Carmelo Alvarez near the Levitt Pavilion in MacArthur Park, which now hosts an annual Radiotron event.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Topline:
Radiotron was integral to L.A.'s nascent hip-hop scene in the early 1980s, proving a space for young artists to breakdance, MC and make art. Carmelo Alvarez made it happen.
The background: As New York City’s foundational hip-hop presence continued to develop, more people in Los Angeles started experimenting with electro-music, funk and R&B, and dance forms like popping and locking. The place to do it was Radio Club in MacArthur Park. It became a place for emerging artists to bring what they saw from the East Coast to the West — and apply their own L.A. spin. Ice-T was the MC. Madonna would hang out to check out the trends.
Then enter a dancer from MacArthur Park named Carmelo Alvarez, who transformed the club into the space known as Radiotron — where kids could go after school to breakdance and work on their art.
When 12-year-old Wilber “Wilpower” Urbina saw two kids breakdancing for the first time in MacArthur Park back in 1982, he knew he had to get involved.
“It was the coolest thing I had ever seen, but I didn't know what it was because I had never seen it before,” Urbina recalls. “The music sounded very strange, but interesting. From then on, I was just trying to copy the moves that the kids were doing.”
About a year later, Urbina heard from other kids about a new place across the street from MacArthur Park where kids could breakdance for hours for less than 75 cents.
It was called the Youth Break Center, Inc. or better known as Radiotron.
The first Radiotron graphic painted for the 1984 movie Breakin'
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Carmelo Alvarez
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Carmelo Alvarez
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A space for LA’s nascent hip-hop scene
Before Radiotron opened itself to neighborhood youth, it was an avant garde, underground space called Radio Club. In Jonathan Abrams’ The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop, rapper and actor Ice-T recalls Radio Club originally being a punk rock space where people would get on stage and practice their new work. Then the owner started bringing in hip-hop artists from the East Coast.
As New York City’s foundational hip-hop presence continued to develop, more people started experimenting with electro-music, funk and R&B as well as dance forms like popping and locking in Los Angeles. Radio Club became integral to that new movement in the city. It became a place for emerging artists to bring what they saw from the East Coast to the West.
LA Bazar Girl and DJ Antron were regulars at Radiotron
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Carmelo Alvarez
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Carmelo Alvarez
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At the same time, these culture innovators were mixing the East Coast style with the West Coast environment, aesthetics and attitudes, says Jonathan Calvillo, a sociology professor at Emory University, and author of the forthcoming book In The Time of Sky Rhyming: How Hip Hop Resonated In Brown Los Angeles.
Calvillo says when the owners brought in Ice-T as an emcee at Radio Club, it solidified the spot as a hip-hop space, and ushered in more people of color.
Before he was the original gangster rapper and before he became Detective Odafin Tutuola on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ice-T appeared in early 1980s L.A. breakdancing films as an emcee and dancer — the documentary 'Breakin ‘n’ Enterin’ and the now classic movies Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, which were all set in Radio Club.
“Ice-T brought in more local street credibility,” Calvillo says.
Kurtis Blow and Kid Frost also visited Radio. DJ Chris “The Glove” Taylor, who frequently deejayed there, wrote about how Michael Jackson recruited some of his dancers for Thriller from Radio. It was a place where even celebrities like Madonna would go to check out the latest trends.
Then in 1983, Carmelo Alvarez, a young Mexican American dancer who had dreams of opening up a performance arts center in his childhood neighborhood of MacArthur Park, decided to rent out office space from the owner of the building Radio occupied. As Alvarez tells it, the owner then asked him to manage the building. It was his opportunity to create that performance space for kids.
Radiotron begins
Alvarez was raised in the MacArthur Park area where he was influenced by gangs. He recalls an art teacher pushing him to try out dancing at the Barnsdall Art Center and Junior Arts Center. There he met veteran artistic director and choreographer Chester Whitmore, who invited Alvarez to be in his tap troupe. He was also a part of the L.A. Inner City Cultural Center and toured with Lula Washington in a dance company.
He recalls seeing breakdancing in New York City in 1980 as a pivotal time for him. “Hip-hop is the vehicle,” Alvarez explains. “The main important thing was the youth.”
Carmelo Alvarez, founder of historic hip hop youth center Radiotron, holds a photo of Radiotron in its former space near Park View and 7th in MacArthur Park.
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Brian Feinzimer
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Alvarez says he originally had a whole other game plan for the youth center, but the kids had seen what was happening in Radio Club. The kids were itching to breakdance.
