Veterans John Follmer, right, and Alejandro Rocha, left, do outreach on on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. They met Chris Brown, center, and offered to connect him with veterans services.
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Alex Welsh
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NPR
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A massive VA campus in West Los Angeles is finally housing hundreds of vets, and may finally change the city's worst-in-the-nation status on veterans homelessness.
The backstory: A 387-acre facility on some of the country's most expensive real estate: Brentwood, in West Los Angeles, was donated as a home for Civil War veterans in 1887.
The issue: Los Angeles has the largest number of homeless veterans, nearly 4,000 according to the annual count. In this century veterans groups have sued the VA for leasing parts of the campus out for things that had nothing to do with vets, like UCLA's baseball stadium, the private Brentwood School and other deals, some of which turned out to be criminal.
The outreach: John Follmer has been doing homelessness outreach with L.A.'s Veteran Peer Access Network for three years. His goal is to help vets on the street tap into the array of economic, health and housing benefits they've earned. Follmer's seen many vets — including two more Purple Heart recipients — who have been wrongly turned away from the Department of Veterans Affairs or don't believe they're eligible.
The first time John Follmer met a Purple Heart vet living on the streets after trying — and failing — to get VA benefits, it surprised him.
Not anymore.
Follmer has been doing homelessness outreach with L.A.'s Veteran Peer Access Network for three years. His goal is to help vets on the street tap into the array of economic, health and housing benefits they've earned. Follmer's seen many vets — including two more Purple Heart recipients — who have been wrongly turned away from the Department of Veterans Affairs or don't believe they're eligible.
"It's not the lack of resources. It's the abundance of discouragement," said Follmer.
Which might explain L.A. in a nutshell. Los Angeles has the largest number of homeless veterans, nearly 4,000 according to the annual count. L.A. also has a unique asset to help them: A 387-acre facility on some of the country's most expensive real estate: Brentwood, in West Los Angeles. The sprawling campus was donated as a home for Civil War veterans in 1887. In this century veterans groups have sued the VA for leasing parts of the campus out for things that had nothing to do with vets, like UCLA's baseball stadium, the private Brentwood School and other deals, some of which turned out to be criminal.
Veterans groups pointedly asked: If the campus could host a golf course and a working oil well and a bird sanctuary, why couldn't it build housing veterans? Veterans groups sued to drive that point home, and then VA settled the lawsuit in 2015 with an agreement that plaintiffs say hasn't been enforced. Now they're suing again and the case may go to trial next year. It's left vets like Follmer skeptical.
"You can't build anything on a foundation of neglect," he said, though he's encouraged by several recently opened new buildings to house veterans on the campus.
Construction on units has begun
As the sounds of construction echo through the north half of the VA campus, it's allowing some of the long-time critics to have some optimism.
"It's more difficult to say 'you're not doing anything' when we have more than 500 units already completed or in progress," said Steve Peck, a Vietnam vet who leads US Vets, part of a consortium developing buildings for housing on the campus.
"We're getting there," he said, walking into a newly renovated 1940s Mission-revival style building on campus that now holds 59 studios and one-bedroom apartments.
Veteran Deavin Sessom stays in a small hut-shelter at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Los Angeles, waiting for permanent housing the VA has been promising for years.
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Alex Welsh for NPR
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The building is exclusively for vets over age 62, half of them with severe mental illness. Peck said it filled up in less than four months.
"It's a nice home. They're proud to call it home," he said. "A lot of the veterans who came in here after they were here for two weeks went to the social workers and said, 'How long do I get to stay here?' And she said this is your home. Stay here as long as you want."
Peck said much of the work over the past five years was unseen — literally underground, updating 100-year-old infrastructure. Now the work is becoming visible, with 233 units already housing vets and 347 under construction. The next site slated to open is for women veterans with children.
A vision of affordable housing for vets in one of the richest parts of LA
The "master plan" is to build a real community with a village feel, including a café and restaurant, maybe an art center. An L.A. metro station stop is slated to open in 2027, which would integrate the campus with the rest of the city. By then developers hope to have completed most of the target 1,200 units of housing. It's a vision of a vibrant community of affordable housing for vets living in one of the richest parts of L.A.
