The Brief

A minimum wage boost for tourism workers in the city of Los Angeles is going into effect after the City Clerk announced Monday that a referendum to overturn it failed to gather enough valid signatures.

The news is the latest step in a saga that started when the L.A. City Council passed a $30 hourly pay increase for airport and hotel workers by 2028 earlier this year.

A group of business interests backed by Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and a hotel group launched a referendum in response to bring the issue to the voters. That campaign temporarily halted the wage increase from going into effect.

The group, the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, submitted more than 140,000 signatures. In response, the powerful hotel workers union Unite Here Local 11 launched an effort of its own encouraging voters to revoke their signatures.

The City Clerk found around 84,000 of referendum signatures to be sufficient, falling 9,000 short of the around 93,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

Around 40% of the signatures were found to be insufficient.

According to the City Clerk, around 17,000 signatures were thrown out because they were withdrawn by the signer.

" We are so grateful for the solidarity from Angelinos," said Unite Here Local 11 co-president Kurt Petersen, referencing the union's effort encouraging people to revoke their signatures. " Without that solidarity and support, this would not have happened."

The group has 30 days to challenge the signature certification, according to the City Clerk's Office.

“The business community will stand strong in fighting back," a spokesperson for the L.A. Alliance said in a statement.

The minimum wage for airport and most hotel workers in L.A. is now $22.50, and will continue to increase until reaching $30 an hour in 2028.

The referendum effort was beset with controversy. Both sides accused the other of using fraudulent tactics to gather referendum signatures and signature revocations.

Unite Here accused petition circulators of misrepresenting their effort to overturn the minimum wage ordinance and in some cases physically assaulting people observing their signature collection. The union asked the California attorney general and others to investigate in a June letter.

The L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress has accused opponents of the referendum of foul play, too.

In a letter to L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman last month, the group said the firm it hired to circulate the referendum petition identified multiple paid signature gatherers who were also collecting requests to withdraw signatures from the same voters.

It also accused an opponent of the referendum of physically assaulting someone circulating the referendum petition, and asked the district attorney to investigate.

"Any and all persons who engaged in fraudulent conduct must be held accountable," a spokesperson for the business group said in a statement.

The referendum showdown comes as business interests and the hotel workers are also waging battle through a series of proposed ballot initiatives.

Unite Here Local 11 has filed paperwork to ask L.A. voters to raise the minimum wage for all city workers, require that Angelenos vote on building new hotels and event center developments, and raise taxes on companies with CEO pay that far exceeds worker pay. Business interests have responded with their own ballot proposition to eliminate the city business tax.

Whether any of those ballot proposals make it to the ballot remains to be seen.

James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles is headed to state after winning the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 45th annual Academic Decathlon.
The Eastside school claimed the top prize — the Superintendent’s Trophy — earning 44,336.10 points out of 60,000 points. Abraham Lincoln High in Lincoln Heights scored 40,181.70 and is among the eight LAUSD schools advancing to the state competition.

The LAUSD teams will compete at the California Academic Decathlon on March 19-22 in Santa Clara. 

Decathletes representing Garfield High are Derek Dominguez, Ana Santos, Davian Valladares, Joseph Villa, Liana Lopez, Julie Lopez, David Ventura, Kimberly Palacios, and Briana Zuniga.

Villa was among the top students who earned the highest district-wide scores, coming in third with 8,267.5 points out of 10,000 points.

Board member Rocío Rivas, who represents East LA, said Garfield’s win “reflects the real progress taking shape across our district and the momentum we’re

building as they represent our communities at the California Academic Decathlon.”

The district said it holds 23 state titles – more than any district in California – and 19 national titles. 

“At Los Angeles Unified, we are proud to represent one of the most diverse student communities in the nation,” said Academic Decathlon Regional Director Dr. Neena Agnihotri in a statement.

“Our Decathletes come from many cultures, languages, and life experiences, and that diversity is one of our greatest strengths,” Agnihotri said.

Also competing in the California Academic Decathlon are: Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, Van Nuys High School, John Marshall High School, Bell High School, The Science Academy STEM Magnet and Dr. Richard A. Vladovic Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy.

This story appeared first on LA Local.

FIFA World Cup organizers expect more than 150,000 extra visitors to flood the Los Angeles area during eight World Cup games this summer, and all of them are going to need places to sleep.

