The Brief

Arjun Malaviya is an overachiever and a planner. So, when he told his parents that he wanted to save up for a solo gap year to travel the world, they weren't all that surprised.

Now, at 19 years old, he's got five completely full passports and a slew of remarkable life experiences under his belt. Malaviya told NPR that he's the youngest solo traveler to visit 100 countries.

"I was 17 years and 228 days old when I reached my 100th country," he said, adding that he celebrated the milestone in Nadi, Fiji, by visiting the colorful Sri Siva Subramaniya, one of the largest Hindu temples in the Southern Hemisphere. Another superlative: Malaviya said, based on his research, he's also "the youngest person to visit every country in Oceania." (NPR has not independently verified these claims.)

Arjun Malaviya enjoying the milky way limestone mud bath in the rock islands of Palau.

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The intrepid teen said he's hot on the heels of Lexie Alford, who holds the Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to visit every sovereign country in the world. By the age of 18, Alford had only visited about 70 nations.

Malaviya set out on his expedition on his 17th birthday in July 2023. Over 13 months, with occasional trips back home — Westlake Village in Southern California — he sojourned through some of the world's most populated cities and its most remote islands. He spent time in Bali's rice paddies, sipped tea with a Taliban guard in Afghanistan and bathed under the green skies of the aurora borealis in Norway.

All the while, Malaviya said he had one goal: to meet the locals and make a genuine connection. He preferred visiting small villages rather than glitzy locales, wanting to see how people truly live.

"The big thing that I took away is that people are more similar than different," he said.

Arjun Malaviya befriended a group of Taliban members in Kabul, Afghanistan. "Everyone treated me with so much kindness," he told NPR.

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"Even if it's in Afghanistan and you're sitting down and talking to a religiously devout Muslim goat herder, you'll see that he still has a lot of the same desires and life that someone here might have; A better life for his kids, a consistent job and education for his kids and the ability to explore within his own country and just take vacations."

Building up confidence and life skills, from Seoul to Kabul

Malaviya launched his grand tour in Seoul, South Korea: From all he'd read, the country would be a safe and tourist-friendly launching pad with outstanding public transportation systems. He moved on to other Asian countries including Japan, Myanmar and India.

His lodgings included a mix of Airbnbs, hostels, hotels and family friends' homes. He traveled light, outfitted with an iPhone, a small gym bag and a standard-sized backpack. And though Malaviya is fluent in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and has studied Japanese, Malaviya said Google Translate proved to be one of his most valuable tools. Using the app on his phone, he said he was able to engage in deep conversations with strangers. It especially came in handy in places like Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria, where people opened up to him about what everyday life looked like under authoritarian regimes.

He said they impressed upon him the idea that, while news coverage may dwell on the economic and humanitarian hardships of a place, there is still a lot of beauty and cultural richness that can be taken in by visitors if they give it a chance.

"As a tourist when you go to a lot of these places you don't feel all of the negatives that the government imposes on the people who live there," he said. " So, just because we say that a government is bad, that doesn't need to dissuade you from visiting that country as a tourist."

In Damascus, Syria, which was still under Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship when Malaviya visited, he said he met with an impassioned bed-and-breakfast owner who spoke openly about his wish for Assad to be overthrown so more people like him could take in the wonders of his country.

Other highlights included a free Madonna concert on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, where Malaviya said he happily lost himself amid the enormous crowd of fans who showed up. On the Korean peninsula, he fulfilled "a lifelong dream" of visiting the DMZ, the demilitarized zone that separates South Korea from North Korea. He also got to bathe in the milky mud baths in Palau, an island in Micronesia.

Arjun Malaviya visited several of the most popular sights during his stop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including Christ the Redeemer.

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The islands of Oceania as whole, Malaviya said, contained some of the most breathtaking and pristine landscapes he's ever seen. However, he said his trip to the island nation of Nauru — the third-smallest country in the world and one of the least-visited countries on Earth – was slightly depressing. "It was sad for me to see how much the country is struggling," he said, referring to the small republic's reliance on foreign aid to sustain its economy.

Arjun Malaviya travelled to Odessa, Ukraine in November 2023. He told NPR the city was attacked by Russian bombs shortly after arriving, forcing him to run to in a nearby bomb shelter.

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The most harrowing stop came in November 2023 as the war between Ukraine and Russia raged.

"I was in Moldova and someone told me Odessa was just four hours away. I thought that would make a great day trip since, from what I'd read, most of the fighting was taking place in Kyiv and Lviv. But I get there and we start getting bombarded with [Russian] bombs," he said.

