How To LA

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The Biltmore Hotel Downtown Is A History-Lover's (And Ghost-Hunter's) Dream Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

#143: Today we’re exploring one of L.A.’s most historic landmarks: the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

It celebrates its 100th birthday in October, and since How to LA just turned one (!) we thought it'd be fitting to feature some of the most iconic spots in Los Angeles that are hitting the century mark (Others to come: the LA Memorial Coliseum and the Hollywood sign).

The Biltmore opened to the public in 1923 and it has such an interesting history, including becoming the place to be in prohibition-era Los Angeles, its role in the origins of the Academy Awards and its significance to the notorious Black Dahlia murder case. And that’s just the beginning.

Guest: journalist Hadley Meares, who's written about The Biltmore's history for LAist

How Effective Are Strikes Anyway? - REDUX Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

#82: Happy Labor Day, Los Angeles. We hope you are able to enjoy the day off, but we realize many of you may have to work today. This holiday was created for the workers by the labor movement back in the late 19th century. So on this daywe are resurfacing a conversation we had earlier this year about the role of organized labor today. Because, if you haven’t noticed, there’s been a LOT of picketing in L.A. this summer.

Guests: Jonathan Harris, professor, Loyola Law School; Diana Reddy, assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law (she was a doctoral fellow when we spoke to her in March)

Discovering Inglewood's Past, Present & Future Sep 01, 2023

Show notes

#142: We've talked a lot about Inglewood lately... and for good reason. The city is a booming scene for entertainment right now with SoFi, the Forum, the new Youtube Theater... not to mention, all the sports teams that call Inglewood home. Beyoncé is just the latest megastar to dominate the town with multiple concerts.

But with those changes come the good, the bad, and the ugly. And some people worry whether the new Inglewood will still have room for them.

So today, we hit the streets of Inglewood to talk to long-time resident AND mayor, James Butts, to get a better understanding of the city's trajectory.
Guest: Inglewood Mayor James T Butts, Jr.

Music in this episode composed by: D Smoke, Dexter Thomas, Evan, Mamman Sani, Modarchive, SiR

Navigating the LA River – And Its Activist History – In a Kayak Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

#141: Whitewater kayaking might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you picture the L.A. River. Too much concrete, right? Not enough water? Well, think again. Kayaking the L.A. River officially became legal in 2011 when the EPA declared it a "navigable waterway." And turns out... it's pretty fun!

Join How to LA hostBrian De Los Santos and producer Evan Jacoby as they paddle down a 2-mile stretch of river that does NOT have a concrete bottom and passes through the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Preserve.

Guests: Gary Golding, guide with LA River Expeditions & survivalist; Dennis Mabasa, COO of Friends of the LA River

There's a lot of local stewards of the river who are working to make sure that parts of it can be enjoyed by all of us Angelenos as well as the birds and resident critters. If you want to keep up to date on all the things going on with the river, make sure to follow FOLAR on social media or check out their website at folar.org

Also, you check out more info on the river on LAist.com/HowToLA.

How I Got Started: Community Builder Etienne Maurice Aug 30, 2023

Show notes

#140: We're back with another segment of How I Got Started, the series where we bring you the stories of artists, community leaders, and all around cool people living and following their passions in LA.

Today, we're hanging out with Etienne Maurice. He’s an actor and filmmaker, a homegrown Angeleno, but he's also a community builder and a wellness leader. He's become widely known for is founding the group WalkGood LA. It’s a movement that's all about getting brown and Black folks outside and into their bodies.
WalkGood puts on yoga classes at Kenneth Hahn Park, hosts runs and walks in West Adams, hikes and other physical and mental health workshops — for free. The work is totally volunteer based.

The wellness space is soooo often seen as overwhelmingly white, so Etienne is working to make sure brown and Black folks connect with nature and wellness too.
It was born during a time of serious confusion and unrest. We were three months into the pandemic and George Floyd had just been murdered at the hands of police.
As Maurice tells us, he just wanted to create a space where people could breath. Take a listen to his story of how he –– and a movement –– got started.
Guest: Founder of WalkGood LA, Etienne Maurice

The Future Of Stormwater Capture in LA - REDUX Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

#61: OK - with the summer heat back on our backs, it might be hard to remember that just a week ago we had a record-smashing storm. But all that rain had some of our listeners asking us... Where does all that rainwater go? Well the good news is, we did a whole episode answering that question this past winter. But the bad news is... a lot of that water still goes out to sea. But there's plans to try and change that. Take a listen.

