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Il Fiore Restaurant blooms on Flower Street

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My boss is a tyrant: I’d quit, except I work for myself

By Ellen Snortland LA Downtown News Columnist elf-employed for most of my adult life, I gave many of my friends and family conniptions by not having the security of a “regular” job. They had unvarying hours, paid vacation days and benefits. On the other hand, they often envied my independence. While I love my freedom, I also experience job tyranny — from myself! Sometimes I hate my boss for being so rigid. She’s a dictator.

I have now gone on strike and refuse to work on weekends. Radical, isn’t it? I am getting even more revolutionary: I’m adopting the motto used by the worker’s movement in the 1890s: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what you will.” I have to “work” on that, but I am getting better at apportioning my time.

I don’t know precisely how, why or when I got into habitual nonstop working 24/7.

I suspect my workaholism came from watching my dad. He had to have a project; he couldn’t sit still. Both my parents were farm people, and livestock doesn’t take weekends off. “That’s OK. You can skip feeding us for two days,” said no horse or cow, ever.

Unlike my aunts and uncles on both sides, we didn’t take vacations when I was a kid.

No camping or family trips except to visit relatives, which, while fun for us kids, my parents regarded as torture. They’d rather slam their fingers in a car door than simply hang out and visit. I’m only now learning how to have social time that doesn’t drive me into a guilt trip. Good grief, Snortland — even Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights acknowledges rest and leisure as a human right! Thanks to the United Nations, I can alter my life.

The trouble is, exploitative people are all around us. My husband Ken, in particular, has people who think nothing of texting him at 3 a.m. or calling at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Sorry folks, the Tech Daddy is closed! I remember a time when everything was closed on Sundays. Unless and until more of us set boundaries, employers and clients will never leave freelancers alone. A theater person from high school on, we only had one “dark” day on Mondays. But unless and until I get back into theater, I will not drive myself the way I have. I just won’t.

The “retire at 65” boat left the dock years ago. Retirement used to be part of the American Dream for middle- and working-class folks. The death (or at least comatose condition) of trade unions combined with the gig economy has left many people working two to three jobs just to make ends meet. Retirement? With the economy in the crapper since 2008, that’s not going to ever happen for my hubby or me.

I’m not really complaining, although it sounds like I am. I can’t say that I ever dreamed of leisure time after turning 65. I saw so many people who retired, and it sent them into a downward spiral. I know one person intimately who dreamed of early retirement and, after taking it at 55, drank themselves into a stupor. Twenty years later, it’s a miracle their liver hasn’t “retired.”

I have wrestled with the idea of taking two months off from the creative writing classes I teach four times a week. That’s been my bread and butter; I have been teaching live classes weekly since 2002 and switched smoothly to Zoom for the lockdown. But two

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months not teaching? That seems so scary! What if no one wants to work with me when we come back? What if people get used to not writing? I brought up my concerns with my class today, and the reaction was, “That sounds great!” “Yes, let’s take two months off! “I was going to suggest that anyway.” “Don’t worry, we’ll be back. We love you.” I live by the Eleanor Roosevelt admonition to “do one thing every day that scares you,” and I could tell bringing up a two-month hiatus with my students terrified me — so I did it.

It would have been more timely to write this column for Labor Day, but I couldn’t wait, because the issues of work-related hours are in people’s faces and spaces right now. Why? While sheltering at home during the pandemic, many employee ranks have also been working from home, and they got used to it. Many people don’t want to go back to their offices. There’s fear of contagion, but there’s also the dread of traffic and endless meetings. I know quite a few commuting workers who gained an average of two or more hours per day because they didn’t have to fight traffic. Quality of life, people!

Who knows, I may even promote the idea that Ken and I take a vacation. I know it’s crazy, but I’ve heard that some people do it.

Ellen Snortland has written Consider This… for decades — once while on vacation. A writing coach, contact her at ellen@authoratbitebybite.com.

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Covered California will help OPINION

Jeff Prang is the Los Angeles County assessor.

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Assessor’s office is foundation for property tax system

By Jeff Prang Los Angeles County Assessor y name is Jeff Prang. I am the 27th assessor of the great County of Los Angeles. I was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. I am here to share with you exactly what my office does and how this office directly affects you in, what I hope, is a most positive manner.

First, every county in California has an elected assessor. This part of government was deemed so important by the founders of the state that it is in the state constitution as an independent department with an elected leader in each of the 58 counties. Every four years, voters in every county in California elect their assessor.

The assessor’s office is the foundation of the property tax system, which will provide nearly $18 billion this year to local governments and school districts across

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the 4,751 square miles of Los Angeles County, including 88 cities and numerous unincorporated areas. I have about 1,200 employees to establish accurate values on 2.57 million parcels and other assessments. The total assessment value for 2020 was almost $1.8 trillion. We will be rolling out the latest figures this summer.

