Angeles

WASHINGTON — After a generation of comfortable Democratic majorities in the House, Republican congressmen seemed resigned to life in the minority–until Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and the Congressional Opportunity Society began using House rules to wage guerrilla war against the entrenched leadership.

Dismissed at first as gadflies and ideologues, the young Republicans gradually developed political muscles. Two landmark events marked their coming of age: the resignation of Speaker Jim Wright following Gingrich-backed charges of ethics violations, and the election of Gingrich as whip, the second-ranking post in the House minority leadership.

Gingrich’s rise to prominence coincided with a major change in Washington’s political climate. In the 1980s, Washington was a town with clearly marked ideological divides. Issues such as Nicaragua and abortion dominated the agenda; battle lines were clear. The 1990s look quite different. With communism in retreat, the old foreign-policy battles no longer seem so important. After 10 years of a GOP White House, conservatives seem less opposed to strong government, and liberals less committed to it.

In retrospect, Gingrich’s call for sanctions against South Africa’s minority-white government seems a turning point in the emergence of the still unsettled Washington picture. Here was a leading conservative taking a position closer to that of Jesse Jackson than Margaret Thatcher.

If Washington has changed as the result of Gingrich’s challenges, Gingrich is changing as he becomes part of the Washington Establishment he once scorned. Like many political challengers before him, Gingrich seems to be finding that Establishments aren’t so bad–once the club lets you in.

This shift may cause him trouble down the road–Hell hath no fury like a right-wing scorned–but for now Gingrich has the best of both worlds: the support of conservatives and, increasingly, the respect and even friendship of moderates and some liberals.

During a relaxed and casual meeting, Gingrich seemed eager to talk about history and ideas. At times he seemed more like a popular college history teacher–a job he once held–than a powerful member of the congressional leadership. He seems comfortable with himself and his ambitions; confident of making his mark and willing to run risks.

He also has a quality that is rarer in Washington than it should be. For all the huge egos in Washington, there are relatively few people who see themselves against the backdrop of history. Gingrich is one. Men like Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are often in his speech–perhaps this says something about the scale of his ambition. That both these men were mavericks who changed parties and allies during their careers says something else about Gingrich. He will be hard to pin down in the political battles of the future–his loyalty seems given more to a vision than to people or parties.

Question: What is your foreign-policy vision for the United States?

Answer: Well, I think first of all you have to start with the presumption that there are three huge changes under way. There’s the rise of the true world market, where competitiveness and the speed of information flow and ease of transportation means that you are beginning to be connected internationally in the sense that in the 19th Century you had a national economy.

Second, there is the spread of the technology of destruction in such ways that you’re going to have, by the end of the century, places like Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria that are capable, at a minimum, of threatening European cities with ballistic missiles and chemical and nuclear warheads. By the year 2000 to 2010, they may be able to attack the United States directly. That is a whole level of combat and conflict that we are not used to.

Third, you are living through a fundamental change in the Soviet empire. This clearly destabilizes the whole planet in the sense that for 45 years we had a bipolar world, with a Western coalition containing the Soviets . . . .

You have to start with a fundamental reassessment of America’s role, as decisive in some ways as the late ‘30s decision to commit us to stopping Japan and Germany or as decisive as the late ‘40s decision to contain the Soviet empire.

But we’ve got to reformulate a new image of where the planet is going. What does America want in the world–and then what is America’s role in trying to get it?

Q: It’s interesting that you mentioned those two periods, the ‘30s and the ‘40s, as times of great change because in both those times the conservative movement tended to take a more isolationist stance.

A: If you go back before 1937 and 1938, conservatism, from say 1860 to 1928, was the internationalist movement. And it was the Democrats, the (William Jennings) Bryan wing of the Democratic Party that was isolationist . . . .

Then, beginning in the ‘20s, you had a role reversal. And as the conservatives became less the government and more oppositional, they also became less internationalist and more isolationist. What you had, beginning with Eisenhower, and Nixon in all fairness–Nixon was one of the people who voted for the Marshall Plan–you had the emergence of first, an internationalist anti-communist Republicanism and then under Reagan and Bush that has broadened . . . .

I think that today there is much more isolationism in the Democratic Party than in the Republican Party . . . (where) there’s much more internationalism and much more of a commitment to the world market . . . .

Q: How would you define the differences between your view and that of the Democratic Party?

A: Well, there’s a difference about the question of safety, a difference about the question of international competition and a difference about the speed of transition–if I can break them down like that.

First of all, safety. The liberal Democrats basically are myopically focused on Central Europe and on Gorbachev, and their basic theme is, since Gorbachev seems to be succeeding and Soviet power seems to receding from East Germany, the world is safer. Therefore, we can demilitarize.

I would argue that we’re caught in the tragic irony that the curve, if you will, of threat from Iraq, Iran and Syria is rising at a rate about as fast as–or faster than–the curve of Soviet threat is declining . . . .

Now the question I would pose is: Is the world still going to be dangerous–even if Gorbachev succeeds? My answer would be yes. In fact, the world’s going to be more dangerous than people think. Dictators are going to have higher-power weapons that are more sophisticated than people think. And some of these dictatorships are very big. The Syrian Army has more artillery than the American Army. So when you say, “Gee, we can shrink dramatically,” my answer is fine–if you’re willing to allow the Iraqis to threaten American cities without SDI. If you’re willing to allow the Iraqis and the Iranians to seize the oil fields, and if you’re willing to give up Israel . . . . And I think most of my Democratic friends on that are just sophomoric. I don’t think they’d even look at the data base, because it conflicts with their ideology.

And the second big question is the world market . . . . The bureaucratic welfare state and permissive attitudes are incapable of competing in the world market. The correct answer is to reform and revitalize America, not to retreat . . . .

And I think a lot of my Democratic friends, because they have to bear the burden of the public-school bureaucracy in the inner city, and they have to bear the burden of the big-city machines, and they have to bear the burden of union work rules–their reaction is to say, “Gee, we have to find ways to withdraw from the world market, and to somehow build a self-sustaining America.” I think that’s crazy and I think in the long run it means a lower standard of living and fewer jobs for Americans.

Lastly, there is the question of speed. I thought it was almost funny that George Mitchell and Dick Gephardt decided that George Bush wasn’t moving fast enough. If you look historically over the Bush Presidency and you look at the change in Panama, Nicaragua, East Germany, Hungary, Poland . . . this has been unbelievable . . . .

I say this: I’m a conservative and I’m willing to criticize George Bush, and I voted to override on the Chinese student veto, but I have to say overall that they get A-plus marks on managing a transition of unbelievable complexity. And getting freedom further in 18 months than anyone would have thought possible.

Q: Among the Soviet Republics, Lithuania is an easy call in that we never recognized the annexation, but then you start looking at other separatist movements–including Russia. Isn’t there a fear of a nuclear Lebanon in the Soviet Union?

A: You have a fear of the unknown there. You’ve also got to recognize objective realities. There’s an Indian reservation in northern Vermont that claims it’s not in the United States. Now what if Gorbachev decided next Thursday to recognize it? I mean, you’ve got to decide, all right, what are the ground rules here. The Soviet Union does exist . . . . I think it’s now an empire in transition, but it exists. And it is going to have to decide inside itself how it allows itself to dismember. If they adopt a rule that says if the Georgians vote 70% to secede, that is frankly a more open rule for withdrawal than we have in the United States . . . .

Of course, if Russia does declare itself independent or sovereign it will be the first time that the mother country declared herself free from the empire. So it would be a dramatic change. And I think our position is that all of these republics have the right of self-determination and we would certainly encourage the Soviet government to tolerate and negotiate with all of these republics.

Q: As an American Georgian, you would know that.

A: Yeah, that’s right. I mean, we Georgians, we’ve already had this argument. Now, you can make the argument in their case that it wasn’t a voluntary collection (of republics); it’s the late 19th Century empire. That’s a good argument. But you are seeing Gorbachev take what is, after all, a pretty radical position and saying, look, we’re going to figure out a legal formula for you to get out of here. Well, that’s pretty amazing . . . .

And I think it’s a little unfair to say yeah, he did all that, but boy now I have this new excuse to get mad at him. And as long as he doesn’t use military force, it seems to me that we owe him the opportunity to try to lead his own country to sort itself out . . . .

Q: How is the Administration responding?

A: Well I think that the decision by the Soviet government to open up some economic activity in Lithuania is a victory for Bush. And I think if he can continue to encourage and nudge Gorbachev in the direction of re-establishing economic patterns with Lithuania, I think it will be a very big plus for him.

Q: Earlier you remarked that, in talking to the President about Lithuania, you said we need Winston Churchill, not Stanley Baldwin. Does that still apply?

A: Well, I think the President convinced me that it wasn’t the same kind of situation; that who we may need is George Bush, and that, in fact, he is negotiating and maneuvering his way through a very complicated situation with considerable skill.

Q: OK, let’s talk now about some of the global economic issues, because I think it’s clear to all of us that they are going to be dominant. Some people think that the economic competition among the former Western allies may become very, very fierce. Do you?

A: Not necessarily fierce, but it will become intense. But . . . it’s not that we’re competing for the same pie. We’re competing to build bigger bakeries . . . . The world market is extraordinarily underdeveloped and there is an enormous amount of money to be made over the next century helping the entire planet achieve a high standard of living. So there ought to be intense competition for how we build the bigger bakery. But we don’t have to have any kind of competition over who gets bread, because everybody ought to be getting bread . . . .

Q: Do you think that the world economy is breaking up into blocs or that there is a danger of this?

A: There’s a permanent danger of breaking up into blocs, but I wouldn’t exaggerate that. I think there is much, much more to be gained in the long run by actively building global countries and global companies. We are much better off to have more IBMs and more General Motors and Fords and AT&Ts; that are able to be everywhere. And we’re much better off to have thousands of new, small businesses that compete everywhere a jet airplane goes, and anywhere a fax machine can receive their latest advertisement. And I think we want to encourage this, more than anybody else, because we are perfectly suited for the world economy.

Q: More than any other country?

A: More than any other country. I mean geographically, we can reach both Europe and Asia simultaneously and Latin America. And in terms of our own cultural background. We are the only universal country of the planet, the only country that has people from everywhere. And therefore, we ought to be the advocates of the widest global market.

Q: Does that suggest the possibility that other countries may not be as enthusiastic for this as we are–for example, Europe?

A: They may not be. I mean, the Europeans don’t even have a real concern about that. On the other hand, the Europeans need us to balance off the Germans . . . . The price of having a market of nations that really do compete with each other, is that you have got to be able to sit down for long negotiations, and you just have to go in and tough it out.

