Ventura’s famous pier reopened Saturday after massive waves damaged the landmark last year.
Social media posts and news video footage showed people striding onto the pier early Saturday, carrying fishing poles, coolers and folding chairs. The pier — the oldest in California — is a popular fishing and sight-seeing spot and draws tourists, families and lovebirds.
“The Ventura Pier is open!” the city of Ventura announced on its X feed.
High surf from a winter storm pummeled the boardwalk in January 2023. In December, another storm swept through, causing more damage to the pier’s piles and braces.
Mary Joyce Ivers, deputy public works director in Ventura, told KTLA that the city had to replace 37 timber piles, which hold up the deck of the pier, as well as 100 pieces of hardware and cross-bracing and 3,000 square feet of deck board.
“It’s such an important piece of our city,” Ivers told KTLA. “It’s such a great landmark and so many great things happen on this pier for families and our community.”
The repairs cost at least $3.3 million, with the federal government and the state expected to pick up the tab, according to a city news release.
The pier, first built in 1872 as a private commercial wharf, has been repaired or rebuilt countless times throughout its history. It closed in 1992 for 13 months after it was clobbered by waves and reopened after a $3.5-million restoration.
More recently, it closed in 2015 for several months for repairs after another storm.
Ventura purchased the pier for $7,000 in 1940 but gave it to the state in 1949.
In 1990, the city moved to take it back after state officials said they were considering demolishing the structure because of the high maintenance costs.
Those 3, 5 and 20% fees at the bottom of your menu could be here to stay. With little time to spare, a new law will allow restaurants and bars to continue charging service fees, healthcare costs and other surcharges when listed clearly for diners to see. The practice was set to be outlawed beginning Monday.
On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1524, an emergency measure to exempt California food and beverage vendors from Senate Bill 478 — a law that goes into effect in July and targets ticket sellers, hotel and travel websites and other businesses that charge “hidden” or “junk” fees.
Before Newsom signed SB 1524, which was introduced in early June, restaurants and bars were included in the affected businesses, and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta had advised that the food and beverage vendors roll such fees into listed menu prices to avoid the possibility of legal action.
“These deceptive fees prevent us from knowing how much we will be charged at the outset,” the attorney general, who co-sponsored SB 478, said in a statement the day it was signed. Bonta could not be reached for comment regarding the exemptions allowed by SB 1524.
Numerous business operators in the service industry have been vocal against SB 478, which passed in October. They said they feared that raising list prices during a tumultuous year marked by closures and inflation would cost them more customers and support. Multiple restaurateurs told the Los Angeles Times that the process of revising or entirely overhauling their tipping and surcharge system could result in the loss of staff benefits or all-out closures. SB 1524’s rules allowing such surcharges could affect tens of thousands of restaurants throughout the state.
“We’re the most regulated of any business out there, and we are struggling to survive in the broken system that has been handed to us throughout many, many decades,” said Eddie Navarrette, a co-founder of the Independent Hospitality Coalition, a restaurant advocacy group. “When you add more regulations, whatever it may be, it makes things more difficult. Things are already difficult … there is a mass exodus of our small-restaurant community. I think it’s a huge relief, just to have one less thing being thrown at them right now.”
Navarrette spent weeks campaigning for SB 1524’s passage, writing letters, meeting with upwards of 35 policy advisors, legislators or their representatives, knocking on doors at the state Capitol, and explaining the usage of service fees within the restaurant industry, whose tip-based employee earnings make it different from most fields that will be affected by SB 478.
Surcharges, health fees and service charges are regularly used within the industry to stabilize wages across dining rooms and kitchens — where servers often receive tips but cooks and dishwashers do not — and to help offset the cost of benefits such as healthcare. Businesses with larger service fees, such as 18% or 20%, often note that tips are not expected.
“It’s confusing why the restaurants are claiming that they need to do things differently, because it just feels like they’re saying that they need to hide the cost of their food for us, and that doesn’t feel right,” said Jenn Engstrom, state director of the California affiliate of the Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) a nonprofit organization that advocates for consumer interests and protections.
“It feels like you’re being duped,” she said. “That’s what it feels like: that they’re trying to trick you.”
Some local restaurants have come under fire on accusations of misusing service fees or other surcharges, though multiple chefs and restaurateurs told The Times that these “bad actors” are few and far between.
“Every restaurateur that I know who cares in this industry is using it in a way that is so immensely appropriate and responsible and forward-thinking that if it was to go away, it would be really crippling to everybody,” Kato restaurateur Ryan Bailey told The Times earlier this year.
The new bill, which passed unanimously in the state Assembly and Senate in late June, was co-written by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) — who also co-wrote SB 478 — as well as Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymembers Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters).
It is supported by the California Restaurant Assn. and the labor union Unite Here, both of which represent thousands of hospitality workers in California.
SB 1524 “will enable restaurants to continue to support increased pay equity and to make contributions to worker health care and other employee benefits,” Matthew Sutton of the California Restaurant Assn. said in a statement. “And, importantly, consumers will remain empowered to make informed choices about where they choose to dine out.”
While some restaurateurs and bar operators are breathing a sigh of relief over the continuation of service fees, others are frustrated with the government’s quick change in tack.
In April, ahead of SB 478’s July 1 start date — but before the new carve-out for restaurants and bars — L&E Oyster Bar and sibling restaurant El Condor rolled their 4% service fees into listed menu prices.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Following the attorney general’s guidance for SB 478, in April restaurateur Dustin Lancaster rolled a 4% surcharge into the menu list prices of two of his L.A. restaurants, L&E Oyster Bar and El Condor. He said that SB 1524 would not prompt him to revert to a service-fee model, at least for the foreseeable future, and that it wasn’t “so simple to just unbake the cake.”
“This is, sadly, all too familiar territory for restaurants in California,” Lancaster told the L.A. Times this week. “Just like in COVID, they jerk us around and expect us to pivot and change our model repeatedly as if it’s no big deal to small businesses. Restaurants continue to shutter [at] an alarming rate in L.A., and this sort of unnecessary about-face is why California continues to be the least small-business-friendly state in America.”
At Bell’s, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Santa Barbara County’s Los Alamos, owners diligently tracked the progress of both state Senate bills and awaited final word before determining whether to remove their 20% service charge, which benefits all nonmanagerial staff.
And even before SB 1524’s passage, Bell’s listed the charge on its the lunch and dinner menus, on its web page for frequently asked questions, and on its homepage section on takeout orders. The new law will allow the restaurant to continue its practice without reconfiguring its business model.
Greg Ryan, an owner of Bell’s, told The Times that he had been listening to and was understanding of customers, legislators and his team, and that he wanted to do what was best for his staff.
For months, the practice has felt like a balancing act.
As SB 1524 made its way through California’s Assembly and Senate, outcry on social media and in public forums such as Reddit was swift and vocal, with multiple anonymous posters commenting that to retaliate for the exemption, they would stop leaving tips. Another Reddit user created a spreadsheet that tracks surcharges and service fees in restaurants across the state.
An L.A. restaurateur, speaking anonymously for fear of customer retribution, told The Times that they’d seen an increase in tips of $1, 0% or other low amounts over the course of the month, possibly in response to the 3-4% service fees their restaurant was charging.
“I’m not thrilled with the bill,” CALPIRG’s Engstrom said of SB 1524. “I think it was better when restaurants and bars also had to have really clear upfront pricing, so that consumers could do easy comparison shopping. When I decide to go out to a restaurant with my family, I check the prices first, on the menu, online.”
