LA Podcast

LA Podcast
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A news and politics podcast for people who live in Los Angeles.

  1. 1 day ago

    Don’t Spray It’s Over

    Alissa, Mike, and Marco say a requiem for the Graffiti Towers. Nithya Raman receives endorsements from some big players, including Kenneth Mejia’s corgis. In the wake of the Lineage environmental disaster, which still reeks, LA’s City Council votes for more environmental disasters. And who will be LA County’s first elected CEO? The Graffiti Towers have been sold and cleaning efforts have begun Aren’t the Graffiti Towers the Watts Towers of their generation? (Both are being refurbished for the 2028 Olympics) Keep Honking! I’m admiring the Oceanwide Plaza Graffiti Towers! See them up close with Alissa and the Rent Brigade on a tour next week Nearby, a new park under the Sixth Street Bridge, also resplendent with graffiti, continues gentrification conversations LA Material’s Degen Pener reports on families of coyotes living in residential towers in West Hollywood The Western States Carpenters union endorsed Nithya Raman, reversing their 2022 support for Bass Raman was also recently endorsed by Kenneth Mejia, who is encouraging the public to add a Nithya sticker to their yard signs City Council will vote on splitting Housing and Homelessness and Health into two separate committees this week The Lineage fire still smells and it’s still bad news so Karen Bass wrote an open letter to the Lineage shareholders and supports an order of abatement from AQMD Councilmember Ysabel Jurado introduced a seven-motion package for Boyle Heights fire recovery. Hilda Solis is in charge of small business recovery The EPA has asked Lineage for documents to assess Clean Air Act compliance: aka, was there an ammonia leak? Lineage warehouses have had 63 fires over the last ten years, by the way Hungry for more environmental disasters, Council approved a retrofitting of the Scattergood gas plant Eric Garcetti has a new job and it is (or isn’t) what you’d expect Garcetti recently declined Julia Wick’s request for comment as she explored who might throw their hat in the ring for the powerful LA County CEO election in 2028 for LA Material. Mike profiled Long Beach mayor Rex Richardson, another rumored candidate, on What’s Next, LA?, look for it in the upcoming weeks Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges Thanks to our digital producer Bianca Cockrell The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward. Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky. Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky Marco Santana brings over a decade of leadership to the LA homelessness services sector and is a former candidate and active leader within local Democratic party politics. He’s at @Marco4LA on Instagram