Radio was reborn into Radiotron in 1983 when the producers of Breakin’ approached Alvarez. They named the club in the movie “Radiotron'' and it stuck.
So did the art. The crew left behind the graffiti that was part of the film's set design. Alvarez thought it brought color and light to the space, so he kept it. “I said ‘no, no, no. Leave it alone’. Before that it was all dark and black,” Alvarez recalls.
Photograph caption dated July 5, 1985 reads, "Graffiti art decorates Radiotron's walls, adding to the atmosphere of this no-age-limit nightclub, where kids 6 on up can do their thing and prove their stuff till 3 in the morning."
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James Ruebsamen
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Herald Examiner Collection/ L.A. Public Library
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Tino Montelongo, then 18, of Fillmore's Radiotron Wizards break-dancing troupe dancing outside the Coliseum during the Olympics in the summer of 1984.
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Chris Gulker
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Herald Examiner Collection / L.A. Public Library
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A photo from June 1985 identifies the man spinning records at Radiotron as DJ Tony.
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James Ruebsamen
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Herald Examiner Collection / L.A. Public Library
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Then came the kids.
“So I get a knock on the door and it was a little kid and he said ‘Hey mister, can we break in there?’” Alvarez recalls. “And I said 'sure.’ And they said, ‘Hey! the man said we can break in there!’ And they called a bunch of kids together and they went in there and they started breakdancing.”
“It went from an after-hours nightclub to an after-school youth center,” Alvarez says.
Calvillo says when Radio Club did not agree to the conditions Carmelo requested, its managers moved the club to another location downtown.
A 'safe haven'
When Radiotron opened, it quickly became viewed as a safe space for kids; a place where young people could fully express themselves and stay away from drugs and gangs.
“Radiotron presented an opportunity for young people to experiment and learn from folks who have been expressing themselves through the hip-hop elements,” Calvillo says. “For a whole generation, early West Coast innovators were being acculturated into hip-hop culture at Radiotron.”
Lifelong breakdancer Wilber “Wilpower” Urbina was one of them.
“All the kids wanted to go to this place,” Urbina recalls. “They knew that you could see some of the best kids, and when you see kids who are more advanced than you are, that makes you get better, you get inspired.”
Wilber 'Wilpower' Urbina as a kid circa 1984 Los Angeles
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Courtesy of Wilber 'Wilpower' Urbina
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Wilber 'Wilpower' Urbina
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He recalls Alvarez being kind and welcoming to all kids who wanted to do graffiti and breakdance at the center.
“He was kind of like a father figure,” Urbina says. “ Inbarriosor hoods, most people just grew up with just a mom. To see and hear a kind person say good things, that’s great. He didn’t want anything in return. He wants you to do good, to stay away from trouble. To do art. In this place, you could do graffiti, it was really a safe haven.”
The rise of L.A. hip-hop
Many people know about the day that hip-hop supposedly jumped off. Two teen siblings from the South Bronx — DJ Kool Herc and Cindy Campbell — held a back-to-school party in their neighborhood in 1973 and Herc tried something new on the turntables, dropping what many historians say was the first hip-hop beat. But there were other elements that came to define hip-hop.
It wasn’t just the MCing or DJing or the graffiti — it was also the movement, the breakdancing. While young people in New York were b-boying and doing more street dances on the floor, in L.A. and other California cities, Black and brown kids were creating more funk-style dance moves that were placed in a larger umbrella category called “breakin’."
Even before hip-hop took off, California was the place where both popping and locking were created by young people in the 1970s. For example, a 20-something-year-old Soul Train dancer named Don Campbell created locking, an early street dance that influenced breakdance moves in L.A., back in the funk era.
In MacArthur Park, young people from all different background were getting in on it.
“At the time, MacArthur Park was not a particularly safe place to be. But it was a place that was experiencing a lot of growth, a lot of movement, a lot of migration,” Calvillo says. “A lot of the early practitioners that were learning hip-hop culture, and experimenting and adapting it to their surroundings, many of them were Central American.”
The end comes too quickly
In Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, the dancers team up together to do a benefit show to save their endangered community center.
Calvillo says the fictional story isn’t far from the truth.
“Much of the plotline of that story was based on what was happening with Radiotron,” Calvillo says. “The youth center was going to be closed, it was being threatened in terms of its location."
“He was kind of like a father figure. Inbarriosor hoods, most people just grew up with just a mom. To see and hear a kind person say good things, that’s great. He didn’t want anything in return. He wants you to do good, to stay away from trouble. To do art."
