600 strangers, 16 miles, just because — LA’s mellowest walking party hits Route 66 next Saturday
Michael Schneider (guy in hat) leading the 2025 edition of Great L.A. Walk If you happen to see 600 people snaking down 14.3 miles of Santa Monica Boulevard (and then some) on Saturday, Nov. 21 — their sole purpose is just to … walk.“For years people were asking us, ‘What are you doing?’” said Michael Schneider, founder of the Great Los Angeles Walk.These strolls are maximalist in nature, usually covering the entire length of a given thoroughfare. Sunset Boulevard. Melrose Avenue. Ventura Boulevard.The inaugural Great L.A. Walk in 2006 along Wilshire Boulevard.How the walk began The pre-Thanksgiving tradition started in 2006 with Wilshire Boulevard. Schneider, who had reached the milestone of living in L.A. for a decade, was inspired by a book about the street’s history to walk its entire 15.8 miles on foot. He asked others to join on his blog Franklin Avenue.About two dozen people showed up. That day, they popped into storefronts, stopped by restaurants, sneaked into the Park Plaza Ho
Continue reading
How I tamed my demons and got on stage at The Moth
LAist Senior Editor Suzanne Levy pushing herself to feel the fear and do it anyway.A couple of decades ago, a friend in New York told me about something happening that was kinda underground and just getting traction. It was called “The Moth.” People took turns telling a true, personal story, with no notes, named after the Southern tradition of sitting on front porches and sharing spellbinding tales — with moths flying mesmerized around the porchlight.It sounded amazing. And terrifying. I filed it under the same list as bungee jumping — no doubt exhilarating but something I’d never do — and got on with my life. Over the years, as it grew bigger and bigger, I went to several Moth events in different cities, and was always so impressed with the storytellers — and equally adamant I’d never do it.Cut to this September, when a message went out to all the staff at LAist. We’re a media sponsor of The Moth, and an event, a open mike StorySLAM, was coming up in Silver Lake. There were a few tick
Continue reading
Santa Maria-style BBQ: How the Central Coast tradition began
Nicholas Priedite of Priedite Barbecue in Los Alamos tends chicken over the fire at the Santa Maria BBQ & Music Fest.(Wylie Withers / Courtesy Santa Maria BBQ & Music Fest)Heading north up the coast from L.A. soon? Plan to stop in wine country’s Santa Maria Valley to try something different: the region’s own BBQ style.Order a plate at restaurants like Shaw’s Famous Steakhouse in Santa Maria, or the Hitching Post in Casmalia, and it will arrive with red-oak grilled top sirloin or tri-tip, pinquito beans (a miniature cousin of the pink bean, grown only in the Santa Maria Valley), macaroni and cheese, a green salad, toasted French bread and salsa. And there's no barbecue sauce. It’s dry rub all the way.It’s so specific to the region that “Santa Maria Barbecue” has been trademarked by the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce to stop nearby imitators.The defining feature is the pit that's used. The grate lifts and lowers on a crank or pulley, so the cook controls heat by changing the dist
Continue reading
Old tech blamed for the ground stop that caused flight chaos: 'It got overloaded'
Flights listed on a board at an airport. Updated November 13, 2026 at 20:38 PM ET The nationwide ground stop that paralyzed the U.S. aviation system on Friday has ended, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The rare stop, which lasted about four hours, grounded thousands of flights at all U.S. airports in one of the biggest disruptions of the nation's air travel system since the September 11th attacks. In a Friday night news conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that air traffic control facilities had experienced "intermittent" outages of their radar and communications systems beginning earlier in the afternoon. Duffy blamed outdated technology for the failures. "We have old switches, old routers. We use 1980s little copper lines. It's an old system that went down and went down everywhere. It got overloaded," he said. But when pressed by reporters on exactly why those systems would become overwhelmed on an otherwise normal travel day, Duffy did not have a
Continue reading
Control of LA’s federal homeless money is about to change. Here’s what happens next
A homeless encampment along the 101 Northbound offramp is seen near City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, August 21, 2026. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / Los Angeles Times)The nonprofits that run the Los Angeles region's federally funded homeless shelters, outreach teams and housing services will soon be overseen by a different government agency, under a deal a federal judge says he plans to approve next week.If approved, the shift will mark the biggest change in the control of federal homeless dollars in L.A. in decades.The proposed settlement would shift federal grants and duties from the troubled L.A. Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to the county government in stages, starting next month. LAHSA’s management of federal dollars for homeless services would end in June. The deal between LAHSA and the Trump administration keeps the region's request for roughly $240 million in new annual federal funding on track and adds tighter checks on how that money i
Continue reading
Air quality officials wind down Lineage fire air testing, certify company followed cleanup order
