Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published January 17, 2025 5:00 AM
Moonshadows January 2025
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Brian Feinzimer/LAist
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Topline:
Restaurants are an essential part of our communities, physical environment and memories. We've put together a remembrance of before and after photos of the restaurants we've lost.
What businesses were affected? In Altadena, Side Pie, Rancho Bar, Cafe de Leche, and The Little Red Hen, among others. In Malibu, Moonshadows, Cholada Thai Cuisine, The Reel Inn, and Rosenthal Wine Bar and Patio.
We mourn the loss of the restaurants, bars, and cafes that were the cornerstones of the Altadena and Malibu communities, and feel deeply the hardship being experienced by owners and staff. (If you'd like to support them, here's how to help).
To illustrate the scope of the devastation, we've put together some before-and-after photos of the beloved businesses. We hope it honors their place in the cultural landscape.
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
is an arts and general assignment reporter on LAist's Explore LA team.
Published October 19, 2026 4:34 PM
A "For Sale" sign is seen on a house in Monterey Park, California, on September 17, 2025.
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FREDERIC J. BROWN
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AFP
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Topline:
Racist language still lurks in housing documents. You can get rid of it as part of a 2021 law which mandates its removal in California. Here’s how to do it across Southern California.
Why it matters: Ignoring the racist language in property documents, some say, reinforces the legacy of segregation, while taking steps to remove restrictive covenant language is a way individuals and organizations can repudiate policies that sought to discriminate.
Why now: California counties are reporting mixed progress meeting the demands of a 2021 law to excise the language from property records.
The backstory: Language in housing documents that restricts the sale of a property to a person of the white race is called a “restrictive covenant,” and in California the practice began in the 19th century.
What's next: Counties are asking for the public’s help by identifying the language in their housing documents and filling out a form to get rid of it.
Read on… to read the text from a restrictive covenant from 1924.
The racist DNA of Jim Crow discrimination may be embedded in your housing documents.
The language in housing documents that restricts sale or use of a property only to a person of the white race is called a “restrictive covenant,” and in California the practice goes back to the 19th century and continued into the mid-20th century. While housing discrimination persists, the practice was found unconstitutional in 1948.
California counties are reporting mixed progress in meeting the demands of a 2021 law to excise the language from property records.
According to Sylvia Manzo, deputy recorder in the Orange County Clerk-Recorder’s office, the county finished the job in March of this year, removing racist language from more than 27,000 property documents with the help of computer software.
This 1924 property document from Bakersfield includes racist language limiting use of the property in question to people of "the white or Caucasian race."
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Screenshot from CSU Bakersfield
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L.A. County is far from done. It says that with the help of an outside company hired in 2024, 50 million pages will be examined yearly, which would take about 10 years to finish the job.
Public agencies could use the public’s help.
Language examples
Here’s a 1924 example from a property in Bakersfield. The text reads, “That the lands herein conveyed shall never, at any time, be sold to or rented to or occupied by any person not of the white or Caucasian race.”
Or this language from a 1936 document relating to a Costa Mesa property: “That said premises shall not be sold, conveyed, rented, or leased to, or occupied by any person of African, Mexican, or Asiatic descent.”
How to get it taken out
The Restrictive Covenant Modification Form is at the heart of the effort to remove the racist language from housing documents. Each county has its own process. Some charge a fee; others don’t. Some require a notary certification for the signature; others don’t.
L.A. County:
Registrar-Recorder officials recommend these steps:
Highlight or underline the unlawful provision on the recorded document
Submit the form and the recorded document by email: RCM@rrcc.lacounty.gov or in person at the Norwalk headquarters at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk
Ignoring the racist language in property documents, some say, reinforces the legacy of segregation, while taking steps to remove restrictive covenant language is a way individuals and organizations can repudiate policies that sought to discriminate.
Matt Dangelantonio
directs production of LAist's daily newscasts, shaping the radio stories that connect you to SoCal.
