The Brief

Los Angeles has long had a reputation for being smoggy and traffic congested. Angelenos in this sprawling, gas-guzzling city love their cars.

Of all people who commute to work, 89% take cars, trucks or vans, according to an analysis of census data. But there are other options, and a lot of time and money have been spent across L.A. city and county to expand our modes of transportation.

A push for more transit in LA

The new Metro rail map.

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Courtesy Metro

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There are six rail lines, which include four light rail lines (the A, C, E and K lines) and two rapid transit lines (B and D lines) that serve 101 stations from San Fernando Valley to Long Beach, and areas in between.

L.A. has one of the largest bus fleets in the nation with 2,320 buses and more than 100 routes. Plus, there are around 100 miles of bike lanes in the county, although not always connecting.

It's far from perfect, but there’s a big push to do more — and do better. LA Metro, the county agency that makes decisions about public transportation, has been on a mission to increase ridership.

For one, L.A. aims to be a zero carbon emission zone by 2050. Officials want to increase the number of Angelenos who walk, bike and use non-gas guzzling transit to 50%.

Another big reason is that the Summer Olympics and Paralympics are coming to L.A. in 2028 and officials aim to complete several transportation projects beforehand.

"The overall goal for the games for us is to enable all ticketed spectators to travel to the competition venues by public transit, or walking or cycling," said Ernesto Chaves, a senior executive at LA Metro.

Here are some of the ways Metro hopes to meet these goals:

• Provide residents with access to good transit choices within a 10-minute distance
• Reduce wait times for public transit to a maximum of 15 minutes at any time
• Improve the average travel time on buses by 30%

Still, even if all is achieved, the challenge of getting people out of their cars is very real.

Taking the bus

To understand this a little bit better, the How To LA team is turning the lens inward. Most of us (including yours truly) drive our cars all over town. But we want to be better. We want to mix up our transportation modes to be gentler on the environment, traffic patterns and our wallets.

I don't know about you, but it seems like a significant portion of our paycheck goes to gas every week. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the average hourly wage for someone who lives in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim region is $33.43. The average gas price for the area is about $4.50 a gallon — less than it’s been but still more than a dollar above the national average.

So today we take a stronger step towards using public transportation. Today, we are learning how to ride the bus (we’ll tackle rail in another story).

How to LA producer Evan Jacoby and Aaricka Washington check out a bus route on an LA Metro map in Silver Lake

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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There are 10 million people who live in L.A. County and, of those who commute to work, only about 4% take the bus, according to an analysis of census data.

It can be daunting. L.A. is a big place. You have to figure out where each bus is going and when. It can also take a lot of time and the bus isn’t always punctual.

To help us get over the intimidation factor we reached out to Eric Brightwell, a cartographer, bus advocate and a self-described adventurer, who has been car-free for 13 years.

The How To LA crew who joined the bus ride included me, producer Evan Jacoby, host Brian De Los Santos and social media editor Kenya Romero (because if not on Insta or TikTok, it didn’t happen, right?).

Here’s how it all went down:

11 a.m. download a transit app

We meet Brightwell in Silver Lake, where he lives and works, to figure out a good, scenic route for our 30-minute bus trip. He recommends we take the #4 bus line from the 99 Cent Store by the Sunset Triangle Plaza to downtown. He says it comes pretty often.

He told us to download a transit app to plan the trip. Transit apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps and Moovit can show you how to travel through the main areas of L.A. County. Since I’m a forever Google Maps girl, I stick with what I know. You simply tap in where you would like to go, click on the “directions” button and the app will show you various methods of how to get to your destination.

Host Brian De Los Santos and Associate Editor Aaricka Washington go in search of their bus stop in Silver Lake

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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LA map maker Eric Brightwell talks to How to LA's Aaricka Washington about the pros and cons of riding the bus

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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“So I'm checking my transit app, and it says [the bus is] coming in 10 minutes, and then again in 21 minutes,” Brightwell says.

Brightwell told us about his trips to Tokyo, Thailand and Barcelona where the wait times were much shorter than in the United States.

“The average wait for a bus in Barcelona is two minutes,” Brightwell says. “So you know, 10 minutes here. It's not the end of the world [but] it could be better.”

11:30 a.m. Buy a TAP Card or reload funds

A TAP card can be used to ride the bus, train or to check out an electric bike. For the bus, a single ride from Sunset Triangle Plaza to downtown costs $1.75. But you can add any amount between $2 and $300 to each card.

There are several places to buy or reload funds on a TAP Card. You can download the TAP app to your smartphone. You can type in your city, neighborhood or zip code on the website to find a TAP Vendor in L.A. County. There are also TAP Vending Machines at the Metro rail stations. Here’s how to find one.

