The Brief

On the corner of Fifth and Spring street, in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles’ Historic Core, TJ Johnson is cooking up good eats and beats at “Wax On Hi-Fi” — her restaurant serving fusion comfort food with a vinyl listening bar on the side. Inspired by her studies abroad, it was there in Japan, where she picked up on the cross currents between Japanese and Black American culture.

“People across the globe have very similar cultural touch points, and I really found a cultural resonance there because a lot of the technology that I use as a hip hop, R&B DJ comes from Japanese technology. I wanted to keep building on it," Johnson said.

Wax On Hi-Fi: Into the vision of one chef’s downtown

Wax On Hi-Fi opened this past June at the junction where the disparate areas of the Jewelry District, Skid Row and Little Tokyo rub up against each other. But for Johnson, who calls downtown home, the wide access to culture is the heartbeat of her business. The venture is Johnson’s space to share her expanding worldview.

”It is a very personal and emotional endeavor to be between so many cultures, to provide a positive cultural hegemony.” Johnson told LAist. “It’s especially great for downtown because we’re so close to Little Tokyo, and for me as a person, I can see Skid Row is notoriously African American like myself… customers will tell me this is unlike any other place they’ve seen around here.”

When Johnson isn’t filling orders, she moonlights the space as a DJ, spinning artists from Sadao Wantanabe, MF Doom, to Common. Whatever the endeavor, it's a wholehearted effort to meet customers from all walks of life, through the hospitality of her native Georgia by way of the restaurant’s omotenashi — the deeply instilled sense of Japanese hospitality.

A typical day begins with a quick bike ride to Little Tokyo to restock on ingredients from local bakeries and the Nijiya Market before she rolls out some biscuit dough in the restaurant’s back kitchen. As a passerby, she’s picked up on the lack of accessible spaces where locals can share a meal.

“Along 5th Street, there's not many, nice sit down restaurants,” Johnson said. “People tend to look out for the up and coming businesses because we don't have too much since the pandemic.”

TJ Johnson behind the restaurant's sounds system, including an Isonoe ISO420 mixer, Technics SL-1200 turntables, McIntosh MA8950 amplifier and JBL speakers.

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Erin Grace Kim

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LAist

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Filling the gap

At one point DTLA was a booming metropolis, with 750,000 people passing through each day between 2012 and 2017, according to Blair Besten, the executive director with the Historic Core’s Business Improvement District, a nonprofit designed to improve the quality of life for residents, property, and business owners within its boundaries. Then the pandemic drastically altered the trajectory of its growth.

“It’s hard to create any revenue when you’re forced to close,” Besten said.

The Historic Core has never been without its share of challenges, but Besten said it’s a place where people still want to be, making it an attractive place for entrepreneurs.

The problem, Besten said, is the red tape — lengthy bureaucratic processes, licensing issues, permits, and approvals — to acquire and develop such historic physical property.

“You can pull up a cart on the sidewalk, and have a blooming business in Los Angeles. They've made that very easy,” Besten said. “What they have not made easy is to operate, open and operate a brick and mortar.”

The Historic Core's district boundaries that run between 4th street and 9th.

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Courtesy of the Historic Core Business Improvement District

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Small businesses as the culture bearers

"If we want sustainable, cultural neighborhoods, they need to be able to hold onto the property,” said Annette Kim, an associate professor of public policy at USC, referring to the neighborhood’s rising rent. “We need to capitalize small businesses to be able to hold onto space, and call to foundations to make this a priority."

Kim’s work focuses on urbanism and said “cultural mixing” — distinctive cultures living alongside each other — is a signature of Los Angeles. Key to this are the small businesses as the “culture bearers.”

“They’re not just the official museums or community associations, but the everyday spaces where people go," Kim said. "It's important for the life of the city, but also politically, to the question of the day: ‘How are diverse people going to live together?’”

To love this city is to push for its potential

For residents like Westley Garcia-Encines, a walkable experience is why he moved to downtown Los Angeles.

