Greater LA

Crowns & Hops , based in Inglewood, will be LA’s first Black-owned brewery. Co-owners Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter are on a mission to protect Inglewood’s culture in the midst of a development boom while diversifying the craft beer industry.

Businesses on the road to reopening are traversing a complex path with rules about distancing, capacity limits, and masks. Now imagine having to deal with two separate rulebooks — one for restaurants and another for performance spaces. That’s what the Candlelight Pavilion dinner theater in Claremont is navigating. Over the nearly 15 months it was closed, the family that runs the Candlelight wonder...

High school seniors say their in-person graduation ceremonies this year are surreal and sentimental. Some graduates of 2020 waited a year so they could turn their tassels in-person with classmates.

The disappearance of Kristin Smart in San Luis Obispo has gone unsolved for 25 years, and among those demanding justice are local women who grew up following her case. As the prime suspect, Paul Flores, awaits trial, many women continue to unpack the ways her disappearance impacted their childhoods and personal experiences with sexual violence.

Some of the world’s largest corporations like Amazon, Walmart, Google, and UPS are all looking into using drones to deliver small packages. The Federal Aviation Administration is granting approvals right and left for growing these types of operations. However, there are questions of privacy and surveillance if thousands of drones are allowed to take up LA’s skies to take pictures and gather data....

Locals identify Crenshaw Boulevard as the main artery of Black culture in Los Angeles, while the man it’s named for was white. But past efforts to rename the street after a Black hero have foundered on difficult questions. Who is a hero? And who decides?

Today’s entire show looks deeply at the Boyle Heights neighborhood of LA. It’s predominantly Latino these days, but through the years, it’s been home to Black Americans, Jewish Americans, and Japanese Americans. 

Southern California has some of the worst road conditions in the country. That’s just one of the many reasons why community activists, entrepreneurs, and local politicians are keeping tabs on President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan that’s currently being debated on Capitol Hill. Regardless of the final dollar amount, Southern California could experience a flood of investment...

On this holiday, Greater LA replays two episodes of our “What’s In a Street Name?” series. Gaylord Wilshire — a land speculator, billboard tycoon, failed politician and inventor — built Wilshire Boulevard, which became LA’s primary escape route from the horse-drawn era. But as the city got bigger, Gaylord Wilshire got smaller. A stroll through Hollywood history reveals over 100 years of boulevard...

A statewide program called Project Homekey converts motels, hotels, or vacant apartment buildings into long-term supportive housing for people living on the streets. The project is set to benefit thousands of homeless Angelenos and is much cheaper than building new affordable housing. But is it an effective permanent solution?

WE RISE is an initiative from the LA County Department of Mental Health that features 21 art experiences focusing on connection. It tries to raise awareness about what harms communities, and reduce mental health stigmas. 

One year after the murder of George Floyd, an event that catalyzed racial justice movements across the country, organizers in LA gathered at City Hall to encourage activists to continue putting pressure on local officials.

One year ago this week, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis at the hands of former police officer Derek Chauvin. The killing set off the largest civil rights movement the U.S. has seen since the 1960s. For months, millions of Americans took to the streets to protest police brutality and demanded justice for Floyd and others who were killed by police. KCRW talks with Black Southern Californian...

LA Councilman Mike Bonin, representing the Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, and Venice, is proposing that parts of some city-owned land, including parks and beach parking lots, be turned into sanctioned campground sites for unhoused Angelenos. But the idea is gaining criticism from some residents who want to keep the area free from encampments. KCRW speaks with Bonin about his proposal and the public...

The number of businesses in the U.S. that no longer accept cash has doubled since the pandemic began, according to a recent survey by Square. Many made the switch based on guidelines from the CDC. Staff like it too, and most customers don’t mind. However, some cities have passed laws preventing businesses from banning cash, saying such rules are discriminatory. LA is buying into a cashless future...

Pico Boulevard may be the hardest working street in Los Angeles. Jonathan Gold called it “one of the most vital food streets in the world.” Today KCRW visits some of Gold’s favorite Boulevard eateries and finds the spirit of Pio Pico, the boulevard’s namesake, flourishing.  

California officials say they'll adopt the CDC’s relaxed mask guidelines on June 15, giving the state a month to boost vaccination rates. But several major retail and grocery chains like Trader Joe’s and Walmart already no longer require masks for vaccinated customers. Public health experts are divided on the issue, and grocery store workers are worried unvaccinated people will lie about their sta...

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 A...

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 $12...

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...

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 agend...

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 h...

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.