Los Angeles Downtown News 03-29-21

Addressing the Unhoused

‘Between Worlds’

LAHSA hosts first State of

light on Asian Pacific

Homelessness town hall

Islander incarceration

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East West shedding a

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Grant program asks artists to use Japanese healing art

By Bridgette M. Redman LA Downtown News Contributing Writer here is no going back to the way things were before the pandemic.

There are new griefs, new losses and new struggles with isolation that leave a permanent mark on everyone’s psyche.

However, it will be possible to move forward, and Los Angeles’ Japanese American Cultural & Community Center is inviting artists to express ideas of healing that honor the changes. They’ve issued a call for artists to create using the Japanese art form of kintsugi and applying it to their artistic medium.

Translated to “golden repair,” kintsugi teaches there is strength in broken spaces, and we need to embrace imperfections. The art dates back to the 15th century where, according to legend, a shogun broke a favorite bowl. He sent it back to China but was dissatisfied with the repairs. He gathered Japanese artists and challenged them to fix it.

They came up with a process for repairing broken pottery using a lacquer dusted with powdered gold. It treats the breakage and repair as something to be remembered and honored, not something to hide.

“Kintsugi was born out of necessity,” said Rani de Leon, the center’s associate director of performing arts.

“It is an example of how a tangible art form is an extension of larger philosophies.

It is more or less seeing brokenness as an opportunity or potential. It’s an opportunity to become stronger, an opportunity to see that which makes you unique. It is not so much an opportunity to become whole again but to highlight what is broke and to see the beauty in the brokenness.”

The grant will provide $2,000 for up to

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five artists from any discipline to incorporate kintsugi as an approach to individual or collective healing. The artists will have to create a 3- to 10-minute video that shares the art they create.

The center was looking for a way to present grant funding to artists when they cannot do in-person programming. With money from Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation-Los Angeles made available for healing programs, the center saw an opportunity

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to respond in a cultural way.

“A lot of these kind of things came together to inspire us to explore this Japanese art form that we felt really resonates with a healing approach,” de Leon said.

“We are in such an unprecedented time, especially for artists. This could be a good opportunity to use art to heal, and not just society or the community but even ourselves.”

They also hope it encourages all who experience the art to reflect on the past year and ask questions about how to move forward.

“There has been a societal and individual denial or delay of accepting the fact that things are inevitably different in our lives,” de Leon said.

“How do we lean into these changes in a beautiful way versus a way that isn’t going to help us move forward?”

The grant deadline is April 30. Winners will be announced between May 24 and May 31, and artists will have until Aug. 31 to complete their work and submit a video of it.

Following that will be the virtual exhibit, “JACCC presents The Kintsugi Spirit,” from

Sept. 15 to Oct. 31.

To apply, artists need to submit work samples, artist statements and a description of what they will do for the final video. More details are available at jaccc.org/kintsugi.

“What is exciting is that I don’t know what these artists will get out of this, but I have faith that through the exploration of the art form something will be revealed to them,” de Leon said.

“The practice itself is a metaphor for life.

How that transfers to each artist is going to be subjective. The process itself has power to it.”

De Leon said it is the hope that people will find the universality in the kintsugi’s principles. It’s not limited to just Japanese or ceramicists, but it is something anyone can relate to.

“It can be a great metaphor for how we can approach life and how we can approach things from our past that have happened to us,” said de Leon. “We may have something bad or something that has hurt us or caused some kind of trauma. Our hope is that through the process of kintsugi, artists will experience a sense of transformation.”

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Thank you, Doctor.

It cannot be said enough. The lengths you go to care for your patients and comfort their families are beyond extraordinary.

Your actions are heroic. Regardless of the situation, your kindness, bravery, and humanity never rest. Nor will our gratitude.

Happy Doctors’ Day.

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LAHSA presents the state of homelessness

By Sarah Donahue LA Downtown News Staff Writer ddressing Los Angeles’ growing homeless population was never an easy fix. Once COVID-19 was added to the mix, the challenge of getting people off the streets and into stable housing only intensified.

Despite these difficulties, homeless advocacy organizations have succeeded in connecting unhoused individuals with outreach services, interim and permanent housing and have also prevented a number of people from falling into homelessness again.

More than 1,300 people tuned in recently to watch the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority’s (LAHSA) first State of Homelessness Zoom town hall event, which presented data on the rehousing system’s efforts in 2020.

“Because of the support of LA voters, we’re helping more people than ever before — but we know that’s not how it looks on our streets, because more people than ever are being pushed into homelessness” said LAHSA Executive Director Heidi Marston, who led the presentation.

The town hall also included a panel discussion and speakers who’ve personally experienced and overcome homelessness as well as a brief recorded statement from Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Last year, LAHSA and partnering organizations provided outreach to 46,533 people, housed 20,690 people and placed 27,235 people in temporary housing, according to the presentation.

LAHSA leads and coordinates the rehousing system that helps people who’ve fallen into homelessness.

LAHSA receives about $600 million in annual funding from the federal, state, county and city governments as well as sales taxes, which is distributed to over 300 nonprofit providers in the community that are “working on the front lines to address this crisis,” Marston said.

When COVID-19 started to ravage across the country and world, “Our system really pivoted quickly to a rapid lifesaving mission,” she said.

LAHSA received $800 million in funding from the state and federal governments in 2020 for additional support to help unhoused Angelenos during the pandemic.

These additional resources created better alignment with its partnering organizations to work together with a collective goal of

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bringing as many people inside as possible, she said.

“Because of this, we moved faster than we even thought was possible.”

The pandemic-related resources brought forth the creation of 30 COVID Response Teams, which performed over 120,000 COVID-19 tests and more than 2,500 wellness checks and have administered over 3,000 COVID-19 vaccines and counting to unhoused individuals in 2020, Marston said.

LAHSA used this mix of state and federal funding to bring more than 10,000 people most at risk for COVID-19 into the shelter of vacant hotel and motel rooms through the Project Roomkey program as well as the city’s Recreation and Parks emergency shelters and the county’s quarantine facilities in 2020, she said.

These facilities helped to compensate for the 50% loss of interim shelter capacity, which happened as a result of the CDC’s recommendations for social distancing and quarantine protocol at congregate shelters, she explained.

Despite this, LAHSA and its partners secured interim housing for around 27,325

people in 2020, a 5% increase from the year prior.

While “temporary shelter is great,” it’s “actually more expensive than permanent housing,” Marston said. “It’s really only a stopgap to help people get to safety until their permanent housing is available.

“Once someone is stabilized in (permanent) housing, they can start to recover in every other aspect of their life.”

She added that about 95% of people who are placed in permanent housing through its system do not return to homelessness again.

Even though LA has a limited supply of affordable housing, LAHSA’s system helped 20,690 individuals experiencing homelessness secure permanent housing in 2020, she said.

This is a slight decrease from the year prior, due to the major pivot in the rehousing system’s efforts to address COVID-19, Marston said.

Outreach teams also played a vital role in 2020, connecting more people to resources than ever before, according to the presentation.

The outreach teams assisted 46,533 unhoused individuals in 2020, a 20% increase from the year prior, she said.

The 240 outreach teams are made up of more than 850 members, many of whom have lived experience with homelessness.

The teams go to encampments and build relationships with people with a “primary caption focus” of bringing the most vulnerable people into shelters and housing, also connecting and providing clients with medical and mental health care services, she said.

MARCH 29, 2021

“The goal always is to get everyone into housing,” she said. “We really take a ‘whatever-it-takes’ approach to support people in becoming rehoused.”

These efforts in 2020 also kept over 5,500 people from falling back into homelessness with its “growing system of triage work,” Marston said.

The rehousing system’s problem-solving program uses emergency funds and subsidies to provide rent assistance for those who don’t have the resources available that would permit them to remain in their residences, she explained.

It also provides legal support for those at risk of eviction, she added. Around 95% of these legal cases reach a resolution, which means either the eviction gets reversed or people either have a “soft landing” and have a place to go so they don’t fall into homelessness once again, she explained.

The biggest challenge is preventing homelessness, and “this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we need to do for prevention,” Marston said.

There are about 568,000 people experiencing homelessness nationwide, and a quarter of those people reside in California, according to 2020 national and state statistics presented during the town hall.

According to the 2020 Point in Time Count, on any given night in LA County, there are about 66,436 people experiencing homelessness — “and that’s unacceptable,” Marston said.

The rehousing system has helped over 64,000 people into housing over the past three years, which is “nearly everybody experiencing homelessness, but unfortunate-

MARCH 29, 2021

ly, as people were becoming housed, more became homeless,” she explained.

“It’s hard to reconcile that we’re ending homelessness for more people than ever compared to what we see on the streets every day,” she said.

On average, LAHSA connects about 207 people with housing each day; however, “at the same time, 227 people are pushed back into homelessness every day,” she said.

Marston said there’s an influx in tents and encampments in places they’re not normally seen. She said this is due to the CDC’s shelter-in-place order.

To address homelessness, investments must be balanced in three key areas: prevention, rehousing and housing creation.

