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.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s falling enrollment and fiscal challenges are fueling conversations planned for later this year about potential school closures and consolidation.

District leaders presented a snapshot of LAUSD’s finances Tuesday, showing steeper enrollment declines and lower state revenue and reserves than previously projected. The board adopted a $3.5 billion savings plan alongside the most recent budget in June that, among other cuts, envisions saving $30 million a year through school consolidation and repurposing in the 2028-29 school year.

“Our goal is not simply to have fewer schools; our goal is to have stronger schools, schools that are better resourced, schools that offer more programs for our students,” said Superintendent Andrés Chait.

LAUSD staff project that the district will run out of money during the 2027-2028 school year if it does not implement the cuts in the fiscal stabilization plan.

The L.A. County Office of Education assigned a fiscal expert to the district in July and warned LAUSD was at risk of losing the power to govern itself without further changes to its spending. The district eliminated more than 600 jobs in May, largely in its central offices, as part of a prior savings plan.

Almost 4% fewer students than expected are attending LAUSD schools this academic year compared to last year, according to preliminary data. The district’s chief financial officer said that each 1% drop in enrollment is a loss of about $20 million a year because California funds schools based on how many students show up to class each day.

Chait said the district will start holding community conversations related to school closures in the next few weeks and will share more details during a Sept. 22 meeting.

The leader of a congressional panel warned Tuesday he would use “every tool” to get Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to testify after she skipped a hearing that put L.A.’s homeless services system in the hot seat.

It came as multiple audits, reviews and court rulings have found L.A. has failed to ensure proper tracking of large-scale spending on homeless services — particularly through the joint city-county L.A. Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA. Much of the money is federal dollars authorized by Congress.

Bass had declined to testify at Tuesday’s hearing, saying she was unavailable and that it would be a “politically motivated” attack. Her public schedule showed she planned to attend a groundbreaking of a shopping and community center in the Pacific Palisades two hours after the hearing was set to start.

Rep. Tim Burchett, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee's DOGE subcommittee, said she won't get off that easily.

Bass "seems intent on evading accountability, but she knows we will not let her off the hook," Burchett said at the hearing. He added that he and the Oversight Committee’s chair would "use every tool at our disposal to secure her appearance if she does not cooperate.”

House committees and subcommittees can issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify or provide documents.

Just before the hearing got underway, Bass called it "the latest attack on Los Angeles by the Trump Administration and his allies in Congress.”

"I don't run LAHSA," she said, adding that she was the first mayor to sit on its board and that street homelessness has dropped since she took office. The latest official count for the city showed a 8% year to year jump in street homelessness.

Bass stepped off LAHSA’s governing commission last week, after LAist reported she had missed most of its meetings since she appointed herself to it in 2023. The mayor cited “time and all” as her reason for stepping down. She continues to appoint — and has the power to remove — half the commission’s members, including its current chair.

What happened at the hearing

Much of the hour-and-a-half hearing focused on Republican members’ criticism that Democrat-led cities distribute drug paraphernalia and don’t require unhoused people with addictions to get treatment as a condition of living in publicly funded housing.

Some proposals raised Tuesday would change how money reaches Los Angeles.

Burchett said he will introduce the Recovery First Housing Act, to require federally funded housing to offer substance abuse treatment. He has also introduced a bill restricting federal housing dollars to only support U.S. citizens.

LA's fights on a national stage

Burchett noted LAHSA’s audit committee chair, Justin Szlasa — who was proactive in rooting out wasteful spending — was demoted by Stephanie Graves, a Bass appointee who has declined to give her reason for doing so. The move was first reported by LAist.

Burchett also made claims that don’t hold up. He said 50,000 people are homeless in the city with "another 75,000" in the surrounding county. The latest official count found a total of 73,000 unhoused people across L.A. County — a figure that includes the city.

Burchett also said, “ LAHSA recently doled out funds to an L.A.-area nonprofit whose CEO had just been indicted for fraud.” LAist recently investigated LAHSA’s awarding of funds to that nonprofit, Abundant Blessings, and found no indication that LAHSA awarded it any funds after the fraud indictment. However, the review did find that long before the indictment, LAHSA kept awarding millions in contracts to the group even after it was flagged internally as high-risk for failing to do its job.

Burchett, however, was correct in saying “a court-ordered independent assessment of LAHSA's finances found alarming financial control weaknesses that leave the door open to rampant fraud.”

On Tuesday, street safety advocates and families of victims of vehicle collisions demanded that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declare a state of emergency on traffic violence in the city.

