Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published September 3, 2024 5:00 AM
A rendering of the new dorm serving UC Riverside and local community college students. It's scheduled to be complete by next summer.
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Courtesy of Jacqueline Norman, UC Riverside Campus Architect
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Topline:
The Riverside Community College District has teamed up with UC Riverside to build a dorm that will provide affordable housing for more than 300 community college students.
Why it matters: Recent surveys indicate that about 14% of the district’s students have experienced housing insecurity. Beyond providing much-needed housing, the partnership will also give community college students an opportunity to meet and mingle with university students. Educators hope those bonds will encourage them to transfer.
The backstory: In 2021, state lawmakers set aside funding to help colleges build affordable, low-cost student housing. The Riverside Community College District and UC Riverside were awarded funding in the summer of 2023. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in November.
What's next: UC Riverside aims to complete the dorm by summer 2025.
Despite the harsh summer sun, about 250 construction workers hustle each day on the north end of UC Riverside's campus.
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0:40
This new dorm will house both UC and community college students. Is it the way forward?
Their mission is to build a new dorm by next summer, one that will house 1,568 students — including more than 300 from local community colleges.
The project, made possible by hundreds of millions in state funding, will provide much-needed affordable housing for the Riverside Community College District, where recent surveys indicate that about 14% of students have experienced housing insecurity.
And the project has another purpose: to encourage community college students to envision themselves at the university. Their apartments “will be sprinkled throughout” the new dorm, not set apart, said Jacqueline Norman, UCR’s campus architect and associate vice chancellor.
How do you build a dorm for two schools?
Senior Project Manager, Erik Speik looks out the window of what will be the courtyard of UC Riverside’s new student housing.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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LAist
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Construction on the project began last November, two years after the state put out a call for grant applications to support new housing.
Every unit will have a private restroom and kitchenette. And because the Inland Empire can get dangerously hot, each apartment will also have its own air conditioning unit and thermostat. Everyone has different comfort levels, so this will give students more control over the temperature in their homes, said John Franklin, UCR’s senior project manager. “You’ll just have to battle your roommates,” quipped Eric Speik, senior project manager with McCarthy Building Companies.
(And yes, the apartments are also built to be resilient in an earthquake.)
Workers used cranes and Bluetooth technology to set the building’s walls. These panels were prefabricated in Tecate, Mexico to speed up the construction process, and they can weigh up to 4,000 pounds.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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LAist
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Norman points out some of the communal spaces in the architectural plans.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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LAist
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When the project is complete, students will have access to a park, with trees that have been conserved through the construction process. Local animals, including wild donkeys and bobcats, sometimes like to roam about.
“It doesn’t look very park-ish right now,” Norman said, “but I promise it will be nice.”
Students from both systems will be neighbors, sharing hallways, a gym, a café, courtyards, and a park. With time, Norman and her colleagues hope, those shared experiences will lead to lasting bonds and increased transfer rates.
The bulk of the units in the building will be for undergraduate housing, she added, but some rooms have been set aside for graduate students. Most units will be shared, but single-occupancy rooms will be available for students who’d like more privacy.
What problems can a new dorm address?
When Heidi Scribner, UCR’s associate vice chancellor for auxiliary services, was crafting the application used to secure funding for this project, she had several issues in mind:
Community college enrollment had also dropped amid the pandemic, and she knew it would take time and effort to rebuild the transfer pipeline.
There were more than 3,000 UCR students on the waitlist for campus housing.
Her colleagues at the Riverside Community College District shared most of those concerns. The new dorm serving both schools is a way “to create an educational transfer pathway and support the demand for housing in our region,” said Claire Oliveros, president of Riverside City College.
On Tuesday, the Riverside Community College District will issue another survey to better understand how students’ housing needs have changed since the pandemic and use this data to determine who will get housed at UCR. For now, eligibility will involve taking on at least 12 units of study, per the state’s requirements. The district also plans to offer this housing for less than $1,000 a month.