— Wilber "Wilpower" Urbina, breakdancer
Radiotron eventually closed in 1985 due in part to development. The building was torn down for the construction of the Park View Mall. According to news reports, the developers needed a parking lot — right where the Youth Break Center stood. Before that, Radiotron's weekend dances, which brought in revenue, were shut down for code violations. Doctors across the country started pointing out the dangers of breakdancing.
“Kids get hurt in football,” Alvarez says. “Kids get hurt playing on the playground. You don’t take the playground out. No, you go fix it. You tell them to be careful.” Alvarez and the Radiotron kids protested in front of City Hall to get the attention of city council members in order to keep the building but, Alvarez says, there was no luck. The building was lost. Radiotron was only in existence from 1983 to 1985.
Alvarez was heartbroken.
“I purposely had it underage, because the kids didn't have anything,” Alvarez says, reflecting on the importance of the youth center. “They were dancing in the street for money and they were getting tickets. And this is the era of crack and gangs and drive-bys. They needed something.”
Urbina said that after Radiotron closed there was nowhere else to go.
“Sometimes friends would invite us to go there to their lobby... but sometimes the lobby was small and it was carpet,” Urbina says. “So it was like ‘F---! We really miss Radiotron.’”
Alvarez says he’s opened a dozen youth centers since 1978, but it’s been hard to sustain them. The now 66-year-old Alvarez is retired and is working on a project called Community Action for Peace.
Radiotron’s lasting impact
Alvarez says there’s one major aspect of the Radiotron story that shouldn’t be missed:: just like there were kids that held a back-to-school party that launched hip-hop culture in the South Bronx, young people were also important in the hip-hop movement in L.A.
“Those kids were innovators,” he says. “They were the ones that created it.”
Radiotron launched the careers of a long list of dancers and artists. Alvarez says some of the graffiti artists he shepherded at Radiotron have had work featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art and in LACMA. He points out artists like Prime (who is known to be the founding father of stylized L.A. graffiti lettering), Shandu One and Zender, who all made names for themselves.
Carmelo Alvarez walks near a mural painted by fromer Radiotron memebr RETNA near Park View and 7th in MacArthur Park.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Salvadoran American breakdancers like Urbina (aka Wilpower) and Cesar “Lil Cesar'' Rivas were a part of the trendsetting Air Force Crew, which was founded at Radiotron. After the youth center physically closed, Rivas helped Radiotron become a traveling dance competition. In the 1990s the Air Force Crew danced with Kurtis Blow, and became an inspiration for Korea’s b-boying scene.
“We don't often hear their stories in the same way as when folks talk about West Coast rappers because we think of the West Coast as mostly a movement of rappers,” Calvillo said. “But these are dancers that were actually going international.”
At 53, Urbina is still hungry for more. He wants to get the moves he had in his 20s and 30s. It’s hard work, but it’s fun. There’s just one caveat.
He’s not battling people anymore. He’s battling age.
Decades after Radiotron's closing, Wilber 'Wilpower' Urbina, now in his 50s, still finds time to breakdance.
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Wilber 'Wilpower' Urbina
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Wilber 'Wilpower' Urbina
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“You’re battling not getting injuries because breakdancing is very physical,” Urbina says. “Over 50, to be doing 20, 30, 40 headspins…it’s not so easy. I’m also a realist. There’s some moves where I’m like nah…my wrists aren’t the same any more.”
A California State University president who stepped down following a multi-million dollar settlement in a case accusing him of gender-based discrimination and harassment will earn a six-figure salary this coming year while he’s in between Cal State jobs.
New role: Former Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Morales will provide international consulting for Cal State and work on strengthening the university’s international initiatives and global partnerships. Morales announced his plans for departure last August and officially left the university at the end of this school year, joining an executive transition program in which he will be paid $343,920 over a year-long period starting this August. This salary is typical for Cal State executives in this program, said Cal State Chancellor Mildred Garcia, who announced Morales’ interim role at a board of trustees committee meeting Wednesday. The board of trustees also unanimously granted Morales president emeritus status Wednesday afternoon, a title given as a gesture of appreciation for his service to the university.
The backstory: Morales, and a former dean at San Bernardino’s Palm Desert campus, Jake Zhu, were accused of gender-based discrimination, harassment and retaliation in a 2023 lawsuit that Cal State recently settled for $12 million. Clare Weber and Anissa Rogers, both former San Bernardino administrators, alleged they were instructed to resign after reporting a gender pay gap and discriminatory bullying to higher-ups. Cal State continues to deny any wrongdoing and determined Morales to be in good standing, which renders him eligible for the transition program.
