The Brief

Los Angeles residents have a lot of questions about a controversial plan to build a gondola connecting Union Station in downtown to Dodger Stadium.

California State Parks hosted a virtual meeting on Tuesday night to go over a proposed amendment to the plan that would allow it to be built over L.A. State Historic Park, which opponents have argued would threaten the 32-acre green space.

Alex Stehl, the deputy director of planning at State Parks, clarified during the meeting that the amendment is not a done deal.

“As we move through this process, we're going to be looking at whether or not it's feasible for this project to be in the park, and how would it be feasible,” she said.

What would the gondola do exactly?

The project, officially named LA Art, would connect the stadium, station, and Elysian Park.

(

Courtesy L.A. Metro

)

It would include three stations — one near El Pueblo, a Chinatown / State Park station, and another at Dodger Stadium. Three towers and a junction would also need to be built, as well as a system of cables and cabins.

Officials said it would provide access to surrounding communities, including Chinatown, Mission Junction, and Solano Canyon. It would operate daily, with the roughly 1 mile ride taking 7 minutes each way.

“LA ART would provide safe, zero emission, environmentally friendly, and high-capacity transit connectivity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a result of reduced vehicular congestion in and around Dodger Stadium and on neighborhood streets, arterial roadways, and freeways,” according to a presentation during the meeting.

Most of the park wouldn’t be beneath the project, which would be along the westernmost edge. The cabins would soar anywhere from 26 to 53 feet over the area.

Questions from residents

The meeting was translated into five languages, including Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taishanese.

All of the questions and comments were sent directly to the moderators, and members of the public were not identified or able to share their thoughts verbally.

Some people asked about access to the park, given that it's currently free to visit. Stehl said they don’t intend to change that.

“People would still be able to access this park as they do now,” she said. “Of course, depending on things like special events or other things happening in the area, which sometimes does close off sections of the park, but there's no intent to limit access to the park.”

One person expressed concerns about the visual impact of the gondola and all its infrastructure, which Stehl said would be taken into account throughout the General Plan Amendment process.

Others asked if officials will be gathering information on the losses and risks to the park, and Stehl confirmed they are.

Another asked who will be responsible for operating and maintaining the gondola, such as the city or a private company. Stehl said that’s part of what’s going to be discussed over the next year, and into the future should they move forward.

What is a general plan? Why does it matter?

The General Plan accounts for conceptual goals and guidelines for long-term land use, management, and operations of the park, among others.

The first step is to collect input from the public, which is where we are now.

Officials will then develop amendment options, present the draft plan to the public for their feedback, and then submit the final draft to the State Park and Recreation Commission for its consideration.

The process will involve public outreach, and there will be multiple opportunities for people to comment and share their input, officials said.

Once that’s completed, the project will need several approvals and agreements from State Parks.

Those include a right of entry permit to construct a gondola station in the park, and real property agreements for aerial rights requirements. It’ll also need operational agreements for day to day operations such as hours, security, and programming.

How you can stay up to date

Any and all feedback received by Dec. 15 will be considered as the process moves forward.

You can do that through the General Plan Amendment website here, or email lastatehistoricparkgpa@parks.ca.gov.

You can also share your thoughts via mail by sending it to:

The PDF form is available in English, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.

And you sign up for the email list here.

It’s whale watching season, which always makes me think of the novel Moby-Dick.

In the book, Captain Ahab chased a whale for vengeance. I recently chased whales off the coast of Los Angeles, but in my case, it was in pursuit of the beauty and majesty of the natural world.

With warm — relative to Alaska — spring waters, migratory rest-stops and great feeding grounds, Los Angeles County’s coast is considered part of the “Blue Highway,” a crucial whale migration corridor and one of the best places to spot the gentle giants.

According to Cabrillo Marine Aquarium program director Jim DiPompei, many whales can be seen right in our backyard.

“There’s a little over 90 species of cetaceans (marine mammals) in the world, and we see about 30% of the species we could possibly see here in Southern California,” DiPompei told The LA Local.

Cetacean species you may spot in our waters include humpback whales, orcas, blue whales and dolphins. Your best chance, however, is spotting a gray whale. As school bus-sized gray whales migrate back and forth between Alaska and Baja, they consistently hug LA’s coastline.

But where should you go to actually get a good look at whales? Don’t worry — I got you. Here’s The LA Local guide to cruising the Blue Highway.