Seismic resilience is being built in. Underneath all the concrete, the walls are full of steel. “It's like steel with some concrete frosting,” Norman said. “That's what allows these buildings to be so strong during an earthquake.”
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Zaydee Sanchez
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LAist
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Through the window of what will become a student unit at UC Riverside.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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LAist
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Will it work?
Thomas Cruz-Soto, Riverside City College’s dean of student services, said the success of the project will be measured by the number of students who transfer to a UC or CSU. They'll also be closely watching the number of students who earn a certificate and then “go back to the workforce, and earn a livable California wage.”
Oliveros, RCC's president, said she’s also interested in conducting a formal assessment, “so that we can capture what’s going well and where we can improve.”
The effort might lead to change elsewhere too: Long Beach City College has reached out to leaders at the Riverside Community College District. They wanted to learn more about the district's partnership with UCR, in hopes of doing something similar with Cal State Long Beach, said Hussain Agah, associate vice chancellor of facilities planning & development. He’s also been approached by UCLA and Santa Monica College.
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published January 1, 2026 5:00 AM
Members of Kodama Taiko perform mochitsuki at Yama Seafood Market's San Gabriel location Dec. 20.
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Courtesy Yama Sushi Marketplace
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Topline:
Yama Sushi Marketplace is hosting a free mochitsuki demonstration Saturday, offering the public a chance to witness — and participate in — the traditional Japanese art of pounding fresh mochi for the new year.
Why now: The events coincide with the Japanese New Year period, the most important holiday in Japanese culture. The word mochi comes from the Japanese word motsu, which means "to hold"; the ritual symbolizes holding on to good fortune for the coming year.
Why it matters: While mochi has become a trendy dessert in L.A., these public demonstrations showcase the ceremonial traditions that have anchored Japanese celebrations for over a millennium. By making this sacred practice participatory, Yama hopes to bridge Japanese cultural heritage with L.A.'s diverse communities.
These days, mochi might bring to mind the ice cream selection at Trader Joe's or the cute, shaped donuts at Mochinut, which have made the chewy rice cake an L.A. favorite.
But for more than 1,000 years in Japan, at this time of year, fresh mochi has been celebrated through mochitsuki — a rhythmic New Year's ceremony in which steamed glutinous rice is pounded with wooden mallets into smooth, elastic cakes symbolizing good fortune.
Yama Sushi Marketplace is turning this tradition into a public celebration with a free mochitsuki event Saturday at its Koreatown location. (The marketplace also hosted two previous events, one Dec. 20 at the San Gabriel location and the other last Saturday in West L.A.).
The ceremony
Scott Kohno, CEO of Yama Sushi Marketplace, grew up eating mochi and attending mochitsuki festivals around Los Angeles. He describes the spectacle as "like a dance."
The two-part process requires pounders wielding mallets and turners flipping the rice between strikes, demanding rhythmic precision to avoid injury. Attendees at the Yama events can try their hand at pounding.
Cultural significance
The New Year marks the biggest holiday celebration in Japanese culture. In Japan, Oshogatsu is observed Jan. 1, with the main celebrations beginning on New Year's Eve and continuing through the first days of January.
Traditionally, Mochitsuki is celebrated chiefly through community events, but many families also rely on store-bought mochi rather than pounding their own.
Kodama Taiko performers demonstrate the rhythmic "dance" of mochitsuki, synchronizing the pounding and turning of steamed glutinous rice.
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Courtesy Yama Sushi Marketplace
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The word mochi comes from the Japanese word motsu, which means "to hold," Kohno said. "And so it's very symbolic: holding onto good fortune for the coming year.”
The ceremony holds personal meaning for Kohno, who recalls participating in mochitsuki throughout his childhood. For him, the pairing of mochi and the new year represents a time of reflection — acknowledging his staff and customers while looking ahead.
The demonstration held at Yama will be led by Kodama Taiko, a performance group that has brought mochitsuki to various Southern California communities for several years.