LA has invested “heavily” in the rehousing pillar but has fallen short on preventing homelessness and creating affordable housing, she said.

“We can end homelessness, and how do we know this? We created it.”

Decades of policy choices have led to the proliferation of homelessness and the overrepresentation of Black people experiencing homelessness, Marston explained.

Black people account for 8% of LA’s population and a third of the homeless population, she said.

A map from 1939 was included in the presentation, which Marston used to explain how the discriminatory governmental practice of redlining has prevented Black communities and families from owning or

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taking out loans on homes.

This discriminatory land use system combined with a lack of tenant protections has led the homelessness crisis to escalate significantly, she explained.

Stagnant incomes and rising prices also play a significant factor in the crisis. Renters in LA must make 2.8 times the minimum wage amount to afford the average cost of rent, which is $2,182, according to the presentation.

Mental health plays a huge role in the homelessness crisis, too.

California put an end to institutionalized mental care with an intent to replace it with a system that brought services closer to the community, “but those resources never came to fruition,” she explained.

People are no longer institutionalized for mental ailments, but many are institutionalized within the prison system.

Around 60% of LA’s homeless population have been cycled through the prison system, according to the presentation. The “punitive” justice system and mass incarceration are “huge drivers of homelessness, disproportionately affecting Black Angelenos.”

The state’s divestment in affordable housing has also intensified the growing housing crisis. When the state eliminated redevelopment funding in 2011, over $1 billion of the annual affordable housing funding was slashed down to $0.

This is a “key driver,” as there is not

enough housing to meet the need, she said.

These policies put in place by federal and state governments have restricted housing development, hiked up prices and marginalized people of color, Marston emphasized.

As a result, LA has roughly the same amount of housing units today with a population of 10 million as it did when the population was only 6 million, she stated. LA County needs more than 509,000 afford-

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able housing units to meet this need, Marston added.

“We’re all frustrated and heartbroken at the complex and persistent challenges of homelessness, and we know that more has to be done,” she said.

“We can’t stop there,” Marston said. “We have to continue to build on the coordination and the momentum that was created to make a lasting impact on our homelessness crisis.”

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Quantum Clinic offers transformational healing with cutting-edge technology

By Kamala Kirk LA Downtown News Staff Writer or those seeking new methods of relaxation or to connect with their deeper sense of self, Quantum Clinic may be the answer. Opened in January 2021 in the heart of DTLA’s Jewelry District, it blends the rigor of biopsychosocial assessment with cutting-edge quantum technology to facilitate warp-speed development and individual self-healing.

The Quantum Clinic is the newest offering from Sustainable Self, a company that was founded by Dr. Katelyn Dowling, who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Sustainable Self harnesses the power of imagination, intelligent energy management and operating system upgrades, empowering individuals and organizations to tackle some of the most complex and interrelated problems facing human civilization.

Over the course of her career, Dowling has worked with people in recovery and addiction and performed psychological assessments for immigration. She also offers consulting and coaching services at Quantum Clinic for individuals and corporations.

“I’ve been in a healing role that interfaces with people of a variety of very diverse backgrounds for the better part of a decade,” Dowling said. “The work I’m doing at Quantum Clinic fits at the intersection of energy medicine. This is really a way for me to take that to another new experimental level. While what I do is not new to science, it’s new to consumers. My work focuses on heart-brain coherence, which is a harmonious state of being. It’s a portal to universal consciousness and self-healing.”

At Quantum Clinic, Dowling works with the RASHA, a scalar plasma energy device with the most advanced frequency-generating software that protects, enhances and harmonizes the autonomic nervous system by relieving stressors, transmuting negative habitual patterns, supporting relaxation, cellular detoxification, and healing from electro-smog and geopathic stress.

Once the device is turned on, it transmits frequencies through a set of headphones.

“People often describe the experience as transcendent, deeply meditative and rejuvenating,” Dowling said. “It’s not a medical device, but I work with a lot of people who are dealing with various medical or mental health issues. Right now, the developer of the device works with a lot of children with autism. Anyone who has come to see

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me and tried this out has reported experiencing a deep sense of oneness and inner peace.”

According to Dowling, regular sessions can help clients tap into a deeper level of consciousness. Benefits of heart-brain coherence include stress reduction and relaxation; decreased inflammation in the body; increased intuition and imagination; increased focus, concentration and memory; and autonomic nervous system regulation.

“When we are in that state of relaxation and connected to our heart center, we perform better and experience more creativity,” Dowling explained. “Our standard brain wave state is beta, which is chaotic, disjointed and all over the place. This helps people’s brain waves go into an alpha state, which is a state of relaxation.

This is something that we can already do, but many of us have forgotten how. What I’m doing is helping people realize and remember that they can tap into this state whenever they want.”

The first session is 90 minutes long, which includes an hour-long interview with Dowling followed by 30 minutes on the device. Follow-up appointments consist of 45-minute sessions with the RASHA. The frequency of each client’s visit depends on specific goals. Some people come in multiple times a week, others once a week or a few times a month.

“During our first appointment, I ask a bunch of questions that help me get to know the client better,” Dowling shared. “I learn about what they’re going through in their life, their struggles and goals so that I can have a holistic understanding of who they are. Then I explain the technology to them and give them the opportunity to ask questions. They spend the rest of their visit in the reclining chair with the headphones on. It’s a completely touchless experience from start to finish.”

In June, Quantum Clinic is moving to a new space in LA’s Frogtown located along the LA River. It will offer a tranquil indoor-outdoor environment that will be even more conducive to relaxation.

“For most people, this is a completely new thing for them,” Dowling said. “But once they experience it, they’re awakened and able to tap into parts of themselves that they haven’t accessed before. It’s really amazing.”

For more information, visit sustainableselfinc.com.

Dr. Katelyn Dowling, who is trained in clinical psychology and business analytics, founded Quantum Clinic in January 2021.

Photo courtesy of Quantum Clinic

The RASHA is a true scalar plasma energy device that promotes stress reduction, increased relaxation, cellular detoxification and more.

Photo courtesy of Quantum Clinic

MARCH 29, 2021

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Thank You.

Happy National Doctors’ Day. We offer our unending gratitude to all of our physicians at PIH Health. Every day, all day, these dedicated men and women give our patients an expert, consistent, comprehensive and focused healthcare experience.

And they do it with compassion and understanding.

Thank you, doctors. From the bottom of our hearts.

PIH Health Downey Hospital PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital PIH Health Whittier Hospital PIH Health Physicians

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Historic Theatre District welcomes first high rise in a century

By LA Downtown News Staff owntown Los Angeles condominium tower Perla on Broadway has opened its doors to its first homeowners amid strong early sales.

The first residential high rise to be built in the historic Theatre District in over a century, Perla is also the only high rise of this scale (35 floors) on Downtown Los Angeles’ Broadway Corridor. Perla is a dramatic new landmark and a vital opportunity for housing in DTLA. And it is likely to be the only large building on the historic street for years to come.

Sales at Perla were exceptionally strong during construction. The building welcomes its first residences with nearly 50% of condominiums already sold, and 85% of the first phase’s 120 sold in just two weeks. The success signals renewed interest in DTLA living.

Intersecting Fourth Street (400 S. Broadway), the 35 stories of Perla offer 450 residences priced from the high $400,000s (for studios, 460 square feet) to $1.5 million (for top-floor sky homes, 1,400 square feet). In addition to the attractive price points, Perla offers extensive amenities — including large rooftop decks with sweeping views — and a prime location in the heart of DTLA. Perla’s avid buyers represent the future of Downtown Los Angeles. They include young couples, first-time homebuyers and those investing in the future of the city. This diverse range of creatives and professionals are attracted to comfortable residences, extensive amenities and stunning views in one of the most dynamic neighborhoods in the world — one that is steeped in history and promise.

The budget for development is roughly $320 million, including the cost of the land acquisition. It is the first ground-up development in California for developer SCG America.

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Residences Perla on Broadway’s residences soar over the city with light-filled interiors, contemporary design, modern appointments and floorto-ceiling windows with views from the DTLA skyline to the Hollywood Hills and beyond. All studio and one- and two-bedroom residences include open-concept plans with European white oak flooring, laundry closet with full-size front-loading Bosch washer/dryer, generous master bedroom closet, prewired high-speed fiber-optic cable, and energy-efficient LED lighting.

European-inspired kitchens and baths feature high-performance appliances from Italian-based Bertazzoni, designer-selected tile finishes, contemporary wood cabinetry, illuminated mirrored medicine cabinets, and polished chrome Kohler fixtures.

Neighborhood Perla arrives as a towering testament to past and future Los Angeles — the first residential high rise built in the Downtown Historic Core in over a century. And, because the wealth of historic buildings and development restrictions prevent new construction, it is also likely to be the only building of such height and size to rise in the neighborhood.

The community is in the heart of The Broadway Theatre District — a National Historic District, once the city’s main commercial and theatrical hub, and still vibrant with culture and commerce. The neighborhood features the largest concentration of historic theaters on one street in the United States, with most of the majestic venues dating to the 1920s and 1930s.

