The Brief

Ah, 1923 in Los Angeles. What a different time.

It was the debut year of iconic L.A. monuments like the Hollywood sign, the Biltmore Hotel, and the Memorial Coliseum.

You had to be there, but that year was also a big deal for local public transit. L.A.’s first bus took off along Western Avenue on Aug. 18, 1923. That’s just over 100 years ago, if you’re counting.

Nowadays, Metro operates some 2,000 buses around Los Angeles. Looking back, what can we learn from the early days of public transit in L.A.? And what is the history behind the city's first bus line?

I took these questions to our transit experts: India Mandelkern, Metro’s blog editor, and Matthew Barrett, who heads Metro's research library and archive.

The bus line along Western Ave. debuted in 1923.

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Courtesy LA Metro

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Setting the scene

Q: India, you write in your piece about the first bus line that local traffic congestion was really bad back in August 1923. What climate was L.A.’s first bus entering into? 

IM: Well, L.A. already had a very robust streetcar network, but Western Avenue, where the first bus line got started, didn't actually have streetcars. For that reason, it was a really great choice for a bus line. The intersection of Wilshire and Western was the busiest intersection in pre-freeway Los Angeles. Also, traffic lights and signals, all those things were really new back then. Driving the streets was a little bit more like the Wild West. If you look at the early photos, it almost looks like a free-for-all.

MB: And there was no freeway system. The amount of time it took to get to Santa Monica in the 1920s is pretty much the same as it is today with the freeways, because of huge growth in population and congestion!

A vintage public bus from the 1920s.

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Courtesy LA Metro

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Q: Like you said, the first bus route was down Western Avenue, between Los Feliz Boulevard and Slauson Avenue. Why was that location chosen?

IM: It was very, very, congested, and it didn't already have streetcar tracks. So the bus was pretty much the only game in town if you wanted to move a large quantity of people in one vehicle.

MB: And this was a joint effort between two major transit providers in L.A. — the Pacific Electric Red Car system, the long-distance Metrolink of its day, and the Yellow Cars of L.A., the local streetcar system. The two of them got together and formed this bus company (called Los Angeles Motor Bus Co.) in order to make connections between their systems. The buses were thought of as a feeder system to the rail systems. And Western just never had any streetcars on it.

When buses were a novel concept

Q: Buses were an entirely new thing back then. What was public perception like, were people resistant or receptive? 

IM: It was really considered a novel, innovative thing to do. In this time, buses were considered more car-like than your streetcar. Early advertisements for buses tout things like, they had leather seats and really spacious aisles and you could board on the curb and you didn't have to go into the middle of the road like many streetcar stops. The public was very enthusiastic about them and within a couple months, another bus line got started and they were carrying about 10,000 passengers every day.

MB: A bus back then was as car-like as you could get if you couldn’t afford a car. It was looked at as a step up from rail.

The interior of an old public bus serving Los Angeles in the 1920s.

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Courtesy LA Metro

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Buses v. streetcars

Q: How did the new bus system interact with the streetcar system? 

IM: As Matthew pointed out, it was a joint venture between two streetcar companies that formed the first bus company. And as early as 1925, 1926, some of the less used streetcar tracks were already being converted into bus lines. There’s this perception that buses ran streetcars out of business, but that isn’t really true. Buses continued into areas where streetcar tracks weren’t going. Streetcar track was expensive to build, and buses were touted as trackless transportation. The idea that they could just go off route, make a detour — that was very innovative at the time.

Q: What were safety precautions like on those early buses? 

MB: Back in the streetcar era, buses were patrolled by special agents that were part of the staff of the L.A. Railway and Pacific Electric and L.A. Motor Coach. (Los Angeles Motor Bus Co. was later renamed Los Angeles Motor Coach Lines). You have to remember they were private companies and fare box revenue was the only revenue they had, so fare evasion was a big deal. The special agents that were employed by the company coordinated with LAPD if there were any issues that required arrests.

They also used to make exact change on buses and trains. In 1968, they went to exact change (fares), because it was too much of a temptation for some passengers to commit robberies of the operator's change belts. So, that indicates to me that things were pretty safe all the way up until maybe the late ‘60s.

Wilshire Boulevard in 1932

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Courtesy LA Metro

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A long history of alternative fuels

Q: I understand L.A. has long experimented with alternative fuel. To what extent was the bus system involved in that? 

MB: We had gas electric buses in the ‘20s. We had 60 propane-powered buses in the ‘50s. We went to propane buses for the mini-bus system, which is today's DASH system, in the ‘70s. The Rapid Transit District (RTD) even built its own in-house air quality lab to try and figure out how to reduce the particulates in diesel with particulate traps, and then they went to methanol and ethanol, and then finally CNG. In the ‘40s-’60s, L.A. had two electric trolley bus lines, and now we're moving back toward electrified buses again. So, for a city that was well-renowned for its oil wealth in the ‘20s and ‘30s, even with all of that cultural pressure and focusing on the petroleum industry, the transit system was still experimenting with alternative fuels during this entire time.