A partnership of legacy brands
This year, Yama is partnering with Fugetsu-Do, the historic Little Tokyo mochi shop founded in 1903 and now in its third generation of ownership under Brian Kito, whose grandfather, Seiichi Kito, started the business.
Kohno sees the partnership between the two businesses — Yama has operated for more than 40 years — as a continuation of Japanese community resilience in Los Angeles.
The partnership feels personal for Kohno, who grew up eating Fugetsu-Do mochi and now sells its products at Yama.
"These two legendary brands coming together, we think it's a natural fit," he said.
An attendee tries his hand at pounding mochi during Yama Seafood Market's Dec. 20 mochitsuki demonstration in San Gabriel.
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Courtesy Yama Sushi Marketplace
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The events pair taiko drumming with rhythmic mochi pounding, offering a celebratory experience most attendees will witness for the first time. For Kohno, these gatherings serve a larger purpose: bringing the community together while passing traditions to future generations.
"I hope that the customers really can understand that Japanese food is beyond just the tasty dishes, that there's a lot of symbolism tied to the culture behind it," he said.
More info:
Yama Sushi Marketplace will host a free mochitsuki demonstration Saturday: Yama Seafood Market, 3178 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles (Koreatown), 11 a.m.-noon
Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published January 1, 2026 5:00 AM
Mice used for fetal tissue research are kept in the vivarium at UCLA's biomedical sciences research building.
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Philip Cheung
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The Washington Post via Getty Images
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Topline:
Researchers at UCLA had their federal funding restored in the fall, but things still aren’t back to normal. On top of dealing with the ramifications of the temporary freeze, students fear that budget reductions at the federal level could threaten their professional futures.
Why it matters: The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation are the two largest federal funders of research at U.S. universities
The backstory: Over the summer,the U.S. Justice Department revealed the results of an investigation into UCLA, alleging it found “indifference” to “a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.” To settle those and other claims, the Trump administration demanded $1 billion from UCLA. The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health then froze hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that had been allocated to the university’s researchers.
What's next: The UC system is still in negotiations with the Trump administration. Most of UCLA’s frozen funding was restored by late September, following court orders. In an attempt to garner support for state-based research funding, some students will host a science fair for lawmakers in Sacramento in January 2026.
Disclosure: Julia Barajas is a part-time law student at UCLA.
Tyler Clites, an assistant professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA, leads a team of researchers working on bionic technologies to prevent unnecessary amputations.
Earlier this year, after the Trump administration froze UCLA’s federal research funding, Clites held a meeting with his team where he delivered a dire warning.
“I think that we can weather this for three months,” he said. “But, after that, I might have to start letting people go."
At the time, Clites told LAist, his lab had 10 doctoral students, along with two post docs, “a few surgical residents” and 10 undergrads.
The worst-case scenario Clites feared did not come to pass. The Trump administration froze UCLA’s grants in July. By late September, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation — the two largest federal funders of research at U.S. universities — were forced to restore some 800 grants at UCLA in response to federal court orders.
But the temporary freeze was long enough to cause permanent damage to some research teams. Plus, students and professors like Clites fear that budget reductions at the NIH and NSF may threaten their research capabilities and professional futures.
Dealing with the aftermath
At UCLA’s pediatrics department, Cole Peters is part of a team that’s engineering T-cells to target proteins expressed by sarcoma tumors. Sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that originates in the body's bones and soft tissues, including muscles, blood vessels and nerves.
Currently, Peters told LAist, the five-year survival rate for pediatric sarcoma is around 66%, “which means 44% of the kids that get these tumors are going to die.”
Peters’s team uses mice to develop treatment options. “We're trying to get the patient's own immune system to attack [their] cancer,” he said.
The team gives the mice a human immune system, Peters added, “so that we can study how a human immune system would attack a human cancer.”
During the funding freeze, those in charge of keeping the mice healthy had to stop their work, and “the colony pretty much died out,” he said.
As a result, an experiment that he and his colleagues planned to start in August is now slated for the middle of January. This unnecessary delay, Peters added, “slows down the potential to generate a medicine” for children.