That SB 1524 requires clear posting of fees is a benefit, she said, but it’s not as strong as SB 478 with the attorney general’s initial guidance that called for rolling service fees into listed prices. Engstrom called SB 478 “a great model bill,” saying she would love to see similar consumer-protection legislation in other states, or federally — without many carve-outs for industries, regardless of how service fees factor into their business plans.
“I think [SB 1524] is unfortunately kind of a step backwards, but it’s still transparent,” she said. “You can still see it; you just have to do the math.”
When Vandana Kumar’s family visited her in Los Angeles, they always stopped at a bronze plaque embedded in a Woodland Hills sidewalk that honored her 25 years as a science teacher at Canoga Park High School.
Her family posed for photos with the plaque, which was installed in 2018, as if it were a part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And then, within the last few weeks, it was ripped out — most likely by someone seeking to sell it for scrap metal, officials said.
“It bothered me — I won’t lie,” Kumar, 60, said of the theft.
She is one of 11 teachers whose honorary plaques have been ripped from a Victory Boulevard sidewalk in Woodland Hills over the last month. Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield announced a $25,000 reward this week for information leading to an arrest in the thefts.
“It’s not about my plaque,” Kumar said. “It’s about somebody having the audacity” to steal something built to honor teachers, she said.
Kumar attends a ceremony dedicating her plaque in 2018.
(Nupur Kumar)
Blumenfield’s office said in a statement Thursday that the theft “has created significant sidewalk damage, as well as the loss of these landmarks that are both financially valuable and meaningful to the surrounding community.”
Multiple plaques are installed each year by the Walk of Hearts Foundation, a nonprofit organization that honors exceptional teachers in the Valley.
Each plaque is worth about $4,000 and weighs about 40 pounds, Los Angeles Police Capt. Rodolfo Lopez said.
Lopez said video captured someone stealing four plaques in one night, but the footage was too blurry for facial recognition technology to identify them. Seven more plaques disappeared over the next few weeks, and Lopez said the department believes the thefts are connected.
Local metal scrap vendors have been alerted to the thefts and were told to contact police if someone came in to sell the plaques, Lopez said.
The Los Angeles area has recently seen an increase in thefts of metal objects, including those made of copper and bronze, that can be sold for scrap.
The 6th Street Viaduct’s famous lights recently went dark after thieves stole the bridge’s copper wiring. More than 100 plaque thefts have been reported from two cemeteries in Carson and Compton, and a bronze newsboy statue in MacArthur Park was stolen.
Joseph Andrews, the founder of the Walk of Hearts Foundation, said in an email that the thefts from Woodland Hills “violated the community in many ways.” The person responsible has “stolen not just a bronze plaque,” he said, but “a piece of a teacher’s legacy.”
In total, the stolen plaques were worth about $44,000, not including the cost of sidewalk repairs.
Kumar retired last year from Canoga Park High and said the plaque was part of her legacy. As a Hindu, she will be cremated when she dies, she said, so the plaque was a physical reminder of who she was — so much so that she used to joke with her principal, “when you see flowers on my plaque, you’ll know I’m gone.”
After dedicating more than $25 million toward canvassing and political ads, California’s oil and gas industry announced it will withdraw a hotly contested referendum from the November ballot that sought to remove restrictions on drilling near homes and schools.
The California Independent Petroleum Assn. announced this week that its members will abandon their expensive push to overturn Senate Bill 1137, a 2022 state law that would prevent drilling new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, parks and hospitals. Not long after its passage, oil and gas companies organized an effort to collect enough signatures to put the state law up for a vote in the Nov. 5 general election.
In recent months, however, the Petroleum Assn. acknowledged the referendum had not garnered sufficient levels of public support, according to its polling. It had also encountered a groundswell of resistance from a well-funded countercampaign that featured appearances from Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hollywood icon Jane Fonda.
And, in perhaps one of the final attempts to broker a compromise, Assemblyman Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) said he recently took part in negotiations with the fossil fuel interests, declaring he would limit financial penalties in a separate bill if they pulled their ballot initiative.
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The oil industry’s decision to retract the proposition marks an unanticipated end to one of the state’s most expensive political contests. In a state filled with more than 100,000 unplugged oil and gas wells, environmental advocates say that defending the setbacks law is essential to eventually phase out planet-warming fossil fuels and protect residents who live near the toxic fumes released by drill sites.
Nearly one-third of these wells are within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and other sensitive areas, exposing nearly 3 million people to cancer-causing pollution. In addition to restricting new drilling, the law would prohibit maintenance and redrilling, ensuring that old wells remain closed.
“It’s a massive and historic win,” said Kassie Siegel, senior counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Victories like this don’t come every day. The oil industry just backed down in total defeat.”
Siegel painted the development as a last gasp for oil and gas production.
“This is an industry that’s going away anyway,” she said. “What the state needs to do is oversee this ongoing decline in a way that minimizes the additional damage that this dying industry does on its way out the door.”
But the state Petroleum Assn. didn’t concede defeat — it vowed to fight California’s well-capping law and similar legislation in court.
“Californians do not want to further increase our dependence on expensive foreign crude when California workers can create the energy locally under the strictest regulations in the world,” said Jonathan Gregory, chairman of the California Independent Petroleum Assn. He added: “We are pivoting from the referendum to a legal strategy since it is a violation of the U.S. Constitution for the government to illegally take private property, particularly operations that were duly permitted by the government and all impacts mitigated.”
Although the oil industry called the 3,200-foot setbacks “arbitrary,” the distance was established by a 15-member panel of health experts convened by the Newsom administration. The panel concluded there was a strong association with higher rates of asthma, heart disease and adverse birth outcomes for people who live within that radius of oil and gas developments.
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The law is expected to reap tremendous health benefits in Southern California, where some of the largest oil fields border densely populated communities. Enshrining those protections was critical to Bryan, whose district includes the Inglewood oilfield — the nation’s largest urban oilfield that lies beneath Baldwin Hills, Culver City, Inglewood and Ladera Heights.
“I see that particular oil field completely being phased out over the next decade and a half,” Bryan said. “And I think the health impacts for communities around it are going to be immeasurable — longer life expectancies, lower rates of heart conditions, lower rates of childhood asthma and the opportunity to live and thrive without the toxicity of these wells right next to homes.”
To that end, Bryan said he leveraged Assembly Bill 2716 in negotiations with the oil and gas interests. The bill he co-authored would charge a $10,000 penalty for operating low-producing wells within 3,200 feet of sensitive sites. In negotiations, Bryan said that if the ballot measure was withdrawn he would revise AB 2716 so that the daily penalty would apply only to the Inglewood oil field.
A man was fatally stabbed Tuesday after exiting a Metro bus in South Los Angeles, police said, the latest incident in a string of violence that has plagued L.A. County’s public transit system.
Officials responded to the stabbing at the Slauson J Line Park & Ride on Slauson Avenue near the 110 Freeway at 2 p.m. Tuesday, according to Officer Kevin Terzes, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson.
The victim and his suspected assailant got off the Metro bus and later got into an argument, Terzes said, at which point the suspect pulled out a weapon and stabbed the victim.
The Los Angeles Fire Department rushed the man to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity has not been released. The LAPD did not provide a detailed description of the suspect.
