The Brief

Three councilmembers are raising concerns as to why the city of Santa Ana may be withholding records tied to its decision to quit a nearly $7 million state contract that would have provided free or low-cost childcare to hundreds of the city’s most vulnerable youth.

Santa Ana was awarded the first state contract in 2024 with approval from the City Council, only to return the money six months later without informing elected officials.

As LAist first reported in September, the decision has led councilmembers to question why the city gave up on the much-needed funding and why the decision was made behind closed doors.

Now, city officials have new questions concerning the city’s response to LAist’s records requests about the grant after Councilmember Jessie Lopez discovered hundreds of documents — flagged by city agencies as responsive — were deleted from the portal by the Santa Ana city clerk’s office.

The city told LAist the documents were deleted to allow for review and redaction. To Lopez and other members of the City Council, the deleted documents suggest the city is not forthcoming about the decision to return the grant money.

“If you're withholding records that you don't want the public to see, what do those records show? It does not matter if it puts the city in a bad public predicament,” Lopez said.

The discovery has Lopez questioning not only the decision to return the contract money and the city’s explanation — which Lopez finds unsatisfactory — but also shakes her trust in city management.

"Think about that. I am a current councilwoman telling you I cannot trust the leadership of the city,” Lopez said. “That is so, so concerning, not just to me as an elected [official]. It should be concerning to our constituents."

What happened to the funds? 

In 2023, Santa Ana was awarded a $6.7 million contract from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to set up seven childcare facilities and programming, serving more than 500 kids. The money was supposed to be used by the Parks and Recreation Department to pay for new staff, licensing, training, program equipment, community engagement and state-required facility upgrades.

In the city’s bid to the state’s Department of Social Services, the city’s parks department said the program would relieve parents who otherwise cannot afford after-school care or similar programming.

Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua highlighted the award in her 2023 State of the City address.

“It’s almost $7 million. What are we going to do with that? I have a list,” Amezcua said.

According to Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Amezcua met with the Parks and Recreation Department to discuss how the city planned to use the funds.

Hernandez said city staff told him that Amezcua had requested that a portion of grant funds be transferred to the police department’s Police Athletic and Activity League, a youth sports program led by officers.

Documents released to LAist do show the city was considering a partnership between the parks department, the police athletic league and the library. The records show the state rules would not allow the city to transfer funds outside the Parks and Recreation Department, except for supplies and personnel specific to enrichment activities.

Hernandez said when staff informed the mayor and city management that transferring funds was not allowed per state rules, the city manager’s office instructed the department to give up the grant.

Amezcua declined to answer LAist’s questions about meeting with the department. City spokesperson Paul Eakins told LAist that Amezcua was the only elected official to request a meeting to discuss the grant.

After that meeting, and six months after accepting the grant, the city quietly canceled the contract and returned the money. Members of the City Council told LAist they were surprised by the decision.

“It’s our responsibility, and not the city manager’s responsibility, to give back money, especially because we all voted yes [to accept the money],” Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez said.

In a Sept. 16 staff report, the city manager’s office said the council was informed of the decision to give up on the grant in individual meetings. Councilmembers Lopez, Hernandez and Vazquez, however, said that’s not true.

Assistant City Manager Kathryn Downs appeared before City Council on Sept. 16 to publicly explain the move to the council for the first time.

Downs said they gave up on the program because they didn’t believe staff could handle the state’s licensing and contracting requirements and that the initial $915,583 contract award wasn’t enough to jumpstart the program.

The city manager’s office also told the council the city would have had to spend millions on building toddler-sized bathrooms and other ancillary costs.

Downs also cited Santa Ana’s tightening budget as it faces slowing revenues and the looming threat of losing federal funds. The city is looking at a $35 million budget deficit in the next four years.

Lopez said the explanation provided by the city manager’s office didn’t make sense to her because she knew the city didn’t need to build smaller bathrooms, and the initial state contract was to start with building one facility, not all seven at once.

“At that point, I already knew that they were withholding information from me. I already knew that they were lying to me,” Lopez said.

Amezcua has expressed frustration about the continued discussion of the canceled grant.

“This whole CDSS grant keeps coming up. It’s like they don’t want to let it die,” Amezcua said at the Oct. 7 City Council meeting. The mayor accused members of the City Council of spreading lies about her role in returning the grant money.

“I do not have the authority to give back $6.9 million,” Amezcua said.