Q. This sounds a lot like what used to be called liberal internationalism in the 1940s. So is it true that the liberalism of today is the conservatism of tomorrow?

A. Could be. I think that it’s that and an ongoing sense of thesis, antithesis, synthesis to some of that . . . . But if you would have interviewed a Democrat back in 1948, he would have said, “Gee, this sounds like Theodore Roosevelt.” Theodore Roosevelt’s wing of the Republican Party has consistently been the dominant dynamic in American life for most of the last century.

Q: So would you say Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Newt Gingrich is the line of succession?

A: No . . . . To be honest, I’d say Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Reagan. It’s important to remember that Reagan was an FDR Democrat, and that when the Democratic Party moved to the left, Reagan left.

Tobias Farris could hardly believe his eyes.

As Farris and others trying out for the Los Angeles High football team huffed and puffed through conditioning drills in preparation for the 1996 season, Coach John Watson barked encouragement while matching his players push-up for push-up, sit-up for sit-up and sprint for sprint.

“I was shocked,” said Farris, now a senior defensive end. “I was like, ‘How old is this guy?’ ”

Watson, the dean of Los Angeles City Section football coaches, will be 57 in December. But the only hint of age is some slight graying at the temples.

In his 25th season at L.A. High, the district’s oldest high school, Watson is a fitness fanatic. He is also a dinosaur of sorts: a City Section coach who has spent his entire career at one inner-city school.

“It’s almost unbelievable,” said Peter Duffy, in his second season as coach at Fremont. “To coach in the inner-city, at one school, for that long, takes a special person.”

By all accounts, Watson is one.

Never mind that his teams have not won a City championship and have played in only one final.

Watson, L.A. High’s dean of students, has endured through five school administrations and the changing demographics of the Pico-Union area that make fielding a team a yearly challenge. While many of his colleagues are designing complicated offensive and defensive schemes, much of Watson’s time is spent teaching the most elementary principles of the game.

“I still really love to work with the kids and I’m as enthusiastic as I was 20 years ago,” said Watson, who has coached the Romans to five league titles since succeeding Ollie Matson in 1973. “I’ve been offered opportunities at other schools, but why would I want to go anywhere else? I get to know the players here and really like them. It’s more than just coaching some guys. Our teams are close.”

They also are small in numbers.

This year’s squad has only 26 players. The Romans are 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the Coastal Conference going into Friday’s regular-season finale against unbeaten Westchester, The Times top-ranked team in the section.

“John has the right temperament because L.A. High is certainly not the Nebraska of high school football,” said Palisades Coach Ron Price, who has coached at various schools in the district for 30 years. “It’s hard to put kids on the field sometimes, but L.A. is always competitive. He has some good athletes and he gets the most out of them.”

Larry Brown, the 1996 Super Bowl most valuable player for the Dallas Cowboys, played for Watson. So did several other talented skill-position players who have gone on to four-year colleges.

But Watson’s trademark is taking inexperienced players and turning them into one of the most competitive–and fittest–teams in the City.

“With small numbers, you have to play a lot of kids both ways, and John makes sure those kids can do it physically for four quarters,” Manual Arts Coach Glenn Bell said. “The thing is, he’s probably in better shape than any of his players.”

Watson’s personal training regimen began as a reaction to his own first experience as a high school football player in Arkansas.

“When I was in 10th grade, my coach made us put on full gear and run 20 laps around the track–and it must have 90 degrees in that humidity,” said Watson, who played at Texas College and later in the Continental Football League. “I said to myself, ‘I will never let a coach get me in shape again.’ I’ve been working out on my own every day since.”

Watson does 700 to 1,000 push-ups and sit-ups daily and has run the stadium steps on campus almost every school day since he was hired as a teacher at L.A. High 28 years ago. He plays full-court, three-on-three basketball with students and regularly challenges his football players and assistants to passing contests.

Until this year, Watson was out the door of his Carson home every morning at 4 for a six-mile run.

“I did that for 20 years, but my wife finally stopped me,” Watson said. “I guess she’s right. A man almost 60 years old doesn’t have to run in the morning and afternoon.”

Watson’s example inspires his players.

“If he can do the push-ups and all the work, then we should be able to do it too,” Farris said. “We have a lot of rag-tag guys, but he puts them out there and we win. He’s got to be a good coach to do that.”

The Romans have been led this season by quarterback-defensive back Terrence Brown, the son of Tony Brown, a lineman for Watson’s league championship teams in 1974 and ’75. Farris, fullback-linebacker Chris Rogers and wide receiver-cornerback Chris Elize also have performed well for the Romans.

But Watson has no illusions about Friday’s game against Westchester.

“I’m realistic,” Watson said. “I tell them they’re a better team than we are. But we’re going to play as hard as we can. If we do that we’re going to be better ballplayers when the game is over. We might not beat Westchester, but the experience is going to improve us for when we play someone else in the playoffs.”

After 25 seasons, he has no plans to stop coaching any time soon. As long as there are kids who want to play football, Watson will be there to teach them.

“I’ve lasted this long because I’ve been able to make adjustments to whatever I have to work with,” he said. “You have to be flexible enough to change with the times or you should get out. It’s that simple.”

Even though it was late October, I couldn’t help but feel jealous as I watched my best friend Jenny swim into the calm, clear water of the American River near downtown Sacramento.

I was in town to cheer Jenny on as she competed in a long-distance triathlon. Although the race was such a fun experience, that moment on that tree-lined river bank stuck with me. In my home state of Oklahoma, I regularly swam in lakes and kayaked and rafted in rivers. But freshwater recreational opportunities were harder to come by once I moved to L.A.

This all led me to wonder: Will it ever be safe to swim in the Los Angeles River?

This felt like an especially relevant time to discuss this question, as Friends of the L.A. River will host its annual (free!) RiverFest this Sunday from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. at L.A. State Historic Park in Chinatown. This year also marks the organization’s 40th birthday.

After reading this edition of The Wild, our weekly outdoors newsletter, I hope you feel as fired up as I do about how we can work toward a day when the answer to my question is “Yes!” But we aren’t there yet. Let’s explore why.

The L.A. River is a 51-mile waterway that flows from the confluence of Bell Creek and Arroyo Calabasas in Canoga Park, ending in Long Beach as it flows into San Pedro Bay near the Queen Mary.

Candice Dickens-Russell, chief executive at Friends of the L.A. River, told me that her organization’s founder spent decades trying to persuade Angelenos to understand that our local watercourse was not a manmade concrete flood channel but actually a river that has been surrounded by concrete.

“I’m feeling like we’re at a tipping point for people to understand that the L.A. River is really a river, which is wonderful because our founder spent his entire life trying to get people to understand that,” she said.

Channelization of the L.A. River started in the mid-1930s after a number of devastating floods and was completed in 1960.

In an early 1936 article, Times real estate editor Charles C. Cohan seemingly praised the channelizing of a nine-mile stretch of the river from Fletcher Drive westerly to Lankershim Boulevard, calling it “one of the greatest stream-channel transformations ever undertaken in the West.”

Cohan went on to write: “Men and machinery directed by the United States Army engineers are changing that vitally important length of the river from an irresponsible water course into a far larger, thoroughly conditioned channel that will be a vitally important flood protection while at the time conforming to the well-ordered, picturesque region through which it passes.”

It didn’t have to be this way.

Before the devastating flooding of 1938, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce commissioned two major landscape architecture firms in 1927 to develop a report analyzing how the region could develop more parkland in an already park-poor city.

“The report imagined an ‘emerald necklace,’ an urban paradise of parks and rivers and open spaces and public beaches encircling L.A. County, and it also laid out the practical, political and financial mechanisms to make it happen,” Times columnist Patt Morrison wrote in May.

The report’s authors wrote about how flood-prone land would make for better park space than business and residential developments, as anything built in these areas would inevitably be damaged during floods. The parks could also serve as their own kind of protection.

“Parkways along the river were intended to reduce the need for structural flood protection features,” according to a 2001 state report.

For political and financial reasons explored in the book “Eden by Design,” that plan was shelved and long forgotten after it was published in 1930. Around 1938, local officials worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to channelize the L.A. River, literally paving the way for what we experience today and what we’ve seen on film in everything from “Grease” to “Drive.”

In recent years, local groups have started advocating for a “rewilding” of the L.A. River, removing some level of concrete and instead using our natural environment and watershed as a means of flood control.

“If we develop and retrofit land to capture water, we can reduce the intensity of flood waters and peel back concrete to enable all of the essential functions healthy rivers and soil provide,” according to the local nonprofit the River Project.

This would certainly also change the swimming experience to a much more natural opportunity, rather than feeling like you’re floating about in a large, flowing swimming pool.

The future of the river becoming swimmable, though, depends in large part on how much water is left for recreation, a complicated equation for officials to develop in a region constantly grappling with how to rely less on imported water.

Presently, the L.A. River is fed, in part, by rain and snowmelt in the wet months.

In the dry months, its main water source is three water reclamation plants that release tertiary treated water into the river. “These plants take all the wastewater from apartment buildings, houses and commercial operations and cleans it. Some of that water is used for irrigation at city parks and golf courses. Some feeds Lake Balboa,” my former Times colleague Deborah Netburn wrote in 2018. “But most of it — more than 30 million gallons each day — ends up in the river.”

Dickens-Russell of Friends of the L.A. River said for the last three years, she has sat alongside leaders from government agencies, local nonprofits and more to discern, among other things, just how much water our river needs. (For my fellow nerds who want to Google their hearts out, the full name of this effort is the Los Angeles River California Environmental Flows Framework Project, or CEFF.)

For example, the L.A. River has three soft-bottomed areas where plant and animal life thrives. If the river were starved of reclaimed water in the dry months, what would happen to those ecosystems?

“No one is saying the river doesn’t need water — there is no debate about whether there should be water in the river — the debate is … how much water does the river need?” Dickens-Russell said. “We’re trying to establish that baseline.”

The CEFF group will meet for the last time in less than two weeks, and afterward, its members will send their findings to the state water board, which oversees any changes to river flow in California, she said.

Even as officials discern the amount of the water the river needs for its multitude of uses, the L.A. River also has to be clean enough to swim in.

And humans and our behaviors are one of the biggest reasons our river water becomes polluted.

When it rains in cities, that water runs off buildings, driveways and roads, picking up fertilizer from our yards and farmlands, motor oil spilled on our streets and highways, pesticides sprayed on our plants, dirt and bacteria. This untreated runoff makes its way through storm drains and ditches into our local streams and rivers and eventually, the ocean.

