The Brief

A lucky few got a glimpse of the interior of the revamped Vista Theater on Sunset Boulevard last week, one of the last remaining single-screen movie theaters in the Southland, when owner Quentin Tarantino held a special screening of the 1993 cult classic True Romance.

The Vista — with a new 70 mm projection system, sound system, and 21-seat screening room and café named “Coffy,” after the 1973 Pam Grier film — opens officially on Friday at 4473 Sunset Dr., with horror maestro Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving.

The rebirth is the latest chapter in the century-long saga of one of L.A.’s most famous historic theaters. “The history of the Vista is quite surprising, and full of ups and down, and I for one find its resilience to be the most exciting part,” says Celine Vacher, of the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council.

To tell its story, you need to go all the way back to the birth of Hollywood.

Sunset Boulevard

Filmmaking came to the East Hollywood/Los Feliz area in 1912, when producers L.L. Burns and Harry Revier leased a fig orchard on Sunset Boulevard. On this farmland they built a rustic studio, which was soon renamed Reliance Film Company. Reliance quickly hired pioneering director D. W. Griffith, who brought along his silent film stars Lillian and Dorothy Gish.

Griffith eventually gained control of the studio, which he renamed Fine Arts Studio. In 1914, Griffith built a sprawling replica of a southern antebellum town around the junction of Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards. This set was used for his revolutionary, highly controversial 1915 racist epic The Birth of a Nation, which many historians point to as the first blockbuster full-length feature.

The next movie Griffith set at Sunset Junction would become part of Los Angeles lore. In this quiet rural neighborhood, still dotted with farmhouses and ranches, Griffith constructed a towering plaster set for his 1916 epic Intolerance. Meant to portray the ancient palace of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, the set covered an astounding three city blocks.

“Belshazzar’s Feast beneath Egyptian blue skies,” writer Kenneth Anger wrote in his infamous 1959 expose Hollywood Babylon, “spread out under the blazing California sun: more than four thousand extras recruited from L.A. paid an unheard-of two dollars a day plus box lunch, plus carfare.”

A large crowd congregates outside of Bard's Hollywood Theatre to celebrate its grand opening

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After filming, the set remained up in some form until 1922, becoming a playground for local children. By then, the area was becoming a hub for silent productions, crew bungalows, and stars’ mansions. “Los Feliz was home to Walt Disney’s very first studios, Cecil B. DeMille’s estate where Charlie Chaplin once resided, and even the Vitagraph studios where parts of The Jazz Singer (the first movie with sound) were filmed,” says Vacher.

Egyptian revival style

So it was fitting that the theatrical impresario Lou Bard chose to build the latest in his string of theaters at the fabled intersection of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards, known as “the great crossroads of Los Angeles.” On Oct. 9, 1923, the 838-seat single screen theater, said to have been called Lou Bard Playhouse or Bard’s Hollywood, opened with a special vaudeville show and the short Tips, starring child star Baby Peggy — who also appeared on stage.

The theater design was as trendy as it could be. Designed by architect Lewis A. Smith, the exterior was constructed in the popular Spanish Mission Revival style. But it was the interior that was truly a feast for the imagination. Designed in the peculiarly western “Egyptian revival” style (popularized by the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922), the interior was a brightly colored riot of golden pharaohs, goddesses, and lamps shaped like pyramids.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the theater was the site for all important industry previews during the golden age of silent film. But Bard was not as successful as he would have liked, and he reportedly sold the theater in 1927. It was renamed the Vista.

Over the decades, the Vista went through many owners. But it was reliably a popular neighborhood theater, even as larger, showier movie palaces sprang up all over Los Angeles.

A crowd of movie-goers attend a showing of Mildred Pierce, starring Joan Crawford, at the Vista Theater.

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Controversies over the years

Yet the small but mighty theater would find itself the center of controversies which cemented its place in history. In 1948, the theater capitalized on its historic location by announcing a revival of the problematic The Birth of a Nation, only days after D.W. Griffith's death on July 23, 1948. The Hollywood Reporter noted the choice, in a short article headlined “Opportunism!” It read:

Disturbed Angelenos immediately took action. Allen M. Metcalf, a local candidate from the Progressive Party, went to the theater to confront the management. “The manager of the theater,” the Los Angeles Times reported, “pointed out that the movie showed the skeleton in the closet of the nation and denied that the cinema was incitement for a riot.”

Progressives were unconvinced. Around 20 Black and white civil rights activists formed a picket line in an attempt to block customers from seeing the film. However, the revival continued.

