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Every January 25 — on Sunday this year — is Burns Night, a global celebration of the life and legacy of the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns.
Why it matters: His name might not be familiar, but every New Year’s Eve — or Hogmanay, as it is called in Burns's native home Scotland — millions of people sing Auld Lang Syne, a poem he wrote in 1788.
Why now: Several events are happening in Los Angeles, too. We're here to tell you about them. Whiskys? Bagpipes? Poetry, anyone?
The name of Robert Burns might not be familiar, but every New Year’s Eve — or Hogmanay, as it is called in his native home Scotland — millions of people sing Auld Lang Syne, a poem that he wrote in 1788.
Every Jan. 25 — on Sunday this year — is Burns Night, a global celebration of the life and legacy of the Scottish poet and lyricist.
Several events are happening in Los Angeles, too, which I can attest are rather zany affairs — if only because of the sheer number of tartan kilts in sight, the haunting, piercing but tuneful drone of bagpipes, which can only bring to mind a windswept mountain top, and a generous dash of whiskys (plural). More on that later.
Some 30,000 square miles in size and home to around 5.5 million people today, Scotland was officially united with England in 1707 when their two parliaments became one and created Great Britain.
However, as you may have seen in movies like Braveheart, Rob Roy, and even Trainspotting, a streak of fierce independence has run through Scotland for centuries, so don’t make the mistake of assuming that, just because the countries are joined geographically, that English and Scottish people are more or less the same.
Besides historical rebels, beautiful countryside and world-class golf courses, Scotland has always punched well above its weight: penicillin, television, the telephone, artificial refrigeration, and the raincoat — “the mac” — were all invented by Scots. Naturalist John Muir, the Father of the National Parks,” was born in Dunbar, and Nessie is perhaps the most legendary of all cryptids.
But it’s Robert Burns — often known as Rabbie — whose name and work has lasted centuries as Scotland’s National Poet.
In 1796, Burns died at just 37 — on the same day his son Maxwell was born — and he had worked almost exclusively on traditional Scottish songs during the latter stages of his life, which ensured that several hundred folk songs, like Auld Lang Syne, were not lost to history.
Burns Night is a tradition that was begun by some of his friends in 1801. Scottish people and any other admirers and friends of Scotland will gather together for poetry readings, music, dancing, and of course a meal of haggis. For those who don’t know what it is, it’s rather an odd-looking meal, and rather an acquired taste.
A bagpiper will lead the haggis, the traditional centerpiece, into the dining room, where a poem written by Burns called Address to a Haggis is read aloud before the haggis is dramatically cut into pieces for everyone to share.
The poem in question describes the delicacy as having “buttocks like a distant hill,” among other writerly flourishes. Read for yourself here.
When I was a child, I was told that haggises were small, furry creatures that lived in the Scottish Highlands and were too clever to be caught, hence you rarely saw them on the dinner plate. Buttock size was not mentioned.
That’s not true of course, and this might be why: haggis is made from minced sheep’s heart, liver and lungs mixed with oatmeal, suet, onions and spices then traditionally boiled inside the sheep’s stomach. It’s savory and earthy, somewhat rich and a little gamey. Maybe not something you eat slice after slice, perhaps.
Over dinner and helpings of haggis, raucous toasts are celebrated with “drams” or small glasses of whisky — surely Scotland’s most famous export — and there are recitations of some of Burns’s other poems, like A Red, Red Rose, Ae Fond Kiss, or Tam o’Shanter.
The latter was the name of a drunken farmer who taunts the devil and is chased by witches in a poem written by Burns in 1791. He wears a tam o’shanter, a flat woolen cap with a pom-pom in the center.
Angelenos might recognize that as the name of the restaurant and pub in Los Feliz.
I went to my first Burns Night in L.A. last year, and I must say, that despite being an Englishman I was heartily welcomed, and I did enjoy my taste of the famous dish — though the bagpipes, also an acquired taste for this “sassenach” are yet to be something on my regular playlist.
