The Brief

Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployments to American cities are a central part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Yet, according to data analyzed by NPR — and interviews with law enforcement and city officials — these actions stretched local police departments thin, disrupted businesses and left city budgets struggling to absorb the fallout.

In Los Angeles and Minneapolis, the immigration enforcement surge resulted in ballooning overtime costs for local police. In Portland, Ore., decreased police manpower contributed to longer call response times.

Amid what the Trump administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge, businesses in cities like Bloomington and St. Paul, Minn. lost revenue, experienced unrest, and were similarly left with high bills.

What unifies these ICE actions is they were all sustained over several weeks in communities where local law enforcement isn't authorized to assist with federal immigration efforts. Still, these deployments resulted in knock-on effects that required the use of local police to bring about or preserve order.

Police overtime surged as departments were forced to deploy officers for demonstrations, extra patrols, security around federal facilities and emergency responses tied to the raids — often at overtime pay rates.

In cities already struggling with staffing shortages, like Los Angeles and Minneapolis, those extra hours quickly added up.

In Los Angeles, where the financial situation is already dire, LAPD overtime spending climbed to $41 million in June 2025, when immigration raids sparked weeks of protests — well above the department's typical monthly range of $18 to $30 million, according to the City Controller's Office.

In Minneapolis, the Police Department reported more than $6 million in overtime and standby pay in less than a month, from Jan. 7 to Feb. 8, according to the city's police chief. That's more than double the city's entire annual police overtime budget of $2.3 million.

The full financial picture is still not fully known. City leaders are reviewing their budgets and expect costs to continue to go up.

In response to NPR's questions about how the immigration crackdown has affected city budgets, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, provided a statement and included source links: "Illegal aliens cost American taxpayers over $150 billion in 2023 alone and expenditures for benefits provided to the illegal aliens who entered during the Biden surge will add $177 billion in mandatory federal spending through 2034."

NPR has not independently verified these figures.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to NPR's questions for this story.

What happened in Los Angeles?

In early June 2025, ICE agents began a series of aggressive immigration sweeps in Southern California.

"The first three weeks of it, we were really balancing and teetering on martial law," LA Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez told NPR. She said the city didn't expect "such a heavy-handed and militarized and war-like response from the federal government to people expressing their First Amendment rights."

The LAPD spent around $17 million between June 8 and June 16 responding to the anti-ICE protests that broke out that month. Close to $12 million of that went to overtime costs, according to a report from the LA City Administrative Office.

These figures do not include the costs of potential lawsuits or liability claims from residents and protesters injured during the demonstrations, and from aggressive policing by the LAPD that the city expects to face, Hernandez said.

To meet these financial needs, the city has had to tap into its reserve funds. 

In response to questions from NPR, the LAPD did not provide any information about what types of activities officers were engaged in when they incurred the overtime hours.

The City Controller's Office pointed NPR to the public database of city funding for more information. But the data lacked specifics.

Overtime costs for the LAPD for the entire month of June 2025 ballooned to more than $40 million. Overtime hovered between $22 million to a little over $33 million from January 2025 through May 2025.

The LAPD, the country's third-largest police department, has struggled with short staffing — contributing to the need to spend millions on overtime in prior years, according to the LAist. 

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass did not answer questions about the financial repercussions on the city from the police response to the raids or on local businesses.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stand off against demonstrators as tear gas fills the air outside the federal ICE building during a protest in Portland, Ore., last June.

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Portland's story: 'We are understaffed, under-resourced'

Not long after the unrest in Los Angeles, Portland Police Bureau Chief Robert Day said protesters and federal agents began to converge on the city's ICE facility in June.

"The bulk of our overtime investment, and demands on our time have been at the [federal ICE] facility," Day told NPR.

Like LA, Portland's police department has dealt with staffing shortages for years.

From June until November 2025, Portland police officers were staffed at the ICE facility nearly every day, according to the city data provided to NPR. There were other times when officers were actively monitoring but weren't at the facility.

In 2025, the Portland Police Bureau recorded 38,213 overtime hours categorized as "event response," according to data provided to NPR. For context, Portland police racked up 19,166 overtime hours for event response for all of 2024.