Broadway is at the heart of Los Angeles’ Historic Core. In addition to its theaters, the neighborhood is a storehouse of architectural gems, landmarks and attractions. Among the closest to Perla are the Grand Central Market and iconic 1893 Bradbury building. Leading brands such as Apple and Urban Outfitters have taken up residence in converted historic structures nearby. And Perla is walkable to the wealth of shopping, dining, entertainment, cultural, transportation, employment and cultural centers of DTLA. Demonstrating the value of historic Broadway, Perla contributed over $2 million to Broadway and Fourth Street public improvements (part of the city of Los Angeles’ Broadway Theater and Entertainment Design Guidelines). The development also devoted over $4 million to community benefits as part of the city’s Bringing Back Broadway initiative.

Design and amenities Developer SCG has assembled the world’s foremost minds in development, design and construction. They include: • Developer: SCG America.

• Architect: CallisonRTKL. • Interior design: Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA).

Perla on Broadway is likely to be the only new high rise in DTLA’s Historic District for years to come.

Photo by Hunter Kerhart

• Art program: Annie Wharton Art Consulting.

• General contractor: Swinerton.

• Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti.

• Landscape architect: Studio MLA. • Civil engineer: Psomas.

Perla’s stylish interiors include approximately 7,000 square feet of ground-level retail and commercial space. Highlights for residents include an Art Deco-inspired lobby commensurate with those of luxury hotels, and a unique inner atrium that spans four stories in natural light. These and other spaces include a complete range of up-to-date amenities and social spaces. The beautifully appointed residences offer contemporary conveniences, making life at Perla casual, comfortable and accessible to DTLA’s attractions.

The outdoor areas are spacious and focused on extraordinary views. Residents will enjoy in excess of 49,000 square feet of openspace and amenities, including three levels of outdoor decks: the seventh-floor garden terrace with communal barbecue grills, bar and fireside lounge area; the 11th-floor pool terrace featuring pool, spa, chaise seating and open lawn space; and the 36th-floor rooftop terrace with cabanas, fireside lounges and a fitness/yoga deck.

The extensive pet amenities include two dog walks — one for smaller and one for larger dogs — with an owner’s lounge and grooming station.

Additional hotel-like amenities include a “jewel box”-style fitness center, media room, individual and shared office spaces, outdoor game room/conference area and a multilevel amenity space — housed in the expansive atrium — which serves a social focal point.

Architecture Perla on Broadway’s architecture is by global architecture, planning and design practice CallisonRTKL. The tower pays homage to the neighborhood’s roots in the arts — specifically the cultural assets of the historic Broadway District. Its design conveys a subtle juxtaposition of old and new, said Daun St. Amand, a senior vice president in the Los Angeles office and leader of CallisonRTKL’s residential sector.

“The building expresses the historic context of Broadway and DTLA’s Historic Core within a completely modern building,” he said. “This is the first high rise on Broadway in a century. So, the façade honors that legacy with references such as the texture of historic stone cladding like that of original skyscrapers.”

The interiors also acknowledge neighborhood landmarks.

“Barely a block away, the 1893 Bradbury building houses a legendary internal public space,” St. Amand said.

“Perla’s atrium is similarly a multilevel space brightened with skylights and theatricality.

Broadway’s precious theaters were an inspiration as well. Grand yet contemporary objects such as lighting fixtures and decorative interior walls float with grace and drama within the atrium. The large space even accommodates indoor pedestrian areas that echo Broadway’s wide sidewalks.”

Interiors For Perla, acclaimed hospitality interior design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates Los Angeles (HBA) honors the neighborhood’s storied past through traditional forms, layered with contemporary detailing and materials.

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“Our vision celebrates the glamour and luxury of Broadway’s heritage with an eye toward the future through finishes; tailored furnishings; and artful touches that are at once modern and nostalgic, sophisticated and comfortable,” said HBA Los Angeles Associate Valeria Lassalle.

Perla’s abundant social spaces start with a boutique hotel-inspired lobby and lounge. It establishes a sense of arrival that reinterprets opulent 1920s style. Among the highlights, rich, dark wood floors wrap up the walls to wainscoting height. And warm-toned brass, glass and metal-fluted walls interplay with LED lighting to accentuate the entry and geometric lines descending from the Art Deco era.

At the heart of Perla’s considerable amenity collection is the atrium spanning four stories.

Here are a fitness studio, library lounge, meeting rooms and flexible space for co-working, relaxing or entertaining. A large-scale brass screening element defines the voluminous space, bathed in natural light during the day and illuminated by sculptural light fixtures by night.

The three expansive, lushly landscaped terraces — each on different levels — offer both social gathering and more private spaces, all with striking views. The seventh-story terrace, with its park-like setting, is a moment of calm amidst the bustling city center. The 11th-story pool terrace invites conversation and epitomizes California living. And the 36th-floor terrace is a rooftop retreat, spaciously accommo-

dating multiple fireside lounges and seating areas to take in the vistas.

Art program Original art suffuses Perla’s public spaces.

The extensive visual art program is by Annie Wharton Art Consulting. After reviewing more than 800 contemporary Los Angeles artists, Wharton (an adviser who specializes in art for real estate development and private clients) and her team presented 90 artists to interior design firm HBA. Wharton ultimately commissioned 21 artists and artist teams to create 33 new, original works for the project. These artists work in ceramic, mixed-media installation, painting, photography and sculpture.

“It is exceptional for a residential tower to commission new artworks on this scale,” Wharton said.

“What makes this program even more suited to the space is that all the artists and artisans are Los Angeles residents. Although integrated with the building’s exquisite architecture and interiors, these artists bring an authentic, sophisticated essence to the many public spaces. This is a testament to the vision of those who created this special place.”

Wharton (who also owns Ladies’ Room, a gallery in DTLA) added that 90% of the artwork for the project is made by women and artists of color.

“We live in a time when budgets for the arts have been decimated,” she said.

“This marginalizes artists and their power to elevate people’s lives and neighborhoods.

But Perla is making a dynamic statement to the artists of our community that art exists

here as a core value. Art transforms and enriches life in Los Angeles, and it is diversely and extensively represented at Perla.”

Perla perlaonbroadway.com

Perla’s 36th-floor roof terrace offers sweeping city views.

Photo by Hunter Kerhart

El Tepeyac Café serves generations of families El Tepeyac Café is in the heart of Boyle Heights and has been serving generations of families for over 64 years. We are known for our generous portions and big burritos famously known as the Hollenbeck Burrito and Manuel Special.

In 1956, El Tepeyac Café was founded by Manuel Rojas. Rojas dedicated his life to his restaurant, customers and community all the way through to the end of his life.

Now with the third generation in place, we continue to strive to make food with quality but, most importantly, with love. For many of you who had the pleasure of meeting Rojas, know the legend cannot be replaced, but his legacy will continue through his family, friends, customers and dedicated employees.

We are grateful for all the support we have received during these trying times. We welcome all customers old and new. If you have never been, we’d love for you to try us out.

“It’s all about the love of the people.

The people make El Tepeyac Café,” Rojas said.

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which feeds 6-8 people We are open 7 days a week Sunday-Thursday 6am-7pm Friday-Saturday 6am-8pm We are currently open for take out, patio seating, delivery through 3rd party apps (Postmates,UBER,Doordash), online ordering through our website, and we will be begin indoor dining again this weekend.

El Tepeyac Café 812 N. Evergreen Avenue Los Angeles 323-268-1960

812 N.Evergreen Ave., LA, CA 90033

323-268-1960

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No opening date in sight for the Cecil Hotel

By Sarah Donahue LA Downtown News Staff Writer ecil Hotel’s future remains uncertain, adding to the intrigue of its mysterious past.

The E-shaped hotel sits on Seventh and Main and is one of Downtown Los Angeles’ oldest buildings. The long list of deaths, murders and suicides that took place within its walls throughout the decades has caused the Cecil Hotel to become a point of fascination for people across the entire globe.

A portion of the Cecil Hotel was refurbished and rebranded under new ownership with a new name “Stay on Main’” to distance itself from its notorious past. It had a separate lobby and reception area during the day but shared facilities with tenants staying in the Cecil Hotel portion.

However, the hotel closed in 2017 for renovation after being purchased by New York City hotelier Richard Born for $30 million in 2014. This came after the widely publicized death of 21-year-old Elisa Lam, whose body was found in a water tank on the roof of the hotel in 2013.

Developer Simon Baron subsequently acquired a 99-year ground lease in 2015.

However, its doors will remain closed for hotel guests for the unforeseeable future.

“We have no intention right now of reopening the hotel,” said Matthew Baron, president of Simon Baron Development.

“Originally, we were going to rebuild the whole thing and build a hotel with apartments,” he said.

However, right as construction was scheduled to begin, COVID-19 started sweeping through the nation and entire globe, “so we never really started,” he said.

It’s “tough to build a hotel during COVID,” Baron said. “There are a lot more difficult things going on in the world than that decision.”