It's also the focus of decades worth of well-earned suspicion, said Rob Reynolds, an Iraq vet. When he hears about shiny new restaurants, or a massive park-and-ride garage for commuters at the new metro station, it sounds like history repeating itself.
Rob Reynolds, an Army veteran, poses for a portrait at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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Alex Welsh for NPR
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"A lot of these entities that are on the land, that are unrelated to veteran housing or healthcare, have got whatever their wants are over the needs of the veterans," he said.
Reynolds helped galvanize a community of homeless vets camping out at the VA's gates in an area known as "veterans row" about three years ago. He said the VA still felt like a place that would always find a way to tell you "no."
"There was no 24-hour shelter. So you have veterans that were showing up in the afternoon being like, 'Hey, I need a place to stay.' And they would tell them, 'Oh no, come back tomorrow or the following day. But you can't stay on the property tonight.' Then they would end up out in the street," said Reynolds.
"They finally build up enough courage to ask for help and then get turned away. You just sever the trust and then it makes it that much harder to get them in the next time," he said.
The vets outside the gates with U.S. flags draped on their tents brought public pressure, and VA brought veterans row inside the campus. It's now a compound of 140 basic huts; six of them — soon to be 12 — are available 24/7 for vets who turn up.
Tiny homes sit adjacent to what was previously Veterans Row on the campus of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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Alex Welsh for NPR
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In September, Robert Canas, an Air Force vet who had been on veterans row, moved into a studio apartment in one of the new buildings. Canas had been homeless for about five years.
"I was drinking heavily. Just to fall asleep on the streets I was drinking a lot," he said. "It wasn't till I got here that I got sobered up."
Canas got therapy at the VA and quit drinking about two years ago. His new apartment is subsidized so it only costs him $60 per month. Despite all that, he hasn't completely changed his opinion about the VA.
"What's sad is still finding all the obstacles here at the VA," he said.
Robert Canas poses for a portrait in his new apartment at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.
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Alex Welsh for NPR
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Disability miscounted as income
Sitting on the couch in his new place is one example of what Canas means: Army vet Joshua Erickson. He lost a leg to a landmine in Afghanistan and is rated 100% disabled by the VA, which means he makes too much income to get a housing voucher from Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
"On top of my service connected [disability] money, I get Social Security," Erickson said with an uncomprehending pause. "I make too much money."
He's up in Canas' new apartment to use the Wi-Fi and hang out indoors - he's living in a hut on the compound of what used to be veterans row. Erickson said he'd like to go to school and learn to make prostheses like the one he's wearing. He used to have three different prosthetic legs, but the others got lost or stolen while he was on the street.
After Erickson steps out, Canas vents.
Josh Erickson poses for a portrait at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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Alex Welsh for NPR
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"He stepped on a landmine trying to rescue another soldier. I get this beautiful apartment ... and he can't live here," Canas said. "And he even says he feels like he's not wanted here by both the community and the VA. They want you homeless and desperate."
Canas said this while he himself lives in a VA-provided apartment and gets VA care. Officials know the VA has to fix this trust problem.
"We have people who are getting harmed now because they are afraid to get services or they're convinced that the VA is out to get them or is evil," said John Kuhn. He's the deputy medical center director for VA Greater Los Angeles and also the self-described "homelessness guy."
We have the resources, we have the team. There's no reason for any of our veterans in LA to be homeless
Kuhn is a social worker with 30 years experience on the issue, and he previously led a successful rapid rehousing program at VA.
"I'm asking those veterans to get up and try again. You have a home here. You have an opportunity here to reach out to get the service you are entitled to. We are here. One third of our staff are veterans," said Kuhn.
John Kuhn, Deputy Medical Center Director of the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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Alex Welsh for NPR
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Kuhn said it's absurd that veterans like Josh Erickson are caught in red tape, that their VA disability is counting as income. The VA has been working with the Treasury Department and HUD to change that, Kuhn says, but it may take action by Congress.
