Topline:
The Los Angeles River isn’t just for walking and biking, you can join other Angelenos and dance in the middle of it.
Why: Local club the Gratitude Group has been helping Angelenos unplug and connect with one another by throwing dry dance parties in unexpected places around L.A.
What's next: The next L.A. River dance party is happening tomorrow, Sunday. Read on to learn more.
There’s a fair amount of recreational activities Angelenos can do in and around the Los Angeles River like biking, walking, even kayaking, but did you know you can also dance in the dry river bed of a Los Angeles icon?
Dancing in the sun
Adam Weiss is the founder of the Gratitude Group, a club that hosts various events across Los Angeles like dance parties at the River, a screen-free reading club at the Central Library and meditative sound baths at Elysian Park. That’s just this weekend alone.
Weiss has been hosting the free dance parties for about two years now. The locations vary. Previously he’s held them at the Elysian Park helipad.
“Everybody wants to dance, they're just waiting to be invited to dance, and then if you're a good DJ, you just keep the floor packed,” said Weiss, who also deejays these events. Lately it's been a lot of disco, funk and soul. Weiss also likes to keep the gatherings dry, meaning no drugs or alcohol. He thinks it makes people engage with each other more.
“So the focus really is on connection and dancing,” Weiss said.
Ariana Valencia lives in Burbank and attended last month's dance party, also at the L.A. River. She says dancing in the middle of the concrete riverbed made the city feel like a playground that she could explore.
“I’d never been to the L.A. River prior to that. You think it’s just a little swampy little pond, but it was actually really full,” said Valencia. “I would have never thought that was in the middle of the city.”
Weiss says part of the appeal is not just getting people outside but to get them to experience Los Angeles differently.
At the last event, people walking or biking along the river path joined on a whim — some even brought their kids. Weiss says that’s exactly the kind of reaction he hopes for.
“ I want it to be family friendly. I want it to feel welcoming. I want it to be inclusive,” Weiss said. “My main thing is I just want people to actually dance. I think it feels good to dance.”
For Valencia that inclusiveness is part of the draw. She says she’ll be joining again this Sunday.
“Even though it wasn’t advertised as a dry event I think the fact that it was a family friendly kind of thing was appealing to me,” said Valencia.
After the last dance party went viral, Weiss says more than 1,500 people have RSVP-ed for tomorrow's event. This compelled him to close reservations.
Weiss plans to hold the event every other week this Spring and Summer — taking place either at the River or the Elysian Field Helipad with its amazing view of the city.
Weiss wants to start branching out too, and is eyeing the Culver City Stairs as a possible location.
“ I just wanna bring people to cool interesting places to dance,” Weiss said.
Topline:
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Wednesday he will reduce charges against LAPD Officer Daniel Flores from felonies to misdemeanors. Flores is accused of illegally recording his fellow officers as they made racist, sexist and anti-gay remarks.
What’s next? Hochman said he was reducing the 16 felony charges against Flores to 16 misdemeanor charges — one for each LAPD officer who’d been secretly recorded, which is illegal in California. Hochman also said state prison was off the table for Flores, who now has a pathway to request what’s known as judicial diversion for one year.
What’s judicial diversion? If the court grants Flores’ request for a diversion, the charges could eventually be dismissed after a one-year period in which he is required to obey all laws. “ That is what we anticipate will end up happening with the Daniel Flores case,” Hochman said.
Why the change? Hochman said he had heard feedback on the charges from community members and elected officials “ in many different quarters” regarding the potential chilling effect the case could have on future whistleblowers. Some of those included L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter L.A. and City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez. “The way we charged the case was not making the message clear,” Hochman said. “We believe that by reducing the felonies to misdemeanors, not dismissing the case … that was striking the appropriate balance between accountability, fairness, deterring illegal conduct and incentivizing whistleblowers.”
Privacy concerns: Hochman said sending a broader message on illegal eavesdropping and privacy concerns via secret phone recordings and smart glasses was part of his original intent in bringing the charges. California is an all-party consent state, meaning it's illegal to record private conversations without permission of everyone being taped.
The timeline: Hochman said the charges would be officially reduced the next time Flores appears in court, which “ might happen as early as tomorrow, or no later than by next week.”
For more on the concerns over whistleblower chilling: Read Frank Stoltze’s coverage of the backlash to the charges.