Metro spokesperson Dave Sotero extended condolences to the dead man’s friends and family, while underscoring the agency’s ongoing efforts to help increase safety.
“Violence in the communities we serve spilling over onto our public transit systems continues to be an issue in Greater Los Angeles,” Sotero said. “We share the concerns of Metro employees and riders about the recent increase in severity of crime on the Metro system.”
However, Sotero noted that overall crime in April on Metro was down by 44% compared with a year prior. Violent crime, though, was up slightly compared to March.
“Our employees deserve a safe workplace and our customers deserve a safe ride, so nothing we are working on is more important than addressing public safety on our Metro system,” he said in a statement.
The agency has made several recent changes in attempts to curb violence, including an increase in public safety personnel on buses and trains, which Sotero said amounted to a “20% surge” of Metro transit security officers and unarmed “ambassadors.”
The Metro board on Thursday is scheduled to consider if the agency will resurrect its own police force, a proposal that came about after a rise in drug overdoses and more severe violence on the transit system.
Metro also recently implemented a pilot program that requires riders to tap their fare cards in order to leave a train station in hopes of increasing order and a sense of security.
Staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
More than 120,000 pounds of fireworks were seized from an illegal operation in the South Bay area of Los Angeles in one of the biggest single fireworks busts in state history, authorities said.
The fireworks cache was so massive that the Cal Fire bomb unit was called in to assist local police.
Several people were arrested Saturday during an early morning raid, according to a joint statement by the Gardena Police Department and the Office of the State Fire Marshal’s Arson and Bomb Unit. The exact location was not disclosed.
Some of the fireworks measured up to 8 inches in diameter — roughly the same as a bowling ball. More than 2,000 illegal destructive devices and 10 pounds of bulk homemade explosives were also confiscated.
No other information about the seizure was made available, given the pending criminal investigation. Anyone who has information about the case is asked to contact Cal Fire bomb unit at arsonbomb@fire.ca.gov.
With the Fourth of July approaching, Cal Fire is reminding the public that it is illegal to sell, transport or use fireworks that don’t carry the “Safe and Sane” seal. Fireworks also can’t be set off in communities that prohibit them. Depending on the offense, violators of fireworks laws could face up to a year in jail and fines of up to $50,000 if convicted.
The violent protest Sunday at a synagogue has prompted Mayor Karen Bass to say Los Angeles should consider rules governing demonstrations and the wearing of masks by those protesting.
Bass on Monday did not offer a proposal but said the city needed to look at the issue — including “the idea of people wearing masks at protests.” A number of pro-Palestinian protesters had their faces covered Sunday.
The mayor, at an afternoon news conference, also said she was seeking city and state funding for additional security measures at places of worship in the city. Hours after the clashes, she ordered the LAPD to increase patrols in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson area where the protest occurred and at religious venues.
Masks have been a part of many pro-Palestinian and some pro-Israeli protests over the war in Gaza, including on college campuses.
When a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA in May, it was difficult to identify suspects because many wore masks that hid their identities. Police said they would use technology that captures facial images and outlines and compares them with other photos on the internet and social media to put names to faces.
It is unclear how the government could restrict mask use at protests.
During the 2020 George Floyd protests, some health officials urged demonstrators to wear masks to protect against COVID-19. Although coronavirus cases have fallen dramatically since then, masks can still offer protection, especially to those who have underlying health problems.
Earlier this month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was considering a mask ban on the New York subway, saying she was concerned about people with face masks committing antisemitic acts.
“We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior,” Hochul told reporters at a news conference. “My team is working on a solution. But on a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams supported the idea, telling reporters that “cowards cover their faces.”
Some civil liberties advocates opposed the idea.
“Mask bans were originally developed to squash political protests and, like other laws that criminalize people, they will be selectively enforced — used to arrest, doxx, surveil, and silence people of color and protesters the police disagree with,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
North Carolina has also been talking about a mask ban, citing Gaza war protests. But there has been pushback from some health professionals and people with underlying health problems.
One North Carolina resident told the Washington Post: “I’ve thought I should wear masks with something printed on it like ‘immune deficient’ or ‘cancer patient.’ But we should not have to do that.”
There have been no formal proposals in Los Angeles, and it’s unclear whether the City Council would support the idea.
But a local Anti-Defamation League official expressed support Monday for a mask restriction. Jeffrey Abrams, the ADL’s Los Angeles regional director, stood on stage alongside Bass at the afternoon news conference and said the city needed to do more to protect the community.
“Just as Mayor Bass said, we need to look at every available legal tool, as the city attorney looks at existing anti-masking laws in the state of California,” Abrams said.
The Sunday protest was condemned by top officials including Bass, President Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
A pro-Palestinian protester gets in a car surrounded by pro-Israeli counterdemonstrators near Adas Torah synagogue Sunday.
(Zoë Cranfill / Los Angeles Times)
The protest began Sunday afternoon at the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood but eventually spread into nearby areas over several hours. Fistfights broke out between pro-Palestinian demonstrators — who said they were protesting an event at the synagogue promoting the sale of stolen Palestinian land — and supporters of Israel.
“Yesterday was abhorrent, and blocking access to a place of worship is absolutely unacceptable,” Bass said Monday. “This violence was designed to stoke fear. It was designed to divide. But hear me loud and clear: It will fail.”
“Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American,” the president said in a statement. “Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship — and engaging in violence — is never acceptable.”
The law enforcement sources said the event was advertised in Friday’s issue of the Jewish Journal promising to provide information on “housing projects in all the best Anglo neighborhoods in Israel.” “Anglo” is a direct translation from Hebrew meaning “English-speaking.” The ad does not specify where in Israel the real estate is.
Protest fliers posted on social media said, “Our Land Is Not For Sale,” and condemned “land theft,” according to an Instagram post from the Southern California chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Los Angeles, said the site of the demonstration was chosen not because it was in front of a synagogue but because of the event it was hosting.
The protest “was in response to the blatant violations of both international law and human rights from agencies that seek to make a profit selling brutally stolen Palestinian land as the Israeli government continues its eight-month-long genocidal campaign and ethnic cleansing in Gaza,” he said in a statement.
“Elected officials and the mainstream media have politicized this incident as religious discrimination as opposed to a human rights issue,” Ayloush added.
Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, founder of the JEM Community Center in Beverly Hills, arrived at Adas Torah on Sunday to worship during afternoon prayer and was confronted by a group yelling into megaphones. Some synagogue visitors were blocked from going inside, he said.
“We could not pray well because these people outside were screaming,” he said.
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A brush fire erupted Monday afternoon in the city of Corona, threatening dozens of homes, closing streets and prompting some evacuations, according to the Corona Fire Department.
The brush fire, dubbed the Serrano fire, broke out around 2:42 p.m. in the 600 block of Corona Avenue, not far from Serrano Drive, according to Corona fire spokesman Daniel Yonan.
Late afternoon sunlight seeps through the brush as firefighters fight the Serrano fire from the ground and air in Corona on Monday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
He said the fire started to move toward dozens of homes up on Mandevilla Way, prompting fire officials to call for two water helicopters and other reinforcements. Later in the afternoon, officials reported that the fire’s spread had been stopped and the blaze contained to less than 12 acres, although crews from 18 engines were on the scene and continuing to put out hot spots.
No official evacuation orders were issued, but law enforcement officers asked residents living along Mandevilla Way, Via Blairo and Tampico Circle to evacuate out of precaution. Those orders were to remain in place until 8 p.m. Monday.
