The Brief

Los Angeles has long had a reputation for being smoggy and traffic congested. Angelenos in this sprawling, gas-guzzling city love their cars.

Of all people who commute to work, 89% take cars, trucks or vans, according to an analysis of census data. But there are other options, and a lot of time and money have been spent across L.A. city and county to expand our modes of transportation.

A push for more transit in LA

The new Metro rail map.

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Courtesy Metro

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There are six rail lines, which include four light rail lines (the A, C, E and K lines) and two rapid transit lines (B and D lines) that serve 101 stations from San Fernando Valley to Long Beach, and areas in between.

L.A. has one of the largest bus fleets in the nation with 2,320 buses and more than 100 routes. Plus, there are around 100 miles of bike lanes in the county, although not always connecting.

It's far from perfect, but there’s a big push to do more — and do better. LA Metro, the county agency that makes decisions about public transportation, has been on a mission to increase ridership.

For one, L.A. aims to be a zero carbon emission zone by 2050. Officials want to increase the number of Angelenos who walk, bike and use non-gas guzzling transit to 50%.

Another big reason is that the Summer Olympics and Paralympics are coming to L.A. in 2028 and officials aim to complete several transportation projects beforehand.

"The overall goal for the games for us is to enable all ticketed spectators to travel to the competition venues by public transit, or walking or cycling," said Ernesto Chaves, a senior executive at LA Metro.

Here are some of the ways Metro hopes to meet these goals:

• Provide residents with access to good transit choices within a 10-minute distance
• Reduce wait times for public transit to a maximum of 15 minutes at any time
• Improve the average travel time on buses by 30%

Still, even if all is achieved, the challenge of getting people out of their cars is very real.

Taking the bus

To understand this a little bit better, the How To LA team is turning the lens inward. Most of us (including yours truly) drive our cars all over town. But we want to be better. We want to mix up our transportation modes to be gentler on the environment, traffic patterns and our wallets.

I don't know about you, but it seems like a significant portion of our paycheck goes to gas every week. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the average hourly wage for someone who lives in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim region is $33.43. The average gas price for the area is about $4.50 a gallon — less than it’s been but still more than a dollar above the national average.

So today we take a stronger step towards using public transportation. Today, we are learning how to ride the bus (we’ll tackle rail in another story).

How to LA producer Evan Jacoby and Aaricka Washington check out a bus route on an LA Metro map in Silver Lake

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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There are 10 million people who live in L.A. County and, of those who commute to work, only about 4% take the bus, according to an analysis of census data.

It can be daunting. L.A. is a big place. You have to figure out where each bus is going and when. It can also take a lot of time and the bus isn’t always punctual.

To help us get over the intimidation factor we reached out to Eric Brightwell, a cartographer, bus advocate and a self-described adventurer, who has been car-free for 13 years.

The How To LA crew who joined the bus ride included me, producer Evan Jacoby, host Brian De Los Santos and social media editor Kenya Romero (because if not on Insta or TikTok, it didn’t happen, right?).

Here’s how it all went down:

11 a.m. download a transit app

We meet Brightwell in Silver Lake, where he lives and works, to figure out a good, scenic route for our 30-minute bus trip. He recommends we take the #4 bus line from the 99 Cent Store by the Sunset Triangle Plaza to downtown. He says it comes pretty often.

He told us to download a transit app to plan the trip. Transit apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps and Moovit can show you how to travel through the main areas of L.A. County. Since I’m a forever Google Maps girl, I stick with what I know. You simply tap in where you would like to go, click on the “directions” button and the app will show you various methods of how to get to your destination.

Host Brian De Los Santos and Associate Editor Aaricka Washington go in search of their bus stop in Silver Lake

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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LA map maker Eric Brightwell talks to How to LA's Aaricka Washington about the pros and cons of riding the bus

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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“So I'm checking my transit app, and it says [the bus is] coming in 10 minutes, and then again in 21 minutes,” Brightwell says.