A California State University president who stepped down following a multi-million dollar settlement in a case accusing him of gender-based discrimination and harassment will earn a six-figure salary this coming year while he’s in between Cal State jobs.
During the transition period, former Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Morales will provide international consulting for Cal State and work on strengthening the university’s international initiatives and global partnerships.
Morales announced his plans for departure last August and officially left the university at the end of this school year, joining an executive transition program in which he will be paid $343,920 over a year-long period starting this August. This salary is typical for Cal State executives in this program, said Cal State Chancellor Mildred Garcia, who announced Morales’ interim role at a board of trustees committee meeting Wednesday.
The board of trustees also unanimously granted Morales president emeritus status Wednesday afternoon, a title given as a gesture of appreciation for his service to the university.
Morales, and a former dean at San Bernardino’s Palm Desert campus, Jake Zhu, were accused of gender-based discrimination, harassment and retaliation in a 2023 lawsuit that Cal State recently settled for $12 million. Clare Weber and Anissa Rogers, both former San Bernardino administrators, alleged they were instructed to resign after reporting a gender pay gap and discriminatory bullying to higher-ups.
Cal State continues to deny any wrongdoing and determined Morales to be in good standing, which renders him eligible for the transition program. Executives may become ineligible if the chancellor finds they violated university policy or engaged in serious misconduct.
Weber, who alleged she was fired weeks after asking Morales for a raise over email to bridge what she called a gender-based pay gap, said the ex-president should not remain in good standing.
Male Cal State employees “are protected when they behave badly, when they mistreat women, when they harass women, when they retaliate against them,” Weber said. “The tendency is to protect the university.”
Morales’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
Morales, new campus president still high earners
During the year-long transition period, Morales will be required to submit a monthly report to the chancellor chronicling “activities and milestones completed,” according to a board document.
“President Tomás Morales has served Cal State San Bernardino with distinction for 14 years, demonstrating exceptional leadership on behalf of the university and his students,” Garcia said at the meeting.
Morales will also provide guidance and support to incoming Cal State San Bernardino president S. Terri Gomez, Garcia said at the meeting. Gomez, the current provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Cal Poly Pomona, will assume the role on Aug. 3.
The committee approved a $426,916 annual salary, $60,000 annual housing allowance, and additional auto allowance of $1,000 per month for Gomez when she takes office.
Gomez made $338,255 in base pay in 2024, per the latest available data from Transparent California.
In 2024, 69 out of Cal State’s 118,843 employees earned a salary higher than $343,920, according to the State Controller’s Office. Morales’ salary was $527,834 in 2024 — the sixth-highest earning salary in the Cal State system, behind the chancellor and four other campus presidents. The average university salary in 2024 was $39,870, according to the office.
San Bernardino’s chapter of the California Faculty Association labor union asked Cal State to open an investigation into university administrators perpetuating gender discrimination and deny Morales executive transition benefits in a social media post yesterday.
Morales’ transition assignment will last from Aug. 3, 2026, to Aug. 2, 2027. During this period, Morales will transfer to the Management Personnel Plan, granting him the employment rights and benefits of university managers and supervisors, Cal State spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said.
Bentley-Smith did not respond to a request for comment on what job Morales will take after the transition period, which should have been previously decided, according to a 2022 Board of Trustees agenda item outlining the policy.
“We are deeply grateful for President Morales’ outstanding leadership at Cal State San Bernardino and systemwide,” Garcia said at Wednesday's meeting.
No members of the board of trustees committee made any comments or asked any questions after Garcia’s announcement.
Phoebe Huss is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
A stiff drink without the sticker shock at Cento raw bar.
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Cecilia Seiter
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LAist
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Topline:
Getting a stiff drink in L.A. is expensive. These five spots graciously serve $10 martinis at happy hour.
Why try them: The martini is, as writer H.L. Mencken put it once, the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet. And while there’s no shortage of them in L.A., getting one that costs less than $15 can prove a journey. These five happy hour martinis all come in at $10 and don’t fall short on strength or flavor.
What to expect: Martini Mondays at the Nice Guy, martinis in a mermaid cave, and tricolor olive martinis in Beverly Hills.
Possibly the chicest and most indulgent way to unwind after a long day of work is with a perfectly-chilled martini in hand. Still, it’s usually a treat: martinis are famously high-brow beverages, and finding one that won’t break the bank in L.A. can prove difficult.
But if you know where to look, you’ll find that the city has plenty of martini deals. These five spots all stir up a delicious martini, and all of them offer generous happy hours where each ‘tini is $10 a pop.
