now — Caitlin Clark — heads with her Indiana Fever to Crypto.com this week to take on the L.A. Sparks. If you need a break from all the soccer (hi, it’s me), swap it for some of the best basketball around.
Smoke Show with Jodie Sweetin
Thursday, July 9, 7:30 p.m. Lyric Hyperion 2106 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake COST: $17.85; MORE INFO
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Full House star Jodie Sweetin heads to camp with comedians Lisa Chanoux, Ify Nwadiwe and Jessica Saul. What started as a Netflix Is a Joke show has grown into a full competition where comedians compete in a series of themed challenges, and the winner is determined by you, the audience. There’s also a short meet-and-greet with Sweetin included.
The corpse flower bloom
Ongoing The Huntington 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino COST: $29; MORE INFO
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Stinky and rare, the corpse flower is about to make its annual appearance at the Huntington Gardens. This year there’s a super unusual double bloom, so don’t miss your once-a-year chance to see — er — smell it. You can even livestream the bloom here. But there are many great reasons to go to the Huntington this summer, smelly flower or not. The third iteration of the museum’s Stories from the Library exhibit recently opened, where visitors will encounter rare materials that examine “how people have made meaning from imperfect objects and from the moon.”
Big Fan with Michael Schur
Tuesday, July 7, 7 p.m. Chevalier Books 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Larchmont COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Mike Schur will be discussing his new book this week.
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Fans of Michael Schur’s shows, like The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, will want to check out his latest book with Joe Posnanski, Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love. In the book, the two friends travel and talk about baseball, basketball, chess, darts, football and many more pastimes. Schur will be at Chevalier’s for a conversation with writer and actor Mike O’Malley (Glee).
Postmodern Swing
Thursday, July 9, 8 p.m. Culver City Foshay Lodge 9635 Venice Blvd., Culver City COST: $14; MORE INFO
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Lindy hop your way into America’s 251st year with a night of dancing to some artists you might not think of when it comes to swing music — like David Bowie, Talking Heads, Hall & Oates, George Michael, and even Vampire Weekend and Olivia Dean.
Bottle Rocket 30th Anniversary
Monday, July 6, 7 p.m. David Geffen Theater Academy Museum 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile COST: FROM $5; MORE INFO
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The summer of Wes Anderson in L.A. (this weekend is the two-night Hollywood Bowl celebration) kicks off with a 30th Anniversary screening of Bottle Rocket at the Academy Museum. The director himself will be there, plus actor Luke Wilson and producer James L. Brooks will also appear. It’s sold out, but there may be standby tickets available day-of.
Keep up with LAist.
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Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, center, at a City Council meeting with Councilmember Megan Kerr, left, and Councilmember Suely Saro, right, in Long Beach on Feb. 20, 2024.
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Long Beach Post
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Topline:
Get out your calculators, Long Beach. It’s budget season, and you have an opportunity to weigh in on how your tax dollars should be spent.
Why it matters: Your voice could be especially important this year as the City Council decides how to close a multi-million dollar deficit that top administrators say will force the first round of serious cuts in years.
Why now: The city on Wednesday released its schedule for adopting the 2027 budget, and it includes five community meetings where you can get up to speed and give feedback.
Read on... for more on the schedule for all the hearings.
Get out your calculators, Long Beach. It’s budget season, and you have an opportunity to weigh in on how your tax dollars should be spent. Your voice could be especially important this year as the City Council decides how to close a multi-million dollar deficit that top administrators say will force the first round of serious cuts in years.
The city on Wednesday released its schedule for adopting the 2027 budget, and it includes five community meetings where you can get up to speed and give feedback.
Wednesday, Aug. 5, 6 – 7:30 p.m. — Virtual (Zoom)
Thursday, Aug. 6, 6 –7:30 p.m. — Charles Lindbergh Middle School Auditorium, 1022 E. Market St.
Saturday, Aug. 8, 10 –11:30 a.m. — Silverado Park Community Center, 1545 W. 31st St.
