All posts tagged: L.A

L.A. has free World Cup watch parties. Here’s where to find them

L.A. has free World Cup watch parties. Here’s where to find them

Published by Sam Flores

The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation and the City of Los Angeles are hosing free watch parties across the region for the World Cup. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to start Thursday with Mexico facing South Africa in Mexico City and South Korea taking on Czechia in Guadalajara, Mexico. The tournament then heads north Friday, with Canada facing Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto before the United States opens Group D play against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Here’s everything you need to know about the watch parties. What will they include? The LA County Parks events will feature live match broadcasts on a giant LED screen, according to an LA County Parks news release. There will also be activities for all ages, including youth soccer clinics, family-friendly games, refreshments, halftime snacks and inflatable attractions such as a giant soccer dart game. Meanwhile, “Kick It In the Park,” a partnership between the Office of Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles Council Districts, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, …

She tore out her L.A. hillside lawn and planted drought-tolerant plants

She tore out her L.A. hillside lawn and planted drought-tolerant plants

Published by Sam Flores

Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angeles’ past. In this series, we spotlight yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future. Julia Lee had no need for a new garden when she and her husband purchased their Cheviot Hills home eight years ago. The traditional 1950 home came with mature tropical plants in the back and a sprawling grass hillside lawn in front, and it suited them just fine. But as drought and wildfires dragged on in California in recent years, she started to question whether keeping the thirsty lawn made sense. “Our water bill was insane,” she says as she offers a tour of the former lawn, which is now filled with colorful native plants and drought-tolerant plants. “It was a waste of space. Our kids were getting older and didn’t play on the lawn. There was just no reason to keep a big green lawn.” After reading a Times story about Georg Kochi, a retiree who swapped his Koreatown lawn with plants suited for California, Lee was inspired by Kochi’s wild, wabi-sabi-style …

Nithya Raman advances over Spencer Pratt to face L.A. Mayor Karen Bass in a runoff

Nithya Raman advances over Spencer Pratt to face L.A. Mayor Karen Bass in a runoff

Published by Sam Flores

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will face City Council member Nithya Raman in a runoff election for Bass’ job in November, NBC News projects, teeing up a one-on-one matchup between two Democrats. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Bass and Raman, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, emerged from a crowded all-party primary field that included former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican who ran an insurgent campaign focused on criticizing Bass for her response to the Los Angeles wildfires last year. See election results here. Since no candidate earned more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers go to a runoff this fall. NBC News previously projected Bass would advance to the general election. While Pratt was in second place behind Bass on election night, the successive vote tallies have been more Democratic-leaning, allowing Raman to surpass Pratt. It’s part of a pattern all over California in this primary, with late-counted votes leaning more Democratic after a …

L.A. Affairs: I’m a black woman. He’s a white guy with a pickup truck. Here’s what happened

L.A. Affairs: I’m a black woman. He’s a white guy with a pickup truck. Here’s what happened

Published by Sam Flores

“That guy over there.” I was talking to my friend, Kim, as we sipped cocktails at a bar in Hollywood. She followed my gaze. “The … bald … white guy?” she asked, her face scrunched up in disbelief. I nodded. She raised an eyebrow and slurped on her vodka cranberry. Classic stories from the Los Angeles Times’ 143-year archive Some background might be helpful here. I’m black and my friend Kim is white, as was the guy in question. He also shaved his head and, apparently, that threw my friend for a loop. I knew why. Since I’d known her I’d mostly dated black guys. The real estate agent I’d met at the LACMA summer jazz series. The actor who’d given me his head shot as soon as he learned I was a TV writer. The musician who serenaded me at the Dresden between Marty and Elayne’s sets. All black. And the one or two white guys in the mix had hair. Two weeks later, I climbed in the passenger seat of the bald white …

The Viral Anti-Trump Street Artists Turning L.A. Into Canvas

The Viral Anti-Trump Street Artists Turning L.A. Into Canvas

Published by Daniella Wilson

As Donald Trump finished his record-length State of the Union address earlier this year, a group of artists drove to a cul-de-sac off Echo Park Lake in L.A. and got to work. The three men dressed in loose-fitting work pants and hoodies unloaded two laser projectors (one for backup), some lenses, a laptop and battery packs onto carts and brought them to the middle of a pedestrian bridge that crosses over the 101. In the anonymity of darkness, the members of the guerilla art collective VJayBombs set up their gear with the confidence of practice. Within minutes, the projector was warming up and aligned with the 100-foot-tall wall of the L.A. Downtown Medical Center. Then, a final review of the video to be projected was made. “Did you put sweat on the Statue of Liberty?” Cat, a co-founder of the group, asked. “That’s sick.” “Looks good to me,” said Bev, another co-founder. He then caught himself: “Go back to ‘immigrant’ for a second. ‘Immigrant’ was spelled right, yeah?” And with that, the laptop was connected …

The delicious rewards of seeking out Cantonese micro-cuisines in L.A.