Published October 19, 2026 4:20 PM
People take pictures at the entrance to the Santa Monica Pier on June 12, 2022, in Santa Monica, California. The sign will start coming down on Tuesday, October 20, to be sent off to Las Vegas for restoration as part of the City of Santa Monica's Pier Restoration Project.
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George Rose
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Getty Images North America
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Topline:
Workers will begin removing the iconic Santa Monica Pier sign today for restoration.
Why now: It's part of the city's Pier Bridge Replacement Project, which will replace the bridge that connects the pier to Ocean Avenue.
The backstory: The sign has been on the Santa Monica Pier since 1941 and is listed on the California Register of Historical Resources. It will be sent to a company called YESCO, which is based in Las Vegas and, according to the city of Santa Monica, is nationally recognized for its work creating, maintaining and restoring neon signage.
What's next: The city says workers will set up equipment and start taking down the neon today. The top crown portion of the sign will come down Wednesday, and then the main sign itself on Thursday.
How to watch: If you want to watch, the city has set up two viewing areas — one at the southern edge of Palisades Park across from The Lobster restaurant and another at the corner of Ocean and Colorado avenues. The work will happen between 5 a.m. and 3 p.m. You can view a map here.
Keep up with LAist.
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Angelenos cast their ballot at the Arroyo Seco Regional Library in Los Angeles, California on Nov. 5, 2024.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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LAist
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Topline:
Large support from Latino voters helped President Donald Trump win the 2024 election. But according to recent numbers from the Associated Press, about 6 in 10 Hispanic voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the presidency and more than 7 in 10 disapprove of his performance on the economy.
The economy: Latino support for Trump in 2024 was largely driven by economic concerns. That's still the case now, according to Mike Madrid, Republican political consultant and author of The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy. He joined AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, to discuss what's driving voting behavior this time around.
“ One hundred percent of Latinos are affected by the economic crisis that's afflicting everybody right now, especially working-class people, of which Latinos make up the largest share,” he said.
Party dealignment: The Latino shift away from Trump and the Republican Party does not mean a shift towards Democrats. “Latinos really do not have confidence in either party, and it's manifesting in wider and wider swings in how they're voting,” Madrid said. “They're rejecting the parties in power, they're rejecting establishment politics, and we're witnessing the rise of an emergent Latino populism."
Immigration enforcement isn't a top priority: Madrid pointed out that even with increased ICE raids, immigration only comes in as the fifth most concerning issue for Latino voters, and a third of those Latino voters are in favor of deportations.
Listen to the full conversation:
Listen
10:54
Latino voters helped put Trump back in the White House. What’s their next move?
Nicolas Perez
is one of the producers for AirTalk and FilmWeek, hosted by Larry Mantle.
Published October 19, 2026 3:44 PM
Installation photo from "Home of the Future, 1925–1985: Designing Domestic Utopias"
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Jonathan J. Urban
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Courtesy LACMA
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The exhibit:
LACMA’s new exhibit, "Home of the Future, 1925–1985: Designing Domestic Utopias," explores visions of how designers imagined technologies would transform life in American homes. Some of these predictions, like rooms centered around television sets, would come to pass while ideas like self-cleaning kitchens remain tantalizingly out of reach.
Why it's interesting: “For the past 30 years, I've been inspired by a quote from the historian Marshall Berman, who defined modernity as a struggle to make ourselves at home in a constantly changing world,” curator Wendy Kaplan said during a conversation on AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show. "The reason our exhibition starts in 1925 is that you have this post-World War I optimism and also a need to apply the technologies that were developed during World War I by the military."
Don’t miss: the Kohler electric sink from 1926 on display, which promised better living through electric dishwashing but did not catch on at the time.
When to see it: The exhibit runs through March 14, 2027, in LACMA's Resnick Pavilion, located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Listen to the conversation with the curator:
Listen
10:06
New LACMA exhibit looks at past visions of the future homes