The overtime hours accrued in 2025 are nearly half of what was accrued when police responded to major protests in 2020 and 2021 following the death of George Floyd. Those protests lasted months, and the at-times chaotic demonstrations damaged property and sometimes turned violent.

Police worked between 70,000 to more than 80,000 hours of overtime to respond to those events, according to the data.

Local law enforcement's role at the ICE facility this summer and fall was to maintain order. Protests got out of hand at times. "The facility was badly damaged. It was heavily attacked. Windows broken and graffiti," Day said.

During now-outgoing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's October visit, Portland police were tasked with providing even more security to the center — 456 officers, resulting in close to 3,000 hours of overtime hours worked, according to data provided to NPR, and equating to "a few hundred thousand bucks," according to Day.

"Cops were working long days, long weeks, over an extended period of time," Day said. "We are understaffed, under-resourced, and the rest of the city suffers because of that."

In the summer and fall, that meant calls for service took much longer, according to Day. "Our average response time to priority calls has grown to 17,18 minutes … and it should be more like six to eight," he confirmed.

Police stand during a noise demonstration outside the Graduate by Hilton Minneapolis hotel in January.

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Minneapolis police report PTSD symptoms 

At the peak of the immigration enforcement surge, there were around 3,000 ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents in the Minneapolis area. There are only around 600 cops in the Minneapolis Police Department, and statewide, there are around 10,000 law enforcement officers.

"I cannot imagine any other city going through the intensity and the sheer amount of chaos that happened here. It was terrible," Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara told NPR. "Minneapolis is a small city. This is not Chicago. It's not LA, I don't think it would be possible for them to overwhelm those cities in the way that this city was really overwhelmed by that surge."

There is still a presence of ICE agents in the city, but far fewer than at its peak.

Early on, O'Hara made big changes to respond to the deployments of federal agents to Minneapolis. He changed operational procedures and created a full-time position for a lieutenant to be available to monitor ICE-related calls. He also staffed the department's operation center with civilian community service officers to help monitor social media and the city's camera feed to see action in the streets in real time, he explained.

By early January, O'Hara was instructing all sworn officers to be in uniform at all times while on duty.

"I was afraid there was going to be a need for an emergency situation that would require a massive deployment. And the next day is when Renee Good was killed," he told NPR. "From that moment, until about a day or two after the third shooting that we had when Mr. Pretti died, I would say it just continued to escalate."

When the police were responding to and protecting active crime scenes in the aftermath of the shootings, ICE agents continued with immigration stops and arrests. In response, demonstrations of thousands in opposition to the raids continued.

Minneapolis police had to respond to all of it.

O'Hara compared that chaos to the unrest after the 2020 killing of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, which led to major protests and riots.

After Good's death, all days off for officers were canceled. Police were tasked with handling marches, protests at hotels and monitoring vigil sites. Specialized units were activated and police generally tried to maintain order.

As a result, overtime costs skyrocketed. O'Hara said the department spent about $6.4 million on overtime costs from Jan. 7 through Feb. 8.

"It was, honestly, an overwhelming situation that for most of it, it felt like there was just no end in sight," he said.

Activists gather in protest to light candles on frozen Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, spelling "Ice Out," in January.

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By the third week of January, O'Hara said he received reports that officers were experiencing symptoms of PTSD, "which scared me," he said.

The 2020 Floyd protests had a huge impact on the department — so much so it led to a mass exodus of officers reporting symptoms of PTSD.

"As emotionally charged as things were on the street, it was difficult for them," O'Hara said. "It took them back to the feelings and things that they had experienced in 2020. That was really tough for a lot of the cops."

O'Hara continued, talking about staffing concerns: "It was my fear that we were going to wind up having this cycle again and just wind up losing more people. Unlike in 2020…there's absolutely no buffer. We're at bare bones here."

With police pulled to respond to keep public order, officers were being pulled off of active investigations. Crimes weren't being solved or investigated as quickly as they could have, he added.

The financial cost of the deployment to the city as a whole is also pronounced. Minneapolis issued a report on Feb. 13 that estimated the total economic fallout in one month during these operations was more than $203 million.