Festooned with Scottish flags, souvenirs and regalia, “the Tam” is one of the venues that will be hosting its 41st Burns Nights on Jan. 27 and 28, with two seatings each night.
Also, the St. Andrew’s Society — named in honor of the Scottish patron saint - will host their sold-out Burns Night on January 24 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. It’s their 96th event, and singing for his supper as the winner of their annual Robert Burns Award is Dundee-born actor Brian Cox, who played the ruthless Logan Roy in HBO’s Succession (and was in Braveheart).
Alternatively, the St. Andrews University Alumni network here in L.A. is also celebrating a day early, on Jan. 24, 6 - 9 p.m. at MacLeod’s Brewery in Van Nuys.
It’s the very first Burns Night celebration organized by Sammy Ginsberg, a self-described, home-grown “Valley Girl” who left L.A. in 2012 to study at St. Andrews, a venerable institution founded in 1413. It’s where Prince William met his wife-to-be, Kate Middleton.
Ginsberg fell hard and fast in love with Scotland, describing her first visit as “magical.”
As an aspiring writer and poet, Ginsberg was especially inspired by the reverence for literature that she found.
“Scotland is a rich place filled with imagination that truly loves writers and I think we can learn a lot from them,” Ginsberg said, adding that was one reason why she co-started the Los Feliz Writers Festival.
Alongside the neeps, tatties and haggis there will be haggis pizza — surely a new culinary innovation — as well as Scottish beer and music from bagpiper John McLelan Allan, who has appeared in many movies, TV shows and has worked with performers such as Korn, The Chieftains, and Michael Flatley.
Though Ginsberg developed a taste for fish and chips when she was in Scotland. “That was my stress food when I was in the library on a deadline crunch,” she said.
She admits that it took a few more attempts before she became a fan of haggis.
Nearly 680,000 people with a Scottish or Ulster-Scots background call Southern California home, according to the 2020 census, so “slàinte” to all of you, and try to get hold of a bottle of Irn-Bru — an electric orange-colored soda from Scotland — as it’s said to be the best cure for a hangover.
“It really gets you going again!” Ginsberg said.
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The 99 Cents Only chain may be gone, but a new art exhibit at its former store on Wilshire and Fairfax is keeping its legacy alive in the most eccentric way possible.
What you can see: From shopping carts suspended upside down to video art stuffed on the shelves to paintings and graffiti in every nook and cranny, the curators behind 99CENT have filled the space with artwork and L.A. artifacts for a free exhibition.
About the exhibition: A representative for the gallery The Hole, which curated this exhibit, said the works in the store pull from its “West Coast network of artists and outsiders.” That ethos is on full display, as many of the works veer toward the countercultural and psychedelic.
How to visit: “99CENT” is at the former 99 Cents Only store at 6121 Wilshire Blvd. The exhibition is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Sunday.
Keep reading … to get a preview of the art.
The 99 Cents Only chain may be gone, but a new art exhibit at its former store at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is keeping its legacy alive in the most eccentric way possible.
From shopping carts suspended upside down to video art at the checkout counters to paintings and graffiti in every nook and cranny, this is not the same 99 Cents Only store where you used to buy your cleaning supplies.
The curators behind 99CENT, which is on display through the end of this weekend, have filled the space with artwork and L.A. artifacts for a free exhibition. So I had to check it out:
As soon as you walk in, you’re treated to a complete reimagining of the 99 Cents Only store. This former site of the modern big-box discount chain has been infused with a healthy dose of the West Coast art styles that sprung up from places like the Mission District, Haight-Ashbury and Venice.
All the original shelving is there, but nearly every nook and cranny has been filled with art.
But look close and you’ll see cheeky nods to the 99 Cents Only store of yore. Much of the old shelving and signage is still there, even if slightly rearranged. On some shelves, hygiene supplies sit side by side with artworks and found objects.
Some old shopping carts have been converted into suspended sculptures. In between songs, the loudspeakers play what I’m pretty sure are authentic 99 Cents Only in-store announcements in English and Spanish.