Top spots to watch whales from shore

Point Vicente Interpretive Center
31501 Palos Verdes Drive West, Rancho Palos Verdes
Free, laid-back, on the mountains!

At the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, you’ll find an overlook dedicated to whale watching. While this is a great free spot for amateurs to come and look out for whales, this is no playground. Professionals conduct the annual whale census here, tracking the migration of whales.

This is a great place to bring a picnic basket and some binoculars to relax while scanning the ocean. Even if you don’t spot any whale action, you can visit the free natural history museum inside, which focuses on the region and its most famous inhabitants: whales. Afterward, step outside and chat with a museum docent accompanying the census watch.

If you want to see whales, stick to the coastal canyons. Canyons aren’t just massive structures above water — they are also mountains beneath the surface, offering depth, cold water and nutrients that attract food for whales. Gray whales tend to follow the canyons to stay away from the dangerous orcas.

Whale spotting 101

Whale watching season typically runs from December through May. It peaks from January to March.

When looking for a whale, try to spot their water mist blowing above the water. Gray whales typically surface for air every five minutes. When they do, they’ll blow out a water mist — that’s your chance to spot and track them until they surface again.

Get on a boat!

If you want to get eye-to-eye and really feel a cetacean’s scale, there are plenty of whale-watching cruises. They typically depart from Marina Del Rey, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, San Pedro, Dana Point and almost anywhere with a port.

Many cruises have a naturalist on board to answer questions and provide expert context to ocean wildlife.

On my tour departing from Long Beach, we saw five gray whales and a swarm of common dolphins feeding.

But be warned: If you get seasick easily, this trip might not be for you. On our two-and-half-hour trip, the boat rocked emphatically as we approached feeding sites. It’s fun if you can imagine yourself on a see-saw, but it might not be that enjoyable if that sounds nauseating.

While boat captains are not allowed to approach the whales too closely due to environmental protections, the whales can approach the boat if they choose. Sometimes the whales seem curious and watch us in return — it’s up to them and how they are feeling.

Get involved

Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro

If you really catch the whale-watching bug, you’re in luck.

At the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, they offer a whale-watching naturalist program where you can volunteer and train to be a naturalist on board whale-watching cruises.

DiPompei said they train anyone over the age of 18 “who’s interested in learning about whales and volunteering their time to be on these whale-watching boats to talk to the general public and to talk to students.”

This program was started in the 1970s by John Olge, one of the founders of Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, with an emphasis on education and showing schoolchildren the beauty of our natural world.

The aquarium is also a great place to introduce whales to children. With kid-sized exhibits and educational programs throughout the year, it’s an ideal way to show young ones just how big and beautiful our oceans are.

Despite the loss of federal subsidies that lowered costs for millions, California’s private health insurance marketplace held nearly steady this enrollment season. In all, 1.9 million Californians renewed their plan or selected one for the first time — a 2.7% drop compared to last year.

A closer look, however, shows Californians are making concessions to afford staying insured.

More enrollees are opting for “bronze-level” plans. These plans have lower monthly premium costs but higher deductibles and copays; they cover 60% of medical expenses — leaving enrollees to pay the rest. One-in-three new enrollees chose bronze plans for 2026, compared to one-in-four last year, according to Covered California. And 130,000 Californians renewing their coverage switched from a silver or higher-metal tier plan to bronze.

“Many Californians see the value in remaining covered, but they had to make sacrifices and shift to lower-tier plans. We see it as a commitment to health and the value that Covered California provides,” Jessica Altman, Covered California’s executive director said in a statement.

While bronze-level plans may offer people some peace of mind, the high deductibles and copays tend to discourage people from seeking care, said Miranda Dietz, director of the Health Care Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

“Those out-of-pocket costs do impact people’s decisions to get care, so that’s worrisome as well,” Dietz said.

People earning above 400% of the federal poverty level — $62,600 for an individual and $128,600 for a family of four — no longer qualify for premium assistance after Congress chose not to extend the enhanced subsidies at the end of last year, pushing many to opt for plans with cheaper premiums or drop their marketplace plans entirely.

Of the 224,000 middle-income enrollees set to renew, 22% cancelled their plans, according to Covered California. New sign ups for people in this income bracket decreased by 59% compared to last year.

Whether those who renewed coverage or newly signed up continue to pay their premiums is another question. A clearer picture of who stays enrolled will emerge around April, Covered California said.