It didn’t have a set design plan before, and the entire project has been placed on the back burner, with no expected timeline for opening, he said. There may be some new updates once summer rolls around, but “for now it’s tabled,” Baron added.

“There’s some repair work going on at the building,” as it still houses some longtime tenants with protections from the city, but “there’s really nothing happening with it right now.”

This news may come as a bummer for those who have sparked an interest in its eerie history.

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A new Netflix docu-series, “Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel,” shines a light on the story of Lam, the Canadian student who traveled to Los Angeles and stayed at the hotel, where she subsequently went missing.

Maintenance workers checked these water tanks after guests complained about brown water and a sweaty taste, one of the most talked about parts of the documentary series.

After she first went missing, the authorities released video footage of a video showing Lam acting strangely, appearing paranoid or afraid, frantically pushing buttons and walking in and out of the elevator. It was released to the public in hopes of finding information on her disappearance.

This video spread across the world, and “web sleuths” or amateur online “investigators” speculated that she may have been running from someone or something, and perhaps was the victim of a murder.

It was later discovered that this paranoid behavior could’ve been a result of a bipolar episode, as the toxicology report on Lam’s body stated she wasn’t taking her medications in the prescribed dose.

Her death was ruled accidental due to drowning, with bipolar disorder being a “significant” factor, according to the investigators featured in the series.

While Lam’s death was the most recent and widely publicized, she is only one of many who died at the hotel, as explained by in the docu-series.

In fact, there’s an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to the gruesome events including suicides as well as solved and unsolved murders that took place at the notorious hotel. The page is dubbed “Lists of deaths and violence at the Cecil Hotel.”

The first death occurred in 1927, a suicide by gunshot, which took place not long after the hotel opened its doors for guests.

In following years, more suicides occurred within the Cecil Hotel’s rooms, prompting locals to nickname it “suicide hotel.”

The Cecil Hotel’s dark history The Cecil Hotel was built in the 1920s during a prosperous time in Los Angeles.

Its Beaux Arts-style architecture, opulent art-deco style lobby and iconic exterior sign advertising its high occupancy and low rates attracted many business and leisure travelers who stayed as guests in the Cecil Hotel’s 700 rooms.

The 19-floor hotel saw a few prosperous years — then the stock market crashed. The once alluring hotel quickly became a place of despair.

Its low daily, weekly and monthly rates became even lower, and as many around the city found themselves jobless, they sought refuge in the hotel, the documen-

MARCH 29, 2021

tary explains.

As the years went on, the low rates attracted travelers, transients, prostitutes, serial killers as well as people on the run, as stated in the documentary series.

LA historian Kim Cooper was featured in the documentary series, where she explained that the Cecil Hotel is “well known for this type of crime.”

“The Cecil is a place where serial killers would let their hair down,” she said.

Prolific American serial killer Richard Ramirez, also called the “night stalker,” reportedly resided on the 14th floor, paying $14 a night for his room in the 1980s.

“After committing some of the most brutal murders that happened in Southern California ever, he would come back to the Cecil. In the middle of the night, he would be in the back alley covered in blood, taking off his clothing.” “(Ramirez) would walk in his bloodstained underwear, barefoot, up to his floor and into his room. Repeatedly,” said Richard Schave, another LA historian featured in the series.

“And that’s cool, and no one’s got a problem with that, because it’s that kind of heavy place,” Cooper added.

Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger, allegedly inspired by Ramirez, stayed at the Cecil Hotel in the early 1990s and is believed to have murdered three Los Angeles sex workers.

Kenneth Givens, who resided in the Cecil Hotel in the 1980s, was also featured in the documentary series. He described the building as “lawless,” saying he’d never go up further than the sixth floor, as people were more likely to get killed in the high-

Cecil Hotel was scheduled to begin construction on rebuilding as a hotel with apartments until COVID-19 put plans on the back burner.

Photo by Luis Chavez

MARCH 29, 2021

er floors.

“Once they got a guy in the room, they would rob him, beat him up and threw him out the window. So, if you didn’t watch yourself, you would come flying out of there with no wings.”

More recent past Upon the “Stay on Main” rebrand attempt, the developer tried to evict some of the long-time tenants. However, this plan came to a halt when the city issued a stopwork order, the documentary series states.

A city ordinance was passed that stated hotels with over 50% permanent residencies are exempt from evictions, said Barbara Schultz, who oversees the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), in an interview with Los Angeles Downtown News.

“Residential hotels are extremely valuable housing stock because they cannot be taken off the market,” she said.

LAFLA came to a settlement agreement in 2006 that provided even stronger protections to the residential hotels and the tenants residing in them, and the city’s residential hotel ordinance was put in place around this time.

This agreement was “to ensure that as Downtown gentrified, there was still housing stock that was affordable to low-income people,” she said.

The city settled to keep the Cecil Hotel as a residential hotel while allowing half the

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units to be turned into a tourist hotel and the rest to remain as low-income housing.

However, LAFLA wanted the entire hotel to be reserved for residential housing, she said.

Schultz said she is “vehement about protecting residential hotels, because they can be truly protected, and not just the tenant that’s in there but the unit itself.”

There are an estimated 20 people who still currently reside in the building, she said. The settlement agreement was just about to be finalized when COVID-19 hit, she said.

Depending on how the case is ruled, there is a possibility it could be designated as 100% low-income housing, she added.

Baron wasn’t able to comment. However, he did provide remarks about whether its notorious past was a consideration while signing the 99-year lease.

Some may have been apprehensive to purchase a hotel with such a despairing history, as there is perhaps a possibility that it won’t be successful; however, this was not the case for Baron “at all,” he said.

Baron hadn’t seen the Netflix documentary series, but he said “don’t believe everything you see,” as shows were made to entertain.

“Certainly, there may have been some unsavory characters that have lived in the building”; however, this is the case in many downtown areas, like Chicago and New York City. It’s “just kind of what it is.”

There are an estimated 20 people who still currently reside in the building.

Photo by Luis Chavez

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In 2016, tech executive Allan Jones founded Bambee, a company that focuses on solving human resources problems for small businesses.

Photo by Luis Chavez

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Covered NEWS California will help

Entrepreneur creates Bambee to provide HR support to small businesses

By Kamala Kirk LA Downtown News Staff Writer llan Jones got his start in the tech industry when he was 19, and by the time he was 26, he was chief marketing officer at ZipRecruiter, a leading online employment platform.

Through his experience as an executive at companies like Docstoc over the course of 15 years, Jones discovered a gap in the marketplace that led him to start Bambee, a company focused on solving human resources problems for small businesses.

“Growing up in a family that ran a small business, I have a high level of empathy for small businesses in general,” said Jones, who founded Bambee in 2016. “Throughout my career working for different places, I noticed that a lot of small-business owners lacked infrastructure and were left to their own devices to solve complex problems,

A

particularly those relating to employment.

I’ve known for a long time about the aches and pains that exist in small businesses and wanted to offer them solutions they previously didn’t have access to.”

Ninety-eight percent of the companies that Bambee works with have less than 50 employees. Starting at $99 a month, it provides clients with dedicated HR managers, who help each company navigate the complex regulatory world of compliance, HR policy, employee relations and HR strategy, which includes everything from hires and furloughs to internal investigations. Additional services include assistance with crafting internal HR policies, staff training and development, employee onboarding and terminations, a comprehensive HR audit, and more.

In addition to earning a five-star rating on Trustpilot, Bambee has amassed thou-

sands of positive reviews from active clients and small businesses around the country.

“Our clients are over the moon for our services,” Jones said. “They get to build a one-on-one connection with their HR manager and receive an overwhelming amount of help at an affordable price point. We’re easy to access and always available when they need us.”

Recently, Bambee was named by Forbes as the No. 1 startup employer in Los Angeles. To rank companies, Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to identify and evaluate 2,500 businesses across the United States based on three criteria: employer reputation, employee satisfaction and growth.

“We’ve been in the top 50 for two years in a row, then this year we were No. 1,” Jones said. “There are a lot of goals that I have as an entrepreneur, but the most im-

portant is to create a workplace where people can feel appreciated. There are thousands of startups in LA, and to receive this high honor is incredible.”

Prior to the pandemic, Bambee was previously headquartered at the historic Bradbury Building in DTLA, but when COVID-19 occurred, Jones and his team had to quickly shift to a remote working model while maintaining the company’s close-knit culture.

“It was difficult, and there was a bit of shock when everyone went home, because we were an extremely culture-centric office,” Jones said. “One of the questions we had to ask ourselves was, ‘Can we still have all of those cultural elements digitally?’ We started using different kinds of collaboration software, and we created a virtual office space on Zoom as well as open conference rooms where employees could

MARCH 29, 2021

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Despite a few setbacks brought on by the pandemic, Bambee grew 300% from 2019 to 2020 and recently raised $15 million in funding. The company will double its workforce this year and pass the 100-employee mark this month.

“We still had an amazing year,” Jones pointed out. “While COVID-19 was devastating to many because of its unpredictability, it was beneficial in the sense that it brought an awareness around the need for our product to the market. We remain committed to our mission, which is to fearlessly solve even the most complex HR problems that small businesses face.”