Brightwell told us about his trips to Tokyo, Thailand and Barcelona where the wait times were much shorter than in the United States.

“The average wait for a bus in Barcelona is two minutes,” Brightwell says. “So you know, 10 minutes here. It's not the end of the world [but] it could be better.”

11:30 a.m. Buy a TAP Card or reload funds

A TAP card can be used to ride the bus, train or to check out an electric bike. For the bus, a single ride from Sunset Triangle Plaza to downtown costs $1.75. But you can add any amount between $2 and $300 to each card.

There are several places to buy or reload funds on a TAP Card. You can download the TAP app to your smartphone. You can type in your city, neighborhood or zip code on the website to find a TAP Vendor in L.A. County. There are also TAP Vending Machines at the Metro rail stations. Here’s how to find one.

You do not need a physical card. We download ours onto our phones.

If you pay online or through an app, you can use credit card, TAP account cash, Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal. Cash is accepted at TAP vendors, TAP Vending Machines and bus fareboxes. If you ride the bus again within the hour of your first ride, it’s free.

Here’s what else you need to know about fare capping. To incentivize ridership, LA Metro limits the amount of money one has to spend to ride the bus. Regular bus riders don’t have to pay more than $5 a day, or $18 within seven days. There are also reduced bus fares for seniors, people with disabilities, students and low-income riders.

The bus stop

The navigation on Brightwell’s transit app leads us to the #4 bus stop at Sunset and Maltman Avenue. We’re taking the downtown LA - Santa Monica local bus route.

As we wait, I have a question: how does the bus driver know we’re waiting on them?

“I always stick my hand out and wave,” Brightwell says. “There’s obviously a big group of people, but I try to make sure I get their attention. I have been sitting at the bench before and it just goes by and I'm like, ‘Oh, I guess I wasn't obvious enough about wanting to use that bus.’”

Good to know.

Brightwell adds that he takes the bus to get to specific destinations, but also to see the city — something he recommends to friends. He says just get on a bus and go somewhere; don’t transfer.

“From my place in Silver Lake, you can get on the bus here and go all the way to Burbank, to Glendale, to Americana, to Din Tai Fung, to downtown. All you have to do is just walk two blocks, pay $1.75 and sit down.”

Our bus arrives. It's 4 minutes late.

11:50 a.m Tap your card, take your seat, watch the city go by

The bus pulls up and we get on. We get out our phones, open up our digital Apple Wallets to “pull out” the TAP card and tap our phones on the bus farebox.

It’s not crowded at all — only six other passengers. We sit down in the middle of the bus and it takes off smoothly.

On our journey to Hill and Third Street downtown the bus makes 20 stops. As we rode along Broadway and then on Sunset Boulevard, Brightwell points out a few spots along our route and notes some of the history.

More than 130 years ago Rancho Los Feliz landowner Griffith J. Griffith (yep, that Griffith) and Charles Sketchley had a joint venture to raise and show off ostriches. According to Los Angeles Magazine, this farm and the Ostrich Farm Railway that helped get tourists back and forth from the farm, was how Griffith Park and Sunset Boulevard took shape.

“That was one of the major tourist attractions,” Brightwell says. “And I guess not just tourists, like, people that lived in Los Angeles were like, ‘let's go, go see those ostriches. It's the weekend.’ There’s history all around you.”

The Ostrich Farm Railway is now the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the hilly landscape of Echo Park and Silver Lake.

Along the route there were also a lot of murals I'd never noticed before.

There’s one vibrant “Welcome 2 LA” mural on 2702 Sunset Boulevard from artist Cache Uno that features cats and chickens.

“He’s a Guatemalan vegan artist, “ notes Brightwell. “He always has chicken motifs in his street art. You definitely notice that kind of thing if you’re riding on a bus or on a bike.”

As we continue down Sunset, he talks about businesses that have come and gone and points out the diversity of the strip: the Saint Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church and what used to be a Vietnamese Chinese market that’s now a food hall, the Little Joy bar.

