CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS
MONDAY’S RESULTS
Semifinals
DIVISION I
#5 GALA 21.5, #1 LA Marshall 8
#3 North Hollywood 15.5, #2 Chatsworth 14
DIVISION II
#1 Granada Hills Kennedy 17.5, #4 Bell 10
#2 Carson 20.5, Gardena 9
Note: Division II Finals Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. at Balboa Sports Center; Division I Finals Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. at Balboa Sports Center.
On Tuesday, voters will determine the fate of redistricting measure Proposition 50. But if you’re eager to vote in person, you don’t have to wait. You can easily pop into the polls a day early in many parts of California.
In Los Angeles County alone, there are 251 vote centers that will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday. (They’ll also be open again on Tuesday, election day, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.) At vote centers, you can vote in person, drop off your vote-by-mail ballot, or even register to vote and cast a same-day provisional ballot, which will be counted after officials verify the registration.
“Avoid the rush,” said Dean Logan, the L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk. “Make a plan to vote early.”
Also on Monday, San Diego County’s 68 vote centers are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Orange County’s 65 vote centers from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Riverside County’s 55 vote centers and Ventura County’s nine vote centers between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
All of those vote centers also will be open on election day Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Other populous counties with a similar vote center system include the counties of Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, Fresno, San Mateo, Stanislaus, Sonoma, Placer, Merced, Santa Cruz, Marin, Butte, Yolo, El Dorado, Madera, Kings, Napa and Humboldt.
San Bernardino County, however, only has six designated early voting poll stations. They’re open on Monday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and also on election day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Otherwise, San Bernardino County residents who want to vote in person on Tuesday can go to their assigned neighborhood polling location.
In Santa Barbara County, if you’ve lost or damaged a vote-by-mail ballot, you can request a replacement ballot through county’s elections offices in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria or Lompoc. Otherwise, voters can cast ballots at their assigned neighborhood polls on Tuesday.
All Californian registered voters were mailed a vote-by-mail ballot. There are various ways to drop it off — through the mail, or through a county ballot drop box or polling place.
Be sure to get your ballot into a secured drop box, or at a polling place, by 8 p.m. on Tuesday. You can look up locations of ballot drop-off boxes at the California secretary of state’s or your county registrar of voters’ website (here are the links for Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties).
In L.A. County alone, there are 418 drop boxes.
You can drop off your ballot at any polling place or ballot drop box within California, according to the secretary of state’s office.
You can also send your ballot through the U.S. Postal Service. No stamps are needed. Note that your ballot must be postmarked by Tuesday (and received by the county elections office within seven days).
But beware: Officials have warned that recent changes to the U.S. Postal Service earlier this year may result in later postmarks than you might expect.
In fact, state officials recently warned that, in large swaths of California — outside of the metros of Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Sacramento area — mail that is dropped off at a mailbox or a post office on election day may not be postmarked until a day later, on Wednesday. That would render the ballot ineligible to be counted.
As a result, some officials are recommending that — at this point — it’s better to deliver your vote-by-mail ballot through a secure drop box, a vote center or a neighborhood polling place, rather than through the Postal Service.
“If you can’t make it to a vote center, you can go to any post office and ask at the counter for a postmark on your ballot to ensure you get credit for mailing your ballot on time,” the office of Atty. Gen. Robert Bonta said.
In the 2024 general election, 99% of vote-by-mail ballots were accepted. But that means about 122,000 of the ballots, out of 13.2 million returned, weren’t counted in California.
Here are the top reasons why:
• A non-matching signature: 71,381 ballots not counted.
• Ballot was not received in time: 33,016 ballots not counted.
• No voter signature: 13,356 ballots not counted.
If the voter didn’t sign their ballot, or the ballot’s signature is different from the one in the voter’s record, election officials are required to reach out to the voter to resolve the missing or mismatched signature.
Other reasons included the voter having already voted, the voter forgetting to put the ballot in their envelope, or returning multiple ballots in a single envelope.
Nov. 1 (UPI) — As daylight saving time ends overnight Saturday, a large majority of Americans will turn their clocks back and gain an extra hour of sleep early Sunday morning.
Many clocks will self-adjust at the appropriate time, such as the clocks on computers and cell phones, but others still must be changed manually.
The official time to turn the clocks back is 2 a.m. in states that participate in daylight saving time, which many view as an opportunity to get in an extra hour of celebration in states and locales that require bars to close at 2 a.m. or later.
Most of Canada and northern Mexico also will change their clocks as daylight saving time ends for them.
The purpose is to add an hour of daylight during the morning hours during the winter months and an extra hour of daylight during the evening hours during the summer months, according to USA Today.
Most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do not follow daylight saving time, though, which means clocks will remain the same as the rest of the nation joins them on standard time.
Arizona, with the exception of the Navajo Nation, forgoes daylight saving time due to the summers there being so hot.
Hawaii does not participate in daylight saving time due to its close proximity to the Equator and relatively consistent daylight hours throughout the year.