The report lists a host of consequences from the raids, including residents detained, job losses and business closures.

"The impact was both extraordinary and it was devastating for those months, while this invasion was taking place," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told NPR. "People were afraid to go out. Afraid to go to the grocery store. Terrified that their families were going to get ripped apart."

He said, "ICE is clearly to blame."

NPR asked the White House to respond to this criticism.

Jackson, the White House spokeswoman, said in her statement: "When will NPR ask sanctuary cities if they will reimburse the American people for expenses incurred by illegal aliens? Or if they will apologize to the victims of violent criminal illegal aliens?"

O'Hara said the problem was not that immigration enforcement was happening. The problem is the "unsafe and questionable methods" of the federal agents and "questionable leadership."

Noem, the head of DHS at the time of this surge, was recently fired in part because of the political fallout from these operations.

Consequences of ICE deployment spread beyond city borders

St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota and close neighbor to Minneapolis, loaned some officers to Minneapolis to deal with the crush of Operation Metro Surge, according to Rebecca Noecker, the president of St. Paul's City Council.

"This was a problem that we did not make and it's a problem we don't have the resources to solve," said Noecker.

Following the shooting of Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis, St. Paul police spent $46,000 in overtime in just one day to assist the neighboring police department, Noecker said.

From Jan. 7 to Feb. 5 St. Paul police shared with NPR that 4,679.75 employee overtime hours were worked in response to Operation Metro Surge. That cost $372,341.38. They didn't tell NPR how many officers worked the additional hours or provide additional data beyond early 2026.

"The line between physically intervening with ICE to keep protesters safe and physically intervening with ICE in a way that prevents a lawful enforcement action is a really fine one," Noecker said. "What I heard mostly from our police was: 'We're really in an impossible situation.'"

Community members and neighbors of people detained by ICE gather in protest at a Target store on Jan. 19 in St. Paul.

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Noecker says the numbers her city is seeing now are not the end of the story. She expects these bills to go up.

In nearby Bloomington, Minn., 10 minutes south of Minneapolis, the city's police Chief Booker Hodges told NPR protests against ICE spilled into his community. He said, for example, demonstrations broke out in front of hotels where it was rumored that ICE agents were staying.

In January, when the White House deployed federal law enforcement to Minneapolis "all hell broke loose," Hodges said.

Border Patrol and other federal agents were seen following residents to nearby schools, which triggered emergency calls to the department. There were also racial profiling incidents targeting the city's large Latino and Somali population, Hodges told NPR.

He also said officers of color were subjected to racist abuse by anti-ICE protesters.

Hodges said his officers were exhausted, but that his department is fully staffed so didn't require as much overtime as other agencies.

His department spent more than $32,000 in overtime costs in response to immigration protests and activities, he told NPR. That covered 60 police officers and totaled 415.5 hours.

The work for these officers involved extra patrols in retail and at the city's more than four dozen hotels. It also required the deployment of the department's Public Order Group (a group trained to respond to public disorder). It was deployed once all of last year. This year, as of mid February, the group was deployed four times.

He would like to see reimbursement from the federal government, but said, "it's pointless to even ask them for it."

He says time would be better spent pushing for comprehensive immigration reform: "Because even though the surge has ended here, the laws that allowed it to take place are still in place."

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles is often celebrated for its warm weather, Hollywood glamour and championship sports teams but the city’s foundation has a powerful Black history that is often overlooked.

From the city’s Black founders and their fight to be free from slavery, to a Black architect who designed thousands of buildings throughout the city, L.A.’s first Black residents have had lasting influence.

The LA Local traveled around the city to unearth some of the intriguing Black history facts. Here we highlight seven sites in Los Angeles that show the contributions of Black people in Los Angeles.

Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason Memorial Park

Situated behind an office building on South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles is a tribute to Bridget “Biddy” Mason. She was born enslaved in Mississippi and was brought to California by her owner Robert Marion Smith — even though slavery was illegal in California. After being enslaved in the state for five years, Mason won her freedom in 1856 by challenging her enslavement in court. Thirteen other family members were also freed, according to the National Park Service..

