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Hilda Solis leads all-women board of supervisors

By Andres de Ocampo hen First District Supervisor Hilda Solis was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2014, there were only two women on the board—she and Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Now, she’s leading an all-female board.

Solis reassumed position of Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors chairwoman on Dec. 7. Solis also held the position in 2016, but many things have changed.

“After a few years, (in 2016), we saw another couple of termed out members, (Supervisor Don Knabe and Supervisor Michael Antonovich), and with that two other women came on board,” Solis said.

“So, we had four women and that was good. It changed a lot as far as our dynamics and how we interacted with each other.

“It’s about getting the assistance or the aid out there,” she continued. “Those are the values that we bring to the board, and now with the full complement of five women, it’s even more impactful.”

The chairwoman position is a rotating role that is limited to a year and then passed on to the other members in order of seniority.

Solis’ priorities are combatting homelessness and building affordable housing, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The homelessness in LA County continues to rise, also because of COVID,” Solis said.

“We are trying to ramp up interim, low-income and long-term housing as soon as possible. It started before the pandemic but now it’s magnified. You can see the gaping hole in lack of access to health care, housing, jobs and education. It’s an all-in focus for us.”

Much of the money from the CARES Act that LA County received, or the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which is a $2 trillion stimulus bill for the purpose of economic relief for the country, already went out, but there is still a need, Solis said.

“I’m happy that they are concluding a

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packet in Washington of over $900 billion to provide more assistance to people who are unemployed and to families,” Solis said.

“PPP, or Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses, is also very important for those businesses who have really taken the brunt of the economic crash.

“We were able to use about $46 million from our CARES Act money from the county to develop 332 units of interim housing.

The monies are going to help us provide the sufficient foundation for assistance to the unemployed as well as rental relief and providing enough funding to get the COVID-19 vaccine out. We want to make sure that our hospital systems and workers are being taken care of. The money will pay from the vaccine and the administration of that as well as small businesses who need the relief now.”

Despite the federal relief funding, Solis said it will not fix everything.

As far as plans for 2021, Solis said, “More housing. Building up more affordable housing and working with our city government as well as our agencies like Metro, (LA County Metropolitan Transportation). Metro is helping us build housing along major throughfares where we will have light-rail systems so people can live close to where they work so they won’t have to own a car.

“Also, creating a better, robust system of health care so we don’t have people falling through the cracks. Hopefully empowering our community so that they take advantage of the health care services that their county has to offer.”

Making COVID-19 testing more available as well as looking out for essential workers is also a priority for Solis.

“I want to make sure that they are safe and have access to (resources) that they may need to keep the economy going,” she said.

“Making sure that essential workers and health care workers are OK and have enough equipment, assistance and time off when they need it is important.”

In conjunction with more affordable housing Solis said, “We have to have more treatment centers for people that are sick, in the streets or have mental health or addiction problems. We have to have a recuperative bed space for them. … We can’t just turn them in to the jail and think they will get

The all-female board of supervisors includes Supervisors Holly Mitchell, second district; Sheila Kuehl, third district; Hilda Solis, first district; Janice Hahn, fourth district; and Kathryn Barger, fifth district.

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“We are going to need more funding after January 20, when the Biden and Harris administration comes in, and we will need to work with Congress to get more funding for local and county government,” Solis said.

“The (county) government we run here is for everybody. We’re talking about infrastructure, hospitals, clinics and other essential services, but we need the money to keep our operation of county government running.”

Solis said there is a pressure that comes with being chairwoman. She has been regularly working hands-on with department heads and coming into the office every day.

“It wasn’t done deliberately,” Solis said about her schedule. “The need was so great to make sure that we were keeping on top of what was happening.”

Since March, Solis has also been working closely with the LA County Economic Resiliency Task Force for an economic recovery plan. The task force is designed to come up with a plan to form recommendations for phased economic recovery for Los Angeles County to reopen safely.

The task force’s plan will “articulate what the needs of stakeholders during this time and what the county should be doing, how we can streamline and cut red tape and reimagine how we deal with our communities,” Solis said.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski STAFF WRITERS: Andrew Checchia, Andres De Ocampo, Julia Shapero CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sara Edwards, Kamala Kirk ART DIRECTORS: Arman Olivares, Stephanie Torres STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Luis Chavez CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Myriam Santos ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Michael Lamb FOUNDER EMERITUS: Sue Laris

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well, because that is not treatment.”

The Nov. 3 passing of Measure J, which dedicates a portion of LA County’s funding to address the impact of racial injustice through community investments, such as supportive housing and alternatives to incarceration, will help with building and implementing more treatment and health services.

