Angeles

One of the most painstaking architectural renewals in recent Los Angeles memory has finally pulled a world-class jewel of modern architecture from obscurity.

Designed by pioneering Modernist architect Richard Neutra in 1928, with limited collaboration from another Modernist icon, Rudolph Schindler, the Jardinette Apartments had been hiding in plain sight on an unassuming Hollywood street for nearly a century. The complex was a technical and spatial breakthrough, and quickly gained international renown as one of the earliest International Style structures in the United States, not to mention Neutra’s first L.A. commission.

But the building’s original owner, Joseph H. Miller, went bankrupt during construction and skipped town to avoid his creditors, and the Jardinette slipped from view. “After that early burst, it just disappeared,” said Barbara Lamprecht, historical consultant for the Jardinette’s rehabilitation, which is just now wrapping up.

For decades the building stood quietly along West Marathon Street: an austere, four-story complex that most people passed without a second glance. Wedged between Western Avenue and Manhattan Place, amid stucco apartment blocks and scrappy bungalows, the edifice had, until recently, grown increasingly shabby as time and neglect took their unforgiving toll.

That changed with the intervention of a newcomer to historic preservation named Cameron Hassid. For years the tireless local developer and his tenacious team have willed the Herculean restoration project to the finish line. Hassid plans to bring the apartments to market before the end of the month.

Property owner Cameron Hassid, left, and Neema Ahadian, commercial real estate agent for Hassid, on the scenic rooftop of the Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments in Los Angeles. Neutra imagined the Jardinette Apartments as a prototype for future garden apartment buildings. Nearly 100 years later, the Jardinette is set to reopen after a lengthy redevelopment.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

A Radical Design

When the Jardinette first opened it was featured prominently in a seminal survey of early avant-garde apartment housing called “The Modern Flat,” while European architectural publications from Paris to Moscow showcased it as an exemplar of functionalist design, noted Nicholas Olsberg, an architectural historian and curator who has written extensively about Neutra. “It was seen worldwide as one of the signal examples of the new architecture,” Olsberg added.

The Northeast corner of the Jardinette Apartments, circa 1930. When the building first opened in 1928 it was a technical and spatial breakthrough—but it suffered from years of neglect after falling from view.

(Richard and Dion Papers, Collection 1179, UCLA Special Collections)

Built inside and out with reinforced concrete — a modern industrial material that had rarely been employed for housing— the sculpted, U-shaped building, whose jogging corners, projecting sills and swaths of dark and light paint gave it a powerful visual rhythm, used its structural heft to liberate its facade.

Long horizontal bands of easy-to-open steel casement windows, some complemented with concrete balconies, drew daylight and air deep into its 43 efficiently organized units — studios and one bedrooms, ranging from about 400 to 700 square feet — and opened them to wide views of the street and, on higher floors, the Hollywood Hills. Hallways and stairs were saturated with natural light thanks to skylights and strategically placed windows. At the forecourt a modest garden, then dominated by a huge cedar tree, softened the building’s mass, giving the project its name: Jardinette, the little garden.

A roof covered the original skylights in the Jardinette Apartments, but they are now fully exposed.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

“Arguably my father had more influence on apartment design than he did on house design,” said Neutra’s son Raymond, pointing to several Neutra designs offering indoor/outdoor lifestyles via “garden apartments.” Raymond, who was on site a few weeks ago, has toured the rehabilitation multiple times.

The Jardinette was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument two years later. Yet despite its formal protections, the building continued its long drift into disrepair.

In 2016 Jardinette’s previous owner, Robert Clippinger, began reviving it, hiring Lamprecht’s firm, Modern Resources, as well as June Street Architecture and land use consultants Cali Planners. The team filed a comprehensive Historic Structure Report that helped secure much-needed tax relief via the Mills Act, a state preservation program. But Clippinger soon faltered under the weight of the many developmental requirements to bring the historic building back. Lawsuits followed. Financing collapsed.

A carpeted hallway beneath an original skylight at the Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments in Los Angeles. The Jardinette was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument two years later.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Hassid bought the building in December 2020, in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping Clippinger’s core designers and consultants in place.

Decades of negligence and neglect had proved both a curse and a blessing. Many original steel windows had been swapped out for cheap vinyl replacements. Larger units had been subdivided. At one point the building had been repainted an unfortunate pastel peach and green. Electrical systems dated back nearly a century. Gas water heaters punched vents through the concrete walls.

Yet because the building never attracted a well-funded modernization campaign, much of its essential fabric remained intact.

“Had it been owned by people with more resources,” noted Lamprecht, “there might have been upgrades that blurred the sense of history.”

Corey Miller, a principal at June Street Architecture, described his first encounter with the almost empty property: “There had been 43 units with 43 different people who had been left to their own devices,” Miller said. “Every time we peeled back a layer, there was something worse.”

Unit 302, inhabited for four decades by a single tenant, retained the most original fabric, including an early icebox cabinet. But it also contained endless layers of grime and clutter. It was “disgusting,” Miller said bluntly, but invaluable as forensic evidence. Much of it — like tiles, windows and millwork — were reproduced around the building.

The 128 Jardinette Apartments were painstakingly restored with an eye toward preserving original details including kitchen cabinets, sinks and iceboxes.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The perils of rehabilitating a historic treasure

When Hassid called Miller to ask about buying the building, Miller remembers his response clearly. “You probably have no idea what you’re getting yourself into,” he told him.

Hassid’s love of early modern architecture began as a child. His grandparents lived at 848 N. Kings Road in West Hollywood, with a balcony overlooking Schindler’s famed house. So Hassid was familiar with Jardinette’s geometric forms and clean lines. His mother reacted with angry skepticism when he first raised the idea of acquiring the building, but encouraged him to buy it after she learned about the connection.

Nostalgia did not make the rehabilitation any easier. Technical plans required approval, and fixes weren’t straightforward within a protected treasure. “You can’t just go into a historic building with a sledgehammer,” Hassid said. Every move had to align with federal preservation standards and the commitments embedded in the Mills Act contract. Lambert Giessinger, Los Angeles’ historic architect and Mills Act administrator, acted as liaison. Inspections were frequent. Conditions were exacting.

“It’s stressful to have people looking at everything,” Miller admitted. But he credits both Giessinger and Lamprecht with pragmatism. “They were under no illusion that this was going to be done 100% perfect,” he added.

“There’s a lot of wonky stuff in this building that will remain wonky forever,” noted Lamprecht, pointing to settling areas and imperfect details.

Michael Norberg, a land use consultant for the Jardinette Apartments preservation project, stands on the balcony of a unit at the Richard Neutra-designed complex, which will soon reopen after prolonged development issues.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The astonishingly complex rehabilitation revealed a simple-looking building that was anything but. The board-formed concrete carried a subtle wood-grain texture, which had to be left intact, even as seismic reinforcements were added beneath the surface. The finish on white stucco shifted from smooth to pebbled on the walls’ higher reaches, and this had to be carefully re-created.