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TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

MARCH 29, 2021

Covered California will help COVID COUNT

Reported cases in DTLA, nearby as of March 21 Chinatown: 713; Little Tokyo: 391; Los Feliz: 1,020; Silverlake: 3,117; South Park: 7,260; Wilshire Center: 5,505 Total confirmed cases in DTLA: 3,892 Total deaths in DTLA: 53 Total confirmed cases in LA County: 1,215,736 Total deaths in LA County: 22,960

Los Angeles County health officials continue to report a decline in coronavirus cases. The county reported only 438 new cases and 20 deaths. There were a total of 750 coronavirus patients in hospitals as of March 20, a decline of 33% from two weeks before. Los Angeles County reported an average of 590 new cases per day over the last week, a 62% decrease from two weeks before.

With the continuing decrease in case rates, the county could move into the

less-restrictive orange tier by the next month. This would mean capacity limits on stores and shopping malls would be lifted while capacity would increase for restaurants, churches, gyms, museums and movie theaters. Bars would also be allowed to reopen outdoors.

The city of Los Angeles will offer more than 70,000 COVID-19 vaccines during this week, including 50,000 first doses in the city’s seven major vaccination centers. Fifty-thousand will be Moderna vaccines, 20,000 from Pfizer, and another 2,000 from Johnson & Johnson. The doses will be administered at San Fernando Park, Crenshaw Christian Center, Lincoln Park, Pierce College, Hansen Dam, USC University Park and Dodger Stadium. The city also has its Mobile Outreach for Vaccine Equity (MOVE) program in several areas, including Westlake, Panorama City, Pacoima, Baldwin Hills, South Park, Mel-

rose Hill and Highland Park.

LA County is following the California state guidelines for vaccine eligibility.

County-run vaccine sites will not vaccinate people who do not live or work in the county. With about 1.8 million doses supplied to California this week, more than 15.1 million doses have been administered in the state. However, even with the steady rise in vaccines,

officials worry about a potential spike in cases after spring break. With more people traveling again, health officials are urging residents and visitors to remember travel restrictions and guidelines. Travelers are still required to quarantine for 10 days, and no recreational travel is allowed outside a 120-mile radius.

Information compiled by Doyoon Kim

MARCH 29, 2021

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Covered California will help OPINION

OPINION

A Seder for the ages

By Ellen Snortland LA Downtown News Columnist ews flash: The Easter Bunny is a girl… and is not a bunny! Now that I have your attention, many of us who were raised as Christians forget the biblical Last Supper was actually a Seder. Anti-Semites conveniently suppress that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were Jewish. Easter and Passover are always together because they are both moveable feasts. Who knew? For a long time, I didn’t.

Raised in South Dakota, the only Jewish person I was familiar with was Anne Frank. And, of course, Jesus. The third Jewish person I knew, I married in 1977. His family was mortified and had to muster every “tolerance” molecule they had to accept his choice of me as his fiancée. I soon was referred to as “the shiksa,” a quasi-derogatory term for a non-Jewish woman. Oy vey!

My Norwegian American, ultra-Lutheran grandmother morphed her own religious bigotry into bittersweet acceptance. Grandma walked up to my handsome new groom at our wedding reception. She peered up at him and yelled as only slightly deaf people can bellow: “Your people killed my savior… but you seem like a nice boy!” Uff da! (Norwegian for “oy vey.”)

Being the quintessential good sport, I offered to convert. My new husband, petrified at the idea of me becoming Jewish, envisioned my conversion and gently talked me out of it. He was clearly familiar with my meshuggah approach to life.

(Slightly nuts, but with zeal!)

He realized if I converted, next, I would undoubtedly become a rabbi. I would remodel the kitchen to accommodate kosher requirements, and he would spend his adult life like his childhood: going to the temple all the time and wearing things on his head. (My new hubby was a bareheaded-type guy.)

Imagine his chagrin when I announced, “I’m creating a Seder!” I loved the idea of Seder, the ritual at Passover, which is a commemoration of the Jews’ Exodus from Egypt at the hands of Pharaoh. Of course, we all have Pharaohs we need deliverance from, whether that Pharaoh literally enslaves a whole race or is a newly elected QAnon supporter who wants to overthrow the government. Seder is a beloved holiday for everyone, Jew and shiksa alike.

A theater producer at the time, I roped in every theater friend I could find and created a Seder production team. We decided our Seder would be a feminist one and we would include — hold on to your yarmulkes — women!

Being an ardent women’s rights advocate, I was taken aback by some of the customs my husband had grown up with. His mom had dairy dishes, meat dishes, Passover dairy dishes and Passover meat dishes. I’m thinking, “Geez, women did not make up these rules.” The patriarchs dared to create ritual texts for the Seder (called a Haggadah) with no mention of women during the flight from Egypt. They were saying, “Let my people go… except we’re going to keep our women serving us like slaves.” How about you let US go!

Let’s see: We were supposed to gather manna, milk the goats, clean the tents, bake the unleavened bread — quickly! — keep the kids quiet, separate the meat and dairy dishes plus the separate set of Passover dishes, clear the dwelling of anything non-Kosher, prepare the table and cook the special Passover meal, then smile at relatives we don’t really like… all while chafing at our historical contributions being ignored as we wait on you? Not at our table!

My first shiksa Passover finally came to pass, excuse the expression, and was a sit-down Seder for 60 people. As custom dictates, we set a place for the wandering prophet Elijah, just in case he decided to return. (As it turns out, Elijah probably did more to wipe out matriarchal goddess cultures than any of the other prophets, but that’s another column.) In any event, we set a place for Miriam, too, just in case she wanted to drop by.

After all, if it hadn’t been for Miriam and that ancient shiksa Princess Bisyah, Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses would have had a very different fate than leading the Jews

N

www.Downtownnews.com Hey you! Speak up!

Downtown News wants to hear from people in the community. If you like or dislike a story, let us know, or weigh in on something you feel is important to the community.

Participation is easy. Go to downtownnews.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Letter to the Editor” link. For guest opinion proposals, please email christina@timespublications.com.

— males and females — out of Egypt. Throughout history, there have always been women and girls, making everyone’s history possible.

This year, my shiksa Seder Zoom will include having each guest reflect on: 1. Current oppression in their lives: “I feel enslaved by the addiction to please everyone all the time,” “I think I have a drinking problem” or “I have a compulsion to customize holidays to my personal feminist liking”; 2. Actions to take in the coming year to sever those self-designed ropes of said enslavement; 3. Five things they are grateful for.

Sadly, my marriage to my first husband ended, but I’ll always be grateful to him for being a mensch and introducing me to a rich heritage I continue to celebrate.

Happy Easter, and may Patty the Easter Platypus bring you your heart’s desire!

Ellen Snortland has written a column continuously since the early ’90s. She also coaches writers. Contact her at ellen@authorbitebybite.com.

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MARCH 29, 2021

Covered California will help ARTS AND CULTURE

Paul Stanley shows a little soul on his new album

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor ong before Paul Stanley found success with Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Kiss, he was checking out the heavy hitters like Otis Redding in concert.

The experience was eye-opening, he said via Zoom.

“It really showed me that greatness has no color, has no ethnicity, has no shape, has no size,” Stanley said. “You are aware when you’re in the presence of greatness, and it’s not something that’s easily defined there.

“There have been moments like that in my life where I have been very lucky, and Otis was certainly one of them.”

Stanley took experiences like that and rolled it into the band Soul Station, which just released its first full-length album, “Now and Then,” which covers the Temptations, the Delfonics, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Five original tracks fit snugly with the covers.

Soul Station, Stanley’s 15-piece ensemble group, has toured the United States and Japan, but it wasn’t until recently that it could enter the studio together and record “Now and Then.”

To help Stanley create the sound, he recruited the likes of Rafael “Hoffa” Moreira (guitar and backing vocals), Sean Hurley (bass), Alex Alessandroni (musical director, keyboards), Ely Rise (keyboards), Eric Singer (drums and backing vocals), Ray Yslas (percussion), Gavyn Rhone (backing vocals), Crystal Starr (backing vocals), Laurhan Beato (backing vocals) and Jon Pappenbrook (lead trumpet).

“We have such a ball,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for years now. We’re not a band that got together in the studio and wants to go play live. We’re a live band that’s gone into the studio, which comes across.

“We get along so great. We’re constantly texting each other or calling. It shows how exciting friendships can be when you’re not all bringing the same thing to the table. If you watch the videos, there is a lot of smiling because we have a ball.”

Stanley said the group found it satisfying to take on classic hits like “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)” and “The Tracks of My Tears.”

“I’ve loved the songs since they came out,” he said. “I grew up with all this music, and I’ve always sung these songs at home.

“I’m not Eddie Kendricks, and I’m not Al Green. I’m not Levi Stubbs. I’m me. I believe that if you understand a song, if you can get into the intent of the song and the emotion behind it, you should be able to sing it — if you’re a singer.”

Stanley wanted to focus on and respect the melodies, so he didn’t change much when he recorded the songs.