The U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands likewise do not participate in daylight savings time due to their relatively stable hours of sunlight.
Daylight saving time started this year on March 9, and Sunday marks its earliest end since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the end date from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November, starting in 2007.
The act also changed its start date to the second Sunday in March, which extended daylight saving time by about four weeks per year.
Daylight saving time returns at 2 a.m. on March 8, 2026.
Germany was the first nation to adjust its clocks in 1916 during World War I, with the goal of reducing its energy usage.
Other nations, including the United States, soon followed.
Daylight saving time became a requirement in the United States upon the adoption of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, but states have the ability to opt out.
No state, however, has the option of permanently setting their clocks on daylight saving time.
Acceptance of the annual fall and spring time changes is not universal.
A CBS/YouGov poll in 2022 showed 80% of respondents favored keeping daylight saving time in effect all year, and the Senate that year passed the Sunshine Protection Act.
The measure died in the House of Representatives, however, as it chose not to bring it up for a vote.
Nineteen states, though, are prepared to eliminate the time change if Congress passes enabling legislation to do so.
A measure that would do so has been introduced in the Senate, but it has not been put up for a vote.
The wait for the first Dodgers parade of the century: 36 years.
The wait for the second: One year and two days.
On Monday, in celebration of the Dodgers becoming baseball’s first back-to-back champion in 25 years, Los Angeles will throw another party for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers’ 2025 championship parade starts Monday at 11 a.m. and runs through downtown, followed by a rally at Dodger Stadium. The rally requires a ticket, which can be obtained starting at noon Sunday at dodgers.com/postseason.
For fans with rally tickets, parking lot gates will open at 8:30 a.m. and stadium gates at 9 a.m. The event is expected to start at about 12:15 p.m.
The parade and rally will be aired live on Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 as well as SportsNet LA and AM 570, the team said.
In last year’s rally, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Ice Cube performed next to one another, with Roberts dancing and Ice Cube singing.
At one point, future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw took his turn at the microphone and hollered, “Dodger for life!”
In September, Kershaw announced he would retire at the end of the season. In his only World Series appearance, he got a critical out in the Dodgers’ 18-inning victory in Game 3.
He’ll make his final Dodger Stadium appearance as a player as part of a second consecutive championship rally. He’ll be back: The Dodgers will retire his No. 22 — they retire the number of all their Hall of Famers — and he’d certainly be in line to throw ceremonial first pitches in the Dodgers’ future postseason runs.
For now, though: Three-time champion Dodger for life.
CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS
THURSDAY’S RESULTS
At Balboa Tennis Center, Encino
Finals
OPEN DIVISION
#1 Palisades 24.5, #2 Granada Hills 5
MONDAY’S SCHEDULE
(Matches at 12:30 p.m. unless noted)
Semifinals
DIVISION I
#5 GALA at #1 L.A. Marshall
#3 North Hollywood at #2 Chatsworth
DIVISION II
#4 Bell at #1 Granada Hills Kennedy
#3 Gardena at #2
Note: Division II Finals Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. at Balboa Sports Center; Division I Finals Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. at Balboa Sports Center.
CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS
(Matches at 12:30 p.m. unless noted)
MONDAY’S SCHEDULE
First Round
DIVISION I
#1 LA Marshall, bye
#9 Cleveland at #8 Wilmington Banning
#12 LACES at #5 GALA
#4 Eagle Rock, bye
#3 North Hollywood, bye
#11 SOCES at #6 Van Nuys
#10 Taft at #7 San Pedro
#2 Chatsworth, bye
DIVISION II
#16 Fairfax at #1 Granada Hills Kennedy
#9 LA University at #8 New West
#12 Sylmar at #5 Franklin
#13 Verdugo Hills at #3 Bell
#14 LA Wilson at #3 Gardena
#11 Jefferson at #6 Downtown Magnet
#10 Legacy at #7 Grant
#15 Sun Valley Poly at #2 Carson
TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE
Semifinals
OPEN DIVISION
#4 El Camino Real at #1 Palisades
#3 Venice at #2 Granada Hills
Note: Division I-II Quarterfinals Oct. 29 at higher seeds; Open Division Finals Oct. 30 at 11 a.m. at Balboa Sports Center; Division I-II Semifinals Nov. 3 at higher seeds; Division II Finals Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. at Balboa Sports Center; Division I Finals Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. at Balboa Sports Center
Former USC quarterback and current Fox NFL analyst Mark Sanchez was stabbed early Saturday morning and is being treated in an Indianapolis hospital.
Fox Sports said in a statement that Sanchez, 38, is recovering and in stable condition.
“We are deeply grateful to the medical team for their exceptional care and support. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mark, and we ask that everyone please respect his and his family’s privacy during this time,” the Fox Sports statement read.
Sanchez, who was Indianapolis ahead of an assignment to cover the Raiders-Colts game, was injured following a fight in downtown Indianapolis at around 12:30 a.m.