Cole Peters, a cancer researcher in UCLA's pediatrics department.
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Courtesy
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Elle Rathbun, a sixth-year doctoral student in neuroscience who studies the brain's responses to potential stroke treatments, was also frustrated by the funding freeze.
To stem that loss, she applied for a predoctoral fellowship, which involved gathering a score of documents and letters of recommendation. All told, she said, that process took about a month.
During that time, Rathbun added, “I was doing sort of the bare minimum that my research required.”
“I just couldn't prioritize all the benchwork and the experiments [for my research] and mentoring undergraduates in the way that I was planning on,” she said. “I had to step back from all that.”
Ultimately, Rathbun did secure that fellowship. But then UCLA’s federal funding was restored, so she had to give it back. The rigmarole, she said, was a waste of time.
“I would have rather just been doing experiments and making discoveries,” she said.
Rathbun, Peters, Clites and other researchers at UCLA expressed relief at having their funding restored. But because the court decisions aren't final, they remain fearful.
“I think the biggest impact is [that] people are very reticent to hire,” Clites said. “I'm not really open to taking on a new graduate student . . . I'm much more risk-averse than I have been historically.”
For Peters, it feels like he and his colleagues are working with “a knife over [their] heads.”
Grappling with an uncertain future
In addition to concerns around UCLA’s grants, researchers also worry about the broader state of federal funding.
A recent New York Times investigation — which used public data to analyze over 300,000 grants dating back to 2015 — found that NIH and NSF money is going to fewer grants under the Trump administration. There are also fewer opportunities available for new scientists through graduate student, postdoctoral and early-career fellowships and grants.
In practice, this means that researchers will face more competition for federal funding. The change could also push students to consider other careers.
Elle Rathbun studies the brain's responses to potential stroke treatments.
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Courtesy
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Maya Weissman, a postdoc at UCLA’s Garud Lab, studies the evolution of the human gut microbiome.
The microbiome, she told LAist, helps us digest food, “but it's also connected to a wide range of health issues, including irritable bowel disease and Alzheimer's.”
Her lab is funded by NSF and NIH grants. Having that money restored means she and her colleagues can once again access high-performance computing resources and other critical equipment. And if the undergraduate she mentors wants to conduct research this summer, she’ll be able to pay him.
“We're also able to recruit new members to the lab, because a lot of current members are graduating soon,” she added.
This is all cause to celebrate, Weissman said. But when she looks toward the future, her career is less certain. This year, she intended to apply for the NSF’s postdoctoral research fellowship in biology. But funding for that opportunity was not renewed.
The fellowship “is very prestigious,” Weissman said. “It would have helped my career to have that line on my resume. It would have also funded my salary for several years, and that would take pressure off of my boss, allow her to recruit more people. And it would have allowed me to fund my own experiments and give me a certain amount of independence.”
Weissman visited the NSF’s webpage repeatedly throughout 2025. She kept refreshing it, hoping that a new call for proposals would be posted.
“This huge pool of money that funds a lot of the brightest and most promising researchers at my career stage — it's just gone,” she said.
Moving forward, Weissman will have to spend more time looking for funding.
“Instead of applying for one big fellowship, I have to apply for a dozen little ones to try to cobble together some support,” she said.
Rathbun likewise aims to become an assistant professor at a university, where she can continue doing research.
“I am really reassessing my career path,” Rathbun said. “As much as I want to develop stroke therapies and therapies for other neurodegenerative diseases, and as competitive as I think I am for those positions, if funding is going to be unstable — if, down the line, I'm going to have to constantly be firing people because the NIH suspends grants — that's not viable. It's no longer my dream career.”
Disclosure: Julia Barajas is a part-time law student at UCLA.
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Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published January 1, 2026 5:00 AM
From personal cake slices to diasporic cuisines, here's what will shape the Los Angeles food scene in 2026.
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Logan Voss
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Courtesy Unsplash
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Topline:
LAist food and culture writer Gab Chabrán predicts 2026's biggest food and drink trends, from cappuccinos and personal cake slices to diasporic cuisines and walk-in-only restaurants.