  2. 3 Aug

    Another One Rides the Bus

    Scott, Mike, and Olga convene a transportation sickos roundtable to discuss Metro’s State of the Agency, how the system fared during the World Cup, and big changes to the board’s structure. Will the LAX people mover ever open — and will anyone actually call it SkyLink? Then: Karen Bass’s sudden pivot on the Lineage disaster in a mayorship that has been defined by disasters. Watch Metro’s State of the Agency featuring Metro’s magnetic CEO Stephanie Wiggins Metro ridership numbers in June increased by over two million year over year during the World Cup Alissa was on Spectrum talking about how well it all went and wrote more about the lessons learned on Torched More than 560,000 fans attended the eight matches altogether, according to the Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee. There were approximately 212,000 boardings to and from SoFi. This means about 1 in 5 fans going to the matches took Metro’s shuttle service Los Angeles Times: “The World Cup was an L.A. public transit success. The Olympics will be a much bigger test” Bass, now in her second go as Metro board chair, suddenly started caring about transit, and is promising fare-free transit that advocates have been demanding for years As advocates — including a direct plea from CicLAvia — begged Metro to find $1 million for open streets events while pouring over $100 million into freeway expansions Metro’s board is changing — and is about to undergo more significant changes. Two small city reps are no longer elected councilmembers, so they’re out: Whittier’s Fernando Dutra who lost his council race and Glendale’s Ara Najarian who didn’t run again. Long Beach mayor Rex Richardson is replacing Dutra, but the obscure L.A. County City Selection Committee rejected Santa Clarita councilmember Jason Gibbs Due to Measure G, which expands the LA County Board of Supervisors to nine members, Metro’s board composition has to change. The board approved a motion — a combination of a staff recommendation, and motions from Bass, Janice Hahn, and Lindsey Horvath — that will recommend including two rider representatives. There are still a few final wrinkles to iron out, but soon these proposals will proceed as Metro’s recommendations to the state legislature, which may have its own ideas about changes to Metro governance The LAX people mover contractor has now sued the city, raising even more concern over when/if the three-years-late, $1 billion over budget, 2.25-mile connection from the airport to the LAX Metro station will actually open Nick Andert has the only video about the people mover you need After L.A. Material’s Julia Wick broke the news that Lineage Logistics had filed for permits to rebuild their burned and putrid cold storage warehouse, Bass quickly announced that she would stop Lineage from rebuilding, issuing an emergency executive order to deny the permits, weeks after saying that she didn’t know if she could do that LAist has a great explainer on what Bass and the city could actually do Meanwhile Lineage is getting hit by fines from both AQMD and the LA County Public Health Department for odors, vermin, flies, and more “Bass’ summer has been beset by a string of negative news. Staff members on both her campaign and administration teams have left. She was away from the city — just as she was at the start of the devastating 2025 firestorms — when a blaze ignited at the Lineage cold-storage food warehouse in Boyle Heights, inundating the heavily Latino surrounding neighborhoods with noxious fumes,” writes Noah Goldberg at the LA Times Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la This week’s episode was produced by Kristen Torres The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Scott Frazier is an original co-host of LA Podcast Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at Substack, or @mikebonin on IG, and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky Olga Lexell is a TV writer and local political organizer

  3. 27 Jul

    Wet Hot LA Summer

    Mike, Godfrey, and guest co-host Carla Hall discuss the Sunset Boulevard sinkhole in West Hollywood. Then, the results of the 2026 homeless count are in. And Mayor Karen Bass’s informal advisor steps back. On July 16th, an LADWP pipe burst on the corner of Sunset and Holloway in West Hollywood. It was about 110 years old, and created a giant sinkhole in the middle of the night  This pipe was on track to be refurbished in 2031- about 30%,of the city's pipes are over 80 years old LADWP experiences a leak rate that is 36% below the national average More small leaks on Sunset For the LA Times, Hannah Fry reports that “there are about 547 miles of trunk line underground across the city. In 2019, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said roughly 29% of the city’s pipes were over 80 years old, approaching their typical lifespan of 100 years.” The LA Times has a map of locations where water main leaks have happened since 2010 West Hollywood mayor John Heilman was there, and so was Mayor Karen Bass Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman was on the scene with Councilmember Chelsea Byers Officials said anyone with property or vehicle damage can file a claim through LADWP at ladwp.com/claims After two years of modest but promising decreases in homelessness, numbers are up in both the city of LA and the larger overall county of LA, LAHSA officially announces The overall homeless population in the city is up 3.5%, and the unsheltered population, which Mayor Bass focuses on through Inside Safe, is up 7.9%  State funding for homelessness, which had been very healthy and robust, got cut in 2025 - a lot of that money was going to limited rental subsidies, which were hugely successful. This past year, there were 5,000 fewer people that the county was not able to put into housing because they didn't have enough subsidies The Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, shorthanded as LACAHSA, is investing over $228 million this fiscal year to help communities build and preserve affordable homes and to help prevent homelessness Funding for support services and homelessness prevention is currently funded by Measure A dollars, and for LA city specific residents, some of this funding comes from Measure ULA Mayor Bass is running for reelection against Council Member Raman - the numbers in Council District 4 are very different from the citywide numbers. The unsheltered population citywide was up 7.8%, and in Council District 4 it's down 49% Yusef Robb, a close but informal advisor to the mayor, took on crisis comms work for Lineage after the warehouse fire in Boyle Heights through a group called M Strategic Communications - whose clients also include both Airbnb and the California Community Foundation  Mayor Bass publicly promoted Airbnb's housing assistance after the fire, and asked Lineage to contribute a significant amount of money to the California Community Foundation. Robb’s work for Mayor Bass was unpaid For L.A. Material, Julia Wick reports that Robb stepped back from working with the mayor, saying “I'm not going to let unnecessary distractions get in the way of the important things that need to be done, so I'm not extending my volunteer advisory work for the Mayor,” via text message Robb remained in three WhatsApp groups used by the mayor’s comms team for at least a week after stepping back Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la This week’s episode was produced by Charlotte Landes Our digital producer is Victoria Alejandro The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at Substack, or @mikebonin on IG, and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram Carla Hall is a former editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times, where she covered and wrote extensively about homelessness

