The Brief

Flash back to the pandemic, when everyone you knew made sourdough bread because all they had was time on their hands. That new obsession birthed a million loaves of bread.

There was a whole rabbit hole to fall into, including how to source a sourdough starter, the length of fermentation, consistency, taste and crumb. People began showing pictures of their home-grown loaves, and naming their sourdough starters as if they were their children.

Post-pandemic, it led to a new appreciation of something that had been under our noses for some time — the handful of L.A. bakeries making artisanal sourdough bread.

While you can get sourdough rolls in your local supermarket, commercially made bread often doesn't follow traditional sourdough baking methods, likely supplementing with yeast to get a quicker fermentation.

But other bakeries, like Lodge Bread, Clark Street Bakery, and Bub & Grandma's, have committed to the full-on, time-consuming process, taking at least two days to allow different tastes and textures to bubble up (literally). And now, it's spreading to other dough-centered foods, like pizza, as pizza makers experiment with techniques allowing the rise to take four to five days.

What is it about slow fermentation that has captured the attention of bakers and pizza makers? I spoke to some people leading this trend.

Something in the air

At Colossus, located in Long Beach and San Pedro (and soon to be Anaheim), Kristin Colazas Rodriguez has been slowly perfecting her recipe for naturally leavened sourdough loaves for over five years.

Colazas Rodriguez cultivated her bread-making style when working in the Bay Area in the early 2010s. There, she worked alongside ex-employees of Tartine Bakery, the famed bakery that started in San Francisco and built its reputation on slow-fermented sourdough bread. The technique fascinated Colazas Rodriguez, who brought it down to Long Beach and began making her own version of the bread, and selling it at local farmer markets before expanding to open Colossus.

The sourdough starter at Colossus, affectionately named Jesus, is the basis for their naturally leavened sourdough loaves.

(

Courtesy Colossus

)

Kristin Colazas Rodriguez, owner of Colossus, taking time to prepare the naturally fermented dough.

(

Courtesy Colossus

)

Her team starts each morning by making the dough, adding a portion of their starter, and allowing it to ferment at room temperature for five to six hours.

Kristen Colazas Rodriguez, owner and operator of Colossus Bread

(

Courtesy Colossus

)

Then, it's time for cold fermentation, where the dough is put in the refrigerator overnight, slowing the fermentation process. This also forms lactic acid bacteria, which gives the dough its sour flavor.

After roughly 36 hours, the dough is finally ready to be baked into a stretchy, crunchy loaf of bread.

Her work is best exemplified by their country levain, a tangy, sliced sourdough loaf. Its large open crumb makes it perfect for a sandwich, or toast with butter and jam. For me, no other type of bread comes close.

Colazas Rodriguez's passion for sourdough isn't simply artisanal; she also feels it contributes to a healthy way of life.

"We can manipulate it, improve the nutritional quality of the starches and enzymes, and unlock its minerals," she said. "I don't think we would have a product that was as healthy if we were throwing in instant yeast, if we weren't correctly fermenting, and if we weren't long fermenting those grains."

A customer looks over the bakery case fulled with naturally leavened bread displayed at Colossus in Long Beach.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

The pizza dough whisperer

Chef Daniel Holzman, owner of DannyBoy's Famous Original Pizza inside the Wells Fargo building in downtown L.A., with another location in Westwood, makes acclaimed New York-style pizza.

But it comes with a twist. Instead of proofing the dough for a day, as is customary for New York style, Holzman, who has formal training as a chef, extends the fermentation for four or even five days. It's been somewhat controversial.

"I was told I was doing it wrong, and I've been consistently told we're doing it wrong," Holzman said.

Daniel Holzman of Danny Boy's Famous Original Pizza with his prized take on New York-style pizza

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

Daniel Holzman of Danny Boy's Famous Original Pizza shows the gluten structure that's formed after the long fermentation process.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

Wrongness be damned, as plenty of customers (and I) discovered, the pizza he creates is buttery, flaky, soft and chewy. Holzman's pizza dough, however, doesn't use a sourdough starter. Instead, he uses commercial yeast for the long fermentation, even though it's typically used to speed up the fermentation process.

The yeast produces carbon dioxide, which allows the dough to rise and creates micro blisters, or bubbles, in the crust, similar to the bubbles in beer. This results in a crispy crust on the outside yet an airy, light texture on the inside. While that is happening, the formation of the gluten structure occurs, which gives the dough its elasticity and chewy quality.

As an illustration, Holzman recently made a viral social media video where he walks shows a series of proofing boxes containing furled pizza dough balls.