Additionally, for years, runoff from industrial sites along the river have added to the problem, an effort that’s been highlighted as climate justice activists work to develop the former Taylor Yard, a railroad maintenance yard, into a park.

This is all part of a much larger problem beyond the banks of the L.A. River. “Polluted runoff is one of the greatest threats to clean water in the U.S.,” according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The river is especially gnarly after its so-called “first flush,” when L.A. experiences its first big rain after a lengthy dry spell, and everything that’s built up on our roadways flows into the river.

Addressing this pollution to the extent that would make the L.A. River swimmable is not an impossible task, but it’s one that would require significant investment in our local infrastructure — like implementing creative solutions to keep out or remove trash from the river. That’s where public opinion and advocacy come into play, Dickens-Russell said.

Cities across the world like Portland and Copenhagen have successfully transformed their urban rivers into green spaces that offer reprieve from intense and increasingly frequent heat waves in our climate-changed world. Unlike Paris, which made a $1.5-billion investment in cleaning the Seine, our river won’t be ready — unless something substantial changes — for the 2028 Olympics.

The possibility of swimming in the L.A. River, though, is far from a new idea.

“Towards a swimmable, fishable, boatable river,” read the first page of the Friends of the L.A. River’s first “State of the Los Angeles River” report, published in 2005.

Swimming in our river isn’t going to happen with just “one good project,” but instead a mix of people changing their behaviors and also pushing for change, Dickens-Russell said.

“Looking at your question, ‘When will we be able to swim in the L.A. River?’” Dickens-Russell said, “I don’t know that that’s the question. I think the question is what we’re willing to invest to make that possible. A swimmable river is an achievable goal, but it’s going to require sustained investment in water quality and things like habitat restoration and safe and equitable public access. Every project that reduces pollution and restores natural function brings us a little bit closer to that. And yeah, we should be planning for a future where Angelenos can safely swim in the L.A. River. Why not?”

While digging through The Times’ archives for this story, I found a new visual of a river to inspire me: Three boys swimming in the L.A. River in 1936.

“Viewing the dusty Los Angeles River bed last week no one would have thought of swimming in connection with it,” the caption read. “But yesterday Bob Henderson, Stanley Hayden and Archer Bolton frolicked in the flood waters near Bell, thanks to the week-end rain.”

Ninety years later, I’m dreaming of one day doing the same. How long will that take exactly? It’s up to all of us to find out.

3 things to do

1. Celebrate the full spectrum of the animal kingdom in L.A.
Environmental educator Jason Wise and biological anthropologist Natalia Reagan will host a sunset queer ecology walk from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 13 in Griffith Park. The co-hosts will dive deep into the world of animal homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, polyamory and more. Suggested donation of $30. Register at eventbrite.com.

2. Churn up hills in L.A.
Labyrinth, a trail run club, will host Dirt & Dessert from 7:30 to 10 a.m. Saturday in Griffith Park. Participants will tackle a 5K trail run while churning their own ice cream. Runners should bring their own bag, vest or backpack to hold ice cream-making materials, which will be included in the $14 event fee. Register at eventbrite.com.

3. Nurture native habitat in Northeast L.A.
We Explore Earth needs volunteers from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Ascot Hills Park to beautify the park’s hillsides and trails. Participants will remove invasive species and support native habitat recovery. Register at eventbrite.com.

The must-read

Cyclist Marc Papas is on a mission to bike every public street in L.A., an estimated 7,516.07 miles. Papas moved to L.A. in late 2020 after completing his PhD at Georgia Tech, freelance journalist Oren Peleg wrote for The Times. Papas was initially scared to ride his bike around L.A., fearful of all he’d been told about our city’s car-filled and dangerous streets. Then he found himself asking: “With perfect weather year-round, and a mostly flat topography, why wasn’t everyone in L.A. riding bikes?” His passion evolved into “The Project,” of which he’s already ridden over 78% (about 5,840 miles) of our city’s streets.

Who else feels inspired to jump on their bike?

Happy adventuring,

P.S.

After my friend Maria told me she’d signed up for $10 kayaking classes after learning about them from my Instagram Stories, it made me realize that there were likely many others who’d like to know that information. L.A. County Parks and Recreation is hosting stand-up paddleboard and kayaking classes, and they’re only $10 per session. Instructors will teach participants about proper paddling technique, balance and coordination, and water safety. The classes will be offered at Santa Fe Dam, Bonelli Regional Park and Castaic Lake. August classes have sold out at Santa Fe Dam and Bonelli, but several spots remain at Castaic Lake, which sits north of L.A. and offers amazing views of the San Gabriel Mountains. Sign up by searching “kayak” or “stand” on the county’s activity registration website. A great way to have fun and stay cool this summer!

For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.

The ongoing explosion of revival screenings in Los Angeles is an opportunity not just to revisit accepted classics, but also to give a spotlight to undersung oddball picks deserving of broader attention.

Take for example 1988’s “Tapeheads.” An offbeat comedy about two friends trying to break into the then-emergent world of music videos, the film stars John Cusack and Tim Robbins just as their careers were starting to take off. A snapshot of a specific moment in Los Angeles — some shots of downtown’s skyline at sundown have an unexpected beauty — the film has never been lost exactly, but it is deserving of renewed interest.

The movie will show on Monday as part of the American Cinematheque’s Cinematic Void program at Los Feliz Theatre, screening from a rare 35mm print provided by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Director and co-writer Bill Fishman will be there along with producer and co-writer Peter McCarthy, producer Eric Barrett and production designer (later turned director) Catherine Hardwicke.

Cusack and Robbins star as Ivan and Josh, friends since childhood now working as nighttime security guards until they figure out their future. Cusack’s Ivan has ambition and drive while Robbins’ Josh is sensitive and creative. Together they launch a music video business and take it upon themselves to revive the careers of their favorite soul singers, the fictional Swanky Modes (played by real-life soul legends Sam Moore and Junior Walker). Josh and Ivan soon find themselves accidentally wrapped up in a blackmail scheme involving a sex tape and a conservative politician, complicating everything.

“It was a hustler and an artist and the merging of the two, trying to get some sort of balance with your creative side and what you needed to do to make a living,” explains Fishman, now 68, during a recent video interview from Venice, Calif. “We came up with the credo ‘You do what you gotta till you can do what you wanna.’ And that was really where it came from.”

Before making his feature debut with “Tapeheads,” the native New Yorker had already found success in his 20s as a music video director himself, creating clips for songs such as Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” and the Georgia Satellites’ No. 2 hit “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.” Straddling the music scene and Hollywood, Fishman found that a satire of conservative politics came to him naturally.

“Music videos seemed to be an easy thing for me to do because I knew that world,” he says. “Even though the story was what we thought would be completely ludicrous, it ended up being much more realistic than we believed.”

James Branscome, who programs the Cinematic Void series for the American Cinematheque, calls the rare chance to show the film a bucket-list experience.

“It was a weird movie that felt lost, especially when it stars John Cusack and Tim Robbins being zany in a way they don’t often get to be,” he says by phone. “It felt like this very organic, perfect movie, like: This checks so many boxes for me.”

Among the producers on the film is Michael Nesmith, a former member of the Monkees, and through him the project fell under the production umbrella of NBC. Fishman remembers being invited to the home of Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC Entertainment and a green-lighter of titles including “Miami Vice” and “Seinfeld.” What he thought was going to be a relatively brief meeting was instead hours of Tartikoff patiently going through the script page by page.

“I did not know anything,” remembers Fishman, whose most recent credit is the 2024 film “Waltzing With Brando,” starring Billy Zane. “I thought Hollywood was always going to be like this. But I didn’t realize that my best experience was my first and then we were going to have to fight and claw for the rest of it.”

It was young casting director Victoria Thomas (lately of “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and “Michael”) who brought in Cusack and Robbins. Cusack, a Chicagoan, was in Los Angeles to appear onstage with Robbins’ theater group the Actors’ Gang and the two of them came in to audition together.

“They had really prepared,” says Fishman. “And after an hour or more of the interview, which went great, I said, ‘I want you guys to switch roles.’ And that freaked them out. They were like, ‘We can’t do that. We rehearsed. We can’t just throw this together for you.’ I said, ‘I really think you should.’ And they said, ‘OK, give us 15 minutes.’ And they walked out onto the street in Venice and they came back in as the other characters, redid the audition and that’s how they were cast.”

Fishman made sure to show Cusack the 1957 film “Sweet Smell of Success,” with Tony Curtis’ smarmy press agent an influence on his character. Fishman also says Cusack’s greased-back hair and pencil mustache were partly inspired by Eric Roberts in “Star 80.”

“Tapeheads” captures a specific moment in Los Angeles history, sure to be nostalgic for some, from a desolate downtown to a percolating music scene. Legendary local party band Fishbone provided music for the score and appears briefly as a country-and-western bar combo. Devo rerecorded a version of their song “Baby Doll” in Swedish to stand in for an international boy band’s hit. The film is also full of cameo appearances by real-life music figures, including “Soul Train” host Don Cornelius, MTV’s Martha Quinn, comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, rapper Doug E. Fresh and musicians “Weird Al” Yankovic, Ted Nugent and Stiv Bators. (A then-largely unknown Courtney Love has an uncredited appearance as a dominatrix on a sex tape.)

“The soundtrack and the people we used in the film were reflective of the wide spectrum of what was unifying, I thought, for the counterculture in specifically L.A.,” says Fishman. “It wasn’t a film about punk rock, it wasn’t a film about rhythm and blues or hip-hop. It was a film about young people expressing themselves.

“When you would go out in Los Angeles at that time, you would go to nightclubs and all these bands would be playing in the same club,” he says. “If you were part of the counterculture you could play anything or dress any way and you were sort of accepted. It was a creative scene and that’s what the film was about.”

One highlight of the movie is a commercial Ivan and Josh make for local L.A. eatery Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles (still going strong), featuring a memorable rap by blues singer King Cotton and done with a bold yellow and black look.

“I grew up in New York City and chicken and waffles was not a thing,” says Fishman. “People here would go get it late night in Hollywood and when I was looking for some business that they could do a video for, it just struck me as an absurd combination, which was all about what the film was about: absurd combinations. And it happens to be delicious.”

“That Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffle commercial is incredible,” says programmer Branscome. “Which is the most California thing because outside of L.A. no one knows what a Roscoe’s is unless you’ve been here. It’s full of very niche stuff that is elevated. It works on one level, but if you know exactly what it is, it gives it a different dynamic.”