She became one of L.A.’s first Black woman landowners building wealth through real estate. Her net worth was said to be about $3 million in the 1860s, which would equate to nearly $60 million today. She also provided housing and food for the poor, acted as a midwife and helped establish the city’s first Black church, NPS noted.

The memorial park stands near property she once owned.

First African Methodist Episcopal Church

The First African Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as First AME or FAME, was co-founded in 1872 by Mason and other Black leaders. It was first located on Spring Street in Los Angeles, according to the National Park Service. The church was then moved to Harvard Boulevard, where it still stands today. It became a spiritual, political and organizing hub for Black Angelenos during segregation, according to the church’s website.

Most recently, the church was pastored by the Rev. Cecil Murray from 1977 to 2004. Under his leadership the church grew from 250 members to 18,000 at the time of his retirement, according to the Los Angeles Sentinel.

The first home built by architect Paul R. Williams

Though he faced racial discrimination, Paul Revere Williams became one of the most celebrated architects in L.A., whose legacy reshaped the city’s skyline and luxury design culture.

He was the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects. He designed thousands of buildings during his career, including The Beverly Hills Hotel and homes for Hollywood stars like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. Williams was also part of the team that designed the iconic Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport, as reported by LAist.

His first home sits in South Central and is designated as a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. He lived in this home for about 30 years until racial covenants were outlawed in the 1950s.

African American Firefighter Museum

On Central Avenue in South Central sits the historic fire station and museum that honors the Black firefighters who broke racial barriers in the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The museum “resides inside Fire Station No. 30, one of two segregated firehouses in Los Angeles between 1924 and 1955,” according to the museum’s website. The museum also notes that Sam Haskins was the first Black man to join the L.A. Fire Department in 1892 and died three years later fighting a fire.

The museum was founded in 1997 and is a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument. It is also registered with the National Register of Historic Places.

Gilbert W. Lindsay Recreation Center

The Gilbert W. Lindsay Recreation Center on East 42nd Place is named in honor of the first Black member of the Los Angeles City Council, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Before taking office, he worked as a janitor for the city’s Department of Water and Power, according to LA City Parks.

Elected in 1963, Lindsay represented District 9 for nearly 30 years. He supported civil rights and fought for economic investment, infrastructure improvements and services in historically underserved Black neighborhoods. He also served on the board of directors of the NAACP.

28th Street YMCA

The 28th Street YMCA building was designed by Williams, the renowned architect.

It was originally constructed to serve Black residents in L.A. who were banned from other facilities during segregation, according to the LA Conservancy. It won a Conservancy Preservation Award in 2013.

It became a hub for housing, community programs and social gatherings. Today, it serves as affordable housing for low-income adults and is listed with the National Register of Historic Places.

The Ralph J. Bunche House

The former home of Ralph J. Bunche, the first Black person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, is located in South Central on East 40th Place. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bunche played a key role in negotiating the 1949 Arab-Israeli armistice agreements through the United Nations. He also helped organize the civil rights march in Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, the Nobel Peace Prize organization said.

Born in Detroit, he moved to L.A. with his family and later became valedictorian at Jefferson High School. He attended UCLA on an athletic scholarship and “graduated in 1927 summa cum laude, valedictorian of his class, with a major in international relations,” the Nobel Peace Prize organization said. He also received a master’s degree in political science from Harvard in 1928. The Ralph J. Bunche Center was established in 1969 at UCLA in his honor.

The World Cup already is a massive undertaking for organizers. So imagine what it would take for families to brave the traffic, parking and crowds for one of the eight tournament matches at SoFi Stadium this summer.

But don’t worry: There are plenty of World Cup-related things to do with kids and a bunch of activities around L.A. to help you get in on the tournament action.

L.A. County Library's Summer of Soccer starts now

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LA County Library Summer of Soccer

LA County Library is celebrating the World Cup being in town with a “Summer of Soccer” at its branches. Activities include storytimes, movie nights and craft-making activities for kids of varying ages.

When: May 20 to July 9

Cost: Free

Learn more.

