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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LAist
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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.”
California community college districts are spending millions of dollars on artificial intelligence-powered chatbots intended to help students navigate admissions, financial aid and campus services. However, they struggle to consistently provide clear and accurate answers, leaving students frustrated and seeking help from others on unofficial social media channels.
Pricey contracts: Three community college districts that responded to a CalMatters survey reported annual costs ranging from about $151,000 to nearly half a million dollars. At the Los Angeles Community College District, the state's largest community college system, contracts and amendments approved since 2021 total about $3.8 million through 2029, according to district board documents.
Chatbot testing: Some of these chatbot platforms rely on manually maintained libraries of frequently asked questions and campus websites to answer questions, which can lead to errors when information is outdated or questions fall outside the system's database. In testing by CalMatters, they often answered general questions correctly but struggled with more specific ones. East Los Angeles College's bot couldn't even correctly name its own president.
Read on . . . for more on chatbot issues at East Los Angeles College, Santa Monica College, and the Los Angeles Community College District.
California community college districts are spending millions of dollars on artificial intelligence-powered chatbots intended to help students navigate admissions, financial aid and campus services.
However, they struggle to consistently provide clear and accurate answers, leaving students frustrated and seeking help from others on unofficial social media channels.
In testing by CalMatters, they often answered general questions correctly but struggled with more specific ones. East Los Angeles College's bot couldn't even correctly name its own president.
Contracts for these chatbots can be pricey and last for years. Three community college districts that responded to a CalMatters survey reported annual costs ranging from about $151,000 to nearly half a million dollars. At the Los Angeles Community College District, the state's largest community college system, contracts and amendments approved since 2021 total about $3.8 million through 2029, according to district board documents.
Community college districts that responded to CalMatters have contracted with chatbot platforms such as Gravyty and Gecko, which district officials say handle thousands of conversations each month, many outside regular office hours, helping to reduce calls and save students unnecessary trips to campus.
Some of these chatbot platforms rely on manually maintained libraries of frequently asked questions and campus websites to answer questions, which can lead to errors when information is outdated or questions fall outside the system's database.
However, officials are working to improve them. Districts like the Santa Monica Community College District have moved to ChatGPT-integrated AI systems that scrape the college's website to generate answers, which officials say seem more reliable. In the Los Angeles district, officials say they plan to transition to a new AI chatbot platform as early as late spring.
Looking for answers
Improvements to the chatbot couldn't come soon enough for students like Pablo Aguirre, a computer science major at East Los Angeles College and an information technology intern at the Los Angeles college district office.
Aguirre mostly avoids the chatbot himself because, he said, it might provide unreliable or outdated information. He recalled using the bot to find financial aid information, but said he gave up after it kept asking him questions instead of giving him a clear answer.
"I just didn't find it as useful," Aguirre said. He usually turns to Google, social media platforms like Reddit and the college's website when looking for answers.
"Online, some pages don't work," Aguirre said, recalling a 404 error message on the college's website. Even when pages load, he said, it can be difficult to find the right one, such as when he was trying to figure out where to sign up for Extended Opportunity Programs and Services, a state-funded program that supports disadvantaged students. "That's where I just jump on Reddit," he said.
Students walk through the Fresno State campus on Feb. 9, 2022.
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Larry Valenzuela
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CalMatters
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Aguirre's experience isn't unique. Reanna Carlson, a commercial music major at Fresno City College and student government vice president, said her college's chatbot, dubbed Sam the Ram after its mascot, repeatedly gave her unclear or incorrect answers to basic questions about campus services. Her district, the State Center Community College District, has a nearly $870,000, three-year contract for Gravyty, formerly Ocelot, through June 20, 2026, according to district board documents. Officials pointed out that the contract comes with other services, including tools that let staff engage in live chats or send text messages to students.
"I think the chatbot is outdated and can't navigate the services we provide on campus effectively," Carlson said. "I don't think it's the most beneficial option when it comes to asking questions."
Oddly, Carlson got accurate information on the availability of free food at her campus' Ram Pantry only when accidentally adding a typo to her query. Repeated CalMatters testing confirmed the same outcome, though the bot sometimes lists links that include the food pantry after clicking an adjacent "sources" button.
"If it weren't for the amazing staff on campus that constantly remind students of our services, I'd be lost," Carlson said.