I sometimes tell people what I do not do — I do not collect taxes. There is another guy, with a really intuitive title that does that: the tax collector. Actually, there are five departments involved in the local property tax system. The assessor’s office is the first in the process. We are responsible for determining the value of property used to calculate your taxes. We are primarily appraisers. However, we also administer a number of savings programs for homeowners, veterans, seniors, those with disabilities and the victims of natural disasters.

Property taxes in California are governed by Proposition 13, which was passed by voters in 1978. Proposition 13 introduced event-based reassessment. That means that instead of property being revalued every year, or every few years, as is done in other states, property in California is only reassessed if there is a transfer of ownership or new construction. So, when you buy a house, or other property, my office enrolls the market value at time of purchase, which remains the assessed value (or base-year value) of your home until there is a transfer (or new construction) plus a maximum annual inflation adjustment of 2%.

So here is how it works: When you buy a house, you record a deed with the registrar-recorder, who then sends my office a copy of that deed. We then evaluate whether a transfer of ownership has occurred and assess the property accordingly.

All of those values are added to the assessment roll — the list of all taxable property and their values — which we compile each year and send to the auditor-controller, who then applies the relevant tax rate.

Proposition 13 mandates a statewide property tax rate of 1% of market value at the time of transfer, but various local ballot measures, including voted indebtedness and parcel taxes, increases the effective rate above that. Once the auditor-controller applies the tax rate, it is transferred to the tax collector, who sends out bills and collects taxes.

The same process works for new construction, except that municipal building and safety offices send us copies of building permits that prompts us to dispatch appraisers to determine the added value. It is important to note that in the case of additions, remodels and other new construction, it is only a partial reassessment for the new, added value.

My office can oftentimes be overlooked because of the nuance of our complicated property tax system. But, as you can now understand, it’s the vital first step on the journey to tax revenue that pays for the services we have come to rely on and come to expect in our daily lives.

For more information, visit assessor.lacounty.gov.

Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang has been in office since 2014. Upon taking office, Prang implemented sweeping reforms to ensure that the strictest ethical guidelines rooted in fairness, accuracy and integrity would be adhered to in his office, which is the largest office of its kind in the nation, with 1,200 employees, and provides the foundation for a property tax system that generates $17 billion annually.

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Covered help LETTERSCalifornia TO THE will EDITOR

Historic misrepresentations

Editor: have read several comments in LA Downtown News lately that smack somewhat of COVID-19 crisis revisionism. Some are now trying to recalibrate this trying period into a time of wild panic and unnecessary governmental crackdowns. I would remind everyone that over 60,000 of their fellow Californians have succumb to this disease.

One of the frequent confusions passed around is that blue states like California locked down their economies for little or no reason, while red states flourished. Mississippi and Alabama, two of the reddest states in our union, have much higher rates of deaths per 100,000. If we had followed their practices, our death totals might have been much higher. Even the often-cited Florida and Texas, have had slightly higher rates of mortality than our state.

Another point of confusion is that nearly all the deaths are now described as merely the elderly, obese and chronically ill passing away. This ignores the fact that many people age 30s and 40s became gravely ill, but with care and hospitalization, they survived. Their youth allowed them to recover — not totally avoid the disease. In addition, just when did we become a society that somehow feels that anyone who is over 70 or is a cancer patient is somehow extraneous?

I would agree that our knowledge of the disease progressed over the spring and summer of last year. Knowing what we now know today, some businesses could have stayed open on a modified basis. We will all probably look back on hoarding toilet paper and washing in sanitizers with a mixture of laughter and embarrassment. But to say that we could have gone through 2020 with business as usual is simply a misstatement of the crisis conditions the epidemic presented. Such historic misrepresentations about the COVID-19 epidemic deny both the history and the tragedy of the last two years.

Oliver Cutshaw

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s a California native and UCSB student, I’ve watched these fires get worse and worse over the years and last year we watched California burn at record rates.

California is reaching a tipping point in our fight against climate change. At the same time, California’s enormous budget surplus is providing us with the opportunity to take meaningful action to prevent these catastrophic fires. That’s why I, along with a motivated team of activists, are working to use just 2% of California’s budget surplus to bury fire causing power lines.

Burying the highest risk, overhead power lines in the state, will drastically prevent wildfires as well as eliminate the need for public safety power shut offs due to high winds. It is the best prevention tactic we can use to prevent these fires from damaging any more of our environment and our people. I urge you to learn more about our mission, sign our petition on Change. org and spread the word.

You can find our petition here: https://bit.ly/3wcFz73 This is a grassroots effort to call on our state legislature to devote just 2% of the budget surplus to saving California from the threat that power lines bring to our communities by burying them.

Hannah Meyers

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Access program would connect locals to gondola system

By Sara Edwards LA Downtown News Contributing Writer A Arial Rapid Transit has proposed the Community Access Program to the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for local residents and businesses to use the urban gondola system from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.

