santa monica

It’s been a rough few years for Santa Monica.

Businesses have abandoned its once-thriving downtown. Its retail and office vacancy rates are among the highest in Los Angeles County. The crowds that previously packed the area surrounding the city’s famous pier have dwindled.

Homelessness has risen. City officials acknowledge crime incidents had become more visible and volatile.

The breadth and depth of the issues became apparent just last month when the city was forced to declare itself in fiscal distress after paying $229 million in settlements related to alleged sexual abuse by Eric Uller, a former city dispatcher.

Now, Santa Monica is trying to plot a new path forward. A significant first step could come Tuesday.

That’s when the City Council is set to consider a plan to reverse its fortunes.

A shuttered business on Broadway in Santa Monica.

(David Butow/For The Times)

The plan includes significantly increasing police patrols and enforcing misdemeanor ordinances, investing in infrastructure and new community events, and taking a more business-friendly brush to permits and fees. Officials also plan to be more aggressive in making sure property owners maintain unused properties.

The blueprint tackles many “quality of life” issues that critics say have contributed to lower foot traffic in the city’s tourist districts since the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s far from clear the tactics will work. But given the city’s current trajectory, officials say bold action is necessary.

“We’re trying to usher in a rebirth — a renaissance of the city — by investing in ourselves,” Councilmember Dan Hall said.

Hall, 38, is part of a relatively youthful City Council majority that swept into office in recent years as voters opted for new leadership and a fresh approach. Five of the seven council members are millennials, and six members first joined the council in either 2022 or 2024.

Also new on the scene is City Manager Oliver Chi, who five months ago was hired away from the same position in Irvine.

“The city is in a period of distress, for sure,” said Chi, 45. “We’re not in a moment where the city is broke. The city still has resources. … But right now, if we do nothing, the city’s general fund operating budget is projected to run a structural deficit of nearly $30 million a year, and that’s because we’ve seen big drops” in revenues, such as from hotel taxes, sales tax and parking.

“But part of that is the private sector hasn’t been investing in the city. And we haven’t had people traveling to the city,” Chi said.

Santa Monica is far from the only city — in California or nationwide — to face the pain of a downtown in decline. Brick-and-mortar retailers have long bled business to online offerings, and the pandemic upended the cadence of daily life that was the lifeblood of commercial districts, with many people continuing to work from home at least part of the week.

Birds fly over and people walk on the Santa Monica Pier.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

But the hope is through concerted, planned investment that Santa Monica can shine once again and modernize to be competitive in the postpandemic era.

The City Council had already decided to set aside $60 million from its cash reserves to spend over the next four or five years to cover any operating deficits. But with Tuesday’s vote, Santa Monica would instead use those dollars as an investment in hopes of getting the city back on track.

“Those things really are issues related to public safety, disorder in town, the disrepair that we’ve seen in our infrastructure,” Chi said. “All of those things are preventing, I think, confidence in the local economy.”

In downtown, the city’s plan would include doubling the number of police officers assigned to a specialized unit to at least eight to 10 a day, deploying an additional five patrol officers daily, creating a new police substation, adding two workers daily to address homelessness issues, and hiring eight public safety employees to provide a more constant presence across the city’s main commercial district, parks and parking garages.

Staff in the city attorney’s office would also be augmented to boost the ability to prosecute misdemeanor cases.

An unhoused man naps on a bench in Palisades Park.

(David Butow / For The Times)

Also on the agenda: moving the city’s homeless shelter out of downtown; making a one-time $3.5-million investment to address fraying sidewalks and streets and freshen up trees and trash cans; funding monthly events at the Third Street Promenade to attract crowds; creating a large-scale “Santa Monica Music Festival” next year; upgrading restrooms near the pier and Muscle Beach; and increasing operating days for libraries.

Another proposal would require the owners of vacant properties to register with the city, in hopes of addressing lots that remain in disrepair.

The city is also looking to be more business friendly. It’s seeking to upgrade the current permit process, utilizing artificial intelligence to get nearly instantaneous permit reviews for single-family homes and accessory dwelling units, as well as reduce permit fees for restaurants with outdoor dining.

The plan also outlines strategies to boost revenue. Santa Monica is poised to end its contract with a private ambulance operator, McCormick Ambulance, in February and move those operations in house.