Original trim had to be salvaged and repaired wherever possible. Kitchens were rebuilt based on archival drawings and surviving fragments. Bathrooms, originally designed around tubs, required discrete tile extensions to accommodate modern showers. The paint scheme, which has been returned to a warm, off-white concrete field with blackish-green bands emphasizing the window walls, had to be reconstructed from historic photographs. Wine red concrete lobby floors were revealed under ungainly tile. Large stairwell skylights were uncovered, while unique, cube-shaped stair post lights were rehabilitated.

Plenty of white tiles replicate the original look in this bathroom in the historic Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments. One floor of the newly preserved 1928 complex features original doors and kitchen cabinets.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Support infrastructure, threaded through the thick concrete frame, was perhaps the messiest challenge. Fire sprinklers, mandated by code, had to remain visible because they could not run through joists without compromising historic fabric. New electrical, plumbing and ventilation had to snake around (or burrow through) beams that original plans didn’t note.

Hassid chose to add air conditioning, and the resulting electrical loads required a 13-foot-deep vault beneath the courtyard. That addition will limit what can be planted in the central garden.

The view from the large windows in a newly restored unit of the Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments. Original skylights were also preserved during a remarkably complex historic preservation effort.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The team preserved as many original steel casement windows as possible on the primary north-facing facade. These are interspersed with custom reproductions throughout.

The rehabilitation costs climbed past $5 million — accounting for structural analysis, waterproofing, electrical overhaul, plumbing, mechanical, windows, flooring, sprinklers, cabinetry, landscaping — an ever expanding list.

“If I knew then what I know now,” Hassid said with a weary laugh, “I’m not sure I would have done it.” He paused. “But listen, I’m happy I did.”

Today, the building’s value is clear. The courtyard, with vegetation still waiting to grow, is again a communal garden framed by cantilevered balconies. The flat facades have regained their subtle play of depth and shadow. New systems hum quietly, concealed as carefully as possible.

But the building’s renewal has not made it immune to its surroundings. Portions of the exterior were tagged during construction, and some windows have even been shot out by BB guns. As it reemerges, Jardinette could become a lightning rod for those who fear gentrification.

Modernist architect Richard Neutra imagined his first Los Angeles project, the Jardinette Apartments, as a prototype for future garden apartment buildings, but the building fell into disrepair and obscurity for decades. A newly completed historic preservation project will allow it to reopen soon.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Hassid, who initially planned to keep the building, is now testing the waters for a sale with the help of local broker Neema Ahadian of Marcus & Millichap. He said he’s already gotten calls from potential buyers in both the affordable and market-rate sectors. Affordable housing, he added, would be fitting because the smaller units were originally used that way — often for people working in nearby Hollywood studios. The building’s lack of parking could be another factor pushing the sale in that direction.

“I want to leave my options open,” said Hassid. “It’s bittersweet, because we put so much into it.”

Despite swearing off the project more than once, he is hooked by the process.

“I’m looking for my next historic building. After doing it, I know the mistakes I made and how to minimize the lag,” he said.

“This is such a good niche. Others run away from it. I love it because I love the challenge.”

Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a former waitress in 1972 after escorting her to one of his shows, a civil jury in California concluded Monday, awarding the woman $19.25 million in damages.

The verdict was the latest turn in a series of legal battles the disgraced entertainer, now 88, has faced since allegations that he repeatedly drugged and raped women exploded publicly about a decade ago. Since then, he served about three years in a Pennsylvania prison on sexual assault charges before the case was overturned in 2021.

Donna Motsinger, now 84, said in her lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court that Cosby had given her wine and a pill that left her unable to move, and that she woke up in her house wearing nothing but her underwear, according to court records, and that “she knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”

Cosby has denied the allegations, as well as those brought by dozens of other women who claimed they had been drugged and raped. Coming in the early years of the #MeToo movement, a broad social media-inspired campaign to name and prosecute men accused of sexual misconduct, Cosby’s attorneys painted him as an unfair target of mass vigilantism gone awry.

Motsinger sued Cosby in 2023, alleging that, at the time, she was working at a Sausalito restaurant called The Trident that was popular with celebrities, including Cosby, according to the complaint her attorneys filed Sept. 27 of that year. One night, Motsinger accepted Cosby’s invitation to go with him to his show at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos. Cosby picked her up at her home in a limousine, according to her complaint, and, on the way to the venue, gave her the wine and a pill that she thought was aspirin.

“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine,” the complaint said. “The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light,” before waking up in her house in nothing but underwear.

Motsinger didn’t consent to Cosby’s sexual contact and, having been rendered unconscious by drugging, she couldn’t consent to it to begin with, according to the complaint. As a consequence of her ordeal, her complaint says she suffered lost wages, medical bills, pain and suffering and emotional distress.

In 1994, then House Speaker Newt Gingrich promised to post all congressional proceedings on the Internet as a way of launching what he called a “civilizational upheaval” in which “regular people in little towns”–not well-moneyed lobbyists–would manage affairs in Washington. In 1996, the representative from Georgia, swayed by the futurism of writer Alvin Toffler, helped pass the Electronic Freedom of Information Act, which required federal agencies to grant Americans prompt access to any information in their databases that could help “ensure an informed citizenry.”

Three years later, Gingrich’s revolution, far from online, is nowhere in sight. Rather than complying with the 1996 law, most parts of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government stand in blatant violation of it.

While the Supreme Court of Mongolia has its own official Web site, the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t, forcing Americans to search through unofficial Web sites in hope of finding its briefs and opinions. While the Congressional Research Service makes its reports on vital issues like HMO reform instantly available online to legislators, taxpayers, who fund those studies, can get them only through the mail from their members of Congress.

If you are a soldier who believes he was made ill by the military’s anthrax vaccine, for example, you might want to know what was said in Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform, in which Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and leading scientists discussed how the government should weigh a vaccine’s risks against its benefits. The full text of the hearing was available Tuesday to anyone who could afford a subscription to a private online data service.

Those hoping to access such supposedly public information on the Web, however, were out of luck. The House Government Reform Committee’s Web site lists transcripts from only a hodgepodge of committee hearings. The most recent transcript available at that site is from June.

Today, Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) plan to hold a press conference in which they will release a study by two Washington public-interest groups on how federal agencies have failed to comply with the 1996 law. McCain and Leahy, along with David E. Price (D-N.C.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) in the House, have introduced similar bills to require Congress to put Congressional Research Service documents online within 30 days. The measures currently are in the House and Senate rules committees.

Fundamental change won’t occur until national leaders like President Clinton, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) call upon all government agencies to honor the letter and spirit of the 1996 law.

Reforming the Congressional Research Service is only a baby step toward the revolution that legislators promised so bombastically. But it’s as good a place as any to start.

To Take Action: Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), chairman, House Committee on Rules, (202) 225-2305, www.house.gov/dreier, click on “Feedback”; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, (202) 224-2541, e-mail, senator@mcconnell.senate.gov

March 20 (UPI) — At least five people were injured Friday after a Delta Air Lines flight hit severe turbulence on its final approach to Sydney, Australia.

Delta told the BBC that Flight 41 from Los Angeles with 160 passengers and crew on board “encountered brief turbulence” as it landed at Sydney Airport, injuring four flight attendants.

The Airbus A350 touched down “safely and normally,” said a Delta spokesperson.

Three of the injured were taken to hospital by ambulance crews waiting on the tarmac after sustaining what paramedics determined were “musculoskeletal and lower back concerns.”