California Science Center's new exhibition celebrates the transformative power of play and the joy of the human body in motion.

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California Science Center ‘GAME ON!’ exhibit

The California Science Center has a new 17,000-square-foot exhibit, “GAME ON! Science, Sports & Play,” full of interactive activities to explore the science behind sports. The exhibit includes a practice batting area and a mini-field to practice soccer kicks.

When: Now, through the LA 2028 Olympics

Cost: Admission is free, but groups of 15 or more require a timed reservation.

Learn more.

Union Station hosts a World Cup fan zone.

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City of Los Angeles’ ‘Kick it in the Park’ 

The city is hosting a series of family-friendly watch parties across the city during the World Cup. The parties will have youth soccer clinics and “family fun zones” with interactive activities and arts. Other cities, like West Hollywood and Pasadena, are also hosting local family-friendly watch parties.

When: June 11 to July 19

Cost: Free

Learn more.

Soccer Shots, a kids soccer program, is hosting a Game Day at the Americana.

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Soccer Shots Game Day 

Soccer Shots, a kids soccer program, is hosting a Game Day at the Americana on June 27 for children 5-8 years old. Players will be split into teams to play round-robin style games.

When: 2 to 4 p.m. June 27

Cost: Tickets are $20

Learn more.

The Torrance Historical Society & Museum

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Torrance Historical Society & Museum

Did you know that the American Youth Soccer Organization, or more commonly known as AYSO, was founded in Torrance? Well, the museum there is hosting a curated collection of soccer memorabilia to celebrate the World Cup.

When: The exhibit is open until Aug. 31

Cost: Free

Learn more.

Thousands of international soccer fans are about to descend on Inglewood for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. SoFi Stadium is the tournament's premier venues — but the best reason to spend time in the neighborhood has nothing to do with what's happening on the pitch.

Inglewood's food scene reflects a city where Black and Latino residents make up nearly 90% of the population. These aren't tourist traps — they're the spots locals have been eating at for years, from a James Beard-recognized soul food diner open since 1983 to a carnitas truck with roots in Michoacán.

Here's where to eat before the whistle blows.

Wings 2 Go

Lemon pepper chicken wings from Wings 2 Go in Inglewood.

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Wings 2 Go is a small but mighty wing shop that sits in a tiny strip mall along Crenshaw Boulevard, attracting wing fanatics from far and wide looking to get a fiery bite. The menu at Wings isn't huge by most standards but it still manages to pack a punch when it comes to offering a variety of tastes and flavors.

Opt for the six-piece ATL Special with hot lemon pepper seasoning, $10.91. Upon the first transformative bite of a wing, suddenly you're Jordan after clinching his first NBA finals win in 1991, celebrating in ecstasy. The sticky, crunch-fried wing is drenched in the perfect amount of sauce, then sprinkled with galactic bits of salty, citrusy lemon pepper seasoning that will leave your lips tingling.

If you're looking to broaden your flavor horizons, there are also jerk BBQ, aji verde, and Cajun rub as sauce options. Whichever fiery selections you choose, wash them down with lemonade or sweet tea, or go for a hole-in-one with an Arnold Palmer to quench your thirst.

Country Style Jamaican Restaurant

The exterior of Country Style Jamaican Restaurant.

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Our love for Jamaican-style take-out restaurants knows no bounds, and the city of Inglewood has some of the best Jamaican food in Los Angeles.

This particular casual walk-up counter establishment has a particular place in our heart. The welcoming, joyous atmosphere is infectious as soon as you enter. The walls are painted the same dark green as the Jamaican flag. Images of Black luminaries are featured next to maxims extolling a virtue-filled life.

To get the most for your buck, we recommend choosing any of the mini plate options. Our personal favorite is the curried goat ($14.50). Stewed bone-in pieces of goat have been cooked in a dark yellow curry full of aromatic spices. The chunks of meat are spicy, juicy, and fatty, and fall off the bone onto a bed of rice and beans that's also saturated with maximum curry flavors.

Carnitas El Artista

Plates of tacos at Carnitas El Artista.