Concerns over public records

LAist has submitted a total of four records requests related to the state grant.

One request filed by LAist on July 9 asked for a copy of the city’s contract with the state and any related expense reports. The next day, city staff responded, saying the program was never implemented, so “we do not have records related to your request.”

The request was closed days later without releasing a copy of the state’s contract, which was provided in a later request.

The city has provided some documents in response to LAist’s requests. Those documents include emails, newsletters, FAQ sheets about the grant program and the state contract that was initially withheld. The city also released email exchanges between Library Services Director Brian Sternberg and staff from the city of La Habra in which Sternberg asks for a tour of their childcare facility tied to the same state grant program.

The documents do not provide any more insight into the decision to give up the money. Two of LAist’s requests still are pending three months after the requests were submitted.

Lopez followed up on the requests because she believed there were more responsive documents that the city wasn’t providing. She accessed a portion of the city’s public records system portal that is only available to city officials.

The portal shows an index of hundreds of responsive files uploaded by staff from the library, parks and recreation, human resources and police departments between the opening of the requests and Sept. 30.

Most of these records were deleted by the city clerk’s office and not released, according to a printout of the public records system Lopez provided to LAist.

The contents of the documents are not available in the system Lopez accessed, only the file names. File names of deleted documents include “Recap Meeting CDSS Library PAAL” and “Discuss CDSS Startup- Next Moves,” which seem to be relevant to the city’s decision.

Lopez believes the deleted documents include information the public should see.

“There's a lot in these documents that clear up some of the misinformation, some of the blatant lies that were said to the public, on the record,” Lopez said.

California law requires government bodies to turn over public records when requested, with some exceptions.

What was the city’s explanation? 

The records go through more than one round of vetting, according to the city.

City Clerk Jennifer Hall, in a statement, told LAist that potential records uploaded by staff were removed from the system for review and redaction.

“Review is then done to determine that the identified records respond to the request as submitted, including relevant parties and the date range of the records sought,” Hall said.

Records are then added back to the system and released.

Eakins and Hall did not respond to LAist’s request for the city’s written public records policy.

Lopez said she asked the city attorney if deletions like this are a normal practice when responding to open records requests, and the city attorney said no.

"It leads me to ask questions like, who told the clerk to delete records?” Lopez said. “It tells me that conversations have happened where these records were vetted, uploaded, and then somebody went into this portal and deleted them."

Councilmember Hernandez echoed the concerns shared by Lopez.

“This is an item of public interest, so I expect our city manager's office and the city clerk to be fully compliant with state law as it pertains to public records, and that is, release them all,” Hernandez said.

City Manager Alvaro Nuñez and council members Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan and David Penaloza did not respond to LAist’s request for comment.

How to watchdog local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention. Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The next regular meeting of the board is Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. You can check out the Santa Ana City council meetings and agendas here.
• Learn how to submit a public comment.

Data center builders don’t tell the public how much water they use, according to a new report — and the industry is encroaching into water-stressed and vulnerable communities.

The report, by the think tank Next10 and researchers at Santa Clara University, finds that planned data centers — the ganglia of artificial intelligence — are spreading to regions reliant on overtapped groundwater and strained surface water, with potentially major effects in the Central and Imperial Valleys.

But, reinforcing previous studies, the researchers found that a patchwork of state, federal and local policies allows data center operators to avoid publicly disclosing their actual water use.

California lawmakers tried to address this last year, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure. Now, the legislature is trying again, with bills mandating disclosures about water use and planning.

“We have this huge build out, and we have very little data,” said Irina Raicu, who directs the Internet Ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Paired with California’s precarious water supplies, Raicu said, “It’s just not a good combination.”

Shaolei Ren, an expert on the environmental impacts of AI at UC Riverside who was not involved in the study, said the findings point to a much broader problem.

“Limited publicly available information about data center water use makes it difficult for communities, water providers and researchers to have meaningful public discussions and responsibly assess power-water trade-offs,” Ren said in an email.

Murky water use 

Few environmental impact reports for California’s data centers were publicly available online, the researchers found.

Raicu and co-author Iris Stewart-Frey, a professor of environmental science, went looking for the reports, meant to assess and disclose a project’s impacts for both nature and people under the landmark California Environmental Quality Act.

They found almost none. The ones they did find were largely for facilities in the city of Santa Clara.

