Greater LA

Wildfires are often sparked by residents struggling with homelessness. LA County recently banned encampments in some of the highest fire risk areas. Homeowners in Topanga Canyon are glad, but some of their unhoused neighbors don’t want to leave. Also, LAUSD announced today that all students ages 12 and up must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 10, 2022 — unless they have a medical or...

UCSB classes are just two weeks away , and students are using words like “desperate” and “abandoned” to describe their search for housing. Some hope the school can provide motel rooms, while others are planning to live in their cars or quit school altogether. More than two dozen street medicine programs in California hope a new state bill will allow them to be reimbursed by Medi-Cal. One LA-based...

A multi-million dollar grant will expand Judy Baca’s iconic mural called “The Great Wall of Los Angeles” and invest in the area surrounding it. A nonprofit in Pasadena is helping formerly incarcerated firefighters find jobs after getting released. And some Orange County supervisors are making it tough for public health officials to answer questions and update residents on COVID-19.

On this holiday rebroadcast, Greater LA looks at the history of Roslyndale Avenue, a tiny working-class street in the San Fernando Valley that became famous thanks to the film “Back to the Future.” Also, Pico Boulevard is named after Don Pio de Jesus Pico — a real estate baron who became a penniless gambler.

Hawaii is experiencing its highest number of COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths since the pandemic began. Despite the governor’s plea to avoid traveling to the islands, visitors continue to flock there, especially those from Southern California. Plus, a new book reveals how popular fast food chains and restaurants started in Southern California. And we offer a guide to the traditional foods...

Federal unemployment benefits and supplements are ending on September 4. Where does this leave folks who can’t find a job or are reluctant to return to public-facing positions such as restaurant servers? Also, vaccine mandates are popping up at companies, universities, and government offices across California. Employees can opt out for medical reasons or “sincerely held religious beliefs." And at...

With California’s housing shortage, some politicians want to tinker with zoning laws to build denser, multi-family housing in more areas. Two bills passed in the state legislature last week would do that, and they’re sparking a heated debate. Also, the Whale Safe program from UC Santa Barbara's Benioff Ocean Initiative aims to cut down on ship-whale strikes.

During the first week of LAUSD’s new semester, about 6500 students were sent home because they tested positive for COVID-19 or were around someone who tested positive. That’s roughly one in every 70 students. Some parents are applauding the rigorous testing and contact tracing, but others call it overboard and disruptive to education.

The City of LA is forming a new partnership with the state of California to eliminate all rental debt for low-income households financially impacted by the pandemic. The application period opens September 1.

The fate of LA’s street markets often rests in the hands of a few elected officials who, with a phone call or stroke of a pen, can decide whether or not they stay open.  Popping up here and there makes it tough to build a business and to establish a cultural space in neighborhoods. But moving indoors can be expensive for mom-and-pop operations, which are often run by immigrants unprepared to deal...

California has recall fever. More than 70 elected officials across the state have faced recall efforts since the beginning of this year, most notably Governor Gavin Newsom. Petitions are circulating right now to oust three members of the LA City Council: Mike Bonin, Nithya Raman and Kevin de León. And some Californians have been pushing to remove George Gascon as LA County’s district attorney sinc...

Biddy Mason was born enslaved in the southern U.S., then got moved to California by a plantation owner. She later sued for her freedom and won. In LA, she became a medical practitioner who served both Black and white local communities. For 10 years, Mason saved her money until she was finally able to purchase a piece of land on Spring Street in downtown LA and establish a family homestead. 

With back-to-school season here, questions about vaccine policies aren’t just being raised at the K-12 level. UC schools and Cal State campuses have established firm rules regarding vaccines. Students and faculty must submit proof of vaccination to have access to any and all on-campus facilities. But some individual community college districts aren’t enforcing a vaccine mandate. It’s a tale of two...

Last year took a heavy toll on educators who had to pivot to teaching via video, sometimes with their own kids at home. Many of them watched hard-won education gains disappear into black boxes on Zoom. Those experiences led many of them to quit the profession. 

If you live in California, chances are your food scraps are still getting buried in landfills and contributing to a warmer planet. And so, California became the first U.S. state to require local jurisdictions to compost their organic waste. SB 1383 was signed into law in 2016, and it aims to reduce organic waste disposal 75% by 2025. It also requires that by January 2022, all cities and counties i...

LAUSD’s 2021-2022 school year kicked off today. Some parents, students, and teachers experienced long wait times entering campuses due to the district’s new Daily Pass program, but are confident the kinks will get worked out. Faculty and staff must be fully vaccinated by October 15, and some middle and high school teachers are encouraging their students to get the shots. Routine testing sites are...

The 2021 wildfire season is here and on track to be the most devastating one in state history. Dozens of KCRW listeners have submitted questions about home insurance, fire prevention, and surviving the smoke. We dug up answers.

The City of LA estimates that 3-4% of street vendors have the proper documentation to operate legally, and advocates for street vending say it’s around 1%. City and county officials say the pandemic has severely impacted their ability to do outreach and help vendors get their permits. But activists and vendors alike say the city and county permitting processes are too costly, difficult to navigate...

The LA Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) is opening a permanent space for classes in September. Famed architect Frank Gehry remodeled an old bank building in Inglewood to be the program’s center. Mayor James T. Butts hopes the program and building will be an anchor for the community, offering intensive after-school music training to high schoolers.

LA will host the Summer Olympics for the third time in 2028. It has the infrastructure to do it, but an increasing number of people say the process is undemocratic and can come with unexpected financial and health consequences. A day after the closing ceremonies in Tokyo, KCRW hosts a panel discussion about what lessons LA should learn.

As Southern California enters the tensest months of fire season, a looming issue could keep critical air assets used to battle the big blazes stuck on the ground, or force them to go long distances between drops. A lack of truck drivers is making it hard to move jet fuel around all of the West. Rural airports that double as air tanker bases in Montana and Idaho have already seen their fuel tanks r...

LA Metro ridership numbers have plummeted since the pandemic began. The transit agency reports that in 2020, just 213 million people used its trains or buses, as opposed to 370 million the year before. This year, Metro’s buses and stations are slow to fill up again, as more people turned to private cars for safety reasons amid the pandemic. To get riders back, Metro is expanding bus services and b...

COVID cases have jumped in recent weeks, and if California were still using a tier-based system for lifting restrictions, the county would currently be in the most restrictive, purple one. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Unified School District is still planning to restart in-person instruction in less than two weeks. Aviva Alvarez-Zakson teaches world history and ethnic studies at LAUSD’s Hamilton Hig...

Fire agencies, politicians, and tribal governments tout prescribed burns as an effective fire mitigation strategy. California needs to use every tool it has amid what’s shaping up to be the largest fire season in state history. But it’s different in Southern California’s chaparral and grasslands than in northern forests. Some residents and fire ecologists say prescribed burns here will do more har...

High school senior Kelly Danielpour founded VaxTeen to give her peers reliable and easy-to-understand information about COVID. She had learned about a growing trend of teenagers turning to Reddit to figure out if they could get vaccinated in their state without their parents’ consent. Now Danielpour wants to use her website to advocate for straightforward legislation that allows teenagers to conse...