Charges of un-American values

Controversy came again in the 1950s, when the theater reopened as the Vista Continental. Capitalizing on the growing popularity of foreign films, the theater boasted that it was the only SoCal theater showing first-run films from the Soviet Union. This led locals to complain that the theater was promoting un-American, Communist values at the height of the Cold War. But the theater soldiered on.

The biggest test for the Vista came in the 1960s. During that era, the theater began showing pornographic films, including same-sex films. Irate, the city revoked its operating permit. The Vista fought back, and in 1968 the case was heard in the California Supreme Court.

The Vista won the case, in a decisive blow against anti-gay governance. “The court ruled, in a 5-2 decision, that the law is ‘overly broad’ and threatens to deny theater operators their rights of free speech and press,” the Los Angeles Times reported in June 1968.

“The Court ruled that Stewart Burton, manager of the Vista Theater, should be granted a writ of prohibition against the Los Angeles Board of police commissioners, which did not renew his license.”

Over the next three decades, the theater changed hands several times before it was purchased by Landmark Theatres in 1982. It became known for reviving classic films like Harold and Maude and Gone with the Wind, but business was slow, as VHS decimated art houses nationwide.

A neighborhood gathering place

In 1997, the Vista was purchased by Lance Alspaugh’s Vintage Theater Group. Alspaugh made community outreach a priority. It became known for its very own Walk of Fame, featuring handprints and footprints from stars like John Landis, Elvira, Tatum and Ryan O’Neal, and Baby Peggy herself.

“It’s been an integral part of Los Feliz because it’s intentionally embedded itself in the community,” Vacher says. “Take the longtime manager [Victor Martinez], for example, every big opening night he greets moviegoers in full costume. It’s become a tradition and locals all have their own sets of memories with him as he makes everyone feel like a welcomed friend.”

The Vista became an important gathering place in the area, known for its welcoming atmosphere, epitomized by Martinez (who is reportedly currently on the board of the theater). The theater was rented out for weddings, late night screenings, and was the home of Thomas Starr King Middle School’s annual animation and film festival. There was a Secret Movie Club, and local filmmakers were thrilled when they had premieres at their neighborhood theater.

“I had my first movie premiere at the Vista, which we sold out,” says filmmaker Kestrin Pantera, whose film Let’s Ruin it with Babies premiered in 2013. “It was an…amazing all-night karaoke party and a dream come true to be on the marquee.”

The pandemic shuttered the Vista, which closed in 2020. The marquee, which read “To Be Continued…” became a hopeful sight for weary travelers driving down Sunset Boulevard during the shutdown.

What Tarantino says is next for the theater

But the Vista had not taken its final bow. In 2021, it was announced that director Quentin Tarantino, who saved the historic New Beverly Cinema when he purchased it in 2007, had bought the movie house. “I would not have handed the keys to the Vista over to just anybody,” Alspaugh told the Los Angeles Times.

“It’s no secret that Tarantino often pays homage to Hollywood history in his films, so it feels all the more appropriate that someone with such reverence for the art of filmmaking would be the new custodian of this iconic theater in its iconic location,” Vacher says.

Tarantino vowed to show only movies on film at the new Vista, instead of digital projection. He also clearly valued the communal aspects Alspaugh had fostered over the years. “I do think boutique cinemas will actually thrive at this time,” Tarantino told the Los Angeles Times. “I got a living room. I want to go to a movie theater.”

Over the last two years the Vista has undergone a dramatic makeover. “Quentin basically retained the auditorium — it’s intact, it’s been rehabbed and it’s still new and beautiful, but the overall auditorium is in intact condition,” said Alspaugh, who has remained as chief operating officer.

“The intention is to run mostly first-run and occasional classics or repertory film,” Alspaugh told Variety’s Pat Saperstein. “There will be sections of time where you might see classic repertory titles on film for brief interludes. In the future, you’ll see some late shows of classic films and I think you’ll see morning shows of classic films.”

Whatever happens, cinephiles are just happy that their favorite historic theater is again part of the community where it has thrived for a century.

“The entire neighborhood has been anxiously awaiting the Vista’s comeback,” Vacher says. “It’s been on everyone’s lips. We’re all so eager to see that corner revived and active, no doubt we’ll all be flocking to it trying to make up for lost time.”

In April 2023, the FBI discovered that Rafael Silva, an officer with the Delano Police Department in California’s Central Valley, had made violent threats against transgender people on TikTok.

Under a pseudonym, Silva posted several comments that the FBI found imminently dangerous. One read, “You ain’t safe. We finna change your pronouns soon. Was/were.” Another said that Silva’s “AR will track y’all down.” And yet another read, “The only power you’ll see is the one from a barrel and a 9mm,” according to investigative documents.