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Screenshots via Fresno City College website
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Testing chatbots
When CalMatters tested community college chatbots, they generally returned quick, accurate responses to common questions but were less consistent with more specific ones.
For example, when asked, "Who is the current president of ELAC?" East Los Angeles College's chatbot incorrectly named Alberto Román, who left the position last year to become the district's chancellor. In another test, when asked, "What is the financial aid office's current schedule?" the bot provided incorrect hours and dates.
East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park on March 14, 2024. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters
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Jules Hotz
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CalMatters
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East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park on March 14, 2024. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters East Los Angeles College's chatbot claims to support several languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. But CalMatters found inconsistencies when asking it in Spanish, "Do I need a Social Security number to enroll?" Instead of answering the question, the system directed users to visit the registrar's office to update their Social Security number. When asked the same question in English, the bot pivoted to discussing financial aid.
Fresno City College's chatbot, powered by the same AI provider as East Los Angeles College's system, Gravyty, showed similar problems when asked whether a Social Security number is required to enroll. It also often failed to direct students to the correct offices and, in some cases, listed incorrect locations and hours.
Concerns with chatbots have surfaced elsewhere. In New York City, reporting by The Markup and THE CITY found that a city-run AI chatbot provided guidance that could lead to illegal behavior, prompting Mayor Zohran Mamdani to terminate it in February.
'Good answers with fewer errors'
Santa Monica College's chatbot, powered by Gecko, was more successful in answering most questions. The single-college district uses a ChatGPT-integrated chatbot that scans the college's website, which staff regularly update and monitor. The district has contracted with Gecko since 2019 and renewed its annual contract for the tool late last year for $57,000, according to district board documents. It initially showed a major hiccup: when asked about mental health counseling, the bot did not mention the campus' Center for Wellness and Wellbeing. It does now.
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Screenshots via Santa Monica College website
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District officials say chatbots' problems stem from how the tools are configured and the information they draw from, rather than the technology itself.
The Los Angeles district originally adopted its chatbot through Ocelot, which later merged with Gravyty The same chatbot platform is also used on the California Student Aid Commission website.
Betsy Regalado, one of the district's associate vice chancellors, said the current system relies on a manually maintained library of frequently asked questions that staff at each of the district's nine colleges help maintain and review at least once or twice a year for accuracy. She added that chatbots are primarily geared for the public rather than enrolled students, who can access more detailed personal information through their campus portal.
"The current chatbot that we have uses a library of questions. If you don't have that question in that library, then those poor people don't get an answer or they won't get an accurate answer," Regalado said.
She said the district plans to transition all nine colleges to Gravyty's platform as early as late spring at no additional cost under its existing contract, which runs through 2029. The new system will use AI to scrape college and external websites to generate responses.
"We're ready for the modernization of (the chatbot) and the change to generative AI. That is the new world out there," Regalado said.
Santa Monica College is one of 116 campuses in the California community college system.
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Courtesy Santa Monica College
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Santa Monica College's chatbot similarly initially relied on a manually loaded library of common questions and answers before transitioning to its fully AI system, according to Esau Tovar, the college's dean of enrollment services. In an email, he said the bot "was never designed to address all aspects of the student journey," but to answer general questions from students.
Tovar said the bot draws responses from the college's website, meaning accuracy depends on how current and complete that information is. As a result, the college prioritizes keeping its website up to date so the bot provides "good answers with fewer errors" rather than "great answers with potentially more errors."
Widely used, cautiously trusted
Acknowledging limitations, community college districts justify the costs by pointing to heavy student use, which would cost significantly more if performed by call center staff around the clock.
Regalado said the Los Angeles district colleges average 5,000 to 7,000 interactions per month. Other districts reported similar monthly use, including 5,000 interactions at the State Center Community College District, which includes campuses in Fresno and nearby counties, and 4,000 conversations at Santa Monica College. Regalado said that as long as the chatbot remains heavily used, her district would continue to support it.
Tovar said the chatbot provides 24-hour support regardless of time zone or location, which he said is helpful for international students when they are out of the country. He said that answering the tens of thousands of questions the chatbots receive around the clock would cost significantly more if handled by staff.
"Every technology has a cost. We would simply not be able to assist all students if they could only reach us using traditional methods," Tovar said.