Why now: Conversations with chefs, restaurateurs and frequent diners reveal what's bubbling up in L.A.'s food scene as we enter a new year.
Why it matters: These predictions offer insight into how Angelenos will eat, drink and gather in 2026 — from health-conscious choices driven by GLP-1 medications to the rise of all-day cafes that maximize their appeal across different dayparts.
One advantage of being someone who writes about food is getting to talk to people involved in L.A.'s food scene — from chefs to restaurateurs to frequent diners. That gives me insight into what trends are bubbling up and likely will come into full view this year.
Last year, I predicted the Manhattan cocktail and pavlova desserts would make a comeback and Orange County's dining scene would gain momentum. This year's forecast includes a range of predictions, from personal-sized treats to low-alcohol craft beers to diasporic cuisines ready to take center stage.
Desserts
Individual cake slices will be the hot new treat in 2026 — a perfect, commitment-free indulgence for one or two.
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Sam Lashbrooke
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Courtesy Unsplash
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Personal cake slices: Forget the whole cake. Expect individual slices to be the hot new treat — a perfect, commitment-free indulgence for one (or two).
Cinnamon rolls: The breakfast pastry, whether homemade or from your local bakery, will dominate social media feeds and the baked goods conversation.
While restaurant reservations aren't going away, a new crop of restaurants will be less dependent on online bookings or will host only a few seatings per meal. This helps combat revenue loss from no-shows, reduce third-party platform fees and enable more precise staffing and inventory management.
All-day cafes with restaurant and nightlife elements
Your favorite coffee shop will also serve lunch and dinner, staying open late for drinks, thereby maximizing its concept to appeal to a broader range of customers.
Drinks
The cappuccino is making a comeback in 2026, with its carefully crafted 1:1:1 ratio of espresso, steamed milk and froth.
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Taylor Franz
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Courtesy Unsplash
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The year of the cappuccino: Move over, latte. The sophisticated cappuccino is making a comeback. With its airier texture and perfect 1:1:1 ratio of espresso, steamed milk and froth, it's a balanced coffee choice that emphasizes traditional craft over the milk-heavy lattes that have dominated American coffee culture.
Low-ABV beers: We've seen low-alcohol wine and liquors in previous years, and now it's beer's turn to be in the spotlight. As more people prefer lighter-style beers, both independent brewers and larger brands will offer additional lower-alcohol options for consumers looking to avoid hangovers.
Kevin Lee at work behind the bar at Tokyo Noir, hand-carving the ice that defines his cocktails’ texture and clarity.
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Wonho Lee
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Courtesy Tokyo Noir
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Artisan ice: In cocktail bars, expect more attention to ice in various forms, including shaved ice in different types of drinks, plus imported ice from other countries featured in cocktail menus.
Health and wellness
High-fiber vegetables like broccoli, carrots and leafy greens will get new attention in 2026 as the fibermaxxing trend emphasizes gut health.
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Inigo De La Maza
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Courtesy Unsplash
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Fibermaxxing: Fiber is set for a big year. The trend emphasizes gut health and is popping up everywhere — in high-fiber foods like beans, lentils, artichokes and brussels sprouts that will get new attention, as well as an additive in pastas, drinks and snacks to boost fullness. It aids digestion, stabilizes blood sugar and helps lower cholesterol.
Smaller portions: Driven partly by the rise of GLP-1 medications, expect smaller meal sizes everywhere — from fine dining to fast food. Del Taco recently launched a $2.99 "Micro Meal" designed specifically for lighter-eating lifestyles, featuring deliberately small portions: a mini beef and cheddar burrito, seven to 10 fries and a single donut bite. It signals what's to come.
We'll see a bigger emphasis on diasporic communities — populations displaced from their homelands through conflict, colonization or forced migration, as opposed to voluntary immigrant communities. Southern California's restaurant scene and cookbooks will spotlight Cambodian, Haitian, Palestinian and Puerto Rican cuisines — all shaped by displacement, conflict and colonial histories.