“I believe five were assessed; in total three were transported to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital with minor injuries,” said Lisa Frow, manager of NSW Ambulance’s Mascot station.

Delta said none of those hurt were passengers, but Australian media listed two 71-year-olds, a 60-year-old-woman and a 37-year-old woman among the injured.

In July, more than two dozen passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines Airbus A330 were hospitalized after it was buffeted by “significant turbulence” en route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam.

The flight diverted and landed safely at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport with 25 passengers taken to area hospitals.

In June, five people were injured when an American Airlines Airbus A321 hit “unexpected turbulence on flight from Miami to Durham, N.C.

Three flight attendants and two passengers were taken to the hospital.

Passengers reported an unconscious man, a flight attendant with a broken arm and another burned by hot water from a drinks cart.

The American Airlines incident is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, as is standard for incidents where there are injuries.

In May 2024, one person died and 71 were injured, seven critically, aboard a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore that ran into unexpected extreme turbulence when it was at cruise altitude.

The flight deck declared an emergency, but landed the Boeing 777 safely at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Health officials determined that Briton, Geoff Kitchen, died of a suspected heart attack.

The incident prompted Singapore Airlines to revise its seat belt policy so that it would no longer provide hot beverage or meal service when the fasten seatbelt sign was illuminated

While strong or severe turbulence — where disturbed air pitches an aircraft violently upward or downward, creating G-forces of up to 1.5 — is on the increase, it remains extremely rare, with only one in 7,000 flights affected.

However, experts warned that flying was likely to become rougher more often in the future due to climate change as temperature changes and shifting wind patterns impact atmospheric conditions.

Don’t blame the beleaguered voter for the record-low statewide turnout of 34% of registered voters in Tuesday’s primary election. Don’t call the stay-at-homes lazy or berate them for failing to do their duty. Don’t wonder why the patriotism stirred by Sept. 11 didn’t translate into an energized electorate.

The truth is, for many Californians, there were just too many reasons not to vote. The lack of hot contests on the Democratic ballot resulted in dismal turnouts of 23% in heavily Democratic Los Angeles County and 27% in San Francisco. The confusing rules of the primary had been changed again as to who could vote for which slate of candidates.

The campaign was overshadowed first by the Super Bowl and then by the Winter Olympic Games. When the political ads finally got the public’s attention, their constant carping and attacks surely turned off many voters. On election day some locales, including Los Angeles, were plagued with the failure of some polling places to open on time, ballots that weren’t delivered and voting locations that were changed or yanked.

The real culprit, however, was the ridiculously early primary date, more than eight months before the Nov. 5 general election. Many Californians didn’t even realize an election was coming up.

The Legislature and governor should make sure this doesn’t happen again. Lawmakers need to take a close look at SB 1975, by Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine), a bill that would move the primary for state and local candidates to the second Tuesday in September every election year while maintaining a separate presidential primary in March.

The idea is to enable California to have a rational primary date while retaining some clout in the choosing of the presidential candidates. More discussion is in order about whether September balloting would allow enough time for an informative general election campaign. However, nine states have August primaries, and 10, including New York, vote on the second Tuesday in September, the day Johnson has proposed. A cheaper proposal would be for the state to stop playing presidential primary leapfrog for ever-earlier dates and move all primaries back to June.

Election officials struggle to make it convenient for Californians to vote, but the process remains complex and confusing. “It felt more like doing your taxes,” one expert said. The first step toward rationality is getting rid of this March madness.

Pollyanna partisans of a constitutional amendment to mandate a federal balanced budget have no duty to come forward with plans to help Gov. Wilson and the Legislature draft a balanced budget for fiscal 1992-93. But if they have any ideas they ought to share them.

Obviously, the feds can’t help; their actions cost us $1 billion in daily interest. Our national debt increases by $400 billion or more each year.

California’s fiscal 1991-92 budget cut spending, devoured snack taxes and bottled water, but still came up about $4 billion short. Add that deficit to a shortfall of about $6 billion for fiscal 1992-93 and anyone sees our problem budget needs resuscitation.

Not to worry. A number of legislators have proposed a novel and painless method to balance the state’s budget. They propose to spread the deficit over two years. A two-year budget balances fiscal 1992-93 and spreads deficit payments over 24 months. This program replenishes wealth. If deficits continue to rise and revenues fall, the two-year budget precedent opens budgetary gamesmanship to three- or four-year budgets.

Problem budgets? No problem. God bless the wizards of Sacramento.

JIM SKEESE, San Diego

The Times has covered Kamala Harris’ political career since 1994, when then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown appointed her to the California Medical Assistance Commission.

Since then, we’ve written 2,229 articles on Harris, who is a California native, received her law degree here and became the first woman and Black American to serve as the state’s attorney general. She’d later become the first South Asian American elected to the U.S. Senate, and only the second Black woman ever to serve in the 100-member body. She has been the sole Black woman in the Senate during her four years there.

The Los Angeles Times is introducing “Covering Kamala Harris,” a beat dedicated to her historic rise to the White House. She is the first vice president who is Black, South Asian American and female.

This news enterprise beat will be anchored by White House reporter Noah Bierman, who joined The Times in 2015 after reporting on politics and other topics at newspapers including the Miami Herald and Boston Globe. He will also write a special edition of our Essential Politics newsletter focused on Harris every other Wednesday.

Throughout the year, we’ll continue to add resources to our coverage with the goal of being the most comprehensive and authoritative news source as we chronicle Harris’ first year.

Interested in following our coverage? You can find the “Covering Kamala Harris” section on our site and sign up for Essential Politics, of which Bierman will write a biweekly edition. And follow our new stand-alone Instagram account, @latimeskamalaharris, for more updates.

Kimbriell Kelly is the Washington bureau chief at the Los Angeles Times.

Antonio Villaraigosa is best known as the former mayor of Los Angeles. But that title will not be on the ballot when voters choose the next governor of California.

Instead, Villaraigosa will be listed as a “Public Policy Advisor,” a reference to his most recent profession.

The words that appear next to candidate names are governed by state regulations. Since Villaraigosa left office nearly five years ago, after serving from 2005 to 2013, he can’t use his mayoral title. He formed a public consulting firm that advised companies such as Herbalife, Banc of California and Cadiz from 2013 to last year.

Candidates spend time and often money on polling to determine a ballot title that paints them in the best light to voters while complying with the state’s regulations, even though in prominent races for governor or U.S. Senate, ballot designations aren’t typically a deciding factor.

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State Treasurer John Chiang’s campaign protested the designation. (He will be listed as “California State Treasurer” on the primary ballot.)

“Let’s be real, the only thing Antonio Villaraigosa can currently advise on is how to best target innocent Californians,” said Chiang’s spokesman, Fabien Levy, pointing to work Villaraigosa has done for Herbalife, Cadiz and Edelman.

Critics accuse Herbalife, a nutritional supplement company, of being a pyramid scheme. Cadiz is trying to pump groundwater out of the Mojave Desert and sell it to Los Angeles consumers, a project opposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and public lands advocates. Edelman is a public relations firm that counts oil-industry groups among its clients.