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While it might be easy to pledge one's allegiance to the culinary wonder that is carnitas, how often do you take it upon yourself to dive deep into the different parts of the pig? Each has its own unique textures that delight with every helping. Carnitas El Artista is where such dreams can come true, thanks to the hard work of owner Gustavo Chavez and his family, who are from Michoacán, the Mexican state known as the birthplace of carnitas.

With Mexico entering the World Cup as one of the tournament's most celebrated footballing nations, this is where to eat in their honor. Their tacos de carnitas ($4.95 each) are the best option: choose the mix that includes all the different cuts of pork.

The sizable taco manages to pack all the flavor and texture of each aspect of the protein, providing an extremely nuanced bite that combines sticky, fatty, and chewy elements. Serve the meat on a fresh tortilla with crisp-tasting salsa, topped with thin shards of red onion, for the right amount of acidity to cut the richness of the pork.

It's a showtime taco for the masses, if ever there was one. Pro tip: they offer a 2-for-1 deal on tacos Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to close.

Woody's Bar-B-Que

The inflation fighter (3x) lunch special at Woody’s Bar-B-Que.

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If you've spent any time in Inglewood, there's a good chance you've seen Woody's Bar-B-Que on Market Street. If not, you've definitely smelled it. The unmistakable aroma of delicious grilled and smoked meat is the unofficial scent of that part of town. It's not uncommon for lines to wrap around the small business, spilling into the moderately sized parking lot.

It's never not a joyous occasion at Woody's as you wait in line to place your order at the walk-up window, where overhead speakers play booming deep cuts from the '80s and '90s R&B or Madlib's Shades of Blue, helping set the mood.

Our favorite aspect of Woody's is the lunch special menu, which feels like a trip back to when the restaurant opened in 1975. Names like Inflation Fighter, Business Man's Lunch, and Lady's Lunch all add to its charm and cost $10.95.

All plates come in a brown paper bag, giving the vibe of the school lunch that your mom used to pack, along with two slices of white bread and a small container of a side of your choice.

El Capitalino

Quesadilla fritas from El Capitalino MX food truck.

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What if the quesadillas from your youth were, in fact, a gateway into a large quesadilla universe that's actually larger than what you might have originally considered? El Capitalino achieves just that. Owner Ivan Gomez was inspired by the quesadillas he saw prepared during a trip to Mexico City and by his mother and grandmother, who grew up making the meal. For $5, each thick corn tortilla is made by hand, usually by Ivan's mom, Norma Ramirez. She takes the raw masa and forms it into a flat disk, then stuffs it with cheese.

The tortilla is then folded and fried in oil. After it's done cooking, the quesadilla is removed, pulled apart, and packed with a filling of your choice — chicken tinga, hongos, rajas con queso, carne asada, or chicharrón prensado — then fried with guajillo salsa and stuffed with lettuce and cream. No matter what the filling is, you'll get a unique griddled cheesiness, accented by expertly flavored fillings, that makes for one of the best-tasting quesadillas we've ever had.

The Serving Spoon

The Serving Spoon has been an Inglewood cornerstone for four decades, dishing up grilled corn bread and fried turkey chops.

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Founded in 1983 by Harold E. Sparks — a young man from Hamilton, Ohio who traded a steady foreman job at General Motors for his dream of opening a soul food restaurant in Inglewood — The Serving Spoon is now in its third generation of family ownership and a recent recipient of the James Beard Foundation's America's Classics award.

The Foundation called it a "vital social and cultural anchor," which feels right the moment you slide into one of the red leather booths or take a seat at the wooden counter.

Go for breakfast: the catfish and waffle, the salmon croquettes, the grits. Plates run $15–25, depending on your protein. Come early on weekends or expect a wait.

If you're visiting from out of town and want to understand Inglewood's cultural legacy in a single meal, this is the place to start.

Sunday Gravy

Cheesy garlic bread at Sunday Gravy, the Italian-American spot on Centinela Avenue in Inglewood.

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In the early 1970s, the Bashirian family opened their first restaurant, Jino's, in this very same Centinela Avenue location — aiming to give the people of Inglewood something different from the big chains.