Police also closed several major roads into the area, including Parkridge Avenue at Tesoro Way, Hidden Valley Parkway at Via Blairo and Corona Avenue at Gilmore Drive.
No homes had been lost and no injuries reported as of 5 p.m. Monday. The cause of the fire remains unknown and under investigation.
Fire officials plan to send more updates for residents on social media.
Mark your calendars and turn to the sky — there will be another exciting celestial event Friday night, right after the start of summer.
The full moon, called a “strawberry moon” because of its pink or reddish hue, is expected to appear right after the summer solstice, which marks the onset of summer and the longest period of sunlight of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, according to NASA.
The moon is expected at 9:08 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and will be opposite to the sun, according to NASA. In Los Angeles, the moon is expected to rise at about 7:24 p.m. and reach the highest point in the sky at 12:13 a.m. Local times can be found at timeanddate.com.
The full moon only occurs within a day of the summer solstice about every 19 to 20 years, according to Space.com. This time around, the moon is expected to appear full for about three days.
The name “strawberry moon” comes from the Indigenous American Algonquin tribes to describe when strawberries ripen in June and are ready to be collected, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.
“Since the 2024 June full Moon happens on the solstice, the very day the Sun is absolutely at its highest of the year, this month’s full Moon on the 21st is the very lowest full Moon, indeed, the lowest we’ve seen in years,” the Almanac reported. “Just look at it! Because the Moon is so low, it will appear bigger than ever. This is called the ‘Moon Illusion.’”
The European name for this moon is the “mead” or “honey moon,” according to NASA. Mead, known in some countries as honey wine, is created by fermenting honey with fruits or other spices. Meanwhile, the term “honeymoon” dates back to Europe in the 1500s and references getting married in June because it’s the “sweetest” moon of the year.
The moon will take on a reddish orange color due to how low it will hang in the sky and its close proximity to the horizon. Because of how low the moon will be, that also means the sky will be darker due to lower levels of moonlight.
One man is in custody following a fatal stabbing on USC’s Greek Row after a car break-in, Los Angeles police said.
About 8:15 p.m. Monday, firefighters were called to the 700 block of West 28th Street in response to a stabbing, said LAPD officer Norma Eisenman.
The victim, described as a homeless man in his 30s, was breaking into a vehicle when he was confronted by a man in his 20s who pulled out a knife and “stabbed the victim numerous times,” Eisenman said.
Paramedics arrived and pronounced the victim dead at the scene. The man who stabbed him remained at the scene and was taken into custody, Eisenman said. It was not immediately clear if the man taken into custody was a USC student.
Firefighters are battling a series of wildfires that broke out across California over the weekend amid early summer heat and dry, gusty winds.
The National Weather Service warned that winds that carry “the potential for rapid fire spread” were forecast across large swaths of the state Monday morning, including the Antelope Valley and foothills, Santa Barbara County and Northern California’s wine country and Sacramento Valley.
The largest fire in the state Monday morning was the Post fire in Los Angeles County, which has burned 14,625 acres and was 8% contained, Cal Fire said. More than 1,100 firefighters and half a dozen helicopters are battling the flames.
The fire, along the 5 Freeway near Gorman, triggered evacuations for 1,200 people in the Hungry Valley Park and Pyramid Lake areas.
The fire burned an auto repair shop, damaged another building and threatened other structures to the south and west of the I-5, authorities said. Los Angeles County Fire Department crews rapidly responded, making aerial assaults with air tankers and water-dropping helicopters.
The Ventura County Fire Department and U.S. Forest Service were aiding in the effort. At one point Sunday, about 400 firefighters and 70 engines were at the scene, according to Cal Fire.
At the same time, areas from Redding down to Modesto are under a Red Flag warning until Tuesday morning due to a combination of summer heat, gusty winds, low humidity and unusually warm overnight temperatures.
In the North Bay hills, areas hit by some of the state’s worst wildfires in recent memory, including Mt. St. Helena and Lake Berryessa, are under red flag warnings until Monday night.
In Sonoma County, the Point fire has burned more than 1,000 acres and several structures south of Lake Sonoma. It was 15% contained Monday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire started Sunday afternoon.
A smaller fire in Lancaster, meanwhile, burned 300 acres and several outbuildings after starting before 4 p.m. Sunday.
In Hesperia, more than 1,100 acres burned, prompting area road closures and an evacuation warning for the nearby Arrowhead Equestrian Estates. The fire began Saturday before 7 p.m.
On Monday morning, a vegetation fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills just south of Runyon Canyon, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Not far from homes and hidden in a difficult-to-access area, it took firefighters and a water-dropping helicopter more than an hour to put out the flames, despite it burning an only about 400 square feet, the department said in an alert.
A wind-driven wildfire along Interstate 5 near the Grapevine exploded to more than 12,000 acres by early Sunday and had charted a path south toward the town of Castaic, prompting evacuations throughout the area, officials said. The Post fire, which originated Saturday in Gorman in northwestern Los Angeles County, was only 2% contained Sunday afternoon as high winds, low humidity and steep terrain hampered firefighting efforts.
Meanwhile, firefighters were battling another brush fire in the San Bernardino County community of Hesperia that broke out after 6 p.m. Saturday in the 18000 block of North Highway 173. That fire has burned more than 1,300 acres and was 20% contained.
The Post Fire
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Fire crews battle a hot spot on Orwin road.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Fire crews battle a hot spot.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Crews conduct a burn-out operation Sunday near Hungry Valley Road.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Firefighters at work in Gorman.
(Eric Thayer / Associated Press)
Members of the Little Tujunga Hot Shots at work.
(Eric Thayer / Associated Press)
The Post fire advances on structures in Gorman.
As the fire spreads, experts are gauging the severity of this year’s fire season. A wet winter has nurtured a potentially heavy fuel load of thick grasses, which are drying as temperatures rise.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
As the fire spreads, experts are gauging the severity of this year’s fire season. A wet winter has nurtured a potentially heavy fuel load of thick grasses, which are drying as temperatures rise.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
A smoldering hillside is left behind by the Post fire.
The Lisa Fire
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
CalFire drops water from a helicopter to battle the wind driven Lisa fire from the air in a canyon east of Moreno Valley on Sunday in Beaumont. As of 6:45pm the fire had burned 867 acres.
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Robert Gauthier, Jason Armond, Gina Ferazzi, Times Photography Wire Services
Residents of Mar Vista are certain that they are being watched.
And Jennifer Bedolla knows who it is: the pack of coyotes that she often catches lounging in her yard and who leave the carcasses of neighborhood pets around her home.
In previous years, the occasional coyote would pass through the area at dusk. But this year is different as the pack grows bolder, with coyotes trailing after people as they walk their dogs and lunging at pets and children.
“They’ve become more and more aggressive,” Bedolla said. “They’re just not afraid of humans. They’re just right on your back, running into you and not running away.”
The official response from the city of Los Angeles is that residents can clear brush from around their homes, bang pots and pans to scare away coyotes and overall coexist with the wild animals, according to an information campaign directed at the neighborhood.
Frustrated residents in the community just west of Culver City think L.A. officials do not appreciate their situation.
The usual methods don’t work for them, they say. Animal experts advise anyone who comes across a coyote to wave their arms, shout and make themselves appear as big as possible, but these coyotes are not skittish around their human neighbors.
Every day, among the hillsides the coyote yips and cries grow into a wild cacophony.