“We’re going to be building more ‘recuperative care villages’, as we’ve termed them, so people can get treatment in a setting that isn’t jail but is health care first,” Solis said.

“Where they get the services that they need and get stable, then transition to transitional and more permanent housing, as well as getting help with jobs. … That has been the outcry that the public has wanted, and we heard it loud and clear.”

Solis said it’s important that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines be readily available to the public. “(Prioritizing this) means not only having people come to our clinics but us going out there and having health care navigators who can explain to people in our community— especially people of color—(why we should take the vaccine). We need more participation there,” Solis said.

“We have a lot of work to do, and I’m excited to bring about health care navigators (for the Latino and Spanish-speaking community)—or in Spanish, ‘promotoras’—who

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can help us get the message out to our communities in a trusted format so they can understand what’s at stake, how to provide prevention, where to get tested and get the services they need.

“The key here is making sure people understand that (the vaccine) is something good,” Solis continued. “That it’s the right way to go to provide protection against the virus, death and illness.”

Solis, in a county-tier legislative position, emphasized the necessity to work together.

“We’re going to reach out to our colleagues in the federal government and the state and city officials, as well as the community level, because it’s important that we work together,” Solis said.

Solis is hopeful for the future, and she and her colleagues can lean on each other.

“I really want to salute our county family,” Solis said. “All of them. Our department heads, management and especially employees.”

“I want to wish everyone going into the new year my sentiments. My condolences go out to those who have lost family or have gotten ill because of COVID or are facing economic challenges. If we work together, we will get through this and hopefully we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

(The community) needs to know that the county of Los Angeles has their best interest at heart.”

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Hilda Solis reassumed position of Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors chairwoman on Dec. 7.

Solis also held the position in 2016.

Submitted photo

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California Electroplating, Inc. emite cromo hexavalente (un producto químico conocido por el estado de California para causar cáncer también se sabe que causa defectos de nacimiento u otros daños reproductivos). Las personas dentro del área que se muestra dentro de la línea gruesa en el mapa están expuestas al cromo hexavalente a un nivel determinado por el Estado para requerir una advertencia

California Electroplating, Inc. 3510 East Pico Blvd., LA, CA 90023 323-268-9154 For more information go to www.p65warning.ca.gov

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JANUARY 4, 2021

MARGULIES’ OPINION

Behind the Column Curtain: No resolutions for me

By Ellen Snortland

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olumn writing is not for the timid.

It requires ideas! Constant ideas!

Interesting ideas! Wheelbarrows of ideas! I sit in my office chair daydreaming and staring out the window, hoping for my crow or raven friend, who I’ve dubbed BB, to come by. If she lands, I avoid writing some more. I admire our indestructible San Gabriel foothills garden of drought-tolerant plants, note the rainwater left from last night’s storm, and the pile of vegetation I’ve collected in the front part of the yard. To Hugel, or not to Hugel? Our yard trimmings bin has limited capacity, so we store the tree detritus on our property in hopes of putting it to use. Outside the haven that is our front yard is the almost highway-like traffic of Altadena Drive.

I’ve written a column for almost 30 years. I never run out of ideas. That said, let me remind you of a T-shirt I saw years ago: “Watch what you say… I’m a writer” or Anne Lamott’s wisdom: “… if people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

It’s de rigueur to do a 2020 round-up at this time of the year, but I simply don’t have the strength. That in and of itself is a ringing indictment of 2020.

It’s also customary to make a list of resolutions. Balderdash. My resolution at the beginning of 2020 prevents me from ever doing that again since that resolution was to never make another resolution as long as I live. Resolutions are like candles: They shine bright until the wax melts onto your favorite aunt’s antique table, wherein you curse the candle and vow to not light one again … until the next New Year, and the cycle repeats. Do not be tempted!

Make promises instead of resolutions, and then manufacture some “no kidding” consequences if you don’t keep them and tell them to others who can hold you to account. As in, “I, (your name here), promise to eat well for six months, and if I break my promise, I will eat 10 spiders.”

Making promises are far more powerful than namby-pamby resolutions. Resolutions are typically obliterated when said “resolver” misses one gym visit, eats one slice of pie, or picks their nose in their car. This is especially true if there are no consequences for breaking the resolution.

For example, if you make a promise to another person to never pick your nose

in the car, and you vow that if you break it, you have to stand on the corner of Lake and Colorado and pick your nose every time a car goes by, then you’ve got some real “skin” in the game—or in this case, boogers in the game.

I’ve intentionally built my promise-making and promise-keeping muscles over the years so that, usually, promising another person I’ll do something is enough. Also giving myself a star on my graph. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I work for stars. I have enough of my Lutheran Sunday School goody-goody genetics intact to actually work for stars on a sheet of paper.