“It’s going to cost roughly $2.8 million a year to stand that operation up. But the reality is, once we start running it, it’ll generate about $7 million a year in new ongoing revenues,” Chi said.

“That’s part of what we’re thinking through: How do we invest now in order to grow our revenue base moving ahead?” he said.

Parking rates are also going up, which city officials estimate should generate $8 million to $9 million in additional annual revenue — though officials say they still charge a lower rate than those of nearby cities.

The city also plans more traffic safety enforcement and will cut the current 90 minutes of free parking in downtown parking structures to 30 minutes.

There’s also been talk of a new city parcel tax, though no decision has yet been made to pursue that. A parcel tax would need voter approval.

Another priority is building back the city’s cash reserves, which have dwindled over the years, largely on account of legal payments. Eight years ago, Santa Monica had $436 million in cash reserves; today, there’s only $158 million in nonrestricted reserves.

The planned $60 million in spending would further reduce the city’s unobligated cash down to $98 million.

Santa Monica’s annual general fund operating budget is nearly $800 million a year.

Beachgoers enjoying the scene near the Santa Monica Pier.

(David Butow/For The Times)

The city is also looking to redevelop some of its underutilized properties, including a 2.57-acre parcel bounded by Arizona Avenue and 4th and 5th streets, which includes branches of Bank of America and Chase bank, the leases of which are expected to expire in a few years. Also being eyed are a 1.09-acre kiss-and-ride lot southeast of the Santa Monica light rail station; the city’s seismically vulnerable Parking Structure 1 on 4th Street, which sits on 0.75 of an acre; and the old Fire Station No. 1, which sits on 0.34 of an acre and is being used for storage.

No firm plans are in place just yet. The parcels could be sold, leased long term or redeveloped as part of a joint venture. One likely possibility is that the developments would include new housing.

“When you look at any revitalization effort of any vibrant downtown core that’s eroded, there’s always been an element of repopulating the area with people,” Chi said. A smart redevelopment plan for those properties will not only “hopefully help bring back vibrancy to the downtown, but also help replenish the city’s cash reserves.”

The seeds of downtown Santa Monica’s decline actually started before the pandemic. But COVID hit the city hard, and commercial vacancies rose significantly, Councilmember Caroline Torosis, 39, said.

Santa Monica also sustained damage in 2020 from rioters who swarmed the downtown area in what appeared to be an organized attack amid a protest meant to decry the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Tourists never came back in the numbers they had before the pandemic.

Torosis said the new council majority was elected on a promise to boost economic activity in the city.

“We need to absolutely ensure that people feel safe, welcome, invited and included in our city,” said Torosis, who serves as mayor pro tem.

Hall called the plan a bold bet.

“What we’re trying to do here is move us away from a scarcity mind-set, where we’re nickel-and-diming businesses trying to stay open, restaurants trying to open a parklet, residents trying to build an ADU,” Hall said.

The council’s relative youth, he said, is a plus for a city trying to write a bright new chapter.

“I think that that’s something that millennials are finding themselves needing to do as we take ownership of society, and we see a world where past generations have been afraid to make mistakes or afraid to make decisions,” he said.

On a palm tree-lined bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, thousands of people rallied against the Trump administration in one of many “No Kings Day” protests around the country last month.

Here in Santa Monica, the well-heeled and beachy protesters also had a localized message: America, we’re sorry.

“Santa Monica apologies for Stephen Miller,” a bearded man in a straw hat proclaimed via hand-scrawled poster board.

“Stephen Miller, who raised you?” another protester inquired in purple puff paint. Others paired the White House deputy chief of staff’s name with expletives.

Amid the false accusations and acrid clashes of President Trump’s inner circle, few acolytes have survived longer than Miller.

The 39-year-old has remained essential through Trump’s second term, piloting an immigration platform that has sowed fear across wide swaths of the country — nowhere more so than greater Los Angeles, where federal agents have mounted a relentless assault on immigrants, sweeping up thousands in deportation raids.

In the long shadow of his policies, local and national observers alike are paying renewed attention to Miller’s upbringing in the famously liberal enclave once dubbed “the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.”

“I think people are sad that the words ‘Santa Monica’ and ‘Stephen Miller’ are synonymous, because no one wants that connection,” said Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete.

Though often seen as a liberal enclave, Santa Monica is also where conservative strategist Stephen Miller grew up.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

How did the same 8.3-square-mile city that helped pioneer curbside recycling and strict rent control laws produce a man responsible for Trump’s most draconian policies?