Bedolla said a coyote lunged at her 11-year-old son while he played soccer in his backyard as several other coyotes watched. She often carries her 9-year-old Maltese-poodle mix, Zola, when they go out for their weekly walk, because the coyotes seem to have claimed the neighborhood as their territory.
A number of pet dogs and cats have gone missing.
“I’ve cleaned so many neighborhood pets from my yard,” she said. “Just piles of fur and carcasses.”
Jennifer Bedolla stands on a top tier patio in her backyard, which has been inundated with very brazen coyotes in Mar Vista. Bedolla spotted 16 coyotes in her backyard recently.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
As hunters, coyotes are opportunists, experts say, their diet consisting of vermin, birds and, in suburban areas, human trash. They’re attracted to the scent of food on a person’s clothing and over the years have learned to live in close proximity to people.
For some residents, it’s a little too close for comfort.
But figuring out how they might get some relief — and who might help them — isn’t that easy.
One resident turned to the L.A. County agricultural commissioner’s Weights and Measures Bureau for help after a frightening encounter.
At around 11 p.m. on March 29, a person walking their dog in Mar Vista encountered a group of coyotes, said Chief Deputy Maximiliano Regis of the bureau.
“The coyote sort of stopped, looked at [the person] and then made some sort of screaming or yelp sounds,” Regis said.
The dog barked back, and the resident ran away, convinced they were about to be attacked. The person called Weights and Measures to investigate, and in early April an inspector found a mother coyote and four to five pups living in a nearby den.
The mother coyote was likely taking her pups out to hunt, Regis said. But the den is in Los Angeles city limits, and it’s up to the city to determine what to do next, according to Regis.
Los Angeles Animal Services coordinates with various agencies on wildlife within the city limits, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The city says the state agency manages the coyote population, but a spokesperson for Fish and Wildlife said the agency does not manage coyotes but provides information to local jurisdictions and the public on coyotes.
Coyotes at Jennifer Bedolla’s home in Mar Vista. One expert says the coyotes’ behavior is linked to pupping season.
(Jennifer Bedolla)
“Wildlife officers will respond to attacks,” the Fish and Wildlife spokesperson said, “but it is up to local agencies to deal with coyotes in their communities.”
L.A. Animal Services did not respond to follow-up questions about the city’s response to the coyote population. But in a statement, the agency said it hosted an online community meeting with the office of City Councilmember Traci Park as well as Fish and Wildlife to educate residents about “deterrents and property maintenance.”
The agency also hosts its own monthly information sessions about “how to safely coexist with wildlife, as well as ways for people to keep their pets safe,” according to a statement from L.A. Animal Services.
In Mar Vista, there’s a feeling that that type of safety is out of reach.
Resident Jeanelle Arias said a coyote snapped at her 14-year-old dog, Blaine, a toy breed, in their backyard. The coyote scampered away after Arias’ other dog, 7-year-old Bart, barked and gave chase. But the coyote didn’t run away, according to Arias. It hopped on top of a planter to watch what would happen next.
“If it wasn’t for Bart, Blaine would have been attacked,” Arias said. “There have been so many pets that have disappeared.”
On June 4, a coyote trailed closely behind a man as he walked his dog around the neighborhood, according to footage captured on a Ring camera video.
Neighbors said the man eventually spotted the coyote and yelled to scare away his stalker.
Shelley Beringhele has lived in Mar Vista for the last 10 years, but her family has been in the neighborhood since her grandfather Val Ramos built his home in 1963.
Coyotes were never a concern for the community, Beringhele said, but now shadow humans and pets.
“I find it disturbing how bold the coyotes have become and how little the city is willing to do about the situation,” Beringhele said.
But Rebecca Dmytryk, co-owner with Humane Wildlife Control, sounded a hopeful note. She said the coyotes’ behavior is tied to pupping season. Coyotes want to convey to other canines in the neighborhood that they have pups and are territorial.
“They want to make sure that dogs understand, ‘Do not come over here, because our pups are close by,’” Dmytryk said.
Despite the animal carcasses, Dmytryk doesn’t believe that coyotes are hunting neighborhood dogs but looking at them as intruders.
The coyote pupping season stretches for a few months, from when coyotes give birth to when the pups become juveniles and leave their parents. The coyote activity should die down by autumn, Dmytryk said.
Mar Vista is not unique, Dmytryk said. Other parts of Southern California are also enduring the pupping season, including sections of South Central Los Angeles and Woodland Hills, where she recently responded to one call to get coyotes out of a crawl space under a home.
Dmytryk said she’d been contacted by one concerned Mar Vista resident and her business uses humane means of hazing coyotes. She provided the resident with information about how they can protect their home, similar to the advice provided by the city. Her methods include humane traps.
California does not allow coyote traps within 150 yards of a residence without written consent, but that has not stopped some cities. Torrance contracted a trapper in an effort to manage its coyote population, which includes killing coyotes. The result was a state investigation over possible violation of the trapping law.
Although Dmytryk advocates for humane measures, she does agree that the city of Los Angeles should take a more proactive approach to tracking coyotes and investigate why they’re active in one area. Residents in Mar Vista agree, although some say they’re unsure what that would involve. They just know that they are fed up.
Mar Vista resident Shari Dunn, on a recent night, picked up a neighbor who had just encountered a coyote as she was walking her husky puppy. The neighbor screamed and became distraught over the encounter.
“I drove her home, and she was bawling,” Dunn said. “The woman had just gotten home from work and was walking her dog. I guess you can’t do that anymore.”
Southern California home prices hit a record for the third-straight month in May, but there could be some help on the horizon.
Although home prices increased, more listings are finally coming onto the market, giving cash-strapped home buyers more options.
What is happening?
In May, average home prices across the six-county region rose nearly 1% from April to $875,409, according to data from Zillow. It was the third consecutive month that prices hit a record and values are now 9% above May 2023 levels.
Why are home prices rising?
Simply put, there are too few homes for sale in Southern California for all the people who want to buy here.
Economists and real estate agents say the long-running problem was made worse after mortgage rates surged in 2022.
At first, home prices fell as buyers pulled away and the inventory swelled. But prices started rising again last year as homeowners increasingly chose not to sell, unwilling to give up rock-bottom mortgage rates on loans taken out before and during the pandemic.
The pullback among sellers became so prevalent that it even got its own name: the seller strike.
What is happening with inventory?
Things are improving. As interest rates stay higher for longer, more homeowners are deciding to get on with their lives and list their home for sale, deciding additional space, a new job or other factors are more important than keeping a 3% mortgage.
In April, most Southern California counties saw the total number of homes for sale increase for the first time since the first half of 2023.
Last month, inventory jumped again. In Los Angeles County, total listings were 13% higher in May compared with a year earlier; Orange County rose by 6%; in Riverside County, 14%; San Bernardino County, 15%; Ventura County, 18%; and San Diego County, 30%.
“That’s a very positive development,” said Stuart Gabriel, director of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate. “We have just been incredibly short on supply.”
If I a want to buy a home, what does the inventory increase mean for me?
Well, at the most basic level, there will be more options from which to choose.
Inventory is still very low historically so don’t expect your home search to be a breeze, but it could mean fewer bidding wars and an easier time getting into a house.
Gabriel said the inventory increase probably isn’t enough to send home prices down, but, if the trend holds, home prices should rise less than they are today.