You do not need a physical card. We download ours onto our phones.

If you pay online or through an app, you can use credit card, TAP account cash, Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal. Cash is accepted at TAP vendors, TAP Vending Machines and bus fareboxes. If you ride the bus again within the hour of your first ride, it’s free.

Here’s what else you need to know about fare capping. To incentivize ridership, LA Metro limits the amount of money one has to spend to ride the bus. Regular bus riders don’t have to pay more than $5 a day, or $18 within seven days. There are also reduced bus fares for seniors, people with disabilities, students and low-income riders.

The bus stop

The navigation on Brightwell’s transit app leads us to the #4 bus stop at Sunset and Maltman Avenue. We’re taking the downtown LA - Santa Monica local bus route.

As we wait, I have a question: how does the bus driver know we’re waiting on them?

“I always stick my hand out and wave,” Brightwell says. “There’s obviously a big group of people, but I try to make sure I get their attention. I have been sitting at the bench before and it just goes by and I'm like, ‘Oh, I guess I wasn't obvious enough about wanting to use that bus.’”

Good to know.

Brightwell adds that he takes the bus to get to specific destinations, but also to see the city — something he recommends to friends. He says just get on a bus and go somewhere; don’t transfer.

“From my place in Silver Lake, you can get on the bus here and go all the way to Burbank, to Glendale, to Americana, to Din Tai Fung, to downtown. All you have to do is just walk two blocks, pay $1.75 and sit down.”

Our bus arrives. It's 4 minutes late.

11:50 a.m Tap your card, take your seat, watch the city go by

The bus pulls up and we get on. We get out our phones, open up our digital Apple Wallets to “pull out” the TAP card and tap our phones on the bus farebox.

It’s not crowded at all — only six other passengers. We sit down in the middle of the bus and it takes off smoothly.

On our journey to Hill and Third Street downtown the bus makes 20 stops. As we rode along Broadway and then on Sunset Boulevard, Brightwell points out a few spots along our route and notes some of the history.

More than 130 years ago Rancho Los Feliz landowner Griffith J. Griffith (yep, that Griffith) and Charles Sketchley had a joint venture to raise and show off ostriches. According to Los Angeles Magazine, this farm and the Ostrich Farm Railway that helped get tourists back and forth from the farm, was how Griffith Park and Sunset Boulevard took shape.

“That was one of the major tourist attractions,” Brightwell says. “And I guess not just tourists, like, people that lived in Los Angeles were like, ‘let's go, go see those ostriches. It's the weekend.’ There’s history all around you.”

The Ostrich Farm Railway is now the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the hilly landscape of Echo Park and Silver Lake.

Along the route there were also a lot of murals I'd never noticed before.

There’s one vibrant “Welcome 2 LA” mural on 2702 Sunset Boulevard from artist Cache Uno that features cats and chickens.

“He’s a Guatemalan vegan artist, “ notes Brightwell. “He always has chicken motifs in his street art. You definitely notice that kind of thing if you’re riding on a bus or on a bike.”

As we continue down Sunset, he talks about businesses that have come and gone and points out the diversity of the strip: the Saint Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church and what used to be a Vietnamese Chinese market that’s now a food hall, the Little Joy bar.

“That is one thing that I love about the buses, you can drink and not drive,” Brightwell says.

12:09 p.m. End of the line

We get to our destination on Hill and 3rd. We pull the signal cord by the window to hop off of the bus.

In total, the ride took 19 minutes. We went through Silver Lake, passed El Pueblo and Chinatown and rode along Cesar Chavez and High Streets. I really think it would have taken me an extra five minutes to drive my car.

“It’s not a bad time, and it flew by pretty fast for me,” Brightwell says. “I will say it flies by faster if you have people you’re talking to, or if you’re reading a book.”

He says he’s lost track of the time before and missed his stop. His pro tip: pay attention once in a while, listen for your stop and set alerts on your transit app.

We walk to Grand Central Market for a bite. After lunch, we went to the bus stop at Broadway and Fifth and head back to our starting location.

Tips for riding the bus if you have additional needs

LA Metro has some accessibility goals that are currently underway. For those who are 50 and older, LA Metro has an On the Move Riders Program. To learn more, stay up to date and connect with a peer-to-peer travel training club, sign up for emails here.

Seniors and people with disabilities can watch this video to learn about how to ride the bus and rail. LA Metro can accommodate a variety of wheelchairs with a ramp device that lowers to the concrete so people can wheel themselves onto it.