“There was apprehension moving there,” Garcia-Encines told LAist. “But after my first year, I hope to eventually buy and make it a permanent place for me in Los Angeles.”

The present challenges downtown faces has only reasserted his responsibility — joining his residents association and going to city planning meetings — to raise concerns with city officials to make housing and retail spaces more affordable.

I’m seeing this effort from organizations and businesses to invest in downtown,” Garcia-Encines said. "Wax On Hi-Fi opened up a couple blocks over, and there’s another gay bar going up on 4th street — it shows progress, and it keeps me hopeful that the Historic Core will continue to develop in a positive way."

For meaningful progress, the work starts everyday, not just with major events like the looming 2028 Olympics.

As Angelenos look ahead, it will take ideas from all corners of the city to maintain its momentum — for restaurateur Johnson, who spent 18 months to start Wax-On Hifi, it’s just one plate and beat at a time.

“When you speak to anyone down here, there's definitely a big shift happening whether they feel it’s for better or for worse,” Johnson said. “On this block alone, we’ve built a nice rapport with our neighbors; it's become a place where people love to stay.”

Californians will decide on more than a dozen ballot initiatives this November, covering a wide range of proposals focused on housing, taxes, recall elections, voter identification and more.

One ballot measure would approve an $11.25 billion bond for affordable housing; another would create a new down payment assistance program for homebuyers. Proposition 40 would establish a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires in California, while two other propositions would limit new taxes and potentially nullify Prop. 40. Other ballot measures, if approved, would change the recall election process in California, require identification to vote and speed up the environmental review process for certain developments.

It’s a lot of information to wade through on your own.

That’s why LAist unveils its Voter Game Plan each election season, with guides to help you cast a ballot that aligns with your values and beliefs. (The one thing we don’t do? Tell you how to vote. That is up to you.) For the Nov. 3 general election, LAist is also hosting a series of ballot cram sessions focused on helping you make informed decisions.

The series kicked off on Wednesday with AirTalk Host Larry Mantle and a panel of experts focused on the long list of statewide propositions in a one-hour cram session.

Michael Alvarez, professor of political and computational social science at CalTech; Sara Sadhwani, associate professor of politics at Pomona College, and Lee E. Ohanian, a professor of economics at UCLA and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, provided an overview of each ballot measure. The trio described the pros, cons and stakes of every decision Californians face this November, including the confusing and conflicting trio of tax measures you’ll see on your ballot as Props. 40, 41 and 42.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to how much revenue this might generate. There’s a lot of uncertainty, in particular, if it’s going to generate revenue in sufficient time to help the Californians who are really in need of having healthcare,” said Alvarez on Prop. 40, which would create a one-time tax on billionaires to fund healthcare.

Lee and Sadhwani both noted that there's a question of whether the tax would drive billionaires out of the state. “If you think that super high wealthy people should be paying more in taxes, there’s better ways to do this,” said Lee.

As for Prop. 41, which would require audits of new tax programs, and Prop. 42, which would ban new taxes on personal property, the panel agreed the measures are confusing.

Both propositions would nullify Prop. 40 if they receive more votes in support than the billionaire tax measure. That’s the big thing to remember, said Sadhwani: “They’re really the poison pills of Prop. 40, the billionaire’s tax. So a yes on 41 or a yes on 42 is a no essentially for Prop. 40.”

“I’ll be honest, Prop. 41 as well as Prop. 42 kind of makes my eyes glaze over,” said Sadhwani. Alvarez added that the measures make his head spin. Experts — they’re just like us!

LAist’s upcoming voter cram sessions will focus on judicial elections and Orange County.

You can find LAist’s Voter Game Plan and dozens of guides to the Nov. 3 election here at LAist.com/Vote

Elevated sea levels are already rolling into Southern California waters, leading to coastal erosion and other damage. An El Niño-driven Kelvin wave is further exacerbating conditions along the coast. And Tropical Storm Rachel could bring rain across the region this weekend.

But all of this is probably just the beginning of a very wet Southern California rainy season.