Mike Simonsen, founder of real estate data firm Altos Research, said sellers are already more likely to trim their list prices than last year.
He doubts that overall values will turn negative this year and, like Gabriel, expects only slowing appreciation in the L.A. area. But that could change in 2025.
“If rates are still in the 7s, prices flat or down is a real scenario,” Simonsen said.
On the other hand if rates noticeably drop, Simonsen said, demand is likely to pick up more than inventory, setting the stage for home prices to rise even faster than they are now.
Scores of protesters formed a roving pro-Palestinian camp on UCLA’s campus Monday afternoon, reciting the names of thousands of people who have died in Gaza.
After several hours of mostly peaceful demonstration, however, the situation turned chaotic, with Los Angeles police and private security guards forming a skirmish line and confronting protesters who stood behind barricades.
A crowd formed on the opposite side of the skirmish line, with protesters chanting, “Let them go!”
Associate professor Graeme Blair, who is a member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, said one student went to the hospital for treatment of wounds from a rubber bullet, which he said was fired when students were barricaded near Dodd Hall. He criticized authorities, saying the students had been following dispersal orders throughout the evening.
A UC Police representative declined to answer questions about arrests or whether “less than lethal” weapons were used.
Earlier, police had ordered the demonstrators to disperse at least twice, and the crowd quickly dismantled tents and barricades and moved to different locations on campus.
As protesters marched, one among them was reading aloud names of Palestinians killed.
“They will not die in vain,” protesters chanted after each name. “They will be redeemed.”
Some protesters set roses down next to a coffin painted with the Palestinian flag that sat alongside fake bloodied corpses. A helicopter hovered overhead.
Many protesters declined to give interviews, saying they were not “media liaisons” or “media trained.”
The event was organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA. Several faculty members followed the crowd with a banner showing support for the students and the demonstration.
Monday’s event marked the third pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA in recent weeks, the handling of which has drawn outrage and questions about how ill-prepared the university was for such an event.
The first one was set up April 25, sparking mixed reactions and a largely peaceful counterprotest on April 28.
Two days later, however, UCLA declared the encampment unlawful and directed campus members to leave or face discipline.
Later that night, a violent mob attacked the camp. The few police officers on duty were quickly overwhelmed, and the violence continued for three hours until authorities finally brought the situation under control.
At Monday’s demonstration, most protesters wore surgical masks, and those at the edges of the moving encampment held makeshift wooden shields or set up chicken wire to barricade themselves in. The crowd moved from the courtyard outside Royce Hall to the bottom of the Tongva steps, to the patio behind Kerckhoff Hall, to a courtyard outside Dodd Hall.
Los Angeles police and private security guards formed a line as an unlawful assembly was declared Monday at UCLA.
(Alene Tchekmedyian / Los Angeles Times)
As evening set in, the protesters set up their barricades in the Dodd Hall courtyard. The confrontation escalated as an unlawful assembly was declared. Police and guards formed a line, with protesters shouting, “Cops off campus!”
L.A. Police Capt. Kelly Muniz confirmed to The Times that arrests were made at the protest but did not provide further details.
UCLA professor Yogita Goyal, who teaches English and African American studies, was among faculty on campus Monday expressing support for the protesters. Goyal said police should not have declared an unlawful assembly on Monday — or on April 30 when students were protesting peacefully.
“UCLA leadership should be out here and should be allowing our students to express their political views,” she said.
When Jay-Z and Beyoncé broke a California record by dropping $200 million on a Malibu mansion last year, a familiar name was front and center on the deal: Kurt Rappaport.
The 53-year-old real estate power broker represented both the buyers and the sellers in the historic sale — an accomplishment in itself that likely pocketed him several million dollars in commissions. But at this point, it would be stranger if Rappaport hadn’t been involvedin the transaction. He’s handled seven of the 10 most expensive home sales in California history, and the $200-million deal eclipsed the previous high of $177 million, which he had set two years prior.
Discover the change-makers who are shaping every cultural corner of Los Angeles. This week we bring you The Connectors, who understand that power doesn’t travel in a straight line and know how to connect the dots. Come back each Sunday for another installment.
Southern California’s real estate scene is one of the most lucrative in the world, and it’s definitely the most public. Millions of people track who’s buying what, where, how much they paid, how many bedrooms, and how big the pool is. In the age of social media, “house porn” is its own industry.
Rappaport, a Los Angeles native, sits atop it all. In his role as Southern California’s premier real estate agent, he serves as a matchmaker of sorts, taking some of the wealthiest and most famous people on the planet and guiding them to specific properties or neighborhoods.
He also moves markets. Take Malibu, which Rappaport and his most prolific client, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, have transformed into one of the most expensive markets on Earth over the last two decades by buying dozens of properties and developing one-of-a-kind trophy homes that sell for record sums.
As Southern California’s premier real estate agent, he serves as a matchmaker of sorts.
Rappaport’s other clients have included David Geffen, Brad Pitt, Ellen DeGeneres, Ryan Seacrest and Tom Brady, among many, many others. Last year at his French-style manor in Brentwood Park, he hosted President Biden for a roundtable meeting with California mega-donors to discuss wars, divisiveness and ways to improve the country.
Through a constant flow of emails and texts, he has the ear of almost every noteworthy person looking to buy or sell a home around L.A., and he holds plenty of influence over what and where they shop. Billions in sales translates to millions in taxes for local governments, so whether a neighborhood is hot or cold can have a monumental impact.
Like fine art, a home is only worth what someone will pay for it, and Rappaport helps dictate what that number is. When the next record is set — when a billionaire pays $250 million, $300 million or $500 million for one of Southern California’s finest estates — Rappaport will likely be the one behind the deal.
Howard University trustees on Friday voted to rescind an honorary degree granted to Sean “Diddy” Combs, citing a recently surfaced video of the hip-hop mogul repeatedly attacking Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Trustees of the Washington, D.C., university also disbanded a scholarship in Combs’ name and terminated a 2016 “gift agreement” in which Combs had contributed $1 million through his foundation, according to a university statement. His foundation’s future financial pledges have also been canceled.
The university, which Combs attended, said the vote “to accept the return … of the honorary degree conferred upon him in 2014” was unanimous.
“Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the statement continued. “The university is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence.”
Friday’s decision is the latest setback for Combs, and comes as federal prosecutors in New York are considering whether a Homeland Security Investigations probe into alleged sex trafficking should result in criminal charges.
In the 2016 video, obtained and published by CNN last month, Combs is seen chasing, kicking, dragging and hurling a glass vase at Ventura, who was his girlfriend at the time. The video seemed to confirm at least some of the physical abuse allegations against the singer detailed in a lawsuit filed in November — accusations Combs had denied.
That lawsuit was settled a day after it was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In it, Ventura alleged that Combs “became extremely intoxicated and punched” her in the face, “giving her a black eye” during an attack in March 2016.
In a video statement posted on Instagram days after the video’s release, Combs said, “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
“I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” he added. “I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry. But I’m committed to be a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”
Federal prosecutors are preparing grand jury subpoenas for witnesses to testify in the sex-trafficking investigation against Combs, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Investigators have already interviewed several witnesses and told them to be prepared to testify, the source said, though it remains unclear when that testimony will occur or how far federal officials are in determining whether to bring charges. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
Combs has not been charged with any crime and has denied any wrongdoing. The probe was launched after three women, including Ventura, accused him of rape, assault and other abuses dating back three decades.
