We asked KPCC listeners to tell us how they came together in the city of Angels, has the California dream changed? LA is well represented at New York fashion week.
Why SoCal's MWD thinks it's worth an extra $6 billion to build a second water tunnel
It appears Gov. Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnel plan could be back on track with both underground waterways.
Just last week the governor's office announced it had scaled back the project, officially known as the California WaterFix, to one tunnel, instead of two due to lack of funding.
Southern California's Metropolitan Water District is now thinking about kicking in an extra $6 billion dollars, and taking a majority stake in the project, just to make it all happen.
It's still early days, but some water watchers are crying, 'Chinatown!'
MWD general manager Jeffrey Kightlinger spoke to Take Two's A Martinez about the plan.
How did this new MWD proposal come about?
Kightlinger said when some MWD board members came to him, suggesting the water district provide the funds for the project to done with two tunnels, as originally planned he was surprised but happy. He said this project reminded him of MWD's forward thinking when the Colorado River Aqueduct was built.
"Metropolitan [Water District] built the Aqueduct in the 1930's twice the size of our water right on the Colorado river, thinking it's better to have that capacity for the future than not. And so they built something larger than they really had the water supply for and it all worked out."
Why is it so essential to Southern California that this happen?
This project is crucial, according to Kightlinger. The infrastructure delivering water from Northern to Southern California is 50-60 years old, and water for the northern part of the state is a necessity in SoCal.
"Southern California gets 30% of its water from Northern California. It's basically the background of our drinking supply. We're making tremendous strides on conservation, reclamation, groundwater clean up, but at the end of the day, you just don't replace 30% of your supply over night."
Some are making reference to William Mulholland and calling it a "water grab" - what's your response?
California has a lot of negative legacies related to water development but this is something that needs to happen and needs to be done right, Kightlinger said.
"At the end of the day we have 40 million people in California. We have to share our resources. Most of the water's in the north; the people are in the south. Southern California finances most of the UC system; we pay for a lot of this. This is all about sharing resources and making it work. We have to do it responsibly, we have to do it ethically, we have to do it in an environmentally sound manner, but we need to work together to make this work."
What's the cost for SoCal residents?
The cost to consumers shouldn't go up with the second tunnel added back in, Kightlinger said. The project should still add an average $2 to an average household's monthly bill.
As for the timeline, Kightlinger said, "probably April." First MWD has to work to put things together, then write it all up in order to have the debate and conversation mid-April.
The California Dream has changed, so what does it look like now?
KPCC is kicking off a two-year collaboration with public media outlets around the state looking at the California Dream, how the dream has changed and whose dream it is today.
Adriene Hill, the Senior Editor of the California Dream project, joined Take Two to tell us more about what's coming up.
Hill said this project will cover a lot of topics because there are now about 39 million Californians who each have their own dream.
"A big part of our goal for this project is to hear and respond to Californians all around the state, to understand what it is we have in common as Californians, tell stories that maybe take us out of our individual communities or cites that we hear so much about but look more broadly at the state from top to bottom and really understand the dreams of people around us."
The project will launch with a live call-in show on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 12 p.m. Listeners across the state can call in to answer the question: why have you and your family stayed in California?
This question ties into one of the major topics of the project: cost of living. Hill said data shows the cost of living in California has gone up and this project will explore what it takes to make a life in the state today.
These LA love stories will give you all the feels
With all the unrest in the world, it's easy to forget that great things can happen to people — sometimes, when they least expect it.
In search of some of that goodness, KPCC asked listeners to brag about the person nearest and dearest to them, and share their LA meet-cutes.
Meet-cute:
A cute, charming, or amusing first encounter between romantic partners (as in a movie).
Almost instantly, we received a deluge of love stories that started and flourished in the City of Angels.
We couldn't spotlight them all (sadly) but here are four heartwarming tales of city romance that gave us all the feels.
Evan & Irene
Evan was at his roommate's house party in Porter Ranch in 2003 when he opened the door to see a tall, curly-haired beautiful woman that left him breathless.
I introduced myself as she walked in, and then I proceeded to avoid her the rest of the night, literally scared, sitting on a stairwell with another friend who was also timid about approaching his crush. I didn't interact with Irene for the rest of the entire evening. I lamented that the rest of the night.
Two weeks later, he was out at TGI Fridays when the same friend decided to invite two girls...
Honestly, this made me want to hasten my exit. That mutual friend, Gaby, I didn't really think I had anything in common with her, and I didn't need to spend any more time socializing on a work night.
Evan's friend bribed him to stay using beers.
Tim spent the next 15 minutes convincing me to stay while these two young women walked in. Immediately, a smile widened across my face as I recognized the two sisters: Gaby and Irene!
Evan and Irene would spend the next few hours laughing and flirting, but they didn't exchange contact information. He relied on fate to bring them together again...
Kallie & Lauren
Kallie and Lauren weren't looking for love when they began chatting through a dating website. In fact, they were merely looking for other lesbian friends in LA. A feat, Kallie says, that is surprisingly difficult.
The first time we met in person was that year's LA Pride. She had just moved to LA from Mississippi, literally five days earlier and the first time I saw her, she was walking up Crescent Heights looking very, very overwhelmed. There was a lot of gay around, it was amazing, but you could see in her face that she had never seen anything like it before and I think she maybe said ten words that entire day. I honestly couldn't figure out if she liked or hated me.