Some are also questioning whether the administration’s focus on Los Angeles is a form of revenge on Miller’s spurned hometown.

When rumors of ICE agents seizing nannies at a Santa Monica park frantically flashed across social networks, Justin Gordon, who went to Hebrew school and high school with Miller, immediately thought his classmate must have personally directed the raid on their local park.

The reports proved spurious, but Gordon still saw an emotional truth.

“In the back of my mind, I’ve always thought, ‘This is Stephen Miller getting back at the city of Los Angeles,’ ” Gordon said.

In the eight years since Miller rose to fame and became an outsized antagonist on the American left, his Santa Monica villain origin story has been exhaustively documented, picked over and reanalyzed.

At the far edge of the American west, a brash adolescent came of age in a coastal community where the establishment prided itself on being antiestablishment. What choice would a young reactionary iconoclast have but to veer right?

Santa Monica was a town in flux when Miller was in high school at the turn of the millennium: a Berkeley meets Beverly Hills where haughty affluence was rapidly eclipsing the Birkenstocks and counterculture bumper stickers. It was also a tale of two cities, with moguls and the upper middle class north of Montana, and pockets of poverty and gang violence in the southern end of town.

Nowhere was this more evident than at Santa Monica High School, where the academics were nationally renowned, the student body resembled a United Colors of Benetton ad and a ’90s strain of “Free to Be … You and Me” liberalism reigned supreme.

The parade of cultural affinity clubs, diversity events and policies that sought to make the school more equitable nauseated Miller.

And the teenage provocateur made no secret of that revulsion, loudly belittling his fellow students. His bitter shtick offered a prescient preview of the grievance politics that would fuel his future boss into power.

Miller has said his years in high school were the hardest of his life, filled with pushback for his “vitriolic viewpoints,” according to Jean Guerrero, a former Times columnist and author of the 2020 Miller biography “Hatemonger.”

“And for whatever reason, he’s had this grievance about that ever since, and he’s been trying through various means, to have what I see as a form of revenge on the communities that rejected him in Los Angeles,” Guerrero said.

Stephen Miller when he was a student at Santa Monica High.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Through the White House, Miller did not respond to a request for comment. But anecdotes of Miller’s trollish high school antics have been exhaustively chronicled in the media.

There was the fight to restore the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance on his bleeding heart campus. His frequent railing against “rampant political correctness,” multiculturalism and the perceived failings of his Latino classmates. Allegedly dumping his middle school best friend for being Latino.

Perhaps most infamous is a campaign speech, seared into the brains of thousands of Samohi classmates, in which he seemingly absolved students of their responsibility to clean up after themselves.

“I will say and I will do things that no one else in their right mind would say or do,” Miller told the crowd, according to a video obtained by Univision. “Am I the only one who is sick and tired of being told to pick up our trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us?”

Students jeered and booed as Miller was escorted off the stage, according to several attendees. He lost that student government election.

“The only compliment I think I’ve ever come up with for Stephen is that there are plenty of conservatives and far-right wing conspiracy theorists and hate mongers that spout what he spouted from behind a computer screen. I have not in my life before or after seen someone do it in an amphitheater full of their high school colleagues,” said Miller’s classmate Kesha Ram Hinsdale, now majority leader of the Vermont state Senate.

Santa Monica High was a hothouse of political engagement, where students — the children of entertainment executives, bankers and lawyers, as well as nannies, day laborers and wait staff — were finding their footing as activists.

Students arrive for a summer school session at Santa Monica High School in 2011.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

They had watched Proposition 187 pass in their early childhoods, stoking divisions and energizing a wave of Latino activists. (The 1994 ballot measure, which aimed to block undocumented immigrants from accessing public education and other state services, was ultimately blocked by the courts.)

They marched with labor leader Dolores Huerta in support of workers at a neighborhood hotel and protested against the growing threat of war in Iraq.

Despite the kumbaya vibes, Santa Monica High was hardly a post-racial utopia. Students often self-segregated, and the school’s academic sheen was riven by racial division.

Puckish, clad in a suit and preternaturally confident, a teenage Miller was a regular presence at school board meetings. He argued for an English-only school district, decried the board’s focus on equity and generally sought to puncture progressive ideals and push buttons.

