The Brief

Eira Schwyzer decided to brave the rainy weather Tuesday to go to a yoga class in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. It’s a new studio in an area that hasn’t had a lot of options for practicing a downward-facing dog pose, or really any kind of yoga.

The WalkGood Yard opened on Sunday, the first physical space of the Black-owned nonprofit wellness organization WalkGood LA.

For Schwyzer, she sees it as a necessity in her working-class, predominantly Latino, Black and Asian neighborhood.

“I believe that this is what we need to be investing in,” Schwyzer says. “Now I feel like I can go to a place that is for people like me, Afro-Indigenous Latino people, who need something to be able to go to, connect with our community and focus on our mental and physical well-being. This is a place where we can elevate our community and inspire people to do the same.”

A wellness movement born from protest

Schwyzer has been attending WalkGood LA events since the organization formed in 2020 in response to the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd Jr. and Breonna Taylor — two of those deaths at the hands of police.

It all began when founder and filmmaker Etienne Maurice, his sister Ivy Maurice and his cousin, Marley Ralph, a yoga instructor, organized a march and community yoga class at L.A. Memorial Park that June as a peaceful protest. Soon after, WalkGood LA was born and Maurice started hosting wellness events all over the city, encouraging residents of color to get outside and into their bodies.

In the beginning, Maurice says roughly 450 people showed up at the park every Sunday. Nowadays, at yoga events held at Kenneth Hahn Park, a couple hundred people still regularly show up.

Maurice’s main goal has always been to offer a safe space for Black people, and other people of color in L.A. who are impacted by racism. He sees The WalkGood Yard as a natural extension of this, as he sees yoga as good for the heart, body and soul.

The COVID-19 pandemic and cases of police brutality have exacerbated the health issues that have existed in Black communities nationwide, like higher rates of obesity and diabetes, according to a report from L.A. County that highlights the impact of systemic racism on Black residents. Black people are also 20% more likely to experience serious mental health issues than the general population, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

And practicing yoga on a regular basis has multiple benefits, including reducing levels of stress, improving strength and relieving pain.

Neighborhood history

The new studio is on West Pico Boulevard, a mile away from where Maurice grew up in his mom’s house, and not too far away from L.A. Memorial Park where WalkGood LA started. But there’s even more intention behind the location of this space. It’s the rich history surrounding the neighborhood.

Right across the street is Jewel Thais-Williams’ Catch One, one of the first Black disco night clubs in the nation, and one of the most prominent gay bars in L.A.

And the studio space is just about a mile north from the West Adams neighborhood, a once prominent area for upper-middle-class Black Angelenos.

In the 1960s, dozens of Black-owned homes in the wealthy Sugar Hill neighborhood were bulldozed with the construction of the I-10 Santa Monica Freeway. That community was split in half, forcing many families to move south of the freeway throughout areas like Baldwin Hills and other locations south of the 10 Freeway.

For Maurice, bringing a Black-owned space back to the area is like reclaiming history.

“Here we are … years later, a Black-owned organization, a Black-owned building … trying to bring that same spirit of entrepreneurship, but with healing attached to it,” Maurice says. “I think this is going to be the start of something that I've really envisioned for the city of L.A. to make some real change in this community.”

When conceiving the space, Maurice says he was inspired by Arlington Heights’ Underground Museum — which was one of the nation’s leading spaces for Black art, and a community space for healing practitioners, creatives and activists until it closed unexpectedly in March 2022. Maurice recalls the different exhibits, community gatherings and movie screenings the museum held for people who lived in the area. He wants to bring the essence of community building, art and entrepreneurship back to Mid-City, and add yoga to the mix.

“I think that's the whole purpose of bringing people together from all walks of life,” Maurice says. “So that we can create a more healing community in Los Angeles because right now it's looking like Gotham City.”

Stepping inside the Yard

If visitors are not careful, they could miss the space. It’s sandwiched in between several other businesses down a busy stretch of Pico Boulevard. There’s a vivid, yet simple sign with white lettering that says "The WalkGood Yard."