Authorities have been sounding the alarm.

“ Residents need to hear this information, and they need to hear it repeatedly, enough times so that they too can act,” L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said during a recent presentation about El Niño preparations.

Heavy rain, flooding and debris flows can pose serious threats to homes and infrastructure. Officials and climate scientists say the best way to protect yourself and your property is to make preparations now, well before peak El Niño conditions arrive.

Here’s what you can do to prepare your home.

Preparing your property

One of the first steps to getting your home ready for El Niño is to understand how vulnerable it is to flooding when heavy rain or surging surf hits your neighborhood.

“It really is incumbent upon people to pause, evaluate where they live, where they travel and to really think about what would happen if those areas were flooded out,” said Kerjon Lee, spokesperson for the L.A. County Department of Public Works. “ Knowing your community, your neighborhood, where mud and debris flow might occur — is really critical.”

You can review your risks using California’s MyHazard tool, which allows you to input your address and cycle through potential risks.

Floodwaters and the landscape

Knowing if your property or neighborhood has flooded in the past can be helpful, and you can learn a lot from simply looking at the landscape in and around your home.

If your house is at the bottom of a hillside, for example, it’s probably more susceptible to debris flows, especially if the slope burned in a wildfire in the last several years. Burn scars are especially vulnerable to landslides and flooding because they lack the established vegetation that helps hold soil in place and absorbs water during heavy rain.

Other landmarks to look out for near your property are creeks, canals, drainage channels, debris basins and even low-lying roadways.

It’s also a good idea to understand how rainwater flows onto your property, where it collects and how it leaves. The goal should be for water to flow through your property safely and efficiently, without causing damage to neighbors.

That means clearing debris and overgrowth from gutters and drains now, before extreme weather hits.

Officials are also urging residents to report clogged or blocked storm drains to their local public works department.

If you live in L.A. County and are concerned about potential mud or debris flows, you can contact the county’s Department of Public Works for free advice.

Sandbags

If your property is at high risk of flooding, consider stockpiling sandbags. Many fire departments and public works departments offer sandbags to their local communities.

You can check sandbag distribution locations and availability here:

• L.A. County
• Orange County 
• Ventura County
• Santa Barbara County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County

Be prepared to fill the sandbags yourself, as most places only offer empty ones. Never fill sandbags with beach sand or empty used ones onto the beach.

Once you have sandbags, make sure you know how to use them properly.

Here are a few tips:

• Only fill sandbags half-full, not all the way full.
• Do not place sandbags directly against the outer wall of a building as wet bags can create added pressure on the foundation. 
• Sandbags should be placed parallel to the direction of water flow.
• The open ends of sandbags should be folded underneath and face upstream so they aren’t forced open as water flows around them.
• Sandbags should be used to redirect floodwater rather than create a dam or block its path. 
• Sandbags can be used to protect doorways, but to do so, they should have a waterproof layer like heavy plastic or waterproof canvas placed behind them. 

This diagram shows the proper way to place sandbags so that they are parallel to the flow of water or debris and redirect it away from structures.

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Los Angeles County Department of Public Works

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Local agencies offer thorough instructions on how to use sandbags online. L.A. County Public Works offers a breakdown in its Homeowners Guide.

Sandbags and other materials for protecting your home, including plywood, lumber or plastic sheeting, should be stored in a dry location away from potential flooding.

Other flood considerations

If valuables could be damaged or destroyed by floodwaters, consider moving them away from the ground or, if possible, to upper floors. Keep important documents in waterproof containers or sealed bags, and make sure to create digital copies.

Another recommendation is to check trees on your property for dead branches, cracks or other issues that might make them unstable, especially those that hang over structures. If you’re unsure or concerned about your trees, you can hire an arborist to inspect them. To trim or remove them, you will likely have to hire a professional. Cities and counties generally do not handle tree maintenance on private property.

Finally, consider purchasing flood insurance if your home is at risk — and do so as early as possible.