Each box holds dough at a different stage of the fermentation process. You can see the texture developing as he pokes his finger in each one. By the time he reaches day three, the dough is producing complex structures resembling spiderwebs. It's impressive to see, and not something you expect in traditional pizza.

A New York-style pepperoni pizza being sliced at Danny Boy's Famous Original Pizza in Westwood.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

He said part of the reason long-fermented New York-style pizza isn't more common is not a cooking issue; instead, it involves real estate. In New York, space is much more scarce, and access to large refrigeration areas is a challenge.

In less-cramped Los Angeles, Holzman was able to experiment before honing in on his now trademark style.

" We use the same ingredients and method that we would use in New York," he said. "Ultimately, we concluded that fermentation would be one thing we would extend."

Easier on the body

A little further down the road in Historic Filipinotown is Grá ('love' in Gaelic), founded by owner Michael McSharry. He's originally from Ireland, but was living in London, working in advertising, when he discovered he had a gluten intolerance.

" At that point, I had to stop eating pizza, bread, stop drinking beer, and all those kinds of carbs," he said.

But when he tried sourdough pizza, he discovered he could eat it and still feel OK.

Michael McSharry, the founder of Grá, during the fermentation process for his sourdough pizza.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

Michael McSharry of Grá turns his sough dough starter.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

While it's a bit of a grey area, scientifically speaking, it seems that some people with a gluten intolerance can eat sourdough bread. The long fermentation is theorized to help break down the gluten, making it easier to consume.

Fast-forward almost a decade to Los Angeles, where McSharry decided to open a restaurant focusing on sourdough pizza, natural wine and fermented foods.

McSharry described it as "food that not only tastes good, but nourishes the soul." He wanted his pizza to be as healthy as possible, which is where fermentation comes in.

As he prepared to finalize his menu for Grá, McSharry planned a last-minute trip to the famed Irish cooking school Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork. There, he studied under celebrity chef Darina Allen for a weekend course about fermentation.

Upon completing the course, he was given a sourdough starter as a parting gift, which he brought back to Los Angeles.

McSharry explains that his fermentation program at Grá takes approximately 40 hours, with the dough assembled in the morning and used for the following evening during their dinner service.

The dough is made from whole grain and 00 flour (a very finely milled Italian flour used in pizza and pasta).

" It took me a while to dial in the recipe, or should I say the principles behind the processes that exist within the pizza we have today", McSharry said.

In great detail, McSharry described all the elements of the process to get his sourdough just right, from the proofing stage to the temperature of the water and the oven. He recounted working 8-10 hours daily for over six months in his apartment before the restaurant opened, tweaking each element to achieve his desired result.

The Banger pizza at Grá made with tomato sauce, mozzarella, salami, ‘nduja, fermented mustard seeds, honey & basil

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

Diners sit for dinner service inside of Grá

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

After locking in his dough recipe, McSharry and his team decided to fire the pizza at 750 degrees inside a wood-burning oven.

" It's another element to this very natural process. So you're working with Mother Nature in the fermentation and then with Mother Nature with real fire, and it's exciting," McSharry added.

The sourdough pizza at Gra isn't particularly sour in flavor. Instead, it takes on a soft and chewy texture, similar to a Neapolitan-style pizza. This format works well with various topping combinations on the menu, as is the case with a couple of house favorites, such as The Banger ($27), made with salami, nduja, fermented mustard seeds, and honey, and their Kimchi Pizza ($27), which contains tomato kimchi sauce, gouda, buffalo mozzarella, green onions, and sesame seeds.

The punch of flavor and freshness brings home precisely what McSharry aims to achieve.

By including other fermented foods — kimchi and fermented mustard seeds — McSharry hopes to extend the notion that the natural process can be applied to different foods, not just sourdough.

While he runs a business, he believes fermented foods are an extension of a more global way of thinking.

" One of our main focuses is having good working relationships with the farmers and doing our little bit to save the planet, like with upcycling," McSharry said. "This is an important characteristic of maximizing the return."

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

California regulators ordered Health Net to fix how it’s handling the termination of assisted living services for low-income residents after the insurer’s abrupt decision left patients and providers scrambling. The state’s corrective action plan requires Health Net to extend services for all members until the end of the year, rather than stopping some as soon as October.

Health Net, one of the largest Medicaid insurers in the country, notified providers several months ago that it was ending its assisted living and home care services contracts. The services are optional under Medi-Cal — California’s version of Medicaid — meaning an insurer can decide annually whether it will continue coverage. Providers and family members said they got little or no warning, leaving them confused and panicked about finding other arrangements.