Silva is one of the 148 California law enforcement officers who engaged in explicitly biased conduct between 2014 and 2024, according to an investigation by The California Newsroom and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program. Records show the officers used racist, sexist and homophobic slurs; mocked transgender people; made violent comments about Black people; and demeaned members of the public, co-workers and incarcerated people, records show.

Yet only about 12% were fired because of their conduct. Silva was not one of them. After leaving Delano, he went on to work for police departments in Avenal and Wasco.

The news organizations reviewed thousands of pages of internal affairs investigations, disciplinary records and court filings obtained from nearly 500 law enforcement and oversight agencies. The records show that some officers accused of overtly biased behavior often faced limited consequences, such as a letter of reprimand or training.

The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, determines whether to decertify officers, barring them from working in law enforcement in the state. However, the responsibility to investigate misconduct and impose discipline generally falls to individual agencies and local oversight boards, according to POST.

An investigation of California law enforcement records found officers accused of racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ conduct often remained employed.

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Despite that system, more than 40% of officers identified by the news organizations still work in California law enforcement, excluding corrections officers.

Silva did not respond to requests for comment. The Delano Police Department confirmed that Silva worked there until 2023, but declined further comment.

Attorneys, law enforcement officials and academics said the behavior erodes public trust, raises questions about officers’ credibility in court and undermines efforts to recruit and retain diverse police forces.

Law enforcement officers stand guard during a protest on June 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. 

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Law enforcement officers should be held to a high standard, said Vida Johnson, a Georgetown University law professor who has testified before Congress on white supremacy and policing.

Johnson said people who express explicit bias have no place in law enforcement.

“With such an important job, if someone is exhibiting any type of bias against a member of their community, I just don’t think they should have that job,” she said.

How biased conduct can undermine public trust and the courts

When officers exhibit explicit bias, it erodes trust between law enforcement and the communities they are sworn to protect.

“It undermines our cohesion as a country when you have different perceptions of who our institutions work on behalf of,” Johnson said.

Experts said bias against protected groups — including Black people, LGBTQ people and immigrants — sends a clear message to those communities: We are not here to serve you.

A billboard put up by the Orange County District Attorney’s office that reads, “crime doesn’t pay in Orange County. If you steal, we prosecute,” stands on the southbound 710 Freeway near Del Amo Boulevard in Long Beach, California, on March 11, 2024.

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In a 2022 case, Orange County District Attorney’s Office investigator Eric Franke called a security guard who had asked him to leave a building an “angry Black lady.” In a separate incident, he remarked that Mexican people drink excessively. He received a letter of reprimand and still works for the DA’s office.

In separate cases in 2015 and 2018, Los Angeles Police Officer Armando Magana and San Diego Police Officer Alan Dyemartin ridiculed people for not speaking English. Both received letters of reprimand and kept their jobs.

The LAPD declined to comment on the incident for this story. Spokespersons for the Orange County DA’s office and the San Diego Police Department said the agencies take prejudiced behavior seriously and noted that both employees were disciplined. Franke did not comment. Magana declined to comment, and Dyemartin did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The distrust created by explicitly biased behavior can have real-world consequences, experts said.

When people believe police are prejudiced against them, they are less likely to call 911 or seek help from law enforcement, according to Stefan Vogler, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Vogler and other experts refer to this as the “overpolicing, underprotection paradox,” a phenomenon they say is common in communities of color and LGBTQ communities.

“They’re not getting the services that they’re promised by the state,” Vogler said.

Explicit bias can also undermine trust in the courtroom.

“You become concerned about using their testimony without corroboration,” said Richard Drooyan, former Los Angeles police commissioner. Drooyan recalled the O.J. Simpson case, when defense attorneys used audio recordings and witnesses to discredit an officer who had been a key witness.

Under the Supreme Court decision in Brady v. Maryland, defense attorneys have a right to any information that impacts the credibility of officers who are called to testify.

For justice to be served, it’s imperative that information affecting an officer’s credibility makes its way before the court, said Joseph Trigilio, a Loyola Marymount University law professor and executive director of the Loyola Project for the Innocent.

“A fact finder should look at all that and consider it,” he said. “A jury should hear all of that and ask that question.”

Reporters requested lists of officers whose records must be disclosed to the defense if they’re called to testify, commonly called Brady lists, from every district attorney’s office in counties where the investigation found cases of biased behavior. One office — the Madera County District Attorney’s Office — said it does not maintain such a list. Several district attorneys said they could not locate Brady material on the officers in question, while most declined to say whether the officers appeared on their lists.