Levy said Chiang’s campaign has no plans to back up the rhetoric with a formal challenge to Villaraigosa’s ballot designation, but he left open the possibility of going to court later.

Ballot designation rules are so picayune that they dictate what types of punctuation are acceptable (commas, slashes and occasionally hyphens). Company names are verboten, as are words such as “reformer,” “activist,” “patriot” and “taxpayer.” The word “retired” cannot be abbreviated.

Learn more about the race for governor »

That has left room for some colorful ballot designations, such as Mary Carey Cook, who was listed as an “Adult Film Actress,” and Kurt E. “Tachikaze” Rightmyer, who was listed as a “Middleweight Sumo Wrestler” in the 2003 recall election. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was elected governor in that race, was listed as “Actor/Businessman.”

Some titles, such as businessman or teacher, are more popular than others, such as lawyer or the person’s political title in Congress or the Legislature.

In 2016, five congressional and legislative incumbents did not use their elected titles for ballot designations, including Rep. David Valadao. The Hanford Republican called himself a “Farmer/Small Businessman.”

In 2014, David Evans, an obscure Mojave Desert accountant who spent just $600 on his campaign to be California state controller nearly placed in the second spot in the primary. His ballot designation of “Chief Financial Officer” probably had something to do with it.

Eric Jaye, Villaraigosa’s political advisor, said that while the campaign considered other ballot designations, they went with “Public Policy Advisor” because it most accurately reflected Villaraigosa’s work after leaving City Hall.

“The company has advised a wide-range of for-profit and nonprofit companies around issues such as economic development, investment strategy, community reinvestment, healthcare, and education,” according to Villaraigosa’s filing documents. “As a public policy advisor, Mr. Villaraigosa guides clients through turning policies into action.”

Whether it matters is up for debate.

“How important ballot designations are diminishes the further up the ballot you go. So in the governor’s race, voters are going to have a wealth of information about the leading candidates from news coverage, from advertisements, etc.,” said GOP strategist Rob Stutzman. “Where ballot designations become important information is races where voters don’t know much else. Frankly, they’re most valuable at the sanitation and water district level, and then the value starts to decline the more you move up.”

seema.mehta@latimes.com

For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter.

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Ramadan is in full swing in Los Angeles, where a community of hundreds of thousands of Muslims is observing a month dedicated to fasting, prayer, reflection and service. With the unfolding war in the Middle East, the holiday holds even more significance for locals with ties to the region.

The Islamic holiday began Feb. 17 and ends March 19, during which observers fast from dawn to sunset to foster discipline, self-control and gratitude. Observers break their daily fast with an iftar, a festive meal shared with loved ones after sunset. Many also rise before dawn for a suhoor meal.

Halal, which translates to “permissible” in Arabic, pertains to the type of meat and the way it’s prepared. Pork and its byproducts are not allowed, and a Muslim must slaughter the animal while invoking the name of Allah. The animal must also be healthy and blood should be completely drained after slaughter.

This Ramadan season, several L.A. restaurants are offering late-night hours, special iftar menus and discounts for the holiday.

“The demand for iftar and halal food is skyrocketing,” said Assad Shalhoub, a member of MENA Creator Club, a community group for Middle Eastern and North African content creators that organized an iftar gathering at West Adams’ Maydan Market. “I think a lot of people are becoming more proud of their culture and their heritage, and with that comes a lot of people seeking things like this.”

Here are eight halal restaurants to break fast and share a meal with loved ones during Ramadan.

Many of us go into the mountains to think and practice gratitude.

For the hundreds of thousands of Muslims across Los Angeles County observing Ramadan this month, spending time in nature can offer an opportunity for quiet reflection and growth.

“This sacred month provides an opportunity to merge the spiritual with the physical, finding solace and inspiration in nature,” nonprofit Muslim Outdoor Adventures notes. “Through mindful hiking, we aim to embrace the challenges of staying active during Ramadan, using the trails as a space for reflection and collective growth.”

Ramadan is considered the holiest month of the Islamic calendar. The holiday typically lasts 29 or 30 days, and during that time, Muslims will fast from sunup to sundown, including not drinking water. This excludes those who are exempt from fasting or not observing the holiday.

This year’s Ramadan started in mid-February and will end around March 19. (The Islamic calendar is based on lunar events, so Ramadan’s start and end dates vary from year to year.)

For fasting hikers, it’s important to ensure you plan accordingly, given your limited daily water and food intake.

Nadiim Domun, materials engineer at INOV8, said in a blog post that fasting hikers should plan ahead, and if they feel up to it, plan to break their fast at the top of a hill, taking their time to arrive at sunset. “On some days you’ll feel better than others. Be kind to yourself and only go hiking on days when your body feels up to it,” Domun said.

Below you’ll find three hikes and walks in places open after sunset. If observing the holiday, may your fasting be easy. Happy Ramadan!

A view of the Griffith Observatory with downtown Los Angeles in the background.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

1. Crystal Springs – Atwater Park in Griffith Park

Distance: 2.7 miles
Elevation gained: 130 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Dogs allowed? Yes
Accessible alternative: Los Angeles River Bike Path

The Crystal Springs – Atwater Park route is a 2.7-mile easy stroll through the southeast side of Griffith Park that includes a quick side trip over the L.A. River.

Griffith Park is open from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., although you’ll want to mind where you park, as some areas are open only until sunset.

To begin, you’ll take the wide dirt Main Trail north for just over half a mile before reaching a tunnel. Congrats! You’ve just completed the hilliest portion of this hike. It’s time to turn on that headlamp as you take the tunnel beneath the 5 Freeway, marveling at the wonders of human ingenuity.

Next, you’ll head over to the North Atwater Bridge, or La Kretz Bridge, an impressive modern design you’ve probably noticed from your car in gridlock traffic.

The North Atwater Bridge, or La Kretz Bridge, over the L.A. River.

(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)

The route next takes you to North Atwater Park. This area was separated from the rest of the park when the 5 Freeway was built in the late 1950s, resulting in 200 “prime acres of parkland” being destroyed, according to Friends of Griffith Park. Perhaps you’ll notice the squawk or chirp of birds settling in for the night.

From here, the path loops around the area for about a third of a mile before taking you back to the bridge. You’ll pass a corral and interpretive signs, among other things.

After crossing back over the bridge and under the tunnel (headlamp!), you’ll have a clear view of Beacon Hill, another great hiking destination in the park that offers stunning views of downtown L.A. You will head north again on the Main Trail, walking parallel to the 5. Hopefully the sound of the freeway is blocked by the lush trees that line the path.

You’ll take the Main Trail for about a third of a mile. At 1½ miles in your hike, you’ll bear left (or west), passing the Anza Trail Native Garden, planted by volunteers using seeds harvested from the park.

You’ll loop southwest around the path, passing the golf course and a baseball field before arriving at the newly renovated Griffith Park Visitor Center, open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (It also has restrooms!)

From the visitor center, you’ll head east along a dirt path before looping back up with the Main Trail, which you’ll take south back to your car.

If you’d like something a little more challenging, you can peruse the Griffith Park Explorer route options. One of my favorites is the Five Points – Beacon Hill loop.