Cento Raw Bar (West Adams)
There are many reasons to love Cento Raw Bar, the sister restaurant to Cento Pasta Bar next door, and one of L.A.’s dining scene’s newest darlings. For starters, it looks like a mermaid’s cave, but looks aren’t all this sweet oceanic outpost has to offer. Martinis and oysters, obviously, are a match made in heaven, and diving into Cento’s $10 “golden hour” (from 5-6 p.m.) martini-oyster is as delightful as it sounds. The martinis are made with gin or vodka and arrive in fun, color-blocked glassware. If you order yours dirty, you’ll get your olives on a little dish on the side. They’re well-balanced, perfectly chilled, and wonderful to wash down oysters with.
Location: 4919 W. Adams Blvd. Hours: Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday 5-10 p.m. (happy hour 5-6 p.m.); Friday and Saturday 5-11 p.m.
Dante (Beverly Hills)
The dirty and Dante martinis play nice together.
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Cecilia Seiter
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LAist
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I’ve never had a bad martini in New York City, which is why Dante— a classic New York joint with a stunning location in Beverly Hills — is a must for a martini happy hour in my book. It’s famous for the tricolor olives in its signature ‘tini (a powerful blend of Ford’s gin, Ketel One vodka, Noilly Prat vermouth, Dolin Blanc vermouth, Nardini Cedro liqueur, olive and lemon bitters), but the dirty here never disappoints.
Like all good things, Dante’s dirty martini is deceivingly simple: Reyka vodka, olive oil, olive bitters and a pinch of salt with a dose of olive brine mist. Olives come chilled on the side. Martini hour is 3-5 p.m. daily.
Location: 225 N. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills (inside the Maybourne Hotel) Hours: Monday to Friday 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. ; Saturday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. (happy hour from 3-5 p.m. daily)
Found Oyster (East Hollywood)
Olive lovers will find Found Oyster’s martini delightful.
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Cecilia Seiter
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LAist
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The folks behind Found Oyster knew what they were doing when they married excellent seafood, wine and martinis in their bustling neighborhood bistro.
You’ll find $10 martinis everyday from 4-6 p.m. here, and you can order your martini with olives, onion or a twist. The dirty martini is generous, with fat, blue cheese-stuffed olives served on the lip of a chilled Nick and Nora. There’s plenty to sample from the raw bar — seafood platters, scallop tostadas and sea urchin service — and the large plates, like the wedge salad and the pork caesar schnitzel, are not to be missed.
Location: 4880 Fountain Ave., East Hollywood Hours: Monday to Thursday 4-10 p.m.; Friday to Sunday 12 p.m. - 10 p.m. (happy hour from 4-6 p.m. daily)
Maydan (West Adams)
Don’t miss out on Maydan’s happy hour snacks.
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Courtesy Maydan
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There’s something beautiful about a martini that subtly departs from tradition, and Maydan, the acclaimed Lebanese-inspired restaurant inside its eponymous food hall, delivers on this front.
The Za’atar martini brings together olive oil washed vodka, dry vermouth and sumac-sesame oil for a savory spin on a classic cocktail. Happy hour is Tuesday through Thursday 5-7 p.m. You’ll also find discounted snacks on the happy hour menu, like charcoal-grilled kebabs and housemade dips.
Location: 4301 W. Jefferson Blvd., West Adams Hours: Closed Mondays; Tuesday to Thursday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (happy hour from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday)
The Nice Guy (West Hollywood)
Jazz and martinis were made for each other.
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Courtesy The Nice Guy
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Martini Mondays are a great excuse to leave the house on a weeknight. West Hollywood’s The Nice Guy offers a generous range of $10 martinis, including dry, dirty and espresso martinis paired with live Italian jazz. You can also order a $30 martini meal to the tune of a burger, fries and martini (the Classic) or a Caesar salad, rigatoni Bolognese and a martini (the Mr. Nice Guy.)
Location: 401 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood Hours: Open daily, 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.
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At her Wednesday address at Union Station in downtown, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said public transit is a powerful tool to improve quality of life.
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Kavish Harjai
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Topline:
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass kicked off her second tenure as chair of the Metro Board, saying she was proud of the way the agency had responded to the huge influx of soccer fans for the World Cup. She said the upcoming year was the most “consequential” one in a generation to dispel the notion that the L.A. region is dependent on cars.
Fare-free future: At the annual Metro State of the Agency event, Bass said she plans to “develop a long-term financial strategy” to eventually make the countywide transportation system fare free. She also said she wants to increase the current 80 miles of peak-hour bus lanes in the county to 100 miles by 2028.