“We all knew who he was, and knew him by name,” said Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village), a Santa Monica-Malibu school board member from 1994 to 2006.

Miller was raised by Jewish Democrats several generations removed from their own asylum-seeking immigrant story. He enjoyed a comfortable childhood north of Montana, until the family real estate company faltered in the early ’90s and the Millers eventually relocated to a smaller rental on Santa Monica’s shabbier southern end.

Reactionary conservatism didn’t become a defining aspect of Miller’s persona until he started high school, according to Jason Islas, one of his best friends in middle school.

The friendship dissolved the summer before they started at Samohi when, in Islas’ telling, Miller called and announced that they would no longer be hanging out.

Miller delivered the news brusquely, citing Islas’ lack of confidence, his teenage acne and his Latino heritage in a “businesslike tone.”

“It was pretty cruel, even for a teenager,” Islas recalled.

Through a spokesperson, Miller denied this account in 2017. But his derision toward Latino classmates is well-documented — in his own words.

“There are usually very few, if any, Hispanic students in my honors classes, despite the large number of Hispanic students that attend our school,” a 16-year-old Miller wrote in a 2002 letter to a local paper.

The letter denounced the fact that school announcements were made in English and Spanish, “preventing Spanish speakers from standing on their own” and making “a mockery of the American ideal of personal accomplishment.”

Captivated by right-wing radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Larry Elder, Miller was a frequent guest on Elder’s show as a teenager, complaining about other perceived liberal excesses of his high school.

After graduating in 2003, Miller went to Duke University before landing on Capitol Hill, where he threaded his way up the far-right thicket with then-Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Many of his grievance-fueled Samohi talking points found their way into the first Trump campaign, where Miller had a mind-meld of sorts with the future leader of the free world.

In Trump’s second term, Miller has moved faster and gone further than during the first term, when he advocated unsuccessfully for using the military to push immigration enforcement. This time around, the administration has deployed troops to an American city in a staggering show of force, with masked agents raiding businesses and public spaces.

Ari Rosmarin, a civil rights lawyer who also attended Santa Monica High, said Miller has always had a keen eye for picking fights that would generate maximum hate, outrage and attention. It’s the through line connecting his youthful theatrics with the current assault on Los Angeles, Rosmarin said.

“He knows L.A. — knows that it’s home to both a super, super diverse and beautiful immigrant community, but also home to tons of media, cultural capital, financial capital,” Rosmarin said. “I think in those ways, it’s a particularly attractive site for a battle if your goal is not just a policy outcome, but a political and cultural attack.”

For Thieb Delaporte-Richard, the Parisian cafe within walking distance of his home in Santa Monica was the best spot for an early-morning chat.

While standing in line, the aroma of baking croissants wafted, and the buzzing of espresso machines reverberated off the skeletal remains of an old church that now houses the café.

“This kind of feels like home, to be honest, and I think that’s the reason I like this place,” Delaporte-Richard said of both the cafe and Santa Monica.

Born in Strasbourg, France, Delaporte-Richard spent much of his childhood bouncing around — from eastern France to Paris to French Guiana in South America — never living in one place for more than a few years and never quite sure how to answer when asked which place he truly called home.

“Every city, everywhere, you can see the sunset. But here, it’s so unique — with no clouds and those colors,” French artist Thieb Delaporte-Richard says. “For some reason, it feels like I only see those colors here.”

(Los Angeles World Cup 2026 host committee)

He eventually returned to Paris to attend Gobelins design school. While there, he had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. for a three-month internship in Santa Monica — his first taste of the beachside city, where he says he “had this vision of Hollywood, palm trees, the sunset,” and wanted to have the “California experience.”

A decade later, Delaporte-Richard, 30, wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Every day, he’s still drawn to the Santa Monica Pier, Pacific Coast Highway, the Santa Monica Mountains and the iconic seaside sunsets.

“Every city, everywhere, you can see the sunset,” he said. “But here, it’s so unique — with no clouds and those colors. For some reason, it feels like I only see those colors here. The way it bounces — it’s so red at the bottom, then you see hues of orange, purple and then blue, nothing to hide it. That makes it so unique.”

In a year’s time, when teams and fans arrive in Los Angeles for the 2026 World Cup — with Los Angeles set to host opening stage matches and quarterfinals at SoFi Stadium — Delaporte-Richard’s interpretation of that sunset will blanket Southern California. From walls to billboards to screens, the striking visual will serve as the focal point of the official L.A. poster for the tournament.