He scrambled to find cover in a nearby bomb shelter before fleeing back to Moldova, but not before taking a selfie.

The final region he toured was the Middle East, including Iraq and Iran, "which I actually loved," he said. Malaviya explained he'd waited to visit this part of the world "because I felt like it was a build up where I had to use all my skills that I had gained in the first 10 months of travel."

Arjun Malaviya pictured with an Iraqi guard. Iraq was one of the last countries visited by Malaviya during his 13-month long odyssey.

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The opposite of helicopter parenting

So how does a teenager persuade his parents to embark on such a daunting adventure? Research — lots and lots of research, Malaviya's mother, Anita Venkataraman, told NPR.

Arjun Malaviya told NPR he was blown away by the beauty of the Bolivia's salt flats. "The moisture on the surface of the salt flats causes a beautiful reflection to show," he explained.

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"When he started speaking to us about what he planned to do and how we planned to execute it, it became quite clear that he had put more thought into it than the casual tidbits we had heard from him," Venkataraman recalled.

The pitch was straightforward: He'd start off in easily navigated counties where communication home would be most reliable. He'd check in every two days. He wouldn't stay out past 10 p.m. if he could help it. And he'd finance the entire trip on his own.

Malaviya was just 15 years old when he initially proposed the idea in 2022. And despite some trepidation, both of his parents agreed to the odyssey within a couple of weeks. It took him two years of working a series of odd jobs — tennis lessons, a minimum-wage administrative assistant job and working at his parents' software company — to raise the funds to set off on his journey, he said.

"That was one of the things I made clear to my parents. That I wanted to pay for the entire thing on my own. I didn't want to ask them for any money," he said. (All in all, Malaviya said he spent $22,500 on the entire voyage.)

Venkataraman said the isolation of the COVID pandemic is what really ignited her son's wanderlust. In her view, Malaviya has always been an intuitively curious and independent person who craved social interaction. Being cooped up for much of his adolescence was frustrating for him, she said. But he took advantage of the situation, graduating a year early from high school in 2023 and getting a two-year head start on university by completing all of his general education coursework at a local community college.

Arjun Malaviya, pictured inside of Saddam Hussein's Babylon Palace in Iraq.

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"I think as parents, a lot of times we don't want our kids to even fail. We just want them to be successful," she said. "But I do think there's a lot that kids learn from failing at things. Doing things, taking a chance and then failing, but then picking themselves up and going for it."

Venkataraman described her son as responsible and knowledgeable about the various visa and documentation requirements for different countries. That's why it was easy for her to be his "cheerleader, offering "support with a little bit of caution."

That support did not waiver, even when Malaviya called to notify his parents that he'd been "sort of kidnapped" in Myanmar. A stranger had offered to show the boy around the town and offered him a home-cooked meal, but then refused to let him leave his house until Malaviya forked over $100.

"It was scary of course," his mother said, but she and Malaviya put the incident in a more comprehensive context. "I understand that there are people with so little, that they resort to things that perhaps if they had some, they wouldn't, normally resort to," she said. Plus, she added, the experience made Malaviya even more careful and aware of his surroundings.

Arjun Malaviya on a boat ride with local children in Papua New Guinea.

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Encouraging other young people to take up travel

Malaviya is currently a junior at University of California in Santa Barbara, studying engineering. Although he's not traveling at the moment, he's still committed to meeting people from backgrounds different from his own — on and off campus. And he's planning future trips to squeeze in during vacations. He's now up to 118 countries.

He hopes to be an inspiration to other curious young people who may be apprehensive or fearful about being on their own in a new place where they may not speak the language. Malaviya has a mantra for that: "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."
Copyright 2025 NPR

The 99 Cents Only chain may be gone, but a new art exhibit at its former store at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is keeping its legacy alive in the most eccentric way possible.

From shopping carts suspended upside down to video art at the checkout counters to paintings and graffiti in every nook and cranny, this is not the same 99 Cents Only store where you used to buy your cleaning supplies.

The curators behind 99CENT, which is on display through the end of this weekend, have filled the space with artwork and L.A. artifacts for a free exhibition. So I had to check it out:

99CENT's art

Many of the involved artists used practically every square inch of parts of the store.

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The artists on display at 99CENT work across mediums.

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Art and graffiti were both on full display at 99CENT.

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Many of the works of art look like regular street signs ... until you look a little closer.

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Presumably, this fruit wasn't bought at the 99 Cents Only store, which closed last year.