Julia Paskin
is the local host of All Things Considered and the L.A. Report Evening Edition.
Published January 1, 2026 5:00 AM
Frankie Quiñones as the character Creeper in Episode 3 of "Creeper’s Crib."
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YouTube
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Topline:
The internet’s favorite Cholo-Fitness instructor has a new job hosting a PeeWee’s Playhouse inspired talk show for adults called “Creeper’s Crib.” Creator Frankie Quiñones continues to use his childhood influences growing up in L.A. to fuel his character, Creeper, in a new format.
Where Quiñones gets his inspiration: Creeper went viral 15 years ago inspiring viewers to get healthy with comedic workout routines like CholoSpin class. In his latest evolution, Creeper hosts specials guests, animated segments and chats with talking puppets, inspired by PeeWee's Playhouse, which the comedian enjoyed growing up.
Why now: Quiñones recent standup comedy special explores more of his childhood influences, including his experiences growing up in LA.
Read on ... more of the characters you'll meet on "Creeper's Crib" in 2026.
If there were more fitness instructors in the world like Creeper, getting in shape would be a lot more fun.
The satirical character, played by Frankie Quiñones, leads inspirational workout routines such as a CholoSpin class where scenarios like running out of beer at a barbecue push you to peddle harder because “we don’t want fools to start fighting each other."
Quiñones has been creating content as Creeper for 15 years now, and he’s still finding new ways to keep the character fresh.
In Hulu comedy special Damn, That’s Crazy, which came out in October, Quiñones explained that he started developing characters when he was a kid as a form of personal escapism and based them on those around him. Quiñones' father was a big inspiration for Creeper’s sense of style.
“My dad was an old school cholo. Dickies creased, Chuck Taylors, white tee or the Pendleton,” Quiñones says in the special. “Always had the palm comb with the three flowers. Always had a lowrider.”
Quiñones added that he was around “the positive side of the culture” growing up in Los Angeles and that his dad is “one of the most positive men” he knows.
Quiñones’ childhood influences still are at play in his latest web series, Creeper’s Crib.
Growing up, Quiñones watched Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the whimsical 1980s children’s program that was populated with puppets and hosted by Paul Reubens’ performing alter-ego, Pee-wee Herman. Quiñones loved the show and grew to identify with Reubens as his own career advanced.
“When Creeper went viral, a lot of people were like, 'You should just do that.' … I was like, maybe that's going to be my career. I'm just gonna be this character. Am I okay with that or do I want to go another direction,” Quiñones said.
In releasing a new comedy special and launching Creeper’s Crib in the same year, Quiñones is saying he doesn’t have to choose.
Puppet sidekicks Rudy and Pantufla in Episode 6 of "Creeper’s Crib."
Pantufla the puppet
Creeper’s Crib follows the Pee-wee format in that there are vignettes, colorful characters and, of course, puppets! But let’s be clear: It’s not a kid’s show. Creeper still is the host, and his humor is good-natured but definitely adult-themed. Like featuring the dating exploits of the puppets.
A partially animated, talking hot water heater named Rudy is a frequent character. But Pantufla, the soft-spoken slipper, often steals the show. Even he is looking for love on websites like IfTheShoeFits.com.
While Rudy is louder and quicker to react, Pantufla is the tranquil sidekick, commenting from his perch atop Creeper’s couch.
“He's like this spiritual guide, like, a chill-a** dude,” Quiñones said. “[Pantufla is] how you say slipper in Spanish, but it's such a funny word to me. That came because I have a bunch of sets of pantuflas for Creeper, like the Deebo slippers. And they wear out and they start opening up. … And it just came to life.”
Creativity took hold, and a torn-open slipper became a talking character.
“It's funny because people love Pantufla,” Quiñones said. “I got messages from this middle-aged white lady in Wisconsin. She's like, 'Oh, honey, I love Pantufla and the sound of his voice.'”
Creeper’s Crib features a special guest every episode with new installments on YouTube every other Monday.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