The delicious rewards of seeking out Cantonese micro-cuisines in L.A.

Published by Sam Flores

High on my list of dream trips: a couple weeks roaming and eating through China’s Guangdong province with friends born in the region. Hong Kong and Macau are the most obvious famous touchstones around Guangdong (previously in the West called Canton, which was a corruption of its name in English first begat by Portuguese traders in the early 1500s), though both those cities are technically their own Special Administrative Regions. The province covers nearly 70,000 square miles, and its recorded history stretches back at least 2,200 years. It’s safe to say — at the source and in the diaspora — that the monolithic umbrella of “Cantonese cuisine” hardly covers variations between Guangdong’s zigzagging coast along the South China Sea, its port city capital Guangzhou on the banks of the Pearl River Delta and its many inland communities. L.A.’s regional Cantonese cuisines A few years back, I wrote about running around Los Angeles seeking out the specific, light-handed, seafood-rich specialties of Chiu Chow, one Pinyin term for Chaozhou, or Teochew, the name referring both to the …

Commentary: For mayoral candidates and all of L.A., here’s the homelessness conversation we must have

Commentary: For mayoral candidates and all of L.A., here’s the homelessness conversation we must have

Published by Sam Flores

Ron, a West L.A. resident, thinks he knows why former reality TV star and political newcomer Spencer Pratt won so much support in his run for mayor. People are frustrated, frightened and angry about homelessness “and the crime associated with it,” Ron said in an email. He added that he voted for Mayor Karen Bass, but “almost everything Pratt said about the homeless resonated with me. … The homeless run wild here, without consequence.” “Many of us support him not because we think he’s perfect,” said Kathy, “but because we are deeply dissatisfied with the direction of Los Angeles and feel that traditional politicians have not delivered the results we were promised.” Bob, “a left-leaning Palisades resident,” said the issue is not Pratt’s lack of credentials, but the failures of incumbents. “There was a columnist … who documented in depth the situation at MacArthur Park,” Bob wrote in reference to me. “What was his name and what happened to him? Did he change his tune?” These are all fair points, and if Pratt holds onto …

L.A. region begins the year with the smoggiest first 5 months in a decade

L.A. region begins the year with the smoggiest first 5 months in a decade

Published by Sam Flores

The first five months of 2026 in Southern California have been the smoggiest — with the highest number of unhealtful air days — in more than a decade, according to statewide air monitoring. So far this year, the South Coast air basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, has seen 39 days when the concentration of lung-irritating ozone (commonly known as smog) exceeded the federal standard, according to preliminary state air quality data. That’s even worse than the infamously hot and hazy 2017, when Greater Los Angeles had 36 unhealthful air days by June 4 and ultimately saw 145. Many of the roughly 18 million people who live in the air basin have been subjected to unhealthful levels of ozone, a highly corrosive gas that triggers asthma attacks and a wide range of respiratory illnesses. This has taken many by surprise since successive days of smog more commonly happen in summer, when heat waves and intense sunlight convert man-made pollution into ozone. “If we have this many violations by this time, …

L.A. divided: Bass, Pratt and Raman dominated in different parts of the city

L.A. divided: Bass, Pratt and Raman dominated in different parts of the city

Published by Sam Flores

Mayor Karen Bass ran the table in South Los Angeles, Spencer Pratt found strong support from his Westside base, and Nithya Raman racked up votes in Echo Park and other neighborhoods with a concentration of renters, according to a Times analysis of partial precinct-level results from this week’s primary election. The Times analysis, based on an estimated 62% of the ballots counted so far, found that Pratt was favored in many of the same neighborhoods that voted for mayoral candidate Rick Caruso in 2022, while Raman made inroads in progressive areas dominated by Bass four years ago. Bass found support in neighborhoods along much of the Harbor and Santa Monica freeway corridors, along with central San Fernando Valley communities from Van Nuys to Arleta. With much of the vote left to be counted, a map prepared by The Times showing how neighborhoods voted represents a snapshot of an election still very much underway. Bass garnered enough votes on election night to qualify for a Nov. 3 runoff, the Associated Press determined, but votes are still …

The L.A. ICE raids, one year later. What has happened?

The L.A. ICE raids, one year later. What has happened?

Published by Sam Flores

A year ago, I wrote in this very newsletter about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers tried to execute two raids in San Diego, but came face-to-face with San Diegans who fought back. That was merely the beginning of the summer of ICE across the country, but specifically Southern California. The day that newsletter came out, ICE conducted two raids in Los Angeles — one in the Garment District and another at a Home Depot in Westlake. As the enforcement actions took place, onlookers clashed with federal officials. Protesters were assaulted and injured as agents rained down gas and less-than-lethal rounds on crowds. This marked the first day of massive protests against the many raids that popped up in and around L.A. that continued for over a month. Thousands of people were detained by ICE in the L.A. area last summer, most of whom had no criminal record. And which section of the population — as data have shown — was and continues to be the hardest-hit in the region? The Latino community. As we …