And if you’d like to go with a group, L.A. City Department of Recreation and Parks’ junior ecologist Ryan Kinzel and Emerson College professor Jacob Lang are hosting a free night hike through Griffith Park this Thursday.

So grab your headlamp, and have a great time!

Louisa McHugh, of San Pedro, jogs at Cabrillo Beach.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

2. Beach path at Cabrillo Beach

Distance: 1.6 miles
Elevation gained: Minimal
Difficulty: Easy
Dogs allowed? No
Accessible alternative: The route below is a paved flat path.

This 1.6-mile beach walk is a gentle stroll along the mile-long Cabrillo Beach, where during the day you might spot kite surfers, barges and Catalina Island in the near distance.

To begin, start your walk in the northeast corner of the parking lot where the sidewalk begins. Walk south down the sidewalk, unless you’d like to walk on the sandy beach instead. Near the Cabrillo Beach Bath House, the path will curve east. You’ll continue east along the jetty until you reach the Cabrillo Beach Pier, where you might spot people fishing. You can pause to take in the views for as long as you’d like before heading back.

Although there are many beach walk options in Southern California, the reason I’m recommending Cabrillo Beach is because it’s a great place to observe grunion runs. At night, these small silvery fish come completely out of the water to lay their eggs in the wet sand, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Beachgoers witness an unusual fish spawning ritual known as a grunion run on Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

“Grunion make these excursions only on particular nights and with such regularity that the time of their arrival on the beach can be predicted a year in advance,” according to the agency.

Depending on how late you’d like to stay up, you can take a beach walk and stay for the grunions, which are expected to arrive at 10:25 p.m. Thursday and 10:50 p.m. Friday.

Hikers walk down a path at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

3. Gwen Moore Lake to Western Ridgeline in Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area

Distance: Around 2½ miles
Elevation gained: About 300 feet
Difficulty: Moderate
Dogs allowed? Yes
Accessible alternative: Gwen Moore Lake path

This 2½-mile journey through Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area will take you past a charming lake and will gain just enough elevation to provide you with striking views of the city. It is more challenging than the other two paths, so please plan accordingly. (And pack that headlamp!)

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The park is around 330 acres and includes the stunning Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, which thousands access every year via a straight staircase with 282 steps.

Upon arriving at the park, you’ll pay $10 to park. Ask the staff member at the toll booth whether they have a map, as it’s great to have one on hand as you hike. For this hike, I’d recommend parking near the Gwen Moore Lake if you can.

To begin the hike, you’ll start at Gwen Moore Lake. You can either take the paved path that takes you along the western side of the lake or the straight paved path on the eastern side of the lake. It will take you due south.

About a third of a mile in, you’ll walk east past the Kenneth Hahn Visitor Center before quickly joining with the Park to Playa Regional Trail, a 13-mile path that guides hikers from near Windsor Hills to the ocean (near Ballona Creek). That’s an adventure for another day!

You’ll take Park to Playa, a short jaunt, bearing left (northwest) toward a large green space to join the Bowl Loop Trail, or on some maps, Park to Playa Alternate. Follow this path in the northerly direction until it jags left where you’ll join the Western Ridgeline Trail (or Park to Playa Alternate, depending on your map). From here, say hello to beautiful views of the city!

You will next take Diane’s Trail (who is she?) just over half a mile before heading down via the Forest Trail. Pause along the way to appreciate more gorgeous views of the city, including of downtown L.A.

Head south past the Japanese garden, and then take the paved road from the Japanese garden back to where you parked, hopefully near the lake.

3 things to do

During a previous Dana Point Festival of Whales, guests attend a sacred ceremony given by the Acjachemen Nation and observe the Dana Point Surf Club as their members paddle out to welcome the whales to Dana Point’s shores.

(Dana Point Harbor)

1. Whale-come the cetaceans in Dana Point
The 55th Annual Dana Point Festival of the Whales, which celebrates gray whale migration, is scheduled for Friday through Sunday in Dana Point Harbor. Visitors can attend the “Welcoming of the Whales” ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Ocean Institute, or on Saturday, observe the cardboard boat race, learn at the marine mammal lecture series or chow down at the clam chowder cookout. On Sunday, attendees will pick up trash at 9 a.m. near at the Richard Henry Dana Jr. statue before attending a concert from noon to 5 p.m. performed from a floating dock. Learn more at festivalofwhales.com.

2. Stand up for public lands in Ventura
Environmental advocacy groups Los Padres ForestWatch and Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas will host a hike at 11 a.m. Sunday through the Harmon Canyon Preserve in Ventura. Group leaders will educate hikers on the Trump administration’s proposal to open 850,000 acres, including about 400,000 acres across Central California, to oil and gas drilling. After the hike, participants are invited to make posters to spread awareness of the threat to public lands. Register at eventbrite.com.

3. Kick back with a kite in Redondo Beach
The 52nd Annual Redondo Pier Kite Festival will take place from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Redondo Beach Pier (100 Fishermans Wharf). This free community event will feature live music, face painting and a kite flying contest. Kites will be available for purchase on the pier while supplies last. Guests can also bring their own kites. Learn more at redondopier.com.

The must-read

Visitors take the chair lifts at the Mt. Baldy Resort.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The ski world is becoming increasingly owned by large corporate chains, but small shops like the Mt. Baldy Resort continue to hang on. Times staff writer Jack Dolan wrote about how Mt. Baldy Resort, just over an hour from downtown L.A., works hard to remain competitive. The resort offers a quick escape for Angelenos who want to ski and appreciate “the wide expanse of the Inland Empire stretched to the Pacific Ocean nearly two vertical miles below,” Dolan wrote. Many of its guests find its old-school style more welcoming than the ritzy lodges in Taos and Tahoe. “There’s big conglomerates trying to buy everybody up, and I don’t want that,” said Chris Caron, a 65-year-old retiree who lives 20 minutes down the road from Mt. Baldy Resort. “That’s what I love about here. It’s not so commercialized.”

Happy adventuring,

P.S.

Porkchop is free! A month ago, I featured a story by Times staff writer Lila Seidman, introducing Wild readers to Porkchop, a three-flippered sea turtle who was being rehabilitated by the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. “Many Angelenos don’t know Eastern Pacific green sea turtles are swimming in their proverbial backyard, but they are — and they’re thriving,” Seidman wrote. “It’s estimated that about 100 of the hulking-yet-graceful animals live in the lower stretch of the San Gabriel River, where salt and freshwater commingle.” And thankfully, it’s now about 101, as Porkchop was released back into the wild on Friday. I’m not crying, you’re crying!

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.

In national terms, California is about as indelibly blue as the political process permits, but an unusually comprehensive exit poll of voters in Tuesday’s presidential election confirms that Los Angeles is perhaps the bluest of the blue; it is now more liberal and Democratic than the state as a whole.

The nonpartisan, citywide survey was conducted by Loyola Marymount’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles under the direction of Fernando Guerra, and the results are revealing. While 43% of the nation’s white voters cast ballots for Barack Obama, 76% of L.A.’s white electorate went for the president-elect. Similarly, while the Democratic candidate won 66% of the Latino vote nationally, he carried 77% of L.A. Latinos. The city’s African Americans matched national percentages: Obama got 97% of their vote. He also was the choice of 67% of L.A.’s Asian Americans (nationally, Asian Americans are usually too small a group to get counted effectively in exit polls).