Apparently, digital companies have also figured this out. For example, I have a 400-day streak going with my Duolingo Spanish course. I know this because Duolingo tells me every day. I am faithful because I do not want to break my streak, a non-Lutheran Sunday School gimmick like the string of stars. My Duolingo Norwegian streak is smaller at 63.

Speaking of Duolingo Norwegian, it is teaching me some truly bizarre words and phrases that would have me committed should I use them in Oslo. I have a mental image of the Norwegian Duolingo tutors in their offices laughing their asses off at us. Let me get this straight: You are really having me learn how to say, “I do not eat spiders,” “I am a cheese,” and “The bear drinks beer”? Yet you still haven’t taught me how to say the days of the week or the months or even weather conditions? I suspect that Duolingo subscriptions have exploded during the stayat-home orders, and they had to hire a bunch of out-of-work Norwegian comics to fill in. Although it’s possible that “Norwegian comic” is an oxymoron.

I am skittish about wishing you a better 2021 than the previous year. During 2020, every time I said or even thought, “It can’t get any worse,” it did. Instead, I will end with a fervent prayer that the next column I write is about the fabulous win we had in the Georgia Senate runoff, and the column after that features Drumpf in shackles wearing an orange outfit that goes nicely with his face. Now there’s a bushel of ideas any columnist can run with!

Ellen Snortland has written “Consider This…” for a heckuva long time, and she also coaches first-time book author. Contact her at ellen@beautybitesbeast.com

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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.

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Covered will help NEWS - California COVID COUNT

Reported cases in DTLA and surrounding areas as of Dec. 27 Chinatown: 436; Little Tokyo: 236; Los Feliz: 594; Silverlake: 1,830; South Park: 4,672; Wilshire Center: 2,941; Total confirmed cases in DTLA: 2,278 Total deaths in DTLA: 22 Total confirmed cases in LA County: 719,833 Total deaths in LA County: 9,842 The Los Angeles County continues to be the center of the pandemic after health officials reported over 40,000 cases. After an internet outage caused a delay in reporting on Dec. 25, the county reported that there were on Christmas Day and Dec. 26, 29,464 new cases: 13,185 on Christmas and 15,538 the following day. On Dec. 27, officials reported 13,580 new cases, bringing the total of cases of the holiday weekend to 42,303. According to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 counter, out of 3,006 counties in the United States, LA County has the most number of deaths. The state, as a whole, struggles to contain the virus, with 2,122,806 total cases and 50,141 new cases reported on Dec. 27.

Recently, scientists found a new and poten-

tially more contagious strain of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. Now, amid a debilitating surge of COVID-19 cases Los Angeles County scientists are testing samples from local patients for the new more contagious strain.

According to LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, the gene sequencing performed on the samples will take about a week to finish. The new strain, known as B.1.1.7, was discovered in the Netherlands and Denmark.

According to an article published by the Associated Press, the historical Olvera Street is on the verge of collapse after COVID-19 has ravaged local businesses. The neighborhood has been hit particularly hard after COVID-19 and the restrictions that followed have driven away tourists and locals away from the area. Valerie Hanley, the treasurer of the Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation, said that about a fifth of the shops are open during the week and about two-thirds are open Friday through Sunday.

Information compiled by Matthew Rodriguez.

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there, but a resurgence of openly racial basis. We really saw those numbers go up.”

Speed said hate crimes have been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The political climate really lends itself to encouraging this type of hate,” Speed said.

The website is important because hate crimes are often underreported.

“They are notoriously undercounted for a variety of reasons, because people are reluctant to report to law enforcement and because law enforcement is often reluctant to classify crimes as hate crimes because they hold a high prosecution standard,” Speed said.

“It is also true that hate crimes are defined in vastly different ways across different jurisdictions, which is really problematic. All of those things lend themselves to hate crimes being undercounted, which means that most people don’t think of hate crime as being as present in our society as it is.”

Speed said she has found that students working on the project have been affected by what they learn.

“Our student workers who are combing through press for stories have been very impacted by stories they have found and the things they have read. They have been really surprised and shocked by it,” Speed said. “ They have also felt empowered by working on the project. I think they’ve felt that it’s really important work to do, and they are happy to be participating in it.”

In Los Angeles, hate crime has been shown to be a growing problem in re-

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By Laura Latzko ate crime continues to be an issue and encompasses different acts, from more violent crimes to racial slurs.

The UCLA American Indian Studies Center is trying to bring attention to the prevalence of hate crimes in the United Sates with an interactive hate crime map.