In an August letter to Health Net, the Department of Health Care Services cited eight deficiencies in the insurer’s handling of the change, including failure to submit transition plans for members, failure to move members to other medically appropriate care, and denying services to members. Regulators wrote that violations “jeopardize member safety, disrupt continuity of care, and endanger medically vulnerable members.”

If Health Net does not extend benefits and create individualized transition plans for each affected member, the state may fine them $25,000 per member per day of violation, the letter states.

Advocates and providers estimate about 3,500 Medi-Cal patients rely on Health Net to pay for assisted living costs. Most are elderly, and many have cognitive issues like dementia. Health Net operates Medi-Cal plans in 10 counties: Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare.

In a statement to CalMatters, Health Net spokesperson Beatriz Lopez said the company still plans to end the services next year, but will now cover all members through the end of the year.

“Health Net and DHCS share a commitment to advancing the health and well-being of Medi-Cal members,” Lopez said.

Health Net has previously told CalMatters the assisted living benefit “has not led to better care” in terms of fewer emergency room visits or days hospitalized. The benefit is part of CalAIM, a broad state initiative to improve Medi-Cal services and save money by stabilizing high-cost users who frequently end up in emergency rooms. Lopez said Health Net would continue analyzing data and supporting services that result in better health outcomes.

Providers confirmed to CalMatters that their contracts would run through the end of the year.

Thousands still face January deadline

Hagar Dickman, director of long-term services and supports at Justice In Aging, said the state’s corrective action plan resolves the immediate crisis but fails to address the long-term problem: “Thousands of older Californians are still set to lose their housing on January 1st.”

Allowing health insurers to cancel housing-related benefits creates problems, Dickman said, because most assisted living residents have no other home to return to. Additionally, the Department of Health Care Services has stated that if a member moves to another insurer that still covers assisted living, continuity of care protections would no longer apply, meaning the new insurer might not approve the member's assisted living costs.

"It’s disingenuous to say there are protections and then say the protections don’t apply,” Dickman said. "So the option is skilled nursing or homelessness.”

Pauline Shatara, deputy director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, agreed that state protections are inadequate.

“It doesn’t sound like we found a solution to help pay for these people to remain where they are,” Shatara said.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

Long Beach will make a slew of parking tickets more expensive and charge higher cannabis taxes to avoid cutting library hours and some specialized police officers. The last-minute change, proposed hours before a City Council vote, reversed a controversial plan city leaders laid out in June to lay off nearly a dozen library employees to help balance its budget.

Facing a $58 million shortfall, the city will still lay off roughly 180 other employees and cut hundreds more vacant positions. But it will spare library staffing and hours, after the original budget — which would have cut Monday hours at five city libraries, the only ones open that day — prompted fierce public backlash.

Long Beach City Council members voted 7 to 2 on Tuesday for the revised $4-billion city budget.

Councilmember Cindy Allen, who objected, called the increased parking fines “predatory fees,” arguing that library funding shouldn’t come at the expense of unfairly targeting people already struggling financially. Allen represents a district that includes the densely populated Alamitos Beach and Rose Park neighborhoods, where parking is already scarce. “We don’t have driveways,” she said.

Kristina Duggan, who represents southeast Long Beach neighborhoods like Belmont Shore, also voted against the budget because it cut Fire Engine 14 near Colorado Lagoon, a move that’s expected to save $3.88 million but drive up response times.

Duggan and Allen both tried but failed to delay the budget vote, with Allen saying the changes were put together in a “slapdash manner” without a chance for the public to weigh in.

She warned her colleagues before the vote that if they approved the budget “without substantial discussion” then they were “complicit in rubber-stamping” a plan that would “affect people’s livelihoods.”

Under the plan, 18 categories of parking citations — including for blocking bike lanes, hydrants, double parking and crosswalks — will rise to a flat $100, up from $74 or $90, to generate $1.5 million. Street sweeping tickets would also get a $5 bump, to $80 — a difference that raises $700,000 in revenue.

In the last fiscal year, which ran Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, the city issued more than 100,000 parking citations and 201,000 street-sweeping tickets, Public Works Director Josh Hickman said. More than a fifth of street-sweeping tickets were written in Allen’s district, and more than half of all parking tickets citywide were issued in the first two council districts, which include downtown and Alamitos Beach.

John Edmond, a local lobbyist who sits on the board for the Library Foundation and spoke in support of the plan, said the $100 rates are on par with cities like San Francisco ($108), Oakland ($110), San Diego ($117). He argued this applies to the “most serious parking violations.”

“We can’t say we’re serious about pedestrian and bicycle safety without accountability,” he said.

