Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published May 18, 2024 5:00 AM
Craft Ads took out two billboards in Altadena to advertise their new hand-painted billboard business.
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Courtesy Craft Ads
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Topline:
Craft Ads is a new Pasadena-based company seeking to bring back the art of hand-painted commercial billboards to Greater Los Angeles.
Why it matters: Billboards used to be painted by hand, until around the 1990s, when new technology replaced the more expensive and time-intensive practice.
Why now: David Lawrence and Amber Easton started Craft Ads earlier this year to beautify the L.A. skyline, one billboard at a time. "There was a time when all of the ads were hand-painted and it made for a more delightful experience. We want to bring that back," Lawrence said.
Look skyward as you head north on surface streets toward Altadena, and sooner or later you'll see something a bit out of the ordinary at the intersection of Lake Avenue andMariposa Street.
It's a billboard emblazoned with the famous wild parrots of Pasadena. And it looks and feels like no other billboard you can find in all of L.A.
"They're local to this space," said Amber Easton. "We wanted to create something that was representative of what we are doing. [It's] a local message to the community."
Easton is an art director of Craft Ads, a new Pasadena-based company that hand-paints billboards.
"It's very simple. We want to make billboards beautiful," Easton said.
Craft Ads seeks to do just that by harkening back to the roots of this commercial art form, owner and co-art director David Lawrence said.
Craft Ads took out two billboards in Altadena to advertise their new hand-painted billboard business.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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"There was a time when all of the ads were hand-painted and it made for a more delightful experience," he added. "We want to bring that back."
Billboards as art
Lawrence said he has long had a love affair with billboards. "I love that they are cinematic in scale with the impact of print advertising," he said. "You get this moment. And you can do really, really clever things with it. And I've always loved that."
Incidentally, the inspiration to get into the business came to him when he saw artist James Rosenquist's "F-111," a massive piece of artwork that itself was inspired by billboards and touches on concepts like advertising, consumerism and war.
"When I learned that he was a large scale commercial painter, I was like, I want to do that. And that kind of started the ball rolling," he said.
Lawrence went into the mural industry — which produces large scale advertisements on walls and the sides of buildings — focusing on studio art production and color mixing.
Commercial muraling, Lawrence said, can be physically demanding work.
"I noticed that nobody was doing hand-painted billboards. And it sounded like such a beautiful kind of synthesis of everything," he said.
Then, he met Easton in a couple years ago at the most Los Angeles of settings — a stand-up comedy class. The two got to talking, and Lawrence shared his idea for Crafts Ads with Easton after learning she was also in the professional muraling industry. In her case, she painted murals.
"I immediately knew that it was a wonderful idea," Easton said, who added she also admired the hand-painted process once used for billboards. "As our world becomes more digital, I have a desire to create in the physical space more and more."
David Lawrence and Amber Easton of Craft Ads
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Fiona Ng
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A brief history of billboards
Large scale outdoor advertising — defined as those measuring more than 50 square feet — started showing up on American roadsides in the 1830s to entice circus goers, according to the industry trade group Out Of Home Advertising Association of America.
By the turn of the century, a standardized billboard structure was created, allowing retailers to produce ads that would fit any billboard space across the country. From there the industry has continued to grow.
For the longest time, these billboards were painted by hand — until about the 1990s, when new technology rendered the practice obsolete.
How billboards were once hand-painted
Richard Hamlin is a Los Angeles-based lawyer who for decades has worked in law governing billboards. He remembered when these giant advertisements were still being done by hand.
"They'd have a dark room, and it had a big copper mesh on it and they would unfold a white poster paper, and tape it up against the mesh," he said.
The workers would then project the image they were going to use onto the paper. "Then they would take an electric pen and touch the pen to the outline of the pictures, and that would burn holes in the paper," Hamlin said.
Once the paper was put up on a billboard, workers would "puff charcoal through the holes in the paper" to get an outline of the image for it to be hand-painted by somebody on a cherry picker.
It would take 30 days to paint a billboard, Hamlin added.
Hamlin also pointed out this factoid: Inside the entrance to the room where they hand-painted billboards at the Foster & Kleiser plant in Los Angeles — a pioneer outdoor advertising company — a sign stated, "Through these doors walk the greatest artists on earth."
"And that was pretty accurate," Hamlin said. "Imagine painting something like [that] now."