Across the city, 71% of voters told the Loyola pollsters that race was “not at all” important in their decision on which presidential candidate to back, but what’s interesting is that Los Angeles’ white voters emerged from Tuesday’s general election as the most liberal constituency in the city. If you take as your measure the two hot-button statewide propositions on the ballot — parental notification for teenagers seeking abortion and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage — white voters’ social liberality is strikingly apparent.

Fully 69% of white voters opposed Proposition 4 (parental notification), and 73% voted against Proposition 8 (prohibiting same-sex marriage). Latinos voted for both proposals — 47% to 39% for parental notification and 48% to 42% to prohibit same-sex marriage. (When totals don’t add up to 100%, it’s because not all those questioned voted or revealed their votes on every issue to the pollsters.) Blacks and Asians split their vote on the social issues: A 45% plurality of African Americans opposed parental notification; 57% supported the ban on same-sex marriage. Asian Americans went the other way: 57% were against banning gay marriage, while a 42% plurality supported parental notification.

Geographically, the Loyola poll overturned the longtime local political assumption that the San Fernando Valley is generally more conservative than the city south of the Santa Monica Mountains: 72% of Valley voters went for Obama, as opposed to 78% of the rest of the city’s electorate. Similarly, a solid majority of Valley voters opposed parental notification (57%, which was higher than the city as a whole, at 51%) and a stunning 63% of Valley ballots were cast against the same-sex marriage ban. The rest of the city opposed the measure 54% to 31%.

All four of the city’s largest ethnic groups — whites, Latinos, blacks and Asians — are more liberal and more heavily Democratic than their counterparts statewide. Looking at same-sex marriage, for example, Loyola’s Guerra pointed out that 70% of blacks statewide opposed Proposition 8, compared to L.A.’s 57%.

So, with a mayoral election just over the horizon, what do these new realities suggest about the future of politics in Los Angeles? As Guerra said, it will be “much, much tougher for a Riordan-type Republican candidate to win the mayor’s office, somebody like Rick Caruso,” the billionaire shopping mall developer who announced Friday that he wouldn’t be running.

—

While the old divisions between Valley voters and the rest of the city have been swept away, Guerra says that some of the center’s other work suggests that pockets of traditional conservatism remain. Some districts north of the Santa Monicas may continue to elect relatively more conservative City Council members while voting with the rest of the city’s liberal majority on national, state and even citywide issues.

Other research by the Loyola-based center has verified a trend that may be increasingly decisive in local politics: Latinos’ overwhelmingly pro-union sentiment. Latino voters are virtually across-the-board supporters of organized labor and its agenda. In part, that’s because the region’s resurgent unions are essentially a Latino movement, which is one of the reasons labor here has championed immigrants’ rights so strongly. The loyalty is reciprocal; one of the significant things Guerra and his colleagues have discovered is that Latinos support organized labor whether or not anybody in the family pays union dues. In fact, nonunion Latino households are more likely to endorse labor’s agenda at the polls than white union members.

“To win in the future,” Guerra said Friday, “citywide candidates will need to put together a coalition of liberal whites, Latinos and unions. Tap them, and you’ve got an unbeatable combination.”

You’ve also got a very different Los Angeles.

Traditionally, officeholders here have been elected by one city to govern another. That is, the electors have been older, whiter, more conservative and more affluent than the majority of Angeleos; they have had interests — and they expected the officials they chose to serve them. Those who have been governed mostly have been younger, browner, blacker and far poorer than the electors; they have had — and they continue to have — needs, which sometimes have been met and, too often, haven’t.

The disconnect between the traditional electors’ interests and the civic majority’s needs is the source of much of our civic dysfunction. When the overwhelming majority of this new Los Angeles told the Loyola pollsters that they voted for the presidential candidate they felt would “bring change,” they may have had more than the White House in mind.

—

timothy.rutten@latimes.com

The roughly three-mile route winds through historic neighborhoods with excellent views, incredible century-old homes and (literally) breathtaking climbs along with an intriguing collection of gates and doors. The walk also gives you a chance to admire the Hollywood Bowl without jillions of people milling around (and, if necessary, visit its lovely restrooms without waiting forever in line), but be sure to check the Bowl’s schedule ahead of time. The route won’t be possible when it’s having a concert.

Traffic and parking are always a challenge in this part of L.A. and nearly impossible in the High Tower area. I recommend finding a place to park across Highland Avenue on Milner Road because it’s less traveled (and very lovely). One final note: This route has few sidewalks, and those that exist are uneven, so keep an eye open for traffic and trip hazards, which is tougher than it sounds, because there are plenty of lovely sights to distract.

Here’s how to get there:

1. Start your walk at the corner of Camrose Drive and Highland Avenue, next to the Highland-Camrose Bungalow Village (which we’ll visit later.) Walk straight up Camrose past Woodland Way to Rockledge Road, where you’ll turn right and continue your climb.

This Hollywood Heights neighborhood has a real Mediterranean feel, with brilliant white villas clinging to the hills. The narrow winding street offers charming views of balconies and towers and the soothing tinkle of running water, so it’s easy to forget the cacophonous traffic and looming billboards nearby. The views get better as you climb until you reach the top of the hill and the end of Rockledge — at least for vehicles.

2. Continue walking to the end of the cul-de-sac, where you’ll find Los Altos Place, a pedestrian-only street. At the start of the walkway is a beautiful mosaic bench, where you can stop to catch your breath and then descend the first set of stairs, just 12 steps down.

3. This narrow walk takes you past many impressive doors and gates until you reach High Tower Drive. You’ll cross this road to stay on Los Altos Place, but as you cross, take a moment to wonder at the tiny garages built into the bottom of the hill and the High Tower elevator built like a freestanding Italian bell tower (a.k.a. campanile) rising 100 feet above. The elevator tower was designed by architect Carl Kay in the 1920s to provide the neighborhood’s tony residents elevator access to their hilltop homes, which are inaccessible by car.

4. Alas, only residents have a key to the elevator, so you must admire from afar and continue your walk along Los Altos Place, which includes a short set of 23 steps, to another pedestrian walkway called Broadview Terrace, where you will turn right and climb 37 steps toward the tower. At the top you’ll see more mostly white houses, bristling with balconies and to your right, a clearing with some gorgeous views of Hollywood.

5. Keep walking on Broadway Terrace, past the back side of the tower, to the next pedestrian walkway, Alta Loma Terrace, where you will turn right. It’s easy to get confused here, because the narrow walkway seems to have many passages that lead to front doors. After you pass the tower and a large, white Streamline Moderne home on your right, look for the street sign to Alta Loma Terrace on your left, partially hidden by shrubs and turn right.

6. This is another narrow, shaded walkway where you will see more interesting gates and fences than actual homes, but at No. 6881, you’ll pass a boarded-up 1921 Craftsman-style home with Japanese influences peppered with graffiti and “keep out” notices. The home once belonged to pioneering Asian American actor Philip Ahn, but it’s mostly famous now for being the home where Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love lived from 1992 to 1993. It’s sometimes known as the “In Utero” house, because Cobain wrote most of Nirvana’s third and final studio album, “In Utero,” there. Now the most notable thing, beyond the warnings, are the squirrels and bees buzzing around the property’s lovely overgrown landscape.

