Welcome to L.A. TACO’s daily news briefs, where we bring our loyal members, readers, and supporters the latest headlines about Los Angeles politics and culture. Stay informed and always look at it closely.
—Sherman Oaks: Yesterday afternoon, Councilmember Nithya Raman issued the following statement addressing the death of a homeless individual after they were run over a by city truck in her district: "This [death] comes on the heels of the passing of three individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the area in recent days, due to a range of causes about which we are still awaiting complete details. The extraordinary danger that people without safe housing face every day is what brought me to public service. Our office has made significant investments in staff resources and contracts with service providers and interim housing providers to address this crisis, including a new team of health practitioners who now serve the Ventura Boulevard area.These deaths shed light on the gravity of our City’s homelessness crisis and why we must respond with urgency to bring people off the streets and into shelter. But no matter the cause, no life or death on the street is acceptable. We will keep pushing to do more until we are at zero." No other details were given. [L.A. TACO]
—Chinatown: Chef and owner Johny Lee has announced that his beloved restaurant Pearl River Deli will be "taking a break to reevaluate the business," citing that his current business is not "sustainable as it currently is. "It may come as a surprise to those on the outside but despite all the accolades, writeups and appearance of being busy we have never been very profitable. While there may have been a path forward it didnt seem worth the effort, every extra dollar we would have to earn would come at a greater cost. I (Johnny) as the chef/owner have not even been able to pay myself last year and it was not sustainable." The restaurant is staying open in its current state until February 26th.
—Culver City: Culver City Council introduced an ordinance that is set to ban tent encampments, without providing services or housing for their unhoused population. [Knock LA]
—Vernon: Two of the most heavily used landfills for California toxics are near Native American reservations, a CalMatters investigation found, including the toxic soil from the Exide battery clean-up in Vernon. [CalMatters]
—The marijuana pardon applications that Biden promised are still unavailable months after announcing. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is urging the Biden Administration to expeditiously move forward on its promise to provide pardons for low-level federal marijuana convictions. According to publicly available data compiled by NORML, state and local officials have issued over 100,000 pardons and more than 1.7 million marijuana-related expungements since 2018.
