The Brief

It’s a bold — and controversial — proposal. And it was approved Friday amid community support and opposition.

At the request of Mayor Karen Bass, L.A. city councilmembers voted 12-2 to purchase the nearly 300-room Mayfair Hotel near downtown, to turn it into temporary housing for unhoused people.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez — who represents the Westlake neighborhood where the hotel is located — said she remains concerned about a lack of community outreach by the mayor’s team but that she believes buying the hotel is a necessary step to add more housing to address the homeless crisis.

“I will hold all the stakeholders accountable, including the mayor's office and the mayor's team that has been rolling this through — and not in the best way,” Hernandez said just before the vote.

“I still have a lot of concerns, but I'm not going to take the gas off of it.”

The no votes were by councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Tim McOsker, who applauded Hernandez’s efforts to address community concerns but said they couldn’t support the purchase.

“I just have frustrations because it always feels that it's the same community that bears the burden,” Rodriguez said.

“There are certain communities that are availed far more opportunities to provide community input than what's happened in the Pico Union, Westlake area — and that for me is very problematic,” she said.

It will be the first time the city buys a hotel for the mayor’s Inside Safe temporary housing program.

The mayor says this will ultimately save the city money on hotel rooms for unhoused people.

The idea is that early next year, the Mayfair would become part of the mayor’s Inside Safe motel shelter program and replace the L.A. Grand Hotel, where the city is leasing rooms for $154 per day.

The Mayfair would reduce that cost to $83 per day, according to the mayor’s staff. That estimate is based on $47 per day for operations and $36 daily for the purchase costs divided over 30 years.

But nearby residents and business owners have been urging the city not to move forward, pointing to a host of problems when the Mayfair was used as an emergency shelter during the coronavirus pandemic.

They say unhoused people would hang out around the hotel and use drugs and alcohol and play loud music.

And the city ultimately paid out $11.5 million to the Mayfair’s owner to resolve claims of property destruction from when the hotel was used as a shelter for unhoused people.

Plans for the purchase

Bass and her staff say this time will be different. Under the mayor’s plans, they say the hotel will have much more on-site services, activities, security and building management to support people living at the Mayfair and keep the area safe.

And 24/7 security staff will make sure people don’t gather outside the hotel, according to the nonprofit Weingart Center that would manage the building.

“We will have case management, we will have housing navigation, mental health and substance abuse [services],” said Jenna Hornstock, the deputy mayor for housing, at a council committee meeting Wednesday.

Hornstock added that plans for the hotel include a coordinator to organize activities for people living there and on-site medical support.

“We, as a city, have committed to aggressive action to address unsheltered homelessness,” she said.

“And this acquisition is a big move and show of force in that direction.”

Council raises concerns, but backs the purchase

Multiple councilmembers who voted for the purchase expressed concerns about a lack of community outreach by the mayor’s team. And they underscored the need to make sure the city honors its commitment so that the Mayfair will have a minimal impact on the surrounding community when it opens next year as temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness.

“I know what it's like to live in and now to represent a community where the city's promises to neighbors about bridge housing were broken,” said Councilmember Traci Park.

“And I can tell you that when promises like that are broken, it is hard to come back.”

Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson said that’s a real issue – and that he’s committing to pushing the city to do better when it comes to the Mayfair.

“I live in a part of the city where the city has said over and over, ‘We'll do this, we'll do that.’ And you look up six months later and nobody's home, and you can't get an answer to your question. You can only get excuses for why it isn't done,” he said.

“So I want to personally bear witness to that reality and commit to – with you and all the members of this council – to changing it and making this a place where neighborhoods can count on their city government.”

Hernandez said other parts of the city also need to step up and host more interim housing.

“Every neighborhood in our city, and every district in our city, has to play a role in solving our housing and homelessness crisis,” she said.

All six of the other councilmembers who spoke about the purchase credited Hernandez’ handling of the situation, saying she’s worked hard to address neighbors’ concerns while supporting the housing effort.

She and Councilmember Bob Blumenfield proposed a series of amendments to the Mayfair purchase plan – that were approved by the council – that include a minimum number of security staff in and around the hotel and $400,000 for extra cleaning of nearby sidewalks, streets and bus shelters.

Community members speak out

The group Westlake South Neighbors has complained about the lack of outreach to the surrounding community.

“The Mayor’s office is attempting to railroad this project through with not one public notice, not one community meeting and no outreach to the predominantly Latino neighborhood,” the group wrote in a recent news release ahead of Friday’s vote.

During a city council committee meeting on Wednesday, most public commenters opposed the sale.

Bass has echoed themes expressed by councilmembers during Friday’s meeting and recently told the L.A. Times that she and her team will be doing outreach so nearby residents “understand that this is going to be a different program.”

How much will it cost

The total estimated price tag for buying the Mayfair is $83 million. That includes $60 million for the purchase, $19 million for renovations and about $4 million for other costs.

The estimated operating costs are $5 million per year.

Altogether, the mayor’s Inside Safe program is estimated to have cost $32 million through the end of June, with nearly 1,500 people entering motels up through Aug. 11.

About 1,100 remained in the motels and about 120 people were in permanent housing at that point.

Cleanup is just beginning for a contaminated industrial site in South Gate, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials who are leading the effort.

The small southeast L.A. city was built on industry — in the early 20th century it boomed with auto, chemical and other manufacturers.

That legacy also left it with three Superfund sites, areas designated by the federal government as highly contaminated with hazardous waste.

The three sites are all clustered on a large lot framed by Southern and Rayo avenues. A residential neighborhood is nearby.

“This site is less than 50 yards away from a home, so we want to make sure that we clean it to a point where we can feel confident,” said South Gate Mayor Joshua Barron.