One major auditory difference — and I can confirm this as a former 99 Cents store shopper — the music on the store’s PA system is much more lo-fi and homespun than the radio pop the old store used to have on.
Since this is a self-described “artist flea market of sorts,” many of the artists have also scrawled their phone numbers and Venmo usernames near their works, and walking through different stations at the store really does feel like walking through different stations of a carefully curated swap meet or flea market.
Even for works that aren’t on sale, most paintings and sculptures I saw identify the artist, though it’s admittedly a little more haphazard than most galleries I’ve been to.
Representatives for the gallery The Hole, which curated this exhibit, said that the works in the store pull from its “West Coast network of artists and outsiders.”
One artist in particular takes the spotlight: The walls are covered by paintings by the San Francisco-based street artist Barry McGee and works from his personal collection — people who parked in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s garages in the early 2000s may remember his now-lost murals. All told, the curators say over 100 artists were represented.
You can see “99CENT” for yourself at the former 99 Cents Only store at 6121 Wilshire Blvd., a stone’s throw away from LACMA.
The exhibition is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday.
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A Crosstown analysis of data indicates that the pace of actual building may be considerably slower. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1 was supposed to slash red tape and accelerate approval times for housing projects that consist entirely of affordable, or below market rate, units. She said builders had already broken ground on 6,000 of them.
Analysis findings: Of the 32,838 units plan-approved under ED1 through the end of last year and listed on the case summary dashboard, 4,993 have been issued building permits for new construction, a Crosstown analysis found.
Why it matters: The slower-than-advertised pace of affordable units is just one part of a broader stagnation afflicting the city’s home-building sector. Last year, a total of 7,892 apartment units were permitted, according to data from the Department of Building and Safety. That includes everything from affordable units to luxury apartments. It represents a 1% increase from the year prior but a 34% decrease from 2019.
Read on ... for more about the analysis on affordable housing.
In her State of the City address this month, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass boasted that her administration had fast-tracked the construction of more than 30,000 affordable housing units.
A Crosstown analysis of the data indicates the pace of actual building may be considerably slower. Bass’s Executive Directive 1 was supposed to slash red tape and accelerate approval times for housing projects that consist entirely of affordable, or below market rate, units. She said builders already had broken ground on 6,000 of them.
Of the 32,838 units plan-approved under ED1 through the end of last year and listed on the case summary dashboard, 4,993 have been issued building permits for new construction, a Crosstown analysis found.
Just 26% of affordable units entitled during ED1’s first year, 2023, have been granted building permits, all of which have been approved for two years or more.
“Mayor Bass was correct in her statement that 6,000 units are currently under construction,” the mayor’s press office said in a statement to Crosstown. The mayor’s office did not provide a clear explanation as to how that total was calculated.
The slower-than-advertised pace of affordable units is just one part of a broader stagnation afflicting the city’s home-building sector. Last year, a total of 7,892 apartment units were permitted, according to data from the Department of Building and Safety. That includes everything from affordable units to luxury apartments. It represents a 1% increase from the year prior but a 34% decrease from 2019.
Los Angeles faces an acute housing shortage, a problem that has exacerbated a longstanding homelessness crisis and has contributed to rising unaffordability that burdens many of the city’s residents. According to the Southern California Association of Governments, the city of Los Angeles must produce 456,643 housing units during the decade, a pace it now appears certain to miss by a wide margin.
Despite the chronic need for more housing, builders say they are up against an array of obstacles in Los Angeles. Production costs are more than double the average costs in Texas, according to a RAND study. The controversial Measure ULA, informally known as the ”mansion tax,” has also been blamed for construction slowdowns. The levy, which went into effect in April 2023, adds a 4% tax on residential and commercial properties sold for $5.3 million or more, and a 5.5% tax on properties sold for over $10.6 million, including apartment blocks. The revenues are intended to be put toward affordable housing. But the extra tax makes building an apartment project and then selling it particularly burdensome.
