The Brief

The Last Repair Shop took home the Oscar Sunday for Best Documentary (Short). The film puts the spotlight on those technicians who regularly repair more than 130,000 instruments for L.A. public school students for free — work that has been taking place in a downtown L.A. warehouse since 1959.

In his speech, co-director Kris Bowers noted that the film is about "the heroes in our schools who often go unsung, unthanked and unseen" and pointed to the upper balconies of the audience where those technicians were seated and said, "Tonight, you are sung, you are thanked, you are seen."

He called out John Williams as his inspiration, who, he noted, went to L.A. public schools just as he did. He also introduced 12-year-old Porché Brinker, an LAUSD student and a violinist who appeared in the film and shared the stage with Bowers and his co-director Ben Proudfoot as they accepted the Academy Award.

"She’s playing violin in L.A. public schools. She looks amazing tonight," Bowers noted.

Bowers went on to say that “L.A. is one of the last cities in America to give public school students free and freely prepared instruments. We need to fix that because music education isn’t just about creating incredible musicians. It’s about creating incredible humans.”

Learning music through LAUSD

Bowers, a musician and award-winning film composer, grew up playing piano through Los Angeles Unified’s music program. But it was only a few years ago that he learned about the people who cared for the instruments that brought him — and so many other students — joy and emotional support over the years.

A full circle moment

An instrument technician is highlighted in the short documentary "The Last Repair Shop."

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Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

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For Bowers, making the film was a full circle moment. He was able to meet and highlight the work of Steve Bagmanyan, a technician who tuned the pianos in Bowers’ elementary and middle schools. “I was able to literally thank someone who had a hand in my progress as a musician,” Bowers says.

Bagmanyan is one of four workers Bowers and co-director Ben Proudfoot highlight in the film.

Each personal story intersects with a piece of L.A., and maybe even United States history. Dana Atkinson, who works in the strings division, shares his coming out story and a slice of LGBTQ history. Paty Moreno, the only woman technician in the shop, talks about her journey migrating to the U.S. from Mexico and raising her children here — her job in the repair shop helped her maintain some stability, she says. Duane Michaels fixes the woodwind instruments and takes us down memory lane about his time on tour with Elvis.

Then there are the LAUSD students.

“These children are dealing with, you know, the mental health crisis that we're having right now … family health issues, or they are immigrants … trying to find comfort and stability in this country, or in their community,” said Bowers. “Each of these young people [in the film] … talked about the fact that their musical instrument is so vital to them processing these really difficult life experiences.”

In the film, the students, ranging from ages 9-18, talk about how their instrument changed their lives and helped them find themselves in music. “If I didn’t have my violin from my school, I don’t know what I would do,” Porché Brinker says. “Don’t even jinx me with that.”

Bowers’ piano beginnings

His introduction to music was commanded before he was born, he jokes in many interviews. His father was adamant about having a boy who would play piano. Music became the way he dealt with strong feelings — from hard conversations with his parents to his own emotions.

When he was 12, he knew he wanted to be a film composer. His family would regularly go to movies on opening weekend and he says he always paid attention to the scoring.

Kris Bowers

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Courtesy of Kris Bowers

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“I remember listening to the scores from those movies when I got home and realizing not only did I have the same — if not sometimes more of — an emotional reaction than I did in the theater just listening to the music by itself, but there was another click of an ‘aha moment’ of like that's a job you translate emotions,” he says.

He made a road map for achieving that dream job; starting with playing in a band, creating his own group and later becoming a film composer in his 50s. The band part didn’t quite go as planned because his composition work took off early. Before he turned 30, Bowers' work hit Hollywood and he composed the music for Best Picture winner Green Book.

Bowers’ other work includes scores for the Bridgerton series, The Color Purple, King Richard and he also co-directed another documentary with Proudfoot, A Concerto is a Conversation.

Giving L.A. credit

Directing The Last Repair Shop gave Bowers a chance to blend his love for music and his city.