7. Follow Alta Loma Terrace as it slopes downhill and turns to the right. It’s mostly walkway along here, with intermittent series of short steps, but the descent is steep enough that you’ll feel it in your legs. After a short four steps down to No. 6836, where a beautiful pink bougainvillea drapes near a blue gate, the walkway turns left, and the descent feels faster over a series of four 14-step stairs separated by segments of straight walkways until you finally take 10 steps down into a parking lot and turn left.

8. You’ll be walking beside those adorable little garages on your left, barely big enough to hold a small modern sedan, and exit onto Highland Avenue through a black gate (that is locked from the parking lot side, so be sure you’re ready to leave).

9. Now turn left toward the Hollywood Bowl, and you can walk through the parking area, which is shaded by many beautiful trees and much more pleasant than walking alongside Highland Avenue’s unrelenting traffic. Walk up to the main entrance to admire the lovely Art Deco George Stanley fountain created in 1940, then walk over to the Peppertree Lane walkway — yes, lined by pepper trees — to the amphitheater. which is open to visitors who want to admire.

10. You won’t find much else open except for clean restrooms, which we were happy to visit. After gaping at the shell-shaped stage and the venues towering, arched rows capable of seating 18,000, retrace your steps back toward Highland. And near the place where you exited from the Alta Loma Terrace parking lots, step inside the gates to the Highland Camrose Park Pathway, around 2153 Highland Ave. On concert nights, this park is usually full of people eating their picnic dinners before entering the theater, but the park is usually empty and quiet when the Bowl is closed.

11. Follow the path heading east toward Camrose, and take a few minutes to wander through the cobble-stoned Highland-Camrose Bungalow Village of 14 Craftsman homes built between 1900 and 1924, according to an informational sign at the village. The cute houses were designed to be working-class housing for film-industry folks — what a concept! — and today mostly house offices for organizations affiliated with the Hollywood Bowl as well as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Parks Bureau.

12. Exit onto Camrose and turn left to Highland Avneue, where you’ll cross to the other side, where Camrose becomes Milner Road and start walking uphill into the Whitley Heights Historical Preservation Overlay Zone, created by developer H.W. Whitley and architect A.S. Barnes. The majority of the stately homes were designed between 1918 and 1928 to resemble a Mediterranean village and quickly became the home of Hollywood’s elite, including Rudolph Valentino, Tyrone Power, Gloria Swanson and Marlene Dietrich, according to the Los Angeles City Planning website.

13. Follow Milner Road as it winds and climbs up the lushly landscaped hill. After the road curves left, watch for La Scène Idéal, an adorable yellow 1923 cottage that hugs the next curve. At Watsonia Terrace, bear right to stay on Milner Road and continue walking uphill, past several grand Spanish Colonial Revival-style homes, the neighborhood’s favored design. It’s the details on these homes that really captured my eye — arched doorways and windows (some with stained glass), tile inlays, elaborate garage doors and wrought iron light fixtures.

14. At the end of Milner, turn right onto Whitley Terrace, with some breathtaking views on your right, along with many more lovely homes. The book mentions a short stair just past 6681 Whitley Terrace, before a stretch of low slung freestanding garages, but it’s apparently been removed. A small plaque marks the spot where the Mary Jackson Staircase was rebuilt in 2000, but it no longer exists, so keep walking a short distance more to Grace Avenue and turn left to continue climbing the hill.

15. The higher you go, the more houses seem to become more stately. At the top of the hill, you’ll see Kendra Court to your left, a gated street closed to the public. Follow Grace Avenue as it turns right and heads downhill.

16. Turn right at the next street, which is Whitley Terrace, and follow it down past Bonair Place, where the road starts curving to the right. Follow the curve to the Whitley Terrace Steps, between 6666 and 6670 Whitley Terrace, and your final stairs, a twisting, 159-step descent with various short landings under shady trees, wrought-iron fences and tiled roofs. At step 66, pause to admire a charming yellow gate and then carry on, through a charming wrought iron gate back to Milner Road and wherever you parked your car.

The Writers Guild of America West has canceled its awards ceremony scheduled to take place March 8 as its staff union members continue to strike, demanding higher pay and protections against artificial intelligence.

In a letter sent to members on Sunday, WGA West’s board of directors, including President Michele Mulroney, wrote, “The non-supervisory staff of the WGAW are currently on strike and the Guild would not ask our members or guests to cross a picket line to attend the awards show. The WGAW staff have a right to strike and our exceptional nominees and honorees deserve an uncomplicated celebration of their achievements.”

The New York ceremony, scheduled on the same day, is expected go forward while an alternative celebration for Los Angeles-based nominees will take place at a later date, according to the letter.

Comedian and actor Atsuko Okatsuka was set to host the L.A. show, while filmmaker James Cameron was to receive the WGA West Laurel Award.

WGA union staffers have been striking outside the guild’s Los Angeles headquarters on Fairfax Avenue since Feb. 17. The union alleged that management did not intend to reach an agreement on the pending contract. Further, it claimed that guild management had “surveilled workers for union activity, terminated union supporters, and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining.”

On Tuesday, the labor organization said that management had raised the specter of canceling the ceremony during a call about contraction negotiations.

“Make no mistake: this is an attempt by WGAW management to drive a wedge between WGSU and WGA membership when we should be building unity ahead of MBA [Minimum Basic Agreement] negotiations with the AMPTP [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers],” wrote the staff union. “We urge Guild management to end this strike now,” the union wrote on Instagram.

The union, made up of more than 100 employees who work in areas including legal, communications and residuals, was formed last spring and first authorized a strike in January with 82% of its members. Contract negotiations, which began in September, have focused on the use of artificial intelligence, pay raises and “basic protections” including grievance procedures.

The WGA has said that it offered “comprehensive proposals with numerous union protections and improvements to compensation and benefits.”

The ceremony’s cancellation, coming just weeks before the Academy Awards, casts a shadow over the upcoming contraction negotiations between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios and streamers.

In 2023, the WGA went on a strike lasting 148 days, the second-longest strike in the union’s history.

Times staff writer Cerys Davies contributed to this report.

As a Clinton supporter, I am very disappointed that the President fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders for speaking on masturbation (Dec. 10), while Ronald Reagan let Surgeon General C. Everett Koop speak his mind on AIDS, birth control and condom use–all positions with which Reagan disagreed–for both of the former President’s terms. Perhaps Reagan recognized that doctors speak of things, in clear, uncensored language, in a way that politicians cannot.

I have never seen such sore winners as the Republicans are this year. Their call for Elders’ head heralds some very dark days to come. Clinton needs to learn a lesson from this, a lesson he seems loath to learn: You cannot appease your enemies by sacrificing your friends. You will lose your friends and your enemies will call you a coward.

DAVID VAN CHANEY, West Hollywood

*

It is good to see Clinton moving to the right. He may not have, as yet, fully embraced “Three strikes and you’re out” but at least “Three faux pas and you’re out” is a start.