The air quality monitoring process for ammonia and other potentially harmful gases began shortly after the fire started this June.(Andrew Lopez / Boyle Heights Beat)Topline:Air quality officials certified Friday that Lineage has completed all requirements to comply with its order of abatement linked to its burned-out Boyle Heights warehouse and said they’ve ended nearly five months of monitoring.About the odor complaints: Air quality officials first started citing Lineage due to rotten food smells in mid-July, weeks after the fire that took out the cold storage facility. Over 4,200 complaints were registered at the time, prompting South Coast Air Quality Management District to issue a notice of abatement Aug. 6. Since cleanup finished in early September, the agency said it received two complaints whose sources it could not trace back to the warehouse.What was being monitored: The South Coast AQMD was testing for ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter, air toxic metals a
Continue reading
Space shuttle Endeavour launches its final chapter at the CA Science Center. How to explore its home
The California Science Center officially opened the space shuttle Endeavour's new permanent home Friday. (Makenna Cramer / LAist)After decades of planning and years of construction, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is officially open in Exposition Park.The center is space shuttle Endeavour’s new permanent home and a 200,000-square-foot expansion of the California Science Center. The multi-level galleries feature 100 artifacts and 100 new hands-on exhibits for visitors to explore.Endeavour is the star of the show in the shuttle gallery, towering 20 stories tall in its vertical launch position. It’s the world’s only display of an authentic space shuttle system, according to museum officials.Dozens of astronauts attended a ceremony Friday morning under the space shuttle, including the crew of Endeavour's final mission and its commander U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly. Kelly described Endeavour as "the greatest spaceship that ever was."His colleague, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, said that having gro
Continue reading
LA needs more childcare options for babies. LAUSD could soon help
The Los Angeles Unified School District is looking to lease spaces in its schools for infant and toddler care. (Photo by Anne Wernikoff / CalMatters)The Los Angeles Unified School District may lease spaces in its elementary, middle and high schools to use as childcare spaces for babies. The district is putting together a list of qualified providers and looking to identify spaces it could lease. Ranae Amezquita, executive director of the district’s early childhood education division, said once the district has a list of spaces, it will start a request for proposal process that childcare providers can apply to during the 2027-2028 school year.Why is LAUSD looking to expand childcare options now?In April, LAUSD board members passed a resolution in an aim to expand childcare and early education slots in the district. The district currently runs about 90 preschools, called early education centers, for children 2 to 4 years old, but it has only four centers that serve children under 2. “The
Continue reading
Jailhouse informant probe warrants more scrutiny of Long Beach case and others, attorney argues
A Long Beach Police squad car is seen in this 2014 file photo.( Benjamin Brayfield / LAist)The attorney who uncovered the Orange County jailhouse informant scandal is arguing in new court filings that an investigation into the Long Beach Police Department shows “shocking deficiencies” with the oversight of paid civilian jailhouse informants that could implicate hundreds of criminal cases in Los Angeles County.The internal investigation found a veteran homicide detective allowed a civilian jailhouse informant to remove his GPS tracking ankle monitor, in violation of a court order, during the 2015 Christmas holiday and then lied about it to authorities. According to internal investigators, that raised questions about why he was allowed to remove the monitor. And defense attorney Scott Sanders says the decision to not follow through with a wider inquiry casts doubt on the informant system as a whole.Sanders would know; he’s the attorney who uncovered the Orange County jailhouse informant
Continue reading
Best things to do in LA and SoCal: Nov. 11-17
'The Importance of Being Earnest' is at the Wallis.(Courtesy The Wallis)A big thank you to all the service members who’ve served our country this Veterans Day. There’s lots going on to honor them, including a ceremony on the beach in Santa Monica, a celebration at the VA and more.Elsewhere on LAist, you can learn about one couple who chose the LAUSD coffee cake for their wedding, come hang out with us at CicLAvia in Pasadena and grab tickets for FilmWeek’s screening of Sideways.MusicLicorice Pizza has your music picks for the week ahead — it is Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction time, after all — including:Wednesday Bonobo begin their two-night run at the WilternAustralian EDM star Ninajirachi begins her four-night run at the Fonda Theatre Thursday The Smashing Pumpkins performing ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ in full at the ForumSparta at Sid The CatFriday Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds at the WilternE-40 with Too $hort, Mack 10 & more at the YouTube TheaterBand of Horse
Continue reading