But high usage and expanded access do not always translate into trust, especially when students need precise answers to delicate topics.
Bryan Hartanto, a civil engineering major at Santa Monica College from Indonesia, said the college's newer chatbot system is smoother and can be a useful starting point, especially for students more comfortable communicating in languages other than English. But as an international student he worries that following inaccurate guidance could jeopardize his visa status.
"Maintaining status as an international student right now is very, very sensitive," Hartanto said. "I would still rely on human or email communication."
Martin Romero 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.
Frank Stoltze
is a veteran reporter who covers local politics and examines how democracy is and, at times, is not working.
Published March 6, 2026 4:52 PM
LAPD officers stand guard outside City Hall following a dispersal order after a day of mostly peaceful protests June 14, 2025.
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Mario Tama
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Getty Images
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Topline:
A city of Los Angeles commission on Thursday recommended increasing the power of the City Council over the Police Department, a shift supporters said would make the agency more accountable to the people.
The backstory: Right now, the council has no direct authority over the LAPD. Instead, a five-member Police Commission appointed by the mayor oversees the department.
Frustrations: The structure has sometimes frustrated members of the City Council who want to weigh in on police policy — especially amid what some see as the department’s heavy handed approach to protestors.
The proposal: Under the proposal, any police-related ordinance enacted by the council would be reviewed by the Police Commission. The panel would have the option of vetoing it within 60 days. After that, if the commission takes no action, the ordinance would become law.
A city of Los Angeles commission on Thursday recommended increasing the power of the City Council over the police department, a shift supporters said would make the agency more accountable to the people.
Right now, the council has no direct authority over the LAPD. Instead, a five-member Police Commission appointed by the mayor oversees the department.
The structure has sometimes frustrated members of the City Council who want to weigh in on police policy — especially amid what some see as the department’s heavy-handed approach to protestors.
Under the proposal, any police-related ordinance enacted by the council would be reviewed by the Police Commission. The panel would have the option of vetoing it within 60 days. After that, if the commission takes no action, the ordinance would become law.
The Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission voted down stronger language that would have given the council more direct control over police policy.
Community activists hailed the recommendations.
“Months ago, police reform wasn’t even on the Charter Commission’s to-do list,” Godfrey Plata of LA Forward said in a statement. “Today, because community members came together to force conversations that likely never would have happened on their own, we have multiple reforms headed to City Council. That’s a huge victory.”
The recommendation goes to the City Council, which will decide whether to place it on the November ballot, along with a series of other recommended charter changes.
Criticism of police commission
The recommendation comes amid growing frustration over the rising liability costs caused by police misconduct and a sense the Police Commission has done too little to reform the department.
“The police commission is borderline useless,” Baba Akili of Black Lives Matter told the Charter Commission during public testimony.
In addition, the charter reform panel recommended strengthening the role of the council to terminate officers involved in misconduct. Right now, the City Council has no such role. Under the recommendation, the council would be able to override a decision by the police chief and civilian Board of Rights panel if they decide to retain an officer accused of wrongdoing.
The commission also voted to recommend the police department be required to buy $1 million worth of liability insurance for each officer to be paid out if there is a legal settlement or judgment when an officer engages in misconduct. The cost would not be able to exceed $20 per officer.
Commissioners said skyrocketing judgments and settlements connected to police misconduct necessitated the creation of an insurance program.
Other recommendations
Previously, the Charter Reform Commission recommended increasing the size of the City Council from 15 to 25 members, shifting to a ranked-choice voting system and lowering the voting age to 16 in city and school board elections.
Each of those recommendations would need to be approved by the City Council before it can appear on the ballot.
The commission was born out of calls for reform in the wake of the 2022 City Hall tapes scandal. Three members of the City Council and a labor leader were caught on audio tape making racist and disparaging remarks during a discussion of how to retain power through political redistricting.
City Council President Nury Martinez and the labor leader, L.A. County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, resigned their positions.
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LA28, the committee behind the upcoming Summer Games and Paralympics in Los Angeles, made recent headlines after supporting and defending their chair, Casey Wasserman, whose name appeared in the ongoing Epstein files released last month. Who sits on the LA28 planning committee?