“For me, having that deep love for this city and to have stumbled upon this music repair shop and this program that exists here in a way that we can be incredibly prideful of the city,” Bowers says. “This was the moment to highlight something that makes L.A. incredibly special and unique in this very grounded and heartfelt way.”

Bowers started playing music at LAUSD Third Street Elementary. He then studied at the Colburn School, the private performing arts school here, and attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts before going to Julliard in New York City.

He gives Los Angeles high marks as a great setting for musicians. Growing up, he looked up to his cousin, L.A.-based rapper Murs, and the music coming out of the city. He performed at Leimert Park’s The World Stage and came up with talent like Kamasi Washington and the late Austin Peralta.

Capturing the essence with ‘Alumni’ 

Bowers used his composer pen in the film, too (alongside Katya Richardson). He composed some themes for the film, including the song “The Alumni,” for the last scene in the documentary; it’s played by dozens of former and current LAUSD music students in an orchestra — winds, strings, brass, piano. The music highlights the repair shop technicians' musical themes, and the four of them make appearances in the performance.

Most musicians donated their time to film that closing scene.

“There's just so much generosity and love and support for this that it really, I think it can be felt on screen,” Bowers says.

The buzz around the film has already brought attention to the repair shop. There is now a $15 million fundraising effort set up by the LAUSD Education Foundation to help keep the program running and invest in future instrument technicians. To kick off the capital campaign, Bowers donated a restored Steinway piano to his former elementary school.

After months of debate and false starts, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday in favor of developing a potential November ballot measure that would ask voters to rein in the city’s controversial “mansion tax.”

Ahead of the 9-5 vote to proceed with proposed tax breaks for new apartment buildings, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said he has seen affordable housing construction decline in his district after the policy — called Measure ULA — took effect in 2023.

“I can tell you with certainty ULA has not helped,” Harris-Dawson said. “Housing starts are as low in my district as they’ve been the entire time I’ve been in office.”

Harris-Dawson said neighboring cities, such as Inglewood and Gardena, where new apartment buildings are not subject to L.A.’s tax, have not seen similar declines.

While a majority of the council voted to proceed with a possible ballot measure, Councilmembers Ysabel Jurado, Imelda Padilla, Monica Rodriguez, Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez voted against the proposal.

Reform advocates cheered the vote, but said more work is needed. Miguel Santana, president of the California Community Foundation, has pushed for changes with the “Mend It, Don’t End It” coalition, a group of affordable housing developers, labor organizations and business leaders.

“Today the City Council took another important step towards reforming Measure ULA in a way that will allow us to start building housing again while saving a critical funding source that we desperately need," Santana said in a written statement.

‘Mansion tax’ nuts and bolts

Measure ULA taxes the sale of real estate worth $5.3 million or more. That includes large, luxury single-family homes, which is why the measure is often called the city’s “mansion tax.”

However, the tax also applies to apartment buildings and other commercial real estate. Economists have said that’s causing a slow-down in new multi-family construction at a time when L.A. needs more housing supply to keep up with demand and prevent rents from spiking.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Councilmembers Tim McOsker and Katy Yaroslavsky put forward a motion asking the City Attorney to draft a ballot measure that would ask voters to cancel the tax on sales of multifamily and residential mixed-use buildings within the first 10 years of their construction.

That reform proposal is somewhat similar to earlier failed attempts at changing the tax, including from Councilmember (and now mayoral candidate) Nithya Raman and a separate effort from state legislators.

What happens next? 

The council’s proposed measure is still far from officially qualifying for the November ballot. Sending final language to the ballot will require another council vote, and the council could potentially decide later this summer to pull the measure.

If it does appear on the ballot, a majority of L.A. voters would need to approve the changes before new apartment buildings would be exempt. Close to 58% of the city’s voters supported Measure ULA when it first came up for a vote in November 2022.