When visitors first walk into the new studio, they are greeted by the sounds of R&B classics like Mint Condition’s "If You Love Me," and a mural of Maurice’s maternal grandparents, to whom he’s dedicated the space.

WalkGood LA founder Etienne Maurice stands in front of a mural of his grandparents, to whom he's dedicated the space.

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Aaricka Washington

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LAist

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Maurice’s family is from Jamaica, so the vibrant space is full of pride in those roots — red, gold and green colors fill the rooms.

“It reminds me of home, and for me home is Los Angeles by the way of Jamaica,” Maurice says.

Photos of family and family friends — like Maurice’s mom, actress Sheryl Lee Ralph; civil rights activist Rosa Parks, R&B singer Luther Vandross — adorn the WalkGood heritage wall.

Photos of Black leaders, family and friends — like Maurice’s mom, actress Sheryl Lee Ralph; civil rights activist Rosa Parks, R&B singer Luther Vandross — adorn the WalkGood heritage wall.

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Aaricka Washington

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LAist

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The main studio is spacious with a lot of windows and natural light, wood floors and exposed brick walls. There’s also a meditation room called the Zen Den that is full of pillows and cushions on a soft, plush carpet. It will be used for sound bowls, and just chilling.

The Zen Den meditation room has pillows and cushions on a soft, plush carpet. It will be used for sound bowls, and just chilling.

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Aaricka Washington

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LAist

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The first yoga class

On Tuesday, a few days after its grand opening, members grabbed their yoga mats, while Maurice changed the music playlist to a more calm, classical one. “Good Flow,” a traditional, calm yoga class, was the first paid members-only session in the new studio space.

“You are joining me for our first good flow here at the WalkGood Yard,” Maurice says. “We got a new sound system installed. Pretty much everything is how we want it to be on this gloomy, bright rainy day.”

He then gets right into one-hour long class with a "savasana" pose where everyone is on their backs with the soles of their feet together with one hand on their diaphragm, and the other on their heart.

WalkGood LA founder Etienne Maurice facilitates a "Good Flow" yoga session for the new WalkGood Yard members on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024 in the Arlington Heights neighborhood.

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Aaricka Washington

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LAist

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Classes info

To attend regular classes at the Yard, Maurice is asking that people become a member. There are three membership tiers ranging from five classes a month for $99 to unlimited classes for $225 a month (and a lot more perks). Drop-in classes are $25 each, which is about the average price for a yoga class in L.A.

WalkGood LA will still host free outdoor events like group hikes and run clubs monthly. BreatheGood, a community-donation-based yoga class, will continue to be held at Kenneth Hahn Park on the first Sundays of every month.

Maurice says that they will offer YouGood? A Black Men’s Healing Circle for free at the Yard.

Long Beach resident Jasmine Jones says she's happy to join. Not only has Jones been searching for a good spot to do yoga, she’s also been looking for community and a way to make new friends. She says Maurice’s Good Flow class made her feel welcomed and accepted, unlike how she’s felt in some classes that were in predominantly white spaces.

“It was relaxing and soothing,” Jones says. “I like being in a Black space. I notice when I'm in other yoga spaces, the energy feels different. It's just the vibe of being around your own people. It feels like home. It feels grounded.”

A criminal investigation is underway Tuesday at the burned Lineage Logistics warehouse in Boyle Heights.

Agents with California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control Criminal Investigations Bureau, a law-enforcement unit that investigates potential violations of the state’s hazardous-waste laws, are serving a search warrant at the site. Surveillance video showed law enforcement arriving around 7:30 a.m., and some remained on scene as of midday Tuesday.

An agent with the department confirmed that the Office of Criminal Investigations is the lead agency but declined to comment further. Several investigators with badges from the LA County District Attorney’s office were also present. The office later confirmed it assisted DTSC in serving the search warrant and is supporting the department’s ongoing investigation.