The gondola system would take passengers from Union Station to Dodger Stadium in seven minutes. The first aerial transport system to come to LA, the gondola system will connect Union Station in Downtown LA to Dodger Stadium and surrounding communities like Elysian Park and the LA State Historic Park. The project is expected to be up and running by 2028.

LA Arial Rapid Transit, or LA ART, said this program would encourage people to use the zero-emission transit system for daily use and event days where the system will be prioritized for those attending stadium events. And daily use of the gondola system is projected to achieve the project’s goal of improving air quality and reducing existing emissions from vehicle trips during event days when the stadium is in use.

Stadiumgoers can bundle their stadium tickets with gondola system access and a time-window reservation on event days. When the stadium is not in use, community members in the LA ART vicinity can use the aerial gondola with an individual

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Metro fare or a Metro system access pass at no extra cost.

Community members encouraged LA ART to make this access program to increase transit access to those in the vicinity of the system and proposed route. The proposal also supports LA ART and Metro’s shared goal to improve connection to regional public transportation access by connecting LA ART to Union Station and the growing Metro transit system for the surrounding communities.

“Many of our residents live on a fixed income and rely on reduced Metro fares for transportation,” said Ines Gomez, president of William Mead Resident Advisory Council. “LA ART’s Community Access Program will help connect our residents and families to the regional public transit system.”

The proposed alignment for the LA ART system was announced last month. The gondola would travel north from Metro’s Union Station along Alameda Street to an intermediate LA ART station that would be within walking distance to Metro’s Chinatown L Line Station.

The gondola would then continue north to cross above North Broadway and along Bishops Road to Dodger Stadium. “ The Community Access Program would provide my family, neighbors and visitors with a quick and affordable alternative to travel to and from Union Station,” Chinatown resident Peter Cheong said. “LA ART will ensure that our community members can easily access Chinatown.”

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Families call on lawmakers to prioritize after-school, summer programs

By Sara Edwards LA Downtown News Contributing Writer he pandemic unmasked multiple socioeconomic inequalities among working families, but especially for children during the school year. With school finishing for the summer, California families are worried about accessibility to after-school programs and summer learning opportunities to help get kids engaged in learning in the classroom again.

Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit organization with branches across California, wants to represent these concerned families and help advocate for their children’s education in ensuring the right funds and necessities are being distributed to these programs.

Jenny Perla, a spokesperson for Innovate Public Schools, said parents, especially Black and Latino parents whose voices often go unheard, want to make sure there are enough resources in the community to support the schools.

“Schools cannot do this alone,” she said. “We’ve known this for a long time, and we need all hands on deck, especially after such a traumatic year.”

Innovate Public Schools held a town hall a few weeks ago where nearly 500 parents called on Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators to direct $1.1 billion from the

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American Rescue Plan to nonprofits and county education offices that specialize in these programs.

According to a press release, Newsom announced a $5 billion investment in after-school learning programs for students in grades K-5, with $1 billion a year to be distributed over the next five years. However, parents are concerned that the money won’t be enough, and programs are worried the funding won’t reach those who need it the most, especially communities impacted by the pandemic.

“There are a lot of critical decisions being made at the state level around the budget, so we wanted to make sure that low-income parents had a voice and say in how the funds were being spent,” Perla said. “What they are prioritizing is after-school opportunities for their kids and ensuring that there’s enough resources and funding reaching community based organizations they trust that have stepped up during the past year to support their kids.”

California has the largest expanded learning infrastructure in the nation, serving nearly 1 million children, many who are low-income, high-needs students. Researchers from McKinsey & Company found that the arrival of COVID-19 revealed inequities throughout the education system that were only heightened by the pandemic.

The shutdown of schools in early 2020 disrupted students’ learning, and remote learn-

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FAMILIES CALL ON LAWMAKERS TO PRIORITIZE AFTER-SCHOOL, SUMMER PROGRAMS, 7 ing has not been the same for all students. Many have had to re-learn some of the lessons already covered in the previous year. Innovate found that Black and Latino students had the greatest learning loss due to factors like unreliable internet, less time with teachers and peers to get help and accessibility to a computer.

“Many families that we work with were hit particularly hard jobwise, especially if they lost their job,” Perla said. “During distance learning, when kids were learning from home, parents became co-educators and had to find their balance in work and life, and it was really hard.”

Dionicia Barrera, a mother of three who lives in Redwood City, issued a statement saying her children attend summer and after-school learning programs, both summer camps can cost up to $1,000 a week, which makes it harder for working-class families and essential workers.

“Having to figure out how to pay for these programs as we’re coming out of a pandemic and with the high cost of living in California is a lot on our plate,” she said. “I want the governor and legislators to think about our children as if they were their own. This isn’t just about getting our kids to school and it’ll be OK; it’s about getting them to school and having them be well.”

Perla said at the town hall that parents wanted to make sure the funding from lawmakers actually reaches their communities, so the funds must go directly to community-based organizations that will help students recover — like the Boys & Girls Club or

the YMCA — rather than just to the districts.