The Indianapolis Metro Police Department released a statement that read: “Detectives believe this was an isolated incident between two men and not a random act of violence.”
Sanchez, who was born in Long Beach, led Mission Viejo to a 27-1 record as a starting quarterback, winning a Southern Section Division II title in 2004.
He played at USC from 2006-08, passing for 3,965 yards and 41 touchdowns. During his final season at USC, he passed for 3,207 yards and 34 touchdowns as the Trojans posted a 12-1 record and won the Rose Bowl.
Despite objections from then-USC coach Pete Carroll, Sanchez left school early to enter the NFL draft. He was selected by the Jets with the No. 5 pick and went on to play eight NFL seasons, posting a 37-36 record as a starter.
He spent four seasons with the Jets, starting each of his 62 games while throwing for 12,092 yards and 68 touchdowns with 69 interceptions. The Jets lost in the AFC championship in each of Sanchez’s first two years in the league.
Sanchez also appeared in games with Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington. He finished his playing career with 15,357 yards passing, 86 TD passes and 89 interceptions.
The Jets and several of Sanchez’s former teammates posted message of support on social media on Saturday.
“Sending our thoughts and love to Mark Sanchez and his family. Hoping for a speedy recovery, 6,” the Jets said, using Sanchez’s former jersey number.
“Send prayers up for my former teammate mark.. sucks so much to see this,” Kerry Rhodes wrote.
“So sad. Pray for his recovery,” Nick Mangold wrote.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Los Angeles County supervisors criticized the long-awaited $1.9-million outside investigation on government failures during the January wildfires as full of gaping holes after outcry from residents who say the report failed to answer their key question: Why did evacuation alerts come so late for so many?
“I’ve heard from many residents, some of whom are in the audience, who share that this report leads to more questions than answers, and, quite frankly, a lot of anger,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents unincorporated Altadena, as the board discussed the report’s findings at its Tuesday meeting.
Nineteen people died in the Eaton fire, all but one of whom was found in west Altadena, an area that did not get evacuation alerts until hours after the fire threatened the area.
The report from McChrystal Group found, among other failures, that there was no clear guide of which county department was responsible for deciding which areas to evacuate. The responsibility for evacuations is split among the Office of Emergency Management, the Sheriff’s Department and the Fire Department, and none have taken responsibility for the evacuation blunders. The county also failed to consistently issue evacuation warnings to neighborhoods next to ones that were under an evacuation order, the report found.
The pushback by supervisors is notable because they commissioned the report in January and vowed it would get to the bottom of what went wrong. When it was unveiled last week, top county officials hailed it as a blueprint for improvements. But it almost immediately faced criticism from residents and others.
Despite the shortcomings, the supervisors said they were eager to implement the report’s recommendations, which included making it clear who was responsible for issuing evacuations and beefing up staffing for the Office of Emergency Management. The supervisors unanimously approved a motion Tuesday, to start the process of implementing some of the report’s recommendations.
One of the report’s problems, Barger said, is that so many noncounty agencies declined to participate in the report. Several California fire agencies including the Pasadena Fire Department, the state’s Office of Emergency Services and the Los Angeles Fire Department declined to provide information, according to the report.
“It is inexcusable and I would challenge any one of those departments, or any one of those chiefs, to look the survivors in the eye and explain why they were compelled not to cooperate, because that does lead to ‘What are you hiding?’” said Barger, who said she was “incredibly frustrated and disappointed.”
“We have very one-sided information,” acknowledged Erin Sutton, a partner with McChrystal Group. “It is the county information.”
Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said the consultants had been “unable to compel” other agencies to share their automatic vehicle locator data. The Times used county vehicle locator data earlier this year to reveal that most county fire trucks didn’t shift into west Altadena until long after it was ravaged by fire. The Times was not able to obtain vehicle locator data from any of the other fire agencies that were dispatched to the Eaton fire that night.
“We were out of L.A. County Fire trucks. We were relying on our mutual aid partners that were there,” Marrone said. “We just don’t have their data.”
The Sheriff’s Department has also yet to release vehicle locator data on where deputies were that evening. Sheriff Robert Luna said Tuesday that the department had dozens of deputies assisting with evacuations that night.
“We can absolutely do better, and we’re already putting systems in place so that we can do better,” Luna told the supervisors Tuesday. “They weren’t waiting for warnings.”
A spokesperson for the Pasadena Fire Department said the agency didn’t participate beyond providing written information because the “scope of the review was the response by Los Angeles County.” The L.A. Fire Department said it didn’t participate because it was outside the agency’s jurisdiction. The state’s Office of Emergency Services noted it was already conducting its own review.
“I too am frustrated by what I feel are areas of incompleteness,” said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district was scarred by the Palisades fire.