When “Tapeheads” was released in October 1988 (after a berth at the film festival that would be later renamed Sundance), it struggled to find theaters. Moore and Walker performed on “Late Night With David Letterman” as the Swanky Modes. According to Fishman, Cusack and Robbins were both reluctant to do press for the film at the time “because they thought it was uncool.”

It was not until it hit the VHS market that the movie truly began to find its audience. That said, it has never been on Blu-ray and is available to stream from only a few scattered sites. Perhaps this sold-out L.A. screening, with the support of some of the key behind-scenes-team, will help spur the film toward a broader renaissance. It deserves to be seen as more than just a cult curio.

“As soon as people saw the film, they said, ‘Oh, this is a cult film’ and I always hated that,” says Fishman. “I was like, ‘No, it’s not a cult film — it’s a pop movie.’ We wrote it to play to everybody.”

Refreshing and laced with seaweed, aromatics and sauces, Hawaiian poke can be one of the most energizing and delicious meals to seek out, especially during the summer. Los Angeles was an early appreciator of poke, embracing the raw, seasoned cubed fish long before it went mainstream throughout the country in the 2010s.

Raised in Pepeʻekeo, Hawaii, Unreal Poke co-founder Jordan Maldonado credits this not only to California’s proximity to Hawaii, but also to L.A.’s understanding of poke as it pertains to Hawaiian culture and tradition. The latter, he said, is fueling a new wave of independent poke shops and pop-ups throughout L.A. and Orange County.

“It’s gone further than what happened in the big poke boom of 2008 to 2015,” Maldonado said. “Culture is just as important as food and flavor, and I think that people in L.A. are waking up to: This is a community, this is a culture, these are people that were displaced… They say, ‘Hey, not only do I want to eat here because the food’s good, but I feel like I’m supporting something bigger.’ That became kind of unexpected for me, like, ‘Whoa, my customers care.’”

Maldonado and others are educating customers not only on poke flavors and formats, but also about seafood sourcing and Hawaii’s fishing ecosystem. Some are also introducing guests to new products by stocking imported teas, pantry items, macadamia nuts and nori. Others are infusing traditional poke with their own heritage, incorporating Korean banchan or Laotian sauce blends.

As a result, L.A.’s poke landscape is more diverse and more thoughtful than ever before.

“I was proud that we had a poke shop doing pretty well in Hawaii,” said Ry’s Poke Shack co-owner Ryan Ching, who expanded his famous Oahu stand to Pasadena and Lomita earlier this year. “The next state that’s very competitive for the poke industry is California, so I figured if we start in the two hardest locations, then every other state should be a cakewalk.”

From stalwart South Bay spots to a new parking lot poke pickup in the San Fernando Valley, here are 13 of L.A.’s best poke spots. —Stephanie Breijo

President Trump touched down in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening and headed directly to his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course to headline a fundraiser for the Republican Party.

Though the visit was for a standard campaign benefit in the run-up to November’s elections, it was not without drama.

While the President was en route to California, authorities announced the arrest of an armed man who had been spotted suspiciously documenting security preparations at the golf course Sunday.

Sheriff’s deputies discovered the man had brought a gun and ammunition to the golf course. On Monday, they uncovered an alarming weapons stash, including an illegally modified AR-style rifle, a .45-caliber pistol and high-capacity magazines, at his Downey residence.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon, a group of more than two dozen protesters gathered outside the Trump National Golf Club entrance in anticipation of the president’s arrival.

The demonstrators chanted “Impeach Trump”and waved signs with slogans such as “Save our democracy” and “Pretti good time to resist,” referencing ICU nurse Alexander Pretti, who was fatally shot by federal agents in January, as passing cars periodically honked in approval.

“There are so many things that have happened [during the Trump administration] that are so disgusting, and I’m so worried for my children, my grandchildren and future generations,” said Redondo Beach resident Jeanette Boston. “They deserve better.”

A smaller group of around 10 counter-protesters gathered along Palos Verdes Drive wearing MAGA gear and American flag clothing. Several yelled “We love you Trump” as Marine One landed at the golf course carrying Trump just after 5 p.m.

The campaign fundraiser was closed to members of the media. However, a White House spokesperson said Trump would use the event to tout his administration’s achievements and “draw a sharp contrast between his commonsense agenda and the radical policies of Democrats like Gavin Newsom.”

Tuesday marked Trump’s second visit to Los Angeles during his second term in office. He last visited the region in January 2025, when he toured the fire damage in the Pacific Palisades and signed an executive order intended to expedite rebuilding efforts.

Since then, there has been a standoff between California leaders and the Trump administration over federal disaster aid.

California has submitted more than $1.5 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement claims for emergency response and infrastructure repairs stemming from the Eaton and Palisades fires, but only $37 million in funding has been approved thus far, according to the governor’s office.

“Donald Trump is coming to Los Angeles to raise money while wildfire survivors are still waiting for the federal recovery funding he promised 18 months ago,” Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for the governor, said in a statement. “Californians deserve a President focused on helping families rebuild — not raising money for himself at his golf course.”

Trump, for his part, ignored criticism around the wait for wildfire relief on Tuesday and instead took to social media to promote what he sees as his administration’s economic achievements.

He wrote in a Truth Social post that investments in the U.S. economy and more “factory activity” were evidence of how well the country was doing.

“The Fake News and the Dumocrats are doing everything they can to distract people’s thoughts from these MASSIVE Successes, but it’s getting harder and harder for them to do,” Trump wrote. He added: “This is the GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA, and we’re just getting started.”

On Wednesday, Trump will head to Las Vegas to deliver a speech at a casino focused on the economic achievements of his administration. While his California visit is focused on replenishing campaign coffers, the Nevada stop is more closely tied to election strategy as the swing state could play a key role in deciding who controls Congress after the November midterms.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Isabella Villareal practiced with the Los Angeles Queens for the first time on Saturday morning, hours before the team’s first game.

She ended up being in the center of the most important moment in the first game of the Women’s Pro Baseball League’s history.

Villareal hit a pinch-hit double with two outs in the top of the seventh to give the Queens a 10-8 lead they’d hold onto to clinch the first WPBL victory.

“The adrenaline was pumping, but I was also nervous,” Villareal said. “But I’m so stoked that I got to go in. I blacked out, I don’t even know what I was thinking, I’m just glad I got to prove myself.”

Second baseman Amira Hondras, coming off a strong women’s baseball World Cup debut last week, tied the game in the at-bat prior with a single up the middle to set up Villareal’s heroics.

“I told her, ‘This is your moment,’ and walked away,” Queens manager Eric Young said of Villareal. “And she went and got the big hit even though she just joined us today. You never know who is going to do it, because everyone is going to play.”

The Queens trailed 7-2 in the second inning but slowly chipped away. Maggie Foxx, whose two-run single in the first inning was the first hit in league history, went 2-for-2 with two runs, a walk and a stolen base and pitched two innings while giving up one run.

Villareal, who turned 20 just two days prior, didn’t know she would play at all on Saturday. Young decided to pinch hit her for designated hitter Thaima Maximiliana despite having never seen her hit in person.

“I was standing next to [Young] before he told Bella she was going to hit and she was in shock,” said Mo’ne Davis (0-for-4, one run). “But you know, she stayed calm the whole time, and everyone was just so supportive throughout the entire game.”

The first WPBL game was delayed 90 minutes by rainy conditions that went on to affect that seventh inning, when Michelle Roche popped up to right field and New York’s Natsuki Yonetani lost the ball in the wind.

Davis, who played center field all night, said the conditions made it difficult to field cleanly.

“We just relied on each other,” she said. “We were all just talking on every single pitch. The last inning was very, very tough. We were getting directions from our coaches and we could not see. But you know we’ll talk over that during practice. But we were just just making sure we had each other’s back, you know, putting each other in the right position, and communication is key.”

Fans wrapped around the concourse and emptied the merchandise stand before the delayed first pitch and witnessed a torch passing between the league’s current players and past women’s baseball legends.

One of those legends, 99-year-old Maybelle Blair, threw the ceremonial first pitch to San Francisco pitcher Kelsie Whitmore.

“Kelsie was very emotional, and I just went over there and gave her a hug, and I know how much this means to her, and then also Maybellel Blair,” Davis said. “I went up to her. She’s the same person she has always been. Just super high energy. I told her to throw a strike, and she was like, ‘You know I will throw a strike.’ She gave me that sass.”

Foxx is also 20 years old and is listed as a catcher but played in the outfield and pitched on Saturday. New York manager Rocky Henley noted that most players are going to have to play multiple positions, including pitch, because teams have just 15-player rosters.

Foxx, Maximiliana, Hondras and Villareal make up a young core around stars like Davis and Ashton Lansdell that make the Queens, one of the favorites to win the league.

The bats coming alive late on Saturday were a good sign of that.

“This is something that we’ve all been working towards, culminating this event, and it feels like it kind of feels like another baseball game, but it feels like something that we’ve been putting in the work for for 70 years now,” Foxx said.

The Queens won’t play again until Wednesday when they take on the Boston Hunters.

“When I walked on the field I started crying because of how much this moment meant, and how much it meant to everybody,” Foxx said. “It means everything to us.”

A Bangkok-raised chef is now serving vibrant Thai street food such as pan-fried noodles, grilled Isan sausage, Wagyu short rib with herbs and sticky rice, and flame-kissed pork jowl in Old Pasadena. To drink, there’s local ube beer and natural wine.

“I love to eat street food so much,” said Thaim chef-owner Ruethai Boonlieng. “I go back to Thailand all the time, and I always ask my friends, “Hey, don’t take me to the mall — take me to street food. It’s a true food for my soul, and people make the street food with care.”

Boonlieng’s Thaim is a portmanteau of “Thai” and “I am.” While some of her recipes are traditional — such as her mom’s preparation of Sukhothai pad Thai — others are modern spins, like brightening her sweet-spicy mango salad with fresh dill or turning her childhood favorite, egg tofu, into a deep-fried egg custard.

The chef grew up in Bangkok and learned to cook by watching her mother prepare home meals, then took pastry courses in Thailand as an adult. Boonlieng studied finance but entered the restaurant industry to help an aunt and a friend open a Thai restaurant — then discovered she loved it. She opened multiple restaurants in the Bay Area, then moved to Los Angeles to help open another and never wanted to leave.