David Lawrence and Amber Easton at Craft Ads.
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Courtesy Craft Ads
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Taking the baton, but with a twist
It is that craftsmanship, imagination and delight that Lawrence wants to bring back. His first obstacle was how to do it cost effectively.
"I wanted to do full scale hand-painted billboards ... in a studio, at full scale, on a ladder. And the overhead was significant," Lawrence said. "I was stuck there for a very long time."
He then settled on another process that would preserve the bespoke quality by essentially hand-drawing a smaller scale of a billboard ad, then scanning it and blowing it up.
"That is where we can save so much money on a hand-painted ad that we can bring them back to the local business," Lawrence said.
Lawrence and Easton then took out two billboard spaces in Altadena a couple months ago to test their processes with ads featuring Pasadena's wild parrots.
"Our neighborhoods used to be filled with advertisements painted by other people who lived in that neighborhood," Lawrence said. "And everybody would be like, Bob painted that, or Sally painted that."
Lawrence noted that a large percentage of outdoor advertising, including billboards, are taken out by local businesses for local residents. He thinks Craft Ads fills a need in the market to help businesses in L.A. stand apart.
"We want to work with the Altadena companies. We want to work with Side Pie. We want to work with MIYA. I would love to do a Christmas board with Altadena Hardware," Lawrence said.
Easton is setting her sights further.
"I'd love to work with the billboard lawyers, personally. Their style is very different, right? Because it's about efficiency," Easton said. "But if any of those lawyers want a true art piece, please come see us."
Officials have issued evacuation orders and warnings for residents near the Max Fire, which broke out late Monday afternoon.
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Courtesy Cal Fire
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Topline:
A fire near Stevenson Ranch Monday afternoon prompted evacuation orders and warnings before firefighters were able to stop its forward progress hours later at 6:25 p.m. The Max Fire, which was reported at about 4:20 p.m., has so far burned 45 acres, according to the L.A. County Fire Department.
What we know so far: The fire is located just west of the 5 Freeway in Pico Canyon Park, near Stevenson Ranch Parkway, according to Cal Fire.
Read on ... for more on evacuation orders and warnings.
This is a developing story and will be updated. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:
A fire near Stevenson Ranch Monday afternoon prompted evacuation orders and warnings before firefighters were able to stop its forward progress hours later at 6:25 p.m. The Max Fire, which was reported at about 4:20 p.m., has so far burned 45 acres, according to the L.A. County Fire Department.
The fire is located just west of the 5 Freeway in Pico Canyon Park, near Stevenson Ranch Parkway, according to Cal Fire.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for parts of the communities of Southern Oaks and Sunset Pointe, including the Laing-Brookefield Open Space. Parts of Valencia and Newhall are under evacuation warnings.
The basics
Acreage: 45 acres as of 6:25 p.m. Monday.
Containment: 0%
Structures destroyed: None reported.
Deaths: None
Injuries: 0
Personnel working on fire: Not immediately available
Live maps show multiple aircraft over the fire
Evacuation map and orders
Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for:
STV-PICO
And warnings have been issued for zones:
SCL-DELPRADO
SCL-MEADOWS
STV-CONSTITUTION
STV-E109
STV-POEEvacuation warnings
Authorities say those who require additional time to evacuate and those with pets and livestock should leave immediately.
What we know so far
The Max Fire broke out about 4:20 p.m. west of Stevenson Ranch. It's currently 0% contained.
It's among several fires in recent days, including the Hazel Fire near Lancaster, which burned 66 acres Monday before the L.A. County Fire Department said crews had stopped forward progress of the fire. Evacuation warnings for nearby residents are still in place for that fire. LAist media partner CBS LA reports aerial footage showed a few structures on fire.
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By Christopher Weber and Konstantin Toropin | The Associated Press
Published June 15, 2026 5:11 PM
A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashed shortly after takeoff.
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Courtesy CBS LA
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Topline:
A B-52 bomber crashed today and burst into flames, killing all eight people aboard, shortly after takeoff at a U.S. Air Force base in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, military officials said.
What we know: Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down around 11:20 a.m. during a routine test mission at the base, which is north of Los Angeles. After reviewing footage of the crash, it was determined that no one could have survived, Col. James Hayes, the Deputy Commander at Edwards Air Force Base, said at a news conference.