In a statement, Lineage — which operates cold-storage facilities around the world — said that it works collaboratively with various regulatory agencies.

“To be clear, we do not store hazardous chemicals or products in this facility. We store food. Further, the facility’s ammonia refrigeration system was safely pumped out shortly after the fire began and before the fire reached the refrigeration system. The ammonia was subsequently removed from the site. The Los Angeles Fire Department reported no ammonia was detected during its response, and subsequent environmental monitoring has consistently shown results within normal levels for the neighborhood and no ammonia concentrations above health-based action levels. We have shared relevant testing and monitoring information on our website and with regulatory agencies and will continue to do so,” the statement said.

In the weeks after the fire, community testing as well as data from Lineage and the South Coast Air Quality Management District showed elevated levels of ammonia near the warehouse. Community members found the results alarming, though Lineage and regulators stressed the levels didn’t meet the threshold to take action to protect public health.

Last week, Eastside Padres held a press conference outside the warehouse,calling on the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to open a criminal investigation of the warehouse fire after the Los Angeles Fire Department reported that the cause of the fire could not be determined.

A person who works at the facility said the operation started earlier Tuesday morning. Employees initially believed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were involved, but soon found they were not.

Anna Rivas works at Ciclon Pallets across the street from the Lineage parking lot where agents served the search warrant. A man driving a truck and a large trailer had to expertly back into her garage to pick up a load of pallets, dodging the law enforcement vehicles parked nearby.

The business’s surveillance cameras captured a police vehicle with lights and siren pulling up to the facility at about 7:30 a.m., with about 20 unmarked vehicles approaching soon after and entering the parking lot or stopping to block the entrance.

Rivas said the pallet company had to shut down for about a month and a half around the time of the fire, citing respiratory problems for workers and a loss of business.

“We thought we finally had our space back to do our work,” Rivas said. “But no, here we go again.”

She said the police did not question her or her colleagues, and she added she hopes the neighborhood gets the justice it deserves after months of disruption related to the fire.

In a statement, Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said she welcomed the investigation “as a positive step toward the transparency and answers Boyle Heights residents deserve.”

“This community has lived with the consequences of the Lineage warehouse fire for months. Residents deserve to know what happened, what risks remain, and who must be held accountable.”

“Investigators must be able to follow the evidence wherever it leads, and their findings should help give residents the information they need about their health, safety, and the future of this site. I will continue pushing for those answers, a safe and complete cleanup, and accountability for any violations uncovered. Boyle Heights should not be left to shoulder the consequences of this disaster.”

The office of Mayor Karen Bass also acknowledged the investigation, stating:

“The residents of Boyle Heights and East L.A. deserve environmental justice and corporate accountability. Mayor Bass has been working with many agencies to protect this community. In her emergency executive order, Mayor Bass called for the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to investigate and pursue enforcement action at the Lineage warehouse.”

The fire at the cold storage warehouse broke out on June 17 and burned for eight days. The fire and cleanup of millions of pounds of rotting food caused a flood of issues for residents living in Boyle Heights, East LA and surrounding communities, including an infestation of flies and pests, nausea and headaches, higher utility bills and other health concerns.

The Los Angeles Fire Department could not determine the cause of the fire but said solar panels could not be ruled out as an ignition and fuel source.

Boyle Heights Beat reporter Laura Anaya-Morga contributed to this report.

Eva Marie Saint, the pale, willowy actor who won an Academy Award for her first movie, “On the Waterfront,” and starred opposite Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest,” has died. She was 102.

Saint, whose acting work lasted well into her 90s, died at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, confirmed family representative Jeff Sanderson.

Saint had one of the most spectacular debuts in Hollywood history, as the love interest of Marlon Brando’s tormented Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront,” and her first trip to the Academy Awards was memorable too. Pregnant with her first child, Saint accepted her Oscar from Frank Sinatra and smilingly murmured a unique winner’s speech: “I think I may have the baby right here.” (Her son, Darrell, was born two days later.)

