The Brief

The great movie palaces of downtown Los Angeles are largely closed to the public, open only for events and the occasional tour. But starting this weekend, they’re opening their doors for a few special film screenings, thanks to the LA Conservancy.

The nonprofit works to protect and preserve L.A. cultural and historical sites, and for over 30 years, the program has been shining a light on some of the great, but forgotten, movie palaces of Los Angeles. Its film series, Last Remaining Seats, started in 1987 and resumes June 1 for two weeks.

A crowd watches "Rebecca" at the Orpheum Theater.

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Mike Hume

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Sarah Lann, the conservancy’s director of education, shares that the LRS program was born out of an effort to reactivate downtown L.A. as buildings were shuttering in the 1970s and '80s. And that included trying to shine a spotlight on the “incredible movie palaces that line Broadway.”

While the program rotates theaters and has screened all across L.A., including in the United Artists Theater, the Wiltern, and the Fox in Westwood, this year’s screenings will take place at three DTLA icons: the Palace, the Orpheum, and the Los Angeles Theatre. Let’s take a look at the history of these spaces before folks step back in time this weekend.

The Palace

Lann describes the Palace as “a jewel box of a theater on Broadway.” At about 1,000 seats, this theater is half the size of the Orpheum and the Los Angeles Theatre, but still magnitudes larger than most movie theaters.

Looking down at the ornate theater of the Palace.

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Mike Hume

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The theater predates the film industry. It was built in 1911 as a vaudeville house, and is the oldest theater on Broadway. “It’s like walking into a Faberge egg,” says Lann. Since it was originally built for live performances, there’s “an intimacy that you don’t see in some of the other theaters,” Lann describes, almost as if someone could jump on stage at any moment. And like any movie palace, it’s lavish, with “all the bells and whistles that you would expect — murals and curlicues and all the rest.”

The Orpheum

“The big sister to the Palace,” says Lann, the Orpheum was built in 1926 as the final home of the Orpheum Vaudeville circuit. In 1928, a Wurlizter organ was installed, which will be heavily featured in a screening this weekend. Lann says, “when you see something like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” a film from the 1920s, “with a live accompanist on the Wurlitzer organ and the lights go down and those first chords strike up and you're surrounded by just this unbelievable opulence,” there’s nothing that can quite compare.

The interior of the Orpheum Theater.

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Mike Hume

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And while you may not have attended a film, concert, or improv show at the Orpheum, you’ve probably seen it on screen. The theater’s been featured in everything from Taylor Swift music videos to episodes of Murder, She Wrote to films like Dreamgirls and Whiplash. 

A line outside the Orpheum Theater.

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Mike Hume

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The Los Angeles Theatre

Built in 1931, The Los Angeles Theatre was the last great movie palace on Broadway. But it opened during the height of the Depression, “and it failed almost as quickly as it was built,” Lann says.

The theater opened with the Charlie Chaplin film City Lights — Chaplin was an investor, and attended the premiere with guest of honor, Albert Einstein.

A line of people wait to enter the Los Angeles Theatre in January 1931 for the Charlie Chaplin film, "City Lights."

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Los Angeles Public Library Legacy Collection

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“There's a photo of them in the front lobby when you first walk in,” Lann says, before adding, “it's like all the theaters on steroids in a lot of ways.” Modeled in part after Versailles by architect S. Charles Lee, Lann starts to talk about the gold, the chandeliers, and the motifs in the building before saying “it’s more lavish than I can describe.”

So while “it's certainly not uncommon to be able to go see a classic film in a cool space across L.A.,” it is a distinct experience to catch a film in such opulent, historic spaces. “Suddenly there's this richer, more layered context that wasn't there before,” says Lann, “and it really does feel like you've stepped back in time for a moment.”

The grand, Versailles inspired interior of the Los Angeles Theatre.

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Mike Hume

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The films

And there is, of course, a great lineup of movies. Chosen by a volunteer committee of film lovers who have been routinely meeting since last September, Lann says the slate is “as strong as it can be.”

Conversations begin with questions about what might make a film relevant, and this year, the series is screening The Seven Year Itch on opening night. That’s June 1, celebrating Marilyn Monroe’s birthday, and according to Lann, hopefully bringing awareness to the current threat against Monroe’s historic residence.

Other screenings include Bullit, Gaslight, From Russia With Love, and Mi Vida Loca. “Mi Vida Loca will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year,” says Lann, describing it as “such a Los Angeles film.” The director, Allison Anders, and some of the cast will be at the screening to discuss the movie, a film about “homegirls” surviving gang life in Echo Park. LRS has partnered with a lowrider club to cruise Broadway as cars from the film will be stationed outside the Palace.

