After a chemical leak in Garden Grove forced an evacuation last month, and a warehouse fire in Boyle Heights forced a shelter in place order this month, Los Angeles suddenly became a lot more aware of the industrial hazards in our backyards. How many backyards are we talking about? And why are there so many? Let’s discuss.
To celebrate Hercules & Love Affair's Resident DJ stint at KCRW (https://www.kcrw.com/shows/resident-dj/stories/resident-dj-037-hercules-and-love-affair), we take a trip back to 2011, when they arrived at the station to play cuts that we, at the time, called "pop-house and disco stylings with lush experimental grooves." Check out the newly-remastered video of that performance now.
This is the first time this performance has been shared in full since the original livestream of the broadcast on 9/1/2011.
When Mexico plays South Korea in the World Cup on June 18, it might be one more group-stage match for most fans but here in Los Angeles, the game is a Big Deal. On game day, the LA Korean Festival is putting on a massive Koreatown watch party at Seoul International Park with thousands of Angelenos expected to show up.
We welcome special guest Ziggy Marley to discuss the healing frequency of his recent album Brightside, and in anticipation of the beginning of the World Cup, Novena plays some music from Mexico and South Africa who start the action – and we also hear the iconic music of 1969.
Original reporting by Steven Cuevas for KCRW
Registered voters in the City of LA have one week left to cast their ballots in the June primary. Candidates for mayor have been stumping for months, and now some of them are breaking free from the format of the traditional digital ad, getting in on social media trends like microdramas (soap operas watched on your phone) and parody videos.
In Eagle Rock, the small independent bookstore Read Books is preparing to close its doors after 19 years. Its rent is more than doubling after a new owner bought the building.
This is a familiar story. Many small businesses - like residential tenants - are facing rent increases they can’t afford. As the store winds down its final month, Read Books co-owner Jeremy Kaplan is using the space to tap into a network of people exploring legislative solutions to support LA's small businesses, so that other entrepreneurs don't end up in a similar place.
"The main point of this is not that this is happening to us, or this is happening to Eagle Rock, or this is happening to northeast Los Angeles," says Kaplan. "This is happening all over Los Angeles, if not further."
It used to be illegal to sell food on the streets of Los Angeles, but a state law changed that in 2019. Then, two years ago, LA County launched a program to give permits to sidewalk food vendors.
According to the LA County Department of Public Health, today 4,720 sidewalk food vendors out of the estimated 10,000 in the LA area have a county health permit. That's significant progress, but barriers still exist for the thousands who still exist in a legal gray area. And many of those are the vendors who cook food in front of you on the street. To qualify, those vendors need an expensive code-compliant cart and access to a commissary kitchen.
In January, LA County and City launched a program to make the permit more accessible. They plan to give away 302 free code-compliant carts, and subsidize the cost of permits through the end of the year. But thousands are still unable to afford the equipment they need to meet county requirements.
Eric André joins Novena Carmel for a one-hour chat about his favorite songs and also one that makes him pretty uncomfortable.