“I also didn’t want to do paint by numbers,” Stanley said. “This wasn’t impersonations. This was me singing those songs, and from the response I’ve gotten from people who I look up to, mission accomplished.”

Songs like “Just My Imagination” proved to be challenging, but the mission was definitely accomplished, based on a conversation had with Otis Williams.

“Subtle songs can be like threading a needle,” he said. “There’s not a lot of leeway on either side. ‘Just My Imagination’ is a beautiful, beautiful song. It’s eloquent. Otis Williams is the keeper of the flame for the Temptations. He said to me, ‘I’ve listened to your version over and over, and it’s as good as ours is.’

“You have to put that into perspective. I certainly do. Our reverence, our respect and our dedication to performing these songs come across. If Otis says that, then I would say that the defense rests.”

He hopes Kiss fans will love the music as much as he does.

“I hope they can be shown that there’s only two types of music — that’s good and bad,” he said. “If you only listen to one kind of music, it’s like eating one kind of food over and over and over.

“There’s a lot of great music out there, and it doesn’t necessarily all fall into the same category.”

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Paul Stanley is paying homage to his heroes on Soul Station’s debut full-length album, “Now and Then.” It showcases his originals (“Now”) and covers (“Then”).

Photo by Oliver Halfin

Paul Stanley’s Soul Station gets along famously, which is obvious in videos and concerts.

Photo by Oliver Halfin

Soul Station paulstanley.com

MARCH 29, 2021

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Covered California will help ARTS AND CULTURE

Landon Jacobs’ journey to becoming ‘Loverboy’

By Claire Spinner LA Downtown News Staff Writer ocial media scares Landon Jacobs, the 30-year-old frontman of the California rock band Sir Sly. He admitted one of his recent endeavors — creating a Tik Tok account — was not something he was initially comfortable with.

“I was talking to my therapist about it, because people kept telling me to be a little more tapped in,” he said with a shrug. “I realized that a big part of it was discomfort or fear. And that doesn’t sound like a very good reason not to do something. So, I’m trying it.”

Jacobs is no stranger to facing challenges head-on. Over the last two years, Jacobs made a major life change. He got sober. After struggling with alcohol addiction in his 20s, he became keenly aware that what he thought was initially a habit might be a larger problem.

“I probably talked about it in a way that — I don’t want to say was disingenuous — it was as honest as I knew how to be,” he said. “But I don’t think I realized I was struggling with alcohol addiction and wasn’t doing much to help get better.”

Jacobs said getting sober was emotionally straining. The singer felt he had repressed the emotions that came along with losing his mother to cancer in 2016, and they reappeared as he stopped drinking.

“There was a lot of undealt-with grief over losing my mom to cancer,” he said. “The first hundred days that I got sober I cried every day. And then I cried more. I hadn’t dealt with that stuff in years, because I had been drinking every day. It was like a neat little compartmentalization, and it caused either anxiety or numbness, but it wasn’t a real process.”

Jacobs said deciding to go to therapy and joining a 12-step program were crucial steps.

“Therapy helps with some of that neuroplasticity. Our brains are reshaping all the time, and I knew that I wanted to put myself on a more positive trajectory,” he said. “I was feeling really tired of being alive, and I wanted a more positive spin on my life and a better understanding of who I am and where I am headed.”

Though these subjects can be heavy and hard to talk about, Jacobs said they are vital ones to address — not only to himself but to everyone else.

“I think just talking about it is a good way to destigmatize conversations about these sorts of things,” he says. “I still don’t know what’s up with me. I just know that I felt compelled to drink a lot, and now I feel quite a bit of freedom from that. I feel genuinely happi-

S

er, but I also know it’s still difficult to wake up sometimes. So, I’m sussing that out with my therapist and trying to find good tools.”

Jacobs’ outspoken nature is present in much of what he does. He has been vocal about his values throughout his time in Sir Sly. Recently, he has been a proponent of the Black Lives Matter movement, and he is not afraid to share his thoughts on Donald Trump’s presidency or the former leader’s supporters. Like his struggles with addiction, these topics are addressed on Sir Sly’s upcoming third album, “The Rise & Fall of Loverboy,” due on April 23.

“I think there’s definitely some reference on the album to my general antipathy towards the very backwater, white supremacist way of thinking,” he says. “Having grown up Christian, I kind of grew up in that, too, so it really embarrasses me to see people thinking and talking that way. It frustrates me in a different kind of way, because I know it’s possible to snap out of it and see the world differently.”

Social causes Jacobs’ passion for social justice led to the album’s delay. The record was completed well before the pandemic, but as the country turned its focus on coronavirus and Black Lives Matter during the spring and summer of 2020, Jacobs thought it was more important to emphasize voices other than his own.

“It didn’t really feel like our time to shine.

There were just so many things happening, from the pandemic to the rightful shift of people’s attention on Black Lives Matter and on a lot of other sociopolitical and economic issues,” he said. “It feels OK to release music now, because it’s not really flying in the face of a bunch of important stuff and distracting from what else is going on in the world.”

The band has continuously put energy into supporting social justice movements, often donating money to different causes and, in Jacobs’ case, attending protests.

“I don’t really know how to start fixing these things, but there are a lot of people who do, and I think uplifting those voices is a really good thing,” he said.

His writing process is intricately tied to his ability to process life events and emotions.

With the vast array of emotions Jacobs has felt in the last two years, the songwriting process on this album was especially important to him. Though he said he rarely uses prewritten lyrics before starting the music, there are tracks on the new album that contain entire portions of poems written separately.

“For a lot of people, music is a place to celebrate or write a song they want to party to or

Sir Sly’s upcoming third album, “The Rise & Fall of Loverboy,” is due on April 23.

Photo by Shervin Lane

write something about falling in love,” he said.

“Those are the types of songs that people walk down the aisle to. I’ve always written music to deal with and help sort out my questions about life or about myself or the nature of my relationships, so I think I just kept doing that with this album.”

Jacobs has used music as an outlet for most of his life, beginning his journey after learning to play the piano as a child. He said he felt somewhat compelled to write music.

“I don’t think I ever chose to start writing music. I think it kind of needed to come out of me. I had a lot of sadness and anxiety that was kind of begging for an outlet,” he said.

“And then I was hooked. A lot of people write journals or talk to their friends to process things. I had music, and it has always just stayed that way.”

Sir Sly’s third album is a triumph of sound.

With deeply emotional lyrics and heavy, modern production, the album stands alone as one of the most unique releases in the last year. It feels like it came from the future, featuring a mixture of electronic and acoustic sounds. It’s darkness is carefully balanced by the right amount of light.

“We’ve always been as good as we can be about following wherever the inspiration leads us and not trying to manipulate it too much or force it into some kind of box,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs’ medley of influences, ranging from Young Thug to Thom Yorke, is channeled in unexpected ways throughout the album.

“I think that’s what’s kind of fun about mu-

sic. You get to wear your inspirations on your sleeve and then mix that with what is going on in your own life,” he said. “It’s always going to come out differently than what anyone else could do, even if they sat down and tried to synthesize all those things.”

Jacobs said waiting throughout the pandemic to release the music felt unusual. Even beyond the lack of touring, as someone who emphasizes the performance aspect of music in general, he said it was difficult to know the album was going to go unheard for several months.

“It’s a really great adrenaline rush to play shows, so I’ve missed having that, but I think music is naturally performative,” he said.

“When you make music, it is meant to be received at some point in time, so I think just sitting on the music for as long as we have feels unnatural in that sense.”

Jacobs is excited to see the music in the hands of others, where they can have their own conversations with the material. He hopes listeners find some comfort in what they hear. Though the album has its dark edges, it is ultimately a window to the hopeful place Jacobs has found himself in after two years of sobriety.

“For all the heaviness and darkness on the album, I think there’s also a lot more hope and genuine positivity. I don’t think I could have ever written a lyric like ‘everything’s going to be OK’ and actually believed it before.

And now, through a lot of the work I’ve done, it feels possible,” he said. “It’s always possible to change and do better.”

Sir Sly sir-sly.com

18 DOWNTOWN NEWS

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MARCH 29, 2021

Covered California will help ARTS AND CULTURE

Artists can use studio space at Pirate starting at $10 per hour.

Photo courtesy of Pirate

Among the 20 to 30 rooms at Pirate are rehearsal spaces.

Photo courtesy of Pirate

Record, rehearse, mix and play despite pandemic

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor fter 12 months of planning, U.K.-based Pirate has come to LA, offering 24-hour, keyless, contactless, affordable studios for members of the creative community.

Pirate, which offers rates starting at $10 per hour, adheres to strict health and safety guidelines and has plans to expand to other major U.S. cities during 2021 and 2022.

The two are located at 4713 W. Jefferson Boulevard (West Adams) and 2807 Sunset Boulevard (Silver Lake). Each new customer can receive a complimentary three-hour session in any of its rooms through April 7.

On average, each building has 20 to 30 studios in England, according to co-founder and Vice President Sammi Alani. There are 26 at the West Jefferson Boulevard building, and 28 on Sunset Boulevard.