The Hate Crime Map website was compiled using information from newspapers from across the country and sources such as ProPublica and the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center.

The map visually represents hate crimes committed since 2016.

The center recently relaunched the website, which was originally created by activists following the 2016 presidential election. The center acquired the map in 2017.

UCLA’s Institute of American Cultures and social sciences division have helped to provide funding for the project.

Shannon Speed, director for the center and a professor of gender studies and anthropology, said an increase in hate crimes led to the map’s development.

“Until the last few years, there was an ideological understanding that the country was progressing on race, ethnicity and diversity,” Speed said.

“We had an African American president.

People talked about a post-racial society.

Of course, people in communities of color knew the whole time that that wasn’t exactly what was happening and that racially motivated bias was still prevalent. I think after the 2016 election, we saw not a resurgence of racial bias, which was always

through law enforcement,” Speed said.

“I feel like people who have been victims of hate crimes want to tell someone about what happened. It’s not always the police who they want to tell. This gives them an opportunity to make known what happened to them.”

Speed said having more personalized data helps to create a broader understanding of hate crime.

“One of the problems in defining hate crimes is that many jurisdictions only define it as a hate crime if there’s violence involved,” Speed said.

“A lot of people tend to think of it that way as physical assault. What you really see in these stories is that something as nonphysical as calling someone a racial epithet or making a snarky comment about COVID when an Asian person gets in the elevator is a very real form of violence and is felt as violence when they experience it.”

The center plans to continue to add to existing data by tracking news sources and hopes in the future to create a map focused on hate crimes in LA. “There are a number of improvements we would like to make. It could always be better and show more complexity, more depth. We will be working on that over the next couple of years,” Speed said.

To view the map or report a hate crime, go to hatecrimemap.com.

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highlights incidents across United States

cent years. They have increased 36% since 2013, to 524 cases in 2019, according to a report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

The same report shows that in Los Angeles, hate crimes are most often committed against people who are Black, Jewish and/or transgender.

The data on the website is meant to be used in different ways, by advocacy groups, public officials, journalists and academic researchers.

The map shows hate crime numbers in different parts of the country, breaking them down by incidents involving race and ethnicity, religion, gender and sexuality and other factors.

Visitors can see the states have higher incidents of hate crime.

On the website, victims of hate crimes can report incidents, providing details about the location, date, reason for being targeted, and demographic information.

They can share this information anonymously.

One update to the website has been to allow those reporting to add narratives of what they have experienced.

“What’s great about people getting to report themselves is a lot of people in communities that tend to experience bias, harassment and hate are reluctant to be in contact with law enforcement. So, this allows people to make known what happened to them without having to go

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From left to right, Mitch Meleski, Kenzie Jones, Kian McHugh, Drake Allen and Bryce Sexton are partners at The Kollection, an LA lifestyle brand that avoids boxing itself into any particular niche by producing a diverse array of content, from editorial, videos and playlists to unique events.

Photo courtesy The Kollection

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The Kollection pivots from music blog to lifestyle brand

By Connor Dziawura oday, The Kollection is an LA lifestyle brand led by five partners who bring varying perspectives from other jobs both inside and outside the music industry.

From music discovery and playlist curation to editorial content, film photography, merchandising and events, The Kollection—now Kian McHugh, Bryce Sexton, Kenzie Jones, Drake Allen and Mitch Meleski—has had its fingers in many pots over the last decade.

That most recently includes “Dear Los Angeles,” a short film the brand shared to YouTube in December as a tribute to LA in the face of all that happened in 2020—capturing the city from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Black Lives Matter protests.

But when The Kollection was launched in 2010, it had a different angle—and was a much humbler operation.

“Circa 2010, the music industry was re-

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ally defined by the blog era,” McHugh said.

“They were the tastemakers that set what was cool.”

Founded by Brian Lovin out of the Bay Area, according to McHugh, The Kollection’s original bent was music discovery. McHugh started contributing to the growing blog when he was just a high school sophomore, quickly taking to music journalism and working his way up the ladder until he was co-running the site with two other people by the time he graduated.

The Kollection found a new home in Isla Vista in 2014—and its output turned toward events, playlist curation and film photography.

“We started throwing live events, getting into merchandise and then put a pretty clear focus on refining what the future of The Kollection would be, as the blog era had pretty much come to a halt and things were shifting toward SoundCloud and then

eventually the streaming era,” McHugh explained.

The “rebrand and restructure” that he said began around the middle of the decade includes his acquisition of The Kollection after the eventual departure of Lovin, as well as the additions of Jones and Sexton.