Also, people who are 62 and older, disabled or are Medicare customers can apply for a Reduced Fare TAP card and save up to 80% off regular Metro fares. People with disabilities can ride the bus for 75 cents and and for only 35 cents on off peak times (weekdays between 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., weekends and holidays).

Familiarize yourself with your rights. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), transit providers must offer audible announcements about fixed route stops for those who are visually impaired or have other disabilities. Service animals are also welcome on Metro buses and trains. If you have any concerns or complaints about anything ADA-related, this site can help you navigate how to file a service complaint.

If you are a bike rider, there are racks for you on Metro busses. Make sure that you remove all of the loose items not attached to your bike and take them with you before securing your bike to the rack. LA Metro recommends that you monitor your bike while riding the bus, and that you tell the bus operator that you will be getting your bike from the rack when you exit through the front door. Find more safe bike tips from LA Metro here.

Pros and cons

As a frequent bus rider, Eric has some closing thoughts on what he thinks about the system — the good and the bad.

The upsides:

• Bottomline: “It’s good for the environment, it's good for the city, it cuts down on sprawl,” he says 
• You don’t have to worry about parking and driving under the influence
• It’s safer and cleaner on the bus than on the train 
• You get to experience the city in a way that you never would in a car because you can watch it go by

The challenges:

• Sometimes buses don’t stop 
• Wait times between buses are too long
• Buses can be late
• Buses can also get stuck in traffic in parts of L.A. 

What could improve:

• More frequent buses
• More dedicated bus lanes so buses can pass traffic
• More amenities at bus stops and train stations  

Extras are “severely lacking,” says Brightwell. “If you go to any East Asian city, like Taiwan, or Korea or Japan, at least I can say from personal experience, there's waiting rooms for women with kids and there's like feeding stations, self cleaning restrooms, vending machines at restaurants, bakeries, cafes, art galleries.”

In Closing

Of the How To LA group who traveled on the bus, three of us were pretty much newbies and I will say, despite its issues, we all enjoyed riding it.

Now, this was a pure pleasure ride. We were not on a strict schedule and did not need to be at our destination at a specific time. There were no real stakes involved.

It’s a different matter to use the bus for one’s daily commute.

But speaking for myself, I learned a lot riding with Brightwell and I got over the intimidation factor of using the bus to get around L.A. It’s actually pretty easy once you get the basics down.

I think I just might ride the bus to work next week!

For our next story on bus ridership. We are going to dig a little deeper into these challenges and what’s being done to address them and make the experience of riding the bus a better one.

If you’d like to share a story about your experience riding the bus, tell us here. We may include it in our next article.

Listen: How To LA rides the bus

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How easy (and fast) is it to ride the bus in LA? Well — that definitely depends. With more than 100 routes traveling all over L.A. County, it can be a little intimating to figure out where to go but if you're looking to save a little green for your wallet AND the planet, it's worth trying out!

HTLA's Aaricka Washington recently rode her second-ever bus in L.A., and she brought the team along with her for the ride. We go from Silver Lake to her home neighborhood of DTLA, and along the way we learn about what makes LA's bus network an imperfect jewel in the world of public transit, at least according to one regular user and self-described city  explorer. 

Guest: Eric Brightwell, neighborhood cartographer and avid bus-goer.

Wanna Go Car-Free? Try The Bus

How easy (and fast) is it to ride the bus in LA? Well — that definitely depends. With more than 100 routes traveling all over L.A. County, it can be a little intimating to figure out where to go but if you're looking to save a little green for your wallet AND the planet, it's worth trying out!

HTLA's Aaricka Washington recently rode her second-ever bus in L.A., and she brought the team along with her for the ride. We go from Silver Lake to her home neighborhood of DTLA, and along the way we learn about what makes LA's bus network an imperfect jewel in the world of public transit, at least according to one regular user and self-described city  explorer. 

Guest: Eric Brightwell, neighborhood cartographer and avid bus-goer.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The worries before the World Cup were many. There were the visa wait times, the ticket prices, anxieties over hotel rooms and public transit, and countless battles between FIFA and local organizing committees.

Now, with the group stage done and the knockout round set to begin Sunday, it is time to declare: The North American World Cup has been a success.

No doubt there were visitors who were turned away, would-be attendees who could not afford tickets, and hotels and local businesses who feel the promised bump in tourism hasn't materialized.

But overall, the stadiums have been full, even for matchups that seemed lackluster on paper: nearly 70,000 people packed into stadiums to see games like Cape Verde-Saudi Arabia, Algeria-Jordan and Bosnia and Herzegovina-Qatar. And for headliner events, the environment has been top-tier, like at the U.S.-Australia game in Seattle and in Kansas City for Lionel Messi's historic hat trick for Argentina.