Topline:
The Trump administration announced Tuesday it is rolling back a rule prohibiting logging and road construction in undeveloped parts of national forests, including more than 4 million acres of federally managed forest lands in California.
Why it matters: The change could open some of California’s most remote backcountry to new roads and development — even as U.S. Forest Service research shows that roads are a major source of wildfire ignitions in the state’s national forests. People start most of California’s wildfires, including on federal land — a hiker might burn toilet paper in the backcountry or a motorist might drag a tow chain or pull a hot car onto dry grass.
Why it's happening: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who first announced the plan last year, says the change will reduce barriers to managing fuels on public lands. Environmental groups and California officials say that's not necessary.
Read on ... for more on what this means for California forests.
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it is rolling back a rule prohibiting logging and road construction in undeveloped parts of national forests, including more than 4 million acres of federally managed forest lands in California.
The change could open some of California's most remote backcountry to new roads and development — even as U.S. Forest Service research shows that roads are a major source of wildfire ignitions in the state's national forests.
People start most of California’s wildfires, including on federal land — and it’s not just sparks from faulty power lines. Fires can start in many ways: A hiker might burn toilet paper in the backcountry, a hot tub might be miswired, or someone might drag a tow chain or pull a hot car onto dry grass.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who first announced the plan last year, said Tuesday that federal officials filed a proposal and environmental impact statement to rescind the rule in order to reduce barriers to managing fuels on public lands.
“For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” Rollins said in a statement.
But in California, the U.S. Forest Service’s own research points to a complication: Roads and the people who travel on them are known conduits for fire.
Scientists with the U.S. Forest Service mapped 26 years of fire ignitions along roughly 850 miles of roads in the Angeles, San Bernardino, Los Padres and Cleveland national forests. All of them, according to a Forest Service map, also contain roadless reaches.
The mapping effort revealed that nearly two-thirds of the fires people caused in these forests sparked along roadsides — places where people, the sparks they create and fuel in the form of flammable, invasive grasses often converge.
California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said that the roadless rule has not hindered California’s forest management and prescribed fire efforts.
“In fact, more than 240,000 acres of roadless land in California have undergone vegetation treatments to reduce wildfire risk and protect nearby communities,” Crowfoot said in a letter to Rollins last September. He cited an example in the Caples Creek roadless area south of Lake Tahoe, which he said helped shield communities during the 2021 Caldor Fire.
Crowfoot warned that opening these areas to construction, timber harvests and mining “may put rural communities at increased risk of fire and significantly increase firefighting costs of California.”
It’s not just California. A recent peer-reviewed study by scientists with the Wilderness Society reported earlier this year that wildfire ignitions in national forests across the country are four times more likely near roads. From 1992 to 2024, wildfire ignition densities were lowest in designated wilderness areas, followed by roadless areas. They were highest within 50 meters of roads.
“Opening our backcountry forests to more roads and development and therefore more ignitions is also not a wildfire solution and never will be,” said Josh Hicks, the Wilderness Society’s director of conservation campaigns.
The Trump administration said rescinding the rule doesn’t automatically mandate timber harvests or building roads. Instead, it would leave decisions to local national forest managers.
“Future land management decisions would be based on natural resource conditions and needs and informed by states, tribes and communities,” the Agriculture Department’s announcement said Tuesday.
Environmental advocates are skeptical, especially in light of the Trump administration's executive order last year calling for an “immediate expansion of American timber production.”
The roadless rule also already allows for roads to be constructed or rebuilt to protect health and safety from the threat of wildfire.
Retired U.S. Forest Service chiefs, including one who served during the first Trump administration, said in an opinion piece last year that repealing the rule threatens key watersheds and wildlife.
“Why build more roads when the agency, strapped for resources, can’t even maintain the ones that already exist?” they asked. “Let’s not forget the reasons these backcountry areas do not have roads. The easily accessible high-value timber from national forests has been harvested. What little that remains in these roadless backcountry areas is difficult and costly to access.”
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat and ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, blasted the Trump administration for moving forward on rescinding the rule during a catastrophic fire season following the Trump administration’s slashing of the U.S. Forest Service. He vowed to fight it in Congress.
“The Trump administration is at again, selling out our public lands to corporate polluters, ignoring the overwhelming objections of the American people,” Huffman said in a statement. He added: “It’s reckless.”