  4. 20 Jul

    All's Smell That Ends Smell

    Alissa, Oscar, and guest co-host Rudy Espinoza discuss accelerating immigration enforcement activity in LA as ICE murders three people in one week nationwide. Then, how an unbearable stench, rats, flies, and extreme heat are impacting the Lineage fire aftermath. And as the 39-day tournament ends, reflections on what LA got wrong and right with the World Cup. Three ICE murders in one week across the country: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine, and an unidentified man in Miami. The Maine murder, where a man ran into traffic to escape ICE, is similar to the killing of Roberto Carlos Montoya in Monrovia last year 14 ICE detainees have died so far in 2026. In 2025, ICE reported that 33 detainees died LA Taco reports that the San Fernando Valley has become a hotbed of ICE activity, with raids escalating. The DTLA ICE detainment facility is now being moved to Santa Ana, although perhaps temporarily As reported by LAist’s Libby Rainey, advocates are receiving upticks in calls for help with ICE raids. Attorney Sarah Houston, who oversees calls, says: "I'm so happy that ICE hasn't ruined the World Cup by doing these mass raids, but they are still doing them piecemeal and one by one...In the background, the administration is still there, and these things are still happening. They're just not happening at SoFi Stadium." ICE patrols shifted to fan zones and the areas surrounding SoFi Stadium Jets used to deport ICE detainees were also used to transport World Cup teams Sweeping changes are coming to the ICE detention center in Adelanto due to a federal ruling demanding the humane treatment of prisoners ICE promised to halt vehicle stops and increase the use of body cameras. Hmmm, where have we heard that before? CHIRLA, pro-immigrant leaders, and clergy members held a press conference to honor the people killed by ICE, and organize a day of action on July 25 85 million pounds of rotting food from the Lineage fire is now causing an overpowering smell that’s traveling far outside the neighborhood, contains odor-related toxins, and is creating a fly infestation. Extreme heat is also becoming an issue. AQMD has issued an odor violation for the smell from the Lineage fire, but residents continue to demand that the warehouse is shut down Businesses in the area are empty and some haven’t gotten air purifiers  Ruben Vives reports for the LA Times that Manuel Orozco, owner of Jim’s Burgers, and his workers wore face masks inside the mostly empty diner. Not far from the Lineage warehouse, Orozco said “No one is coming and it’s because of the smoke…It’s been a difficult time.” For L.A. Material, Julia Wick tried to find out where the waste is going LA Mayor Karen Bass had a quick response to the sinkhole and water main break in WeHo Alissa wrote about how FIFA fan zones are privatizing public spaces. In Venice, the fan zone didn’t include a promised free component. Vendors were also kicked off the Venice boardwalk Metro ridership numbers in June increased by two million year over year during the World Cup Alissa will be speaking about what LA has learned from the World Cup at LA Forward's next meeting on July 21 from 7 to 8 p.m. RSVP for the Zoom Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges Our digital producer is Victoria Alejandro The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky Oscar Zarate is director of external affairs at Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). He is @straight_outta_papeles on Instagram Rudy Espinosa is executive director of Inclusive Action for the City, a nonprofit, Community Development Financial Institution based in Los Angeles. Follow him at @rudyespi