“That is one thing that I love about the buses, you can drink and not drive,” Brightwell says.

12:09 p.m. End of the line

We get to our destination on Hill and 3rd. We pull the signal cord by the window to hop off of the bus.

In total, the ride took 19 minutes. We went through Silver Lake, passed El Pueblo and Chinatown and rode along Cesar Chavez and High Streets. I really think it would have taken me an extra five minutes to drive my car.

“It’s not a bad time, and it flew by pretty fast for me,” Brightwell says. “I will say it flies by faster if you have people you’re talking to, or if you’re reading a book.”

He says he’s lost track of the time before and missed his stop. His pro tip: pay attention once in a while, listen for your stop and set alerts on your transit app.

We walk to Grand Central Market for a bite. After lunch, we went to the bus stop at Broadway and Fifth and head back to our starting location.

Tips for riding the bus if you have additional needs

LA Metro has some accessibility goals that are currently underway. For those who are 50 and older, LA Metro has an On the Move Riders Program. To learn more, stay up to date and connect with a peer-to-peer travel training club, sign up for emails here.

Seniors and people with disabilities can watch this video to learn about how to ride the bus and rail. LA Metro can accommodate a variety of wheelchairs with a ramp device that lowers to the concrete so people can wheel themselves onto it.

Also, people who are 62 and older, disabled or are Medicare customers can apply for a Reduced Fare TAP card and save up to 80% off regular Metro fares. People with disabilities can ride the bus for 75 cents and and for only 35 cents on off peak times (weekdays between 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., weekends and holidays).

Familiarize yourself with your rights. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), transit providers must offer audible announcements about fixed route stops for those who are visually impaired or have other disabilities. Service animals are also welcome on Metro buses and trains. If you have any concerns or complaints about anything ADA-related, this site can help you navigate how to file a service complaint.

If you are a bike rider, there are racks for you on Metro busses. Make sure that you remove all of the loose items not attached to your bike and take them with you before securing your bike to the rack. LA Metro recommends that you monitor your bike while riding the bus, and that you tell the bus operator that you will be getting your bike from the rack when you exit through the front door. Find more safe bike tips from LA Metro here.

Pros and cons

As a frequent bus rider, Eric has some closing thoughts on what he thinks about the system — the good and the bad.

The upsides:

• Bottomline: “It’s good for the environment, it's good for the city, it cuts down on sprawl,” he says 
• You don’t have to worry about parking and driving under the influence
• It’s safer and cleaner on the bus than on the train 
• You get to experience the city in a way that you never would in a car because you can watch it go by

The challenges:

• Sometimes buses don’t stop 
• Wait times between buses are too long
• Buses can be late
• Buses can also get stuck in traffic in parts of L.A. 

What could improve:

• More frequent buses
• More dedicated bus lanes so buses can pass traffic
• More amenities at bus stops and train stations  

Extras are “severely lacking,” says Brightwell. “If you go to any East Asian city, like Taiwan, or Korea or Japan, at least I can say from personal experience, there's waiting rooms for women with kids and there's like feeding stations, self cleaning restrooms, vending machines at restaurants, bakeries, cafes, art galleries.”

In Closing

Of the How To LA group who traveled on the bus, three of us were pretty much newbies and I will say, despite its issues, we all enjoyed riding it.

Now, this was a pure pleasure ride. We were not on a strict schedule and did not need to be at our destination at a specific time. There were no real stakes involved.

It’s a different matter to use the bus for one’s daily commute.

But speaking for myself, I learned a lot riding with Brightwell and I got over the intimidation factor of using the bus to get around L.A. It’s actually pretty easy once you get the basics down.

I think I just might ride the bus to work next week!

For our next story on bus ridership. We are going to dig a little deeper into these challenges and what’s being done to address them and make the experience of riding the bus a better one.

If you’d like to share a story about your experience riding the bus, tell us here. We may include it in our next article.

Listen: How To LA rides the bus

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday moved to dismiss its own lawsuit that sought to stop California from counting roughly 20,000 ballots it alleged went to noncitizens until their immigration status could be verified.