The 133-page report makes only one mention of deaths from the fire. Horvath said she felt the report failed to include the “very painful” accounts from survivors and should have delved into the issue of rogue alerts that urged many to get ready to evacuate even though they were miles away from fire.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell said she wanted to highlight the racial disparity of outcomes in Altadena, an issue she called the “elephant in the room” and one that was not mentioned in the report. Black residents of Altadena were more likely to have their homes damaged or destroyed by the Eaton fire, according to research by UCLA.
Residents feel deeply that their experience — receiving later alerts and fewer fire resources than their neighbors — is not reflected in the report, she said. “We have to figure out how to acknowledge that disconnect, not diminish it,” she said
Congresswoman Judy Chu, whose district includes Altadena, said in a letter to the board that the report left “unresolved questions” around evacuation failures.
“The report does not explain why officials concluded it was safe to wait until 3:25 a.m. to issue the order, or who was responsible for that decision,” she wrote.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors reviewed the McChrystal report on the January fires at a meeting Tuesday.
(Terry Castleman / Los Angeles Times)
Standing on a vacant lot in west Altadena, hundreds of residents said they were frustrated with the report.
“Officials have responded with unconscionable ineptitude,” said Kara Vallow, who said she believed the document “goes out of its way to avoid accountability.”
Speakers called for Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to investigate separately, questioning the independence of the report. Survivors held signs with victims’ names, while others questioned why alerts came so late for west Altadena.
Lauren Randolph, a west Altadena resident, asked why, if flames were near her home in Farnsworth Park at 2:20 a.m., her family nearby didn’t receive an evacuation alert until almost 3:25 a.m.
“I ask again — who was in charge?” she said.
She said she felt the report failed to look into west Altadena, where she alleged that 911 calls were ignored and evacuation notices came late, noting that the area was home to most of Altadena’s Black and brown families.
The report emphasized that the “fire front” had not crossed into west Altadena, where nearly all the deaths took place, until around 5 a.m., nearly two hours after the evacuation orders came for the area. But many west Altadenans decried the description, saying their homes started to burn long before then.
“That is not true,” Sylvie Andrews said, the crowd around her laughing at the assertion.
Shawn Tyrie, a partner with McChrystal Group, acknowledged Tuesday that the satellite images they used don’t provide a “definitive picture,” particularly in cases with extreme wind, ember cast and smoke.
“Those images are severely degraded in smoke conditions like that,” he said, leaving open the possibility that the fire was in west Altadena well before 5 a.m., as residents previously reported to The Times.
Altadena residents voice their displeasure with the McChrystal report shortly before the Board of Supervisors met to review the report.
(Terry Castleman / Los Angeles Times)
Many of the residents’ questions were echoed Tuesday at the Hall of Administration by Barger, who drilled down on the difference between the fire front, which didn’t cross into west Altadena until 5 a.m, and the ember cast, which started dangerous spot fires in the neighborhood long before then.
“For people I’ve talked to who lost their homes, fire front versus ember cast mean nothing other than there was fire in their community, in their neighborhood, burning down homes,” she said.
Marrone said he believed they should have taken the ember cast into account.
“With hindsight being 2020, we do understand now that we must evacuate well ahead of not only the fire front … but we also need to take into account the massive ember cast,” he said.
Marrone said repeatedly that his firefighters were overwhelmed responding to multiple fires that day. Firefighters battled the Eaton fire as hurricane-force winds scattered embers for two miles. Unlike the Palisades fire, the most difficult stretch of the Eaton fire was fought in the dark with winds requiring all aircraft grounded by 6:45 p.m as the fire was just beginning. This left first responders without an aerial view of the flames, reducing their awareness of the fire direction.
Marrone said they’ve made a National Guard satellite program available to incident command, so fire officials can see the path of a fire on nights when they have no aerial support.
“Like I said before, and this is not an excuse, this was a massive, unprecedented disaster that presented severe challenges,” he said.
Barger also questioned why there was such a delay between when fire officials first noticed the fire was moving west and when the evacuation orders were issued. According to the report, a county fire official in the field in Altadena said they suggested to incident command staff a little before midnight that, due to high winds, evacuation orders should go out for the foothills of Altadena, all the way west to La Cañada Flintridge. About two hours later, at 2:18 a.m., a fire official radioed that they saw fire north of Farnsworth Park moving west along the foothills.
The first evacuation order for west Altadena came at 3:25 a.m.
Marrone said incident command needed to validate the report before requesting the order be sent out.
“That took time — probably too much time in retrospect,” Marrone said.
It was a particularly busy Thursday morning for the Bixby Knolls neighborhood of Long Beach.
The area, which is home to an array of independently owned businesses and small restaurants, both of which boast unique facades from storefront to storefront, saw hundreds of eager fans start lining up outside its doors as early as 8 a.m.
Many crowded around one store in particular: Fingerprints Music, which only recently began to call Bixby Knolls its home — in April — after a roughly 15-year residency in downtown Long Beach. As crowd control barricades began springing up and artist security personnel lingered outside the famed vinyl record shop, passersby and neighbors alike began to ponder what could be going on.