Bias extended beyond the public to incarcerated people and fellow officers

The investigation also revealed dozens of instances of biased behavior against Black people, including 23 officers who were disciplined for using the n-word.

“In our profession, there’s no room for us to be able to do that,” said Sheryl Victorian, the chief of police in Waco, Texas, who advocates for strong relationships between police and the communities they serve.

The cases include a number of officers who made comments or shared images mocking George Floyd in the wake of his murder by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. Two weeks after Floyd’s death, an officer shared a meme congratulating Floyd on being “2 weeks drug free.” Another shared a photo of Floyd being held on his stomach with a photoshopped image of a naked man sitting on him.

Two children view a mural of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Friday, as a Hennepin County court weighed the sentence to impose on former police officer Derek Chauvin. 

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Ben Grunwald, a law professor at Duke University, said negative bias is especially troubling because of the vast power given to police officers. He described officers as “street-level bureaucrats” with the capacity to use force, arrest people and put them in jail.

“The idea that these decisions that are really high stakes might be influenced by things like racism, sexism, homophobia — those should raise really serious concerns for everyone,” he said.

More than half of the 61 correctional officers identified by the investigation were still employed at the end of 2024, according to state controller data. CDCR, which employs more law enforcement officers than any other state agency, would not confirm whether they remain employed today.

In two cases at Pelican Bay State Prison, officers made casual comments about killing or shooting at Black people, and both received reprimands. At the California Men’s Colony, an officer taunted a transgender inmate to put lipstick on before going out to the yard, and the officer’s salary was temporarily reduced.

In response to questions from The California Newsroom and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, a CDCR spokesperson said the agency takes corrective and disciplinary action when appropriate and that it has “implemented new staff misconduct regulations, designed with the goals of eliminating bias, increasing transparency and improving staff accountability.”

Correctional officers wield immense power over incarcerated people, who depend on them for their basic needs and access to programs that can help them successfully reenter society, said James King, program director for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a criminal justice reform organization.

“It becomes much deeper than mere words because there’s so much power and authority behind those words,” King said.

Witnessing prejudiced behavior, even when it happens between officers, undermines rehabilitation, he said.

James King stands for a portrait outside the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California, on June 9, 2026. King, who is formerly incarcerated, is now Director of Programs at the Ella Baker Center, where he oversees and works on legislation that provides opportunity for communities that have historically been left out of policy considerations. 

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“If we are really committed to creating a safer world for all of us, then it starts with how we treat people, even as they are incarcerated and preparing to return to society,” he said.

Most of the cases we analyzed — 79% — involved comments or actions between police officers and other members of the criminal justice system, including fellow officers, court clerks, civilian employees and even a judge while court was in session.

In the case files, officers described how explicit bias in the workplace impacted them.

In the Southern California city of Orange, a Black officer reported applying to a different law enforcement agency due to Orange Police Sgt. Darrin Hall’s use of racist jokes and homophobic slurs in the workplace between 2020 and 2022. Hall received a letter stating that he would be demoted and retired later that month.

The Orange Police Department declined to comment on the incident, as it was a personnel matter.

A Los Angeles police officer wears an AXON body camera.

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Drooyan, the former L.A. police commissioner, said prejudiced behavior can create difficult working relationships between officers, leading to a morale problem, and even physical danger in high-risk or volatile environments.

“When they get into a tough situation, if they can’t trust each other, I think it becomes problematic,” he said.

Grunwald said fraught relations among law enforcement officers pose an existential problem as law enforcement leaders are trying to diversify their ranks.

“At a time when police departments are really struggling to retain good officers, and especially at a time when [departments] are struggling to attain officers of color, you’d think that this could be an important area of policy,” he said.

Uneven discipline allowed many officers to remain on the job

Despite the seriousness of explicitly biased behavior — and the fact that it can get an officer decertified — discipline varied across the 148 officers in the investigation.

Of these officers, 39% were demoted, suspended or had their pay reduced. About 20% received a letter of reprimand or were ordered to undergo training — discipline that may not permanently remain in their personnel files.

Experts said the cases uncovered by the investigation likely represent only a fraction of incidents involving explicit bias.

“We have every reason to believe that most of these types of incidents go unreported,” Johnson, the Georgetown law professor, said. “The Blue Wall of Silence. The fact that people are fearful of police. Making a police complaint isn’t easy.”