“There are a lot of schools that already rely on a lot of community partners to help expand opportunities beyond the school hours,” Perla said.

Newsom will finalize the budget on June 15. Perla said people can directly email the governor via a form through Innovate Public School’s website.

“We don’t benefit from these funds, but we’re advocating for this funding to go toward nonprofit after-school providers,” she said. “I’m working directly with families to provide these services, and they’re the ones who brought us attention to this issue.”

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Covered California will help COVID COUNT Reported cases in Downtown LA, surrounding areas as of June 6 Chinatown: 737; Little Tokyo: 403; Los Feliz: 1,064; Silverlake: 3,221; South Park: 7,378; Wilshire Center: 5,640 Total confirmed cases in DTLA: 4,118 Total deaths in DTLA: 52 Total confirmed cases in LA County: 1,245,588 Total deaths in LA County: 24,408 Los Angeles County is preparing to reopen in accordance with state standards on June 15. While the majority of restrictions will be lifted, some rules regarding masks and physical distaning will remain in place in certain locations. Schools, public transit and health care facilities, camps and major indoor events will continue to have COVID-19 regulations. People who have been vaccinated will be allowed to shed their masks, but those who are not vaccinated will continue wearing them. Although some rules still need a final decision, most workers in indoor settings will be required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status, and social distancing rules will no longer be enforced if employers make N95 respirators masks available for employees.

Los Angeles County continues to see declining case rates. The county is shifting its focus toward mobile vaccination centers, as there will be 237 vaccination teams across the area this week. The county is closing large vaccination locations and is shifting towards smaller sites Currently, 65% of the county’s population ages 16 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 54% are fully vaccinated. Rates continue to lag for Black and Latino residents. There are currently 1,245,588 confirmed cases in Los Angeles County, with 24,408 deaths. There are currently 243 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 in the county, with 40 people in the intensive care unit, an increase from the previous week.

A new COVID-19 vaccination center will be opening on Tuesday, June 15, at Union Station in order to equitably distribute vaccines and vaccinate communities hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. The clinic will be on Mondays through Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Union Station East Portal. Union Station will offer all three vaccines, including Pfizer, which is now available to anyone ages 12 and older. The Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines are only available to those who are 18 and older. People can choose to walk up without making an appointment. Additionally, Total Testing, a Los Angeles medical diagnostic testing service, will set up three new vaccination sites at the LA Metro stations. People will be able to receive free vaccines at the Crenshaw Station, the Del Amo Station and the Harbor Gateway Transit Center.

—Compiled by staff writer Doyoon Kim

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Covered NEWS California will help

Anti-COVID-19 tech helps workforce return

By Andres De Ocampo LA Downtown News Contributing Writer ith Los Angeles County administering 9 million COVID-19 vaccinations, many Angelenos are slowly making the transition back to work.

Coretrust Capital Partners, which owns the 444 S. Flower Street office building, is helping tenants return safely by implementing anti-COVID-19 technology in its office buildings.

“What we’ve done (with these technological building improvements) is introduced an environment that is going to make employees more efficient and employers happier,” said John Sischo, a co-founder and managing principal with Coretrust.

“My view has been: The world changed (with the pandemic). It’s put people in a situation where they are restricted to certain environments, they’re fearful to go back to normal and they need to know they’re not going to get sick.”

The technology includes a touch-free elevator system with purified air, an air purification system that can cleanse the building’s air of pathogens in seconds and a robot that can disinfect a 1,000-squarefoot room in three minutes by deactivating the DNA and RNA of viruses.

John Rhee, senior vice president and general manager of UBTECH North America, said that the disinfecting robot, known as ADIBOT, utilizes UVC light and radiation.

Though devices like the ADIBOT have been used in the health care industry for decades, Rhee explained that UBTECH “set out to deliver the same robust UVC strength at a fraction of the cost and with the safety features that are needed to deploy these devices outside of the health care space.”

There are a redundant amount of safety features included with the ADIBOT, Rhee said, which are necessary due to UVC radiation being harmful to people and pets.

Coupled with an operator controlling the robot in a room separate from the disinfection site, the ADIBOT is equipped with artificial intelligence; PIR sensors, or passive infrared sensors, that detect motion; an RGB camera and much more.

The risk might be worth the reward,

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however, due to the multiple uses of the ADIBOT. Not only does the device disinfect airborne COVID-19 and anything the UVC light touches in a short amount of time, UBTECH is also working with companies like Coretrust to figure out what other pathogens can be targeted.

“I think we can all agree that we would rather live in a world with less common cold and less flu transmission in the workplace,” Rhee said. “The ADIBOT is relevant for COVID-19 reasons, but many companies are looking past that to create a safer environment.”