-- --
Remember those intense storms in early January? L.A. County said it captured some 33 BILLION gallons of stormwater to use later and support about 800,000 households a year. It's an important step to help us get through the drought years.

But that awesome number is less than 20% of the total rain water. The other 80% washed right out to sea.

Today we're explaining why that is... and what the county is doing to improve. We're also checking out a success story in a neighborhood park in South LA, that might hold the answer to LA's water woes.

Guests: Erin Stone, LAist Climate Emergency reporter; Steve Frasher, public information officer for LA County Public Works; and Bruce Reznick, executive director of LA Waterkeeper

To learn more about this project, check out Erin's article: https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/how-capturing-more-stormwater-can-also-make-city-parks-better

HTLA Presents: On Point Live! The origins of West Coast hip-hop and its lasting legacy Aug 25, 2023

Show notes

Today we’re bringing you a special episode from a live taping of On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti! Recently, the On Point team was here at our very own Crawford Family Forum to host a live event celebrating 50th years of hip hop. Stay TUNED to hear the special episode. We hope you enjoy it!

Guests: Tyree Boyd-Pates, historian and Associate Curator of Western History at Autry Museum of the American West; Damita Jo Freeman, original Soul Train dancer and author of the book "Are You That Girl On Soul Train?!"

You can also watch this live event here:
https://laist.com/events/on-point-live-with-meghna-chakrabarti

Check out all of LAist's upcoming live events here:
https://laist.com/events/laist-events

K-Pop, K-Everything - with Pixar’s Peter Sohn at KCON Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

#139: KCON is everything K. K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty, Korean food... The mega event drew about a hundred thousand attendees over the weekend, selling out the LA Convention Center for yet another year. And the HTLA team was there with Vivian Yoon, host of the LAist podcast K-pop Dreaming, and Pixar's Peter Sohn, to get a sense of what KCON means for Los Angeles... and how events like this bring much-needed visibility to the Korean American community.

Guests: Peter Sohn, director of Pixar's Elemental; Vivian Yoon, host of LAist's K-pop Dreaming; & Steve Chung, CEO of CJ ENM America.

Music in this episode composed by: ATEEZ, BTS, Floating Points, Lamp, Masayoshi Takanaka, Maston, modarchive.org, Moon Mullins

For The Love Of Joshua Trees: Why They're More Vulnerable To Wildfire Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

#138: Recently, the weather talk in L.A. has been all about rain, thanks to Tropical Storm Hilary.

The storm, plus the wet winter we had, means that the threat of major fires is reduced in a lot of places. But it's not gone.

Earlier this month, the York Fire in the Mojave Desert burned more than 90 thousand acres, and did some major damage to the Joshua trees in the Mojave National Preserve. These trees are actually succulents and have been around for millions of years. They are native to our region and can only be found in the southwest.

Host Brian De Los Santos talks with science reporter Jacob Margolis about the Joshua trees' chances for bouncing back, and why wildfires are no longer rare in the Mojave Desert.

Testing LA's Response To Natural Disaster: How'd We Do? Aug 22, 2023

Show notes

#137: We spent all weekend bracing for our first tropical storm in decades. BUT
Hilary didn’t get as wild as expected — at least in some parts of the region.

So far there haven’t been any deaths or major injuries reported. But we did get a LOT of rain, about 7 inches in LA county.

Even though the disaster didn’t quite match our biggest fears - we got a chance to see what our city’s response would be to a major environmental catastrophe.

To get a better sense of it, we’re checking in with some of our reporters at LAist.

Guests: Jacob Margolis, science reporter for LAist; Erin Stone, climate emergency reporter for LAist; Nick Gerda, unhoused communities reporter for LAist

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