The Brief

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Housing needs for current and future residents, environmental justice, access to local commercial corridors and preserving Boyle Heights’ cultural legacy will be priorities as the neighborhood grows, according to its newly updated community plan.

In a 14-0 vote, city leaders last week officially approved the update to the Boyle Heights Community Plan, which acts like a blueprint for the future of one of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods. The multidecade effort to update the document is its first change since 1998.

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado spoke to the greater City Council during a June 24 meeting and pointed to the history of Boyle Heights residents being left out of conversations that impact their neighborhood. For the updated plan, she said neighbors and other stakeholders worked to mold it into a positive asset for the community of roughly 85,000 people.

“This plan reflects years of community advocacy for stronger environmental protections, more thoughtful land-use decisions, greater compatibility between industrial and residential uses, affordable housing antidisplacement measures and investments that allow families to remain in the neighborhoods that they built,” Jurado said during the meeting. 

Jurado spoke as the Lineage warehouse fire was still burning next to homes. She stressed the future of the neighborhood didn’t necessarily have to mirror its past.

“No community plan can undo generations of inequitable land use decisions overnight…” Jurado said, referring to the residential neighborhoods around the industrial zone that endured smoke from the fire for days. “A community cannot thrive if families are asked to bear environmental burdens that [other communities] aren’t forced to accept.”

The plan will allow for 13,000 new homes, attract 12,000 more work opportunities, and accommodate 37,000 additional residents in Boyle Heights through the year 2040, according to a press release from L.A.’s Planning Department.

The latest update incentivizes developers to build in the proposed zones by the L.A. River that will allow more mixed-use structures, such as apartments above small businesses. The plan will also offer opportunities for legacy small businesses to be relocated to the new development area to further preserve the culture and identity of the neighborhood. 

Addressing environmental harms

The plan also includes updated building code guidelines to ensure that:

• Potentially disruptive or hazardous industrial uses along streets that serve as boundaries between industrial areas and residential neighborhoods are discouraged
• Facilities that handle hazardous materials near residents and schools are phased out
• Qualifying development projects conduct soil testing to ensure that lead and arsenic are removed from the soil prior to any ground disturbance

Housing, jobs and neighborhood character

The plan update also features the following tools to “promote affordable housing, economic development, and maintain the community identity” in the neighborhood:

• Prioritizes new production of housing development along commercial corridors and near transit stations to reduce automobile dependency, while safeguarding existing residential neighborhoods
• Incentivizes units for a range of lower-income households, including families of four that make less than $16,000 annually, and family-sized units for intergenerational housing needs 
• Adopts new zoning standards that promote corner shops, or tienditas, that provide groceries and household goods within a walkable distance of the surrounding residential neighborhood
• Strengthens local business and job growth potential along major corridors with new regulations that limit the size of commercial spaces to support mom-and-pop-style businesses and neighborhood grocery stores rather than big-box stores and chains
• New zoning standards that require design features on new development to be compatible with and reflect the existing character of historic and potentially historic buildings, such as those along the historic Brooklyn Avenue corridor

The updated Plan was initially approved in September 2024 and preserves access to incoming affordable housing while safeguarding housing in existing residential neighborhoods.

The plan update also incorporates the New Zoning Code, a more flexible zoning system designed to promote sustainable development and equity across L.A. neighborhoods. Boyle Heights is the second L.A. neighborhood to utilize the new code after downtown. 

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado and members of Eastside LEADS speak at a town hall at the Boyle Heights City Hall on June, 10, 2026.

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Laura Anaya-Morga

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Residents’ hopes for implementation

At a June 10 town hall at Boyle Heights City Hall, various community groups and organizations met with Jurado and the Eastside Leadership for Equitable and Accountable Development Strategies (LEADS) coalition to discuss the plan.

At the end of the meeting, attendees broke into groups to talk about issues they wanted addressed and what neighborhood identity and culture would be important to preserve as the community plan is implemented.

Daniel Jimenez said that his table discussed “how important it is for us to be able to have affordable housing in our neighborhoods.”

In addition to affordable housing, others shared that the plan should ensure adequate parking for new developments, create more green spaces and programming for youth.

Fanny Ortiz, a longtime Boyle Heights resident, said, “In order for us to live and thrive in our community, we should be able to have housing with dignity.”

According to a representative from Jurado’s office, the plan will take effect later this summer. 