As an owner of sweets-focused cafe U Dessert Story, with two locations in the Bay Area, Boonlieng wanted to incorporate some of her signature desserts at Thaim, too. Look for Thai tea panna cotta, matcha lava cakes and more.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The first day all the members of the Women’s Professional Baseball League were at the same field, it rained.

That didn’t dampen the smiles around Robin Roberts Field the day before the league opens play Saturday, marking the first professional women’s baseball games in 72 years.

“Getting to be together for six whole weeks or around two whole months with them [if we make the playoffs] is honestly going to be a game changer,” said third baseman Ashton Lansdell, who stars for the USA national team. “I think we’re going to build a really unique and exciting culture that is going to last a very long time, especially with the inaugural season at WPBL. Like we’re starting from the ground up, so we get to build all of these things from the very beginning.”

The Los Angeles Queens, managed by former Dodgers second baseman Eric Young, have arguably the most star-studded roster, behind Savannah Bananas third baseman Lansdell, former Little League star Mo’ne Davis and Japanese ace pitcher Ayami Sato.

“I pretty much have an idea who I want to lead off and who’s my starter,” Young said. “Those two things I do know. But the rest of the lineup, I’m looking forward to making it. The first one will be very special, just like everything else.”

Women’s baseball has been long fractured with few opportunities for the best to gather in one spot. The only consistent tournament has been the Women’s Baseball World Cup, with the U.S. going undefeated in group play this week in Rockford ahead of the WPBL’s quick week of preseason practices.

The WPBL will be the first women’s baseball league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 until 1954 to offset the loss of male baseball players called into action during World War II. The league gained popularity and notoriety when it was dramatized in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own.”

While women’s baseball didn’t boom and girls were mostly limited to playing softball, some women sought a chance to play the sport they loved.

The WPBL, even with a limited six-week season at one location, is helping many players realize seemingly impossible dreams and honoring the first recorded women’s game with a paid crowd and the home of the single-season Springfield Sallies.

Games will span seven innings and the league will use aluminum bats featured in college baseball and softball, while outfield dimensions were altered to be closer to the Women’s World Cup field dimensions. Salaries range from $300-$500 per game for the 15-player rosters.

“It’s just what we’ve all dreamed of our whole lives,” Lansdell said. “The coolest thing out of all of it is that we’re starting this league this year, but in the next five to 10 years, even two years down the road, I’m so excited to see just the growth of women’s baseball and the amount of hope and inspiration that we have.”

Like many women’s baseball players, Lansdell had a history in softball, contributing to the Women’s College World Series season in 2025 at Ole Miss. More recently, she went 11-for-13 with two doubles and two home runs in five games during the U.S. World Cup group stage for a historic .846 batting average.

She will be the core of the Queens’ lineup, surrounded by some of the biggest name in the sport. Brittany Apgar grew up playing in all-boys baseball tournaments before playing college softball at Greensboro College.

“I think this is really when the quote that baseball is 90% mental and 10% physical kicks in because that game’s going to be a lot,” Apgar said of the Saturday opener. “Like we have the honor of doing the first game. That will be a lot of pressure on everyone.”

The Queens flaunt one of the best right sides of the infield in the league with Lansdell at third and Curacan 19-year-old shortstop Thaima Maximiliana.

Australian shortstop Caitlin Eynon hit .375 in the World Cup and could contribute to the Queens’ lineup, too.

Davis highlights an outfield that includes Apgar and Japanese center fielder Suzu Narasaki. Amira Hondras, 18, played for the U.S. after spending time with MLB Develops and the Chicago White Sox youth league and is one of the best young women’s baseball prospects in the nation.

Sato leads a staff of pitchers from several backgrounds. Canadian 19-year-old right-hander Michelle Roche plays college baseball in British Columbia while 38-year-old veteran Meggie Meidlinger has been a bullpen stopper for the U.S.

“More than anything, I’m excited for the opportunity to play with talented players from around the world,” Sato said through her translator, Mayo Hiran. “That’s something that I’ve been working for for a long time.”

The Queens face the New York Heights to begin their season and will play 30 games through the start of September before a two-week playoff period.

By this time next year, they may get a chance to play home games in the Los Angeles area. The league hasn’t announced its plans for shifting games outside of Illinois other than to confirm they aspire to do so.

But for a few moments this weekend, in Springfield alone, dreams will come true and a sport will be reborn.

“It’s going to be a lot of people’s first time for a lot of things,” Apgar said. “Some of the people didn’t actually get to make it to tryouts, so there’s some people that are drafted that I haven’t even seen in person before. It’s all exciting.”

I am not someone who regularly goes out on a weekday.

But when I heard just how ideal the viewing conditions will be for the upcoming Perseid meteor shower, I texted multiple friends, inviting them on a late-night adventure into the woods. That’s exactly my kind of party.

The Perseid meteor shower, which can produce up to 100 meteors an hour in its most active period, is expected to peak from the evening of Aug. 12 into the early morning of Aug. 13. Last year during the shower’s peak, the moon was 84% full.

That’s part of what makes this year special. The night sky will be at its darkest during the Perseids peak because we’ll have the new moon, the lunar phase when our moon’s illuminated side faces the sun.

In this edition of The Wild, our weekly outdoors newsletter, I will explain not only where near L.A. you can drive, hike or camp for the best viewing of this meteor shower, but also, thanks to a conversation with an astrophotography expert, how you can get better photos regardless of whether you’re using your cellphone or dedicated camera.

First, though, let’s talk about what exactly a meteor shower is and why they occur.

🌑 Tips for viewing the Perseid meteor shower 🌃

I spoke to Bruce Betts, chief scientist at the Pasadena-based Planetary Society, a member-financed group focused on advancing space science.

Betts explained that Earth gets hit every night by an estimated 100 tons of material, equivalent to about 13 Randy’s Donuts signs blasting into the planet (which is a fun visual). This means there are meteors every night, around 10 an hour in a place with no light pollution.

A meteor shower occurs when Earth is moving through a debris field left by a comet. But nothing hitting Earth is thankfully as large as a 25-foot-high fiberglass doughnut.

“It’s mostly small-sized stuff — sand-sized, pebble-sized, dust-sized,” Betts said. “It’s going to burn up hundreds of thousands of feet up in the atmosphere. When you see it fizzle out, it’s way up there typically.”

I cannot be the only person who, learning this information, felt surprised that tiny specks of space dust can produce such dazzling experiences for us earthlings. But these particles are moving incredibly fast — tens of thousands of miles per hour — and as they move through our atmosphere, they’re heating up and vaporizing.

In the case of the Perseid meteor shower, you’re watching debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle as it neared perihelion, its closest approach to the sun.

Earth orbits through that debris field every August. The Perseid meteor shower is named as such because as you’re watching, it appears as if the meteors are emanating from a point in the constellation of Perseus called the radiant point.

🌃 Getting the best Perseid-viewing experience 💫

To see the most meteors during the Perseids, you have to get to a point where you’re looking through less atmosphere, which around L.A. includes smog, smoke, clouds and, of course, light.

“The real problem is light pollution,” Betts said. “And that is, lights on the surface that are then reflecting off particles and stuff, a technical term, in the atmosphere. If you can get above that stuff, you start seeing better.”

Betts compared it to being in a bright room where there’s a dim light on. You won’t notice the dim light until you turn the rest of the lights off, and suddenly, that dim light is the brightest thing in the room.

During the Perseids peak, you don’t have to escape the light pollution of L.A. to see meteors. From outside your home, you will probably still see the largest blasts of light between 9 and 11 p.m. This is best for anyone who must be at their workplace at 8 a.m. for a meeting that could have been an email.

For the rest of us, let’s dive into where the best spots near L.A. are.

🏔️ Where to view the Perseids near L.A. 🌠

Below you’ll find my recommendations for spots that should provide good opportunities for viewing the Perseids. Please take good care when driving mountain or unfamiliar roads, and make sure someone outside your party knows where you’re headed and when you’ll be back. A meteor shower is still viewable when stranded with a flat tire, but far less fun!

• Mt. Wilson Observatory: Located about an hour northeast of downtown L.A. in the San Gabriel Mountains, the observatory has a large paved parking lot at about 5,650 feet elevation that features nice views of the surrounding area. The only caveat is that the main gate usually closes at 5 p.m. in the summer, so you’ll need to park inside before then.
• The Vetter Mountain Lookout: The lookout, at about 5,900 feet elevation, is reachable via a 5-mile round-trip hike and offers stunning panoramic views of the San Gabriel Mountains. The trailhead is about an hour drive northeast of downtown.
• Chilao Campground: Also about an hour drive from downtown, this large first-come, first-served campground sits at 5,300 feet and offers great views of the night sky. Nearby Mt. Hillyer, which can be reached via a 6.4-mile round-trip hike from near the Chilao Visitor Center, could also be a nice spot to observe the meteor shower.
• Crystal Lake Recreation Area and Campground: Crystal Lake is a 120-site first-come, first-served campground north of Azusa (about 1½- to two-hour drive northeast from downtown). At 5,539-feet elevation, it’s a great spot to camp and take in the shooting stars.
• Mt. Pacifico Campground: This is a rustic 10-site campground that sits at 7,100-feet elevation and is deep in the San Gabriel Mountains. It’s about a 1½-hour drive from downtown L.A. and involves taking narrow mountain roads. High-clearance vehicles are required to make the final mile into the campground.
• Musch Trail Camp: Musch Trail Camp is a small but charming campground in the Santa Monica Mountains. Located in Topanga State Park, it has picnic tables and a small restroom with flush toilets and sinks. It’s around a 45-minute drive mostly west from downtown.
• Leo Carrillo State Park: Along with its hiking trails and campground, the park in Malibu features 1.5 miles of beach, where you can watch the sunset before the sky darkens enough to see the meteor shower.
• Red Rock Canyon State Park: A two-hour drive from downtown L.A., this park has colorful desert cliffs and a 50-site campground with great views of the night sky.
• Joshua Tree National Park: I mean, duh.
• McGill Campground/Chula Vista Walk-In Campground: A two-hour drive from L.A., either of these campgrounds in Los Padres National Forest will provide you with a memorable experience, as the area is known for its stargazing. McGill is mostly by reservation while Chula Vista is a walk-in spot with first-come, first-served sites. If not prepared to camp, you can also watch nearby from the Mt. Pinos parking lot, but it’ll likely be quite crowded during the Perseids, as it is the closest darkest spot to L.A.

Or, you could try a spot where you can safely and legally drive and/or hike into that you recall being fairly dark at night. There are online tools that can help you find your own spot, including light pollution maps.