The request to dismiss the case comes days after Republicans’ significant losses in the midterm elections and about a week before a scheduled hearing where a special master was slated to evaluate the accuracy of the list. California officials have previously said the list is out of date and includes legitimate voters — a sentiment that the federal judge presiding over the case echoed in his blistering order denying the federal government’s request.

The case was at the forefront of President Donald Trump’s administration’s effort to assert control over state-run elections across the country, which Trump has said are rife with illegal voting without providing evidence.

The Department of Justice remains enmeshed in litigation with multiple immigrant and voting rights groups seeking to limit its use of the list of what is says are suspected noncitizens. Another controversial suit it filed in Alaska at Trump’s direction before the election to block the victory of the Democrat in that state’s Senate race was swiftly dismissed by a federal judge. The administration is appealing that ruling but has yet to file a full brief at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

California had processed roughly 9 million ballots as of early Friday, with nearly 5 million still left to be counted, according to state election officials. The motion to dismiss the lawsuit said that, by the time of the upcoming hearing, the state will have already irreparably “commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones.”

“The relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available—rendering voluntary dismissal necessary,” the motion said.

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, previously argued in court that the lawsuit would be irrelevant after election day, because there would be no way to sequester the ones allegedly belonging to noncitizens. The lawsuit was filed in mid-October, when ballots had been sent to all of the state’s 23 million registered voters, and after hundreds of thousands of ballots were already processed. Once a ballot is processed, it is completely anonymized.

Essayli said at the time the lawsuit was filed that his goal was to “safeguard the integrity of the election so it doesn’t have an effect on the upcoming election.”

“We want to stop the illegal voting. We don’t want to chase it later,” he said outside of court the week before the election.

California prosecutors in recent weeks have arrested over 30 noncitizens who are accused of illegally registering to vote. Some who were arrested were also accused of voting in previous elections. Elections clerks around California in the week before the election were sent subpoenas to testify before grand juries slated to convene in November. It’s not clear who is being criminally charged in those cases, but the department does not typically subpoena people whom it regards as targets of a criminal investigation to appear before a grand jury.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter appointed the special master in late October, shortly after allowing California to proceed with elections as planned. Carter, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, argued in his blistering order that separating ballots at that late stage would risk disenfranchising citizens and warned it would “wreak havoc” on the midterm elections.

The special master would have also considered whether or not California election officials did in fact have a mechanism for separating the ballots.

Tech giants Meta, Google, and TikTok are suing to block a landmark California law meant to protect kids’ mental health on social media platforms.

The law, one of a slate of bills signed by Gov. Newsom this year to protect kids online, would block social media companies from offering “addictive” features to teens under 16.

Set to go into effect in January, the law defines addictive features as design choices like infinite scroll, autoplay, and recommendations. Those features are blamed in part for a teen mental health crisis, which the law seeks to curb.

The three suits, filed in multiple federal courts in California this week, argue that the law would infringe on the companies’ First Amendment rights. The Meta suit, for example, says that the law undermines the “fundamental principle” of free speech by making the state “the editor, curator, and controller of online speech.”

Google, which owns YouTube, similarly argues in its lawsuit that the law would “frustrate YouTube’s efforts to provide under-16 users with safe, responsible, and enriching experiences on the platform.”

The companies want the courts to block the law before it takes effect.

When the measure was before the California Legislature, some groups, like digital rights organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argued the law would amount to a full ban on social media for teenagers because it was so broad and the features it regulated so fundamental to the platforms. Teens would then miss out on precious online resources, the groups said.

NetChoice, a tech industry-aligned group, also criticized the law. It released a statement supporting the lawsuits, saying “the state cannot restrict minors' access to protected expression simply because it thinks the expression is bad for them.”

A supporter of the law, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in response to the lawsuits that courts have already been “rejecting the industry’s claims that the First Amendment shields them from accountability.”