Bass transit riding habits: A spokesperson for Bass’ media office said the mayor has taken Metro “on multiple occasions.” The spokesperson said the mayor is a frequent bike rider and that she has “participated in multiple CicLAvia” events. On Thursday, at the first Metro Board meeting during the mayor’s second tenure as chair, leaders will consider pausing funding for the region’s open-streets events.
Overall system safety: In her speech as vice chair of the Metro Board, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger celebrated a 22% decrease in violent crime on the system over the last two calendar years. “I want it to get to zero,” Barger said.
World Cup shuttle safety: Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins highlighted that there were “zero security incidents” on the agency’s special bus system that shuttled tens of thousands of people to and from SoFi Stadium during the FIFA World Cup matches.
Bus project hangs in balance: Bass said the agency’s forthcoming bus rapid transit projects are “landmark improvements”, especially as the 2028 Games approach. One of those projects, a 19 mile-long route from North Hollywood to Pasadena, could be delayed, though. In May, Metro sued the city of Burbank over its refusal to grant local construction permits for a part of the route. On Friday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied Metro’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would have required the city to grant the permits, jeopardizing Metro’s plan to begin construction in Burbank on July 27.
Erin Stone
attended a community town hall, reviewed public records and spoke with multiple sources to report this story.
Published July 22, 2026 2:08 PM
Catalina and Genaro Ventura sit on their porch, with dog Yogi, in Jefferson Park. They've lived near the Murphy oil drilling site for more than 25 years.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Topline:
After more than a decade of community organizing, an oil drilling site in Jefferson Park could be shut down. The city of Los Angeles has scheduled a hearing this week to consider revoking the license to operate the site.
The backstory: What’s known as the Murphy drill site on West Adams Boulevard sits atop the vast Las Cienegas oil field. The site’s name comes from Daniel Murphy, a business tycoon who donated the land to the Roman Catholic Church when he died. The L.A. Archdiocese has leased it to various oil companies for decades.
Why it matters: Although oil wells are present throughout Los Angeles, the effects are largely unequal. A 2022 study found twice the number of oil and gas wells in historically redlined neighborhoods, with L.A. topping the list. And numerous studies have found that people living near oil wells, which have been found to leak carcinogens like benzene, are more likely to have higher rates of asthma, preterm births and cancer.
What the current operator says: The operator disputes studies that show illnesses near the Murphy site, arguing that they did not measure "actual site emissions or exposure and cannot establish causation." They plan to make their case to remain operating to the city.
Read on ... to hear the story of a family who lives near the site and to learn what's next.
Genaro and Catalina Ventura moved to the South L.A. neighborhood of Jefferson Park more than 25 years ago. The Craftsman-style house they found was a dream — spacious, with a yard where they could garden and their children and dog could play.
What they didn’t know before moving in was that just a few hundred yards behind the house is an active oil drilling site.
Genaro Ventura, a now-retired custodian for the city of L.A., worked nights. When he’d come home around 2 a.m., the smell of oil and chemicals was often strong in the air.
“Since the night is quiet, there’s no traffic or smog,” Genaro Ventura told LAist in Spanish. “You can really smell the air from the drill site, and it’s a terrible odor.”
[“Como la noche es calmada, pues no hay tráfico, no hay smog, y puede uno pues percibir el aire del drill site, y es un olor muy feo."]
Five years after the family moved in, Genaro was diagnosed with cancer in his left kidney and had to have it removed. In 2013, a brain tumor led to another surgery, and the following year another brain tumor required radiation treatment. He has to return regularly for scans. Most recently he’s developed lung cancer and is scheduled to start chemotherapy.
With no family history of cancer, the Venturas suspect the illnesses are related to air pollution from the nearby drill site.
And it’s not just Genaro Ventura. The family’s last dog died of cancer. Their elderly chihuahua now has cancer, too. Two of Catalina Ventura’s friends nearby were also diagnosed with cancer and recently moved away. Their son and many children in the neighborhood grew up with asthma.
“I’d like to leave here,” Catalina Ventura said in Spanish. “But we can’t — this is our home and we like the area, plus we don't have the money to move, so we’ve stayed here despite everything we’ve gone through.”
[“Yo me quisiera ir de aqui. Pero no podemos porque estamos aquí, es nuestra casa y nos gusta el área, pero tampoco tenemos dinero para movernos, así que seguimos aquí a pesar de lo que sufrimos.”]
Now, after more than a decade of community organizing, the drill site could be shut down. The city has scheduled a hearing this week to consider revoking E&B Natural Resource’s license to operate the site.
