Makenna Cramer
covers the daily drumbeat of Southern California — events, processes and nuances making it a unique place to call home.
Published December 18, 2024 11:22 AM
Parking in Los Angeles.
(
Christina House
/
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
)
Topline:
Parking restrictions are in effect for several streets in Mount Washington, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, and other Los Angeles neighborhoods because of forecasted fire weather conditions.
The details: No parking signs will be posted in the affected areas and vehicles that are illegally parked will be towed, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
How long: The ”red flag” restrictions started at 8 a.m. Wednesday and will run through 8 a.m. Thursday.
Why: If a brush fire breaks out, fire crews need to have room to respond quickly. The parking restrictions typically apply to specific narrow streets in brush areas.
Early every Saturday for the last three and a half years, William Campbell, 61, leaves his Silver Lake home to be at the Angels Flight station for the first ride at 6:45 a.m.
Why it matters: Campbell is one of a team of operators behind the proverbial wheel of the two near-identical funiculars — named Olivet and Sinai — that go up and down a 33% angle slope from Hill Street to Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles.
The backstory: Campbell is also a superfan and has been researching the Bunker Hill funicular's 124-year history.
Early every Saturday for the last three and a half years, William Campbell, 61, leaves his Silver Lake home to be at the Angels Flight station for the first ride at 6:45 a.m.
Campbell is one of a team of operators behind the proverbial wheel of the two near-identical funiculars — named Olivet and Sinai — that go up and down a 33% angle slope from Hill Street to Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles.
“You’re a part of living history,” said Campbell, who is dressed in an orange and black waistcoat and bow tie, and wears a bowler hat with a monarch butterfly on top. There’s a reason for that, he said mysteriously.
Angels Flight on Bunker Hill.
(
James Bartlett
/
LAist
)
Today, I am the first rider. Soon after, I am joined by a family visiting from Texas.
“I was just looking at a local tourist place, and I just saw this small, cute railway,” said Michael Nguyen, who was alongside his mother and sister. “I was like, oh, this looks interesting. And I saw that you can actually go on it. I was like, OK, that’s pretty dope.”
Masterminded by lawyer, politician and engineer Col. James Ward Eddy, the Angels Flight “hillevator” opened on New Year’s Eve 1901 as a way for people to travel up and down Bunker Hill, which was then the place where the city’s wealthy population lived.
The journey took them down to the streets and stores below and from 1917, Grand Central Market, with the first passengers paying just a penny fare for what was billed as the “shortest railway in America,” traveling just 298 feet.
When he’s not working his weekday full-time day job investigating animal cruelty and abuse, Campbell spends his spare time looking through online newspaper archives for any information about Angels Flight.
Angels Flight Railway.
(
James Bartlett
/
LAist
)
Angels Flight Railway.
(
James Bartlett
/
LAist
)
Originally located by the 3rd Street Tunnel — at the end of the block from where it is now — the train has been through several changes, as has Bunker Hill itself.
“All the wealthy people moved to Beverly Hills, and Brentwood, and Bel Air, and beyond. And all their wonderful Victorian mansions were turned into boarding houses, and it attracted a lower income, more diverse population, which resulted in blight and crime — at least according to the city,” Campbell said of Bunker Hill's transformation.
City officials authorized Bunker Hill to be all but razed in the 1950s and '60s, and Angels Flight was put into what was promised to be temporary storage for a year or two, despite protests from singer Peggy Lee and others.
Angels Flight Railway 351 S. Hill St., Los Angeles Daily, 6:45 a.m. to 10 p.m. A round-trip ticket is $3, which is orange and has a souvenir portion. A one-way trip is $1.75 or $1 for TAP cardholders. William Campbell works there every Saturday and will happily talk to you if he can. You can find out more about Campbell's wildlife interests and win a prize in Angels Flight quizzes via Instagram.
The year was 1969. And it took nearly three decades for its return. Angels Flight welcomed passengers again in 1996 to its current location after test runs were made with cases of beer and soft drinks weighing 9,000 pounds. The cable cars were rebuilt exactly as before, but with modern safety requirements, such as Sinai having wheelchair space.
A 2001 accident in which one person died and seven were injured saw another long closure until 2010, and there was a derailment in 2014, which saw another short shuttering. But Angels Flight has been running ever since 2017, save the odd mechanical problem.