“The way it works, you go to pirate.com, sign up and ultimately book a session, and we’ll send you the codes for the front door and studio,” Alani said.

“It’s pretty straightforward. On the studio side, we have a team of 130 people across the world.”

Pirate began with a simple idea. In 2014, co-founders David Borrie and Mikey Hammerton decided to design their own studio in Bristol, England, after becoming disillusioned with the quality of available rehearsal spaces. Once built, they let their friends use the room to practice for upcoming gigs. From there, Pirate grew into the U.K.’s largest network of creative studios, now operating a network of more than 400 facilities worldwide, including seven in London.

“We saw an opportunity to make studios more affordable for people simply by being open all the time,” Borrie said.

“This had the added benefit of giving artists better accessibility, letting them use the studios at the times that suited them. Since then, we’ve just tried to identify the types of studios artists need and build them, trying where we can to break down the barriers that stop artists from creating the music and stories we love.”

Grammy Award-winning producer Che Pope, who has used the Silver Lake studios, said, “Pirate offers easy, affordable access 24/7 and a great environment to be creative whenever you want. It makes the recording experience available to everybody, and that’s a really good thing.”

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DJs can take advantage of the space at Pirate.

Photo courtesy of Pirate

Borrie said he believes everyone should have access to creative studios.

“A recent survey of our DJ customers revealed that 54% have lost significant income since the arrival of the pandemic,” Borrie added. “By offering up quality yet affordable rooms, Pirate hopes to provide local creatives with a space that will rebuild a sense of community in the months ahead.”

As part of its commitment to the local areas where its studios are located, Pirate is also offering unused studio hours to neighborhood charities. Nonprofit organizations will be able to use the studios for appropriate endeavors. Time will be open during nonpeak hours of 9 a.m. to noon Monday to Friday, generally, depending on availability.

All Pirate sites follow a basic design template that works with a particular property’s characteristics to make a space that feels true to its surrounding area, all while offering top-level gear. As an example, the West Adams site in Los Angeles contains 13 recording rooms — outfitted with monitors, interface, microphones and headphones — two podcast studios, six small and two large DJ rooms, and three rehearsal rooms, plus parking. For most sessions, customers only need to bring a laptop and USB cable in order to start working.

To book a free new-customer session, go to pirate.com and the specific Los Angeles studio location and use the offer code NEWPIRATE. Nonprofits and charities in the above neighborhoods can apply for space and get more information at https://bit. ly/31xn3sp.

For specific equipment lists and booking information, visit pirate.com and click on the specific location.

For a virtual 360 walk-through of the West Adams facility, visit https://bit.ly/3tUm4OP.

MARCH 29, 2021

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

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DOWNTOWN NEWS 19

Covered California will help ARTS AND CULTURE

‘Unconcealed’ exhibit illuminates the FIGat7th

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor eticia Maldonado’s new neon exhibit, “Unconcealed,” at the FIGat7th was meant to be.

Erica Overskei, the arts and events manager for FIGat7th’s owner Brookfield, saw Maldonado’s neon work in DTLA Book and was impressed. She presented the ideal to Brookfield’s marketing team, who, it turns out, had a connection to Maldonado.

Overskei and Maldonado set a three-month loan agreement, and the neon pieces are on display through May 15. The site-specific installation of neon art for FIGat7th allows visitors, shoppers and more to view the designs from the outside through the window façade.

“I went ahead and designed ‘Unconcealed’ around a large piece I had already completed,” Maldonado said excitedly.

A graduate of the Art Institute of Las Vegas and the LA Academy of Figurative Art, Maldonado originally wanted to illustrate comic books. She switched to neon after having severe pain in her hand. She searched for neon artists on the internet and cold called. Eventually she found the legendary illuminated sculptor Lili Lakich, who introduced her to a vendor. She found Michael Flechtner, who taught her to bend.

“Unconcealed” is centered around pareidolia, or the perception of animals, faces or objects in cloud or lunar formations. It illuminates FIGat7th through neon shooting stars, twinkling constellations, an etched moon, a hand-painted skyline and suspended neon roses to create daytime and nighttime window displays.

One window holds a night scene in which a field of dark sky with stars and constellations is painted, depicting a scene that can be viewed in the northern hemisphere from winter to spring. The centerpiece of the night scene is El Conejo, a 3-foot-diameter etched mirrored moon with neon light behind it.

In the “daytime” window, a light purple skyline that fades into a pale, yellow horizon with clouds is painted. In the twilight, there are twinkling constellations and a shooting neon star. The centerpiece, titled “Pareidolia,” consists of three large red neon roses hung so that each vantage point results in slightly different imagery.

“When I was a kid, my grandma used to tell me to look for little faces around the house,” Maldonado said. “That was such a cool experience. No one spoke to me about my imagination. This piece is an homage to her and how she influenced me.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, her 94-year-old grandmother wasn’t able to see the piece in person, but her aunt showed her a photo.

“She did feel special,” Maldonado said.

The FIGat7th’s offerings — visual arts, film screenings, concerts, music — are all temporary, Overskei said. Everything has to be free and open to the public.

“The budget is split 50/50 visual arts and music,” Overskei said. “With COVID, that has changed a bit. We are concerned about the congregation of people that can happen with a concert.

“We’re primarily focused on the visual art component, especially because museums are closed.”

It also benefits the tenants as well as the general public and surrounding community. Brookfield sees this as a healthy, daily experience, Overskei said. Patrons and employees may not notice the artwork when it’s on view, but they notice when it goes away.

“It’s a good program. I was in galleries and museums before,” Overskei added. “I love them, but I felt I was preaching to the choir a little bit. Everybody I was talking to already believed in art. This program is a nice step into a more general world. There are a lot of people who say they’re not really an ‘art person.’ We’re all an ‘art person.’”

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“Unconcealed” 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. through Saturday, May 15 Suite 202 at FIGat7th, Middle Level M2, 735 S. Figueroa Street

The centerpiece of “Unconcealed” is “Pareidolia,” which consists of three large red neon roses hung so that each vantage point results in slightly different imagery.

Photo courtesy of FIGat7th

“Unconcealed” is on display at FIGat7th through Saturday, May 15.

Photo courtesy of FIGat7th

20 DOWNTOWN NEWS

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MARCH 29, 2021

Covered California will help ARTS AND CULTURE

aters for people of color has always explored this.

“What we do best is that we are storytellers,” Artistic Director Snehal Desai said.

“We can put a face or a name to an issue or a cause instead of it staying as statistics.

We can tell you our stories and our experiences and hope that those help further compassion and understanding.”

On Saturday, April 10, and Sunday, April 11, the theater is presenting the second offering of its virtual 55th anniversary season “Between Worlds.” Partnering with API Rise, it is looking to shed a light on a topic that is often swept under the rug — API incarceration, shattering the model minority myth, and calling out the shame imposed on those who are trying to start a new life.

The world premiere, “From Number to Name,” was devised and is directed by Kristina Wong, an artist, activist, actor and elected political representative. She has brought together 10 people, many of them formerly incarcerated Asian Americans, others who have been affected by mass incarceration, to tell their stories.

“These are members of our community who have made bad mistakes, and it has led to them being outcast from our communities oftentimes or made invisible even more,” Desai said. “We don’t want to talk about those folks or hear their stories. Part of our mission is to always make sure we are giving a stage to those who have not been heard or who have been marginalized.”

Kristina Wong is an artist, activist, actor and elected political representative.

Submitted photo

East West offers platform for API ex-convicts

By Bridgette M. Redman LA Downtown News Contributing Writer t didn’t take a mass shooting on the other side of the country to make East West Players intimately familiar with Asian Pacific Islander hatred and the fiery rhetoric of the past year.

The nation’s premier Asian American theater and one of the oldest professional the-

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Making these voices heard This is not the first time Wong has worked with a prison population. Six years ago, she was invited to do a workshop and performance for inmates at San Quentin. She said she was terrified going in, but by the end of the two hours she forgot she was in a prison and described them as the best audience she’d ever had.

“Some were my age, some went to high schools in San Francisco, some had learned English inside,” Wong said. “It was a very intense experience. There are some amazing leaders — some better than some of the CEOs that get paid six-figure salaries. I was really stunned by how impressive they were.”

She became fascinated by prison culture and the Asian population in prison, which is the smallest but is rapidly growing, with a lot of them facing deportation because their families came here as refugees.

Then she met someone whose brother was coming home from prison after 20 years. He invited her to a support group for recently released prisoners and families who have relatives or friends on the inside — API Rise. She started to attend their monthly meetings and to hear stories that she had never heard before.

That’s when the idea of “From Number to Name” was born. The original plan was to meet in person for 10 weeks, but the pandemic killed those plans. Instead, they began their rehearsals on Zoom to devise the program.

“The stories they have are so jaw dropping,” Wong said. “I see myself on Zoom, and my eyebrows are knitted together.”

The stories are mostly told by men, though there is one woman, who just started a job after being incarcerated for 20 years and is now facing deportation.