About the victims: “We lost eight great Americans,” Hayes said, adding that officials were working to notify their families. On board was a mix of military service members and government and civilian contractors, Hayes said.
A B-52 bomber crashed Monday and burst into flames, killing all eight people aboard, shortly after takeoff at a U.S. Air Force base in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, military officials said.
Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down around 11:20 a.m. during a routine test mission at the base, which is north of Los Angeles. Black smoke rose from a large swath of charred desert near what appeared to be a runway on the base, with emergency vehicles nearby.
After reviewing footage of the crash, it was determined that no one could have survived, Col. James Hayes, the Deputy Commander at Edwards Air Force Base, said at a news conference.
“We lost eight great Americans,” Hayes said, adding that officials were working to notify their families.
On board was a mix of military service members and government and civilian contractors, Hayes said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, and it could take up to six months to complete an investigation, Hayes said, but shared that the B-52 was supporting the “radar modernization program.”
In 2025, a B-52 flew to Edwards with a new, modernized radar system. A test team planned to conduct ground and flight test activities on the aircraft throughout 2026 to feed a production decision, the air force said in a 2025 news release. The modern Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system replaced the aircraft’s antiquated radar for efficacy.
Edwards Air Force Base is home to a large portion of the U.S. Air Force’s aircraft test and development efforts and is about 100 miles (161 km) north of Los Angeles. The 412th Test Wing, which runs the base, also conducts developmental testing of all Air Force aircraft, weapons systems, software and components before purchase by the service as well as throughout their lifespan.
The vast desert base is also where Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager reached a speed of Mach 1.05 and broke the sound barrier in 1947.
The airfield was closed most of Monday and all inbound aircraft were being diverted, but it reopened by late afternoon. Non-commercial visitor passes for the base were suspended as emergency crews doused the flames.
It’s too soon to say what might have happened.
The way the B-52 crashed so quickly after takeoff without getting very high or going far makes aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti suspect some kind of flight control malfunction.
It’s possible the controls were rigged wrong after maintenance, he said, or a catastrophic engine problem or a failure of a piece of equipment that was being tested.
“I think it was definitely a controllability issue. Now, whether that was tied to an engine failure, a flight control failure, or some new testing device failure, I’m not sure,” said Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Although the Air Force has been flying B-52 bombers for more than 70 years, testing out new equipment on a plane can create new challenges.
“A flight test is always riskier than normal operations, so that’s why you have specially trained test pilots, and you should have other safety protocols,” Guzzetti said.
___
Toropin reported from Washington D.C. AP Transportation Writer Josh Funk contributed to this story from Omaha, Nebraska and AP reporter Hallie Golden contributed from Seattle.
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Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published June 15, 2026 3:35 PM
Several historic cabins in Crystal Cove State Park, like this one, suffered damage and flooding during heavy surf and high tides.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Topline:
Heavy surf, high tides and rip currents have done some damage to the Southern California coast, with potentially dangerous conditions expected to last at least until Thursday.
Why it matters: A young girl was recently swept into the ocean and killed, and some coastline infrastructure has been damaged.
Keep reading...for more on the recent heavy surf and high tides.
Heavy surf, high tides and rip currents have done some damage to the Southern California coast, with potentially dangerous conditions expected to last at least until Thursday.
The conditions already have had devastating consequences. Just last week in Laguna Beach, a 5-year-old girl drowned after she was swept into the ocean by powerful surf. Authorities said they were able to rescue her mother and brother, who were caught in the same swell.
In Crystal Cove State Park, tides over 7 feet and heavy surf damaged part of a historic cabin, and nearly flooded another. A lifeguard tower was nearly pulled into the water.
Heavy surf and high tides pulled sand from beneath a cabin at Crystal Cove Historic District.
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Erin Stone
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'Biggest waves I've ever seen'
“ At the peak of it, just the biggest waves I've ever seen here in my experience as a lifeguard,” said Jake Beckley, who’s been a Crystal Cove lifeguard for six years. “We've lost pretty much the entire beach at certain points.”
The tide reached as high as The Beachcomber restaurant at one point, and pulled chunks of a historic seawall from beneath a cabin nearby.
About Crystal Cove
In the 1910s, the area became popular with both beachgoers and Hollywood movie makers who used it as a filming location. From there, it grew into a bustling community for summer visitors, and later residents. In 1979, it became a California State Park.