Thomas Ricci, co-founder of Coretrust Capital Partners, said, “Our plan is that we would deploy these (ADIBOT’s) in hightouch areas at night, like restrooms, conference rooms, elevators, etc. We would also offer it as a service to be utilized by our tenants at their discretion.”

Ricci explained that “historically, office buildings would minimize the amount of fresh air taken into the building and recirculate the air because it is much more energy efficient to manage air that has already been heated or cooled. Now, that’s completely changed.”

The ADIBOT is helping Coretrust run its buildings in a way that would let as much fresh air in from outside as possible, while recirculating clean, disinfected air.

The ADIBOT, however, is not the only disinfecting device helping Coretrust maintain a safe level of airflow throughout its buildings. Sanuvox, a manufacturer for ultraviolet air purification, works with distribution, installation and maintenance company Ramtek to provide Coretrust with UVC-disinfected air throughout air ducts.

Christopher Curtis, mechanical sales manager with Ramtek, said Sanuvox’s in-duct UVC air purification works like UBTECH’s ADIBOT but at a faster rate and with larger UVC lamps.

“When we talk about air disinfection, we don’t have the luxury of time, because the air is moving fast through the air duct. We size our UVC lamps based on how fast the air moves,” Curtis said.

Coretrust uses over 20 systems of Sanovox’s in-duct UVC lamps, with five lamps in each system. The systems are placed throughout the building depending on the

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building’s ductwork and air intake.

“The system is designed to kill pathogens instantly,” Curtis said, placing an emphasis on the sizing of the lamps. “The time it takes from the beginning of the bulb to the end of the bulb is your expose time, so depending on how big your duct is, how fast your air is moving, what you are targeting, that’s how big the lamps will be.”

“As the air leaves the unit for the first time, we are aiming to kill 99% of whatever your targeted pathogen is. COVID-19, the flu, common cold, anthrax, we can size (our lamps) for all of that,” Curtis explained.

Though 20-something systems for a building like 444 S. Flower Street may not sound like a lot, Curtis said Ramtek will look at each building individually and strategically place each system for the optimal disinfection rate.

“It depends on the main facility design; every building will be different. … We’re finding the key points and targeting that,” Curtis said.

Jacob Seuser, mechanical sales engineer with Ramtek, said that the lamp sizing and effectiveness is measured by third-party labs, which is essentially used to judge the kill rate of each pathogen.

“We have a calculation, and all of it is based on independent research,” Seuser said.

Ramtek looks at studies from the French Army, for example, to decide how much exposure to UVC light is required to kill COVID-19; in other words, how strong and big the lamps need to be to kill COVID-19 within the allotted exposure time.

“All of (Coretrust’s) properties are on the same journey,” Ricci said about the technology being introduced to 444 S. Flower Street. “We have been intently focused on proactively addressing our tenants’ and customers’ concerns about returning to the workplace. … The air that is distributed to the building is as safe, healthy and clean as we can possibly make it. This is hospital-grade technology that we are deploying into our office buildings.”

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JUNE 14, 2021

Covered California will help ART & CULTURE

Ella Beyer recently released the single “Hellbent High School.”

Photo by Emily Ulmer

Pasadena’s Ella Beyer brings ’70s style to third single

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor lla Beyer’s personality, clothing and songwriting make a statement.

The 18-year-old Pasadena resident reflects her belief that she’s an “old soul.”

So, when her photographer, Emily Ulmer, asked her to try on an oversized black jacket for a shoot to promote her new single, “Hellbent High School,” she was a little apprehensive. It didn’t quite show her style.

“I wanted a photo that fit the vibe of the song and my style,” Beyer said. “I had all these outfits with me in the car. We stopped by this dingy alley behind a toy store.

“Emily brought this oversized black coat that was way too big on me. I put it on me, she laid in the middle of the alleyway and looked up at me. With the clouds and the telephone line, it looked great. We didn’t even plan that.”

“Hellbent High School” reflects Beyer’s abilities to balance high school and teenage life, as well as her sweet charm and style.

“I’m so excited for this one,” Beyer said.

“This song relates to so much that I’m going through right now. I’ve graduated from high school, which is super scary. This song

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is about just trying to find your true, authentic self.”

Like her previous singles, “Hellbent High School” was released by her Philadelphia-based record label, Winding Way Records.

“They’re super supportive and have given me great advice and promotion tactics,” she said. “I’m just so grateful to have that backbone.”

Beyer is the progeny of her dad, Dave Beyer, a professional touring drummer for Christopher Cross, Melissa Etheridge and Wilson Phillips, and her mom, singer-songwriter Debra Davis.

“I grew up going to their shows and just being inspired by the way the music made the crowd feel,” she said. “I love seeing people singing along with the words and connecting with it. I wanted to create something that people could relate to and connect with. That’s how I got into it. I was surrounded by it in my house.”

While attending California School for the Arts, she took songwriting and singing classes, making for a well-rounded arts education.

“I love being around these different collaborators,” she said. “Everyone is an artist at the school.”