“This is a whole other side of Asian American identity that a lot of us don’t think about,” Wong said. “So much is the culture of shame. When folks have a relative who goes to jail, that person doesn’t exist anymore. We don’t talk about them.”

Two of the people participating in the performance are those she cited as having incredible stories, some of which they’ll share during the Zoom play: Irving Relova and Kirn Kim. Relova released after 36 years in prison Relova was born in the Philippines during martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. As a young child, he was warned not to go with police who showed up at the house, because they were likely a part of a kidnapping plot. When he was 13, he saw his father killed in front of him during a boating accident. Three months later, his mother revealed to him that neither she nor his father were his biological parents, and she didn’t want him anymore.

He was sent to the United States, where he met the rest of his family for the first time. He lived with his dad’s family, eventually graduating and going to night school

MARCH 29, 2021

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

while working full time. After getting burnt out, he decided to join the Marines.

That was when his life would irrevocably change.

“I was just short of signing my paperwork to go to boot camp, and I get a phone call,” Relova said. “I found out from my best friend that his girlfriend got raped. His girlfriend was friends with my girlfriend at the time. I saw her like a sister. I ended up killing the man who raped her.”

In March 1994, on his 19th birthday, he was arrested. In the beginning he was looking at the death penalty. He ended up being tried, convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

He made his peace with that and said he expected to die in prison. While he was raised Catholic, in prison he converted to Buddhism and started meditation. He met a woman who taught meditation to prisoners, and they eventually married.

He devoted himself to Buddhism as a way of life, and while he was convinced he would never leave prison, he wanted to help those who were so they wouldn’t return.

In 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown began commuting sentences, and Relova was encouraged to apply — to “put in a packet.” He procrastinated.

“I never really thought about putting a commutation packet request, because for me, I felt like I deserved to be here,” Relova said. “I took a man’s life, so I deserve to be in prison. What gives me the right to ask for a commutation or a pardon, knowing full well I did it?”

Finally, his wife and his best friend — the one who had been a co-defendant in the trial and had served 20 years in jail, getting out in 2014 — persuaded him to do it. He turned it in, not expecting to get an interview. When he did, he was asked why he thought he deserved a commutation.

“I told him straight out, ‘I don’t think I do deserve it. Me taking someone’s life, I can’t say if I deserve it or not.’”

Four months later, in August 2018, he was told his sentence was commuted. On June 21, 2019, he was released from prison. For six months, he lived in transitional housing before being able to move home with his wife. He started attending API Rise right before the pandemic hit. He met Kristina and decided to join the “From Number to Name” production.

It didn’t take him long to settle on the topic of shame.

“He tells a story about how when he went to his grandmother’s funeral, all his relatives had this look of guilt and shame in their eyes,” Wong said. “He’s had to contend with that.”

Relova said many in the Asian community, especially those who are first- or second-generation Americans, have it instilled in them that if they ever do anything wrong, it will bring shame to the whole family and to the whole culture. It isn’t uncommon, he said, for someone who has gotten into trouble to be disowned by their entire family.

Life is challenging When Kim was released from prison after serving 20 years, he found it nearly impossible to get a job even though he had earned a degree and had excellent computer and programming skills. Too many people remembered why he’d gone to jail.

Kim was the lookout for a notorious murder called “The Honor Roll Murder” because the victim and his killers were all honor roll students, came from wealthy families and participated in service projects. Some were accepted into prestigious colleges. Almost all of them were Asian, something that also made the crime unusual.

Arrested at age 16, Kim was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison. He said the law at the time allowed him to be charged with murder, though by today’s law someone with his level of involvement would not be. In 2012, after spending 20 years in prison, he was paroled.

He returned to Orange County and tried to find work.

“No one wanted to hire me,” Kim said. “‘You’re a convicted murderer, no way we’re going to hire you.’ Those who were doing the hiring all remembered my case. I had one hiring manager say, ‘It’s not a matter of your record, it’s that I refuse to hire you.’”

He had a job for a brief time with a start-up company, but it was told if it wanted

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Kirn Kim will share some of his incredible stories during the Zoom play.

Submitted photo

to go public, Kim couldn’t be on its team.

He moved to LA and began to get involved in criminal justice reform, including being a part of API Rise’s earliest days.

When asked to be a part of “From Number to Name,” he decided to let others talk about shame because he already had. Instead, he would focus on food.

“I’m going to talk about food identity in prison and my attempts to try to replicate ethnic cooking with ingredients you can get on the inside,” Kim said, including relating stories about how he was able to create kimchi by fermenting lettuce in a plastic garbage bag in his cell.

Digital expands reach of production Desai said that while this production wasn’t originally planned as a digital one, it has allowed them to have a national and even international audience for it. They plan to invite people from API Rise and other groups that work with incarcerated people of color to participate in a talk-back after the show so audiences can engage more deeply with the stories they hear.

“What I hope is that audiences have an experience so that we move beyond statistics,” Desai said. “That we move into a deeper understanding of how every community is affected by a host of factors. There are a number of issues all intersecting at once. I want there to hopefully be some healing on the part of the people involved, the artists and storytellers who have been so severely impacted — that they are seen and heard for who they are and that they have an opportunity to control the narrative around them, and hopefully that is empowering.”

The virtual show “From Number to Name” 7 p.m. Saturday, April 10, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 11 eastwestplayers.org or boxoffice@eastwestplayers.org

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MARCH 29, 2021

Covered California will help BUSINESS

Business Briefcase

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor elcome back to another edition of Business Briefcase. This week we’re chatting about John Reed Fitness Clubs and a great benefit shopping experience. Remember, if you have any tips about new businesses, awards or promotions, email christina@timespublications. com. Here we go.

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John Reed Fitness Clubs SG Group is bringing John Reed Fitness Clubs to North America with its first location in Downtown Los Angeles, on the corner of South Hill and 12th Avenue in the South Park District.

Spanning more than 33,000 square feet, John Reed brings together fitness, music and design. Members receive unlimited training opportunities from free weights, cardio, functional and machine-strength training with top-of-line equipment as well as an array of boutique-style classes with dedicated instructors leading cycling, HIIT, Pilates, barre, dance and yoga.

The 31 worldwide locations have their

own style and personality reflective of the culturally rich neighborhoods in which they are set. The Downtown LA one plays on the “concrete jungle” nickname and offers a jungle-themed journey with design elements throughout the space.

Art highlights include original pieces by LA’s internationally recognized artist Robert Vargas, Berlin’s street art duo Ron Miller, and LA-based abstract artist Jaime Guerrero.

Combing hi-fi with fitness, the club hosts live DJs local and international five days a week. Its signature DJ-driven workout, Boost Club, is a group-class experience. The workout combines the best of strength, agility, endurance and core training and arranges them to the rhythm and the beats of the music to move and motivate. Members also have access to the club’s curated collection of music through the free John Reed Radio App. Furthermore, members have unlimited access to amenities from the Snooze Room and Sauna to relax in post-workout, stylish locker rooms with Dyson hair dryers and salon quality hair and body care. Open to the public, John Reed’s Juice Bar offers hand-

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MARCH 29, 2021

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Covered California will help BUSINESS

DOWNTOWN NEWS 23

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A pancreatic and breast cancer survivor, Nayana Ferguson was looking for a healthier spirit option, those without additional mixers, syrups and sugars. She founded Anteel Tequila.

Photo courtesy of Anteel Tequila

Coconut lime tequila makes it way to LA

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor pancreatic and breast cancer survivor, Nayana Ferguson was looking for a healthier spirit option, those without additional mixers, syrups and sugars.

Rather than wait for something to come to the market, the Fergusons created their own, starting with, what they call, the world’s only coconut lime blanco tequila as well as a blanco reposado expression under the moniker Anteel Tequila.

“Our inspiration was the margarita,” said Ferguson, one of the only Black women to lead a tequila company in the nation.

“The margarita is one of the top drinks. We wanted to have a drink you can put in a glass and not add to anything to it and still have a cocktail. It’s cleaner than margaritas.”

The coconut lime blanco tequila is now available in Southern California, including 12 Total Wine stores.

Ferguson started the company with her husband, Don. Since launching, Anteel has been featured by Forbes, Black Enterprise and Cosmopolitan.

“I asked him, ‘If you could do anything, what would you do?’” she said. “He said he wanted a tequila company, but ‘we can’t do that.’”

She questioned him further and dismissed their lack of knowledge about the subject.

“Two days later, I came back to him with a plan,” she said with a laugh. “I found a distillery that works with small brands. He sent us samples. With the samples, they gave us the base of the tequila. When we were talking about flavor profiles, coconut was one we wanted to explore.

“We wanted to come up with something that’s not on the market. Ours is a natural extract of coconut and lime. A lot of people are surprised when they try it.”

Next up is a blood orange flavor.

“I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t like blood orange,” she said. “It’s an extract from Sicily. How it smells is how it tastes.”

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Don and Nayana Ferguson founded Anteel Tequila in Michigan. The coconut lime blanco tequila is available in Downtown Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy of Anteel Tequila

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