In a separate vote Wednesday, the council moved forward with another potential ballot measure that would ask voters to exempt Pacific Palisades homeowners from the tax if they sell their properties after the January 2025 Palisades Fire.

To complicate matters further, voters are likely to encounter yet another measure on the November ballot related to the city’s “mansion tax.”

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has qualified a measure that would repeal L.A.’s tax, and similar taxes across the state, while simultaneously raising the voter-approval threshold for new taxes.

How we got here

Though reforms are tentative at this point, the council’s decision to pursue a ballot measure is an about-face from a committee’s earlier decision to keep changes off the November ballot.

Jurado, the chair of that committee, repeated her argument that it’s too soon to conclude the tax has caused apartment developers to retreat from L.A.

“When we focus just on housing production alone, we’re missing the mark about what this measure was actually intended to do, which is to keep Angelenos housed,” Jurado said during Wednesday’s meeting.

What has tax revenue funded so far? 

Measure ULA has raised $1.2 billion over the last three years, far less than the $1.1 billion in annual funding supporters said the tax could raise. That funding has gone toward affordable housing construction and tenant aid programs, such as rent relief and eviction defense.

However, the city has encountered trouble spending the money on its intended purposes.

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has refused to sign contracts approved by the city council and the mayor in April for $177 million in tenant aid. And the measure’s strict rules on how tax revenue can be spent to support affordable housing projects have required city leaders to pursue changes to funding restrictions.

We asked the United to House L.A. coalition, supporters of the tax, for reaction to the city council vote, but did not receive an immediate response.

A fire at a Boyle Heights commercial building sent massive plumes of black smoke up Wednesday and prompted a shelter-in-place order.

The fire broke out around 2:35 p.m. at 1400 S. Los Palos St., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Aerial footage from KTLA showed the fire involving solar panels on the roof of the storage facility.

Heavy smoke was visible around Boyle Heights and into other parts of LA, and the LAFD said people near the fire should immediately shelter in place.

“Get inside IMMEDIATELY and close all windows and doors. Turn off air conditioning/heating. Bring all people and pets to an inside room until you receive more instructions,” an LAFD alert said.

The shelter-in-place order was in effect for the area south of Interstate 5, east of Soto Street, north of Washington Boulevard and west of Indiana Street.

According to East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, the structure is an industrial freezer facility. In a series of Instagram stories, the organization urged residents to close their windows and stay inside.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates, or follow us on Instagram.

The post Massive fire breaks out at Boyle Heights commercial building, LAFD orders shelter in place appeared first on LA Local.

Air quality regulators say an oil recycling facility in Compton violated pollution rules and improperly maintained some of its equipment.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued four notices of violation to World Oil Recycling in Compton, and one notice of violation to a contractor operating leaky equipment on its property.

The Compton facility “receives used oils, glycol and wastewater and re-refines these materials into engine oil and glycol products for reuse,” according to the air district. The largest oil recycler in the state, it’s located in some of the most pollution-burdened and low-income neighborhoods in California, as well, where asthma rates are higher than 95% of census tracts, according to state data.

The violations came after the air district started receiving odor complaints from residents at the start of this year. The agency received more than 70 complaints of strong odors of gas, including from the nearby Jefferson Elementary School, the agency said in a news release.

Officials then carried out more than a dozen on-site inspections, including using an infrared camera to identify gas leaks. They found hydrocarbons leaking from a wastewater storage tank, as well as a centrifuge pump. A small fire at the facility in late May also led to nuisance notices from the agency.

The company told LAist it is working to remove the leaky storage tank that may have caused the odors.

“World Oil Recycling provides an essential environmental service by recycling used oil and other materials, helping to keep them out of landfills and waterways,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. “We are committed to meeting or exceeding the highest standards at our facility in Compton, where we have operated safely for more than 40 years and serve as a major local employer.”

If World Oil Recycling doesn’t comply, it could face fines or litigation.