Monday, Aug. 10, 6 – 7:30 p.m. — Renaissance High School for the Arts Auditorium, 235 E. 8th St.
Thursday, Aug. 13, 6 – 7:30 p.m. — Long Beach City College, Liberal Arts Campus, Room T1200, 4902 E. Carson St.
How the budget works
The budget is one of local government’s most central documents, adopted each September, in which the city projects how much it will spend in the coming year on day-to-day services like policing, firefighting, garbage collection and street lighting, and how it will raise money to pay for them.
Budgets must be balanced — the city cannot spend a dollar unless it has identified a way to bring one in. To cover any deficit, officials must raise revenue, cut expenses or draw from reserves.
The city charter requires that the mayor release his proposed budget by Aug. 2, though it’s expected he will release it on July 30; City Manager Tom Modica will formally present the plan to the City Council on Aug. 4 and council members are expected to adopt the budget on Sept. 8.
Throughout those 40 days, officials and the public will deliberate — or scrutinize — the plan in a series of hearings and listening sessions, inviting department leaders one at a time to make their pitch on what they want and coming out with a final plan on how best to spend a limited amount of money.
Here’s the schedule for all those hearings:
July 28 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
Aug. 4 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
Aug. 4 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: City Manager’s Proposed FY 27 Budget; Human Resources
Aug. 18 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Health and Human Services; Community Development
Aug. 25 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
Aug. 25 — Budget Hearing, 3 p.m.: Parks, Recreation and Marine; Library, Arts and Culture
Sept. 1 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
Sept. 1 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Public Works; Proposed Capital Improvement Plan
Sept. 8 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
Sept. 8 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Budget Adoption
There will be agendas and live-stream links posted here.
What’s at stake this year
It’s a rougher-than-usual time for the city, which last year relied on reserved cash to even out a $40 million deficit. At a City Council meeting in April, the city manager said it’s “going to be a difficult year” and that the shortfall “is going to require general fund service reductions” — the first cuts of that scale since the pandemic.
Reductions, he said, are almost inevitable in 2027, and the council will need to hear out and come to an agreement on what should be cut to return to solvency. Officials projected a $61.3 million deficit this spring, driven by a steep drop in sales, property and utility tax revenue along with flat or diminished state and federal grants. Separately, the city faces pressure from rising payroll costs tied to workplace injuries, sizable liability payouts, and damage and vandalism to public property.
Last year, the city approved a $3.7 billion budget, most of which must go towards specific needs and cannot be used freely. Instead, the bulk of the annual jockeying centers on the city’s $760 million general fund.
More information on the budget process and community meetings is available here.
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published July 6, 2026 5:00 AM
Carne asada tacos, loaded with guac and salsa, and a bottle of house-made jasmine tea — the full Tacos Royale spread.
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Topline:
Tacos Royale, a charcoal-fired Sonoran asada stand that opened in mid-June near the Silver Lake–Echo Park border, is running an In-N-Out playbook — a tight menu, obsessive ingredient sourcing, and cult branding — built on USDA Prime steak and a $7.49 taco. Founder Saúl Pérez García isn't shy about the comparison or the ambition behind it.
Why it matters: On the surface, it's a taco stand in a Sunset Boulevard parking lot. In practice, it's a deliberate bet that L.A. will embrace a premium, design-forward taqueria the way it embraces In-N-Out — discipline and cult loyalty, but at triple the price.
Why now: Barely a month in, Pérez already has regulars returning three and four times a week, and his sights are set well beyond Sunset — he wants to grow to be akin to "the 10% of In-N-Out," some 80 locations across America, drive-thrus and all, while keeping the operation family-owned and never franchised. Whether L.A. will pay premium prices for an everyday taco is the open question.
At the intersection of Sunset and Rampart, on the Silver Lake/Echo Park border, a taco stand is attempting to run an In-N-Out playbook with Sonoran asada.
This is Tacos Royale, and it may be the most ambitious taco in Los Angeles right now — a tight menu, total ingredient obsession, and cult branding, down to the red-and-yellow, lowrider-script on everything. Founder Saúl Pérez García calls it "a fine dining or steakhouse experience in a taco. For $7."