This is a developing story and will be updated. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:

• CalFire incident page
• City of Burbank
  

Evacuation orders for DeBell Restaurant and Golf Course and Stough Canyon Nature Center remain in place for a fire burning in Wildwood Canyon above Burbank.

Evacuation warnings for Churches Ct. and Country Club Drive were lifted at 6:20 p.m.

As of 5:55 p.m., the fire had burned 40 acres and 70% contained, according to Burbank.

The Walnut Fire broke out Saturday afternoon near the intersection East Harvard Road and Wildwood Canyon Road.

Hiking trails around the area are closed. The Starlight Bowl concert scheduled for tonight has been canceled.

Listen to our Big Burn podcast

Fire resources and tips

Check out LAist's wildfire recovery guide

If you have to evacuate:

• Why fire officials don't want you to stay and defend your home
• How to get packed up
• How to leave your house
• What evacuation terms mean and how to sign up for alerts

Navigating fire conditions:

• How to drive in high winds and fire danger
• How to prep for power outages
• How to navigate poor air quality

How to help yourself and others:

• Resources for fire victims, evacuees and first responders
• If you want to help fire victims, resist the urge to volunteer
• How to help find lost pets

How to start the recovery process:

• What to do — and not do — when you get home after a wildfire
• How to make an insurance claim
• How to safely clean up wildfire ash

What to do for your kids:

• How to talk to children about wildfires and losing a home
• What parents should know about wildfire air quality

Prepare for the next disaster:

• Fire season is here. Make sure you're signed up for these alerts
• Every day is now fire season. Let's get you ready for the next wildfire
• Yes, wildfires are getting worse. The history that got us to this moment

The U.S. job market unexpectedly stalled in July.

A report Friday from the Labor Department shows that employers cut 23,000 jobs last month, and job gains for May and June were revised sharply lower.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1%, but only because more than 260,000 people dropped out of the workforce.

It was the second month in a row that the monthly jobs tally came in weaker than forecasters had expected.

"We are increasingly hearing from workers that they are anxious about their job security and they are frustrated by the fact that they are stuck in roles that are not necessarily good for them," said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at the job search website Glassdoor. "And that's on top of workers who are not in a job right now and feel frozen out of the job market."

Glassdoor's worker confidence index slumped in July to a record low.

The Fed's job gets harder

Restaurants and retailers cut thousands of jobs last month, and local government also saw large job losses. Healthcare continued to add workers, but at a more modest pace than earlier in the year.

The softening job market may complicate the Federal Reserve's job, since it's also battling stubborn inflation. The Fed may be more cautious about raising interest rates at a time when the labor market appears less stable.

For people who are working, average wages have risen 3.2% in the last 12 months. That's likely not enough to keep pace with inflation, however, so workers' paychecks don't stretch as far as they used to.

"Part of the reason that workers are feeling bad about today's job market," Zhao says, is that "a lot of those wage gains have been eaten up by rising energy prices."

Copyright 2026 NPR

It seems that jazz is everywhere in Los Angeles. Blue Note opened a club last year, venues like Sam First, Catalina’s, Vibrato and the Baked Potato draw large crowds, and hotels and bars are adding jazz to their schedules.

But every week, a semi-secret event at the tony Los Angeles Athletic Club lets anyone experience a near-private concert from legends such as Rickey Woodard, who played saxophone for Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and others; and Nolan Shaheed, trumpeter for Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye and more.

That’s before you get to the evening’s singer, who might be 96-year-old pianist Betty Bryant, former Raelette Val Monroe or singer and Grammy-winning songwriter John Proulx.

Until recently, the Sunday night Jazz Salon was free. Now it charges a nominal $10 per person, which is still an outrageous bargain, so be sure to add something to the tip jar on the piano, and maybe try one of the cocktails or the steak frites.

Inside the club 

Walking into the club earlier, you see black-and-white photos of all types of healthy pursuits on the walls, as well as trophies and mementos of the club’s nearly century-and-a-half history. Plush sofas, high ceilings and book-filled shelves are the order of the day, and alongside members in gym gear or lugging laptops, you go up in one of the elevators to the third floor, where the Jazz Salon takes place.

Dave Ross, bassist and founder of the Jazz Salon.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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The bassist who built it 

Earlier in the day, Dave Ross, 76, was setting up the amps, drum kit, mixer and mic stands. He also administers the website, acts as MC and plays double bass as part of the ensemble. He began the venture over a decade ago, when he persuaded the LAAC, of which he had long been a member, to host concerts in their redecorated restaurant and bar.