The award for the 1954 classic made her an instant star, but she soon astonished Hollywood with a firm independence that would mark her career. She refused offers of studio contracts and declined chances to follow up on her great success, explaining that she was taking time off to become acquainted with her new son. (A daughter, Laurette, was born in 1958.)

A curated career

In her first decade in Hollywood, Saint appeared in a mere seven films. She declined such top-level productions as “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” with Gregory Peck, “Summer and Smoke” with Laurence Harvey and “The Rainmaker” with Burt Lancaster. She credited her husband, TV and stage director Jeffrey Hayden, with persuading her to star in Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” the classic 1959 thriller in which Saint plays a spy who seduces Grant, but ends up falling for him.

“I vividly remember him saying, ‘Honey, I think you should find a quiet spot. I’ll take care of the children and I want you to really think about this and reread this script,’” she told Vanity Fair in 2014. “He was so right. And that’s what husbands are for.”

Instead of being put off by her selectivity, studios continued offering her starring roles in such films as “Exodus” (with Newman), “Raintree County” (Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift) and “All Fall Down,” with Warren Beatty.

She turned more to television in the 1970s and enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1980s as the mother of Cybill Shepherd in the hit sitcom “Moonlighting” and as Tom Hanks’ mother in the film comedy “Nothing in Common.” She won an Emmy for the 1990 miniseries “People Like Us,” and had roles in such 21st century movies as “Because of Winn-Dixie,” “Superman Returns” and “Winter’s Tale,” adapted from Mark Helprin’s novel of the same name. In 2021, she played Marisa Tomei’s aunt in the brief audio play “The Bus Ride,” part of “The Pack Podcast.”

Saint was married to Hayden for 55 years, until his death in 2016.

That was her real name

When Saint emerged in the public consciousness, many believed her theatrical-sounding name must have been invented. She was born with it on July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey. The family moved to Delmar, a small town near Albany, New York, where her father was a Goodrich Rubber Co. manager. Eva’s goal was to become a third-grade teacher like her mother, but at Bowling Green State University in Ohio she tried out for a play and won the leading role.

After graduation she lived with her parents in Flushing, Long Island, and began hunting for acting jobs in Manhattan. After a fruitless year, she landed a two-line role as a telephone operator on a radio drama and soon was working steadily on soap operas and nighttime dramas, appearing for two years as Claudia on “One Man’s Family.” Network television was booming in the early 1950s, and her looks and dramatic sense made her a favorite with casting people and producers.

She credited Lee Strasberg with helping her overcome shyness

A critical turn in Saint’s career came when she auditioned before Elia Kazan and was accepted into the Actors Studio, which shaped a generation of method-actor stars. She credited acting coach Lee Strasberg with helping her overcome her shyness.

“Lee Strasberg, when he got to know me a little bit, gave me a scene to do where I had to cry in front of my peers,” she told The Santa Barbara Independent in 2009. “I worried about it, I worked on it, I tried to use what I was learning at the studio. I finally did the scene, and I cried, and my peers were crying with me. It was just an incredible moment for me.”

Saint was rejected for the single female role in the play “Mister Roberts,” but was hired to understudy the actor chosen, Jocelyn Brando, Marlon’s sister. In six frustrating months Saint never got to substitute for Brando. She finally made it to Broadway in “A Trip to Bountiful,” which she had played on television.

Kazan invited her to try out for the female lead in “On the Waterfront” by improvising a scene with Brando. She was told to try to stop a young man from entering her apartment. She told the Los Angeles Times in 2001: “All I know is that Marlon got in the door and turned on the music. We started dancing. He flicked my skirt. Kazan saw the sparks fly, and that’s how I got the part.”

Thomas, a former Associated Press Hollywood correspondent who died in 2014, was the primary writer of this obituary.

California’s school finance watchdog agency has found the Los Angeles Unified School District is at high risk of financial insolvency.