In March, investigators searching Combs’ Holmby Hills mansion emptied safes, dismantled electronics and left papers strewn in some rooms, sources told The Times.
Combs’ lawyers have strongly criticized the federal probe, calling the searches of his homes “militarized” and a “witch hunt.”
Benjamin and Christine Granillo bought their 2.25-acre property in San Bernardino County four decades ago. They built their home by hand and surrounded it with a lush grove of avocado, orange and lemon trees.
“We thought we’d be here for the rest of our life,” Christine Granillo, 77, said as she tended to her trees on a recent afternoon.
But their neighborhood in unincorporated Bloomington is rapidly transforming, as developers convert the 10 Freeway and its adjacent communities into a logistics corridor connecting goods shipped into Southern California ports with online shoppers across the nation. An industrial real estate company based in Orange County is demolishing 117 homes and ranches in rural Bloomington to make way for more than 2 millionsquare feet of warehousing space. The project will serve as yet another distribution center dedicated to storing and moving the vast array of products consumers want delivered to their doorsteps.
Benjamin and Christine Granillo, who built their home by hand in rural Bloomington, will soon look out on a sprawling online fulfillment center.
All the neighbors across the street from the Granillos sold their homes to the developer, and many have already been bulldozed. The Granillos opted not to sell — and now look out their stately front gate at the rubble, soon to be supplanted with a 479,000-square-foot fulfillment center. Their street will become a busy truck route. Next door will be a parking lot with hundreds of truck and trailer stalls.
Christine Granillo mourns the loss of her neighbors and her view of the San Bernardino Mountains. But, she added, “What can you do about it? There’s really nothing you can do about it.”
In November 2022, San Bernardino County supervisors voted 4-0 to approve the Bloomington Business Park, a 213-acre industrial park that promises to bring several thousand jobs to Bloomington, a majority Latino community of 23,000 residents.
The deal came with trade-offs familiar to the Inland Empire communities being asked to shoulder the massive distribution centers integral to America’s online shopping habit: An environmental impact report found the development would have “significant and unavoidable” impacts on air quality. But it would bring jobs to a working-class community in need of them, and Howard Industrial Partners has pledged to provide millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements: new streets with traffic lights and sidewalks; a modern sewer system in an area that still relies on aging septic systems.
And because the warehouse project would be about 50 feet from Zimmerman Elementary School, the developer agreed to pay $44.5 million to the Colton Joint Unified School District in a land swap that will usher in a state-of-the-art school nearby.
Joaquin Castillejos, with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, advocates for residents whose neighborhoods are targeted for warehouse projects. But he said people are feeling the impact of years of poor planning.
Gary Grossich, a member of Bloomington’s Municipal Advisory Council, recommended that supervisors support the development. Surrounding cities like Rialto and Fontana are embracing warehouse development, he said, and this was an opportunity for Bloomington to reap the benefits of a booming industry.
“The warehouse industry was the hot market,” he said, “and that was the only way that myself and others could see that we were going to get to the greater good, which is to get more sheriff’s deputies, more public safety, more services for our community and eventually balance our books.”
Mike Tunney, vice president of development at Howard Industrial Partners, said the developer shares those goals. “Overcoming these types of challenges and opportunities are the fundamental tenets of our development philosophy,” Tunney said.
But the project has left Bloomington fractured, with a stinging sense of winners and losers: Many who sold their homes say they got a good price and were happy to move on, while many of the neighbors left behind see a future with more concrete and semi-trailers and a hollowing out of the community’s rural culture.
Esmeralda Tabares, left, calls the conversion of rural neighborhoods to industrial developments “just a complete shift in the culture and lifestyle” of Bloomington.
Esmeralda Tabares, 23, part of a group called Concerned Neighbors of Bloomington, described the transition from rural residential to industrial development as “just a complete shift in the culture and lifestyle we have.” Many Bloomington residents ride horses; her family owns a plant nursery.
She questions why San Bernardino County is relying on a developer to provide the community with critical infrastructure such as sidewalks and sewers.
“It’s just easier for them to shift to a warehouse and say, ‘Well, we’re going to let them come in and take over your community,’” she said. “But now what community is that going to be? Because they’re taking people out, and soon who’s going to go to the school? Who’s going to live here?”
Agents associated with Howard Industrial Partners approached Raquel Diaz several years ago about selling her home in a Bloomington neighborhood a mile south of the 10 Freeway with an offer that wouldn’t go through until the county approved the project.
She and her family had purchased their home in 2012 for $140,000. It was the first home for her family of five, she said, and they were “super excited.” But the three-bedroom house on Locust Avenue quickly became a nightmare.
The house flooded whenever it rained. It reeked of moisture, and she and her husband worried about raising young kids amid mold.
Their street had no sidewalks, but that didn’t stop people from speeding by in their cars. Accidents were alarmingly common, she said. Her kids were forbidden from checking the street-side mailbox or taking out the trash.
“We ended up with a lemon of a house,” she said. “We were happy to be in Bloomington, and it just didn’t end up working out for us.”
By the time the county approved the warehouse development, home prices across Southern California had skyrocketed. Diaz said the developer encouraged them to find a home they wanted to buy — even if it cost above the price they had originally negotiated — and to make sure it was on a hill. The company would cover the cost.
Unincorporated Bloomington is transforming, as developers look to raze neighborhoods near the 10 Freeway to create a logistics corridor dedicated to online shopping needs.
They selected a five-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Highland, a nearby suburb at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, and closed on the property in January 2023 for $1.05 million. The 3,800-square-foot home has a pool and views. It’s on a sewer system, and while their residential street doesn’t have sidewalks, the nearby roads have sidewalks and bike lanes.
“It still feels unreal where we ended up,” she said. “It’s beautiful. I completely love where I live.”
Diaz has heard other residents say that homeowners were harassed and pressured to sell. She is adamant that’s not the case.
“No one is forcing me out,” she said. “It was a blessing to get the opportunity to be able to have a new start.”
Carolina Rios also saw the developer’s offer as an opportunity.
Rios and her family paid $225,000 for their Bloomington home and lived there about 13 years. She has fond memories of the three-bedroom house on Laurel Avenue: She threw her daughter’s quinceañera there, and she and her husband were married in the yard.
But the house was old, and instead of storm drains, the homes on her street had pipes under the driveways that flowed into ditches. The street flooded every time it rained. They had to walk atop pallets and bricks to cross the yard.
“Across the street, their ditch was 24/7, 365 days a year full of water and mosquitoes and raccoons and snakes and all sorts of fun wildlife to go to the zoo and look at,” she said. “But not in my house, around my kids.”
She agreed to sell in 2016; she said the developer adjusted the purchase price in 2023 — to $1.4 million — after the county approved the project, in recognition of rising home prices. In late December, she closed on a new house in Riverside with an extra bedroom, a swimming pool and an enclosed patio. She paid $1.2 million in cash.
She knows some people are opposed to warehouse development, but she says the industry is bringing good jobs. Her oldest children, ages 27 and 24, both work at a FedEx warehouse in Bloomington, where they have flexible hours and get frequent raises, she said.
Jessie Ortiz practices roping skills in the backyard of his family’s Bloomington home.
While some homeowners seized on the opportunity to move out of Bloomington, Felipe and Blanca Ortiz felt blindsided when their landlord agreed to sell the ranch home they were renting.
The Ortizes and their four children have lived on the two-acre property for more than a decade. They’ve maintained their family traditions from the Mexican state of Morelos, raising horses, goats and chickens on their small property.