Delaporte-Richard’s pièce de résistance.

Like many in L.A. County, Delaporte-Richard is a transplant drawn to the area in pursuit of a dream. For him, that dream is art, and the region city welcomed him. His L.A.-centric poster stands as a love letter to the place he adores.

“My story is L.A.,” Delaporte-Richard said. “Moving here, I realized how much deeper it is — how L.A. is also all of the stories that people told me. That really changed my vision and made me realize it’s much more than what I thought. When I moved here, it was just supposed to be for a short time. And I realized, well, I love this place.”

Delaporte-Richard didn’t want his poster to be just a checklist of landmarks or symbols — his initial instinct was to include every aspect of the city. But once he scrapped that idea, he focused on subtlety: a careful balance between representation and cliché, aiming to capture an authentic L.A. feel.

He settled on the concept of a silhouetted footballer mid-strike — a composite inspired by countless goal-scoring moments, including one by his childhood hero, Ronaldinho — launching a left-footed shot against the setting sun over the downtown skyline. The city’s signature palm trees stand tall, while Easter eggs like the sweeping searchlights of a Hollywood premiere reveal themselves on a second glance. The player’s outline remains ambiguous enough to let viewers imagine their favorite star in the scene.

“A lot of people reached out to tell me, ‘Oh, it truly captures the spirit of L.A.,’” Delaporte-Richard said. “There is nothing more meaningful to me than people who’ve lived here their entire lives, for generations, telling me it feels like home. A poster like that is not just a marketing visual. To me, it’s a piece of culture. It becomes part of the history.”

The chance to showcase his art, however, nearly slipped away. Delaporte-Richard learned about the contest close to the submission deadline. Pressed for time, he put together a storyboard in a few hours in his apartment. During the next few days, he feverishly sketched and digitally painted the piece. By the end of the week, he finished the project and submitted it with just two hours to spare.

“I knew I wouldn’t have much time,” Delaporte-Richard said, shuffling through his black notebook filled with original sketches and concept art explaining his goal of capturing the energy and motion soccer brings. “I searched for an idea that would work and created that connection between soccer and Los Angeles.”

When Delaporte-Richard hit send on his submission, he wasn’t sure what to expect. At first, all he received was an automated message thanking him and highlighting that more than 900 people had entered the poster contest.

Then came the waiting game. In December, he was notified that he was one of 16 finalists whose work was getting evaluated by five Los Angeles County experts in public art and cultural exhibitions. Several months later, Jason Krutzsch of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission reached out with a message.

“I received an email that said, ‘Congratulations, your poster has been selected,’” Delaporte-Richard said. “I had to send an email just asking, ‘Is it for real? Is it literal? You’re not joking?’ And he was like, ‘I’m dead serious.’”

It took a phone call for it to finally hit Delaporte-Richard — he won. It was a big moment he shared with his wife, who moved to California with him from France, and with friends and family back home in Paris.

For the first time, the soft-spoken, introverted Delaporte-Richard found himself in the spotlight, with his first major project now available for the world to purchase — unfamiliar territory for him. Initially, the poster’s release left him anxious, unsure of how people would react.

Would they love it? Would they hate it? The weight felt heavier because of how deeply personal the project was.

Delaporte-Richard’s decision to enter the contest comes from a lifelong love of soccer that began in his youth in France, where he first learned to kick a ball. To him, Brazilian legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, Argentine star Lionel Messi and French hero Zinedine Zidane were magicians devoted to their craft, inspiring Delaporte-Richard to follow his path.

When he was 16, his first designs were soccer banners and photoshopped graphics. A chance to celebrate soccer sparked his love of art.

Having never been to a World Cup, Delaporte-Richard says it is an honor to now have his work be part of the games. He plans to attend matches at SoFi Stadium, the venue he passed through a months ago when his artwork was first put on display by the L.A. World Cup host committee.

“If you ask the person who’s got into design, creating football banners, about doing the World Cup poster, 15 years later, I would not believe it,” Delaporte-Richard said. “I wouldn’t believe it at all. So this experience in L.A. and in the U.S. made it a reality.”

When Debbie Allen opened the doors to her dance academy in 2000 inside of a revamped Marie Callender’s restaurant in Culver City, there was no other place in town like it that catered to disenfranchised Black and Latino communities.