The bill’s passage was just one in a recent series of damaging moments for the tech industry, which has faced intense scrutiny over its impact on teens’ mental health. Meta agreed in August to pay as much as $17 billion as part of a settlement with 47 states that argued the company had engineered its products to be addictive to children.

A TikTok spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the suits. A Meta spokesperson declined to attach their name to a statement and CalMatters declined to publish it.

“We believe parents are best positioned to make the right decisions for their families, which is why we offer a range of protections and tools that put parents in control,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said in an email. “Overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we’ve built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Three stories about climate change are playing out like popular movie genres as United Nations climate negotiations begin in Antalya, Turkey.

There’s the horror story. Many scientists believe global warming is accelerating. Two months ago, the U.N. readjusted its decade-old goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) because the world is blowing past that threshold. The fallout from rising temperatures is felt globally, with Europe’s deadly summer heat waves and Nepal’s devastating flooding as stark examples.

There’s the love triangle. For more than a century, the world has been powered by coal, oil and gas. This love affair spurred economic development, as well as the emissions warming the planet. But renewable energy is capturing some of the world’s attention because it’s cheaper and cleaner than fossil fuels. Instead of switching from one to the other, the world is using both to meet demand from power-hungry artificial intelligence and ever-growing economic development. This isn’t helping curb climate change.

Then there’s the war movie. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered a European energy shock. This year the United States and Israel bombed Iran. The conflict closed the Strait of Hormuz and sent fossil fuel prices skyrocketing, forcing nations to rethink their energy systems.

These stories are colliding as the 31st Conference of Parties, or COP31, starts Monday with speeches from world leaders and will later dig into how to follow through on past climate pledges.

A key issue this year is the implementation of promises to transition away from fossil fuels. Co-host Turkey is also pushing a separate plan that would help do that by shifting more global energy use — including transportation — to electricity generated from solar and wind power. Negotiators also will hash out how to provide promised funds to poor countries to switch to renewables, adapt to a warmer world and recover from climate-induced damage.

“It’s really the moment that we place a magnifying lens on what’s happening in the world on climate change, both good and bad,” David Waskow, international climate chief at the World Resources Institute, said.

While the U.S. is the world’s largest historic carbon polluter, it skipped last year’s COP and isn’t expected to participate this year.

“There’s always two topics in the climate negotiations that are relevant and difficult,” said Niklas Höhne, co-founder of Germany’s NewClimate Institute. “The first one is who produces emissions (and) how much. That is difficult enough. But what is even more complicated is the other issue, and that is who pays. And on this one, we are particularly in a difficult situation because the U.S., as the largest contributor, has dropped out. And there’s no other player who can jump in.”

Global climate efforts are off track

Eleven years ago, the world was on track to hit 4 C (7.2 F) of warming above preindustrial levels by the end of the century. In 2015, nations set the goal of keeping warming to below 2 C (3.6 F), but with a preferred limit of 1.5 C (2.7 F), as measured over a multi-year period.

Now, the world is at 1.4 C (2.5 F) of warming and is hurtling toward 2.6 C (4.7 F), the U.N. found.

October 2026 was the hottest October on record, and 2026 is virtually certain to end up as the second year to exceed the 1.5 degree Celsius level, behind 2024, the European climate agency Copernicus announced Friday.

“We have failed so far,” said Johan Rockström, director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Rockström said Earth will likely experience more extreme weather, such as floods, droughts and storms, and may soon reach “tipping points,” such as ocean currents changing and the Amazon rainforest collapsing.

It comes down to fossil fuels

Even though burning fossil fuels is the main cause of warming, it has rarely been targeted in final documents agreed upon at the conference, mostly because those decisions require consensus.

“The reason we are seeing the breach of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming is because we avoided the absolutely fundamental question of how climate change happened and what’s responsible, the source of the problem and that’s fossil fuels,” said Harjeet Singh, founding director of Satat Sampada Climate Foundation. “Unless and until we resolve the issue of fossil fuel phase out, we will not be able to deal with the problem.”