  5. 13 Jul

    Town Hall Your Fault

    Alissa, Mike, and guest co-host Adam Conover take a look at the ongoing repercussions from the Lineage Logistics fire, an explosive town hall in Boyle Heights, and how the thawing cold storage warehouse has snowballed into a political nightmare. Then, what’s changed in Karen Bass’s mayoral campaign. And some bad (and also some good?) LAPD updates.    At a town hall in Boyle Heights for the community impacted by the Lineage fire, Mayor Karen Bass and other officials were booed by the crowd. Watch the entire thing here Both Bass and Lineage official Jeff Rivera issued multiple apologies, including admitting major communication issues around air quality Meanwhile, ER visits spiked during the fire, and Boyle Heights residents were exposed to air pollution that was worse than the Eaton Fire The Boyle Heights disaster once again raises jurisdictional issues about how residents of the adjacent unincorporated areas of LA County access services Bass recommended Airbnb to displaced residents looking for temporary housing, despite the ongoing lawsuits against Airbnb from the city of LA for price gouging after the 2025 fires. Plus Airbnb is heavily funding her campaign As reported by Julia Wick at L.A. Material Bass’ unpaid advisor Yusef Robb is also helping with crisis communications for Lineage, although he later said he would no longer advise Bass Boyle Heights residents staged a protest along with LAUSD board member Rocio Rivas to demand the removal of Lineage from the neighborhood Bass’ campaign is shifting leadership: Doug Herman is out and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who worked on both Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaigns, is in  The LAPD officer who shot and killed a dog named Jameson during the Knicks victory last month will not be publicly named despite the fact that body cam footage and transcripts have been released, and the dog’s owner Marie Marseille has filed a lawsuit against the city LAPD has agreed to end their deal with Flock surveillance cameras Journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel has the LAPD-Flock MOU Become a paid subscriber to thinkforward.la This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges Our digital producer is Victoria Alejandro The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at Substack, or @mikebonin on IG, and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky Adam Conover is a comedian, writer, and podcaster who hosts the weekly series Factually and created the television programs Adam Ruins Everything and The G Word with Adam Conover

  6. 6 Jul

    Mistrial By Fire

    Alissa, Godfrey, and Kate examine why the Palisades arson case ended in a mistrial, and how the feds biffed the prosecution. What you won’t see on the November ballot after LA City Council charter reforms go down in flames. Then, LA finally has a city service agreement with LA28, but human rights advocates are sounding alarms.  A mistrial has been declared against Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of arson in the 2025 Palisades Fire after a deadlocked jury  Juror #4 on the case spoke publicly about deliberations, and the potential confusion surrounding convictions for a holdover fire  The jury voted 10-2 in favor of acquitting Rinderknecht, and some Palisades residents would rather the effort of a retrial go into the effort of rebuilding. Longtime resident and journalist Lisa Sweetingham says, “They really don’t have the evidence to bring it home”  Unlike the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire in Altadena has confirmed evidence that a century-old idle transmission line that Southern California Edison failed to remove was the cause of the blaze. Affected residents have to do the calculus between a compensation fund and a lawsuit, though rebuilds from both fires have a long journey ahead  Fireworks are still banned in the city of Los Angeles South LA families remain displaced by the LAPD’s 2021 botched fireworks detonation  Seven workers were killed in  Northern California last year due to an explosion at a ranch storing huge amounts of fireworks owned by the aptly named company Devastating Pyrotechnics LA Material’s Jessica Garrison reports on the massive black-market fireworks operation in Los Angeles, and how the illegal explosives are entering the city We talked about charter reform a few weeks ago, but there’s an update: the ballot proposals for noncitizen voting and LAPD measures have been pulled   Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez suggests in a comment that punting the LAPD measure may have been intended to support Mayor Bass’ reelection. And Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez says that protecting the status quo means the “city will remain broken   A charter allocation for parks did make it through and will be on the ballot in November: Listen to Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Monica Rodriguez discuss the allocation here Is LA’s mayor actually weak? Kate thinks the charter amendment process shows that might not be true! Read Robert Greene’s piece on power in LA for LA Reported LA28 presented its human rights plan and answered questions about a city service agreement at the city’s  ad hoc Olympic and Paralympic committee meeting this week Libby Rainey’s reporting for LAist notes how this city service agreement is nine months overdue and it has not yet been determined where the federal funds will go (or if LA will even get them)  Read Alissa’s thread on Bluesky from the meeting Councilmember Soto-Martinez grilled LA28 CEO Raymond Hoover over ICE enforcement; listen here And what do security perimeters mean for densely populated  areas and recently added venues like Griffith Park? Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la Thanks to Sophie Bridges for producing The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram Kate Cagle is an anchor at Spectrum News and the host of the LA Times Studios podcast “Rebuilding Los Angeles.” Find her at @katecagle at Instagram