South Gate is home to about 90,000 people, the majority of whom are Latino. The median household income is about $74,500 and the state has identified the city and surrounding communities to be disproportionately burdened by pollution and its health effects.

This site, dubbed the Southern Avenue Industrial Area, housed a screw manufacturing business for 30 years, then a carpet adhesive plant. Both businesses are now defunct and the site was designated by the federal government as a Superfund site in 2012.

The pollution at this property was compounded by pollution from companies next door.

One of the two adjacent Superfund sites was used by Cooper Drum Co., a steel drum recycling plant. A group of Cooper Drum’s former customers, including chemical manufacturers and oil companies, are paying for part of that cleanup. The other site, previously operated by an aircraft rivet and conveyor belt manufacturer, is still in the analysis and planning stages.

At the Southern Avenue site where the EPA broke ground Tuesday, analyses commissioned by the agency found widespread lead and other toxic contamination in the soil, as well as a plume of trichloroethylene, a carcinogen, in the groundwater.

Officials say the plume has not affected the deeper aquifer South Gate and other southeast L.A. cities rely on for drinking water.

In 1986, the city closed water wells contaminated by the neighboring Cooper Drum site.

EPA project manager Kelia Liang explains the cleanup effort in South Gate on Tuesday.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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“ The water is safe to drink,” said Mike Montgomery, superfund director for the EPA. “What we're trying to do is prevent it from becoming impacted.”

EPA officials estimate soil cleanup will take about two months. Groundwater cleanup planning will start in 2027 and could take a year or more. The whole effort is estimated to cost between $45 million and $60 million, primarily through federal dollars.

The summer heat may be sweltering at the moment in Southern California, but predictions about this winter’s El Niño show it could be the strongest on record.

So the LAist newsroom wants to know: What questions do you have? (You can submit below.)

We can tell you now that El Niño is a climate pattern that happens roughly every two to seven years, and is one of the most powerful drivers of the Earth’s weather.

During an El Niño event, the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America warms to above normal temperatures. The warm ocean adds moisture and heat to the atmosphere, influencing atmospheric circulation, temperatures and precipitation on a massive scale.

El Niño typically results in mild weather in the northern United States and wetter conditions in the southern part of the country.

In Southern California, we could start to see the effects of El Niño in the late fall or early winter. Generally, those effects include significant rain and high sea levels and the consequences that come with them, such as flooding, mudslides and coastal erosion.

Forecasters say there is a more than 90% chance of a powerful El Niño event this year, and a 70% chance that it’s record-setting.

That said, uncertainty remains around how exactly this winter’s El Niño will play out here.

So as you gear up for an El Niño winter, ask us your questions and we’ll do our best to get answers in the months ahead.

The company behind the Garden Grove hazardous waste scare earlier this year is planning to resume full operations in late September, subject to an independently monitored, court-approved safety plan.

GKN Aerospace employs 500 people at its Garden Grove facility.

What happened?

GKN Aerospace said in a news release that it had permanently decommissioned the tank that set off the hazmat scare in May and forced some 50,000 nearby residents to evacuate.

Removal of the tank is pending review and approval from state regulatory agencies, according to an emailed response from Salma Elshakre, a spokesperson for the Orange County Health Care Agency, which is overseeing the cleanup.

All of the toxic chemical, methyl methacrylate (also known as MMA), has been removed from nearby tanks as well, Elshakre said.

What about the compensation fund?

This week, the company also announced a forthcoming $100 million compensation fund for affected residents and businesses. GKN expects to release details on how to apply in the coming months.

What's next?

At least 39 lawsuits have been filed against the company in conjunction with the hazmat incident, according to a GKN webpage set up to track the fallout. The company pledged to explain the legal effect of participating in the compensation fund before it is launched.

What's the community reaction?

Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein said in a statement that the city “welcome[s] this progress and will continue to expect GKN to address the broader effects on our community.”

A coalition of community groups called GKN Out of Garden Grove Coalition wants the city to shut down the GKN plant completely. The coalition plans to release a report documenting the company’s alleged history of hazardous waste failures at a news conference Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at 11300 Stanford Ave. in Garden Grove.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges.

Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials. The action will be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

He declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying “as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.”

The revocations would not necessarily result in their immediate deportation, the officials said. Most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized but would lose their status as business or tourism travelers, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final yet.

Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last year, his administration has steadily ramped up restrictions on visa applicants — demanding more information about their social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for the processing of visas, and outright banning the issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries.

In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called out people who he said try to use tourist and business visas to get into the United States and then apply for asylum.

“People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” Landau wrote on X. “Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.” Landau cited the case of a Colombian citizen who came to the U.S. in 2015 on a tourist visa and then applied for asylum.

B1 visas are generally issued for business trips and B2 visas are generally issued for tourism, family visits or medical care. It was not immediately clear from the documents or the officials how many of these visa holders are seeking or have sought asylum in the United States and would be affected by the revocations.

Current applicants for B1 and B2 visas are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum in the United States and prove that they intend to return to their home countries.

In the past 18 months, the State Department has revoked about 175,000 visas for people who have been convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to rape and robbery, as well as for people who have spoken out publicly against U.S. policies, particularly in the Middle East.

The administration has also moved to crack down on so-called birth tourism, a practice the administration claims is used by foreign pregnant women to come to the United States to give birth so that their child will benefit from birthright citizenship. Trump has tried several times to end birthright citizenship, but those challenges have been rejected by courts, including the Supreme Court.

The State Department documents obtained by the AP suggest screening of current B1 and B2 visa holders began after the State Department received information about asylum requests from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.