Their children Sol and Ghazi have continued building on that foundation with Sunday Gravy, a modern red-sauce Italian-American spot serving fresh pasta from Florentyna's and artisan breads from Cadoro Bakery, both made in Inglewood.

Italy is one of the world's great football nations, and this is about as close as the neighborhood gets to a proper Italian-American Sunday table: meatballs with whipped ricotta, short rib ragù, Caesar salad with Calabrian pepper aioli.

Somerville

Somerville's homage to the past

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South L.A. hasn't traditionally been known for its vibrant restaurant scene, but that's slowly changing — and Somerville, opened by actor and entrepreneur Issa Rae along with partners Yonnie Hagos and Ajay Relan of GVO Hospitality, is one of the reasons why.

Technically a short drive from SoFi, the name refers to Hotel Somerville, a focal point for the Black jazz scene on Central Avenue in the 1930s and '40s that regularly hosted Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Billie Holiday. "I just wanted to be able to dress up, hang out, and eat well in my neighborhood," Rae has said.

The menu honors the spirit of the original hotel: start with Parker House rolls with truffle butter ($19) or the fried chicken and caviar sliders ($29), then move on to the collard green lasagna ($36) or paccheri pasta with short rib ragù ($36). It's a dressed-up night out in a neighborhood that's long deserved exactly that.

When the sun goes down it’s easy to spot the bars and clubs where the parties happen in Los Angeles. But summertime is (possibly) the best time to explore the region’s not-so-obvious nightlife offerings.

Want to explore the cemetery through music or take a night ride with thousands of bicyclists? What about joining citizen scientists to study urban bats or stare at the stars (not the ones in Hollywood)?

LAist prepared a handy guide to help visitors and locals alike make the most of our summer nightlife.

Gear up with citizen scientists

Yuma myotis is another possible bat candidate and one of the bats recorded in the Backyard Bat Survey.

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The Natural History Museum of L.A. County conducts its annual Bat Roost Count, a community led science project where teams study bat roosts and give biologists, policymakers and activists information about bat populations and activity in the region.

Registration is open for those 14 and older. You need to RSVP to join the June 13 survey or the June 14 survey. If you miss out on June, you can register for the July survey in August.

For families, the museum plans to offer separate bat roost events sometime in August or September. People of all ages will be able to learn about bats, roosting behavior, watch a bat and learn how scientists are studying them. Those interested should fill out a form for details.

Concerts in the cemetery 

The sun sets at the Hollywood Forever cemetery on Dec. 4, 2025.

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Hollywood Forever is one of the most iconic cemeteries in the world and it’s more than just a resting place for the famous. The sprawling 60-acre grounds also host cultural events, film screenings and evening concerts. Big names such as Olivia Rodrigo, Tame Impala and Lana Del Rey have performed at the cemetery.

Check out their events here.

Star parties above L.A.

Grab a flashlight and go on a night hike in Griffith Park.

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The Griffith Observatory is considered one of the most visited public observatories on the planet and offers plenty of things to do for night owls.

Once a month, the Observatory partners with local telescope groups and hosts a Star Party. Dozens of telescopes set-up on the lawn and the observatory says there’s always something to see. Check out the dates here.

If you can’t make a Star Party, the observatory is open Tuesday to Friday from noon to 10 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The observatory is closed on Mondays.

You can also catch other evening events here.

L.A.’s Critical Mass 

Cyclists gather for the monthly Critical Mass rides in Koreatown on Nov 8th, 2025.

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The LA Local

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Join thousands of bikers in one of the largest community bicycle rides in the U.S. The evening ride happens on the last Friday of every month on the corner of Western and Wilshire. Check the routes, they change each month.

Aboard the Queen Mary

The Queen Mary is lit at night on Nov. 2, 2025 in Long Beach.

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Getty Images

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Los Angeles Times

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At sunset the Queen Mary in Long Beach provides a host of spooky experiences. The ship is rumored to be haunted and there are tours and ship walks to investigate the claim.

The cheapest ticket is the Haunted Encounters Tour with general admission costs around $58 with Graveyard Tours starting at $89.

VIP Tours are also available starting at around $200.

View the times and dates here.