The school became a haven for dancers of all backgrounds wanting to learn from the multifaceted performer, who chasséd into the Hollywood scene with her career-defining performance as Lydia Grant in the 1980 musical “Fame.” Allen went onto become an award-winning director and producer for shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” (which she also stars in), “How to Get Away With Murder,” “A Different World,” “Jane the Virgin” and “Everybody Hates Chris.”

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Fast forward 25 years, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy now resides in a 25,000-square-foot “arts” palace in Mid City at the Rhimes Performing Arts Center (named after Allen’s longtime friend and colleague Shonda Rhimes). It’s more active than ever with a newly accredited middle school, a summer intensive program, a tap festival and annual “Hot Chocolate Nutcracker” holiday show. Next up, Allen is hosting her third free community block party on June 8 on Washington Boulevard, featuring dance classes with world-renowned choreographers like Marguerite Derricks and a breakdancing competition with Silverback Bboy Events. And on June 22, Allen will host Dancing in the Light: Healing with the Arts, a bimonthly event that features free dance lessons for those impacted by the wildfires. The event will take place at the Wallis in Beverly Hills and will feature classes taught by choreographers Lyrik Cruz (salsa), Angela Jordan (African) and Anthony Berry (hip-hop).

“It’s been wonderful that this community has been able to see each other and have a bit of joy,” Allen said during a Zoom call from Atlanta, where she was working on a new TV pilot.

We caught up with Allen, who’s lived in L.A. for nearly 40 years, to learn about how she’d spend her perfect Sunday in the city. Much like when she was a child growing up in Houston, Sundays are centered around family and spending time with her four grandchildren who “own” her weekends, she said. On the call sheet is getting breakfast in Santa Monica, hosting a free dance class and catching a movie at Westfield Century City.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

7 a.m.: Wake up the grandbabies

On a typical Sunday, I would wake up at 7 a.m. My [eldest] grandchildren spend the night with us every Saturday. I have four grandkids who are 6, 4, and two who are 6 months old. The little ones are just now getting to where their parents might let us keep them overnight. My room has turned into a nursery.

First, we deal with our dog CoCo. We have a beautiful black German shepherd who is amazing. She’s such a good family dog and incredible guard dog. She just glistens, just pure black, and she’s wonderful with the kids. So we have to let her out and she wants to play. Then we get ready to go to breakfast.

9 a.m..: Time for breakfast

We always go out somewhere for breakfast. We either go to a nearby hotel or we go to Marmalade in Santa Monica. They have very fresh croissants, little biscuits with currants and scones. They also have really good omelets and turkey bacon. Then the neighborhood people are there, so we see people that we’ve met and have gotten to know over the years. There’s one man in particular who is always reading books and we can always get a new idea of a book to read.

11 a.m.: Host a free dance class

Then we’d come back and on any given Sunday, I might be on my way to Dancing in the Light: Healing with the Arts, where I’ve been doing these dance classes for all the people who have been impacted by the fires. We’ve been doing this for months and it’s been amazing. We’ve had tremendous support from Wallis Annenberg, United Way, Shonda Rhimes, Berry Gordy, just so many individuals who have supported. We do classes all over, which start at 11 a.m. But if we’re not doing the Dancing in the Light event, sometimes we like to go to the California Science Center, which the kids love. It’s great because there’s so much going on there now.

2:30 p.m.: Tennis time

I’ll head back home to catch the kids having their tennis lesson. They are starting to play at this young age and it’s so cute.

5 p.m.: Early dinner and a movie

We’d either start preparing family dinner because I have a son who has his 6-month-old and my daughter, Vivian, who has her three kids. Or we’d go out to dinner. We love to go to Ivy at the Shore because it’s very family-friendly and they have a lot of options. We also like going to Chinois. It’s a Wolfgang Puck spot. We’d have an early dinner around 5 p.m. If we don’t go out to eat, we might go to the movies. We love going to the movies. We’re really close to AMC Santa Monica, but sometimes we’ll go to [Westfield] Century City because they have a fantastic food court and the kids like to go up there and pick what they want to eat.