A case for buses as innovation, then and now

Q: Any closing thoughts on the role buses played back then, and now? 

IM: Before we had the resources to build rail, and after the demise of the streetcars, buses were rapid transit. That was the only way that people were able to get around. Buses came out of a moment where crippling automobile congestion was preventing people from getting around, and they reflect this way we’ve responded to situations at hand and found innovative solutions.

For more information about LA’s first bus, you can read India Mandelkern’s piece in Metro’s ‘The Source.’

An appeals court issued a ruling Friday that strikes down a federal government effort to block a lower court’s order requiring the construction of 2,550 new housing units on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles.

The long-running case, brought forward by disabled veterans struggling with homelessness in the L.A. area, has centered on the use of the sprawling 400-acre VA campus.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter had previously scrutinized leases for the private Brentwood School’s athletic facilities, a parking lot company, an oil drilling enterprise and UCLA’s baseball stadium.

Ruling that the campus was meant to aid veterans, Carter ordered the VA to not renew the leases and quickly build 750 units of temporary housing and 1,800 units of permanent housing.

But Carter’s September 2024 order has been on hold ever since the defendants asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to review his decision.

Case returns to lower court

On Friday, more than two-thirds of the court’s 29 judges ruled against the VA’s petition for a rehearing.

“It's a historic day for veterans,” said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Counsel representing the plaintiffs.

“The government has been fighting their veterans, who went to fight on behalf of the nation,” he added. “They've been fighting them like they are the enemy. They went to the district court to fight. They lost.”

Rosenbaum said he’s pleased to see the case return to Carter’s courtroom after a long appeals process. Carter, himself a Marine Corps veteran who served in the Vietnam War, took an active role in pushing the VA to address a homelessness crisis that has thousands of former service members experiencing homelessness on any given night in L.A. County.

Could the VA pursue further appeals? 

Carter has also ordered the VA to stop using veterans' disability payment benefits as a reason to make them ineligible for supportive housing programs due to income restrictions.

But Rob Reynolds, an Iraq War veteran who advocates for L.A.’s veteran community, said the federal government’s attempts to win an appeal could continue.

“The government can still appeal this to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Reynolds said.

When veterans involved in the case first heard today’s news on the 9th Circuit ruling, he said they immediately asked about the potential for further appeals.

“All of us are really hoping that the government stops this fight, and that we can get housing built for our veterans and end this madness once and for all,” Reynolds said.

A spokesperson for the VA declined to comment on the ruling, saying the department does not discuss pending litigation.

Jenny Yang, a comedian from L.A., has been traveling across the country turning immigrant grocery stores into comedy hubs. Now she’s back in L.A. getting ready to start a mini-residency in Highland Park, tape her first one-hour special and share moments from the tour.

Yang kicked off her Good Egg Immigrant Grocery Store Standup Comedy Tour in June in L.A., then took it to 15 cities across the country. She told LAist the decision came as a way to cope with the grief from her dad’s death, 10 failed in vitro fertilization treatments between 2020 and 2025 and seeing the news of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids spread across the country.

She said the idea to tour grocery stores was a way to reclaim those spaces, after immigration enforcement left many afraid to go out and do simple tasks like buying groceries.

“If we cannot laugh in front of a wall of instant ramen around our bok choy," Yang said, "then what is the American dream for?"

Her routine wove in stories about her fertility struggles and the challenges of having to be a “good egg” growing up as the child of immigrant parents from Taiwan. Her hope for the tour was to connect with people, to make jokes and help people feel lighter after.

The tour proceeds went to local nonprofits serving immigrant communities, and Yang said those organizations helped recruit the grocery stores. She said some stores said no at first — they felt overwhelmed by ICE activity in their city, had lost staff or worried about drawing attention.

“That's part of the story of the tour is it's one thing to want to imagine this beautiful world where you can tell jokes inside of immigrant grocery stores," Yang said. "It's another thing to know what those obstacles are, and I think that's still very telling for where we are as a country.”

One moment stood out to Yang: performing at Shuang Hur Supermarket in Minneapolis. It’s near the memorial for Alex Pretti, the nurse that a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed in January as federal agents carried out immigration enforcement in the city.

“I was able to talk to Henry, the owner who’s a Chinese American uncle. [He] was so proud of being able to help his regular patrons, who for the most part even though it was an Asian centered grocery store, were majority Latino,” Yang said. “I was able to bear witness to their resilience as a community, what they did to take care of each other.”

Now she’s back in L.A. and is doing a mini-residency at the Outside In Theater at 5317 York Blvd. in Highland Park. Her first show is 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 12, followed by shows on Sept. 19 and 26 at the same time. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, and you can find them at Outside In's website.