Even with those barriers, people filed more than 19,600 complaints alleging prejudiced behavior by California law enforcement officers between 2016 and 2024, according to data submitted to the state. Agencies sustained just 349 of those complaints. The figures do not include racially biased traffic stops.

Reporters were only able to examine cases that fell within a narrow band of misconduct dictated by California’s public records laws.

King said officers like Silva, the Delano police officer who threatened to shoot and kill transgender people, are not simply just “a few bad apples.”

“Law enforcement [officers] develop deep-seated cultures that you cannot train away, you cannot address through the hiring process or through the selection process,” he said.

Swift, appropriate action — via verbal reprimand, retraining or more severe discipline — is key to creating a culture of service to the community, according to Victorian, the Waco police chief.

“If nobody actually addresses the behavior when it occurs, then they continue to talk that way, and that behavior becomes acceptable,” she said.

Some officers appealed discipline and succeeded in having penalties reduced at least 38 times. Others resigned before agencies completed disciplinary proceedings.

Silva was allowed to resign rather than be terminated. The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training declined to decertify him.

The city of Wasco confirmed that Silva was still one of its police officers as of June 24, 2026.

Nicole Nguyen of Stanford’s Big Local News and Marquis Mahone-Chambers, Katey Rusch, Elizabeth Santos and Julian Wray of UC Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program contributed to this story. A grant from the Google News Initiative supported the project.

About the data analysis

The Police Records Access Project obtains records from law enforcement and oversight agencies across California involving cases in which agencies determined that officers violated certain policies, including policies prohibiting prejudice against members of protected groups. Project staff compile those files and use algorithms to identify cases in which agencies found policy violations. Staff then review the records to confirm that an agency sustained the allegation.

Reporters from The California Newsroom and UC Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program searched the text of the files and AI-generated summaries of misconduct cases using slurs and terms such as “racist” and “prejudice” to identify cases for further review. Reporters consulted academics, attorneys and law enforcement officials to develop a definition of explicit bias. Three journalists analyzed the cases to determine whether officers exhibited explicit bias against members of a protected group. Experts also reviewed a subset of cases.

To determine whether officers challenged discipline or sought to seal misconduct records, reporters searched local courts for civil lawsuits. Staff also obtained certification and employment records from POST and the state controller’s office to determine whether officers remained employed in law enforcement, including those working for CDCR.

Reporters reached out to district attorneys in the counties where we identified officers who were disciplined for biased conduct to determine if they were on Brady lists. While a few offices confirmed that the officers did not appear in their Brady materials, most said those records are exempt from public disclosure and declined to provide the information.

Los Angeles city property owners voted down a fee increase that sought to address a massive backlog of streetlight repairs.

The L.A. city clerk certified the results Wednesday: Just under 80% of the weighted votes cast rejected the idea.

The city sent ballots to owners of more than 580,000 public, commercial and private parcels in April. They were asked if they would pay more in a yearly assessment to boost the city’s streetlight budget, which has essentially been frozen since the 1990s.

Currently, it takes about one year to repair streetlights from the time an issue is reported.

In a joint statement, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and other leaders said they remain committed to improving the city’s streetlighting network.

“Every Angeleno deserves to feel safe walking their dogs, returning home from work and parking their cars at night, and the city is committed to delivering the reliable street lighting that makes that a reality,” the statement said. It was signed by Bass, L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Katy Yaroslavsky.

The background

Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property near streetlights pay on their county property tax bill.

The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights.

According to a report from the city, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the needs of the city’s streetlights in the upcoming fiscal year is nearly $112 million. That's well over double the amount the city will collect during that time period now that property owners rejected the fee increase.

Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights. This year’s vote was the first attempt to increase the fees.

What happens now?

Nothing changes, really.

According to the Bureau of Street Lighting’s website, the city “will operate within its parameters, including funding … in other words, status quo.”

Had property owners voted in favor of the higher assessment, the extra funds would have been used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and to procure solar streetlights, according to Miguel Sangalang, the head of the Bureau of Street Lighting.

In previous interviews with LAist, Sangalang said that with a larger budget, the timeline to repair simple fixes could be brought down to a week.

What else is the city doing to turn the lights back on?

In March, Mayor Bass announced an initiative to convert 60,000 streetlights to solar power over the next two years. The Mayor’s Office has said the partnership with LADWP will not have an impact on the city’s general fund.

Then in May, she said hundreds of solar streetlights had already been installed as part of the initiative near city parks, including those hosting World Cup watch parties.

City Council members have also used discretionary dollars to convert lights to solar technology, which are less vulnerable to theft, and also to fund overtime for repair teams.