Greater LA

Landmark Theatres will close their arthouse location on Pico Boulevard after 15 years. Is this the beginning of the end of indie theaters? Plans for a Poseidon Water desalination plant in Huntington Beach were unanimously rejected by the California Coastal Commission. What’s the future for desalination in the state

Southern Californians are taking their own approaches to the drought. One man waters his yard daily. Another has native plants and hardly ever waters. Measure W is meant to raise money to clean and capture rainwater. LA County residents voted to pass it in 2018. Is it making a difference? Jacqueline Chow, an 11-year-old student in Arcadia, is part of KCRW’s Young Creators Project. She likes to wri...

The next LA County supervisor from the San Fernando Valley and Westside will represent over 2 million people and control billions of dollars. But where’s the campaign? In the LA city attorney’s race, two candidates previously ran for office as Republicans, but they say they’ve been with the Democratic Party for many years now. With the June primary election ahead, KCRW gets an explainer on how mai...

The Silver Lake restaurant staple, Casita del Campo, has been serving margaritas for 60 years. And the downstairs theater, The Cavern Club, hosts raucous drag shows. A new TikTok series began as a way for kids to get news, then became a collection of lost stories of classic LA restaurants and fun food facts. Gillian Chamberlin, a 17-year-old senior from the San Gabriel Valley, is one of the five t...

“ CARE Court ” aims to help Californians with mental health and addiction disorders, but civil liberty activists question its effectiveness and legality. Thousands of people with mental health issues have been sent (by courts) to a program that diverts them away from jail and into supportive housing. But funding has dried up for that program. An Orange County judge overturned second-degree murder...

LA’s youth climate leaders keep up with their schoolwork as they lobby for climate legislation, rally a generation, and try to secure a liveable future. Books depicting racism, sexuality, and genocide shouldn’t be banned. Educators should be better trained in teaching sensitive literature. That’s according to Sungjoo Yoon. P-22, the beloved LA mountain lion, has reached the ripe old age of 12, whi...

Nearly 50 Starbucks shops nationwide have voted to unionize this year. Now LA County’s Starbucks baristas are brewing up change. The University of California is waiving tuition for Native American students, but only if they’re members of federally recognized tribes. At LACMA, Lee Alexander McQueen’s designs are paired with museum objects in a new show. And separately, Barbara Kruger plays with tex...

KCRW hears reactions from Angelenos on the leaked opinion draft that says Roe v. Wade will be overturned, leaving room for states to ban abortions. The president and CEO of Planned Parenthood LA explains how overturning Roe v. Wade could affect abortion providers and other family planning services in SoCal. A new short documentary called “Valerie” looks at the early career of actress Valerie Perri...

The nightlife is hopping at downtown LA gay bar Redline, but its owner is staring down almost half a million dollars in debt, and he’s not alone. Housing shortages left many UC Santa Barbara students struggling to secure roofs over their heads back in the fall. The school year is ending — where are they now? Maurice Harris says he and his brother and business partner have been able to save Bloom &...

This episode was supported in large part by FOUND/LA, supporting local entrepreneurs with funding, education, and community.  Greater LA’s new special series closely looks at changing neighborhoods across Southern California. “Born & Razed” kicks off today in Echo Park. The Mexican restaurant El Nayarit thrived for almost 50 years. “Waitstaff … had all been outsiders that became insiders, and...

“Peanut Man” (Robert Sanchez) has been selling concessions at Dodger Stadium for some 50 years. “You're gonna get hurt. You might slip on nacho cheese,” he says. Nashville-style hot chicken and dessert nachos are some of the new food options at Dodger Stadium. Eater LA’s Mona Holmes gives a taste of all the best stuff. A mask mandate still applies on public transit, but not in most other places in...

Ketamine clinics are popping up all over Los Angeles offering to treat depression, anxiety, and other ailments. But are their claims legitimate? Psilocybin or magic mushrooms could be offered as medical treatment in LA in the near future. How is the city preparing for the next psychedelic wave? Wednesday is Denim Day. Advocates are encouraging Angelenos to throw on a jean jacket and head down to C...