They loved riding their horses through the hills behind their home, and regularly traveled to other cities to ride their horses in parades, decked out in traditional Mexican cowboy and cowgirl attire. They organized 100-horse processions as fundraisers for neighbors in need.
“It’s their entire lives,” Felipe Ortiz said, as he shared TikTok videos of his kids performing on horseback.
Felipe Ortiz and his family are being evicted from the ranch home they have rented for more than a decade.
In February, the family got a notice informing them their rental agreement would end in 60 days. It came from a company connected to Timothy Howard of Howard Industrial Partners — the only indication the family had that their rental home had been sold.
That same day, footage from the Ortiz family’s security camera shows an excavator knocking down the chain link gate in front of the ranch. The two youngest Ortiz kids, ages 6 and 12, were home at the time. The family viewed it as an act of intimidation.
Tunney, with Howard Industrial Partners, said it was “regrettable” that the previous owner didn’t disclose the sale to the Ortiz family.
“Additionally, it was not disclosed to us that there were occupants on the property,” Tunney said. “The incident with the excavator was inadvertent as the operator was scheduled to work at a nearby site and confused the addresses.”
Several months later, the family is still living in the home, waiting out the eviction process. Ortiz says he is struggling to find another property that will accommodate the family of six and their eight horses. As their search wears on, he said, his kids are traumatized. His youngest returns from school each day wondering if their home has been knocked down.
“Every day, the machines pass by here to knock down homes behind us,” Ortiz said. “And you’re left with the fear that they are coming to knock down our house.”
As homes are demolished in rural Bloomington to make way for a warehousing project, the neighbors who remain look out at rubble.
As the demolitions proceed, a coalition of environmental groups has sued San Bernardino County and Howard Industrial Partners, trying to halt the project. The lawsuit, alleging violations of state environmental and fair housing laws, seeks to vacate the county’s approval and require a more “meaningful” review.
Adrian Martinez is deputy managing attorney for Earthjustice, the group representing the plaintiffs. He called their effort a key moment in “the fight against the freight industry and its disregard for public health.”
“There are people who don’t want these warehouses in their communities and they just want to be left with peace,” Martinez said. “I think the inflection point is this kind of misguided notion that to give a community resources, you have to stuff thousands of trucks in the community and air pollution. And there’s no place in the country that this story is more robust than the Inland Empire and Bloomington in particular.”
A hearing is scheduled for later this month in San Bernardino County Superior Court.
“Everyday, the machines pass by here to knock down homes behind us,” Felipe Ortiz says of his family’s plight. “And you’re left with the fear that they are coming to knock down our house.”
Meanwhile, just a couple miles away, residents in southeastern Bloomington are starting to hear from developers interested in building more warehouses in the area.
Daniela Vargas, 24, said her parents bought their house there more than two decades ago. For her parents, both Mexican immigrants, it’s a deep source of pride to own a home they could pass down to their four children.
Vargas’ family raises chickens on their land, but the surrounding area is pockmarked with industry. Just a short drive from the family’s home is another warehouse complex, a railroad and the 10 Freeway.
Recently, they’ve received phone calls and “strange-looking mail” from developers interested in buying their home, Vargas said: “It looks like a check that says, ‘Here’s X amount of money, call us to make it real.’”
She said her family doesn’t want to leave, but it feels inevitable that their neighborhood will be the next to transform.
“Anyone that moves out of Bloomington, it’s all valid reasoning,” Vargas said. “My family is really prideful. But if the decision comes that warehouses are going to be developed here and everybody is leaving, we can’t remain with so much pollution around us, with so much traffic and with no real neighbors or neighborhood amenities.”
This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative,funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to addressCalifornia’s economic divide.
A magnitude 2.6 earthquake struck Newport Beach on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in weak shaking in Orange County.
The epicenter of the quake, just southeast of Costa Mesa, was underneath Mariners Park. Weak shaking was felt in Irvine, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Tustin, and Fountain Valley, according to people who reported the shaking to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Did You Feel It? website.
The earthquake struck at 1:46 p.m. and occurred near mapped traces of the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault zone. In Santa Ana, one person felt the earthquake as starting with the slowest of rumbles, then a quick jolt.
The Newport-Inglewood fault has long been considered one of Southern California’s top seismic danger zones because it runs under some of the region’s most densely populated areas, from the Westside of Los Angeles to the Orange County coast.
The last major quake on that fault occurred in 1933 — the magnitude 6.4 Long Beach earthquake. That temblor — the deadliest in modern Southern California history — resulted in “very strong” shaking, or level 7 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, in Long Beach, Huntington Beach and Compton.
The 1933 quake left nearly 120 dead and caused $40 million in property damage.
Scientists have said that recent observations suggest earthquakes as large as magnitudes 6.8 to 7.5 have struck the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault system, which stretches from the border of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles through Long Beach and the Orange County coast to downtown San Diego.
Research published in 2017 suggested the Newport-Inglewood fault is more active than previously thought. If a magnitude 7.5 earthquake did rupture along that fault system, such a temblor would bring massive damage throughout Southern California. An earthquake of magnitude 7 would hit areas of Los Angeles west of downtown particularly hard.
The 2017 study uncovered evidence that major earthquakes on the fault centuries ago were so violent they caused a section of Seal Beach near the Orange County coast to fall 1 1/2 to 3 feet in a matter of seconds.
Wednesday’s earthquake was the fifth of magnitude 2.0 and above that has struck the Southern California metro area in the last five days.
Earlier Wednesday, a magnitude 2.2 earthquake struck underneath the San Gabriel Mountains, less than two miles from the northern edge of Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County. That earthquake, which was down from an earlier estimate of 2.5, struck at 5:01 a.m.
A pair of earthquakes hit the eastern Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno on Sunday and Tuesday. The first was a magnitude 3.4, striking at 9:56 a.m. Sunday, a couple blocks south of Huntington Drive and Eastern Avenue. The second was a magnitude 2.8, down from an earlier estimate of magnitude 3, and hit at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday. Its initial estimated epicenter was revised from beneath the Elephant Hill Open Space to farther south, about 700 feet northwest of Sunday’s quake.
On Friday, at 10:26 a.m., a magnitude 3.6 earthquake — down from an original estimate of 3.8 — occurred with an epicenter just north of the Ojai Valley, causing weak shaking to be felt from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles.
It’s not uncommon for Southern California to see small earthquakes. Most do not lead to larger, catastrophic quakes. And while some larger earthquakes are preceded by smaller quakes, that is not always the case.
It’s simply impossible to know whether small earthquakes are “foreshocks” to a larger quake before the more powerful event strikes.
Times staff writer Gustavo Arellano contributed to this report.
Eight people at the women’s jail in Lynwood were hospitalized Tuesday afternoon after they were exposed to a “toxic substance,” according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Just before 5 p.m., deputies at Century Regional Detention Facility responded to a medical emergency involving several incarcerated women, the department said in a news release.
Deputies “provided lifesaving measures” before Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel transported six inmates and two employees to the hospital, officials told The Times.
“All the females were conscious and breathing at the time of being transported,” the Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, an official said all eight people were in stable condition.
The department did not provide any information about the ages of the affected inmates or whether they were all housed in the same unit.
Officials did not say what substance the inmates and staff may have been exposed to or whether it was believed to be an illicit drug or other type of toxic chemical.