Visitors and hosts alike have been dazzled by the scenes. Kansas City was swarmed with tens of thousands of Dutch fans for a pre-game march. Boston was besieged by the Tartan Army. Australian fans seized their chance to come to the closer North American coast, where they packed the stands and belted "Waltzing Matilda."

And of course, the games have been terrific. Now, the knockout round is set, with some blockbusters shaping up for the Round of 16 and beyond.

Read on for more takeaways from the tournament so far:

France forward Kylian Mbappé (r) runs with the ball past Iraq's midfielder Zaid Ismael during a World Cup Group I match in Philadelphia on June 22.

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Franck Fife

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AFP via Getty Images

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France is the best team in the tournament

Some pre-tournament favorites have looked good, like Argentina. Others have underwhelmed, like Portugal. Some have mixed their good and bad moments, like England, Germany and Brazil.

But one team has consistently looked a cut above the rest: France. Les Bleus had supposedly drawn one of the toughest groups at this World Cup, with dark horses Senegal and Norway competing with them for the top spot. After a sluggish first half to start their opener against Senegal, France turned on the gas and has cruised ever since. They've made their World Cup look downright easy, with at least three goals in each game.

No path to the World Cup Final is easy, and France would certainly arrive battle-tested if they get there, with a potential later matchups in the Round of 16 against Germany, in the quarterfinal against the Netherlands or Morocco and in a possible semifinal against Spain. But their group stage performance leaves no doubt that they should be the favorites to win all of them, and more.

The U.S. is better than expected, though its path to the quarterfinals isn't easy

Is this finally the World Cup run to remember for the USMNT? The American men were once the plucky underdogs of international soccer, always willing to run for 90 minutes and gut out a tough, gritty game. Those days seemed to fade for a decade or two after their 2002 quarterfinal run.

U.S. players celebrate during their World Cup group match against Paraguay.

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Dean Mouhtaropoulos

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Getty Images

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Suddenly, the results are good, the vibes are even better, and the expectations are growing by the minute. For the first time ever, the starting lineup mostly features players with key roles on teams in top European leagues. And these boys can score: The six goals they scored in their first two group stage games were twice as many as they netted across four games in the 2022 World Cup.

The third group stage match against Turkey, in which U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino gave most of his usual starters a rest and his backups a chance to play, cooled their momentum somewhat with a 3-2 loss.

Still, a Round of 32 matchup against Bosnia and Herzegovina should be winnable. That would be their third win of the tournament so far, the most ever by any U.S. men's team at a World Cup. And a potential Round of 16 matchup against Belgium (or Senegal) is tougher but should be competitive, too. A quarterfinal in Los Angeles, even if it's a loss against Spain, would be an epic and fitting result for this team on home soil.

This will be an epic Golden Boot race

The stars are delivering in this World Cup. Argentina's GOAT Lionel Messi has six goals. France's twin titans Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé are hot on his heels with four goals apiece. The imposing 6-foot-5 Norwegian megastar Erling Haaland has four goals despite resting on the bench for Norway's third game. Brazil's Vinícius Júnior also has four.

Argentina forward Lionel Messi celebrates scoring his team's third goal during a group match against Jordan on Saturday. It was his sixth goal of the tournament, and record 19th overall World Cup goal.

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Paul Ellis

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AFP via Getty Images

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Messi should have plenty more opportunities as Argentina drew perhaps the easiest route to the quarterfinal, with a Round of 32 match against Cape Verde, followed by a possible Round of 16 game against the winner of Egypt versus Australia. Plenty of other stars have two or three goals and what could be a deep run ahead, like England's Harry Kane and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo. Watch this space.

The expansion to 48 was criticized, but it has been a lot of fun

The biggest criticism of expansion was that there would be no real peril for top-quality teams in the group stage, both because there would be more lopsided group stage matchups and because eight third-place teams advance. That has mostly borne out.

The highest-ranked World Cup team that failed to qualify for the knockout stage was Uruguay, which came in ranked No. 16. By contrast, the 2022 tournament had four teams ranked higher and were eliminated in the group stage — Belgium (No. 2), Denmark (No. 10), Germany (No. 11) and Mexico (No. 13). The new Round of 32 will have to do some of that work of adding surprise and peril to the big favorites.

The expanded format has also given us moments and teams to remember, like Cape Verde — which would probably not have reached the World Cup under the old format — taking the pre-tournament favorites Spain to a scoreless draw in their opening match. It's a thrill for fans of teams that rarely have a shot, like Scotland or Haiti or the Democratic Republic of Congo, to have a chance to see their nation on this kind of stage. In fact, nine (of 10) African countries advanced to the knockout round.