Kallie and Lauren had internships in LA, but lived outside the city. To cope with the heavy traffic, they began spending time together, nicknaming their evenings "TA" or "Traffic Avoidance."
Instead of leaving and sitting on the 405 for three hours trying to get home, we would just hang out in the city together. It was a really good excuse for us to hang out with each other without the pressure of admitting that we actually liked each other.
One night, after a failed attempt to find parking on Sunset, the two pulled off the road, and sat with hazard lights on. A Judy Garland CD played.
At one point, we noticed that we were hearing the same song for the fourth time and we realized that we had been sitting there for hours and it was two in the morning. She was really surprised, and she was like, "I've never been able to talk to someone like this before."
It all seemed to be going well, but Lauren was set to return to Mississippi soon...
Rachel & Brendon
Rachel and Brendon met during their 15 seconds of fame, but would form a bond to last a lifetime. The year was 2010. The place? The set of CBS' Big Brother.
Rachel: When I first saw Brendon, I thought he was really handsome, but he's my competition.
Brendon: I saw Rachel, she was this hot girl from Las Vegas, which of course means that she's definitely trouble.
Rachel: Well, as much trouble as I might have been, Brendon, I think that we really bonded over the fact that our housemates were all trying to get us out because we're both really competitive.
Rachel and Brendon realized that they had something special when they began talking about their love of science. It turned out that Brendon was a Ph.D. student in physics at UCLA.
Brendon: And Rachel told me that she had a degree in chemistry and that was something that I was very surprised by.
Rachel: So, as they say, the sparks literally flew and since then we've been inseparable.
The relationship continued for more than just one season...
Chelsea & Jenny
Chelsea first saw Jenny at a kendama night at Pasadena at the Villa Park Community center. (A Kendama is a Japanese, wooden ball-in-cup skill toy.)
And in the crowd I see her, and she sees me, and we lock eyes, and she smiles at me, and I smiled back at her for like three seconds, and in that moment I finally believed in love at first sight.
Chelsea told herself that she'd talk to the girl who left her summarily smitten, but as the night drew to a close, she lost her.
I thought I was never gonna see her again.
But just one month later, she got a second chance: there was another kendama event at the Urban Light installation at LACMA. It was evening. The lights were aglow. And there, kendama-in-hand, she saw Jenny again.
I remember going up to her and introducing myself. I asked her her name. She tells me that she actually knows who I am and I was so shocked and nervous.
Eventually, I started seeing her there every other Tuesday, and it always felt romantic in a way.
Chelsea says she knew they had something special after a long day on the job. She had just worked a late shift in her nursing job and was "just done with the day."
She was there to pick me up, and I felt like I was at home.
Orange County homeless camp to be cleared out next week
All-Star Weekend takes over LA’s Staples Center
This weekend, the 2018 NBA All Star Game comes to the Staples Center. Since its opening in 1999, the Staples Center has hosted two other All Star Games, in 2004 and 2011, as well as seven NBA Finals series with the Lakers, the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup Finals, and three WNBA Finals.
In 2005, the adjoining property broke ground, in what would become the retail and entertainment space, LA LIVE.
We heard from Lee Zeidman, president of Staples Center, Microsoft Theater and L.A. Live. He was the first employee hired for the Staples Center way back in the early days, and he experienced that first All Star Game in 2004. He talked about the differences between putting on an event now, compared with doing it in 2004 and even 2011.
I think in '04, we had over 300 buses we had to get in on site for all three nights of the events, and then we had to park them. And then in 2011 it went way down. This year we’re talking maybe 25, 35 buses that need to come to downtown Los Angeles, because pretty much everything is staying at L.A. Live, so in that sense it’s gotten easier. As it relates to security, we don’t have all that open space – we now have all that property built up around downtown LA … including, as I look out my office right now, I’m looking at three towers that are under construction … so those need to be looked at from a security standpoint.
And the weekend won't be just about basketball. There will be parties, concerts and other attractions, including a celebrity game between teams helmed by rappers Snoop Dogg and 2 Chainz.
Take Two contributors
joined Take Two to talk about what it takes to put together an event like this, and Brian talked about the appeal of the event.
There is something for everyone because the NBA and basketball, more than any other sport, really is an intersection between the sport itself, but also fashion and pop culture, particularly if you're into sneaker culture.
But Andy had a sad reminder for fans of the Lakers and Clippers. Neither team will have a major presence this weekend. For the first time since 1996, that was a year before Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal joined the Lakers, there will not be an L.A. team represented in the All Star Game ... although Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma of the Lakers will be playing in the Mountain Dew Kickstart Rising Stars Game, which was formerly called the Rookie Game.
Oh well, there's always next year.
LA invades NY Fashion Week
New York Fashion Week kicked off a few days ago, and Tom Ford, Jeremy Scott and other designers all repped for L.A.
"There was a big 80s theme coming out," says Adam Tschorn, deputy fashion editor for the L.A. Times. "Lots of prints, lots of flared legs."
Ford showcased a line with zebra stripe, leopard spot and snake skin patterns, all in highlighter-acid colors. "It was something like fruit-sprayed gum," says Tschorn.
Feminism has also been a strong motif throughout many of the shows so far with the #MeToo movement showing up on the runways.
However, those looks were more subtle in nature where, in the past, the theme manifested as slogans on clothing.