Through interviews with planning officials, they discovered that projects can slip through with little environmental review if they fall under certain size or water use thresholds, or if they meet a city or county’s criteria for other approval pathways. These include something called ministerial approval, which requires planning agencies to approve a project that meets local zoning and other standards.

Even for data centers that undergo more stringent environmental scrutiny, the researchers found that documentation is rarely available to the public.

In the few cases the planning documents were posted publicly, the information — on the data center’s owner or operator, size, type of cooling system, the amount of water used, whether it’s recycled or potable — was often “missing, contradictory, or vague,” the report said.

The researchers said they contacted water providers in areas where data centers cluster, seeking usage data. None responded.

A shift to vulnerable regions

California’s data centers mostly cluster in the south San Francisco Bay Area and the city of Los Angeles, with smaller concentrations in Sacramento and San Diego.

But the report noted large, planned projects in rural and less affluent regions — like in Santa Clara County’s Gilroy, as well as in the heavily agricultural Imperial Valley.

“They need a bunch of cheap land,” Raicu. “If we’re not careful, they will end up being pitched, very convincingly, to communities that have real needs — without enough attention being paid to the water part.”

Khara Boender, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, which has opposed bills mandating more granular water-use reporting, said in an email the industry is “committed to being a good neighbor.”

Boender argues that data centers collectively “used significantly less water than other essential industries in 2025, including the agriculture, power, food and beverage, and semiconductor sectors,” but the coalition offers no data to back that up.

Collective use matters less than local impacts in a state where each community has its own mix of water supplies and strains, according to a previous study published by a team at UC Berkeley.

Whether data centers use a lot or a little water relative to agriculture or other industries, “what matters most is the scale of new local use compared to available local supply,” the Berkeley team concluded earlier this year. “Unfortunately, this picture is clouded by data deficiencies.”

In this week’s report, the Santa Clara University team drilled into those local supplies and community vulnerabilities to anticipated expansion.

“We’re at the brink of this happening in California,” Stewart-Frey, the environmental scientist, said. Her report, she added, isn’t advocating against data centers. But “communities should know what they’re getting themselves into.”

Debates over proposed data centers are erupting in a Kern County desert community with dwindling groundwater and in the hot Imperial Valley, which draws from the strained Colorado River. 

Monterey Park residents in the San Gabriel Valley successfully opposed one data center project over environmental concerns and inadequate information and secured an upcoming vote on a citywide ban.

In a letter to city officials, a representative for the developer dismissed opponents as “rage-baiting an uninformed mob to pressure your decisionmaking.”

Raicu pushed back. “If those communities are uninformed about the issue — whose fault is that? Who should be informing the people so that you don’t have this kind of pushback, if there is no need for it?”

New laws v. Big Tech

Last year, Assemblymember Diane Papan, a Democrat from San Mateo, authored a bill requiring data center operators to report estimated or actual water use to their water supplier when seeking or renewing a business license or permit.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure amid industry pressure, saying he was “reluctant to impose rigid reporting requirements about operational details on this sector without understanding the full impact on businesses and the consumers of their technology.”

Now, Papan is trying again with two bills. One largely reprises last year’s measure, with additional reporting required to the city and county. The other would bar local governments from approving new or expanded data centers unless the developer discloses information about their water use and plans.

It would also set other requirements — like prohibiting development in overdrafted groundwater basins in places like the San Joaquin Valley, unless state water managers OK it.

“You cannot manage what you have not and cannot measure,” Papan said. “The public likes transparency, and they should.”

Both bills cleared a key legislative chokepoint this week but face staunch opposition from the tech industry and business groups.

“If they run out of water, guess what happens? And they can’t cool their systems — are they going to succeed?” Papan said. “To which I say, help us help you.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

Founders Jenny Yang and Chris Capizzi spent seven years operating as a pop-up without a brick-and-mortar location. Opening their doors to local vendors pays homage to their own roots selling at Los Angeles markets, from the Melrose Trading Post to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market.

“Mega giant online sellers have the scale and the resources and the patience and the reach to capture most people,” Capizzi said. “Whereas for us, I think we have to be really creative — we have to band together.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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Yang and Capizzi’s long history of vending at markets taught them how isolating running a small business can be. At their market, they aim to build connections with each vendor and strategize the best timing and layout so everyone can succeed.