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Many different art styles were on display at 99CENT.

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The exhibit makes creative use of space, including hanging things from the ceiling.

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Despite this sign, the inside of the store was covered in graffiti, though some staff members could be seen cleaning up graffiti on the outside.

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Many of the items on display were carefully crafted. The $9.99 sticker may not be accurate pricing.

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What you can see

As soon as you walk in, you’re treated to a complete reimagining of the 99 Cents Only store. This former site of the modern big-box discount chain has been infused with a healthy dose of the West Coast art styles that sprung up from places like the Mission District, Haight-Ashbury and Venice.

One of many sections of the repurposed store that showcases objects, graffiti and artworks.

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Artists whose work was on display used all kinds of mediums. In this case, mirrors and wheelchairs.

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All the original shelving is there, but nearly every nook and cranny has been filled with art.

Inside the old freezer

Even the store's freezers were fair game to show off art at 99CENT.

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The inside of the store's freezer, which was repurposed as a gallery space.

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But look close and you’ll see cheeky nods to the 99 Cents Only store of yore. Much of the old shelving and signage is still there, even if slightly rearranged. On some shelves, hygiene supplies sit side by side with artworks and found objects.

99CENT displays

Some parts of 99CENT even loosely resemble the former store.

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Though this is an artists' flea market, these works of art presumably would cost more than 99 cents to buy.

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Many books on display this week, like this one, probably never went for sale at the original 99 Cents Only stores.

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These curated vintage shirts presumably were also not for sale at the original 99 Cents Only store.

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Some old shopping carts have been converted into suspended sculptures. In between songs, the loudspeakers play what I’m pretty sure are authentic 99 Cents Only in-store announcements in English and Spanish.

One major auditory difference — and I can confirm this as a former 99 Cents store shopper — the music on the store’s PA system is much more lo-fi and homespun than the radio pop the old store used to have on.

Inside the "tent"

In the background, behind the hanging shopping cart, you can see the entrance to an improvised structure in aisle 11.

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Inside the improvised structure in Aisle 11.

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Since this is a self-described “artist flea market of sorts,” many of the artists have also scrawled their phone numbers and Venmo usernames near their works, and walking through different stations at the store really does feel like walking through different stations of a carefully curated swap meet or flea market.

Many works of art coexisted with produce and groceries, like this work held down by two Grey Poupon bottles.

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Even for works that aren’t on sale, most paintings and sculptures I saw identify the artist, though it’s admittedly a little more haphazard than most galleries I’ve been to.

About the curators

Representatives for the gallery The Hole, which curated this exhibit, said that the works in the store pull from its “West Coast network of artists and outsiders.”

These paintings share wall space with this sculpture made of repurposed blue jean fabric.

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One artist in particular takes the spotlight: The walls are covered by paintings by the San Francisco-based street artist Barry McGee and works from his personal collection — people who parked in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s garages in the early 2000s may remember his now-lost murals. All told, the curators say over 100 artists were represented.

With so many artists on display, very little space in the former store goes unused.

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How to visit

You can see “99CENT” for yourself at the former 99 Cents Only store at 6121 Wilshire Blvd., a stone’s throw away from LACMA.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday.

In her State of the City address this month, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass boasted that her administration had fast-tracked the construction of more than 30,000 affordable housing units.

A Crosstown analysis of the data indicates the pace of actual building may be considerably slower. Bass’s Executive Directive 1 was supposed to slash red tape and accelerate approval times for housing projects that consist entirely of affordable, or below market rate, units. She said builders already had broken ground on 6,000 of them.

Of the 32,838 units plan-approved under ED1 through the end of last year and listed on the case summary dashboard, 4,993 have been issued building permits for new construction, a Crosstown analysis found.

Just 26% of affordable units entitled during ED1’s first year, 2023, have been granted building permits, all of which have been approved for two years or more.

“Mayor Bass was correct in her statement that 6,000 units are currently under construction,” the mayor’s press office said in a statement to Crosstown. The mayor’s office did not provide a clear explanation as to how that total was calculated.

The slower-than-advertised pace of affordable units is just one part of a broader stagnation afflicting the city’s home-building sector. Last year, a total of 7,892 apartment units were permitted, according to data from the Department of Building and Safety. That includes everything from affordable units to luxury apartments. It represents a 1% increase from the year prior but a 34% decrease from 2019.