When she’s not writing music or study-

ing, Beyer uses her talent in a partnership with the Dragon Kim Foundation, where she volunteers with Fostering the Arts. Her unique ability to mix her original works with covers of well-loved songs is a perfect fit for the program, which works to expose kids in the foster care system to opportunities in the arts.

“Fostering the Arts provides music and performing arts classes to kids in the foster care system,” said Beyer, who founded Fostering the Arts with classmate Leilani Rodriguez. “We worked with one facility in Pasadena and others Downtown.

“We started it through the Dragon Kim Foundation, which is a great nonprofit organization that provides high schoolers with money to help their community and what they’re passionate about. We started it during the pandemic because we didn’t know it would be a pandemic. When the pandemic (hit), we started these interactive videos, which we can send anywhere

with a single link.”

Beyer recited statistics from the top of her head: There are 37,000 foster youths in Los Angeles and Orange counties who don’t have access to the arts. Beyer and Rodriguez took arts classes, so they wanted to give the less fortunate the same chance, “It’s a vulnerable time, especially growing up,” she said.

That’s Beyer’s style. Her bubbly optimism shines through her music and her volunteer work.

Beyer is planning to attend the Los Angeles College of Music in Pasadena and then the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At both schools, she’ll study songwriting.

“I’m going to, of course, continue my passion through college,” she said. “I want to grow and make more connections and learn as much as possible. I want to be a singer-songwriter/recording artist. I want to keep doing what I’m doing right now.”

Ella Beyer youtube.com/c/ellabeyermusic facebook.com/ellabeyermusic windingwayrecords.com

JUNE 14, 2021

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TRAX

BY BLISS

OKUTE, Okuté (Chulo): HHHH Eschewing florid contemporary stylings, this Havana-based rumba ensemble focuses on soulful elementals: Pedro “Tata” Francisco Almeida Barriel’s warm, earthy vocals, trésero Coto and the Vizcaino family’s polyrhythmic percussion. Working with Orquesta Akokán’s Jacob Plasse, they tap into rumba’s and son’s African roots as well as Cuban religious music, evoking midcentury Cuban rumba with this slow-burning, heartfelt celebration.

Highlights: the stirring call-and-response of “Chichiribako,” “Quiere La Rumba,” “Rumbarimbula,” “Devuelva Me La Voz.” okuterumba.com JAPANESE BREAKFAST, Jubilee (Dead Oceans): HHHH In the aftermath of her spacey, emotionally wounded 2017 album “Soft Sounds from Another Planet” and recent “Crying in H Mart” memoir about her mother’s death, Michelle Zauner embraces joy over darkness with this thoughtfully textured pop set. The reverbed ambiance of “Another Planet” has been replaced by bright vocals backed by banks of synthesizers and programmed drums. The 1980s-style beats suit “Be Sweet” (“I want to believe in you, I want to believe in something”) and the wary “Slide Tackle;” bleak humor coexists with sweetness and sorrow in the strongest tracks (“In Hell,” “Savage Good Boy,” “Tactics”), as in life. japanesebreakfast.rocks RACHEL BAIMAN, Cycles (Signature Sounds): HHH½ A smartly written, keenly felt set that should attract fans of Molly Tuttle and Gillian Welch. Playing guitar, banjo and fiddle, Baiman and co-producer Olivia Hally (bass, piano) focus on Baiman’s straightforward assessments of personal and communal rites of passage, relationships and self-discovery. The title track, the punchy “Hope It Hurts” and “Joke’s on Me” showcase her knack for pop hooks, while a cover of Slaid Cleaves and Rod Picott’s “Rustbelt Fields” complements Baiman’s topical songwriting. Inspired by Baiman’s grandmother, “No Good Time for Dying” unsentimentally speaks truth: “People that you love, well, they always disappoint you/ What you need is not to need at all/ There’s no way of asking them to turn and look away/ No way to hide their pity when they see you fall.” rachelbaiman.com

DOWNTOWN NEWS 11

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Covered California will help ART & CULTURE

LA Comic Con tickets on sale

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski LA Downtown News Executive Editor os Angeles Comic Con put discounted three-session early-bird tickets for its December event on sale June 11 for a limited time.

L.A. Comic Con 2021 is Friday, Dec. 3, to Sunday, Dec. 5, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The early-bird tickets are 20% off.

This is the first in-person SoCal Con since October 2019, so in addition to its traditional offerings, L.A. Comic Con will also offer streaming content and virtual access to live panels, talent meet-and-greets, main stage and secondary panels.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be planning to welcome fans, celebs, the studios, exhibitors and shoppers back to L.A. Comic Con,” said Chris DeMoulin, CEO of Comikaze Entertainment, L.A. Comic Con’s parent company.

“In a ‘normal’ year, we kick off ticket sales four to six months before the event with ‘early bird pricing,’ as a thank you to our dedicated fans who come every year.