“[Amazon and Barnes & Noble] are Goliath, and we’re not even David — we’re just the ant underneath David’s foot,” Capizzi said. “I think we can do what we do and try to get as many people, at our level or even smaller, to get together.”

Weekly markets at A Good Used Book have captivated the neighborhood since its opening in October 2023, with charming names like “Sunday Funday,” “Saturday School” and “Hi-Fi Friday Night,” plus hand-drawn flyers by well-known artist Noah Harmon. Now, it’s become a weekly occurrence where LA pop-ups can display their own crafts, allowing local readers to indulge in a little more than a pocket paperback.

Each week holds a Pandora’s box of niche snacks, crafts or trinkets you didn’t know you needed, ranging from Southeast Asian-inspired trail mix to natural incense sticks to vintage Japanese audio equipment. One week you might be enticed to adopt a kitten from a rescue booth outside, another week you might impulsively get a stick-and-poke tattoo in the back of the store.

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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On one sunny Sunday afternoon, Brandon Stanciell hand-tossed fresh pizza dough on the sidewalk outside the bookstore. His 2-year-old pop-up, Pizza Ananda, which he named after his daughter, is an homage to her and to Italian cooking, a hobby he started during paternity leave. An hour before the market closed, Stanciell had already sold out and garnished his last pepperoni-and-hot-honey pie for one lucky customer.

“I love that places like this allow us all to meet at once to share what we have and give it to the community around us,” Stanciell said.

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

)

For the owners, building a community market is about deepening relationships with the people who walk through their doors. In an increasingly digital landscape, it is also a reciprocal partnership among local businesses.

“A lot of people talk about community building nowadays as a marketing strategy,” Capizzi said. “But I think the actual community building comes from talking to each vendor and each customer and being a consistent presence in the neighborhood.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

(

Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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While customers browsed for unique titles, Gerin del Carmen worked her booth of ceramic dishware, oyster-shaped trinket holders and vases resembling miniature boxes. As a ceramicist, del Carmen draws from her Filipino heritage, including the Balikbayan boxes that represent immigrants sending gifts to family in the Philippines.

“Sharing the community and your space is such a big deal. This is not a huge, gigantic Barnes & Noble store,” del Carmen said. “It has so much foot traffic, and the fact that [the owners] are setting up and sharing the space once or twice a week with other vendors and other artists is huge.”

Yang and Capizzi may think of themselves as an “ant underneath David’s foot,” but A Good Used Book is building a colony of vendors, rooted in community.

Whether you and your friends are looking for a brunch spot to cater to everyone's palates, or taking a trip to the historic Grand Central Market, food halls make for an easy, affordable place to satisfy cravings — especially in SoCal, where diverse selections of dishes reign supreme.

But these spaces fill a void much deeper than our appetites. They bring new life to old storefronts, factories or even airfields (see list below), and can offer a way to keep dollars within the community by becoming a hub for local businesses.

With that said, here's a short list of food halls where you'll get more than just a killer meal.

For good vibes

BLVD MRKT food hall on the corner of 6th Street and Whittier Boulevard in downtown Montebello.

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BLVD MRKT is an open-air food hall in downtown Montebello that feels like a party. The 8,500-square-foot space currently has five eateries, or "concepts" as they're known in the restaurant industry, and hosts live DJs every Friday night and Sunday during brunch. They also host Open Vinyl Night on the second and forth Tuesday of every month, where patrons get $2 off beers and margaritas from Alchemy Craft if they bring a vinyl record to be played in the BLVD courtyard.

The space is pet-friendly and has growing concepts like Los Taquero Mucho, which offers classic al pastor, grilled chicken and slow-cooked carnitas tacos, as well as specialty flavors like vegan tacos with whiskil sautéed in coconut milk, and Pork Belly Cochinita Pibil Tacos, perfect for those who crave crispy, slow-roasted pork with a hint of sweetness.

Los Taquero Mucho participates in BLVD's incubator program, run by co-founders Barney and Evelyn Santos. The program offers mentorship to local entrepreneurs until they can set up shop permanently.

Pork Belly Cochinita Pibil Tacos with salsa from Los Taquero Mucho at BLVD MRKT in Montebello.

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BLVD MRKT is part of the couple's commercial real estate development firm, Gentefy. Its mission is to invest in retail and hospitality projects that ignite economic development and revitalization in Black and brown neighborhoods.