Los Angeles faces an acute housing shortage, a problem that has exacerbated a longstanding homelessness crisis and has contributed to rising unaffordability that burdens many of the city’s residents. According to the Southern California Association of Governments, the city of Los Angeles must produce 456,643 housing units during the decade, a pace it now appears certain to miss by a wide margin.

Despite the chronic need for more housing, builders say they are up against an array of obstacles in Los Angeles. Production costs are more than double the average costs in Texas, according to a RAND study. The controversial Measure ULA, informally known as the ”mansion tax,” has also been blamed for construction slowdowns. The levy, which went into effect in April 2023, adds a 4% tax on residential and commercial properties sold for $5.3 million or more, and a 5.5% tax on properties sold for over $10.6 million, including apartment blocks. The revenues are intended to be put toward affordable housing. But the extra tax makes building an apartment project and then selling it particularly burdensome.

Ari Kahan, principal of California Landmark Group, said his development firm has significantly scaled back their Los Angeles projects.

“We still explore unique opportunities, but we cannot afford the risk of both ULA and the inevitable other shoe dropping on another related issue in the city of L.A.,” Kahan said.

The city’s housing crisis has been at the forefront of Bass’s first term agenda. ED 1, which went into effect in 2023, was intended to fast-track construction by reducing approval times for affordable housing projects and shelters to 60 days. The directive prompted a flurry of new proposals. But moving those proposals from the drawing board to actual construction has been slow.

Building struggles

ED1 and programs that encouraged affordable housing, such as bonus diversity programs and the Transit Oriented Communities Incentive Program — which incentivizes low-income housing near bus and train stations — have been big enticements for new development. However, Kahan said Measure ULA has made it difficult for developers to turn a profit on those projects, and he predicts that most of them will never be built.

The measure has generated over $1 billion through January 2026. Critics assail the nickname “mansion tax” because the levy equally applies to multifamily apartment buildings and commercial properties, not just expensive single-family homes. Fifty-nine percent of transactions are single-family residences, 25% are commercial properties and 13% are multi-family residences, according to the ULA Revenue Dashboard.

Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA, the coalition of housing, labor and renters groups behind the measure, defended the tax and said it’s important to let the policy “breathe and take effect” to understand its full impact. He called the measure an economic engine for the city, adding that $400 million in ULA revenue went out to affordable housing developers last fall.

“We’re talking about hundreds of new homes being built, thousands of new construction jobs, investment in neighborhoods that haven’t seen investment like this in a long time,” Donlin said.

Donlin said Los Angeles’ housing struggles are likely due to stubbornly high interest rates, insurance costs and construction material costs around the time Measure ULA went into effect.

Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president of LA Family Housing, said she has been able to sidestep Measure ULA because she manages the properties she builds instead of selling them. For her, one of the biggest affordable housing hurdles is a lack of federal assistance to help low-income tenants pay rent.

“[Los Angeles’s] largest housing gap is for our extremely and very low-income households. In order to make housing affordable to that target income group, it would require a larger allocation of rental subsidies,” Klasky-Gamer said.

President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal aimed to cut over $26 billion from federal rental assistance programs, but the House Appropriations Committee rejected the cuts and increased funding for housing assistance programs. Tenant-based vouchers received $2.4 billion more than they did in the 2025 fiscal year, and the project-based rental assistance program received an extra $1.65 billion.

Westchester grows, downtown dwindles

In a rocky year for issued apartment permits, some Los Angeles neighborhoods showed marked increases, while others saw steep declines.

Westchester had 787 apartment units permitted last year, the most of any neighborhood. North Hollywood had the second most at 502, and Mid-City had the third most with 449.

Downtown saw a substantial dip in permits issued. Last year, 207 units were approved, nearly half as many as the year before and an 87% decrease from 2022.

The regression comes as downtown contends with a massive homelessness population. Downtown had the most non-emergency calls for homeless encampments, 8,417, of any neighborhood in 2025, according to MyLA311 service data.

How we did it: We examined all ED1-related projects on the city’s case summary dashboard and compared those with the Department of Building and Safety’s permits issued for new apartments. In addition, we compiled the number of apartment new units permitted for construction in the city over the past decade. In a previous article, Crosstown used a slightly different methodology to determine the number of permitted apartments in the city. The slight changes in methodology account for the difference in numbers in that article.

Have questions about our data? Write to us at askus@xtown.la

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 24, 2026.

East Los Angeles is home to nearly 119,000 residents, but the community has no mayor or city hall.

So who makes decisions? Who fixes potholes? Who gets called to report illegal dumping?