It was simple: Cardi B.
The “Bodak Yellow” singer managed to squeeze in a meet-and-greet event at the store to commemorate last week’s release of her sophomore album, “Am I the Drama?” A link to tickets dropped on Fingerprints Music’s website on Sept. 9, which fans barely gave a chance to breathe.
“I follow her on Instagram — I have hard notifications on every platform — so, as soon as the video went up, I rushed to the website and bought it,” said Gerardo Torres of Gardena. “I was probably one of the first few [to buy tickets], less than five minutes after she announced it I already had mine.”
Arlene Heaton, left, of Kern County and Gerardo Torres of Gardena hold a Cardi B flag.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Torres stood near the front of the line, which he joined around 10:30 a.m. Next to him was Arlene Heaton of Rosamond, who had just driven three hours from the Kern County community to arrive at the same time. The two met in line and quickly became friends — she donning a rhinestone-studded ensemble and he draping a flag depicting Cardi B around his shoulders.
“If she would’ve been three hours away, I would have been there as well!” Torres added.
“It took about 10 minutes [to sell out],” Heaton said. “I love the album and I just had to get the CD… I wanted to support her and I came all the way from Rosamond to see this happen — history, this is history.”
Though the event was scheduled for a 2 p.m. start, it wasn’t until 2:30 that Cardi arrived on the scene. A few fans trickled out from behind the store, rejoicing that they’d seen her arrive.
Moments later, security formed a human barrier around the entrance, and Cardi stepped out of the store with a megaphone. Whatever she said was rendered unintelligible among the thunderous cheers of fans who surged forward, putting her entourage to the test.
“I do music myself, I’m not a fan of many, but her? Oh, my God, there was no way. I got up at like 8 in the morning; I set my alarm for 6:30,” said Curshawn Watts, who called herself the “Queen of Compton.” “I was out here! I didn’t care how early I had to be here — I had to be here!” Watts said.
Curshawn Watts, a rapper who calls herself the “Queen of Compton,” holds a CD of Cardi B’s “Am I the Drama?” at Thursday’s meet-and-greet in Long Beach.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
She’d been waiting since 10 a.m. and said the heat didn’t bother her: “It’s worth it all, baby!” she declared.
As fans made their way into the store, they were greeted by the sound of tracks from Cardi’s new album playing on the store speakers. “Am I the Drama?” vinyl records and CDs filled out the shelves, and portraits of Cardi stood above them.
Nestled in the back corner behind a black curtain sat the woman herself, visibly pregnant, in brown snakeskin heels, denim shorts, and adorning various gold statement pieces. She had confirmed in a CBS interview last week that she and NFL star Stefon Diggs were expecting a child.
An estimated 1,200 fans arrived on the blistering day in Long Beach, though only 800 were able to secure a guest list spot to see the 32-year-old hip-hop artist. Others assembled nearby, hoping for a chance to merely lay eyes on her or, perhaps, to get lucky enough to join the meet-and-greet.
Indeed, Fingerprints Music and Cardi B accommodated around 200 to 300 more people toward the tail end of the event from among those who didn’t make the list. The event lasted until well after 5 p.m.
By that time, the somewhat chaotic nature of the meet-and-greet’s afternoon heights had settled down. Street vendors no longer camped outside, artists wrapped up their pieces for sale, and the weather began to cool.
Cardi B prepares to take a photo with a fan at the meet-and-greet.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“We don’t usually do that, but everyone seemed pretty chill,” said Rand Foster, owner of Fingerprints Music. “For somebody at that caliber to be that open was really refreshing.”
Cardi B even stayed overtime to do a surprise signing of an exclusive alternate cover of her album. Four photos from a courtroom appearance she made in August embellish that variant.
Foster said he considered Thursday’s event, the largest the store has held since moving to its new location, to be a resounding success. He noted that when the store was downtown, the store once hosted an Ozzy Osbourne meet-and-greet that had a roughly 2,300-person turnout.
At its location in Bixby Knolls, the store is still feeling out its neighborhood. Foster said not only did the event bring extra traffic to other businesses, but he “didn’t hear any neighbors put out by it.”
Cardi B could have easily opted for a location more central to Los Angeles, such as Amoeba Music, so many fans were surprised and happy to see Long Beach get some love.
One man, who called himself Mr. Boug’e and sported a uniquely curled beard, said it came down to Long Beach being “dope.”
Mr. Boug’e holds up two vinyl record variants of Cardi B’s latest album, “Am I the Drama?”
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“I call it Strong Beach,” he joked. “She got love everywhere — it don’t matter. It can be in an alley… or Alaska; they gon’ love her.”
Foster, whose shop has a long-standing relationship with its Hollywood peers at Amoeba, said the decision by Cardi B’s team to hold her meet-and-greet in Long Beach probably also came down to logistics.