That's hard, but not impossible. Despite Washington gridlock, Congress comes together more often on veterans issues, including the approval of hundreds of millions of dollars for the West L.A. campus. With the construction finally happening all over campus, Kuhn allows himself some optimism.
"We have the resources, we have the team. There's no reason for any of our veterans in L.A. to be homeless," he said.
For years now, he said, L.A. has been housing more vets than any other VA in the country but not keeping up with the number who fall into homelessness.
If this campus can stay on track, Kuhn is hoping to finally get ahead of that curve.
Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published February 9, 2026 5:00 AM
Local high school students tour Eastern Municipal Water District facilities in Perris in the Inland Empire.
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Courtesy Eastern Municipal Water District
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Topline:
As water agencies across the state grapple with the increasingly extreme effects of climate change, they’re also facing another problem: the incoming “silver tsunami.” That’s the phrase coined by the industry to illustrate the fact that much of the workforce that keeps our water flowing and safe are baby boomers getting ready to retire.
The background: Nationwide, about a third of the nation’s water workforce is eligible for retirement within the next decade, “the majority being workers with trade jobs in mission critical positions,” the Environmental Protection Agency wrote in a 2024 report.
Why it matters: To deal with how pollution in our atmosphere is driving longer, hotter droughts as well as increasingly intense rain when it does come, water agencies across Southern California are working to boost aging infrastructure and invest in more diverse water supplies, such as recycled water. The lack of people to staff those changes is a problem for pretty much every water agency, urban and rural.
Read on ... to learn how one local water agency is bringing high schoolers into the water workforce pipeline.
As water agencies across California grapple with the increasingly extreme effects of climate change, they’re also facing another problem: the incoming “silver tsunami.”
That’s the phrase coined by the industry to illustrate the fact that much of the workforce — largely baby boomers — that keeps our water flowing and safe are getting ready to retire.
Nationwide, about a third of the nation’s water workforce is eligible for retirement within the next decade, “the majority being workers with trade jobs in mission critical positions,” the Environmental Protection Agency wrote in a 2024 report.
Climate resilience needs a workforce
To deal with how pollution in our atmosphere is driving longer, hotter droughts, as well as increasingly intense rain when it does come, water agencies across Southern California are working to boost aging infrastructure and invest in more diverse water supplies, such as recycled water.
The lack of people to staff those changes is a problem for pretty much every water agency, urban and rural.
L.A. is the second-largest city in the nation and is spending billions on water recycling and stormwater capture, for example, but it has been struggling to fill needed positions at its four wastewater treatment plants.
The city of L.A. plans to clean all wastewater that flows to the Hyperion plant.
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Eric Garcetti via Flickr
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The city plans to treat nearly all of the Hyperion wastewater facility’s water to drinkable standards in the coming decades. To support that massive expansion, Hi-Sang Kim, the operations director at Hyperion, told LAist in 2022 the facility will need to boost its workforce by at least 30%.
For less urban water agencies, the challenge is even greater. The Eastern Municipal Water District serves close to 1 million people (and growing), as well as agricultural customers in western Riverside County and northern San Diego County.
They estimate as much as half of their workforce could retire within five years.
"We are in dire need of technical skill sets."
— Joe Mouawad, general manger, Eastern Municipal Water District
“Not only are we investing in new infrastructure, but we have aging infrastructure, so we are in dire need of technical skill sets to operate, maintain everything from treatment plants to pipelines, to pump stations,” said Joe Mouawad, the water district's general manager.
Jobs in the water industry — potable water and wastewater treatment operators, engineers, managers, skilled maintenance, public relations and more — are well paid and secure, Mouawad said, but it’s hard to fill the needed positions.
“We are finding it more challenging to backfill retirees,” he said. “It's not so much a lack of interest — I think it's a lack of awareness.”
Building a pipeline for water jobs
Those job gaps are why Eastern Municipal has become a leader in building the water workforce pipeline. For decades, the water district partnered with local schools to provide education about water conservation and what they do. But over the last decade, as the retirement forecast grew more dire, the agency has shifted to prioritize skills-based programming and partnerships with local high schools.