The Murphy Drill Site in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
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Sarah Craig
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Faces of Fracking
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“It is really the best chance we have ever had to see this toxic industrial site shut down and removed from our neighborhood,” longtime South L.A. resident Richard Parks said at a recent community town hall at a church down the road from the drill site. Parks is the president of the nonprofit Redeemer Community Partnership, a group that has spearheaded the shutdown effort.
In response to questions from LAist, a spokesperson for E&B emphasized the company’s compliance with regulations and said the facility “plays an important role in supplying locally produced petroleum to the Los Angeles Basin.”
How to participate in the hearing about the Murphy drill site
What: The City of L.A.’s Office of Zoning Administration is holding a hearing to consider revoking E&B Natural Resource’s permit to operate the Murphy drill site. That could result in the site being permanently shut down. Residents can provide testimony by attending the virtual hearing (details below) or submit a comment ahead of time here or by emailing Roni.Giron@lacity.org.
When prompted, enter the meeting ID: 865 8039 2586 #
Daniel Murphy's home was a sprawling estate on West Adams Boulevard in the early 20th century.
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Courtesy L.A. Public Library
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Why an oil drilling site is in the middle of a neighborhood
What’s known as the Murphy drill site on West Adams Boulevard sits atop the vast Las Cienegas oil field.
The site’s name comes from Daniel Murphy, a business tycoon who lived on an estate there in the early 20th century.
Murphy, who made his money in cement, oil and railroads, was also a devout Roman Catholic, so after his death, his family donated the property to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For decades, the Archdiocese has leased the property to various oil companies. Most recently, the site has been operated by E&B Natural Resources.
In a statement, the Archdiocese told LAist it "has no direct control over the facility" and that "the health and well-being of the community remain a priority." It added that the Church understands E&B has complied with regulations "and has taken efforts to address the concerns of the community."
Although oil wells are present throughout Los Angeles, the effects are largely unequal. Through the mid-20th century, racist housing laws and discriminatory lending practices relegated people of color to certain neighborhoods.
Jefferson Park was one of those redlined neighborhoods and remains home to mostly Black and Latino residents.
A 2022 study found twice the number of oil and gas wells in historically redlined neighborhoods, with L.A. topping the list.
A Google maps screenshot of the Murphy drill site, owned by E & B Natural Resources, in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of L.A.
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Google Maps
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How much oil is produced at the Murphy drill site?
Since 2018, Oildale, California-based E&B Natural Resources has operated the Murphy drill site.
Ever since, production has declined. In 2022, E&B extracted some 251 barrels per day of oil and 21 barrels of natural gas from the Murphy site — a relatively small amount by oil production standards. All oil drilling within L.A. city limits now makes up less than 2% of the state’s oil.
In a statement to LAist, a spokesperson for E&B said the site remains valuable.
“Maintaining responsible local production also helps meet regional energy needs with resources produced close to where they are ultimately consumed,” the company spokesperson wrote.
Where oil and gas comes from in California.
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Courtesy CJM Petroleum Consulting Inc.
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The health effects of living near oil drilling
Today, it’s easy to miss the Murphy drill site. A mass of piping and oil wells is hidden behind a wall and manicured hedges, and next door to low-income apartments, an AIDS Healthcare Foundation clinic and an education center for children with hearing loss. A church, library, elementary school and high school are also nearby.
At the convent directly behind the site, Roman Catholic nuns are tasked with caring for the sick who call for them.
On a recent afternoon, Sister Claudia of the Servants of Mary told LAist in Spanish that dark soot often covers the roof and walls of the building.
“A black dust settles even on the leaves of the trees and gets into the house," she said.
[“Un polvo negro que se queda hasta en las hojas de los árboles y entra a la casa."]
Many of the sisters have allergies they never had before living there, she said, and two of the sisters have cancer.
Sister Claudia, left, and Sister Maria de Jesus of the Servants of Mary convent in Jefferson Park.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Since at least 2014, the site has been the cause of dozens of complaints to local air quality regulators. People who live or work nearby have reported strong oil and chemical odors, noise and other concerns, according to records obtained by local nonprofit Redeemer Community Partnership and shared with LAist.
For more than a decade, the group and its partners have organized to gain more protections on the site and, ultimately, shut the drilling down.
They’ve gathered the experiences of nearby residents, many of whom have suffered multiple miscarriages, respiratory illness and cancer. Numerous studies have found that people living near oil wells, which have been found to leak carcinogens like benzene, are more likely to have higher rates of asthma, preterm births and cancer.
But such research is not enough to shut a site down, and it’s hard to prove exactly where those illnesses come from. So over the last decade, academic researchers have partnered with the community to try to do just that.