More than 15,000 Ukrainians have passed through Tijuana on their way into the U.S. Some struggle with nightmares and trauma as they wonder what comes next. When Daisy De La O was murdered in Compton, her friends thought they knew her killer, but police couldn’t find him. Using social media, they tracked him down. Brea and Cypress, in Orange County, say they will not switch from at-large to distric...

From private yards to public parks, gardeners and landscape designers are trying to “rewild” the land with native plants and creatures, and restore the web of life. More people started gardening and composting during the pandemic, and the state passed a new composting law , which drove up demand for worms. Now there’s a shortage of these invertebrates. More than 1,200 scientists in 26 countries pr...

Metrolink is now powering its trains with recycled natural oils from Singapore and Finland, which it says will cut carbon emissions by up to 80%. But that doesn’t make it sustainable. Assimilation is not the key to belonging — that’s what Julissa Arce argues in her new book, “ You Sound Like A White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation .”

Kick off election season in LA County with a roundtable discussion about the biggest races, what’s at stake, and what to watch in the June 7 primary. The old West LA Courthouse skate park is up for demolition and re-development. Skaters want a say in new plans for the space.

Photographer Emanuel Hahn’s new book, “ Koreatown Dreaming ,” includes interviews and images of 40 Koreatown business owners who’ve been trying to stay afloat amid COVID and gentrification. City officials in Malibu recently voted to explore setting up shelter beds for unhoused people outside city limits. Is that legal? And is it right? Anaheim officials say drug dealing, illegal gambling, and pros...

The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection is back in LA. “What we do is about illuminating a fuller scope of Blackness and humanity at large,” says the chief curator. LA artist Phung Huynh honors the kids of Cambodian American immigrants and refugees in her new exhibit, “Donut (W)hole.” High Desert Test Sites’ 2022 biennial is titled “The Searchers.” It features nine artists at vari...

Inglewood residents are upset about a plan to close a local elementary school. But with enrollment down statewide, communities will likely see more permanent campus shutdowns. Hawthorne-based SpaceX just sent another rocket to the International Space Station. But for the first time, most of the crew members were private citizens. Tatiana Brunetti, owner of Healthy Indulgence Bakery in downtown LA,...

Cameras, sensors, and palm-scanning technology — it’s not science fiction. It’s the new, cashierless Whole Foods in Sherman Oaks. The aggressive “ankle biter” Aedes aegypti mosquito is now in LA. They carry diseases, and can lay eggs in a space as small as a water-filled bottle cap. One company is preparing to release millions of genetically modified versions of the insect to try to get rid of the...

California’s legal cannabis industry once promised to be the world’s most successful weed market. Now many legal operators are about to go out of business. What happened? After Oil Can Harry’s closed during the pandemic, LA lost one of its oldest LGBTQ bars and nightclubs. But LA City Council may designate the site as a Historic-Cultural Monument. The LA Angels will begin their season tonight agai...

LA county’s public health director says while people like complaining about getting another booster, it’s quick and comes with zero to mild side effects. Mandates for masks and vax proof may return if COVID surges again in places like nursing homes and schools. Highlighting racial disparities reduces fear of the virus among white people, says a new study . As a result, empathy for the most vulnera...

Gas prices just reached a record high, so California will return a big chunk of its budget surplus to drivers. But for super commuters, a $400 rebate won’t last two weeks. Some LA transit officials are concerned that unhoused Angelenos aboard the county’s buses and trains are preventing ridership numbers from returning to pre-pandemic levels. Members of Crosswalk Collective LA have taken it upon t...

LA’s Olvera Street is a Mexican marketplace created according to the vision of a white outsider, though generations of Latino Angelenos have since claimed it as their own. A new LA County program aims to combat poverty by giving 1000 Angelenos $1,000 a month for three years. Applications are open now through April 13. A U.S. district judge recently found that former President Trump and former Chap...

At People’s Pottery Project in Glassell Park, formerly incarcerated women can learn how to work with ceramics, earn a living wage, and find social support. Some young people are making videos in their bedrooms that draw millions of views. Brat TV wants to help them break into Hollywood. Through her collage work and painting, artist Deborah Roberts explores how race shapes perceptions of beauty and...