Local high school students tour Eastern Municipal Water District facilities in Perris.
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Courtesy Eastern Municipal Water District
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In 2013, they launched the Youth Ecology Corps program, for young adults between 18 and 24. Many who went through the program and paid internships are now full-time employees, said Calen Daniels, a spokesperson for the agency, who himself went through the program.
In recent years, the water agency has focused on younger potential future employees through a variety of Career and Technical Education programs at local high schools, including in automotive tech, engineering, agriculture, construction and information systems, said Erin Guerrero, Eastern Municipal’s public affairs manager overseeing its education programs.
“We're starting earlier and getting these kids real world experience,” Guerrero said.
Michelle Serrano teaches a two-year pre-apprenticeship Environmental Water Resources program at West Valley High School in Hemet. Students leave the program equipped to take the state-level certification exam for a job as a water treatment operator or water distribution operator once they turn 18.
Clayton Gordon, GIS mapping administrator at EMWD, talks to West Valley High students in the GIS Engineering certification summer program.
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Courtesy Eastern Municipal Water District
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Already more than 200 students have gone through the program since it launched last year. While local community colleges have similar Career and Technical Education programs, this is the first program of its kind targeting high schoolers in the region. Eastern Municipal hopes to expand to other area schools as well.
“Once the kids get out of the program, they're set if this is the direction they want to go,” Serrano said. “We have these students set for a job or a career for the rest of their life.”
"Once the kids get out of the program, they're set if this is the direction they want to go."
— Michelle Serrano, teacher, West Valley High School
She said the program is a gamechanger for students who don’t see themselves going to college or who are unsure of their future career path.
“We really are pushing hard for college, and that's a good push,” Serrano said. “However, we have kids who don't see themselves going to college. It's opening up an amazing path for students who otherwise may not see a job direction.”
They’re not only finding a stable career path, she said, but fulfilling roles necessary to our society, Mouawad said.
“It's working for us,” he said, “and we want to see this serve as a model for the rest of the industry.”
This week, get relationship advice, go to a game night, see a chat with the Silversun Pickups, listen to poetry at Oxy and more.
Highlights:
National Book Award winner and former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Robin Coste Lewis visits Occidental College for poetry and conversation with Oxy Live's host, celebrated visual artist and cultural collaborator Alexandra Grant.
Channel family game night with new friends over drinks in Highland Park at a classic board game night with Cat Darling Agency and Asian American Collective.
Hometown heroes Silversun Pickups are back with a new album and tour. Dive deep with a conversation at the new Sid the Cat venue between singer Brian Aubert and producer and musician Butch Vig about the making of their new album, Tenterhooks.
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and author Lindsay Jill Roth has the questions that will make your new (or long-term!) relationship last. Her book, Romances & Practicalities, lays out 250 questions you should ask each other to make your love a time and challenge-tested success. She’s in conversation with love, sex, and relationship therapist Dr. Laura Berman at Zibby’s in Santa Monica.
It takes an icon to know an icon. If you haven’t seen the new Harry Styles video, check it out and you’ll recognize downtown’s Westin Bonaventure in a starring role. The hotel has been in plenty of movies — including True Lies— and now it’s the stage for Styles’ music video for his new single, “Aperture.” Fiona Ng takes you behind the scenes.
Speaking of cool movie settings, Kristen Stewart bought the abandoned Highland Theatre and plans to restore it to its original grandeur. Good news for film lovers.
On tap in the music space this week, Licorice Pizza recommendations include new wave goddess Dale Bozzio and her Missing Persons at the Whisky, rock goddess Melissa Etheridge at the Canyon Club in Agoura or Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera in conversation onstage at the Roxy — all on Wednesday. Thursday, experimental hip-hop group Clipping is at the Observatory, Atmosphere is at the Novo, UK singer-songwriter Erin LeCount plays the Roxy and Long Beach Dub All Stars & Bedouin Soundclash hit the stage at the Wayfarer. Plus, Aloe Blacc kicks off the first of four nights at the Blue Note.