William Campbell.
(
James Bartlett
/
LAist
)
Angels Flight keepsakes made by William Campbell for riders to take.
(
James Bartlett
/
LAist
)
Campbell describes himself as a cheerleader for Angels Flight, and you can easily see why. During his shift he pins up a 1904 photo of the city’s landscape taken from an 80-foot-high observation tower at the original location, so people can compare it to the skyscraper skyline of today.
“At one time you could see all the way to Catalina,” he noted.
There is also a display about near-forgotten Bunker Hill folk artist Marcel Cavalla, and Campbell gives away Angels Flight bookmarks, stickers and maps, all of which he researches, designs and prints out of his own pocket.
One of his projects, old advertisements from 1901 to the 1940s, is displayed in the panels above the seats, and was installed a couple of months ago.
Interior of Angels Flight, showcasing old advertisements from 1901 to the 1940s that Campbell installed.
(
James Bartlett
/
LAist
)
One of the vintage ads for Catalina Carrier-Pigeon Service.
(
James Bartlett
/
LAist
)
There's everything from old Market Basket supermarket ads, to Barbara Stanwyck shilling for Lux toilet soap, to a standard power mower from John Bean manufacturing, to one for the Catalina Carrier Pigeon Service, which operated from 1894 to 1902, taking messages from Avalon to Bunker Hill.
And the monarch butterfly on his hat? That’s related to his Angels Flight “holy grail,” the one question he can’t definitively answer: why were they painted orange and black?
With that, Campbell grabs his binoculars and sees there are passengers waiting for a ride up, so I get into Olivet and wave goodbye as I travel down to Hill Street.
Matthew Ballinger
is the senior editor for climate and environment coverage at LAist.
Published May 22, 2026 6:42 PM
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge.
(
NASA/JPL-Caltech
)
Topline:
NASA plans to open the contract to manage the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge to a competitive bidding process, according to a memo the lab released Friday.
The backstory: Since NASA was established in 1958, Caltech has managed JPL for the federal space agency "through a contractual relationship that has been regularly reviewed and renewed," according to Friday's memo. NASA began its regular process of evaluating the contract last year.
Why it matters: JPL has been through several rounds of layoffsin recent years. The lab and the university are leaders in civilian space science, with missions that have sent spacecraft into Earth orbit, to Mars and as far from Earth as any man-made object. The lab is also a major employer in the region and hosts massive classes of interns from around the world. The news about the contract was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, which said opening the contract to bidding is a first in JPL's history.
Why now: NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said in "a long letter discussing organizational changes" to staffers Friday that the space agency intends to issue a request for proposals for management of JPL. "This process will take several years, and I do not anticipate it having any impact on the projects underway or the location of the facilities," Isaacman wrote. "It does, however, provide an opportunity to evaluate management costs, overhead burdens and ideally find ways to get after the science faster and more affordably."
What's next: Caltech's contract runs through the end of September 2028. "This announcement comes as no surprise," Caltech's president and JPL's director wrote to staffers Friday. "Caltech is well prepared with a team established last summer to ensure we are positioned for success, and we will respond to the request for proposal (RFP) once released."
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published May 22, 2026 4:21 PM
A recently released juvenile southwestern pond turtle swims in the San Gabriel River in the Angeles National Forest.
(
Ken Bohn
/
Courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
)
Topline:
There’s a day for everything, and Saturday is World Turtle Day. This is the story of how humans helped a vulnerable native California turtle.
The backstory: Southwestern pond turtles in the San Gabriel mountains were almost wiped out by the Bobcat Fire in 2020. But biologists rescued 11 adults that were held at the San Diego Zoo until 2024, when they were released.
The baby boom: But then something happened that scientists didn't expect: "One baby, two baby, three baby, four baby. Fifteen babies later," is how a wildlife care manager at the zoo described it. Yes, the rescued turtles had laid eggs in their temporary home, and the hatchlings were emerging.
A new generation: Once they'd grown a bit, the zoo released the young turtles into San Gabriel River where they belong in April.
Read on ... for more about this conservation success story.
After fires and floods, Southern California’s only remaining native freshwater turtle recently got a boost.
Just last month, 15 southwestern pond turtle hatchlings were released into the San Gabriel River — a major milestone in an effort to restore the vulnerable turtle population.