In February 2027, Yang will be taping her first one-hour special at Rancho Meat Market #1 in Lincoln Heights. She describes it as a love letter to Los Angeles that’s endured so much, from the ICE raids to the January fires.

You can follow Jenny Yang’s work here.

When you wanna keep it simple for lunch — go with a sandwich.

Take N’ Taste — a sandwich business based in Burbank — offers a variety of options, including classics like melts and dips, and delivers to locals from a home kitchen.

What goes into running a MEHKO business?

A Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) is a type of permit available through the L.A. County Department of Public Health, which allows folks to run a food service business from their home. Although it has more limitations than a brick-and-mortar restaurant, it also provides an avenue to build small business.

According to the L.A. County Department of Public Health's website, it allows MEHKO businesses to sell up to 30 meals per day with a limit of 90 meals per week. For businesses that are approved for the county's compact mobile food operations permit, that number jumps up to 80 meals per day and 200 meals per week.

The permit doesn't allow third-party food delivery app use, meaning they deliver directly to you or you schedule a pickup with the business.

About the owners

Ashley Childs' local culinary background runs pretty deep — she's worked at places like Tony’s Darts Away, a gastropub in Burbank, as well as the vegan hole-in-the-wall restaurant Doomie's Home Cookin' on Melrose. As the chef-and-owner of Take N' Taste, she's carried those experiences into her current work, which serves as a side hustle while she pursues a master's degree in nutritional science.

It's also a side hustle of sorts for co-owner James Schroeder, who works primarily as a storyboard artist. He previously worked managing the East Hollywood Farmers Market, which helped him connect with local farmers and learn the best ways to source ingredients.

Restaurant details

• Since Childs was previously vegan, she developed vegan alternatives for many of the menu items.

Menu items we tried

Take N' Taste smoked BBQ chicken sandwich.

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Courtesy Ashley Childs

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• Roast Beef Dip (roast beef, Swiss cheese, grilled onions and horseradish garlic mayo on a rustic French baguette)
• Smoked BBQ Jackfruit Sandwich (organic smoked barbecue jackfruit on a ciabatta roll with jalapeño slaw and homemade dill pickles)
• Blackened Chicken Sandwich (organic blackened chicken, jalapeño slaw and garlic mayo on a Japanese milk bun)

What should we try next?

In 2017, only about 400 public schools in the state offered bilingual education.

But in the 10 years since voters approved Prop 58 overturning the ban on bilingual teaching, that number has now grown to more than 1,000.

It's still not enough to meet the demand from parents and caregivers who want their kids to have the advantages of bilingualism, as well as academic support for Spanish and other languages spoken at home.

California officials now want to increase the number of public schools to 1,600 by 2030.

“These programs have expanded quickly, but these schools continue to really struggle to find and retain the teachers to teach in them,” said Cati de los Rios, an associate professor of language, literacy, and culture at UC Berkeley.

She said the lag in the teacher pipeline is the main problem. The bilingual education ban, approved by voters in 1998 through Prop. 227, also shriveled up university training programs for bilingual teachers.

There are signs of recovery. The number of teachers trained in bilingual education in California has grown to a record of nearly 1,400 in the 2023-2024 school year.

Educators feel the momentum is growing. On Saturday, some of them are set to gather at California State University, Dominguez Hills for a yearly Bilingual Teacher Conference to take advantage of that energy.

“It's a celebration … to highlight the importance and the beauty of being bilingual and supporting our students and our families and our communities to really embrace bilingualism,” said Elexia Reyes-McGovern, a professor of teacher education at the campus.

The keynote speaker, she said, will talk about how teachers can nurture students’ thinking about mathematics in English and a second language.

Other languages

A report out this year signaled that the vast majority of the bilingual education teacher graduates received training to teach Spanish and English, but the number of graduates across the state authorized to teach other languages, such as Mandarin, Vietnamese and Armenian also grew.

Leslie Cortes Sanchez, a 2023 - 2024 bilingual education teacher trainee in UC Berkeley’s Teacher Education program, in a California classroom.

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Manny Herrera

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Courtesy Cati de los Rios

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“[I taught] two sisters and they were twins, and they came from Guatemala,” said Cristal Guadarrama, who teaches fifth grade Spanish-English dual language in South L.A.

She crafted a lesson one day, she says, around those students’ indigenous language, in particular the word for table, which was similar to the Spanish word.

“That was showing the other kids, like, ‘oh wow, there's so many similarities within the language. It's just like a change of letters.’ So then they started wanting to learn,” she said.

Research shows students in bilingual programs attend school more regularly and help recent immigrants enter all-English classes faster than without bilingual support.

California’s been engaged in a policy back and forth with bilingualism and multilingualism for over 150 years. For now, the anniversary of Prop. 58’s approval suggests a future that’s more embracing of non-English languages as an asset to learning, rather than a liability.

“We've changed the mindset of this kind of linguistic supremacy of English-only monolingualism being the present and the future,” de los Rios said.