Tuesday, February 10, 7:30 p.m. Cheerio Collective 5917 N. Figueroa Street, Highland Park COST: $25; MORE INFO
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Nik
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Unsplash
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Channel family game night with new friends over drinks in Highland Park at this classic board game night with Cat Darling Agency and Asian American Collective. Play Connect Four, Jenga and Uno while meeting some folks and enjoying a free drink!
Concert reading of Dogfight
Through Sunday, February 15 The Morgan-Wixson Theatre 2627 Pico Plvd., Santa Monica COST: $23; MORE INFO
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Joel Castro
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Morgan-Wixson Theatre
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Before there was The Greatest Showman, there was Dogfight. Benji Pasek and Justin Paul’s musical about a group of young Marines in San Francisco on the eve of the war in Vietnam is presented in a concert reading at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theatre. Dogfight “explores themes of love, loss, and coming of age.”
OXY LIVE! with Robin Coste Lewis in conversation with Alexandra Grant
Tuesday, February 10, 7 p.m. Thorne Hall Thorne Road, Occidental College COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Oxy Arts
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National Book Award winner and former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Robin Coste Lewis visits Occidental College for poetry and conversation with Oxy Live's host, celebrated visual artist and cultural collaborator Alexandra Grant (you may recognize her from excellent grantLove series… and her red carpet photos with beau Keanu Reeves). A book signing hosted by beloved Pasadena bookstore Octavia’s Bookshelf will follow, and attendees will have the opportunity to have their books signed by the author.
Dance at the Odyssey
Through Sunday, February 15 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A. COST: $28; MORE INFO
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Courtesy of Dance at the Odyssey
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Next weekend is the last weekend of Odyssey Theatre’s six-week-long Dance at the Odyssey festival, which features two world premieres: Silent Fiction from Intrepid Dance Project in Odyssey 2, and One World from choreographer Hannah Millar and her Imprints company in Odyssey 3.
Author Lindsay Jill Roth with Dr. Laura Berman
Thursday, February 12, 6 p.m. Zibby’s Bookstore 1113 Montana Ave., Santa Monica COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Zibby's
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It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and author Lindsay Jill Roth has the questions that will make your new (or long-term!) relationship last. Her new book, Romances & Practicalities, lays out 250 questions you should ask each other to make your love a time- and challenge-tested success — alongside Roth’s own long-distance love story and interviews with couples of all stripes. She’s in conversation with love, sex and relationship therapist Dr. Laura Berman at Zibby’s in Santa Monica.
An evening in conversation with Silversun Pickups’ Brian Aubert & Producer and Musician Butch Vig
Wednesday, February 11, 7 p.m. Sid the Cat 1022 El Centro Street,South Pasadena COST: $32.75; MORE INFO
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Sid the Cat
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Dice FM
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Hometown heroes Silversun Pickups are back with a new album and tour — catch them this week for free at Amoeba’s in-store show on Monday. Then dive deep at this conversation at the new Sid the Cat venue between singer Brian Aubert and producer and musician Butch Vg about the making of their new album, Tenterhooks. Plus, Lyndsey Parker of Licorice Pizza (friend of Best Things to Do) will moderate the chat.
Stronger Together: Nurturing Mind, Body, and Spirit
Monday, February 9, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. St. Monica Catholic Community Grand Pavilion 725 California Ave., Santa Monica COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy St. John's Foundation
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Recovery is an ongoing process, and the medical and spiritual communities of L.A. are reminding you they're here to help. Providence Saint John’s Health Center and St. Monica Catholic Community are marking the anniversary of the Palisades and Eaton fires with an evening of community, commemoration and healing.
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Adding even small numbers of EVs leads to measurable reductions in pollution, a study by USC researchers has found.
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Justin Sullivan
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Getty Images
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Topline:
A new study out of USC finds that even relatively small upticks in EV adoption can have a measurably positive impact on a community.