“Anybody who is doing this kind of event and doing it with an eye towards longevity has to be respectful to the neighbors,” he explained. “Our line got about six blocks long; I think that would be tough on Hollywood Boulevard.”
We’ve made it to September. It’s a transitional time in SoCal gardens as well as in our daily lives. It’s the end of summer! The beginning of school! The triumphant return of pumpkin spice! 🤮
In this year of seemingly ceaseless transitions, let’s just take a minute to catch our breath.
Below, you will find, as always, a list of plant-related workshops and events, but I’d first like to consider this lightning-fast year, where titanic changes keep coming with bewildering speed, from devastating and deadly wildfires to ICE raids, tariffs and gut-wrenching international conflicts, to name several.
If you pitched this stuff for a movie (even turmoil with Canada?), it would seem too preposterous to be made. Except we’ve been living this preposterous movie, and it’s been a lot.
A volunteer tomato plant — variety unknown — grows like a champion against a fence, sans any kind of tending, yet it’s outproducing all the other vines planted in carefully prepared beds full of compost and other amendments. To the left is a huge colander of tomatoes picked off the plant with many more left to ripen.
(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
But here’s the thing: Our gardens don’t care, and there’s a certain beauty and reassurance that comes with that. Take the volunteer tomato plant that appeared in a corner of my yard last winter. It grew up and over my fence, while I was preoccupied with everything else going on in the world. Since July, it has been happily producing tons of tomatoes, which are particularly delicious when they’re roasted with garlic and olive oil.
Or consider how at the fire sites in L.A. County, many oaks and other venerable trees survived next to houses destroyed in the flames. I’ve visited burned properties where tall tangles of native sunflowers literally emerged from the ashes to delight native bees, and even roses, supposedly the fussiest of flowers, are blooming on scorched properties sans water, tending or expectation.
Our gardens can’t change the turmoil in our world, but they can help us cope. Even if all you have is a balcony with room for a couple of pots, find a way to plant something this September that can sustain you with fragrance or food or just plain beauty.
Yvonne Savio ran Los Angeles County’s UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program for 25 years before she retired. She’s been gardening for nearly 60 years, so I’d put her in the expert category. For many years, she’s been sharing her wit and wisdom on her website GardningInLA.net, and just recently she started writing for L.A. County’s Master Gardeners’ online newsletter, offering timely tips for plant lovers.
Savio has a huge, envy-inspiring garden in Pasadena. She considers September a transitional time to plant the last of her fast-growing warm-season crops such as green beans and summer squash, and the first of her cool-season crops such as lettuces, kale, peppery greens like mustard and arugula, beets, broccoli and peas (edible) and sweet peas (not edible but beautifully, deliciously fragrant).
For those with smaller gardens, she recommends focusing on cool-weather crops. Even a wide container can grow a thick crop of loose-leaf lettuce — just trim a few leaves from each plant to fill your salad bowl.
At Urban Homestead, a family farm in residential Pasadena, salad mix seeds are planted thickly in narrow trenches, so when the plants emerge they can be easily harvested just a few leaves at a time.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Remove spent warm-season plants first. Bag any diseased plants and put them in the landfill trash so you don’t taint compost piles. Then, she said, enrich your soil with a few inches of compost and mix in some slow-release organic fertilizer such as earthworm castings or Dr. Earth.
Now comes the fun part — choosing your plants. Browse your local nursery for starter packs of greens, lettuces or brassicas like broccoli. But be sure to pick up some packets of seeds as well, especially for beets, which are a double treat with delicious leaves — a bounty in soups! — and colorful roots. They are so good roasted.
You can also order excellent seeds online from California companies such as Renee’s Garden seed in Felton or the Ojai-based Plant Good Seed Co.
Sweet peas such as Renee’s Garden varietal ‘Fire and Ice’ come in a huge mix of colors, but almost all offer a similar prize: an unforgettable sweet fragrance that fills a room with happiness.
(ReneesGarden.com)
Bulbs are a miraculous boon of color in snow country, when early spring is otherwise grim and gray. They’re easy to plant, and once established, they spread and return year after year, making that initial sometimes pricey investment seem very worthwhile.
Sweet peas such as Renee’s Garden varietal ‘Fire and Ice’ come in a huge mix of colors but almost all offer a similar prize: an unforgettable sweet fragrance that fills a room with happiness.
(ReneesGarden.com)
But here’s the scoop about bulbs: Although most will grow in SoCal, many require freezing temperatures to spread and thrive, Savio said.
If you have the cash and patience to treat bulbs like annuals and replant them every year, that’s great. But for the rest of us, Savio recommends focusing on bulbs purchased from Southern California nurseries that do well in our climate. Find out your hardiness zone on the USDA Hardiness Zone Map (most of the Greater Los Angeles Area has a zone around 10, meaning our low temperatures generally stay above freezing) and be sure to choose bulbs that will thrive in your zone.