Sandra and Rigo Garcia of San Dimas have been visiting Crystal Cove to stay in those historic cabins since the late 1990s. They’ve seen the beach change over the decades.
Sandra and Rigo Garcia have been coming to Crystal Cove for decades and have seen the beach change.
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Erin Stone
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“The tide is just so high that it took all the sand, and we're just like, ‘Oh, where's my beach?’” Sandra Garcia said as they sat under an umbrella on the sand of a small road.
Rigo Garcia pointed to the patch of sand in front of them.
“This spot was always the greatest spot, because I would come early in the morning, set up the easy-ups and chairs, and we always had plenty of real estate,” he said. “The kids would be able to swim maybe 10, 15 yards while they're out there. But now it's so dangerous…too many rocks.”
How we got here
A strong southern swell, combined with high tides, has led to the coastal erosion and flooding. The highest tides of the year, however, usually come in the winter, but over the last week some beaches have seen record high tides for this time of year, according to the National Weather Service.
“As sea levels rise, things like this are gonna become more common."
— Riley Pratt, environmental scientist
Riley Pratt, an environmental scientist with California State Parks Orange County District, said these events are a window into the future — as pollution in our atmosphere heats up the planet and melts glaciers, sea levels rise.
“As sea levels rise, things like this are gonna become more common, and their impact is going to be proportionally greater because the baseline is shifting,” he said. “That's going to change what is this just annual cycle into something that's new and that we haven't seen before.”
But for now, the beach is crowded, the sun is shining, and summertime is in the air. And for the Garcias and their fellow beachgoers, there’s no time like the present.
“Earth changes, so you have to go with it,” said Sandra Garcia. “Even though it has changed so much, we still can enjoy it… and be thankful that we have this paradise here.”
What's next
In Orange County, the National Weather Service warns that dangerous surf conditions, including rip currents, are expected to continue through Friday evening.
This creates dangerous conditions for swimming. Anyone caught in a rip current is advised to swim parallel to the shore to clear it. And, as the NWS says, "always swim near a lifeguard."
In L.A. County, conditions are expected to continue through Wednesday night, including coastal flooding, high tides and rip currents.
Southerly swell combined w/increased tides will bring dangerous rip currents & elevated surf from Pt. Conception southward today into early this coming week. Remain off rocks & jetties, always keep an eye on the ocean, and follow local lifeguard advice before swimming. pic.twitter.com/WNBxUK2igi
David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, a place where the lack of affordable housing contributes to homelessness.
Published June 15, 2026 3:31 PM
Small aircraft are parked just off the runway at Santa Monica Airport.
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David Wagner/LAist
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Topline:
Voters in Santa Monica will not see a measure on the November ballot aiming to allow 3,000 affordable housing units on one-quarter of the land for the city’s soon-to-close airport.
The backstory: Proponents have been gathering signatures for a measure that would ask the city’s voters to set aside a quarter of Santa Monica Airport’s land for income-restricted housing. The airport is set to close at the end of 2028. Santa Monica voters have already supported turning it into a large park. But some say the city needs to create more opportunities for low- and moderate-income workers to live near their jobs.
What’s new: Supporters of the housing initiative had until mid-June to submit 7,038 signatures in order to qualify for the November 2026 ballot. They now say they will not meet that deadline. “Community volunteers are continuing to gather signatures,” said Rachele Smith, a spokesperson for the hospitality workers union Unite Here Local 11. Smith said proponents now aim to submit enough signatures by Aug. 12 to qualify for the ballot in November 2028.
Park planning moves forward: In 2014, more than 60% of Santa Monica voters supported Measure LC, which prohibited using airport land for any development purpose other than parks and recreation. However, Measure LC left open the possibility of altering course through another public vote. The City Council recently accepted $10.5 million in county and state funding for park planning. Supporters of the housing measure want to keep 75% of the airport’s land dedicated to the creation of a park, with the rest available for housing development.
What’s next: Whether housing supporters will be able to qualify for the 2028 ballot remains to be seen. Ann Bowman, a Santa Monica Great Park Coalition board member, said park supporters “are very excited” by recent developments. “This land must not be privatized as it's been by a small aviation clique for the past 70-plus years,” Bowman said.