Brazil, which hosted COP30 last year, this month released a detailed voluntary roadmap for how countries could transition away from fossil fuels.

The roadmap is meant to turn the “big problem” of reducing fossil fuels into “smaller actionable solutions,” Ana Toni, who served as CEO of last year’s climate talks, said. One key thing nations must do is stop subsidizing fossil fuels, she said. The U.N. estimates fossil fuel subsidies globally hit $1.1 trillion this year.

“What’s standing in the way is not so much technology as governments and incumbent industries,” said Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics. “One cannot underestimate the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry in slowing down action.”

Climate talks bring hope and frustration

Barbados youth activist Ashley Lashley’s first COP was five years ago. She was frustrated by the lack of progress then, but hopeful because there was urgency to keep the 1.5-degree goal alive.

Lashley still attends negotiations with some hope, but she is more frustrated than ever. She said “the science has become more alarming, but yet politically we seem to be negotiating how much failure we are prepared to tolerate.”

Qiyun Woo, a Singaporean youth environmentalist, said her generation is tired of “seeing their present and futures blanketed in wildfire smoke, in devastating floods (and) landslides.”

What gives most experts hope is how cheap solar and wind energy are, along with electric car growth, strengthening the economic argument for transitioning away from fossil fuels.

“It has never been as easy to reduce emissions as it is today because, again, this year, renewable energy has been developing faster than before,” Höhne said.

Hope for progress on the sidelines

Much of the work at climate negotiations happens on the sidelines, where not everyone has to agree and some nations do more than others.

One important sideline initiative this year is Turkey’s goal of increasing electricity’s share of global energy use from 21% to 35% by 2035, preferably by using renewable power.

Mohamed Adow, a veteran COP observer and director of Power Shift Africa, said the conference is taking place at a time when the world is deeply fragmented.

“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has intensified economic and energy security pressures,” he said. “We don’t expect this particular conference to be able to sufficiently respond to the present day challenge ... that is affecting livelihoods and economies.”

The climate talks are hindered by the continued absence of the U.S., Adow said, adding that it wasn’t fair to nations like Nepal, which have to face catastrophic destruction alone while the world’s wealthiest country and biggest polluter sits on the fence.

“A time will come when we will have to hold the U.S. accountable for the climate harms that it’s caused,” he said.

___

Borenstein reported from Washington, Delgado from Bangkok and Arasu from Bengaluru, India.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

This is the Nov. 6 issue of Make It Make Sense, LAist's elections newsletter breaking down the results of the 2026 general election. You can sign up here to receive issues in your inbox through the end of November.

Good morning! We’re beginning to feel the drag of Election Month. Cue the 🎶 Jeopardy music 🎶. We’re still waiting for an outcome on a lot of our statewide propositions, but we’ve got some juicy tax updates (if you can call them that) and another key race call.

First, now that Nithya Raman will be L.A.’s next mayor, what happens to her current council seat that stretches from the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Monica Mountains?

LAist asked L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s office: “We look forward to working with Mayor-elect Raman and will discuss with her an appointment who best serves the residents of the Fourth District,” Martin Schlageter, a senior adviser to Harris-Dawson, said in a statement.

That indicates the district could avoid a special election, but who could be appointed is still very much up in the air.

Meanwhile, Raman will have to work closely with a City Council that didn’t back her bid for mayor. LAist asked the 12 members who will be working alongside her about how they plan to work with her — read what they said here.