Plus, seven teams have reached the knockout stage for the first time in their country's history: Cape Verde, Egypt, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Congo, Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sure, they won't be favorites to make a deep run. But the games should be electric.
Copyright 2026 NPR

A supporter of Cape Verde's national football team reacts as she watches the 2026 World Cup group match against Saudi Arabia on Friday.

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Jose Correia

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AFP via Getty Images

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The American Film Institute is out with this bold proclamation: Mel Brooks’ film Blazing Saddles is the funniest movie of all time.

The pick may be contentious for some, but the 1974 film has been widely acclaimed for its raunchy and subversive humor in service of skewering racial prejudices.

Younger viewers might be shocked at the number of racial slurs included in the film (by some counts there are dozens). According to NPR reporting, Brooks was concerned about the use of racial epithets in the film. But as NPR’s film critic Bob Mondello wrote in 2024, “... his co-screenwriter, Richard Pryor, insisted he use it — and use it often — consciously putting it [in] the mouths of evil or unthinking characters, so that star Cleavon Little could comically mock or demolish them.”

The American Film Institute says it’s bestowing this recognition in honor of Mel Brooks' birthday. The director of comedy classics, including Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Spaceballs turns 100 today.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula has received a lot of attention in recent years because of accelerated land movement, but one landslide in the area has been a draw for decades because of its dystopian state with fractured streets.

Nearly 100 years ago, residents of San Pedro’s Point Fermin neighborhood had a dream of living by the ocean, but the cliffs became their undoing. A landslide slowly ripped Point Fermin apart. This southernmost part of Los Angeles County was given a new nickname to fit its troubled state: Sunken City.

Today, it’s full of torn-up terrain, graffiti and remnants of old homes, rising out of the ground like fossils. It’s still considered dangerous, but its mysterious remnants make for a compelling backdrop — you may have seen it in movies like the ash-spreading scene in The Big Lebowski. But soon, you could visit it too. The city of L.A. is working on reopening a section — possibly in the next year.

How the landslide started

Point Fermin is where you can get a spectacular view of the water. On a clear day, you can see down the Pacific Ocean as far as Catalina Island.

That scenery is why people wanted to live on its bluff. In the 1920s, Los Angeles was on the cusp of a population boom, so naturally, building homes on the coastline made sense. Developer George Peck took that idea and built an upscale neighborhood with bungalows.

An Easter Sunday service on a Point Fermin hilltop, taken between 1920 and 1939.

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Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

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UCLA Library Department of Special Collections

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It lasted for a few years, but in the months leading up to January 1929, some strange coincidences began to happen. Pipes were breaking more than expected, but it wasn’t clear why.

Then, a waterline broke under an inn and a crack appeared. At first, it was brushed off as a “simple landslide” with minimal danger, but it eventually became known as an uncontrollable “act of God.”

The crack formed near the cliffside back around to Pacific Avenue and Paseo del Mar. Part of it even caved in, forming a deep, 10-foot-long hole in front of homes.

F.L. Ransome, a geology professor at Caltech, reportedly told L.A.’s city engineer that land had slid up to 8 inches, ripping open utility pipes and pulling apart building foundations.

He warned that the area was no longer suitable for large structures and that water in the area may accelerate the movement, producing “disastrous changes on the surface.”

A section of the Point Fermin landslide in 1932.

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USC Libraries Special Collections

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At that point, the slide, which covered 5 acres, was mostly blamed on ground weakness and wave erosion. The city filled cracks as they happened and explored ways to protect the area, including with eminent domain. Property owners in 55 lots petitioned the city to buy them out.

But by September, the situation became so risky that geologists recommended the area be condemned. L.A. officials told residents to leave or risk “their own peril.”

A slow march to the sea

For the next several years, Point Fermin was in limbo. The ground still moved but mostly at a snail’s pace. The keyword is mostly. The area was plagued by huge cracks that tore apart the once-thriving community — some 40 feet wide.

Multiple incidents caused the landslide to move faster, including heavy rains. Numbers varied, but it was reported that the grounds shifted more than 30 feet seaward and 30 feet down by 1941.

Heavy rains loosened 200 tons of earth at Point Fermin in San Pedro, as shown Feb. 17, 1941.

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Herald Examiner Collection

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Los Angeles Public Library

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This destroyed the area. The city demolished homes that were too damaged to live in, and others were relocated to other parts of L.A. Officials eventually bought up nearly all of the impacted land to turn it into a park. But with the heightened risk, much of the area was blocked off to the public for years.