The public has until midnight on Sept. 21 to comment.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Topline:
A new report from St. John’s Community Health found that nearly 36% of 1,306 patients seen at its mobile clinics between June 17 and July 31 had serious health problems the organization attributed to exposure to smoke and toxic chemicals.
Why it matters: The findings come weeks after Mayor Karen Bass faced criticism for saying the air was “not dangerous” in the early days of the fire. Bass later apologized for the confusion, saying “all smoke under all circumstances is harmful.” The report offers an early look at the physical and mental health toll of the fire on residents of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles.
More details: The health problems identified included acute upper respiratory infections, eye disorders and conjunctivitis, persistent cough and asthma exacerbation.
Read on... for more on the the report.
This story first appeared on The LA Local.
Two months after the Lineage warehouse fire, Maria Mendez is still having trouble sleeping. The 68-year-old Boyle Heights resident has dealt with nausea, respiratory and eye problems, as well as anxiety attacks, since the June 17 blaze.
And she’s not alone. A new report from St. John’s Community Health found that nearly 36% of 1,306 patients seen at its mobile clinics between June 17 and July 31 had serious health problems the organization attributed to exposure to smoke and toxic chemicals.
The findings come weeks after Mayor Karen Bass faced criticism for saying the air was “not dangerous” in the early days of the fire. Bass later apologized for the confusion, saying “all smoke under all circumstances is harmful.”
The report offers an early look at the physical and mental health toll of the fire on residents of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles.
The health problems identified included acute upper respiratory infections, eye disorders and conjunctivitis, persistent cough and asthma exacerbation.
“Our community, my friends, my neighbors have suffered in the past two months,” Mendez said, detailing the putrid odors and rat and fly infestation they’ve encountered as Lineage works to clean the food waste left behind by the fire.
Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health, outlined the results at a press conference Tuesday at InnerCity Struggle in Boyle Heights. Among those there were residents, including Mendez, and community leaders Henry Perez, executive director of InnerCity Struggle, and Rudy Espinoza, executive director of Inclusive Action for the City.
Patients were largely Latino (91.7%), female (64.4%) and 50 or older (63.5%). The report found that 26.6% were diagnosed with toxic smoke exposure and 24.5% received hazardous substance diagnoses.
Dozens of patients were prescribed anxiety and/or sleep medication to treat acute stress after the fire, which, according to St. John’s, was related to the following: environmental exposure, sleep disruption and insomnia, housing instability, lease termination requests, relocation concerns, ongoing uncertainty regarding environmental safety, and psychosocial distress associated with displacement and recovery.
“What we’re seeing now are the acute impacts, but what we’re not seeing yet are the long term impacts, and that’s where you’re going to see the most damage,” Mangia said.
“You’re going to see a significant increase in asthma rates in Boyle Heights. You’re going to see an increase in cardiac issues. You’re going to see an increase in mental health issues,” he added.
In the report, St. John’s noted that in one case, a patient with asthma arrived at a mobile clinic with “worsening shortness of breath.” Providers administered an urgent breathing treatment onsite and supplied inhaler medications to help manage ongoing symptoms, according to the report.
Providers documented providing hydroxyzine therapy and discussing coping strategies with a patient experiencing anxiety, sleep disruption and environmental stress related to ongoing fire exposure concerns.
Mangia also pushed back against South Coast AQMD and Lineage for stating that measured ammonia levels do not exceed the state threshold requiring action to protect public health.
“That’s a direct contradiction with what we’re seeing on the ground by serving and providing health care. We’re seeing the health impacts of this fire,” he said. “To claim that it’s not at toxic levels, it’s not at emergency levels, that’s all doublespeak.”
Mangia said they are seeing eye infections “that we can’t get rid of” and asthma attacks in children.
“We always track the health conditions of the people we serve. We tracked it before the fire, and we saw a complete difference in the health conditions from before and now. So, that’s public proof,” Mangia said.
In this edition:
Dudamel bids farewell at the Bowl, Los Feliz hosts a Writers Fest, Just Like Heaven comes to the Rose Bowl and more of the best things to do this week.
Highlights:
I can’t believe school is already back in session across much of the area. What happened to summer? I’m still only halfway through my TBF summer reading pile…
To celebrate the start of the new school year, you can’t go wrong heading out for a DineLA deal one evening (through Aug. 28) or hitting up one of the many Dudamel farewell shows at the Hollywood Bowl.