  7. 29 Jun

    On Top of Cold Smoky

    Alissa, Godfrey, and Loraine examine the public health impacts of the Lineage warehouse fire that burned in Boyle Heights for a week. LA’s council votes to end oil extraction (for the second time). LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigns amid a federal investigation into an AI chatbot deal as the board dramatically reduces screen time for students. And yet another ULA backroom deal turns into a win for Howard Jarvis. After one week of burning in Boyle Heights and decimating air quality throughout the region, the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire was finally out But the impact to the neighborhood won’t be known for some time, reports Capital and Main: “Short-term consequences for those nearest to the warehouse could be asthma and even heart attacks, but other effects will take time to surface. Much of it has to do with what’s in the smoke, which is hard to trace retroactively.” The smoke has dissipated but the neighborhood faces new challenges: “‘Like a dead body’: after warehouse fire, LA residents say air thick with smell of rotting food” LA Podcast founder Hayes Davenport reports for L.A. Material on a similar fire from the same company that burned for 63 days in Washington Karen Bass’s response has been heavily criticized. She was out of town (again), didn’t hold a press conference until Friday, and didn’t declare an emergency response until Saturday. Then she said the air was “not dangerous” and “There is not anything you need to do to protect yourself. You do not even need to wear a mask” but later walked back those comments Boyle Heights residents are reporting dizziness, eye irritation, headaches, nausea, and chest pain, the Boyle Heights Beat reports. “Smoke has seeped into their homes. It’s all over their clothes and couches. Air purifiers are in high demand. Meanwhile, a particle pollution advisory continues to be extended day after day.” Watch the AQI change throughout the region as winds shift  Calls for accountability came from City Controller Kenneth Mejia and candidate for city attorney Marissa Roy Meanwhile the East LA oil spill last month a few miles away was actually 25,000 not 2,400 gallons? What?!? What better time to end oil extraction in LA City? The Stand LA coalition celebrates the first step towards victory after a similar 2022 ordinance was challenged by oil companies.  Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky made a great video showing how pervasive oil drilling still is in LA LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigned after being put on paid leave during a federal investigation related to the company AllHere, which made an AI chatbot product LAUSD used. Further reporting by the LA Times revealed potential ethics violations related to gifts and trips paid for by AllHere that Carvalho failed to disclose on his Form 700  LA Podcast listeners remember a previous Form 700 discussion due to a Vegas trip attended by Councilmember John “City Staffer B” Lee who failed to disclose gifts and was fined by the ethics commission — and is now suing the city and taxpayers are paying for it! Meanwhile sweeping screen time reforms are passed by the LAUSD board which would dramatically limit how much younger students in particular spend on computers, prioritizing teacher-led instruction, and blocking some platforms like YouTube This is a huge victory for the Schools Beyond Screens advocates, who also advocated for the dismissal of Carvalho Longtime administrator Andres Chait is now LAUSD superintendent and promises to bring stability to the district Bass commented to Conan Nolan that a deal was being made in Sacramento that would stop a threatened attack on all transfer taxes if legislative reforms were made to cap them. As it turns, the anti-transfer tax measure coalition collapsed due to the intransigence of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association The final deal made by the legislature removes the anti-transfer tax measure from the ballot, so ULA won’t be affected. The entire process ended up reaffirming Prop 13 and became a huge win for Jarvis There are going to be so many state ballot measures and the ULA measure on the city ballot is still to come And due to Prop 218, also passed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, LA property owners need to vote to raise their streetlight assessments that hadn’t been raised since 1996 — and 80% of the weighted vote said no way, creating yet another huge infrastructural crisis for the city Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram Loraine Lundquist is chair of LA Forward’s board, an astrophysicist, and a sustainability policy expert who earned 49.4% of the vote as a candidate for LA City Council

