We had so much fun exploring LA in 2025. Here are our favorite stories

We made it. Happy (almost) 2026.

All year, the Explore L.A. team has brought you stories of discovery and connection.

As we leave 2025 behind, we've handpicked our favorites of the year.

We did a lot.

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We went inside a Los Angeles institution that has been left untouched for more than a decade. We learned to make peace with our city's backyard urban critters. We marveled at street art painted decades ago, pulsing with contemporary relevance. We watched as old houses moved across the city to become new homes for fire survivors. We had a leisurely day — one of us at least — hanging out at a lilac garden to hear stories of love and devotion. We witnessed the closing of a family business in Chinatown — and how that loss ricocheted across the neighborhood. We became obsessed with a cola from Japan bearing our city's namesake and tried to find the connection.

And there are so many more stories that took us to different parts of the region this year — stories that brought us closer to this place, stories that we have brought back to you.

We hope you like them as much as we liked writing and producing them. Catch you again next year.

When Yue Wa Market closes this week, Chinatown will lose a neighborhood anchor

Yue Wa Market blends into the storefronts of Broadway in L.A.'s Chinatown.

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Josie Huang

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LAist

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• Read and listen here 

"I got to spend the final days of Yue Wa Market with the family who runs it — watching them say goodbye to their customers and closing a chapter in a Chinatown that was transforming around them. It’s a story that stuck out for me this year because it showed, in a surprisingly intimate space, how every person leaves an imprint on their neighborhood."

– Josie Huang, Weekend Edition host and reporter

After two decades, one man's obsession with the lilac is coming to an end in Idyllwild

A small bundle of lilacs at the Idyllwild Lilac Garden.

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Nathanial Torres

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LAist

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• Read and listen here 

"My favorite story this year focused on flowers in bloom and the end of an era for the man who tended to them for over two decades. I particularly loved this story because it was one of the first where I was able to spend the entire day out in the field on my own. It was a nice little road trip where I crossed three county lines, drove into a mountain town, and shared an afternoon with lilac legend Gary Parton. It was an honor to catch the man at the end of his second career and an honor to tell his story."

– Dañiel Martinez, Explore L.A. producer

Go inside LA’s old General Hospital before it turns from a spooky Art Deco time capsule into new housing

The stairs to the old General Hospital.

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Katherine Garrova / LAist

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• Read and listen here

"For me, exploring L.A. means bringing readers and listeners into places they wouldn't normally have access to. It was an honor to get to go into a beloved building that thousands of Angelenos have a connection to, and learn about its future providing housing and mental health care. Oh, and decaying old art deco buildings are just cool and feel like a movie set."

– Robert Garrova, Explore L.A. reporter

These LA homes were about to be torn down. Now they’re getting new life in fire-ravaged Altadena

The top of the Saint George Street house.

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Cato Hernández

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LAist

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• Read and listen here

"Most of my reporting tends to stick in our region's convoluted, quirky history — but I love this story the most because it's about making something old new again. A group of fire-affected residents are reviving the mostly-forgotten process of house moving to get back on their feet. This showed me nothing is ever truly antiquated if you have enough drive. (As a bonus: check out what moving a home across L.A. County actually looks like.)"

– Cato Hernández , L.A. Explained reporter

When it comes to figs, it’s woman vs. squirrel

A squirrel daring you to make a move.

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Boys in Bristol Photography

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via Unsplash

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• Read and listen here

“Here's my thoughts about squirrels: It seemed to hit a nerve — I got readers telling me their methods of deterring squirrels, and others offering their fig preserve recipes. One person said they were only left with one fig on their fig plant, which they cut up into four to share with their family.”

– Suzanne Levy, Explore L.A. editor

The story behind the Pico-Robertson mural depicting working-class Jewish history, painted by a Filipino artist

An image of Cesar Chavez, at the top of the photo.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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LAist

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• Read and listen here

"There’s a mural in L.A.’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood that stands apart from other Jewish themed public art in L.A. in that it does not focus on the religious or national part of Jewish identity.

It’s called 'A shenere un besere velt - A Better and More Beautiful World,' in yiddish. It covers a roughly 60 foot long and 15 feet tall wall on a building occupied by the Worker’s Circle in Pico-Robertson, a mutual aid group founded by Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants that opened an office in L.A. in 1908, not long after it started in New York.

I love this story because people I interviewed said the mural's message of identity based on working class solidarity with people of other races and ethnicities is just as relevant now as when it was unveiled in 1998."

– Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, Explore L.A. correspondent

We went looking for a Japanese cola named 'Los Angeles' — and found a story about home

Los Angeles Cola.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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• Read and listen here

“I love this story because I had no idea where it was going to take me. I wanted to write about this soft drink named ‘Los Angeles' and the circuitous journey ended with me speaking with someone who grew up as part of a Korean minority group called Zainichi Koreans in Japan. The coolest thing of all? Hwaji Shin's story has so much heart."

– Fiona Ng, deputy managing editor, Explore L.A. and Weekend