Tacos Royale sets up on Sunset Boulevard near the Silver Lake–Echo Park border, Thursday through Sunday.
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Elvis Martinez
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Courtesy Tacos Royale
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That's the bet: In-N-Out's discipline and cult devotion, but built on USDA Prime over mesquite instead of a 99-cent burger.
It's only been open since mid-June, Thursdays to Sundays, but his ambition is to create a chain that's as big as "10% of In-N-Out" — about 80 locations across America, drive-thrus and all, family-owned and never franchised.
His background
Pérez is no newcomer to L.A. kitchens. He's a self-taught cook who likes to call himself a "creative entrepreneur." When Pérez is not slinging tacos, he runs his own furniture and interior design business. He's also worked at The Butcher's Daughter in Venice, Ceviche Project, and chef Enrique Olvera's ATLA and then launched the Sinaloa-Chinese mariscos truck La Hija del Marondo at 8th and Grand.
He says the Tacos Royale branding has been carefully crafted. "I'm trying to innovate in a retro brand," Pérez said. "Old-fashioned lettering with a modern Cali style. Traditional, modern Cali taquería."
Even the drinks get the full treatment: house-made coconut horchata, bottled in Tacos Royale's lowrider-script branding.
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Elvis Martinez
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Courtesy Tacos Royale
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He developed the name himself and hired an artist from Mexico City to hand-make the logo, landing somewhere between Southern California lowrider script and the red-and-white, neon-lit taquerías now everywhere in Mexico.
What sets the food apart
Pérez's whole operation runs on two things: "Good meat, good tortilla."
A cook grills carne asada over mesquite charcoal at Tacos Royale, a technique central to the Hermosillo style.
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Elvis Martinez
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Courtesy Tacos Royale
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The tortilla is made privately for Royale by a tortillería in Sylmar, created with his cousin — chef Eloy Aluri from Hermosillo — using an ancestral four-ingredient Sonoran recipe: wheat flour, beef tallow, salt, water. The meat is USDA Prime, cooked low over mesquite charcoal, rested and finished in the pan, never burned.
"If you do a taco with no charcoal, it's not Hermosillo style," he said. Even the salt is sourced: sun-dried Colima sea salt, from Mexico's Pacific coast, which he calls "the purest salt in the world."
USDA Prime steak, grilled over mesquite and finished with Colima sea salt — sourced from Mexico's Pacific coast, which founder Saúl Pérez García calls "the purest salt in the world."
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Elvis Martinez
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Courtesy Tacos Royale
)
The OG taco's add-on is the veneno — Sonoran beef cracklings cut from the trim off each Prime chuck roll, slow-fried in beef tallow and finished over charcoal.
"It's beef chicharrón, not pork," Pérez said.
It eats savory first — heavy on salt and smoke — with a faint sweetness from the rendered fat, like beef-flavored peanut brittle seen through the lens of a traditional chicharrón.
Beneath the meat sits a thick layer of "Signature Party Beans" — made with beef tallow, California chile, Peruvian beans, and cheese. Pérez named them for the frijoles de fiesta served at Sonoran celebrations — baptisms, quinceañeras, weddings.
The price question
This isn't cheap: $7.49 a taco, $15.75 a burrito, combos at $24.75. For comparison, an In-N-Out Double-Double runs about $6 — less than a single Royale taco — and a Double-Double combo lands around $11, less than half of Royale's. Pérez makes the case on ingredients: each tortilla costs him about 60 cents, compared to a nickel for a standard one, and his Prime runs roughly three times the price of regular taqueria beef.
"How much are you spending at In-N-Out for a combo?" he said.
He frames Royale as "an affordable luxury taquería" — and points out his customers, the ones returning three and four times a week, aren't looking for the cheapest taco in town. Whether the rest of L.A. agrees is the open question.
Location: 2511 W. Sunset Blvd. Hours: Thursday–Sunday, 6 p.m. to midnight