“Once you actually face the prospect of paying that premium and the stress that puts on your budget, it’s entirely possible that some of those folks may fall off, and the [enrollment] numbers might go down,” Dietz said.

Affording care: A growing stress point 

It’s unknown whether people who cancelled their marketplace health plans are enrolling in other types of insurance. Covered California data from the last five years show that when people terminate their marketplace plan, 10% to 14% of them report becoming uninsured.

The Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium subsidies, first enacted in 2021 as part of federal COVID-19 response, helped lower the insurance costs for millions of Americans. They especially helped middle-income earners by allowing them to qualify for financial assistance for the first time, capping premiums at 8.5% of income. That help is now gone, and premiums are up an average of 10%.

Lower-income enrollees remain eligible for standard federal premium aid available since ACA marketplaces launched. They also benefit from state help. California allocated $190 million in 2026 to provide state-funded tax credits for people who earn up to 165% of the federal poverty level — $25,823 for an individual or $53,048 for a family of four — averaging about $45 a month per enrollee.The end of the enhanced federal subsidies also come at a time when poll after poll shows health care costs are a growing stress point for people. Seven in 10 Californians say health care expenses place a financial strain on their household, according to a recent survey by the California Health Care Foundation. Four in 10 have medical debt and six in 10 report skipping care. Meanwhile, eight in 10 Californians say making health care affordable is an “extremely” or “very” important priority for state officials and lawmakers in 2026.

There have been plenty of Beatles-related documentaries in the past decade or so, and yes, I've reviewed most of them. But in my defense, The Beatles are a great subject, musically and biographically — and the best filmmakers are drawn to them.

Peter Jackson gave us the Get Back documentary miniseries and the latest installment of The Beatles Anthology. Ron Howard directed Eight Days a Week, about the group's touring years. Martin Scorsese directed Living in the Material World, his two-part biography of George Harrison. All of them were terrific — and all of them were made by Oscar-winning directors.

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville, who won an Oscar for his film about backup singers, 20 Feet From Stardom, has joined that club. He's already directed outstanding biographies of everyone from Johnny Cash and Anthony Bourdain to Steve Martin and Fred Rogers. And now, Prime Video is premiering his latest documentary, Man on the Run, about former Beatle Paul McCartney.

The word "former" is key here: While brief, artful montages encapsulate the frenzy and impact of Beatlemania, Man on the Run is focused on the decade immediately afterward — the 1970s. Specifically, it spans the period from when McCartney left The Beatles to when his former bandmate, John Lennon, was shot and killed.

Neville conducted many lengthy new interviews with McCartney but uses only the sound. Virtually all the footage in Man on the Run is vintage, so there are no white-haired rock stars in sight. But because McCartney is an executive producer and has provided a stunning amount of previously unseen private footage, there's lots of fresh stuff to see here.

The danger of McCartney having such input, though, is of Man on the Run becoming too sanitized as a personal biography. But it's not. The decade covered includes McCartney announcing the breakup of The Beatles, his very public musical feud with Lennon, the formation of McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings, even the "Paul is dead" rumor.

And in these new interviews, McCartney seems to be speaking honestly — not only about what happened, but how he felt about it all. On The Beatles breakup, for example, it was McCartney who announced it publicly — but it was Lennon who already had left the group. McCartney's reaction, at age 27, was to retreat with his family to a remote property he owned in Scotland — in a vintage interview, Linda McCartney recalls her husband's out-of-the-blue suggestion.

Man on the Run relies on other voices and perspectives to defend some of McCartney's infamous actions during this period. Lennon's son Sean, for example, excuses McCartney's stunned, understated reaction to John's death — when asked by reporters, he called it "a real drag" — as having been in shock.

And Lennon himself, in an interview filmed years after The Beatles' breakup, admits that McCartney was right in hating and suing the manager, Allen Klein, whom John had brought in to handle the group. At the time, Lennon and McCartney even attacked one another in song — and in a new interview, McCartney is very open about how much that stung.

That same refreshing honesty extends to other key moments — the formation of his group Wings and recruiting Linda as its first charter member, his jail time in Japan for bringing pot into that country, even the time Lorne Michaels, on Saturday Night Live, jokingly offered The Beatles a ridiculously small check if they would reunite on his show.

Man on the Run is more about the man than it is about his creative process. But his music runs all through the documentary, and it all adds up to an impressive, inspirational second act.