"Blvd Mrkt is our first project," Barney Santos wrote in a text message. "It was our social proof to prove to banks, investors and cities that a socially conscious business model could exist in a traditionally overlooked area."

VCHOS Pupuseria Moderna also has a spot in the BLVD courtyard, offering handmade pupusas with filling choices such as shrimp with spinach and cheese, and tender beef birria with a side of consommé, onions and cilantro. Coffee lovers can get an Oaxacan Mocha at Cafe Santo, or stop by Cold Pizza for a wood-fired slice.

For eclectic tastes

Rodeo 39 Public Market in Stanton.

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An O.C. favorite, Rodeo 39 Public Market lives on Highway 39, also known as Beach Boulevard, in Stanton. This 40,000-square-foot space is an eclectic mix of more than 20 food and drink concepts and retailers. There are three outdoor patios and five murals, plus an arcade, tattoo shop and photo booth. Food options cover everything from Lil' Breezy's adobo breakfast burritos to Cajun crab fries at The Crawfish Hut.

Mural by artist David Flores outside of Joystix arcade at Rodeo 39 Public Market.

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Rodeo's menu choices make it well-suited for a casual weekend brunch. At its entrance sits Here & There, where you can grab a coffee or matcha latte, or try one of their signature drinks like the Iced Vienna, a combination of milk with caramelly demerara sugar and your choice of matcha or espresso, topped with sweet cream and garnished with sea salt. The result is a drink that's smooth and not too sweet.

Eggyo bulgogi egg sandwich with spicy mayo at Rodeo 39 Public Market.

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Eggyo, a recent addition to Rodeo, offers Korean corn dogs and fluffy egg sandwiches on crispy, house-baked milk bread. Try the bulgogi option with spicy mayo for a savory kick. If you crave a cocktail, venture over to CAPO, which also serves craft beer. Or just sit on one of their sun-filled patios while you decide what to try.

For a page from history

The Hangar in Long Beach.

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The Hangar is a 17,000-square-foot food hall that pays homage to Long Beach's aviation history. It sits on former Boeing Co. land where military and commercial aircraft were built. Today, it serves as a dining destination at the Long Beach Exchange Shopping Center, or LBX, neighboring the city's international airport.

This space currently has a mix of 14 food concepts and two retail shops. Patrons can enjoy local favorites outside their flagship locations, like the Joe's Special bagel sandwich from Cassidy's Corner Cafe, with bacon, egg and the star of the show — tangy jalapeño cream cheese. Fans of spice can try Jay Bird's Nashville Hot Chicken, which offers chicken sandwiches and tenders, and Blazin' Fries, all with six levels of heat.

Historic aviation photos are displayed above food concepts at The Hangar food hall at LBX in Long Beach

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LAist

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Inside, there are vintage pictures of aircraft that were built at the site, and a wall of clocks showing the time in cities named Long Beach across the country.

A Pan Am Hawaii travel poster (left) and a TWA Spain travel poster (right) at the patio of The Hangar food hall.

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Outside, you'll find patio seating with umbrellas where you can sit and watch the occasional plane fly overhead. Or sit and enjoy the adjacent display of towering Pan Am and TWA posters promoting travel to Hawaii, Spain and Paris.

For fun and work

Mercado La Paloma on Grand Avenue in South L.A.

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Open since 2001, the approximately 34,000-square-foot Mercado La Paloma sits in the Figueroa corridor of South L.A., and is known for its focus on community, art and culture. From rotating art exhibits to colorful tiled tabletops, this space feels like it was made to nurture creativity.

Interior of Mercado La Paloma.

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There are meeting rooms to rent starting at $25 an hour. It's a space where locals can bring their laptop to work or study, or have a long conversation with a friend, with bites from six acclaimed restaurants.

Holbox's Erizo dish at Mercado La Paloma.

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At the Mercado, visit Holbox for Michelin-starred seafood dishes like Erizo — velvety sea urchin laid atop a bed of tender scallop ceviche. The combination is fresh, flavorful and oceanic. Tip: If you can swing it, come on a weekday to avoid a long line, or order ahead.

For something sweet, walk over to Oaxacacalifornia Cafe & Juice Bar for a Spicy Pineapple Juice with a gingery kick, or go for the classic pairing of Hot Oaxacan Chocolate, made with your choice of water or milk, and light-as-air conchas crowned with a solid layer of vanilla or chocolate streusel.