The findings: Researchers used satellites to measure actual emissions. The study, conducted between 2019 and 2023, focused on California, which has among the highest rates of EV use in the country, and nitrogen dioxide, one of the gases released during combustion, including when fossil fuels are burned. Exposure to the pollutant can contribute to heart and lung issues, or even premature death. Across nearly 1,700 ZIP codes, the analysis showed that, for every increase of 200 electric vehicles, nitrogen dioxide emissions decreased by 1.1%.
"It's remarkable": “A pretty small addition of cars at the ZIP code level led to a decline in air pollution,” said Sandrah Eckel, a public health professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “It’s remarkable.”
What's next: Eckel hopes that, eventually, advances in satellite technology will allow for more widespread detection of other types of emissions too, such as fine particulate matter. That could even help account for some of the potential downsides of EVs, which are heavier and could therefore kick up more tire or brake dust than their gasoline counterparts. On the whole, though, she believes the picture overwhelmingly illustrates how driving an electric car is better not just for the planet but for people.
Read on ... to learn more about the study's findings.
The logic behind electric vehicles benefiting public health has long been solid: More EVs means fewer internal combustion engines on the road and a reduction in harmful tailpipe emissions. But now researchers have confirmed, to the greatest extent yet, that this is indeed what’s actually happening on the ground. What’s more, they found that even relatively small upticks in EV adoption can have a measurably positive impact on a community.
About this article
This article originally appeared in Grist, an LAist partner newsroom.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here.
Whereas previous work has largely been based on modeling, a study published in January in the journal Lancet Planetary Health used satellites to measure actual emissions. The study, conducted between 2019 and 2023, focused on California, which has among the highest rates of EV use in the country, and nitrogen dioxide, one of the gases released during combustion, including when fossil fuels are burned. Exposure to the pollutant can contribute to heart and lung issues or even premature death. Across nearly 1,700 ZIP codes, the analysis showed that for every increase of 200 electric vehicles, nitrogen dioxide emissions decreased by 1.1%.
“A pretty small addition of cars at the ZIP code level led to a decline in air pollution,” said Sandrah Eckel, a public health professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “It’s remarkable.”
The group had tried to establish this link using Environmental Protection Agency air monitors before, but because there are only about 100 of them in California, the results weren’t statistically significant. The data also were from 2013 through 2019, when there were fewer electric vehicles on the road. Although the satellite instrument they ultimately used only detected nitrogen dioxide, it did allow researchers to gather data for virtually the entire state, and this time the findings were clear.
“It’s making a real difference in our neighborhoods,” said Eckel, who said a methodology like theirs could be used anywhere in the world. The advent of such powerful satellites allows scientists to look at other sources of emissions, such as factories or homes too. “It’s a revolutionary approach.”
Mary Johnson, who researches environmental health at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and was not involved in the study, said she’s not aware of a similar study of this size, or one that uses satellite data so extensively. “Their analysis seems sound,” she said, noting that the authors controlled for variables such as the COVID-19 pandemic and shifts toward working from home.
The results, Johnson added, “totally make sense” and align with other research in this area.
When London implemented congestion pricing in 2003, for example, it reduced traffic and emissions and increased life expectancy. That is the direction this latest research could go too.
“They didn’t take the next step and look at health data,” she said, “which I think would be interesting.”
Daniel Horton, who leads Northwestern University’s climate change research group, also sees value in this latest work.
“The results help to confirm the sort of predictions that numerical air quality modelers have been making for the past decade,” he said, adding that it could also lay the foundation for similar research. “This proof of concept paper is a great start and augurs good things to come.”
Eckel hopes that, eventually, advances in satellite technology will allow for more widespread detection of other types of emissions too, such as fine particulate matter. That could even help account for some of the potential downsides of EVs, which are heavier and could therefore kick up more tire or brake dust than their gasoline counterparts. On the whole, though, she believes the picture overwhelmingly illustrates how driving an electric car is better not just for the planet but for people.