AirBnB, the short-term rental giant, is kicking up its efforts to recruit more properties to the platform by offering a $750 bonus to first-time hosts in World Cup cities.

The company courted new hosts with lunch and a special workshop Thursday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where the games will be played. Other short-term rental companies — like Vrbo and Booking.com — are also promoting rentals near World Cup stadiums.

Renting out houses, apartments and rooms in Los Angeles and Inglewood is less of a cavalier process than it was a decade ago.

Lawmakers in many places have developed tighter short-term rental regulations in hopes of cracking down on neighborhood disruption, collecting more tax dollars and preventing scarce housing stock from being converted into full-time vacation rentals.

If you’re a local who is hoping to make a few extra bucks by renting out your place this summer, here are three tips to get you started, straight from active short-term rental hosts and property managers.

Get the ball rolling soon

It takes time to get a space properly listed for short-term rental.

Many local governments, including the city and county of L.A., as well as Inglewood, require hosts to apply for permits. Approvals can take two to four weeks in the city of L.A., said Lisa Giuntoli, whose company Nonpareil Stays manages 45 short-term rentals in the area.

Giuntoli said short-term rental listings perform better in web searches the longer they remain online, and for the World Cup, in particular, visitors are booking places well in advance.

“It takes a minute to get up to speed,” she said. “If you’re interested, do it now.”

Do your homework on local rules

Each local government sets its own guidelines for short-term rentals. Several have revamped their ordinances in recent years.

Hosts can bear some responsibility for how their rentals affect the neighborhood. Inglewood, along with the city and county of L.A., requires permitted hosts to keep their renters up to speed on noise regulations and other local rules.

Not everyone can get a permit. Inglewood requires permit applicants to have lived within the city for 10 consecutive years. In the city of L.A., secondary residences and rent-stabilized properties aren’t eligible to become short-term rentals.

Perrita King, a Leimert Park resident, said she has still been able to keep her extra space listed by renting to people looking to stay longer than a month, such as traveling nurses.

If you live in the city of LA, you can check here to see if your property falls under rent stabilization.

If the logistics seem daunting, consider a specialist

If you’re not interested in waking up at 1 a.m. to help out a renter who lost their key, there are a few different ways to hire a specialized short-term rental manager.

Companies like Nonpareil Stays manage portfolios of dozens of short-term rentals. King, the Leimert Park host, said she goes through a web-based company called Fairly.

You can also narrow your search through Airbnb’s co-host network, which allows you to filter prospective managers by location and other factors.

Longtime Republican Rep. Darrell Issa will not seek reelection, he announced Friday.

His decision comes four months after his San Diego-area congressional district was redrawn to favor Democrats and shortly after San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican, filed papers to run in the same district.

Issa, a longtime GOP stalwart, said he was endorsing Desmond in a statement announcing his decision to retire.

“This decision has been on my mind for a while, and I didn’t make it lightly,” he said. “But after a quarter-century in Congress — and before that, a quarter-century in business — it’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges.”

A history of reshuffling

Issa represented the San Diego area in Congress for more than 20 years. He briefly retired in 2019 when his seat, now represented by Democrat Mike Levin, became more competitive. He returned to Congress in 2021 after winning a seat in the 50th District, which was redrawn after statewide redistricting later that year. He moved to his current seat in the 48th District in 2023.

The newly configured seat attracted a slew of Democratic challengers after it became more competitive when voters approved Proposition 50 last fall. The redistricting measure was designed to give Democrats up to five additional seats in the U.S. House and counter similar redistricting efforts in other states that favored Republicans.

Desmond had previously announced that he would run in the 49th District against Levin.

“They drew me into this district, but the truth is I’ve been serving this community for years,” Desmond said in a statement to CalMatters. Prior to Prop. 50, Desmond lived in the 49th District. He now lives in the 48th. “I’ll fight every single day to make life more affordable, more safe and more free.”

Crowded field of Democrats

In the 48th District, two Democratic candidates — Ammar Campa-Najjar, a former opponent of Issa's, and San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert — lead a crowded field eager to flip the district blue. No candidate garnered enough support for the party’s endorsement last month.

California Republicans have been reshuffling for months as their districts were redrawn.

Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, one of the longest-serving members in Congress, is now running in the 40th District against Republican incumbent Young Kim of Orange County. His present district, the neighboring 41st, was moved entirely out of conservative pockets of Riverside County to Los Angeles County.

Issa briefly contemplated a congressional run in Texas in December after the new districts were created but decided against it.

It must have been about 10 years ago when I was running in the L.A. Marathon and had worked my way through the early miles along Sunset Boulevard, through downtown L.A. and up Temple Street.

On crossing the 101 Freeway into historic residential Echo Park, I see them: the hand-painted signs, lined up one after another: “Super Sloppy,” “Chili Cheese Dogz.” Then “BAD IDEA?” … “Maybe, Maybe not!”

Then I hear the music, and cheering from the neighbors who’ve come out to see who will tempt gastric disaster for some spicy, drippy chili and yellow American cheese atop nitrate-laced tube steaks.

Did I grab a chili cheese dog? No. I have never dared to take anything more than photos at the stand, given that I still have, at about Mile 5, 21 more miles to run, and running with the “runs” is not my thing.

But Marvin Suntonvipart did in 2016, he said, because he was undertrained and going at a slow jog. He figured it wouldn’t hurt.

“Digestive speed,” he called it. And the roadside snack? “It was good, highly recommended.”

The chili cheese dogs, free to marathon participants, have been the brainchild of artist and puppeteer Julianna Parr and her friend Alex Kenefick since 2011

“He ran up to me breathlessly and said I have this idea where we serve super sloppy chili cheese dogs to marathon runners. And I said to him 'That's a terrible idea. When do we start?'" Parr said.

This will be their 13th year serving marathoners, having skipped a few during the pandemic.

“It’s a happening,” Parr said, adding that she still gets a kick thinking about the runners’ reactions when they turn the corner off the freeway and see the signs leading them to free chili cheese dogs.

“We know that you're expecting to make choices about how you'll run, how fast you'll run, how slow you'll run, how you're going to pace, you've been doing this maybe for months to train, but we know that you have one choice that you probably did not bank on and that would be whether you're going to eat a super sloppy chili cheese dog,” she said.

The food is prepped outdoors on site starting at 5 a.m. Marathon Sunday using camp stoves and heated chafing dishes to keep everything at a safe temperature. Then, the group waits for the athletes to come through. The race starts at Dodger Stadium before 7 a.m. First to pass their stand are the wheelchair racers, then the pro men and women runners and then amateur elites, who are too fast to try to stop.

Soon, by about 8 a.m., there is a trickle of takers. And then the masses arrive.

David Winslow of Culver City partakes of a free chili cheese dog in the fifth mile of the L.A. Marathon in March 2020.

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Courtesy David Winslow

)

“We just get mobbed,” she said. “People will try to grab them out of the hot vat. And I go, ‘Back, back!’ Like that's when they get wild, and they don't have common sense anymore and that's [just] at Mile 5."

The stunt costs about $700 each year to put together, which Parr and friends have footed. But this year, for the first time, she has put up a website to sell merch, including stickers, hats, tote bags and mugs. I think it will be a very “locals only” statement to be walking around with a Super Sloppy Chili Cheese Dog tote bag.

Runner Diana Kitching said she picks up a free dog almost every year when she passes by. In fact, in 2024, as a breastfeeding mom whose marathon pace was slowed with a few breaks to pump, she had two!

Unsurprisingly, the chili cheese dogs are most attractive to runners on a more relaxed and fun pace, those who are not taking their marathon times too seriously.

That was the case for David Winslow one year, when he was running with a group of cancer survivors and living kidney and liver organ donors.

“Each time you see the chili guys it’s like, ‘Who would be that crazy and stupid?’ You see guys grab them and go for it, and you shake your head," Winslow said.

But in 2019 and 2020, as he and his survivor and donor friends rounded the turn over the freeway, something changed.

“We just said, ‘Hey, we HAVE to do this!’ And I do not regret it. One of the craziest things to do during a race," Winslow said.

Playwright and performance artist Kristina Wong has eaten bagel and lox and baklava while taking on the L.A. Marathon, but she draws the line at a chili cheese dog.

“These hot dog portions look downright diarrhea-sized,” Wong said.

And runner O. Gary Pealer said he’d eat one at Mile 5 if they also served beer to wash it down.

But in my experience, the people pouring free beer are usually at Mile 20.