WARREN M. LENT, Los Angeles

*

“She Pulled No Punches” (editorial, Dec. 10) is surprisingly acute and on target, both as to the rationale for Elders’ dismissal as surgeon general and as to the lamentable restraint on public discourse in our country–suffered by those who do their homework well and let us know what they think.

I think it cheeky of you to offer kind words at all for one who frequently shoots from the lip. She is the Jesse Helms of the left, though with far kinder heart and broader perspective. I will miss her in the way one misses sitting on the edge of the chair when someone rises to speak, half-afraid yet hoping some truth will out.

On the masturbation comment that got her canned, the practice needs no encouragement from the classroom. Bravo, Dr. Elders, and keep talking straight. You are in the grand tradition of free speech.

VERNON STORY, Community United Methodist Church, Desert Hot Springs

*

Being outspoken is not a virtue worth defending when what you have to say is just plain dumb. Which is why I can’t believe you would write an editorial supporting Elders. This woman has embarrassed herself virtually every time she has opened her inarticulate mouth. Have you not been listening?

Whatever has kept Clinton from firing her before this is a mystery. The number of mind-numbing statements made by this surgeon general over the last two years is far too extensive to list here but to me, her most classic remark had to do with violence in America: “We need safer weapons and safer bullets,” said she. No further comment.

JUDIE GAUGENMAIER, Studio City

*

It fascinates me that we will accept political babble and allow ourselves to go into denial, and when we are confronted with the truth as given to us by Elders we rebuke the truth and the messenger.

BEN BOELMAN, Placentia

*

Dr. Jack Kevorkian would have been a better choice for surgeon general than Elders.

DWIGHT M. CATES, Ventura

February was a short but busy month, with holidays Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras, Iftar and Lent all overlapping this year.

It also marked Black History Month, offering an opportunity to celebrate the culinary contributions of Black communities near and far, including resilient restaurants in Pasadena and Altadena, a 250-acre ranch in Acton that represents the largest Black-owned farm in L.A. County, and the legacy of the ‘Dean of Southern cuisine’ chef Joe Randall, who died at 79 after spending a half-century of amplifying African American culinary traditions. In Inglewood, Serving Spoon won the America’s Classic in California award from the James Beard Foundation, and will receive a medal at the ceremony this June.

With summer temperatures and clear skies this weekend, it’s hard to believe that just weeks ago, the city was hit with a week of heavy rainstorms. Several restaurants across the region were forced to temporarily close due to flooding, resulting in revenue loss and expensive repairs.

March brings the start of spring, which means we’re already seeing seasonal produce such as asparagus, peas and apricots appear on our favorite menus. Keep reading for more dining ideas this month, including the return of a globe-trotting cafe, a community-minded food hub in South L.A. and an Argentinian bistro with a connection to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance.

Here’s what I think about the so-called Hillary Clinton cleavage controversy: She looked fabulous. Unfortunately, thanks to the vigilance and stridency of Clinton’s legions of feminist supporters in the media, who rose to collectively denounce a Washington Post fashion writer who dared to notice that Clinton had displayed an inch of cleavage while speaking on the Senate floor, we are unlikely ever again to see her looking so forthrightly feminine, so classily sexy, so zaftigly maternal — so downright attractive.

Even the most Clinton-smitten of political liberals admit that the New York senator is often fashion-challenged. During her husband’s presidency, she was known for her garish-hued suits featuring doorknob-size buttons and less-than-flattering hemlines.

Now running for the nation’s highest office, she’s switched to garish-hued boxy jackets over sleek but essentially shapeless black pants. For example, check out the salmon-orange jacket with stiff mandarin collar that she wore for the July 23 Democratic presidential debate. “I don’t know about that jacket,” said the Democratic presidential field’s style maven, John Edwards, he of the $400 haircut.

So, it was a refreshing break to see Clinton attired in clothes that actually looked good on her when she was captured by C-SPAN2 on the Senate floor July 18. She has, ahem, put on a few pounds since she ran for the Senate in 2000, and as all gorgeous women of a certain weight know, from Cecilia Bartoli to Mo’Nique, the name of the game is to concentrate the viewer’s attention on your above-the-waist assets, which, thanks to that nourishing layer of subcutaneous you-know-what, typically include lustrous skin and luxuriant hair. Clinton has both, and she also has a bust line that larger women don’t have to pay a plastic surgeon to possess.

Everything that Clinton wore that day on the Senate floor — the soft rose-pink jacket, simple and tasteful, that highlighted her pearlescent complexion; the matching pink necklace; and the black shirt with a slight V-neck that revealed a “small acknowledgment of sexuality and femininity peeking out of the conservative” (to quote Post writer Robin Givhan) — brought out her female best.

My own theory is that Clinton was indulging in a visual retort to Elizabeth Edwards (those Edwardses!), who was quoted in a July 17 article in Salon magazine saying that Clinton, obliged to prove her toughness as a potential world leader, wouldn’t be as effective as her husband on women’s issues. Bill Clinton’s response to Edwards — “I don’t think [Hillary’s] trying to be a man” — was captured on a now-famous YouTube video.

Givhan’s comparison of Hillary Clinton’s decolletage to “catching a man with his fly unzipped” wasn’t an analogy I would have used, but Givhan incurred the wrath of political feminists because her article violated this basic double standard of the women’s movement: It’s fine to aver, a la feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan,that women are the kinder, gentler, softer sex — and also to advertise one’s softer sexuality by declining to dress in the covered-up uniform of men. But if you dare call people’s attention to that fact, as Givhan did, you’re a sexist pig.

The reliably neurasthenic New York Times columnist Judith Warner got the ball of outrage rolling: “I always thought that middle age afforded some kind of protection from prying eyes and personal remarks.”

Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman divulged more details than one would care to know about her own sartorial peculiarities: “And what to make of my lime-colored Crocs with their peek-a-boo holes? Do they express a certain post-feminist funkiness? Or do they expose a feminine (if chipped) pedicure?”

An irate woman left a voice-mail message with Post ombudsman Deborah Howell demanding that the newspaper “do more stories on the private parts of male candidates.”

And the over-the-top finale came from Clinton advisor Ann Lewis’ use of Givhan’s article in a fundraising letter designed to stir up the wrath and dollars of Clinton’s supporters: “Frankly, focusing on women’s bodies instead of their ideas is insulting. It’s insulting to every woman who has ever tried to be taken seriously in a business meeting. It’s insulting to our daughters — and our sons — who are constantly pressured by the media to grow up too fast.”

So, I guess it’s back to mandarin collars for Clinton. That’s too bad, because she would do better to take a leaf from the book of the powerful women in history who boldly used every weapon in their arsenals to hold their own in a world dominated by men: not only their brilliant minds but also their looks and their sexuality. They include Elizabeth I, who decked herself with every pearl that could be fished out of the Indian Ocean, and Cleopatra, who seduced two Roman rulers.

As for cleavage, Catherine the Great displayed five times as much bon point as did Clinton. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria wore dresses cut so low that it’s hard to figure out how they stayed up — even after bearing her 16 children. Her husband, Francis I, was originally the emperor, but after a while, Maria Theresa just took over and ran the Habsburg domains herself. Sounds like a good role model for Hillary Clinton.

Charlotte Allen is an editor at Beliefnet and the author of “The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus.”