Around this period, landslides happened in other parts of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, like the Portuguese Bend. The issue became such a problem that insurance companies refused to insure L.A. homes for landslide damage.

Then came the big drop. After a 5.0 earthquake in 1969, a new “mammoth, crescent-shaped fissure” appeared that damaged three homes along Paseo del Mar and dropped another 200 feet down into the rocks. Still, some residents refused to leave.

“I’ve studied the trench and I’d be willing to bet the house never goes, even if the backyard did,” said resident Larry Penhall in 1970.

In total, the slip eventually grew to 10.5 acres, according to a geological study in 1987, with 40,000 feet of that ending up in the Pacific Ocean. It took down at least two homes and a lot of infrastructure, including roads, utility pipes and rail lines.

Sunken City today

The peninsula is generally still prone to landslides, but the ground is more stable in Point Fermin, or what’s now called Sunken City. It wasn’t the most dangerous landslide we’ve ever seen — no one died at the time, but visitors have in the years since, those who’ve wandered too far toward the cliff edge. It’s become a local legend because of how it looks today.

An aerial view of Sunken City on Oct. 12, 2025.

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If you venture to Sunken City, there’s still a neighborhood nearby, but the landslide area itself is closed off. For those bold enough to sneak in, you risk getting caught for trespassing. Visitors have even had to be rescued over the years.

The terrain resembles nothing of its affluent past, but that may change soon. Earlier this year, the City Council approved funding for environmental monitoring and safety upgrades for the upper area.

Sophie Gilchrist, communications director for Councilmember Tim McOsker, said part of the plan includes the design of a new fence that requires coastal development permits.

“While we don’t have a precise timeline for reopening, we have informed the local neighbors that it may take another full year,” she said. “The project is actively moving forward.”

Manuel Valle, 84, jumped on his bike and rode through his Boyle Heights neighborhood despite the protests from his worried children. The air was smoky, for the fifth day in a row; he pushed through fits of coughing to pass out 50 N95 masks to his neighbors.

The same day, officials told residents the air was not dangerous and the smoke was clearing out. Valle didn’t agree.

“This is a state emergency,” he said. “Treat it like a state emergency.”

Fire had ignited at a facility, operated by the company Lineage, which stores food before it’s shipped off to restaurants and grocery stores. Lineage uses the toxic refrigerant anhydrous ammonia, which posed a health risk in the early hours of the fire.

Weeks earlier and miles away, the Orange County Fire Authority issued an evacuation order affecting 50,000 Garden Grove residents when fire officials realized a tank at an aerospace manufacturing facility could either explode or leak large amounts of a toxic chemical into the air.

In both cases, records show state and local regulators knew the facilities; they had inspected them, approved plans and resolved violations. How they used their authority is now a central question for neighbors in the surrounding areas seeking accountability.

A lawmaker has proposed some reforms to chemical policy. But prosecuting companies for failing to follow environmental laws is difficult, and how far cities may go to protect residents isn’t clear.

“I don’t know what the local government is waiting for — for a tragedy to occur or something more serious or what … on top of what is already going on,” said Miguel Ocegueda Castillo, who lives near the Lineage warehouse.

A young boy watches firefighters battle a blaze at a cold storage facility in the Boyle Heights neighborhood June 22.

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Ted Soqui

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CalMatters

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Years of oversight, unresolved risks

Companies face layers of federal and state oversight designed to help prevent hazardous chemicals from escaping into surrounding neighborhoods. But records show that these two facilities, one in Orange County and one in Los Angeles County, had accumulated violations over years and continued operating.

In 2021 the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued GKN Aerospace multiple notices of violation, including for failing to maintain the required emissions records and operating some equipment without proper permits. The company later signed a settlement with air regulators and paid more than $900,000 — without admitting liability.

During the emergency, authorities gave residents conflicting information about whether the chemical methyl methacrylate had leaked.

“When you go home, you can feel safe. There was no contamination. … There was no leak,” Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County Public Health Officer told residents during one press briefing, even though early reports characterized the incident as a leak.

Days later, Orange County health officials walked back that statement.

In Boyle Heights, the Lineage facility stores more than 12,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The chemical is a refrigerant that if inhaled, can cause severe eye and respiratory irritation, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting and, at high concentrations, death.

In the early hours of the fire June 17, the Los Angeles Fire Department told residents to shelter in place because of the risk of the chemical being released into the air. The order was lifted, and then imposed again.

Lineage said in a statement that it “proactively took steps to pump out the ammonia and transport it offsite” and that no measurable ammonia concentrations had been recorded in the community since the fire began.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told residents the air was not dangerous. But on the sixth day of the fire, an air monitor detected a hazardous spike of air pollutants.