The Financial Crisis and Management Assistance Team presented its analysis at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

“FCMAT’s role is not to determine which programs the district should preserve, which reductions it should make or what agreements it should reach with the labor [unions],” Jennifer Noga, an intervention specialist with the agency, told the board. “That is 100% a local decision. Our goal is to help identify the fiscal risk and help the district understand what needs to be addressed to restore fiscal stability.”

How did the state make its determination?

The agency’s analysis of LAUSD is based on a series of questions the agency has identified as risk factors for insolvency.

The analysis found that LAUSD's deficit spending, declining enrollment and increasing costs of employee salaries and special education put the district at risk of exhausting its reserves by the end of next school year.

The analysis found LAUSD is at a “moderate” risk of insolvency, but ultimately received a “high” rating because a previous evaluation by the Los Angeles County Office of Education automatically triggered a more severe label. (That LACOE evaluation is also what triggered the state evaluation in the first place.)

Union pushback

United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents LAUSD educators, said in a memo to the board and in public comments that FCMAT’s analysis penalized the district for paying teachers more and overstated financial risk.

“There are different ways to tell a story with numbers and statistics and data, and we just think that FCMAT is presenting the most austere version of that and we have to fight back against that,” said Julie Van Winkle, the union's vice president. “There is declining enrollment in the district, and who is going to want to put their kids in schools if we keep cutting programs because of austerity?"

The district has a plan to cut spending, which includes eliminating thousands of jobs and funding for high-needs schools. The district must also bargain with employee unions before implementing furlough days planned for the 2027-28 school year.

More than 100 cannabis businesses in L.A. that were expected to lose their licenses at the end of the year may be able to stay open after a City Council vote Tuesday.

A city ordinance that took effect in August would only have allowed cannabis businesses to renew their licenses if they owed less than $1 million in unpaid city taxes and had been delinquent on their taxes for less than four years.

The limits were set to get more strict each year until 2030, when businesses would need to owe less than $100,000 in unpaid taxes.

The City Council voted to delay the restrictions for one year because a separate program intended to provide an exception to businesses who agreed to follow a tax payment plan could not begin on time.

There are more than 1,000 licensed cannabis businesses in the city of L.A., according to the Department of Cannabis Regulation, and 125 of those would not have been eligible to renew their licenses had Tuesday’s vote not passed.

In October 2025, City Treasurer Diana Mangioglu reported that 500 cannabis businesses owed a total of $500 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. Of those businesses, 48 owed more than $2 million.

Owners of many cannabis retailers, manufacturers and distributors have asked local government leaders for help as they face higher taxes than most industries and strong competition from unlicensed businesses — which pay no taxes and typically sell at a lower price in the illicit market.

Evelyn Scott gave public comment during the City Council meeting and said these challenges led her business to close.

“Losing our license will make it even harder to reopen, generate revenue, create jobs and meet our obligations to the city,” Scott said.

What is the tax amnesty program?

When the city enacted licensing restrictions based on cannabis businesses’ unpaid taxes, local officials also intended to make a pathway for delinquent businesses to come back into compliance.

The cannabis tax amnesty program allowed for some businesses that would otherwise be prevented from renewing their licenses to agree to a payment plan that could last up to five years. If the businesses kept to the agreement, they could continue to renew their licenses, would have penalties and interest on unpaid taxes forgiven and wouldn’t face criminal charges for not paying those taxes on time.

Could the agreements help the city?

L.A.’s Office of Finance, which is in charge of the program, estimates it could bring in $10 million in city tax revenue in the first year.

But it wasn’t possible to start the program for 2027 licenses, according to Matthew Crawford, assistant director of the finance office.

He told LAist in an email that the office wouldn’t be able to begin the program in time without exposing the city to “unacceptable levels of risk to both [a tax administration] system replacement project and the integrity of the amnesty program.”

Crawford said the finance office still expects the city to receive the same amount of revenue once the program begins.