Standard homeowners insurance policies typically do not cover flood damage, and new flood insurance plans can take at least 30 days to kick in. If you want to consider signing up for a plan, the National Flood Insurance Program is a good place to start.

If floodwaters do enter your home, public health officials recommend drying wet areas as quickly as possible, as saturation can lead to mold. If mold does take hold, clean the area using a disinfectant. Also, wear gloves and a mask to protect your skin and lungs and throw away moldy items that can’t be cleaned.

Jordan Corral had to do something.

It was late 2024, during a historically dry start to the winter. But the winter before that had been historically wet. This kind of “weather whiplash” is growing more common with a warming climate, research is finding. And it meant the hillsides of the Santa Monica Mountains were overgrown with invasive and highly flammable plants, such as black mustard, castor bean and fennel.

So Corral got to work. Alongside mentor Bill Neill, the president of the Santa Monica Mountains chapter of the California Native Plant Society, Corral pulled together a group of volunteers to pull out invasive plants.

Then came the Palisades Fire. Corral and his wife, Sara Marti, lost their apartment and had to start over. They’ve finally relocated to an apartment that survived the fire. Meanwhile, through their work for the nonprofit Resilient Palisades, Corral has launched a subgroup focused on invasive plant removal.

“The team is working on wildfire recovery while trying to mitigate the next wildfire simultaneously,” Marti said by phone on a day when Corral was out working with volunteers in Temescal Canyon Gateway Park.

Now, Marti said, their effort to heal the land has become a part of their own recovery journey.

“Being a part of the recovery has played an enormous part of personal healing,” she said. “It's meditative while you know that you're also making a huge difference, protecting the nearby neighborhoods.”

A half dozen or so volunteers, including Corral and Marti, have been regularly going to the park to remove invasive species, which choke out native plants and grow into dense, dry vegetation that can make fires more intense. They’ve also worked with local high schools and youth groups.

Now, they’re racing to get as many invasive species removed as possible, while at the same time planting as many native seeds as they can, ahead of a potentially very wet winter driven by El Niño. If the rain is as intense as forecasters are predicting, it could help invasive species flourish further.

Sara G. Marti, left, and Jordan Corral lost their apartment in the Palisades Fire and are leaders in the nonprofit group Resilient Palisades.

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Courtesy Sara G. Marti

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The effort has been boosted by a recent $24,000 grant from UCLA’s Philanthropy as Civic Engagement Course. The money will help hire expert field assistants and buy safety gear, among other things. Corral and Marti hope the effort can become sustained.

“It's not a one-and-done thing,” Marti said. “Invasive plants are going to continue coming back. … So we're really just trying to stay ahead of it as much as we can.”

In some ways, Marti said, the effort reflects their own journey to recover after losing their apartment in the fire.

“ We're probably never going to win, but we can't give up,” she said. “We have to keep trying.”

The city of Los Angeles will establish a fund to clean the 6th Street Bridge, where trash and other waste often pile up on pedestrian walkways. 

In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the City Council approved the establishment of the fund, which will allow the city to accept and retain donations from private entities “to preserve this iconic landmark,” Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said. “Our commitment to this bridge has to ensure its longevity.”

Funds will go toward trash and bulky item pickup, graffiti abatement and other beautification services for the bridge. 

The dedicated fund follows the city’s hiring of Pasadena-based engineering firm Tetra Tech to restore the lighting of the bridge, which has been plagued by copper wire theft since its opening in 2022. 

The outages have frustrated residents and commuters who use the bridge to walk, run, bike and drive between downtown L.A. and the Eastside. 

This move also comes as residents in Boyle Heights and the Arts District grapple with how the 12-acre park beneath the bridge will be maintained once it opens in 2027. 

Community members have raised concerns about the possibility of homeless encampments forming at the park, as well as graffiti and whether copper wire theft from the bridge could affect the park’s safety.

Meanwhile, groups like the Arts District Little Tokyo Neighborhood Council, Arts District Los Angeles and the Boyle Heights 5K Run/Walk are filling gaps with an upcoming bridge cleanup in collaboration with Jurado’s office. 

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