Exponential influence: The official LA28 website only lists the names of the 35-member committee, failing to provide any additional information on their external position, affiliation, or background. Despite the limited information that the board provides about its members, the influence they hold is exponential. Overall, they are in charge of the successful execution of the 2028 games through things like ensuring the games remain on budget, managing environmental sustainability and venues and securing corporate partnerships with companies such as Starbucks, Delta, Google, and Comcast.
Who sits on the committee: Among the committee members who continue to defend Wasserman are local business, sports, and political leaders. They include Pete Rodriguez, a labor union leader, Jessica Alba, actress and founder of the Honest Company, Reince Priebus President Donald Trump's Trump’s former chief of staff, and Jeffrey Katzenberg former chairman of Walt Disney Studio and DreamWorks Animation.
The 35-member committee, which seems to be the only entity that could remove and unseat Wasserman, said that after they reviewed his documented interactions with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, they did not go “beyond what has already been publicly documented.”
"The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that, based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful games,” the committee said in a statement.
Despite the limited information that the board provides about its members, the influence they hold is exponential. Overall, they are in charge of the successful execution of the 2028 games through things like ensuring the games remain on budget, managing environmental sustainability and venues and securing corporate partnerships with companies such as Starbucks, Delta, Google, and Comcast.
Among the committee members who continue to defend Wasserman are local business, sports, and political leaders, including the following:
Latinos
Beatriz Acevedo
Beatriz Acevedo is a Latina entrepreneur, co-founder and president of Mitú, or we are Mitú, a digital news and culture source for Latinos. Acevedo, who was born in Tijuana and raised in Mexico City, also co-founded SUMA Wealth, a financial wellness company and app that is said to help Latinos with tips about financial literacy and wealth-building tools.
The app uses AI “financial coaches” that help subscribers with budgeting, investing and receive personalized financial coaching.
“Your financial future can shine brighter than your abuela's saints' candles with our unlimited money-making tips, deals, and financial tools,” the official website states.
Acevedo is also the president of her family’s foundation, the Acevedo Foundation, which, according to its website, is committed to creating more equitable access to capital and mentorship for Latino entrepreneurs to elevate the community's needs and build generational wealth. She is also a member of the Latino Community Foundation.
Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba is known for acting roles in movies like “Fantastic Four” and “Good Luck Chuck,” among others. She is also the founder of the Honest Company, an L.A.-based consumer goods company specializing in baby, beauty and personal care items, including diapers and wipes, utilizing non-toxic, plant-based ingredients.
In 2015, numerous lawsuits claimed the company had deceptive labeling of ingredients, specifically sodium lauryl sulfate in laundry detergent.
José E. Feliciano is a Puerto Rican-born American businessman, investor and multi-billionaire.
He is the co-founder of investment firm Clearlake Capital, a private investment firm in the technology, industrial and consumer sectors, managing over $90 billion of assets. The company is the majority owner of Chelsea Football Club, having acquired the team in May 2022.
Pete Rodriguez is a labor union leader and member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, one of North America's largest building-trades unions, representing over 500,000 members in the construction and wood-products industries.
Besides joining the union in 1996, when he was doing highway and bridge work, there is not much public information about him. His father was an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. undocumented and worked as a union laborer as well.
Members Tied to President Donald Trump
Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives from January to October 2023. The Republican from Bakersfield, California, concluded his 16-year career after he was the first Speaker of the House in U.S. history to be formally removed from the position. McCarthy was initially a supporter of Trump until he stated Trump “bears responsibility” for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a statement that he later retracted and once again became a vocal supporter of Trump's return to power.
Reince Priebus
Reince Priebus served as Trump’s chief of staff for the first six months of his first term. He was removed as White House chief of staff in July 2017 after being blamed for poor performance and leaking of documents. He also serves as a political analyst for Fox News, appearing across their platforms and news segments.
Diane Hendricks
Billionaire Diane Hendricks, considered to be the wealthiest person in Wisconsin, has been a Trump mega-donor for years. Hendricks, who has openly said to be anti-union, faced controversy in the past for paying zero state income taxes in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014, although it was classified as legal due to business tax classifications. She has previously said to have built the majority of her multi-billion-dollar fortune through ABC Supply, one of the largest roofing supply companies in the U.S. Before that, she worked as a Playboy Bunny for about a year as a teenager, a job she said she took to support her child and pay her bills.
