Greater LA

Kids ages 12 to 15 are now eligible for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, and some LA families are wasting no time. Appointments at the Long Beach Convention Center are double what they were one week ago. Meet some of the kids first in line for the shot.

Risky Business is a private club in North Hollywood for fully vaccinated people, where people can drink and mingle without wearing masks or social distancing. At least 1,000 people have signed up to become members of this bar, which aims to achieve a sense of normalcy and safety. “There are no rules related to masks. There are no rules related to distancing. There is none of that,” says co-owner Ari Schindler. “This is a normal place. And it's made normal by the fact that there is 100% vaccination. It's really that simple.” The bar has received mixed reactions since its unveiling. Some were happy, while others deemed the businesses owners irresponsible or discriminatory. 

A new government effort aims to bolster what’s sometimes called the “missing middle” in California’s most expensive housing markets. Meaning: homes priced for households earning too much to qualify for subsidized housing but not enough to comfortably pay market-rate rent. In LA County, moderate-income ranges from an individual earning about $67,000 a year to a household of four earning nearly $127,000 a year. It’s currently unclear whether the benefits of this program will outweigh the costs in the long run.

Lincoln Heights Intel (LHI), a group of residents and organizers, was spurred into action by Avenue 34, a five-acre, 468-unit apartment complex featuring lots of retail space. Residents were concerned about being displaced and inhaling toxic fumes potentially emitted by the complex’s construction. 

LHI believed the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council didn’t do enough to fight the development, so they put together a slate of 11 progressive candidates to replace all members of the council. After voters cast ballots in April, all 11 candidates won.  

A neighborhood council mostly advises its LA City Council member, but that influence can be powerful.  “They can make it [development] more likely to happen, or less likely to happen by their support or opposition. And that's why even without formal power over land use, [neighborhood councils] are potentially going to become players in some of the land-use politics in the city,” says Raphael Sonenshein, who directs the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA. 

There’s a bold plan in LA’s Crenshaw neighborhood to purchase the local mall for north of $100 million and let the community profit from its redevelopment. The idea has a lot of support from business owners and residents. But the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall’s owners, lenders, and some community leaders aren’t convinced.

“When someone comes in from the outside and [has] a completely different agenda, it might not be what’s best for the neighborhood,” says Malik Muhammad, who has owned and operated Malik’s Books at the Crenshaw Mall since the early 1990s. “It might be a plan to gentrify, uproot and push [us] out. … We need to develop our own communities.”

Enter Downtown Crenshaw Rising, a community effort to buy the mall, redevelop it, and let the neighborhood profit from its economic revitalization. “We heard that the plan was to build luxury condos and townhouses here. We knew that we had to draw a line in the sand and really stop that type of gentrification from happening,” says Niki Okuk, a local entrepreneur and board president with Downtown Crenshaw.

A stroll through Hollywood history reveals over 100 years of boulevard branding. But can the “Main Street of the movies” maintain its historic integrity — and keep its small businesses alive — while absorbing billions of private investment dollars?

Seward Johnson’s, 26-foot tall, 2011 sculpture “Forever Marilyn” depicts the truly iconic Marilyn Monroe mid-subway breeze from that famous scene in “The Seven Year Itch” — face smiling with rapture and white skirt billowing upwards. The statue passed through Palm Springs almost a decade ago, but now a local tourism group has purchased “Forever Marilyn” for $1 million, meaning the desert will be her forever home. While many in town believe the towering statue is a perfect mix of kitsch and retro that jibes with Palm Springs’ mid-century vibe, some say a lot has changed since her 2012-2014 stint. 

The city of LA has locked basketball hoops in Venice Beach, even as more outdoor and indoor activities get the green light to restart. Some locals are trying to get the locks removed with the #FreeTheHoops social media campaign. Meanwhile, they’re trying innovative methods to get games going on the courts.

Now that kids are back on campus, teachers are bringing lessons outside to keep them safe. The health benefits for students extend far beyond COVID safety. Many local schools want to make a permanent change, but that’s a tall order for schools with asphalt playgrounds and little shade.

Gaylord Wilshire was a land speculator, billboard tycoon, failed politician and inventor. He built Wilshire Boulevard, a street that became LA’s primary escape route from the horse-drawn era. But as the city got bigger, Gaylord Wilshire got smaller.