Research like this, she says, underscores the importance of continued EV adoption, the sales of which have slumped recently, and the need to do so equitably. Although lower-income neighborhoods have historically borne the brunt of pollution from highways and traffic, they can’t always afford the relatively high cost of EVs. Eckel hopes that research like this can help guide policymakers.
“There are concerns that some of the communities that really stand to benefit the most from reductions in air pollution are also some of the communities that are really at risk of being left behind in the transition,” she said.
Previous research has shown that EVs could alleviate harms such as asthma in children, and detailed data like this latest study can help highlight both where more work needs to be done and what’s working.
“It’s really exciting that we were able to show that there were these measurable improvements in the air that we’re all breathing,” she said.
Another arguably hopeful finding was that the median increase in electric vehicle usage during the study was 272 per ZIP code.
That, Eckel says, means there is plenty of opportunity to make our air even cleaner.
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published February 8, 2026 8:15 PM
Bad Bunny celebrates Latino culture — and tacos — at the 60th Super Bowl
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Kathryn Riley
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Getty Images North America
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Topline:
Villa's Tacos founder Victor Villa appeared with his taco cart during Bad Bunny's Super Bowl LX halftime show, marking a rare moment of L.A. street food culture being showcased on one of the world's biggest stages.
Why it matters: The appearance was more than a cameo — it underscored the cultural significance of L.A.'s taquero tradition and immigrant entrepreneurship. Villa's journey from his grandmother's Highland Park front yard to the Super Bowl reflects the broader story of how Latino food vendors have shaped Los Angeles' culinary identity.
The backstory: Villa launched his business more than eight years ago, selling tacos from his grandmother's front yard in Highland Park. The operation has since expanded to brick-and-mortar locations in Highland Park and downtown Los Angeles, earning recognition as one of the city's standout taco spots.
What he said: "Villa's Tacos is a product of immigrants," Villa wrote on Instagram. "As a 1st generation Mexican-American born & raised in LA, it was an honor to represent my raza & all the taqueros of the world by bringing my taco cart to @badbunnypr's Super Bowl LX 2026 Halftime show."
The bigger picture: Villa dedicated the moment to immigrants who paved the way, emphasizing the performance as a celebration of Latino culture alongside Bad Bunny's shoutouts to Spanish-speaking countries worldwide.
Victor Villa brought his taco cart to Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime performance.
Los Angeles residents likely know the name — Villa's Tacos is an award-winning taco business based in Highland Park. Villa began in his grandmother's front yard and now has brick-and-mortar locations in Highland Park, off Figueroa Avenue, and at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.
The restaurant has won L.A. Taco's Taco Madness championship three times (2021, 2022 and 2024) and earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand award for three consecutive years for its signature quesotacos.
A celebration of Latino culture
The entire performance was a celebration of Latin American culture's prominence in the United States, with Bad Bunny taking a moment to recognize Spanish-speaking countries worldwide.
Villa appeared during the opening number, "Tití me preguntó" from Bad Bunny's 2022 album "Un verano sin ti." In the sequence, Bad Bunny visits a piragüero cart — piraguas are iconic Puerto Rican shaved ice treats shaped like pyramids — before the camera pans to Villa and his cart, where Bad Bunny hands him the frozen treat. The moment bridges two beloved Latin American street food traditions: Puerto Rico's piraguas and L.A.'s taco culture.
After the performance aired, Villa took to Instagram to express his thanks and call it a historic moment, He traced his journey from selling his first taco more than eight years ago to the Super Bowl stage.
"I want to give a huge thank you to @badbunnypr for hand selecting me & allowing me to represent my people, my culture, my family & my business," Villa wrote on Instagram.
'A product of immigrants'
As a first-generation Mexican American, he dedicated the moment to the immigrants who made it possible, emphasizing that Villa's Tacos is a product of immigration and that he is honored to represent his culture and all taqueros and Latinos everywhere. The post closed with shoutouts to Puerto Rico, Mexico, and all Latinos.
In August last year, Villa appeared on a Food Friday segment on LAist 89.3's AirTalk, bringing his freshly cooked tacos for host Josie Huang.
