Do you feel like you are “making it” in LA? Trust me, I have to pause and think about my own answer because it’s complicated, right? Well, I love a question with a complicated answer, and so we took it out into the world to see how Angelenos would respond. The result is a seven-part series called Making It, airing this summer on Friday afternoons. Each episode features locals talking about their own definition of success, and what it takes to build a life in this complex and beautiful place we call home.
The series begins with Tanya, an LAUSD teacher and mom of three. She’s been thinking a lot about how she has more money than she ever did growing up, but in some ways, it’s still not enough.
Tanya Reyes, 43, has been an educator for more than 20 years. She lives in Altadena with her husband and their three daughters (ages 7, 6, and 3). A large chunk of her income goes to child care.
She tells KCRW: “I feel very lucky as someone who's coexisted in different class levels. … I hold the self that came from a class where food was not consistent, working vehicles were not consistent. And now I have a lot of those things, but wanting to continue to move forward, I guess, in thinking about homeownership or debt reduction. Those parts, I feel like, oh, wow, this is hard.
So I struggle with saying, ‘I'm not making it.’ According to what? Who defines that for us? I think because I work with poverty, and I have students who don't have food — how dare I say I'm not making it when I got food and safety and clean clothes?
Honestly, I define ‘making it’ like I have safety for my children. Having each other at the end of the day is really what I would define as ‘making it,’ for myself personally. In capitalism, America — maybe not so much.”
At the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Central Women’s Jail, the Cell Dogs program teaches incarcerated men, women, and juveniles the art of dog training. Janette Thomas founded the program in 2014. She says the rescuing goes both ways: alleviating the often crowded animal shelters of SoCal and providing inmates with hard skills they can use upon release.
“Many times if [the trainers] are exceptional and they're responsible, we will write [inmates] letters of recommendation to help with employment on the outside. And we have, and still do, employ some of the exceptional trainers from these programs,” Thomas says.
Angel Monzon, a program tech with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, notes, “[Dog training] reminds them a lot of their own children. Some of them have lost their kids. So it's a very intense and deep relationship that they build with these animals because a lot of them come from the mindset that love should hurt. … Having an animal that gives unconditional love like that, and being able to … see them grow and thrive, and finding a good home for them, it’s bittersweet for the ladies.”
Upon graduating from the Cell Dogs program, the cohort’s canine members are adopted. Especially exceptional candidates are promoted into advanced training to become eligible for service animal certification.
California raised minimum wages at most large chain fast-food restaurants to $20 an hour on April 1st. Many workers praised the move while concerned franchise owners warned the added cost could devastate already struggling businesses.
Kerri Harper-Howie and her sister own 21 McDonald’s restaurants in LA County. The franchisee says second-quarter sales are down — partly because she gradually raised menu prices toward the end of 2023 to help cover increasing wages. Her business was already making adjustments for the rising cost of supplies and insurance rates under inflation. But like many others in the industry, Harper-Howie isn’t considering cutting jobs, though some employees may be getting fewer hours.
According to state Employment Development Department numbers, in June, a record high of 361,500 people were employed in fast food in Southern California. The industry added 7,600 jobs since March before the new wage went into effect. Big picture — economists say it’s still too soon to tell where things are headed for the industry in the state and whether or not the wage increase will lead to mass layoffs and closures.
Mayor Bass’ Executive Directive 1 (ED1) and new state laws allow most affordable housing to be built taller, denser, and without parking. So private developers have been rushing to construct new apartments. They’re casting aside aesthetics — many proposals have little open space, few trees, and no fancy ornamentation.
“I’m seeing a lot of bad architecture, if I'm going to be quite honest. I see a lot of big white stucco boxes that have very little care put into them,” says Jeff Zbikowski, whose architecture firm is in Culver City.
Ben Lee, an investment sales broker at Marcus & Millichap, notes, “The reality of building in LA in 2024 is that subterranean parking is extremely expensive. One level of subterranean parking is a million bucks a floor. And it's true that a lot of ED1 projects don't have parking, but I think the way we think about parking in Los Angeles is going to shift.”
Renter and car owner Steven Price says, “There's parking around. You just gotta be more diligent to find parking. If you have to get up early, get up early.”
The units will be capped to remain affordable for Angelenos earning about $75,000 a year. Rents will be restricted to about $1,800 for a small studio, not including utilities.
Elizabeth Taylor is a legend of old Hollywood, starring in movies like National Velvet, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Cleopatra, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She’s equally well known for her tumultuous eight marriages to seven different men, including Richard Burton twice. A new HBO documentary, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, tells the actress’ story in her own words using 40 hours of recently discovered footage recorded for a memoir in the 1960s. It includes candid thoughts on her career, love life, and feelings of inadequacy and insecurity — all captured at the height of her fame.
The film’s director, Nanette Burstein, says hearing Taylor’s voice feels like being transported in time. “You're there with the cigarette smoke and the champagne constantly being poured, or the whiskies, in some nightclub, or sometimes at her house, or sometimes on the houseboat. And they're very extemporaneous … candid … revealing, which is so rare for a megastar to talk so intimately about themselves.”
Throughout Taylor’s (big) life, Burstein says, she earned tons of money, created lots of films, traveled the world, and acquired luxuries like jewelry and art — but she never had privacy and was heavily judged. “She was judged through the lens of the culture of the 1950s and ‘60s, which was quite sexist. And I'm not sure that she would be judged in the same way today. In fact, I know she wouldn't have been.”
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