Regardless of where you go, please remember to practice the Leave No Trace principles, including packing out any trash you bring, not taking anything from the forest that you didn’t bring and not playing loud music, as it not only bothers hikers but also the animals who live in our natural areas.

📸 How to photograph the Perseid meteor shower 🤩

Many of us have tried and failed to take photos of the night sky. I spoke to accomplished astrophotographer Jeremy Evans, a delegate for Dark Sky International who affirmed that it’s no easy task to capture the beauty of celestial bodies.

“Carl Sagan said astronomy can be a humbling and character-building experience because it is a little overwhelming to look up at that vastness of the sky and either explore it, photograph it [or] study it, [regardless of] whether through a telescope, camera or naked eye,” Evans said.

Here’s what Evans, who has photographed the Perseids for the past 20 years, recommends (after you’ve found the darkest area possible to view the shower).

1. Point your camera to the southwest

Perseus, the constellation that the upcoming meteor shower is named after, will rise in the northeast between 9 and 10 p.m., depending on your latitude.

Photographing a meteor shower can feel like a game of Whac-A-Mole, Evans said. Instead of trying to chase meteors across the sky all night, set your camera to face the southwest for the Perseids.

“Most of the [Perseids] meteors, based on my experience, fly from northeast to southwest, so I like to have my camera pointing toward the southwest, and catch those meteors flying overhead and into my frame,” Evans said. “The good thing about that is, when they start burning up and giving you that trail of ionized gases, they’re usually flying over the southwest at that point. You can point your camera to the northeast, but you might not get the fire balls and the tails.”

2. Adjust your camera’s settings

• If using a dedicated camera (as opposed to a phone camera), turn off image stabilization. Otherwise, you might be plagued with blurry images all night.
• Choose a wide lens. Evans generally recommends using a wide lens with a focal length between 14 and 24 mm. “You can use a fish eye,” Evans said. “However, a fish eye will show most of the night sky, but then the meteors are going to appear a lot smaller.”
• Determine your shutter speed. Some astrophotographers use the “500 rule,” an equation that helps them figure out the ideal shutter speed. It’s essentially dividing your camera lens’ focal length into 500 to get your shutter speed. For Evans, that’s often 500 divided by 24, which he rounds down to equal a 20-second exposure. (If your shutter speed is too slow, the stars can come out blurry)
• Turn off the flash.
• Turn off your camera’s auto focus. You will need to manually adjust your lens, as your camera most likely won’t be able to automatically focus on the starry sky. (More on that below.)
• Turn on shutter delay. If you don’t have an external remote, turn on the setting that allows for a multi-second delay after you press the button. This allows your camera to stabilize after you press the shutter. Wiggling camera = bad pics.

3. Set up your tripod.

Evans said a tripod is arguably your most important piece of equipment, and it’s worth investing in if you’re wanting to regularly practice astrophotography. Cheap tripods are often flimsy and can fall over and wiggle from a light breeze.

That said, I’ve taken good images of the stars by propping my DSLR up using soup cans on a metal bear box while out camping. I’ve also used boulders, including during a recent trip to capture the aurora. Really, whatever you’re using just needs to be as solid and unmoving as your least favorite relative’s political beliefs.

4. Use this trick to focus your camera.

Evans recommends pointing your camera at a bright object at least a quarter mile away, like a street light or other fixed object. You could also use a bright star or, if setting up early enough, Venus. Regardless, use this distant object to manually focus your lens.

If your DSLR has a “Live View” option, you can magnify the bright object using that feature, making it even easier to focus on the object. When you zoom back out, the object should be a fine point of light.

“And then be careful not to bump your lens,” Evans said.

5. Pack enough battery power.

Evans recommends bringing at least two batteries for your DSLR if you don’t own an external power source for your camera.

If your battery is more than 2 years old, it’s likely lost a significant amount of its capacity, Evans said. In that case, you’ll want to ideally pack a third battery, depending on how long you plan to stay out.

“When you’re taking a series of photographs in the day, you’re using a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second on average, and then when you go from 1/500 of a second to keeping that shutter open for 20 seconds, you’re using a lot more power,” Evans said, meaning a battery that usually lasts for several days might only provide enough battery to shoot night photography for, at most, a few hours.

🌠🌑🌃

Betts and Evans told me that they hope that people going out to view the Perseids results in more people not only enjoying the night sky but also wanting to protect it, namely from light pollution. I hope so too.

And I hope wherever you go, you witness the beauty of shooting stars burning in the night sky. It’ll be arguably the most fun you can have on a Wednesday night in August.

3 things to do

1. Wander the wetlands in Seal Beach
The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust will host a guided nature walk from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturday in Seal Beach. Guests will learn about the Los Cerritos Wetlands, looking for herons and other birds who frequent the area. Close-toed shoes are required. Register at eventbrite.com.

2. Care for oaks near Calabasas
The Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains needs volunteers from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in Topanga State Park to tend to fire-damaged oak trees. Participants will water, weed and mulch oak trees, and plant acorns to replace trees that have died. Attendees should wear durable shoes and bring drinking water. Register at eventbrite.com.

3. Cycle along Slauson in South L.A.
T.R.U.S.T. South LA, People for Mobility Justice and Metro will host a community bike ride along the Slauson rail-to-rail bike path from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. The group will meet in front of Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park. At registration, guests can request a voucher for a Metro bike if unable to bring their own. Register at docs.google.com.

The must-read

As of Monday, Jackie, the beloved Big Bear eagle, appears to be improving. In mid-July, Jackie was rescued by L.A. County’s San Dimas Raptor Rescue team and transported to Ojai Raptor Center for emergency care. Fans of Jackie, one half of the avian power couple whom thousands of people regularly view via live webcams near their nest, have since anxiously waited for news. “She is eating on her own, her energy and alertness have noticeably improved, and she has become much more feisty during feedings,” the Ojai Raptor Center posted on social media.

Happy adventuring,

P.S.

Cool new feature alert! Times digital subscribers can now save trails highlighted in our hiking guides directly to their profiles on latimes.com. This allows subscribers to create their own curated lists of not only hiking trails but also restaurants, music venues and more. For example, you could save whale-watching sites, trails and beaches you wanted to check out, and then use the map function to see which spots are close to each other. And if you’re feeling especially spunky, you could throw some restaurants into the mix. I am personally excited to play around with this new feature because the No. 1 thing I like to do after a hike is eat, and our food writers are always finding great spots. Have fun out there!

For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.

This is the people pleaser. Phoenix Bakery’s now-iconic strawberry-and-whipped-cream cake has been called “L.A.’s most popular cake” for good reason. It’s light, not too sweet, packed with fresh berries and surrounded by a cloud of airy whipped-cream frosting with a border of sliced almonds for crunch. For generations of L.A. kids, including my own, this is the birthday cake. Dreamed up by the late Lun F. Chan as an extravagant expansion of strawberry shortcake, it has a double-layer base of chiffon cake (another L.A. invention). You can order tres leches and other types of cakes at the bakery, founded in 1938 by Chan’s brother, Fung Chow Chan, but nearly everyone comes in for the strawberry cake, which except for holidays is almost always available for walk-ins. And with prices starting at $29.95 for a 6-inch cake that serves five to six people, it’s also one of this city’s most affordable ways to make a birthday special.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor against incumbent Karen Bass, seized on significant decreases in street homelessness in her district Friday while blasting increases citywide.

Street homelessness — people living outdoors or in their vehicles — went down by 49% in Raman’s district compared to the previous year, she said at a press conference Friday.

Citywide, street homelessness increased nearly 8%, while overall homelessness, which includes those living in shelters and other temporary facilities, increased 3.4%, according to numbers from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s January point-in-time count that were released Friday.

The contrast between her district and the city overall offered Raman an angle to present herself as more effectively handling the homelessness crisis than Bass.

An estimated 45,194 homeless people live in the city, with about 36% of them in shelters, according to LAHSA.

“Far fewer people living outside. Far more people indoors,” Raman, who has served on the council since 2020 and is chair of the City Council’s housing and homelessness committee, said at the press conference. “As mayor, that is the approach, and the results, that I want to deliver citywide.”

The numbers across the city were a setback for Bass, who has made homelessness one of her signature issues and previously touted two straight years of drops in street homelessness.

Raman cited her office’s homelessness team and their “aggressive interventionist” approach as reasons her district — which extends from Los Feliz and Silver Lake into Studio City, Sherman Oaks and other parts of the San Fernando Valley — did not suffer the same increases as other parts of the city.

She said her team is very familiar with homeless individuals in the district and knows many by name. The team tracks homeless encampments on a map and makes sure that empty shelter beds are filled, she said.

Bass’ campaign said Raman was attacking the mayor’s Inside Safe program, which moves homeless people from the streets to shelter and motel beds, at the same time that it contributed to the decreases in her district.

Raman has critiqued Inside Safe as too costly and insufficiently transparent.

“Nithya Raman is taking credit for the results of Inside Safe while campaigning against it,” Alex Stack, a spokesperson for Bass’ campaign, said in a statement. “While Raman takes credit for the City’s work in her district, ignoring the fact that she’s the Chair of the Homelessness & Housing Committee for ALL of Los Angeles, Mayor Bass is working to move our city forward and address years of neglect.”

Raman responded to those critiques at her press conference, saying that her district only had three Inside Safe operations over the past four years — fewer than some other districts.

She deflected when asked Friday about her responsibility for citywide homelessness, as chair of the city’s housing and homelessness committee.

“Council can pass legislation … move motions forward, but it is the mayor that has charge of the implementation and outcomes,” she said.

Citywide, Inside Safe has moved more than 6,000 people into hotels, motels and other types of interim housing since Bass took office in December 2022. But by May 31, 41% of those people had returned to homelessness, according to LAHSA figures collected separately from this year’s homeless count.

Bass attributed the citywide homelessness increases in part to funding cuts by the state and federal government. She also said the county has not provided adequate mental health or substance counseling services.

“This crisis was ignored by city leaders for decades, it’s only now that we’ve seen a historic decline,” she said in a statement Thursday. “I will never stop fighting until we end street homelessness, because no Angeleno should be sleeping on the street.”

Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this report.