East L.A. is not a city, and it’s not part of the city of L.A. Instead, it’s an unincorporated part of L.A. County, and even though it’s the most populous unincorporated area in California, community organizers say many residents are unaware of the problems that raises.

According to the L.A. County Planning Department, there are approximately 120 to 125 unincorporated areas in the county, which altogether represent two-thirds of its total area and one-tenth of its population.

“For the 1 million people living in these areas, the Board of Supervisors is their ‘city council’ and the supervisor representing the area is their ‘mayor,’” the department website says.

So what does it mean to live in an unincorporated community?

Let’s break it down:

What is an unincorporated community?

An unincorporated area is land within a county that has not been designated to be a city, meaning that it relies on county services, including for law enforcement, public works and local government.

Instead of being governed by a city council and a mayor, major decisions for East L.A. residents fall under the authority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

East L.A. residents have called for representation that’s more closely tied to their community and financial transparency, saying they want to know how their tax dollars are spent locally.

Who represents East LA?

East L.A., located in Supervisorial District 1, has been represented by County Supervisor Hilda Solis since 2014. Her term is set to end this year.

Solis also makes decisions for the nearly 2 million other residents who live in District 1, which covers more than 20 cities, stretching from Silver Lake to Pomona, as well as various neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles, including Boyle Heights and downtown.

On a state level, East L.A. is represented by Assemblymember Jessica Caloza and state Sen. María Elena Durazo. Rep. Jimmy Gomez represents East L.A. in Congress.

Who provides key services for East LA residents?

Independent cities often provide residents with their own municipal services such as law enforcement, firefighting, animal control, trash collection, road maintenance, library services and parks.

Here’s a list of services available to East L.A. residents:

• First District Field Office – East Los Angeles
  
  • Services: Here’s how you can get in touch with Solis’ office if you have questions or concerns.
  • Location: 4801 E. Third St., Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 881-4601
• East LA Sheriff’s Station 
  
  • Services: In addition to serving East L.A., the station also serves the cities of Commerce, Cudahy and Maywood, as well as unincorporated Belvedere Gardens, City Terrace, Eastmont, Saybrook Park and Union Pacific.
  • Location: 5019 E. Third St., East Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 264-4151. For emergencies, call 911. 
  • Website: lasd.org/east-los-angeles
• LA County Fire Department
  
  • Services: The L.A. County Fire Department serves all of the unincorporated area within Los Angeles County, as well as 60 incorporated cities, 59 of which are in Los Angeles County and one in Orange County. 
  • Contact: (323) 881-2411. For emergencies, call 911.
  • Website: fire.lacounty.gov
• Public Works
  
  • Services: L.A. County Public Works responds to calls about graffiti, potholes, illegal dumping, homeless encampments, transportation services and building and safety permits, among other things.
  • Contact: Reports can be submitted online. Urgent requests can be made by calling the 24-hour line at (800) 675-4357.
  • Website: pw.lacounty.gov
• 211 LA County
  
  • Services: 211 L.A. County provides health and social service resources, including housing support, mental health care, financial assistance and recovery resources. During disasters, like wildfires and other crises, the line provides real-time information and can help people find shelter, food, financial help and emotional support.
  • Contact: Dial 211. Those unable to reach 2-1-1 service can call (800) 339-6993. TTY/TDD# (phone for hearing impaired): (800) 660-4026
  • Website: 211la.org

For a full list, check out this guide to unincorporated areas services for District 1.

Why isn’t East LA its own city?

Over the decades, multiple efforts to incorporate East LA into a city have failed. A recent fiscal analysis concluded that cityhood remains financially unviable for the region. Residents have continued their calls for more financial transparency and better representation. A new effort on the horizon may allow citizens to directly advise the county on issues unique to East LA.

How can residents make their voices heard?

The report that deemed cityhood unfeasible for unincorporated East LA last year recommended the formation of a Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) — a formal, citizen-led body that would provide residents with a structure for public input and give stakeholders a direct line of communication to county leadership.

At the first of six community forums on Saturday, Feb. 21, some residents deemed the MAC a stepping stone towards proper incorporation down the line. Others asked for better economic investment and access to a localized, itemized budget every year for residents to understand how their tax dollars are spent on improving social services and local businesses.

“Every problem we have, can be solved if we have a local government,” resident Francisco Cardenas. “We have nobody to complain to.”

Here’s everything you need to know about the MAC and the upcoming community forums where residents are invited to weigh in. The next meeting will take place Thursday at East L.A. Library, located at 4837 E. Third St. Register here.