An opulent experience

What Lann loves most about sharing these theaters with audiences is that “people … don't always understand that at one point in time, public spaces were … incredible places that anybody could go to.” Moviegoing is a casual pastime now, but once, for a few cents you could be “surrounded by this really extreme beauty and this extremely detailed architecture … that I don't think we ever expect anymore from our public spaces,” says Lann.

The lobby of the Los Angeles Theatre swarms with patrons at a Last Remaining Seats screening.

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Mike Hume

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Lann hopes that the Last Remaining Seats program reminds people that that existed in Los Angeles, even if today “they're a little bit like best kept secrets, and when people get to kind of share in that secret, I think that's really cool.”

Getting involved

Lann says, “we're always looking for good people who want to share their love of historic spaces and classic film.”

You can get involved with either Los Angeles Conservancy as a whole or the Last Remaining Seats film committee. Check out their website here for information on membership and volunteering.

A coalition that organized an independent homeless count in Hollywood found the neighborhood’s unsheltered population has remained flat over the past 18 months, despite ongoing city-led efforts to move people inside.

A RAND Corporation report released last week found Hollywood’s unsheltered homeless population stayed mostly unchanged throughout 2025, as reductions in tent encampments were offset by large increases in vehicle-dwellers and so-called “rough sleepers,” people living on the streets without even a makeshift roof over their heads.

Findings released Wednesday by Hollywood 4WRD, a public-private coalition, show that trend continued in Hollywood over the past four months. But the group also found in May that more people were living in tents and fewer in cars than RAND had observed in January, a surprising reversal of the recent overall trend.

“ It's not something we expected to find,” said Brittney Weissman, Hollywood 4WRD’s executive director. “The headline has been that there are no tents and no encampments left in Hollywood, but that’s not the case right now. So, we’ll have to see where this goes.”

About 745 people were camping in Hollywood and East Hollywood on May 19, according to the count. About 19% slept in tents or makeshift lean-tos. An estimated 35% slept in cars, vans or RVs. Meanwhile, 45% were rough sleepers camped directly on sidewalks and streets.

Organizers say understanding and tracking those breakdowns over time helps make sure the right services are directed to the right people and develop new outreach strategies for people falling through the cracks.

“ We can really only meet the moment if we know who's there and we adapt to the need,” Weissman said.

The count covered 29 census tracts and relied on volunteers from local homeless service provider organizations. They followed methods developed by RAND researchers, who also verified Hollywood 4WRD’s findings.

Terry Boyd, left, repairs a bicycle rim in his tent at an encampment along Hollywood Blvd. and Gower Street on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024

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Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times

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Getty Images

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Timely data

Official homeless counts from the region’s lead homelessness agency, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, occur once a year. The latest official estimates are based on 14-month-old data. The results from this January’s official count are expected sometime this summer.

Service providers said they want more frequent and precise data.

“ It feels good to have the data immediately and figure out what we need to do,” said Arnali Ray, executive director of the Hollywood Food Coalition who volunteered for last week’s count.

Service providers in Hollywood have relied on data from The RAND Housing Center, which led bimonthly counts of the neighborhood, along with Venice and Skid Row, since 2021. That project, the Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey, or LA LEADS, conducted its final unsheltered counts this January and released its results last week.

RAND is looking for funding to restart the project, researchers said. In the meantime, the researchers said they hope community efforts like Hollywood 4WRD’s can help fill the void.

“You need to understand the homeless population to end homelessness,” said Louis Abramson, lead author of RAND’s LA LEADS study who consulted on Hollywood’s count. “As RAND's marquee project in this field ends, the best thing we as researchers could do was give the community the tools to gain this understanding in perpetuity for themselves.”

In 2022 and 2023, RAND’s LA LEADS estimates were in line with LAHSA’s official point-in-time tallies. But RAND found LAHSA increasingly undercounted the unsheltered population in both 2024 and 2025.

That has increased demand for independent data-gathering among service providers and public officials.

Hollywood 4WRD said it aims to complement, not replace, official data.

“Our annual count sometimes misses people,” said Weissman. “ We can really only meet the moment if we know who's there and we adapt to the need.”

Hollywood 4WRD deployed its count of 29 Hollywood and East Hollywood census tracts from the Hollywood Partnership's pit stop building on Hollywood Boulevard.

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Aaron Schrank

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LAist

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Building on RAND’s work 

Official estimates from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority showed a nearly 18% citywide reduction in unsheltered homelessness between 2023 and 2025, along with small declines in overall homelessness.

RAND’s previous surveys found declines in overall street homelessness in Hollywood throughout 2024, led by reductions in tent-encampments through programs like Inside Safe. Tent dwelling dropped by nearly half between late 2021 and January 2026 within RAND’s LA LEADS study area, including a 23% drop in 2025 alone. But those reductions were mostly offset by an increase in rough sleepers and vehicle dwellers.