The San Fernando Valley has lost many of the great spots that made it a hot dog mecca over the years — among them, the Weiner Factory, Rubin’s Red Hot, Vicious Dogs, QT Chicago Dogs and the Infield, late home of the fried Twinkie dog. It was a relief, then, to find Fab Hot Dogs in Reseda still open and thriving. Best of all, the shop still makes an excellent Bald Eagle Ripper, the original owner’s homage to New Jersey’s Rutt’s Hut, “home of the ripper.” The dogs are deep fried just until the casing rips and on top, is a version of Rutt’s mustard relish, which at Fab is browner and said to include Hatch chile powder, shredded cabbage and carrots, garlic, oregano, onions, celery seeds, cider vinegar, and Düsseldorf mustard with sweet relish. Fab’s ripper dogs first got the attention of this paper’s late restaurant critic Jonathan Gold not long after it opened in 2008 and then Guy Fieri for a 2009 Food Network segment. Since then, Fab has become known not only for the ripper but for its many dog variations, including a very good Chicago dog with the right pickle, neon relish and sport peppers; several bacon-wrapped franks (with jalapeños and peppers on the L.A. Street dog; barbecue sauce and cheddar on the Kansas City dog, and Swiss cheese and baked beans on the Boston dog). A rotation of whiteboard specials includes a Santa Fe dog with Hatch green chiles and cotija cheese, and even a mac ‘n’ cheese dog. Together they make up what Gold once called a display of “the American frankfurter diaspora.”

It looks like cream top beverages are sticking around L.A.’s coffee scene.

“You can’t open a coffee shop in L.A. without having a cream top, fortunately or unfortunately,” said Ryan Solomon, director of wholesale at the Little Marionette, on bringing the cafe from Sydney to L.A. in 2024.

A whipped topping typically made from condensed milk or heavy cream, fans of embellished beverages can’t get enough of the now-standard flourish that local coffee shops add to iced coffee and matcha drinks. The trend evolved from the Austrian Einspänner coffee drinks that first overtook Seoul’s coffee scene in 2016 before landing in L.A. not long afterward.

The verdict on cream tops is split among cafe owners, with some claiming that the rich, luscious topping can overpower the flavors of carefully curated coffee drinks. Last year, prominent L.A. cafes Maru Coffee and Mandarin Coffee Stand limited the add-on on their menus, with Mandarin Coffee Stand owner Sherry Gao saying that the trend went “a little bit out of control.”

But for Arian Behboodi and Jared Sielski, co-owners of Lynx Coffee in Sherman Oaks, the pros outweigh the cons.

“We appreciate the cream top drinkers, and we appreciate the coffee fanatics, and we really do try to have a little bit of both,” Behboodi said.

Now, local cafe menus are evolving beyond neutral cream top flavors and offering whipped toppings that pull inspiration from all parts of the world, such as an iced honey latte garnished with a Vegemite cream top at a Palms coffee shop and a cajeta cream top that recalls the gooey Mexican caramel sauce at a new cafe in Hermosa Beach.

“We’re putting on social, immersive figure drawing events for neurodivergent, queer nerds,” says Jennifer Martina, the producer at Nest of Friends, the nonprofit production company that stages biweekly figure drawing at Geeky Teas & Games in Burbank.

Martina and artist Sketkh Williams, Sketch by Sketkh’s host, provide a welcoming atmosphere across identities, skill levels and nerdy interests, while also playing to their own backgrounds in theater. The sessions feature dramatic lighting, staging and soundtracks, and use professional cosplayers as models. Embodying characters from “Star Wars,” video games, anime and other IP, these pros don’t just dress the part, they take pains to hit their characters’ canonical stances for attendees to capture.

For Martina and Williams, the events are an alternative to nude or more traditional figure drawing sessions. “That just doesn’t interest us,” says Martina. “We’re both theatrical people, so for us part of putting on a show is seeing characters, some cool costume design and a theme.”

• Best for: Practiced amateurs with nerdy interests
• When: Every other Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
• Ticket price: Starts at $23.18

July 5 (UPI) — One man was critically injured in a fire in Los Angeles Friday after illegal fireworks went off, setting two vehicles on fire in a motel parking lot.

The 22-room Crescent Inn motel in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles was completely evacuated from the incident. Los Angeles Fire Department Assistant Chief Carlos Calvillo said first responders discovered a wounded man near the burning BMW when they arrived on the scene.

“This is a good example of messing with illegal fireworks, fireworks in general, extremely dangerous,” he said. “This person’s body was severely traumatized from this incident.”

Investigators said commercial grade fireworks were found near the burning vehicles.

Emergency responders were called to a report of two vehicles on fire at about 8:30 p.m. PDT Friday. The Los Angeles Police Department also responded to the scene.

A single family home next to the motel was also evacuated. Twelve people, including two children, were displaced by the fire.

The cause of the fireworks going off has not been determined. Fire officials say they believe the man was smoking in the BMW.

The Autry’s current exhibition, “Life, Liberty, and Los Angeles” is an excellent show that takes a deep regional dive pegged to its 250th American anniversary programming. Of all the pieces, See Lee’s meticulously stitched “Hmong Story Cloth” (circa 1980) is a poignant chronicle of making the journey to an unknown future in the United States. Utilizing the traditional paj ntaub embroidery format, the textile documents Lee’s family fleeing war-torn Laos and resettling in Long Beach during the 1970s. The narrative unfolds in sequential sections depicting military violence at a chaotic crossing of the Mekong River; lower panels remember Thai refugee camps, a rescue airplane and a Greyhound bus. This visual testimony shares striking cross-currents with Latin American arpilleras and paños Chicanos, linking disparate diasporic traditions through the shared language of quietly political, deeply personal needlework — in this case, preserving a crucial chapter of Southeast Asian migration to Southern California.

🗓️ On view through Jan. 31, 2027

Like many outdoors lovers, I love a last-minute camping trip.

There’s a special kind of magic when the stars align, you snag a reservation and realize you’ll soon be sleeping under the stars in a place you’ve never been.

But given the popularity of California’s campgrounds, is it really possible to book a campsite on short notice? In this edition of The Wild, our weekly outdoors newsletter, I will explain not only how you can but also where you will be more likely to find open spots (even, if lucky, on a holiday weekend).

L.A. sits within a quick drive to both the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, two expansive ranges that offer multiple opportunities.

But first, I want to share what I learned in my conversation with Mike Lee, owner of Campsite Tonight, a website and app that monitors campgrounds throughout California for cancellations so its users can book sites.

I’ve long been a skeptic of using private websites to book a campsite on public lands. But given Lee is an avid camper, dad and Californian running the site on his own, I wanted to hear him out.

Lee was motivated to take over Campsite Tonight a few years ago after finding himself frequently frustrated with how challenging it was to book campsites at state and national parks in California at times when his busy family could take a vacation.

Campsite Tonight frequently scans several websites throughout California and several other states (including Utah for those dreaming of a trip to Zion National Park). His site checks the popular campgrounds every 12 seconds for cancellations while less popular campgrounds are scanned often but less frequently.

He also offers data for popular campsites too, so users can learn more about when to look. For example, at Yosemite’s Upper Pines Campground, Lee includes that 11 a.m. Pacific is the peak hour when cancellations appear (and about 31% of reservations there are booked within seven days of arrival).

Lee’s app offers limited-but-still-useful features to free users, including some ability to search for open sites, and is $29.99 a month or $59.99 a year for advanced features, including the option to more rapidly book a campsite at a national park by essentially linking your Campsite account with your Recreation.gov account.

Running the website has “taught me, as I’ve looked at the data more and more, that last-minute camping is actually pretty achievable,” Lee said while sitting inside a tent in a campground near Yosemite. “The biggest thing is being flexible. Before, if I didn’t book it in advance or if I didn’t get [a site when I wanted], I would never look again. Now I look more.”

Lee said he’s noticed fewer cancellations on long weekends, although there will still be families that can’t make their trips. After we initially spoke, Lee built a page specifically to scan for campsites available over Fourth of July weekend. I was surprised by just how much remained open.

Scanning the page on Tuesday, I noticed a spot at Leo Carrillo State Park. Although it was for Wednesday night, I was tempted. Multiple campsites remained open in Los Padres National Forest, even over the weekend. A random campground in Sequoia National Forest made me look at just how far of a drive it would be from my apartment. And I noticed there was even a spot free at a Big Sur campground on Sunday evening. “No, you can’t, er, you shouldn’t drive that far for one night of camping,” I told myself. (Should I, though?)

That said, there are several first-come, first-served campgrounds near L.A., especially in Angeles National Forest, for those who’d like to stay closer to home or can’t find something online.

Here is a quick guide to what I recommend trying to snag. Given it’s a holiday weekend, it will still be more challenging, but if you can leave early Friday, I don’t think it’ll be impossible to camp at one of these spots.

For those looking for simple car camping (beginner)

Each of these campgrounds are in Angeles National Forest, offer piped water and vault toilets, and have sites with picnic tables, parking spots and campfire rings.

• Chilao Campground: A large campground with 84 sites spread over two loops, Little Pines and Manzanita. Its landscape features large boulders, sweeping views and pine trees (especially the eponymous loop). Piped water is available, although it is at times turned off, so please check the campground website before heading out. The Chilao Visitor Center, open on the weekends, is nearby.

• Crystal Lake: A 120-site campground north of Azusa. It sits at 5,539-feet elevation and features great views of nearby peaks, including Mt. Islip and Windy Gap. Visitors can fish in Crystal Lake when it’s deep enough and find a hot meal at Crystal Lake Cafe and General Store.
• Monte Cristo: A campground with 19 individual drive-in sites, including some with large shady sycamore trees. A small seasonal creek runs through the middle of the campground and has small pools in spring and early summer. (Note: Because of its proximity to L.A., this one can fill up quickly.)

For adventurers willing to plan just a bit, even last minute (intermediate)

These sites offer their own escape, but because they lack potable water (unless otherwise noted) and are farther away from L.A., they require more planning than those on the “beginner” list. Each site has picnic tables and campfire rings. The campgrounds below are in Angeles National Forest unless otherwise noted.

• Horse Flats: A shaded 26-site campground that offers easy access to nearby trails, including Mt. Hillyer and the Silver Moccasin Trail.
• Oak Flat: A campground north of Castaic just off the 5 Freeway with 20 sites situated around a nice small meadow shaded by several oak trees.
• Musch Trail Camp: This small-but-charming backpacking campground in Topanga State Park features flush toilets and sinks and requires only a one-mile hike in, a trek that’s on the easier end of moderate.
• Sawmill: A rustic eight-site campground whose main challenge, outside of its lack of water, is just reaching it, as campers must take a steep gravel road off Pine Canyon Road (see website for information on road closure).

For experienced trekkers looking for quick escapes (expert)

These backpacking sites offer backcountry adventures for those with the time and the right gear.