Sandra Sanchez Loulakis’s son died last year after she said he was hit by a negligent driver.

“I’ve been struggling just to survive daily,” she said at the news conference organized by traffic safety nonprofit Streets are for Everyone. “This is what happens to a parent when they lose a child.”

The city has seen 8% more fatal traffic collisions this year than during the same period last year, according to LAPD data from the end of August.

Advocates said an emergency declaration would better coordinate resources to respond to traffic fatalities, which have exceeded the rate of homicides for the last three years.

“ This is not a matter of we don't know what to do,” Damian Kevitt, who leads Streets are for Everyone, said Tuesday. “This is a matter of we know exactly what to do. We’re just not making this a priority as a city.”

Kevitt said more than 1,250 people signed an open letter delivered to the mayor and L.A. City Council. One of the demands listed in the letter is for the city to restore transportation department staff.

Earlier this year, the city gave up $100 million in state grants to make streets safer because it did not have the personnel to complete the projects in compliance with state-mandated deadlines.

Draft executive directive on Vision Zero

It appears there had been momentum from the mayor’s office earlier this year to issue an executive directive recommitting the city to its Vision Zero goals of reducing traffic fatalities to zero.

According to emails from May shared with LAist, the mayor’s senior director of transportation told an activist that a draft executive directive was “under review” and expected to be released “within the next three weeks.”

The email was sent to Jonathan Hale, who organizes community members to paint crosswalks where there have been pedestrian-involved collisions.

The executive directive has yet to be released.

LAist submitted a public records request for drafts of the executive directive, but on Sept. 14, the mayor’s office responded saying it could not disclose any records.

“[The records] include drafts and/or deliberative process for which the public interest served in nondisclosure clearly outweighs the public interest served by the disclosure,” the office said.

The mayor’s office has not responded to requests for comment about the draft executive directive.

A new report commissioned by Olympics organizers estimates that the 2028 Games will generate at least $20 billion in economic output across Greater Los Angeles.

The analysis, prepared for LA28 by the nonprofit Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s Institute for Applied Economics, looked at the economic effects of L.A. hosting the Olympics and Paralympics. It includes organizing committee spending, capital investments, publicly funded transportation and security investments, and tourism. 

In total, the report projects that new economic activity across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties could total somewhere between $20.5 billion and $25.4 billion and add around 126,000 and 152,000 jobs to the economy.

A second less conservative methodology employed by the researchers estimates the overall economic output could be even higher, between $35.4 and $40.6 billion and up to 224,000 new jobs.

“ Together, they provide a responsible range, not an exaggerated promise,” Stephen Cheung, CEO of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, said at a news conference announcing the report on Tuesday. “ If we work together with intention, the Games can leave Los Angeles with more than unforgettable memories. They can leave us with stronger businesses, greater opportunities, and a more connected regional economy.”

Despite the 2028 Games being advertised as a "no-build" Olympics, the biggest chunk of spending laid out in the report is on capital projects, including the $2.6 billion L.A. Convention Center renovation, billions in LAX improvements, major transit projects like Metro ExpressLanes on the 105 Freeway, and venue renovations, such as upgrades to Rose Bowl Stadium.

The report also estimates that around $5.7 billion of LA28’s spending will be in the five county region. LA28 has a $7.1 billion budget and has pledged to keep 75% of its spending in the Greater L.A. area, and put 25% toward small businesses.

“ That economic impact is going to be felt far and wide and across Los Angeles, as well as the Southern California region,” LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said Tuesday.

The report is the second economic analysis forecasting the effects of the 2028 Games to come out this month. A separate report submitted to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in early September estimated that the Games would produce more than $13 billion in direct spending and a total economic output of $19.2 billion in Los Angeles County alone.

The same report also laid out the potential uneven distribution of economic benefits to the region, including limited benefits for Olympic venue sites that are not tourist destinations and parts of Los Angeles being excluded from the Games altogether.

HR&A Advisors, the consultant group that put the report together, identified Carson, Pomona, the City of Industry and Exposition Park as locations that are hosting Olympic events, but that could end up being “passthrough areas.”

“Although these areas may be active during the day, they may struggle to capture spending from visitors who pass through but do not spend money outside the venue,” the report states.

The county report also questioned what economic benefits will flow to parts of L.A. County that will be disconnected from Olympic and Paralympic activities, like Antelope Valley and Southeast Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the analysis found that L.A.’s typical tourist destinations — including downtown L.A., Old Town Pasadena, downtown Long Beach and the Venice Boardwalk — can expect to be active areas for economic activity during summer 2028.