The company has faced such issues in the past. In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency reached a settlement with World Oil’s Compton and Vernon facilities for violating hazardous waste regulations. The agreement required the companies to pay a $39,092 penalty and spend $167,967 on air filtration systems in nearby schools to reduce indoor air pollution.

The facility has received dozens of violation notices from the air district over the years, as well, mostly for minor maintenance issues.

In a statement to LAist, Compton Mayor Emma Sharif said the city “is working with the appropriate regulatory agencies as they continue their investigation.”

California will not consider the city of Los Angeles’ request for a time extension on three mobility projects in underinvested communities that are largely funded by more than $100 million from the state.

The exclusion of the request from the California Transportation Commission's June agenda spells an uncertain fate for the projects in Boyle Heights, Skid Row and Wilmington, which involve repairing sidewalks, adding bike lanes and installing traffic-calming measures to make streets friendlier to non-vehicular modes of transportation.

In April, the city formally requested a six-year extension on state-mandated deadlines to complete pre-construction work on the projects, saying recent staffing and funding constraints in the public works and transportation departments have hampered progress.

Justin Behrens, the spokesperson for the commission, said that while the state grant program offers time extensions in certain cases, “The requested time exceeded what is allowable under the guidelines,” and extensions were ultimately not recommended to be considered by the commission.

The state funds for pre-construction work, including environmental review and design, are set to lapse at the end of June.

L.A. officials said in a March report that without the time extension, “The city will be unable to meet these deadlines and lose the opportunity to provide these critical improvements for the city.”

The Bureau of Street Services, which is the lead agency on the three projects, did not respond to requests for comment.

'A deeply disappointing moment'

A statement from the office of L.A. City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said the situation is “disappointing” and that the councilmember is taking time to “fully understand” what the California Transportation Commission’s decision means for the projects in her district.

“What we can say clearly is this: We are not giving up,” the statement read. “Boyle Heights and Skid Row have waited far too long for safer, more accessible streets, and the residents who organized for these improvements deserve more than a setback and a closed door.”

Jurado advocated for additional staffing resources across the bureaus of Street Services, Street Lighting and Engineering, as well as the Department of Transportation, to deliver the projects.

For Jens Midthun, the president of the DTLA Neighborhood Council, any investment in improving the walkability of downtown L.A. is a worthy one.

“People in downtown L.A. are here because they want to be,” Midthun said about the neighborhood’s transition from a business hub to a residential destination. “People want to be part of a vibrant city center.”

L.A. City Councilmember Tim McOsker's office said in a statement that infrastructure improvements in Wilmington “remain a priority.”

“We will continue exploring funding opportunities and other available options to advance as much of the project as possible,” McOsker's office said.

The grant program

Since its launch in 2013, the state’s Active Transportation Program has funded capital projects that promote walking, cycling or other non-motorized ways to get around. Behrens said the program is competitive and over-subscribed, meaning the applications for funds “far exceeds the available resources.”

Over the course of the grant program, L.A. has secured $500 million to fund 46 transportation projects across the city, according to a June report from Laura Rubio-Cornejo, the general manager of the city’s Department of Transportation.

Twenty of those projects have been constructed and staff is actively working on designing, implementing or closing out another 22.

Jurisdictions that win the funds have to adhere to strict timelines to retain the money, which is allocated based on different phases of a capital project. Failing to meet the program’s deadlines can jeopardize a city or county’s likelihood of clinching future grants.

The program’s deadlines require the city to allocate funds for construction for the three projects in question by the end of June 2027. In its request for a time extension, the city said it would need an additional six years to get to that point.

Absent a time extension, it’s unclear what the path forward is for the three projects.

The city in June submitted its application for the next round of Active Transportation Program grants, though its ambitions were tempered by “staff resource limitations and the city’s existing grant commitments.”

The projects it submitted for consideration to the state include extending the LARiverWay bike path and enhancing mobility along Huntington Drive.