But this wasn’t a typical raise-and-release scenario.
These turtles’ parents went on a harrowing journey before they were born.
The fire eventually scorched more than 180 square miles — mostly forest in the San Gabriel Mountains. For comparison, the 2025 Eaton Fire burned about 22 square miles.
Lights from a fire truck illuminate firefighters working the Bobcat Fire in September 2021.
(
Frederic J. Brown
/
Getty Images
)
As the Bobcat Fire spread, biologists grew worried. The fire was burning in the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, a biodiversity hotspot and refuge for bears and mountain lions, the federally protected Santa Ana sucker fish and the mountain yellow-legged frog.
It’s also home to the largest remaining — and possibly only — population of southwestern pond turtles in the entire watershed. Their exact numbers aren’t known, but it’s likely less than 200.
What is a southwestern pond turtle?
The small, shy turtles grow to about 8 inches and range from Baja California to just south of the San Francisco Bay. They spend most of their lives in streams, rivers, lakes and other watery environments. They primarily eat small insects and plant matter.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife lists them as a Species of Special Concern, and they're being considered for federal protections under the Endangered Species Act.
“Because this hadn’t burned in decades and decades and decades, there was big concern about debris flows,” said Robert Fisher, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Scientists hoped the turtles would be able to ride out the fire itself by staying in the water, but any rain after would likely lead to a deluge of mud, trees and other burned materials. That would be akin to an avalanche for the turtles in the river, and it had the potential to wipe out the entire population.
Once the flames died down, Fisher and a team of biologists, in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service, trekked to the home of the pond turtles.
“It was a moonscape,” Fisher said.
They waded through ashy, murky waters, eventually collecting 11 adult turtles.
World Turtle Day’s SoCal cred
There’s a day for everything these days, but World Turtle Day (May 23) has surprisingly local roots.
Susan Tellem and her late husband, Marshall Thompson, coined the day in 2000 after founding a turtle and tortoise rescue 10 years earlier at their home in Malibu.
“When I first started helping turtles, there were hardly people helping the needs of turtles,” Tellem told LAist. “We decided to help educate people internationally so that turtles can live a longer and happier life.”
A temporary home and 15 surprises
The turtles were taken to the San Diego Zoo, where the plan was to hold them until their mountain habitat recovered enough for them to return.
By 2024, the San Gabriel Mountains were looking far better — biologists even found some pond turtles that survived major debris flows.
But right before the turtles were set to go back home, scientists got a surprise.
“Just before we were getting to release, we found a baby turtle, which is amazing,” said Brandon Scott, wildlife care manager of herpetology and ichthyology at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “You don't know how long it's going to take to restart that process of them actually being able to breed, with the stress and it's a new habitat.”
A juvenile southwestern pond turtle is weighed before being released to the wild.
(
Ken Bohn
/
Courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
)
The turtles and the new baby were all returned to their home in the San Gabriels. But then came another surprise. And another.
“We just continually, every day, started finding a baby in that habitat,” said Scott.
Female southwestern pond turtles lay and bury their eggs in late spring or early summer. Juveniles emerge months later, only about the size of a quarter.
Fifteen babies later, conservation staff were shocked and pleased.
Their goal for the 11 rescued turtles was to make sure they could thrive before being released back into their habitat. “But in the process,” Scott said, “yes, we made it comfortable enough for them to breed.”
A hopeful release
The new generation of southwestern pond turtles was released in April near the spot their parents were rescued from in the San Gabriel River.
Such rescues of vulnerable wildlife are becoming increasingly common in the face of more catastrophic fires. All but two of the biggest fires in recorded history have been in the last 20 years.
Fisher said a similar rescue of pond turtles had occurred only once before, after the 2009 Station Fire in the San Gabriels. That time, the turtles were quickly returned to their habitat.
A staff member of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance releases a juvenile southwestern pond turtle into the San Gabriel River.
(
Ken Bohn
/
Courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
)
That rescue, in part, inspired the U.S. Geological Survey to work with the San Diego Zoo to build a conservation habitat for southwestern pond turtles nearly two decades ago. And the Bobcat Fire became the first time it was used for wild rescues, Fisher said.
Ironically, the Bobcat Fire could eventually help the local population, Fisher said.