Ari Kahan, principal of California Landmark Group, said his development firm has significantly scaled back their Los Angeles projects.
“We still explore unique opportunities, but we cannot afford the risk of both ULA and the inevitable other shoe dropping on another related issue in the city of L.A.,” Kahan said.
The city’s housing crisis has been at the forefront of Bass’s first term agenda. ED 1, which went into effect in 2023, was intended to fast-track construction by reducing approval times for affordable housing projects and shelters to 60 days. The directive prompted a flurry of new proposals. But moving those proposals from the drawing board to actual construction has been slow.
ED1 and programs that encouraged affordable housing, such as bonus diversity programs and the Transit Oriented Communities Incentive Program — which incentivizes low-income housing near bus and train stations — have been big enticements for new development. However, Kahan said Measure ULA has made it difficult for developers to turn a profit on those projects, and he predicts that most of them will never be built.
The measure has generated over $1 billion through January 2026. Critics assail the nickname “mansion tax” because the levy equally applies to multifamily apartment buildings and commercial properties, not just expensive single-family homes. Fifty-nine percent of transactions are single-family residences, 25% are commercial properties and 13% are multi-family residences, according to the ULA Revenue Dashboard.
Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA, the coalition of housing, labor and renters groups behind the measure, defended the tax and said it’s important to let the policy “breathe and take effect” to understand its full impact. He called the measure an economic engine for the city, adding that $400 million in ULA revenue went out to affordable housing developers last fall.
“We’re talking about hundreds of new homes being built, thousands of new construction jobs, investment in neighborhoods that haven’t seen investment like this in a long time,” Donlin said.
Donlin said Los Angeles’ housing struggles are likely due to stubbornly high interest rates, insurance costs and construction material costs around the time Measure ULA went into effect.
Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president of LA Family Housing, said she has been able to sidestep Measure ULA because she manages the properties she builds instead of selling them. For her, one of the biggest affordable housing hurdles is a lack of federal assistance to help low-income tenants pay rent.
“[Los Angeles’s] largest housing gap is for our extremely and very low-income households. In order to make housing affordable to that target income group, it would require a larger allocation of rental subsidies,” Klasky-Gamer said.
President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal aimed to cut over $26 billion from federal rental assistance programs, but the House Appropriations Committee rejected the cuts and increased funding for housing assistance programs. Tenant-based vouchers received $2.4 billion more than they did in the 2025 fiscal year, and the project-based rental assistance program received an extra $1.65 billion.
In a rocky year for issued apartment permits, some Los Angeles neighborhoods showed marked increases, while others saw steep declines.
Westchester had 787 apartment units permitted last year, the most of any neighborhood. North Hollywood had the second most at 502, and Mid-City had the third most with 449.
Downtown saw a substantial dip in permits issued. Last year, 207 units were approved, nearly half as many as the year before and an 87% decrease from 2022.
The regression comes as downtown contends with a massive homelessness population. Downtown had the most non-emergency calls for homeless encampments, 8,417, of any neighborhood in 2025, according to MyLA311 service data.
How we did it: We examined all ED1-related projects on the city’s case summary dashboard and compared those with the Department of Building and Safety’s permits issued for new apartments. In addition, we compiled the number of apartment new units permitted for construction in the city over the past decade. In a previous article, Crosstown used a slightly different methodology to determine the number of permitted apartments in the city. The slight changes in methodology account for the difference in numbers in that article.
Have questions about our data? Write to us at askus@xtown.la
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Bald eagles Jackie and Shadow, whose trials and triumphs in parenthood have been livestreamed to the world from Big Bear, got another shot at raising at least one chick this season after welcoming a third egg to their nest Tuesday.
Why it matters: Their legions of fans were left crushed earlier this year when Jackie's first two eggs were lost. Friends of Big Bear Valley, which operates the livestream, confirmed in January that an egg was cracked. A raven then came back to the nest later that day and breached both eggs.
Why now: According to the nonprofit, Jackie's hormones reset — something fans had held out hope for — and she laid a third egg on Tuesday.