Some of Savio’s tips for choosing bulbs: Buy the biggest, firmest, driest bulbs you can, without any mold, early in the season. Avoid end-of-season sales because those are usually smaller bulbs that didn’t sell from the previous year.
Savio said she’s found that frilly double-type varieties or late-season bloomers don’t do as well in warmer climates. Try a few by all means, she said, but invest most of your budget in simpler varieties that bloom early in the spring and will likely spread and flourish to give you years of repeat blooms with just one planting.
She said daffodils, paperwhites and fragrant colorful freesias do particularly well.
Her favorite bulb sellers include EasyToGrowBulbs.com, based in Oceanside, and Telos Rare Bulbs in Felton. Most native plant nurseries offer native bulbs, and you can find native Pacific Coast irises and (nonnative) tall bearded irises at Matilija Nursery in Moorpark (which does not do mail order) and Greenwood Daylily Nursery in Somis (which does).
And finally, don’t forget to order some sweet peas! Renee’s Garden and Enchanting Sweet Peas in Sebastapol, Calif., have an inspiring selection. Get some now and be sure to plant them before Thanksgiving as a little happiness insurance for next spring.
The UC Master Gardeners of Los Angeles County are once again offering their modestly priced Grow LA Gardens classes, a series of four basic gardening classes in September and October in Boyle Heights, Van Nuys, Hollywood, San Marino, West Adams, Long Beach and South Pasadena. The classes are on Saturdays or Sundays. Times and prices vary, but most cost $70 for all four classes (the highest rate), or $30 for those who need financial assistance.
Newsletter
You’re reading the L.A. Times Plants newsletter
Jeanette Marantos gives you a roundup of upcoming plant-related activities and events in Southern California, along with our latest plant stories.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Sept. 6 and ongoing
The new Little Tokyo Farmers’ Market from Food Access Los Angeles and the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center opened Aug. 30, and will continue to operate every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the JACCC’s Isamu Noguchi Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. Admission is free. foodaccessla.org
Sept. 6, 7 and 13
Santa Monica Mountains Fund’s free milkweed giveaways provide four to six narrow-leaf milkweed plants per household that were grown and distributed by the Los Angeles Parks Foundation. Milkweed is the host plant for endangered monarch butterflies whose caterpillars dine exclusively on their leaves. Plants will be given away, with instructions on how to put them in the ground, at the Tarzana Community & Cultural Center from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 6; at the Encino Farmers Market in Encino from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 7; and at the Pacoima Back-to-School Resource Fair at Vaughn Global Green Generation Elementary from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 13. Admission is free, but registration is required. eventbrite.com
Sept. 7
Gardening 101: The Whys of Gardening in San Diego is a free class at City Farmers Nursery in San Diego from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. that will offer growing advice and plant tips for gardeners. Admission is free, and no RSVP required. cityfarmernursery.com
Sept. 11
Intro to California Native Plant Garden Design with Theodore Payne Foundation Horticulture Director Tim Becker. It’s from 9 a.m. to noon at the foundation in Sun Valley. Register online, $103.22 ($81.88 members). eventbrite.com
Sept. 12, 19 and 26
3-Part California Native Garden Design with landscape designer Carol Armour Aronson of Seco Verde. It’s from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each day at the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley. The prerequisite course, Right Plant, Right Place, is available online on Sept. 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. for $37.66. The design course is in person. Register online, $396.11 for one; $471.96 for couples working on one design. events.humantix.com
Sept. 13-14
Southern California Begonia Society’s Begonia Show & Sale is from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days at Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar. The show includes free talks and demonstrations about growing begonias in terrariums at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 13, basic begonia culture at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 14 and a tour of the garden’s begonia collection at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 14. The show is free with a $5 admission to the garden (members and children 3 and younger enter free). thesherman.org
Sept. 13
Re-wild: Site Design and Establishing New Plants, led by Tree of Life Nursery co-founder Mike Evans, is from 10 a.m. to noon at the nursery in San Juan Capistrano. Learn how to design a native plant landscape. The class is free, but registration is required. eventbrite.com
Avocado 101 Seminar, a free class about avocado varieties and best practices for growing the trees in your garden, is 10 to 11 a.m. at Otto & Sons Nursery in Fillmore. Reservations are not required. ottoandsonsnursery.com
California Native Plant Container Gardening, taught by Theodore Payne Foundation nursery technician Terrence Williams, is at the nursery in Sun Valley. Register online, $55.20 ($44.52 members). eventbrite.com
Monrovia Community Garden’s Green Care Day is from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the garden in Monrovia. Help weed, mulch and otherwise improve the garden with raised bed maintenance and soil topping. Participation is free. monroviacommunitygarden.org
Your Backyard Orchard, a free class about planning and caring for fruit trees taught by the UC Master Gardeners of Orange County, is from 9 to 10:15 a.m. at the Santa Margarita Water District in Rancho Santa Margarita. ucanr.edu