  8. 22 Jun

    What's Cup With You?

    Scott, Alissa, and Mike look back at the first week of the World Cup as LA hosts its first of many major events. SoFi’s stadium workers won an unprecedented labor contract and a huge fire in Boyle Heights continues to burn. Then: what charter reforms are going to the ballot, and what decisions — like council expansion — are being punted back for more “study.” Alissa wrote about the opening weekend of the World Cup and how the city is doing one week later. She also has a daily guide to activities happening around LA So far the World Cup seems to be going pretty well in LA One watch party at Seoul International Park in Koreatown with a huge turnout became very overcrowded and families had to leave because it felt unsafe Metro shuttles to the games — only $1.75! — are seeing surging ridership, with CEO Stephanie Wiggins writing regular updates Unite Here’s SoFi workers voted to authorize a strike a week before the first game, then negotiated for an unprecedented contract — allowing them to strike whenever they feel they are threatened by ICE. As Mike notes, this strategy of using deadline leverage instead of normal bargaining paid off and this now becomes the template for negotiating with LA28 By the way, many local labor contracts are set to expire May 1, 2028 There hasn’t been any ICE spotted around the stadium but ICE raids regionally have not stopped We also don’t know how much this is costing us. The deal LA made with FIFA has not been made public — here’s an explanation for why — but other host city contracts don’t look great Meanwhile DEA agents are conducting sweeps in MacArthur Park, which is also hosting watch parties, and Karen Bass says she’s directing LAPD to support them LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman made a video saying MacArthur Park would be ready for picnics by Labor Day while Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez made her own video saying don’t wait until Labor Day A huge Boyle Heights cold storage warehouse fire forced local residents to shelter in place and is making air quality terrible as it continues to flare up. Since we recorded, Bass finally held a press conference and declared an emergency. Boyle Heights Beat has the best updates Listen to Mike summarize the conclusion of the charter reform process on KCRW’s Press Play LAist’s Frank Stolze explains what’s going to the ballot in November, including noncitizen voting and police reform Big changes to the way LA builds things are coming with a Capital Infrastructure Program and ability to budget 5 years in advance, which would prevent us from having to give back money to Caltrans because we can’t build bike lanes A huge win for parks, which will double their charter allocation to 0.06%. Alissa wrote about why that’s good but still nearly not enough money for what our parks actually need And altering a tiny clause, 104(g), would change how LA does public-private partnerships, which could help save LA’s beleaguered zoo Council has instructed the City Attorney to draft a ballot measure to amend ULA, most notably an exemption from the transfer tax for multifamily buildings sold within 10 years of construction. The Yaroslavsky/McOsker proposal is more narrowly tailored than what CM Raman pitched in January but broader than the legislative tweaks pushed by CM Jurado’s ad hoc committee. Council will make a final decision on whether to put it on the ballot in the coming weeks. Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman says we’re not getting more reform because Bass slow-walked the process — and she’s not wrong!   Veteran journalist Robert Greene offers an incredibly thoughtful explanation of why LA doesn’t have a weak mayor system but doesn’t really have a strong mayor system either   Support LA Podcast by becoming a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward Scott Frazier is an original co-host of LA Podcast Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky

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A news and politics podcast for people who live in Los Angeles.

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  • Creator
    LA Podcast
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    330
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © LA Podcast LLC
  • Show Website
    LA Podcast

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