🌴 L.A. city attorney: Marissa Roy takes the win with a commanding lead

• What happened: Marissa Roy will be the next L.A. city attorney. Her opponent, John McKinney, conceded the race, saying in a statement, “While the results are not what we hoped for, I accept the outcome and congratulate Marissa Roy on her victory. I wish her well as she prepares to serve as Los Angeles City Attorney. Her success in protecting our residents and serving the public interest will be important to the future of our city.”
• How we got here: Roy held onto a strong lead over McKinney ever since polls closed, and currently has more than twice as many votes. Roy will be a fresh face in the role after incumbent city attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto was ousted in the June primary in a rare defeat of an elected city official.
• What the candidates had to say:
  
  • Roy said on social media Wednesday that election night was “a really good night for the people who believe that we should take care of one another, that we can stand up for our rights — even in what feels like an increasingly lawless world — and that we will achieve justice when we fight for it.”
  • McKinney added that he is deeply grateful for everyone who supported his campaign, including voters, volunteers and supporters.
• What’s at stake: The city attorney runs an office of more than 550 lawyers representing L.A. in all legal matters, including filing lawsuits and defending against them. Roy, backed by powerful progressives like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, has vowed to take on the Trump administration in court.

💸 L.A. and O.C. voters are saying yes to dozens of tax measures

• What happened: By LAist’s count, more than 30 cities or districts in L.A. and Orange counties asked voters to approve tax measures this election. They include sales taxes — like Measure FD in the city of Los Angeles — hotel taxes, business taxes and utility taxes. So far, all but six seem likely to pass.
• 🌴Measure FD is passing: L.A. city voters are steadily approving (53.68%) another half-cent sales tax, this time to bolster L.A. Fire Department resources. The sales tax will go up to 10.75%, although residents likely won’t start paying the higher rate until spring. And it still won’t be the highest in the county — Palmdale and Lancaster pay 11.75%, and San Gabriel's newly passed Measure PS brings its combined rate to 12%.
• 🌴 South Gate utility users tax is failing: The L.A. County city is asking residents to approve an 8% tax that would be added to bills for utilities such as electricity, water, cable and phone services. Voters are resoundingly rejecting Measure SG, with nearly 70% saying “no.”
• 🌴🍊 Transient occupancy taxes: Nearly a dozen of these proposals, which tax overnight hotel guests or short-term rentals, are passing in cities from Burbank in L.A. County to Los Alamitos in O.C. You can see more details in our roundup here.
  

Check out the vote count charts for these too-close-to-call races

🌴 L.A. City Council District 3

• What’s happening: This San Fernando Valley race to replace Bob Blumenfield is getting spicy as more results roll in. Tim Gaspar, an entrepreneur who has said the city needs someone coming from the outside, is losing his early lead. He’s fallen 875 votes behind Barri Worth Girvan, a Valley community advocate with experience in various government offices.
  
  • Worth Girvan said in a social media post Thursday that she is encouraged by the trend so far. “While many ballots remain to be counted and results will continue to shift, we expect this trend to continue as more mail-in ballots are tallied, and we remain cautiously optimistic that when all the votes are counted, we will prevail.”

🌴 L.A. City Council District 9

• What’s happening: The race to succeed Curren Price has been narrowing each day. Jose Ugarte had more than a 14-point lead over Estuardo Mazariegos when polls closed, but it has since shrunk to about four. Ugarte, a community outreach director, is endorsed by Price and a few other members of the City Council. Mazariegos leans more to the left and is supported by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia.
  
  • Ugarte said on social media Thursday that while ballots are still being counted, “we remain optimistic.”

🍊 O.C. Supervisors District 4
In the race for the Fourth District, Democrat and Buena Park mayor Connor Traut is leading with 50.80% of the vote over Republican Tim Shaw, a member of the O.C. Board of Education.

🍊 O.C. Supervisors District 5
Democratic incumbent Katrina Foley is still on track to keep her Fifth District seat against Republican Assemblymember Diane Dixon, with a gap that’s widened to 7,600 votes. If either Republican wins, it will change the balance of power on the Board of Supervisors.

What else got called

• 🥑 State superintendent: Republican Sonja Shaw is conceding the race to Democrat Richard Barrera, who is more than a million votes ahead. In a social media post Wednesday, Shaw wrote, “Last night, voters made their choice. I would be lying if I said my heart wasn’t heavy.” Barrera is a labor leader and union organizer in San Diego, and has served on the board of San Diego Unified for nearly two decades.
• 🌴 L.A. County Superior Court judge: Office No. 87 is settled. Attorney David DeJute has conceded the race to Anthony "A.J." Bayne, a deputy public defender with over 30 years of courtroom experience. Bayne ran without a long roster of Democratic endorsements, which were a common fixture this cycle for judicial candidates. He was rated “well qualified” by the L.A. County Bar Association.