Federal records show that the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health inspected Lineage in Boyle Heights the day the fire started. It wasn’t their first visit.

In 2020, Cal OSHA opened an investigation into the facility for violations of multiple safety standards. After Lineage lodged an administrative appeal, regulators fined the company $2,250 for violations related to process safety and respiratory protection.

Rebecca Liu Morales, a spokesperson for Lineage, said the company stores food, not hazardous materials, and said it was not responsible for the fire. She said the fire started when a contractor was working on the rooftop solar array, which provided power to the city.

“The health and safety of our employees and the communities we serve is our top priority,” she added. “Our industry is heavily regulated and inspected, with over 200 routine regulatory inspections by various agencies conducted of our North American operations alone between 2024 and 2025.”

The Los Angeles Fire Department is investigating the cause of the June 17 fire. The city department of Building and Safety is also investigating, and the workplace safety investigation remains open.

Luck, rather than strong protections, has saved residents from catastrophe in both Orange and Los Angeles counties, said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics.

Industrial infrastructure has grown near residential communities, Williams said. But state and local oversight of hazardous substances has not kept up.

“I don’t think anybody really thought: Wait, we have these warehouses, a warehouse here, a warehouse there, and what happens if there’s an earthquake and we lose containment at four anhydrous ammonia tanks in one square mile at the same time?” Williams said.

Filling in regulatory gaps 

Federal and California laws are designed to protect communities from accidental releases, when a spill or an explosion or a leak releases hazardous chemicals into air, soil or waterways.

The federal Clean Air Act’s Risk Management Program requires companies handling dangerous chemicals in significant amounts to develop preventive and emergency plans for just these situations — and file those plans with regulators. California goes even further: Its risk management program sets stricter thresholds and more demanding requirements than federal law — meaning California law holds facilities to a higher standard, and state regulators have more tools and more authority to act than their federal counterparts.

But critics say even California’s stronger standards have significant gaps that state officials have allowed to persist.

Reactive chemicals, such as the methyl methacrylate stored at GKN, often fall outside of both the federal and state accidental release programs. In Garden Grove, regulators required no risk management plan.

Anhydrous ammonia is a different story. It’s a listed chemical, one of the core hazards state and federal programs aim to regulate. Federal and state environmental protection officials confirmed Lineage in Boyle Heights is part of both programs.

Local agencies called Certified Unified Program Agencies are the layer of oversight closest to the ground. In California, they’re responsible for knowing what hazardous chemicals companies store where, and in what quantities. Local agencies must inspect those facilities regularly and keep emergency plans on file, so that a fire department showing up to a warehouse blaze should already know what’s inside.

Neither local agency has fully disclosed its oversight of these facilities. In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department did not answer questions about its oversight of Lineage Logistics, despite repeated requests by CalMatters.

In Garden Grove, records obtained by CalMatters reveal that the Orange County Healthcare Agency has inspected GKN more than a dozen times over the last decade and issued violations related to hazardous waste regulations that were later corrected. The facility had emergency plans that were approved in May, weeks before the incident, records show.

State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat whose district includes Garden Grove, introduced Senate Bill 883 in the weeks after the GKN episode. It would require the state Office of Emergency Services to maintain a statewide inventory of facilities storing reactive chemicals, add methyl methacrylate to the state’s risk management program, require CalEnviroScreen tool to track facilities that pose an explosion risk and update current environmental review law to ensure that storage sites that have a risk of explosion aren’t exempt from review.

“We must learn from this incident, address the gaps it exposed, and take steps to ensure it never happens again,” Umberg said, in a statement announcing the legislation.

The bill is moving through Assembly policy committees.

The GKN emergency prompted a federal response. The Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the facility on June 10 — but experts say determining whether anyone committed a crime is often difficult after an industrial accident.

An aerial view of downtown Los Angeles with smoke from the smoldering storage facility in Boyle Heights on June 22.

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Ted Soqui

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CalMatters

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Legal remedies are a challenge

Residents want accountability, but the legal bar to hold companies for environmental crimes is high.

Criminal prosecution requires more than proving a rule was broken. Prosecutors need evidence of deliberate deceptions — falsifying reports, hiding violations, deceiving regulators.

The federal government goes after “those that are lying, cheating and stealing,” said Ethan Ware, an attorney who represents companies investigated for environmental crimes. “There’s more to it than just the environmental violation. There’s some effort to deceive, or to hide, or to get enriched by lying on documents.”

That bar gets even higher when no specific rule is broken — when prosecutors argue a company has a general duty to keep people safe. “What the government is saying is you have complied with all of these hundreds and thousands of regulatory requirements, but we still think you pose a risk to the community,” Ware said. “That’s a hard sell to a jury, to a judge, to anybody.”