• Glenn Camp: A 10-site forested haven next to the West Fork of the San Gabriel River that’s reached via a seven-mile paved road that can be hiked or biked; no restrooms available, so campers will need to follow Leave No Trace principles.
• Valley Forge: Reachable via 2.4-mile hike along the Gabrielino Trail from Red Box Picnic Area, this six(ish)-site campground has picnic tables, campfire rings, vault toilets and is a sylvan refuge of mighty pines next to the pristine West Fork of the San Gabriel River.
• Cooper Canyon: A backcountry campground shaded by towering old pine trees with about five sites, offering vault toilets, campfire rings, klamath stoves, large picnic tables and bear-proof boxes. Because of the Angeles Crest Highway closure, you will need to reach the site either by walking the closed road or Pacific Crest Trail.

Regardless of where and when you go, I hope you have a wonderful time enjoying our public lands. Please remember to practice the Leave No Trace principles and, in short, leave it cleaner than you found it!

3 things to do

1. Restore native plants in Ascot Hills
North East Trees, a climate resiliency nonprofit, needs volunteers from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at its native plant nursery in Ascot Hills Park (4371 Multnomah St.). Participants will get hands-on experience working with native plants as they help water and restore habitat. Learn more at the group’s Instagram page.

2. Sketch plankton in Playa del Rey
Nature Nexus Institute, an environmental equity nonprofit, will host two beach ecology sketching events: an online option Tuesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and then an in-person event on July 12 in Playa del Rey. Learn more at the group’s Instagram page.

3. Check out the birds in Calabasas
Two National Park Service volunteers will host an easy bird walk from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Saturday at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas. Participants will walk less than a mile at an easy pace, stopping often to observe the birds. Children are welcome. Register at eventbrite.com.

The must-read

If you’re sitting there, daydreaming over your next adventure, consider this California wildlife factoid: Our state is home to 139,000 acres of protected public lands where nearly half of the world’s remaining old-growth redwood forests live. The allure of walking beneath these giants is what drew writer Edwin Goei to head to Humboldt County. Goei maps out a guide for The Times of how an Angeleno can make the long-but-worthy trip there (including how to snag an $80 round-trip flight). “I learned that Humboldt County — including the cities of Eureka, Arcata and Ferndale — is full of treasures beyond its abundance of the Earth’s tallest trees,” Goei wrote.

Excuse me while I go research flights there.

Happy adventuring,

P.S.

You have until Monday to snag a free California State Parks Historian Passport. In honor of both Juneteenth and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the state is offering the pass — which typically costs $50 — to anyone who registers for it through ReserveCalifornia.com, but just for a few more days. The pass will be good through the rest of 2026 and will allow unlimited entry for up to four people to state historic parks and museums that charge a per-person admission fee or a vehicle day-use fee. I was amazed that it took less than 10 seconds once I was logged into my ReserveCalifornia account to secure my pass. Enjoy!

For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.

Summer has just begun, but there’s a certain magic in the air in Los Angeles right now. On the heels of Juneteenth and Pride Month, the city is fully immersed in World Cup, which continues through July 19, with some of the matches being played at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium. There are plenty of places to eat and drink near the stadium if you’re heading there for a game and plenty of watch parties at local restaurants and bars for those looking to cheer alongside other soccer fans.

If you’re staying close to home this summer, keep your taste buds entertained with Food’s guide to the 50 essential dining experiences that define living here, from an East L.A. taco truck crawl to pastries in Chinatown and Iranian cafes in Westwood’s Persian Square. There are also plenty of new bars to explore, including rooftop destinations with sparkling views of the city.

And if your summer plans involve travel abroad, bookmark Food’s international dining guides. Far from exhaustive, these food and drink recommendations encompass memorable highlights from past off-the-clock visits to major food hubs like London, Paris, Tokyo, Melbourne, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Lima and little-known Colima, Mexico.

Keep reading for even more dining ideas to keep you busy this month:

When summer hits the San Fernando Valley, finding ways to cool off is a must, which is why my kids grew up swimming at the Verdugo Aquatic Facility in Burbank.

(When it closed for upgrades, the kids on our street were so bereft that they set up a lemonade stand, hoping it would help expedite the pool’s reopening.)

The pool is open year-round, but it’s especially popular in the summer, when it offers recreational swimming, swim lessons starting at 6 months old, a junior lifeguard program, lap swimming and other sports.

There’s a fun activity pool for kids ages 4 and under, with waterslides, dumping water buckets, a play area and a shallow wading pool with a beach-style entry. Chaise longues, picnic tables with umbrellas, and multiple lifeguards give the public pool a resort feel.

On a recent Friday, the main Olympic-sized pool was busy with families, but there were still plenty of lanes open for lap swimming. I tried a Monday evening Aquatic NoodleFit class, where you use a pool noodle for low-impact resistance training while standing in the center of the pool. The instructor, Karen Eldridge, was warm and welcoming and gave clear instructions, even working up a sweat herself as we followed her moves on the pool deck. The workout was challenging and fun, but not overwhelming for students of all levels, body types and ages, thanks to the water’s support.

During the week, the activity pool is usually not crowded, but on weekends, staff closely monitor capacity as it can get busy. Burbank residents get priority and can buy presale wristbands online at BurbankParks.com from Monday to Friday between 9 and 10 a.m. If you can’t get into the activity pool, don’t worry. The recreational pool is a fun and easy backup option.

Size: 50 by 18 meters
Temperature: 80 to 82
Swim lanes: 7
Depth: 2.5 feet to 8 feet and a 12-foot diving well
Admission: Lap swimming, $5 to $9. Monthly membership, $41 to $96. Activity pool, $4. Water fitness classes are subscription-based and range from $99 to $110, depending on the class. (My Aquatic NoodleFit class costs $109 as a nonresident for an 11-class series).
Parking: Free.
Hours: Lap swimming, 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday; 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Friday; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Recreational swimming, 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
Extras: Activity pool, snack bar, vending machines.

Visit Medellín, and everyone will tell you to try one dish: bandeja paisa.

Translated as a “countryside tray,” you’ll find the loaded meat platter at any restaurant in Colombia’s second-largest city. The spread is loaded with savory red beans; white rice; ground beef or grilled steak; a long, curved strip of crispy chicharrón; chorizo; morcilla (blood sausage); a fried egg; golden lobes of sweet plantain; a mini arepa; and a slice of avocado.

Though its origins lie in the mountainous, coffee-growing region of Antioquia, known as the home of the paisas (derived from the Spanish word for countryman), the dish is widely celebrated and eaten across the country. It’s a hearty lunch meal meant for one person, a combination of flavors and textures that transport you straight to Medellín, known for its rich coffee landscape, blooming flowers and eternal spring weather.

“The bandeja paisa is the seal of the Colombians,” said Gloria Hernandez, owner of Nene’s Colombian Food in Lawndale.

The dish is believed to have started as a filling, nourishing meal for campesinos (field workers), providing strength to get through a day working in the fields. “There’s a gathering of various dishes to make a bandeja paisa,” said Cesar Gutierrez, owner of Arepa’s Colombianas in Redondo Beach.

Over 40,000 Colombians live in L.A., according to the Los Angeles Almanac. Three-thousand miles from home, the city is host to several Colombian restaurants, food trucks and even a rooftop night market in downtown L.A.

From a longstanding restaurant in Larchmont to a favorite for modern Colombian cuisine in Long Beach, here are seven places where you can devour a bandeja paisa.

Twenty-four days after the polls closed on election day, Los Angeles County officials have certified the results from the 2,227,461 ballots cast. Despite questions raised about the pace of the vote count, a Times analysis found ballots this June were tallied faster than in previous cycles.

California is known to have a slow vote count, partially because of the state’s grace period for mail-in ballots. This year, counties were required to report most of the ballots by June 15, with some exceptions, including for mail-in ballots received within seven days of election day and ballots requiring additional verification such as signature curing. The process has spurred baseless claims of fraud from President Trump and others, leading the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case on whether mail-in ballots must be received by election day to count.

The state has reported 9.4 million processed ballots. Officials estimate about 5 ballots remain to be counted and 17,650 are waiting to cure a missing or mismatched signature.

Compared with the last time both governor and Los Angeles mayor were on the ballot, county election officials counted more ballots, and tallied them faster than in 2022, The Times found.

In Los Angeles County, turnout jumped from 28% of eligible voters in the 2022 primary to 38% this June, according to the county registrar. Meanwhile, the share of vote-by-mail ballots dropped about 3 percentage points to 82%, indicating a rise in in-person voting.

Statewide, early results show 41% of registered voters turned up for the June election, up from 33% in 2022, according to the secretary of state. County elections officials must report their final results by July 3, giving state officials a week to certify all election results.

The Los Angeles Times reports election results from the county clerk as well as from the Associated Press. The AP provides ballot counts, a calculation of the expected vote and race calls for statewide and national races.

The expected vote percentage, or EEVP, is an estimate of the total number of votes that will eventually be certified. That number can be adjusted based on new information over time.

“Before counting begins in California, our estimates are primarily informed by turnout in past similar elections plus pre-election data on ballot returns, with projections based on what percentage of ballots had already been received at the same point in past elections,” AP director of election analytics Emily Swanson said in an email.

In the gubernatorial and mayoral races, more than half of the votes were counted by the end of election day, EEVP data show.

Swanson’s team also observed a faster vote count this year than in the 2022 and 2024 primaries.

In January 2024, L.A. County consolidated its election operations into a new ballot processing center in the City of Industry. Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk’s office, told The Times earlier this month that the facility, which is open to observers, is designed for transparency, security and efficiency.

“It doesn’t take long to count. The counting process is very fast,” Logan said ahead of election day. “What extends the time period is those options that are provided under California law for voters — to allow everyone the opportunity to vote up until election day, and then allowing us the time to process those with the same level of security and integrity that we did the ballots that were received two weeks before the election.”

Despite the faster count, the Associated Press took longer to call winners, suggesting these races were more competitive. The AP makes such declarations by determining whether there is an opportunity for a trailing candidate to catch up to the race leader. It has been calling races for nearly 180 years.

Both the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral race saw a 30% increase in votes from 2022. The governor’s race received more than 9.2 million votes compared with 7 million in 2022. The Los Angeles mayor’s race received more than 850,000 votes, an increase from nearly 650,000 in 2022.

The vote counting process for California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Alaska may change for the November midterm election, depending on which way the U.S. Supreme Court rules.

Data and graphics assistant editor Sean Greene contributed to this report.