Did ChatGPT train on The Day of the Locust? Here's my latest on the Palisades Fire for @lareported.bsky.social and the parallels between the painting in the novel & the actual inferno. Plus new stuff about the man who was accused of starting the fire. #booksky lareported.substack.com/p/palisades-...

Still hearing fireworks? Wondering why your city can't just ban them? The fiercest defenders of fireworks in L.A. County are Little League presidents and football coaches who count on the money. lareported.substack.com/p/fireworks-...

Fire fight

The unlikely allies keeping fireworks legal in dozens of L.A. County cities

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The city just resumed repaving streets after a 9-month halt. But almost all of it is going to Bel Air, Encino, and Granada Hills. The reason isn't political favoritism — it's stranger than that.

Cracked

Why did Los Angeles design a street repaving plan that prioritizes Bel Air over Boyle Heights? Not for the reasons you might think.

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Everyone says L.A. has a weak mayor. But that's the wrong diagnosis, says Robert Greene. lareported.substack.com/p/los-angele...

How to not get things done in L.A.

Even a strong mayor can't overcome a weak city.

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Every Waymo story is about a crash. So we read every crash report the company filed in L.A. over the past year. Of the 28 that caused injuries, the reports show a human at fault in all but one. lareported.substack.com/p/waymo-taxi...

Waymo taxis, way fewer accidents

How many life-changing injuries have robot chauffeurs prevented in Los Angeles? About eight.

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"A pothole is a gravestone on a pavement that died previously." L.A. paid $54M last year settling claims for "dangerous conditions" on its roads and sidewalks, and its patchwork repairs are making the problem worse. lareported.substack.com/p/la-pothole...

Penny Wise, Pothole Foolish

What’s the real cause of L.A.'s crumbling roads? The city's broken budgeting process.

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To make the budget work, California's bullet train would skip downtown Bakersfield, skip downtown Merced, and run on a single track 89% of the way. The rail authority's own inspector general says that's illegal.

The bullet train is off-track again

The rail authority’s inspector general warns that design changes violate state law.

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In August 2021, Karen Bass was in Mozambique when she got the news that pulled her into the L.A. mayor's race. Four years later, she'd be in Ghana when L.A. caught fire. Robert Greene on a mayoralty defined by where Bass was — and wasn't. lareported.substack.com/p/karen-bass...

"We definitely don't have the resources to make a dent in making the city safer." — a sobering quote from an LAPD traffic sergeant. Citations are down 63%. Fatal crashes are up 55%. Our investigation into why the city's streets are getting deadlier: lareported.substack.com/p/los-angele...

Do you know why we didn't pull you over?

It's never been easier to get away with speeding or running a light in Los Angeles. Drivers and pedestrians are paying a deadly price.

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California voted for L.A. to San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes. The new plan: Gilroy to Palmdale. Possibly six hours total. Six hours is driving time.

The bullet train to … Gilroy

California voted for high-speed rail to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco. That’s not what it looks like in the latest reports.

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"Had it happened at night, we'd have all died." Juan Galicia lost nearly everything when a fire spread from a house next door — one his neighbors had begged the city to address for a year. Sam Quinones for L.A. Reported: lareported.substack.com/p/hollywood-...

Burnt

Juan Galicia spent a year asking the city to act on the abandoned house next door. Last week, a fire answered instead.

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A record 33,458 animals were killed on the streets of Los Angeles last year — up 35% since 2020. Human traffic deaths dipped slightly but remain near record highs. For every species, L.A.'s streets are getting deadlier. Our latest story: lareported.substack.com/p/unsafe-for...

Unsafe for any species

Automobiles are killing more animals in L.A. than ever before

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Reports of illegal dumping in L.A. jumped to 91K last year. The sanitation dept. went 18 years without a fee increase. Now residents are spending their own time and money to clean up what the city can't. lareported.substack.com/p/las-trash-...

L.A.'s trash vigilantes

When the city doesn't keep up with ever-mounting piles of garbage, these residents step in.

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You sort your trash. You rinse the bottles. You put them in the blue bin. And then most of it never gets recycled. Our latest story investigates where L.A.'s plastic waste actually ends up.

Piles of trash, sitting in warehouses

Too much of L.A.’s plastic waste never gets recycled.

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Thanks to @lareported.bsky.social for giving me the space to think through @metrolosangeles.bsky.social's D Line Extension, due to open in the next few months. lareported.substack.com/p/metro-d-li...

Take the D train

Will Metro’s Wilshire Boulevard line be our public-transit turning point?

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