👀 We’re still watching 👀

• 🥑 Insurance commissioner: We’re still holding our breath on the race to lead the nation’s largest property and casualty insurance market. Two Democrats are trying to take on the role: State Sen. Ben Allen and attorney Jane Kim. Allen (47.3%) has been steadily trailing Kim (52.7%), who slightly bumped up her lead in the last few days.
• 🥑 The remaining props:
  
  • Prop 4: This proposal would lift the ban that keeps California and many local governments from using tax dollars to fund political campaigns. It could reshape how elections are funded, but so far, it’s failing by a few percentage points.
  • Prop 5: Should California change how it replaces elected state officials being recalled? The Legislature put it on the ballot, and it’s succeeding by 2 percentage points. If it holds on to the lead, voters would no longer vote on a recall and a replacement in the same election, instead punting a successor to a separate ballot.
  • Prop 38: This proposition is passing by a decently wide margin (55.1%). It would pave the way for the state to borrow $8.4 billion in bonds for immunology research. Supporters argued that the research could lead to treatments that help people living with cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's, but opponents say half the funds would go to just one research group.
  • Props 40, 41, 42: This is the billionaire’s tax and the two countermeasures designed to kill it. So far, it’s looking like Prop 40, the wealth tax, is failing (54.5% “no”), as well as Prop 41 (53.4% “no”), which would prohibit new tax revenue from being excluded from the state spending limit. The other, Prop 42, may pass (53.3% “yes”), which would ban new wealth taxes on personal property.
  • Prop 43: Speaking of taxes … this would make it harder to pass and raise some local taxes by bumping up the threshold of votes to a two-thirds majority. It would specifically apply to special tax measures put up by voters. It’s currently failing by about a million votes.
  • Prop 45: This is designed to limit environmental reviews for certain projects, such as housing and infrastructure, by cutting the time it takes to go through the state’s evaluation process. It’s opposed by groups like the National Wildlife Federation, and it's failing by about a 10-point margin.
• 🌴 L.A. County’s judicial seats: The races for offices 64 and 65 are still up in the air, but there are clear leaders. Maria Ghobadi, a deputy district attorney running for seat 64, has nearly 53% of the vote, while Justin Allen Clayton, a deputy public defender running in 65, has 56%. Neither of their competitors has conceded yet. Meanwhile, the fight for Office No. 131 between two public defenders is narrowing. David Ross trails Donna Tryfman, but he picked up more votes in this morning’s drop.

😰 Is it over yet? 😰

These results are based on about 8.9 million votes counted so far statewide — more than 2.5 million in L.A. County and nearly 892,000 in Orange County.

We still have a ways to go! The California secretary of state estimates there are 4.8 million ballots left to count overall, which includes 642,000 in L.A. County and 298,270 in O.C.

This election is turning out to be a banner year for voter turnout — we’re on track to far exceed the 2022 midterms. But we won’t know the full picture until after Nov. 10, the deadline for mail-in ballots to arrive. You can check on the status of your ballot via the state’s BallotTrax system.

The next local ballot counts drop this afternoon starting around 4 p.m., but hey, we’re going into the weekend! From here on out, we’ll only be back in your inboxes when there’s major news to share — like a call on the billionaire’s tax — and we’ll focus on understanding what these results mean for your life in Southern California.

📰 Catch up quick

If this is your first day reading Make It Make Sense, you can get caught up on our past issues here:

• Nov. 5: Nithya Raman wins the L.A. mayor’s race
• Nov. 5: All 8 L.A. city measures could pass
• Nov. 4: We’ve got a new governor, plus voter ID fails

Otherwise, you can keep up with the results here:

• L.A. County
• Orange County