Rose Care Basics, a free class at City Farmers Nursery in San Diego, is from 9 to 10 a.m. and will offer tips about growing roses in San Diego. Admission is free, and no RSVP required. cityfarmernursery.com
Native Plant Summer Maintenance Basics with Theodore Payne Foundation horticulture educator Erik Blank is from 9 to 11 a.m. at the foundation’s demonstration garden in Sun Valley. Register online, $55.20 ($44.52 members). eventbrite.com
Sept. 14
California Biodiversity Day Free Day is from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at California Botanic Garden in Claremont. The event includes bilingual tours of the garden’s production nursery at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.; a native plant loteria game with help from the Chino Basin Water Conservation District from noon to 1 p.m.; and activities provided by exhibitors from various community organizations between 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance. calbg.org
Horticulturist Andrew Hankey discusses four new ledebouris species from the Steenkampsberg, Mpumalanga in east South Africa, at the September meeting of the South Coast Cactus & Succulent Society at Fred Hesse Jr. Community Park’s McTaggart Hall in Rancho Palos Verdes. The meeting starts at 11 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m. Admission is free. southcoastcss.org
Gardening for Wildlife, a free class at City Farmer’s Nursery in San Diego, is from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and covers how to create a wildlife-friendly sanctuary garden for birds, pollinators and small mammals in San Diego. Admission is free, and no RSVP required. cityfarmernursery.com
Sept. 19
Propagating California Native Plants From Cuttings, a Theodore Payne Foundation class led by Horticulture Director Tim Becker, is from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the foundation’s new Los Angeles satellite Los Nogales Nursery at the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Montecito Heights. Each participant will leave with a flat of a few starts for their own garden. All materials provided. Register online, $108.55 ($81.88 members). eventbrite.com
Sept. 20
Southern California Horticultural Society’s 2025 Annual Awards Banquet is from 5 to 9 p.m. at the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club and honors native plant horticulturist Katherine Pakradouni with the society’s first-ever Pathmaker Award, created to recognize forward-thinking individuals breaking new ground in horticulture. Pakradouni developed the native plant nursery for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing project, collecting about 1 million native seeds from the surrounding region, and has developed several micro forests and other ecological landscapes through her business Seed to Landscape. The society’s Horticulturists of the Year award will go to native plant horticulturist Melanie Baer Keeley, who is developing Alta Vista Natives Nursery in Three Rivers, and her husband, botanist and fire management scientist Jon E. Keeley. Banquet tickets, which include dinner, are available online, $80 ($70 members). socalhort.org
Sept. 20-21
Carbon Culture Workshop: Hands-On Hugelkultur is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Granada Hills and led by Studio Petrichor’s regenerative garden designers Leigh Adams and Shawn Maestretti. Learn how to build hugelkultur berms out of logs and layers of wood chips and soil; and lasagna mulching to tamp down weeds. Bring gloves and a water bottle; lunch provided. Register online $44.52. eventbrite.com
Sept. 26 and 27
California Botanic Garden’s Seeds Walking Tour involves guided tours through the state’s largest botanic garden dedicated to California native plants to learn about what seeds can tell us about their native plants. Tours available from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 10 to 11 a.m. both days at the garden in Claremont. Register online, $20 ($10 members). calbg.org
Sept. 26-28
44th Edition of the Fascination of Orchids International Festival of Orchids & Exotic Plants is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all three days at the Santa Ana Zoo in Santa Ana. The event includes thousands of orchids and exotic plants on display as well as classes about growing orchids and vendors selling supplies. Purchase tickets online, $5.49 per person, valid for all three days. ticketleap.events
Sept. 27
Love Your Lands: National Public Lands Day Event with Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy is from 9 a.m. to noon at the conservancy’s White Point Nature Preserve in San Pedro. It will be a day of helping to remove nonnative plant species, watering new native plantings, seed preparation, garden walks and activities for children. Participation is free, but registration is required. pvplc.volunteerhub.com
Re-wild: Planting Design and Installation, led by Tree of Life Nursery co-founder Mike Evans, is from 10 a.m. to noon at the nursery in San Juan Capistrano. Learn how to implement your native plant landscape design. The class is free, but registration is required. eventbrite.com
Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Become a subscriber.
After two winters of next-to-no rain, SoCal is heading back into drought conditions. Is this the year you finally remove your lawn? If you need inspiration, here are two of our latest stories about Angelenos who pulled out their turf to create native plant landscapes, with the help of an ocean-conscious designer in Long Beach and a creative DIY couple in Harvard Park determined to transform their dead lawn into a vibrant habitat.
Altadena was lush with plants before the Eaton fire, and resident Laurie Scott is intent on replacing that green — and lifting her community’s spirit — with her Regrow Altadena project, which gives free plants to residents to plant around their fire-damaged properties.
Finally, in The Times’ series Imagining a Future L.A., my colleague Patt Morrison predicts a “frond farewell” to L.A.’s iconic fan palms.