Jeffrey Katzenberg served as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994 and later as the chief executive officer and founder of DreamWorks Animation. For decades, he has been a top Democratic Party fundraiser, involved with campaigns for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and was a co-chair for Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign.
Contrary to popular belief, the majority of the board is not made up of former Paralympic athletes; instead, the majority of its members are billionaires and prominent political and business figures.
CNN reported last week that, according to their sources, the U.S. and International Olympic committees, which oversee and approve major LA28 decisions, have been engaged in backchannel conversations about Wasserman’s role, with a potential replacement floating around.
Homeless outreach workers are now roaming daily across the Eastside, including Boyle Heights, to provide hygiene kits and tents and connect unhoused residents to temporary housing.
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Andrew Lopez
)
Topline:
Homeless outreach workers are now roaming daily across the Eastside to provide hygiene kits and tents and connect unhoused residents to temporary housing. The effort is part of a new year-long program launched last Thursday by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, which works in partnership with Urban Alchemy, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides services to unhoused people.
Program details: The team is made up of three people, which includes two on-the-ground outreach practitioners and a third person directing their operations. Workers will exclusively offer daily outreach to CD 14 neighborhoods, which include El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, Highland Park and downtown Los Angeles. The program — Leading Outreach with Valued Engagement, or LOVE — will be in effect through March 2027.
Services offered: Outreach workers are tasked with providing crisis intervention and de-escalation, assessing individual needs and connecting people to interim housing referrals. They will also distribute food and Narcan, as well as offer “post-placement follow-up to help people remain housed.”
Homeless outreach workers are now roaming daily across the Eastside, including Boyle Heights, to provide hygiene kits and tents and connect unhoused residents to temporary housing.
The effort is part of a new year-long program launched last Thursday by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, which works in partnership with Urban Alchemy, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides services to unhoused people.
The program — Leading Outreach with Valued Engagement, or LOVE — will be in effect through March 2027. The program costs $300,000 and is funded through Jurado’s discretionary funds. The team is made up of three people, which includes two on-the-ground outreach practitioners and a third person directing their operations.
Boyle Heights has seen a recent rise in homeless encampment reports. In the first quarter of 2025, 635 encampments were reported in Boyle Heights, compared with 379 during the same period in 2024, according to an analysis by The Eastsider.
Homeless encampments were also a source of discussion at January’s Community Police Advisory Board hosted by the Hollenbeck Community Police Station.
Attendees expressed frustration about unhoused people living in an alley behind the Benjamin Franklin Library and a growing encampment near Hollenbeck Drive and South Boyle Avenue, according to a summary of the meeting.
Encampments move from one place to another, said Susana Betancourt, a member of the Community Police Advisory Board. Betancourt talked about pressuring property owners to clean up. “They not only have tents, the encampments there, but they put their vehicles,” she said.
Jurado, in a statement to Boyle Heights Beat, said her office works with service providers “to respond to encampments thoughtfully.”
“We coordinate every two weeks to prioritize areas of greatest need, making sure neighbors get consistent support and that unhoused residents are connected to housing, health care, and other services,” she said.
Jurado touts the new program as giving unhoused residents better access to “life-saving health care, stable housing, [and] pathways to recovery.” The LOVE program, Jurado said, will help “reach neighbors before situations become emergencies.”
“Addressing homelessness isn’t one-size-fits-all. I invested in the LOVE Team because every person’s needs are different,” Jurado said. “The team is out in the community every day, visiting every neighborhood in the district each week, building trust, and connecting neighbors to housing, health care, and support services that help them regain stability.”
Outreach workers are tasked with providing crisis intervention and de-escalation, assessing individual needs and connecting people to interim housing referrals. They will also distribute food and Narcan, as well as offer “post-placement follow-up to help people remain housed.”
Jurado said workers will exclusively offer daily outreach to CD 14 neighborhoods, which include El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, Highland Park and downtown Los Angeles.
Mason Santa Maria, a spokesperson for Jurado, said outreach workers have already identified unhoused residents who are not yet logged into the Homeless Management Information System, an online database tracking services accessed by people who are unhoused or at risk of homelessness.
“It’s hard to keep track of people when they don’t have a stable address,” Santa Maria said. “This is a way to keep track of them.”