The budget also raises the city’s cannabis retail tax from 7% to 8% and increases the cultivation tax to more than $15 per square foot, changes expected to bring in roughly $1.15 million.

The proposals came from Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie, who chairs the city’s Budget Oversight Committee. Ricks-Oddie said earlier Tuesday she had spent weeks preparing these and dozens of other recommendations in concert with city staff, continuously updating them to accommodate new requests that came in from the public and fellow council members.

“If we can’t do this … then we can’t fund the libraries,” Ricks-Oddie said in response to Allen’s concerns about pricier parking citations. “If we reject that, we’re saying no to our library hours on a Monday.”

The budget also sets aside $1 million for the city’s immigration legal defense fund, the Long Beach Justice Fund. That’s well short of the $2.2 million immigration attorneys and local immigrant rights groups say is needed to sustain it amid rising caseloads. Gina Amato Lough of Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project said “the need has never been greater,” citing prolonged detentions, warrantless raids and difficulty accessing counsel.

Since Public Counsel’s $919,000, one-year contract to provide legal services began in November, the group has taken on more than 55 consultations and 46 full-scope cases through the Justice Fund.

After hearing repeated pleas for more money Tuesday, Allen proposed reallocating all the funding for Long Beach’s new Vibe City marketing campaign — which some have derided as a waste of money — to the Justice Fund. She was quickly shot down, with a representative from the City Attorney’s office saying they’re not sure that would be legal, considering the Vibe City campaign is funded by tax revenue earmarked for advertising and promoting the city.

City Council leaders called the budget cuts a necessary, if painful, step toward stabilizing Long Beach’s finances after years of instability papered over with one-time cash — a bet that higher fees now will spare deeper cuts later.

“It’s hard, and it’s personal for everyone, and it will be really difficult on families across this community,” said Councilmember Megan Kerr.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Colorful parade floats, charros on horseback and live music will take over Cesar E. Chavez Avenue on Sunday for the 80th East L.A. Mexican Independence Day Parade.

For decades, organizers have brought together community leaders, performers, businesses and organizations to celebrate culture, community and tradition. This year, the parade will culminate in a festival with family-friendly activations, including live music, local vendors and lucha libre. 

This year’s co-grand marshals are singer and actor Dasahev López Saavedra, better known as El Dasa, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis.

Here’s everything you need to know.

When is the parade and festival?

The parade runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 13. The festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on First Street and Mednik Avenue. 

What’s the parade route? 

The 1.5-mile route will run along Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, starting at Mednik Avenue and ending on Gage Avenue. You can find a map of the parade route and other festivities on the festival’s webpage here. Early arrival is suggested to secure a viewing spot for the parade. 

A map of the East LA Mexican Independence Day Parade route.

(

Courtesy of the organizers

)

What streets will be closed?

• Mednik Avenue: Between 1st Street and Cesar E. Chavez from 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.
• Cesar E. Chavez Avenue: Between Vancouver Avenue and Gage Avenue from 6  a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.

What can I expect at the festivities?

The parade will feature floats, show cars, representatives from Eastside organizations, equestrian teams, marching bands and folklórico dancers. 

The festival will include vendors, musical performances, resource booths, a pop-up from local boutique The Goddess Mercado, a free pet vaccination clinic that will administer free vaccines for the first 200 pets, and a free lucha libre showcase by East Los Lucha. 

Where can I park? 

Limited free parking will be available at the East L.A. Civic Center lot located on E. 3rd Street and Civic Center Way. Attendees can also find street parking in the surrounding area. 

Can I take public transit to the event? 

The Metro E Line’s East L.A. Civic Center station is just a short walk from the event. 

What if I don’t want to attend in person? 

If you’re unable to attend or want to watch the parade from home, you can tune in to the live broadcast on ABC7. 

For more information, check out the website here. 

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Robbie Hall has a record of the people she has treated for overdoses at MacArthur Park.

The photos of many of the people she has treated are saved on her phone. She can scroll through them and remember each one.

Hall, an ambassador with the nonprofit Five Keys, has been doing this work for about four years and is at the park almost every day, carrying Naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.

She typically responds when someone stops breathing.

“I stopped counting when I got up in my 40s, because it started being gradually three of them, four of them,” Hall said. 

On a recent September morning at the park, Hall said she found a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom who was experiencing an overdose. Tears welled up as she talked about the people she encounters at the park.

“They need help, they need help,” she said. “This is every day.” 

She believes the city needs to address the problem. When asked about the plans to fence the park, she said she sees the fence as one way to improve the conditions she sees on the ground.

“They need to put something up here,” she said.

For Hall and others who work around the park, the fence is less a solution than a stopgap, something concrete to try amid problems that have proven harder to solve.