A federal criminal investigation into an industrial accident is unusual — and the Garden Grove investigation may not lead to charges. The broader federal enforcement landscape has also changed.

A 2026 report by the Environmental Integrity Project found that the number of civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in cases referred by the EPA dropped to just 16 in President Donald Trump’s first year in office — 76% less than in the first year of the Biden administration. Only 12% of facilities with air pollution violations received any kind of enforcement action from EPA or state agencies in the last year.

That federal shift matters for Lineage, which has faced at least three civil enforcement actions in recent years, but none that resulted in criminal charges.

Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $37,500 for three violations at a Riverside facility, two related to its handling of hazardous materials and emergency plans.

Also last year, the company paid $3,420 to settle alleged violations at a Vernon facility, including that the company didn’t correct a critical safety system deficiency it identified during a 2021 audit.

In 2023, the EPA fined Lineage more than $172,000 for alleged violations of the federal Risk Management Program at an Iowa facility. The EPA said in a news release that the company “failed to correctly document the worst-case scenario in its risk analysis, failed to comply with accidental release prevention requirements, and failed to document emergency response coordination with local authorities.”

In 2024, a Lineage warehouse in Washington burned for 60 days. Hundreds of neighbors to the warehouse reported health problems, and some residents filed civil claims. But the company has not faced criminal charges.

The limits of local power  

Weeks after an evacuation sent tens of thousands of people from their homes in Garden Grove, GKN Aerospace came to a City Council meeting. The company had not spoken publicly since the evacuation.

Resident Rodrigo Garay held up a thin red cross blanket.

“This is what I used for the whole week to sleep on,” he said/ “And I’m sure that you slept on really nice beds with your $260,000-a-year salary.”

He and other residents wanted to know why the city wasn’t doing more to ban GKN and other facilities like it from their city.

Miles away in Boyle Heights, Lineage neighbors are also raising concerns about their schools, homes and playgrounds being so close to warehouses and other industrial facilities.

“We shouldn’t wait until after this disaster for Boyle Heights residents to know what was in the facility in their backyard,” said local City Council member Ysabel Jurado.

The frustration in both cities points to a hard truth. The people with the most immediate stake, both residents and city officials, may have the least power after a facility is already operating.

Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove on May 22.

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Ethan Swope

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AP

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City officials can update their general plans and rezone property to keep facilities they consider a threat to public health and safety away from their residents.

But the Constitution limits how far that authority extends to facilities that are already there. Businesses have a general right to not be over-regulated out of existence, said David Waite, an attorney who specializes in local land use law.

“Where it gets tricky is we have existing uses — such as the GKN facility — that were duly permitted and duly authorized under the existing zoning on that property,” Waite said. “That rezoning effort cannot just simply bar that existing use without running afoul of constitutional takings arguments.”

Cities can try revoking a facility’s permit by proving it is a public nuisance. But that requires showing an ongoing threat, not a one-time event, Waite said.

Garden Grove and Boyle Heights are largely communities of color. Garden Grove ranks among the top 20% of the state’s most environmentally burdened communities, according to CalEnviroScreen; Boyle Heights is in the top 10%.

In Garden Grove, the city’s response has been cautious.

Garden Grove spokesperson Johnathan Garcia said the city is “exploring with its attorneys and engaging in the deliberative process regarding its options in consideration of its authority under the constitution, federal and state laws.”

“What is the point of bemoaning that you don’t have more local control if you don’t use the authority you do have in times like this?” Mai Nguyen Do, a research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, asked the council.

In Los Angeles, Jurado is calling for an investigation into what went wrong at the Lineage facility and introduced a package of motions, including calls for a public report on the cause of the fire and the facility’s compliance history, increased public transportation service in the area to reduce the amount of time residents are outdoors and funding for neighborhood councils to distribute air purifiers and other protective equipment.

“When a major industrial fire happens here, it’s not viewed as an isolated incident. Residents see it as part of a larger pattern,” Jurado said. “That’s why I have said from the beginning that this is not just a fire response issue. It’s a public health issue, it’s an accountability issue, and it’s an environmental justice issue.”

This story was produced in collaboration with Boyle Heights Beat, a founding community newsroom of The LA Local, a nonprofit covering Los Angeles communities.

Laura Anaya-Morga, Isaac Ceja, Claudia Koerner, Alejandra Molina, Isaiah Murtaugh, Jessica Perez, Steve Saldivar and Nathan Solis contributed to this story.

Alejandro Lazo contributed to this story.