RAND’s survey data suggested tent removal could be contributing to the rise in rough sleeping. About half of rough sleepers surveyed reported losing a dwelling within the past year, and 46% of those said it was confiscated or towed by government officials.

Vehicle dwellers are, on average, more likely to have jobs than people living in tents, researchers said. Rough sleepers are harder for outreach workers to engage and have greater health needs.

Hollywood 4WRD said its findings might encourage some providers to advocate for more safe camping and safe parking programs in Hollywood.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

As concerns linger after last week’s East L.A. oil spill, qualifying Eastside residents can still apply for free in-home air purifiers provided by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. 

The residential air filtration program is open to residents of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Eastern Coachella Valley and parts of Commerce. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Read more: Live near the East LA oil spill? What you need to know about your health and safety

Parents, teachers and environmental advocates have raised concerns about possible health risks after crews punctured an underground pipeline, spilling more than 2,000 gallons of crude oil onto East L.A. streets and into storm drains. Some students and teachers on Friday complained about strong odors, with some reporting feeling nauseous or dizzy.

East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice warned about potential respiratory exposure to nearby residents. “The oil releases volatile organic compounds,” said mark! Lopez with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “Benzene is of particular interest because it’s so hazardous. When people breathe it in, that exposure is happening.”

The air filtration program, which predates the spill, aims to reduce residential exposure to particulate matter (PM), defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets in the air so small they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems, in neighborhoods disproportionately affected by air pollution. 

Funding for the units comes from Assembly Bill 617 (AB 617), a state law passed in 2017 aimed at addressing environmental justice concerns in such neighborhoods.

The neighborhoods of East L.A., Boyle Heights and Commerce are impacted by rail yards, freight and freeway activities, as well as industrial activities at refining, rendering and processing facilities in the area, according to the California Air Resources Board.

How to apply

To qualify, applicants must submit the first page of a utility bill or property tax statement to verify residence in one of the four target areas. Specific boundaries for these areas for program eligibility are available here.

Interested applicants can find more information on the program and apply online here.  

The following is a South Coast AQMD guide on how to apply:

The Los Angeles City Council’s recently approved budget includes funding to expand a program that diverts police from some mental health crisis calls to 911.

Since launching in 2024, trained clinicians with the city’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response (UMCR) have handled over 20,000 calls ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. About 96% of those calls were resolved without police or a response from the L.A. Fire Department.

The new city budget includes funding to expand those teams from nine police divisions — including Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West L.A., Olympic and West Valley — to a total of 15.

“In a year where many programs continue to fight for service funding from the city, it’s so great that we are able to continue prioritizing this,” Godfrey Plata, deputy director of progressive policy advocacy group the LA Forward Institute, told LAist.

Plata said UMCR’s expansion is one more step toward taking the program citywide, which his group hopes to do by the 2028 Olympics.

The crisis teams are slated to go online within the six additional police divisions by June 2027. It’s not yet clear which police divisions will be selected for expansion.

The move comes after the City Council voted unanimously in February to make the pilot program permanent.

A 2024 LAist investigation found that nearly one-third of LAPD shootings since 2017 involved someone living with a mental illness and/or experiencing a mental health crisis.

How the program works

In 2024, the city partnered with three nonprofit organizations — Exodus Recovery, Alcott Center and Penny Lane Centers — to provide teams of trained clinicians in service areas spread across L.A. The teams are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the Police Department’s Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West L.A., Olympic and West Valley divisions.

Crisis response workers are trained in de-escalation techniques, mental health, substance use, conflict resolution and more, according to a report from the Office of City Administrative Officer. The teams don’t have the authority to order psychiatric holds for people in crisis, but they can work with them to find help locally, and spend more time on follow up than law enforcement can.

In its first year, Los Angeles’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response sent teams of unarmed clinicians to more than 6,700 calls for service, ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. About 4% were redirected to the LAPD. Average response times have been under 30 minutes.

Examples of these interactions include members of the teams taking food to a woman who was crying and hungry, working with a business owner to engage with someone sleeping in a parking lot and sitting with a family for nearly three hours to help resolve a conflict involving a relative.

Support from LAFD

During an L.A. City budget hearing last month, fire officials expressed support for the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response.

The department said it’s worked with the teams of clinicians to divert calls for service away from fire first responders since September 2025. The department saw 144 calls diverted to UMCR in the month of March alone.

“We’ve found them to be an incredible asset and ally to addressing some of the issues in the field,” LAFD Chief Jaime Moore told council members at the hearing. “The recommendation would be to expand the program, get it into more police divisions which would then get it into more of our battalions and our bureaus."

What’s next 

City officials have expressed support for expanding UMCR citywide by the 2028 Olympics.

With the plan to expand to 15 police divisions by June 2027, UMCR would need to expand into another six divisions to meet that goal.