The Department of Recreation and Parks says the fence will be temporary and is still on track for construction this fall, but has not provided a specific date, cost estimate or explained what conditions would need to change before the fence comes down.

Marco Pacheco, president of the MacArthur Park Park Advisory Board, does not believe the fence will be temporary. 

“I think this is going to be permanent,” Pacheco said. “This is going to be a permanent fixture of some sort because first of all, you don’t put up a fence that costs millions of dollars to take it down. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Pacheco isn’t the only one who has doubts.

Richard Barron, who served on the Cultural Heritage Commission for 22 years before departing in July, also questioned whether the city would follow through on its promise to remove the fence.

“I doubt that the fence is going to come down,” Barron said, “especially when they’ve spent all that money. Even taking it down costs a lot of money, you know, and you’re going to throw all that material away?”

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners approved $2.3 million in funding for the project. The city has not said how much money will ultimately be spent on the fence.

Everyone has a different idea of what the fence will do

The city’s consultants have described a fence that would be transparent, reversible and designed to blend into the park.

Leila Hamroun, a senior preservation architect with Tetra Tech, the consulting firm working with the city on the project’s design, said the fence won’t be a dominant feature.

“The whole intent here is to guarantee that it just blends in, that it’s seamless,” Hamroun said. “It’s reversible, transparent, minimalist, consistent with the evolution of urban parks over time.”

A rendering shows the proposed green metal fence around MacArthur Park.

(

Courtesy L.A. Recreation and Parks

)

The fence is expected to be about 8 feet tall, with gates at eight existing entrances. Decorative elements would be considered separately, with community input expected next year.

For Michelle Garcia, who has been a vendor around MacArthur Park since 2015, it could help distinguish vendors from the people living in the park.

“I support it if they could get the homeless people out,” Garcia said. “They are the ones that make MacArthur Park look bad. But they also make us look bad, because we sell around the area, so they think we’re like them, which we’re not.”

Garcia was among a group of vendors at MacArthur Park who held a Sept. 2 press conference to call attention to what they described as police harassment and citations that pushed vendors away from the park.

“Like us, we’re trying to work and get money for our bills, our rent,” she said.

Police have their own expectations for what a fenced park could accomplish.

The Los Angeles Police Department has stepped up enforcement around the park through a joint task force with the Drug Enforcement Administration focused on drug dealing in the area. In July, Rampart Division Capt. Benedict Fernandes said the operation had significantly disrupted the drug trade, but that drug users were spreading into surrounding neighborhoods in search of narcotics.

“We know that all the communities around have been impacted because it got spread this way, sort of like a shotgun blast,” he said. “It went south, it went east, it went north, it went west.”

Fernandes said the next phase of the enforcement effort would focus on connecting unhoused people and drug users with shelter and recovery services.

The fence, he said, is meant to make the park less convenient for drug activity and “prevent crime” inside the park.

“Because that’s the problem,” Fernandes said. “The Alvarado corridor at MacArthur Park has been convenient for drug users for years. We’re just trying to make those things stop.”

Fernandes said the temporary fence along Alvarado and now the orange bollards installed in the area, have worked to disrupt that activity. 

But Hall, the outreach worker administering Narcan at the park, has not seen those types of improvements on the ground.

“Since they did that big bust? No, it got worse,” Hall said when asked whether she had seen fewer overdoses in the area.

She said people wait for police to leave the park before returning.

“If it wasn’t for Five Keys, there would be a lot more dead bodies here,” she said.

Some residents say that adding a fence around MacArthur Park would change the makeup of the neighborhood. Others welcome a change to the troubled park.

(

Gary Coronado

/

The LA Local

)

How the fence is supposed to work

The plan calls for the park to remain open during the day, with eight entry points, and close overnight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. LAPD would close the gates at night, and Recreation and Parks maintenance workers would reopen them each morning.

The department says the fence is intended to make the park easier to maintain. Illegal dumping, littering, vandalism and graffiti have made routine maintenance difficult, according to the department, which has said MacArthur Park generates more graffiti cleanup requests than nearby Lafayette Park.

The city has pointed to nearby Lafayette Park, which is fenced and closed at night, as a model for MacArthur Park.

Pacheco, the president of the park’s advisory board, said he has heard general support for the fence among community members. 

“In many cases, community members alluded to Lafayette Park having been fenced for a long time, the difference between the two parks, Lafayette being a lot safer and a lot cleaner and less of a problem than MacArthur Park,” he said. 

The fence still needs final approval from the five-person commission that approved the project’s conceptual phase in October. The commission has not yet set a date to consider the final plans.