Ross draws from a repertory group of about 15 artists, and the concert takes place opposite the bar in a wood-paneled room of just a few dozen leather chairs and tables. This small scale makes the night intimate and unique.

“No gig is ever the same,” says Ross. “We don’t rehearse, and every time we play a song, we're never trying to play it the same way we played it before.”

That makes the night fun, too. Since you’re right near the musicians, you can hear their laughter and banter, as well as their impressive solos. Ross, stage left, stays out of the limelight — which is how he prefers it — and often says he's just happy to be there playing.

“You're there to keep the beat, the pulse of the music,” he says. “And then, secondarily, the notes that you play help the other musicians understand what the chord, what the harmony is. I'm just doing it for the pleasure of playing the music.”

The Jazz Salon is a $10 Sunday night concert at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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Why $10 barely covers it 

Once a month, Ross and some of his stable join a touring artist — recently five-time Grammy-nominee Karrin Allyson — in the club’s 250-seat ballroom for a more formal ticketed event, but there have been just two complete sellouts of them this year: tributes to Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond.

Donations and the tip jar on Sunday evenings sometimes haven’t been enough to break even, either, which led to Ross reluctantly introducing the $10 charge. No matter what, he is determined the Jazz Salon will keep going.

“When I was younger, there was a receptionist I knew who was a nun. She said: “‘You know what your problem is? You’re too optimistic!’”

Daniel Shemtob has been going around Los Angeles asking strangers this question: "What's your mom's best dish?"

He then turns their answers — from Filipino oxtail adobo to the Ashkenazi Jewish favorite of gefilte fish — into a taco for his new five-episode web series, "Better Than Your Mom."

One episode breaks from the format entirely: a head-to-head chopped salad taco challenge between Shemtob and Vanessa Silverton, daughter of famed L.A. chef Nancy Silverton, judged blind by Nancy herself.

Daniel Shemtob, founder of The Lime Truck and creator and host of Better Than Your Mom.

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Courtesy Daniel Shemtob

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A two-time winner of "The Great Food Truck Race" on the Food Network, Shemtob is no stranger to reality TV — he also founded The Lime Truck, serving Cali-Mex cuisine in Orange County.

What starts as a quick, chaotic street-corner challenge opens into something bigger — a Long Beach woman honoring her late mother-in-law's gefilte fish recipe, and a chef processing his own mother's death and the loss of his home in the 2025 Palisades Fire.

A dish for his mother

Despite loving fine dining, Shemtob said nothing beats the experience of having someone invite him to their mother's home for dinner.

"It's by far my favorite thing," he said.

Gundry watched as Shemtob reworked her mother-in-law's recipe in real time — a process that normally takes her more than two hours, done in 20 minutes.

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Screenshot via Better Than Your Mom

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That urge to connect with other people also came from wanting to celebrate his late mother's legacy and the impact she had on him in the kitchen.

"Eating was like a big part of how we shared and celebrated," Shemtob said. "It was a culture that was built around food."

A stranger says, 'yes'

While most walk past him or decline to talk, Shemtob said he's been surprised by how many strangers say yes almost immediately — like Anne Gundry, a retired biology teacher in Long Beach.

She answered with a dish from her mother-in-law from her first marriage — gefilte fish served cold.

Shemtob's take on Dena Levenstein's gefilte fish, reimagined as a taco with an apple-horseradish slaw.

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Courtesy Daniel Shemtob

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Gundry recalled her first meeting with Dena Levenstein, who would become her mother-in-law. The relationship started out cold — but cooking together changed their dynamic.

"That's where I honestly think we had the deepest bond with her," Gundry said.

Gundry described yearly visits to Levenstein's house as a cooking "apprenticeship," where Gundry was taught to cook by feel — adding ingredients by the handful, testing a dish's consistency by touch.

"She used to say, 'How does it feel?'" Gundry recalled. "And I'd say, 'I don't know, I don't know how it's supposed to feel.'"

Over the years, she learned. Now, Gundry teaches her own children that recipe the same way — without referring to what's written down.

Watching Shemtob cook on "Better Than Your Mom," Gundry was skeptical. Her own process takes over two hours; his took 20 minutes — until she tasted the apple-horseradish slaw he added.

"Brilliant," she said. "I've been trying to duplicate it at home."

You can find Shemtob's videos on his YouTube channel.