“The burden is often placed on the community to prove they're being harmed,” said Jill Johnston, an environmental health researcher at U.C. Irvine and previously USC, where she led the oil drilling research. “ We're trying to establish some of this data-driven evidence to support the observations that people have experienced for decades.”
The researchers and community members installed air monitors near Murphy and another nearby drill site. They found that the closer to the site people lived, the more likely they were to have reduced lung function.
“The amount of reduction we see is similar to what you would experience from living with a smoker,” Johnston said.
E&B disputes the findings, arguing that it did not measure "actual site emissions or exposure and cannot establish causation."
In another study, the researchers partnered with the community to collect hundreds of toenail clippings to measure toxic metals associated with oil drilling. They compared them to clippings from people not near drill sites.
“The closer you live to an oil drilling site, the more production it has, the more nickel and manganese that you have in your body,” Johnson said, explaining the study’s findings at a recent town hall ahead of the Thursday hearing.
Signs in various languages warn of the potential for dangerous gas at the Murphy drill site.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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The Murphy drill site is in a neighborhood with a convent, homes and schools.
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Isabel Avila
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How to shut down a drill site
The organizing paid off. In 2023, the community won a hearing from the city to consider adding new regulations to protect public health. Those new rules would extend protections currently in use in wealthier, whiter parts of L.A. They included enclosing the site and using electric equipment instead of diesel where possible. E&B’s permit also limits operations to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
But after an appeal from E&B, the city rolled many requirements back. For example, the site no longer is required to use electric equipment — E&B recently started burning more gas for electricity on site.
The site is also still not enclosed, despite the three-year-old mandate from the city. Neighbors say they have on multiple occasions seen, heard or smelled operations outside of the allowed hours.
“ They know the rules, but they choose not to follow them,” Parks said.
In a statement to LAist, a spokesperson for E&B said the enclosing of the site has been delayed due to complex permitting requirements from the city and that the company “is awaiting action by the city on the necessary approvals.”
In recent years, under E&B’s purview, the Murphy site has logged dozens of violations from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the state and the L.A. Fire Department, according to public records obtained by Redeemer Community Partnership and shared with LAist, as well as publicly available data.
Since 2019, some of the most concerning violations have been for at least four methane leaks greater than 50,000 parts per million — the explosive level of the gas. In January last year, an inspector identified a leak at 209,000 parts per million, four times that limit.
Outside of L.A., the state recently fined the company more than $1 million for violations at a site in Bakersfield, which the company has appealed.
Now, the city is considering revoking E&B’s permit to operate the site. City Councilmember Heather Hutt, who represents the area, called for a hearing after being presented with the evidence from local residents.
“The city and the community’s attempts to regulate and mitigate this site over the decades has failed,” Hutt wrote in a letter to the city’s zoning administrator ahead of the Thursday hearing. “I am calling for the zoning administrator to revoke this use and continue to reset the balance between community needs and corporate laxity in urban Los Angeles.”
Neighbors of the Murphy drill site have been fighting to get it shut down for years. They held a town hall July 18.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Signs and slogans were common at the July 18 town hall. Others read "Save South L.A." and "End neighborhood drilling."
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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What’s next
During the city’s hearing to consider revoking E&B’s permit the zoning administrator will hear testimony from residents, who can sign up and submit their comments during the meeting or ahead of time. Meanwhile, E&B plans to present its rebuttal to city staff’s latest report on compliance at the site and other concerns.
At the town hall, Parks discussed another drill site, a little over a mile away, called the Jefferson site.
He and other local residents successfully campaigned to get that site shut down, too. The oil company that owned the property eventually decided to sell instead of facing litigation and the cost of carrying out practices to better protect public health. In 2023, Parks and his group secured grants to purchase the property, where they plan to build a park and permanently affordable housing.
“Bit by bit, an amazing transformation is taking place,” Parks said at the recent town hall. “We are receiving beauty for ashes. … If we show up and we share our stories, if we call for environmental justice, if we call for care for our common home, we are well-positioned to build something beautiful and enduring for our community.”
Catalina and Genaro Molina at home.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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After the town hall, Catalina and Genaro Ventura returned home and sat outside on their porch. They said they hope this is a turning point to better protect future generations.
“I hope the city becomes aware and does something for the people, for the animals, for the children, for the elderly. For everyone, for everyone,” Catalina Ventura said in a Spanish.
[“Y pues que la ciudad tome conciencia y haga algo por la gente, por los animales, por los niños, por los ancianos. Por todos, por todos."]