Elsewhere on LAist, you can follow what’s next for Shadow after the loss of Jackie, check out FilmWeek's review of the new thriller The End of Oak Street, and take a look at where to see the work of late L.A. artist Betye Saar.
For non-Dudamel music this week — and there’s tons — check out highlights from Licorice Pizza’s picks, including a free in-store performance by Bleu at their location in Studio City on Saturday.
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Saturday, Aug. 22, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
International Printing Museum
315 W. Torrance Blvd., Carson
COST: $12-$15; MORE INFO
It makes sense that back-to-school season is also historically “printing season,” so celebrate all things letterpress at the annual Wayzgoose Celebration at Carson’s International Printing Museum. From workshops on paper marbling and foil printing to demos and more, you’ll be making your own hipster greeting card line in no time.
Through Sunday, Aug. 23
LACMA
5905 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile
COST: Included in museum admission; MORE INFO
In a time before AI video editing and easy access to all the videos ever made, artist Christian Marclay made The Clock, a 24-hour film that follows a complete day with an image of a clock — spliced from TV shows, movies, commercials, you name it — of the exact time in every scene. LACMA hasn’t shown the film since 2015, so head over and catch it during regular museum hours or for a full 24 hours until the weekend. I saw 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. last week, but I want a full report from anyone awake enough to catch the 4 a.m. session!
Thursday, Aug. 20, 6 p.m.
Williams Sonoma South Coast Plaza
3333 Bear Street Ste. 155, Costa Mesa
COST: $24, includes book; MORE INFO
Top Chef alum and chef-restaurateur Nelson German will host a live cocktail-mixing demonstration at South Coast Plaza in celebration of his new book, Caribbean Cocktails. German will sign books and discuss his recipes that bring flavors of the Afro-Latino diaspora to the table. Tickets include a copy of his new book.
Through Sunday, Aug. 23
Fullerton Marriott at Cal State University
2701 Nutwood Ave., Fullerton
COST: Varies; MORE INFO
The author behind near-future pop culture touchstones like Minority Report and The Man in the High Castle spent the last 10 years of his life in Santa Ana, so it’s only fitting that Fullerton would host a festival celebrating one of its most unique denizens. The fourth annual Philip K. Dick festival is this weekend; LAist’s Robert Garrova previewed the event and learned more about the beloved — and out-there — author.
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 7:30 p.m.
Grammy Museum
800 W. Olympic Blvd., Downtown L.A.
COST: SOLD OUT, waitlist available; MORE INFO
No one in L.A. is busier this week than Gustavo Dudamel, who has his last few performances at the Hollywood Bowl before he heads to the New York Philharmonic next season. Catch him at one of the many farewell shows at the Bowl, or head downtown and hopefully score a ticket to hear him in conversation with actor Sir Anthony Hopkins. The two collaborated on 88-year-old Hopkins’s newly released first album as a composer, Life Is a Dream.
Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 22 and 23
California Market Center
110 E. Ninth St., Downtown L.A.
COST: FROM $12.45; MORE INFO
Whether you’re looking to round out your record collection or have a specific LP in mind, head to VinylCon at the California Market Center, where rows and rows of records will greet you. Crate-diggers, unite!
Saturday, Aug. 22, and Sunday, Sept. 13, 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Natural History Museum
900 Exposition Blvd., Expo Park
COST: $30, includes museum admission and parking; MORE INFO
Start the weekend off with mindfulness among the wonders at the Natural History Museum. Yoga practices and sound baths are on the agenda monthly before the museum opens, but stick around to check out the exhibits once your calming session wraps up. This week’s is sold out, but plan ahead for the Sept. 13 event.
Through Sunday, Aug. 23
Various locations
Los Feliz
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Learn about the writers of Los Feliz — past and present — at the Los Feliz Writers Festival. From a personal essay workshop to spoken-word performances; a food-and-sensory writing experience at Bar Covell to a zine hangout at Barnsdall Art Park; there’s something for writers and readers of all stripes at this free, volunteer-run festival.
Saturday, Aug. 22, 6 p.m.
1749 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood
COST: $33.85; MORE INFO
Come for the stand-up comedy, the magic and Bob Baker Marionettes; stay for the good cause — a fundraiser for the Hollywood Women’s Club. The club is 121 years old and donated the land for what’s now the beloved Hollywood Bowl.