“We’ve known about [the population] for decades, but it’s not really thriving,” he said. “So this helped give it a head start. And because the fire was so intense, it opened up a lot of habitat.”
With less tree canopy and more sunlight, the cold-blooded reptiles could thrive in warmer waters and on sunnier rocks.
Threats to southwestern pond turtles
Southwestern pond turtles have lived here for millennia, but invasive species and habitat destruction have nearly wiped them out. They’re currently being considered for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Nonnative turtles — such as red-eared sliders, many of which are abandoned pets — are outcompeting them in their habitats. And native pond turtle hatchlings are easy prey for invasive animals such as bullfrogs and crayfish.
On top of that, pollution in our atmosphere is driving longer, hotter droughts, which dries out the streams and rivers where they live. Worsening “weather whiplash” means more dangerous mudflows after fires, which can wipe out entire aquatic animal populations.
But the new generation is key.
“Because the site was so forested and hadn’t burned in so long, we don’t think they were having good success at breeding,” Fisher said. “Now we think we’ve really enhanced the population by putting more animals out there, especially young animals.”
Scott and Fisher said the saga has inspired preliminary conversations about formalizing breeding efforts to support the population. The little turtles' myriad threats have yet to let up, so they’ll likely need more help in the future.
But at the moment, there’s a little more hope — at least 16 hatchlings and 11 adults' worth of hope, to be exact — for California’s only native freshwater turtle.
Crews clean the scene along Cesar E. Chavez and Eastern avenues, where gallons of crude oil spilled onto the street.
(
Andrew Lopez
/
The LA Local
)
Topline:
Health officials are advising residents to take precautions after a ruptured pipeline released more than 2,000 gallons of crude oil in East Los Angeles on Friday, with oil entering nearby storm drains and the Los Angeles River. The pipeline burst near East Cesar E. Chavez and North Eastern avenues as crews were installing a fiber optic line.
Avoid contact: Do not touch or walk through spilled oil or contaminated debris. Keep children and pets away from affectedareas. If your skin comes into contact with oil, wash the affected area immediately with soap and water. Remove contaminated clothing.
Indoor air precautions: Local residents should do their best to prevent odors inside their homes by closing windows and doors and turning off HVAC units until the odor outside has dissipated. After the odor outside is gone, ventilate the home by opening windows and doors and keep the HVAC system blowing air to vent the home. Limit exposure to odors as much as possible.
Health officials are advising residents to take precautions after a ruptured pipeline released more than 2,000 gallons of crude oil in East Los Angeles on Friday, with oil entering nearby storm drains and the Los Angeles River.
The pipeline burst near East Cesar E. Chavez and North Eastern avenues as crews were installing a fiber optic line, according to the LA County Fire Department.
The leak has been controlled and is no longer releasing crude oil in the streets, health officials said.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued guidance for residents as agencies continue with cleanup efforts.
Avoid contact: Do not touch or walk through spilled oil or contaminated debris. Keep children and pets away from affected areas.
Skin exposure: If your skin comes into contact with oil, wash the affected area immediately with soap and water. Remove contaminated clothing.
Odor exposure: If you smell odors outdoors, close windows and doors, turn off HVAC systems and air conditioners that pull in outside air and stay indoors until the odor has passed. After the odor outside is gone, open the windows and doors to air out your home and turn on fans or HVAC system to help ventilate indoor air.
Try to limit exposure to strong odors as much as possible. Odors may cause or worsen:
Headaches
Nausea
Eye, nose, throat irritation
Dizziness
Breathing problems (asthma)
Brief exposures usually do not cause long-term health effects, but if you experience severe or persistent symptoms, talk to your medical provider. If you don’t have a medical provider, call the Public Health – Community Health Complaint Line at (626) 430-9821.
Indoor air precautions: Local residents should do their best to prevent odors inside their homes by closing windows and doors and turning off HVAC units until the odor outside has dissipated. After the odor outside is gone, ventilate the home by opening windows and doors, and keep the HVAC system blowing air to vent the home. Limit exposure to odors as much as possible.
At-risk individuals: Monitor those most at risk of developing symptoms, such as older adults, children, pregnant persons and those who are immunocompromised.
Report odors: Complaints of odor can be reported to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD): (800) 288-7664