What's next: She could still lay another egg as part of her second clutch, like she did several years ago after her eggs also were broken or breached by ravens. She's typically fertile and able to lay eggs January through April each year.
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East L.A. is the most populous unincorporated community in the state. Here’s what that means and how it affects its nearly 119,000 residents.
Why it matters: East L.A. is not a city, and it’s not part of the city of L.A.. Instead, it’s an unincorporated part of L.A. County, and even though it’s the most populous unincorporated area in California, community organizers say many residents are unaware of the problems that raises.
What is an unincorporated community? An unincorporated area is land within a county that has not been designated to be a city, meaning that it relies on county services, including for law enforcement, public works and local government. Instead of being governed by a city council and a mayor, major decisions for East L.A. residents fall under the authority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
Read on ... for more on what it means to be unincorporated and residents can make their voices heard.
This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 24, 2026.
East Los Angeles is home to nearly 119,000 residents, but the community has no mayor or city hall.
So who makes decisions? Who fixes potholes? Who gets called to report illegal dumping?
East L.A. is not a city, and it’s not part of the city of L.A. Instead, it’s an unincorporated part of L.A. County, and even though it’s the most populous unincorporated area in California, community organizers say many residents are unaware of the problems that raises.
According to the L.A. County Planning Department, there are approximately 120 to 125 unincorporated areas in the county, which altogether represent two-thirds of its total area and one-tenth of its population.
“For the 1 million people living in these areas, the Board of Supervisors is their ‘city council’ and the supervisor representing the area is their ‘mayor,’” the department website says.
So what does it mean to live in an unincorporated community?
Let’s break it down:
An unincorporated area is land within a county that has not been designated to be a city, meaning that it relies on county services, including for law enforcement, public works and local government.
Instead of being governed by a city council and a mayor, major decisions for East L.A. residents fall under the authority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
East L.A. residents have called for representation that’s more closely tied to their community and financial transparency, saying they want to know how their tax dollars are spent locally.
East L.A., located in Supervisorial District 1, has been represented by County Supervisor Hilda Solis since 2014. Her term is set to end this year.
Solis also makes decisions for the nearly 2 million other residents who live in District 1, which covers more than 20 cities, stretching from Silver Lake to Pomona, as well as various neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles, including Boyle Heights and downtown.
On a state level, East L.A. is represented by Assemblymember Jessica Caloza and state Sen. María Elena Durazo. Rep. Jimmy Gomez represents East L.A. in Congress.
Independent cities often provide residents with their own municipal services such as law enforcement, firefighting, animal control, trash collection, road maintenance, library services and parks.
Here’s a list of services available to East L.A. residents:
For a full list, check out this guide to unincorporated areas services for District 1.
Over the decades, multiple efforts to incorporate East LA into a city have failed. A recent fiscal analysis concluded that cityhood remains financially unviable for the region. Residents have continued their calls for more financial transparency and better representation. A new effort on the horizon may allow citizens to directly advise the county on issues unique to East LA.
The report that deemed cityhood unfeasible for unincorporated East LA last year recommended the formation of a Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) — a formal, citizen-led body that would provide residents with a structure for public input and give stakeholders a direct line of communication to county leadership.
At the first of six community forums on Saturday, Feb. 21, some residents deemed the MAC a stepping stone towards proper incorporation down the line. Others asked for better economic investment and access to a localized, itemized budget every year for residents to understand how their tax dollars are spent on improving social services and local businesses.
“Every problem we have, can be solved if we have a local government,” resident Francisco Cardenas. “We have nobody to complain to.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the MAC and the upcoming community forums where residents are invited to weigh in. The next meeting will take place Thursday at East L.A. Library, located at 4837 E. Third St. Register here.
Reporting for this story came from notes taken by Andrew Lopez, a Boyle Heights Beat contributor and Los Angeles Documenter, at the East LA MAC community forum on Feb. 21. The LA Documenters program trains and pays community members to document what happens at public meetings. Check out the meeting notes and audio on Documenters.org.