“These special prices are available for a limited time, and they allow everyone a chance to plan ahead and get the best Comic Con value of 2021.

“This is our guaranteed lowest price of the year.”

All currently held consumer tickets that were purchased for the December 2020

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dates are still valid for this year’s event.

Confirmed guests include Giancarlo Esposito from “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul” and “The Mandalorian”; Zachary Levi, best known for his leading roles in “Shazam!,” “Chuck” and “Tangled”; Tom Welling, best known for his roles in “Smallville” and “Lucifer”; comic legend Frank Miller, best known for “Sin City” and “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”; and Tom Kenny of “SpongeBob SquarePants” fame. New guests are being added each week.

Any tickets purchased for L.A. Comic Con 2021 are subject to normal ticket provisions, with rollover available if the event is postponed or rescheduled. Based on COVID-19 precautions prevailing in December, if L.A. Comic Con switches to day passes (versus two sessions per day) three-session tickets will automatically be converted to three-day passes due to the requirements to accommodate social distancing and reduced crowd density.

L.A. Comic Con is Los Angeles’ biggest multimedia pop culture convention, held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

With over 123,000 fans at the 2019 event, the two-time fan-voted NerdHQ Con of the Year is one of the most diverse and celebrated geek and pop-culture events in the United States.

For more information, go to comicconla. com or info@companyxmarketing.com.

MNDSGN, Rare Pleasure (Stones Throw): HHH Ringgo Ancheta’s shows at the Lodge Room next weekend have already sold out, so fans will have to sate themselves with the trippy, samba-infused R&B comforts of the composer/arranger’s third album for Stones Throw. Collaborating again with bassist/guitarist Swarvy, keyboardist Kiefer Shackelford, drummer Will Logan, percussionist Carlos Niño and string player Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Ancheta’s feel-good project’s graced with pillowy background vocals (Fousheé and Anna Wise) and moments of reassuring uplift. Highlights: “Hope You’re Doin’ Better” (“You know you’ve got a friend whenever you need one/ Pick up your phone”), “Slowdance,” “3Hands/Divine Hand I,” “Colours of the Sunset.” mndsgn.co Batman’s classic villian, the Joker, is just one of many faces that may be seen at the L.A. Comic Con. Submitted phoo

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JUNE 14, 2021

Covered DINING California will help

Elias Serrano (line cook), Clay Cassis (chef) and Joel Stovall (chef) work at Il Fiore.

Photo by Luis Chavez

Il Fiore: New bloom on Flower Street

By Frier McCollister LA Downtown News Contributing Writer lanted in the snug, ground-level space of the O Hotel on South Flower in the financial district, Il Fiore quietly began its brunch service in the middle of April. Dinner service commenced a bit later in the month, and that menu continues to evolve. Il Fiore is still operating in “soft opening” mode, though that is due to change this week.

Notably, Il Fiore is helmed by two chefs with distinctive pedigrees, Joel Stovall and Clay Cassis. The two tended to finish each other’s sentences, as they commented on their grand opening plans. “ We’re waiting until June 15, when (pandemic) regulations are lifted,” Stovall offered.

“Once we know for sure on the 15th, we plan to have (the grand opening) by late

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June, early July,” Cassis added.

Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Stovall served as chef de cuisine at Josef Centeno’s Orsa & Winston, working with Centeno for the last five years. Yes, that Orsa & Winston: deemed “2020 Restaurant of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times, Stovall’s tenure there included the award of a Michelin star in 2019.

When Cassis knocked on the kitchen door of II Fiore, Stovall hired him — and the chemistry between the two emerged.

“Clay came in one day and he expressed that he was interested in working there, because of the interesting combo of Italian-Japanese (cuisine). So I hired him.

I went through a lot of people at Orsa.

Right off the bat, he was one of my best employees I had. I knew right away I wanted him, and I was happy to have him.

We started doing side events, doing little

pop-ups, and Clay was helping with that.”

After a year, Cassis moved on to positions at Jordan Kahn’s Vespertine and later at Bestia. “ We kept in touch the whole time.

During the pandemic, we still got together and did some pop-up events of our own. We became a team,” Stovall recalled.

The opportunity to take over the space on Flower Street was unexpected and not immediately welcome. “(The hotel’s owner) reached out to me initially in February and asked me if I was looking for a new gig. I honestly told him I was content. I was looking forward to doing garden dinner parties in my backyard.

We were going to do a kombucha pop-up thing, and so we just had our own things going on. I didn’t really want to jump back into a restaurant just yet,” Stovall explained.

“But I came and checked out the space and (it was) just the prospect of having free rein of a kitchen and it was a beautiful space. I knew that if me and Clay teamed up, we could do something amazing,” Stovall continued. “I came and saw the space. Immediately I (knew) I can only make this happen if my right-hand man Clay is down to come help out open this.

I called him up, and right away, he was instantly in.”

“We came and did the walk-thru. Two days later we came in, and two days after that we opened for brunch,” Cassis added.

