Support for LAist comes from
Local and national news, NPR, things to do, food recommendations and guides to Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire
Stay Connected
Listen
Podcasts Take Two
SCAG Housing Dispute, Lincoln Carson's Bon Temps, Bethel Mega Church
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Jun 20, 2019
Listen 49:53
SCAG Housing Dispute, Lincoln Carson's Bon Temps, Bethel Mega Church

Lincoln Carson opens Bon Temps French brasserie, Bethel megachurch is the unlikely epicenter of modern Christian culture in Redding.

Treacle Hall, downtown Culver City
Treacle Hall, downtown Culver City
(
Tracie Hall / Picasa
)

SCAG HOUSING DISPUTE

While pretty much everyone agrees there's not enough affordable housing in California there's NOT a lot of agreement about WHY that is or how to solve the problem. Some housing experts say it's a lack of supply. There's just not enough housing to go around so prices go up as people compete for the few good homes out there. The solution, then, would be to fast-track the building of more homes throughout the state. That's what Governor Gavin Newsom has called for. But it's not so simple. Regional lawmakers are pushing back on whether that should happen and, if so, where.

Guest:

  • Liam Dillon, Los Angeles Times

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES

In the midst of these California battles over housing one skirmish is over the fate of single-family homes. It's the American dream to have that nice house with a lawn. But the future of a place like Los Angeles might be more duplexes, condominiums and apartment buildings. That's because without a lot of free land to build ON places like LA have no choice but to build UP. Only recently have cities started facing the reality that if they want to deal with the housing crisis then single-family homes might be a thing of the past.

Guest:

  • Emily Badger, New York Times

SANITATION ROUNDTABLE

In response to the growing piles of garbage around the city, that is due in part to the growing homeless population in the city, LA Sanitation department laid out the plan Tuesday to deal with it. In short, it involves reorganizing and expanding its cleanup teams to provide more consistent attention to encampments and bring in more trash bins and mobile bathrooms to these areas. We get reaction to the plan from three stakeholders.

Guests:

  • Ellen Riotto executive director of the South Park Business Improvement District, which provides its services to 52 blocks of the southwestern region of Downtown LA.
  • Pete White, Founder & Executive Director Los Angeles Community Action Network 
  • Jay Handal, co-chair of the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, a volunteer-based city-wide citizen oversight committee on budget and services

LINCOLN CARSON

Pastry Chef Lincoln Carson is opening up a new restaurant in L.A.— his first — downtown in the arts district. It's called Bon Temps. A Martinez went down there to talk to him about what he wants to do and why he's doing it in L.A.

CALIFORNIA RED-LEGGED FROGS

It ain't easy being green. Take the California Red-Legged Frog. Before the Woolsey Fire burnt through the Santa Monica Mountains seven months ago, the frog population was flourishing, thanks to a five-year restoration project But following the fire, then a deluge of rain in the area the species has been struggling.

Guest:

  • Katy Delaney is a wildlife ecologist with the National Park Service

CALIFORNIA DREAM BETHEL CHURCH

Over two decades, the northern California town of Redding, California, became an unlikely epicenter of modern Christian culture. Vanessa Rancaño reports about the megachurch Bethel for our California Dream collaboration.