7:30 p.m.: Quality time with MaTurk

We’d come back home and spend time with my mom, who we call MaTurk. She’s 101 years old. We’d play her favorite music because she was a concert pianist. I did a beautiful piece for her at the Kennedy Center this year based on her book, “Hawk,” which we republished. It’s on sale now. But Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” is her favorite. She played it for me when I was 4 years old, going to sleep on her lap. And my granddaughters are the cutest things with MaTurk. They like to pretend they are the caregivers and they want to brush her hair. They want to massage her legs. It’s a sweet thing.

8:30 p.m.: Catch up on our favorite shows

After that, it’s time to say goodbye to the grandkids. Then my husband and I will nestle in. We’re always reading books and watching various series. We’ve been watching Shonda Rhimes’ “The Residence” lately. We love it! And he also is addicted to “Power Book.” If I could pick, I’d be in bed by 9:30 p.m.

Pride Month, which officially starts Sunday, is already in full swing and continuing through June with a host of activities and events. (After Long Beach Pride in mid-May, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, Venice, Santa Monica, San Fernando Valley, Catalina Island and other communities are following up with their own Pride celebrations.)

Although there is no shortage of opportunities for enjoying this worldwide celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, this year seems like a particularly pivotal time to partake in activities that uplift queer arts programs.

In 2025 and beyond, arts and culture funding is facing increasing threats of cancellation and cuts by the Trump administration. Los Angeles is home to numerous forms of art, but nothing is guaranteed to last forever. And in a world increasingly dominated by AI and virtual technologies, engaging with our imaginations can play a more important role than we might realize.

“I think more than ever people need to embrace the arts because we don’t know how much time we have left or how bad things can get,” said Lucé Tomlin-Brenner, a queer comedian and filmmaker who hosts the film-comedy show “Video Visions” at Highland Park video rental store Vidéothèque.

“We have to get into the practice of recognizing that what makes us feel free and joyful matters because that will strengthen us for the hard times,” she said. “If we’re just despairing, if we feel like we’re trapped already, then they’ve won because we’re not using our voices or our talents to change our realities.”

So this Pride Month, along with celebrating via boozy drag brunches and dancing at the Pink Pony Club until the sun rises, partake in L.A.-area activities that serve as a lifeline for queer community and creativity.

From learning how to use oil paints to discovering queer films streaming networks ignore and sewing your own Pride flag, opportunities abound throughout June to connect with your imagination and help ensure the survival and growth of local arts programs.

CITY SECTION SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

SEMIFINALS

OPEN DIVISION
#1 Granada Hills 19, #4 Venice 0 (5 innings)
#3 Carson 11, #2 San Pedro 1 (6 innings)

DIVISION I
#5 Eagle Rock at #1 Port of LA, Thursday at 3:15 p.m.
#2 Legacy 7, #3 Garfield 3

DIVISION II
#1 Marquez 6, #4 Northridge Academy 4
#6 Taft 11, #10 King/Drew 1 (5 innings)

DIVISION III
#5 North Hollywood 6, #1 Lincoln 3
#2 Rancho Dominguez 15, #11 Huntington Park 10

DIVISION IV
#1 Westchester 13, #4 Reseda (5 innings)
#7 LACES 15, #3 Animo De La Hoya 11

FRIDAY’S FINALS
At Birmingham High

DIVISION IV
#7 LACES vs. #1 Westchester, 3 p.m.

DIVISION III
#5 North Hollywood vs. #2 Rancho Dominguez, 3 p.m.

SATURDAY’S FINALS
At Cal State Northridge

OPEN DIVISION
#3 Carson vs. #1 Granada Hills, 3 p.m.

DIVISION I
#5 Eagle Rock / #1 Port of LA vs. #2 Legacy, 12 p.m.

DIVISION II
#6 Taft vs. #1 Marquez, 9 a.m.

HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL

Thursday’s Results

CITY SECTION
Animo Bunche 21, Annenberg 3
Animo De La Hoya 13, CNDLC 3
CALS Early College 24, Alliance Bloomfield 3
Harbor Teacher 17, Dorsey 0
King/Drew 20, Locke 5
King/Drew 13, Locke 0
Northridge Academy 19, VAAS 3
Orthopaedic 28, Downtown Magnets 0
Port of Los Angeles 14, Fremont 2
SOCES 27, East Valley 2
Sun Valley Magnet 14, Bert Corona 4
USC-MAE 15, Central City Value 1
Vaughn 19, Fulton 12

Note: Playoff brackets will be released by noon Friday.