“And those two days were spent just cleaning up the place, too. It was a mess.

When the pandemic hit, (the previous occupants) just left everything in the walkin. It was a lot to clean up. It was like the apocalypse happened and they just walked out,” Stovall recalled.

JUNE 14, 2021

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

The two continue to experiment with the menu at Il Fiore.

“When we got here, it happened so fast.

We hit the ground running. We didn’t really have any time (for research and development). We were playing together with dishes the whole time and tweaking, seeing what were crowd favorites and what were favorites of ours as well,” Stovall said.

“We take a lot of time to look at each dish and try to figure out what we want to do and (what we want to) keep,” Cassis noted.

Their influences are diverse, but there’s an emphasis on fresh ingredients and serving an Italian bent.

“It fell into place so naturally for us. Like you said, we’ve been working together for some time now. We fill in each other’s empty spaces so well. It almost felt unspoken, just because of how we cook together at home for our tastings,” Cassis said.

“I think we settled on ‘Modern Italian’ but just keeping it open with our other influences,” Stovall added.

“For me there’s a lot of Middle Eastern (influence) as well. But truthfully, most of the dishes on this menu are Italian in nature. But there should be more delicate Italian dishes, and that’s where a lot of the Asian influence comes in,” Cassis explained.

Il Fiore serves brunch with a selection of fresh pastries, toasts and sandwiches from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the week; however, it’s the dinner menu served as of 5 p.m. that reflects the collaborative and creative calibration between Stovall and Cassis.

A brief tasting tour of the dinner menu included: ricotta cappelletti en brodo with brown butter, shimeji mushrooms and Thai basil ($18); Kampachi crudo spotted with avocado mousse, herb oil and black togarashi with a ruby grapefruit garnish ($16); mussels in coconut broth and white wine jus, seasoned with fennel pollen and served with toasted slices of crusty housemade bread ($22); octopus poached in butter with charred spigarello and pickled fennel with morita chili ($22); semolina spaghettini slicked in a white cardamom pomodoro with opal basil and fresh Parmesan ($20); and a risotto with seared scallops and uni in a shallow pool of lobster bisque ($26). There’s also a menu of 10 custom cocktails, all priced at $14.

The dishes are as mindfully composed on the plate, as their respective flavor profiles have been alchemized by the duo for optimal depth and complexity. Many of the vegetables, herbs and edible flower garnishes are grown from Stovall’s own

backyard garden, an impressive six-bed layout on a half-acre plot in nearby Silverlake.

“I moved there last summer. The main reason I did, I saw the backyard, and it looked all torn up and trashed with weeds. But I saw there was potential for a garden. So that was the main reason I decided to move there. It was during quarantine, so I had all this free time. I went all out,” Stovall recalled.

Stovall is a native of Hemet, California, and has been an avid gardener since childhood.

“I grew up on a ranch, actually. We had 7 acres on this ranch I grew up on. My mom got me into gardening when I was a kid. We’d do flowers and herbs and stuff. I was always excited about gardening, even as a kid.”

The search for fresh, novel ingredients extends to foraging in the wild as well, though for Stovall it’s a more urban adventure. On his phone, he has a map pinned with the locations of a dozen wild fruit trees in his neighborhood alone.

“I’ve been foraging forever. It feels like you’re treasure hunting. It’s free delicious fruit. How can I pass it up?”

On the other hand, it’s Cassis who rambles the local mountain ranges for wild, edible vegetation. While hiking the Sierra Madres, he discovered a particularly bountiful spot.

“There’s a prairie (where there is) tons of miner’s lettuce, tons of chickweed, tons of beautiful nettle that Joel uses here for the nettle chimichurri, even wild growing stone fruit,” Cassis revealed.

Ultimately, there’s unusual value at Il Fiore, and the time is ripe to take your pick of the dishes. The food is prepared and presented by two gifted, seasoned and inspired chefs, and the price points are quite reasonable for the degree of finesse and tasty originality being offered.

In typical fashion, the two traded parting shots.

“My biggest message is that I (don’t) want this to be just another one of those expensive, inaccessible Downtown restaurants. I want this to be very welcoming. I want the food to be approachable, unpretentious,” Cassis emphasized.

“We just want it to be a fun, exciting place. As soon as the restrictions open up, we want to be able to have some jazz, just to be a nice little cozy, atmospheric spot for people to come in and enjoy themselves,” Stovall concluded.

At Il Fiore, haute cuisine comes back down to earth.

Il Fiore 819 S. Flower Street Los Angeles 213-784-3048, ilfioredtla.com

DOWNTOWN NEWS 13

Semolina spaghettini slicked in a white cardamom pomodoro with opal basil and fresh Parmesan costs $20.

Photo by Luis Chavez

Octopus poached in butter with charred spigarello and pickled fennel with morita chili costs $22.

Photo by Luis Chavez

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JUNE 14, 2021

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