“By the time we were graduating (UC Santa Barbara), there was a big buzz around The Kollection in Santa Barbara and Isla Vista, we were doing takeovers of all the local nightclubs and venues, doing events with the likes of Chris Lake, and it was pretty spectacular for a crossover college experience—getting a good education while starting the foundation of what the lifestyle brand is now,” McHugh said, describing the area as a unique, beach-like community with a college party feel and “incredible music scene.”

In 2018, the three brought The Kollection to LA, adding Allen and Meleski to the mix and launching a new website—and the lifestyle brand was born. An additional 20 or so contributors, ranging from graphic design to editorial, now round out The Kollection.

“The music industry and entertainment in general is a very interesting place to work. Things are always shifting; trends are shifting; and overnight you can go from SoundCloud being a platform where you can release music independently and blow up overnight to SoundCloud being relatively irrelevant,” McHugh said. “In the same sense, we’re seeing it right now with the

shift from this classic Spotify/Apple Music streaming to these TikTok stars who are blowing up overnight. ...

“We (partners) all bring our unique perspective/obsession with music to stay on top of the trends and recognize that if you’re going to be successful in this industry, it’s not necessarily a means of just gunning and doing exactly what you want to do—it’s more so meeting the needs of the community and working within the confines of what’s working in music at the time,” he added of The Kollection’s evolution.

Pushing the limits Part of The Kollection’s growth has come down to the event portion of its model.

“We really like trying to drive immersive experiences,” McHugh said, describing events with 80-foot projections and lighting, music from the likes of Flight Facilities, and more elaborate features. He likens it to a boundary-pushing combination of “amusement park holiday experiences” with a “one-day festival”—and more focus on being memorable and disruptive of the norm than profit margins.

“You could call it a concert, you could call it an event, but I really strive when we are coming up with these things to work with the team to create an experience in which you feel like you’re there, you’re stuck there, everywhere you look there’s something that has been strategically or meticulously crafted to draw your attention to that

JANUARY 4, 2021

space.”

Such “immersive experiences” were slated to become especially important in 2020—the key word being “were.”

“The big shift in what The Kollection represented and what we’re doing did come down to COVID,” McHugh said, describing a successful 2019 series of five events with “secret” lineups and venues—meaning they weren’t revealed until the day of.

“By the fifth one we were throwing November (2019), we were doing 1,000 people—that was at Lot 613—and all five of the events were sold out, so we had a pretty strong buzz going into 2020.”

Of course, however, then came the pandemic, and along with it the stay-at-home

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order. The Kollection had a deal planned with ticketing company Dice, but McHugh said those plans went south two days before the first of 10 events, which would have mixed features like food vendors, a 10-foot elephant statue and a dozen artists painting live on-site.

So, The Kollection had to reassess things, McHugh said. That includes redirecting the focus to playlisting and editorial content, the latter of which is now grouped and pushed in a “cohesive” format.

A “youth-run platform” with most of its membership under 25, McHugh said The Kollection built itself upon helping aspiring writers contribute to culture, music and entertainment.

“We have somewhat of a DIY but inherently genuine structure to our content when it comes from editorial, but we really wanted to figure out a way that we could package it together and make sure that while we were doing these unique pieces, we could bind them into a uniform structure,” McHugh said. “So, we started this new structure where we were actually doing the equivalent of a magazine drop, but it was all digital.”

He said the most recent one, in November, was a sort of ode to Los Angeles in the spirit of the then-unreleased short film “Dear Los Angeles”—and others before that have focused on themes like “uplifting Black voices.”

“It really is just us working as a team and reaching out to our community to understand what they’re looking for and what they’re interested in reading and then putting that together in a format that is packaged together and you can either read it all in one sitting or you can come back to it throughout the month,” McHugh said, adding that the first editorial drop of 2021 will be in February. The goal, he said, while it may not occur right away, is to get things in print.

“By the end of 2021, we will be getting some print editorial going and just continuing to refine and establish ourselves as a voice that can speak to music and speak to Los Angeles and really just speak to the experience of a 20-something creative.”

‘Dear Los Angeles’

Nate Mohler handled projection mapping and served as the location specialist for “Dear Los Angeles,” a Kollection-produced short film that aims to capture LA life in the midst of the pandemic and protests.

Photo courtesy The Kollection

Considering The Kollection to be a “community-facing platform” that speaks to and for its community, McHugh said he and the others were looking to give back as the pandemic was setting in. A difficult process to adapt, he said it started with things like contests—arts and crafts, dancing, “the whole nine.” But that wasn’t enough.

“Ultimately, none of it felt that it was hitting the same caliber that our events were hitting, so we started getting to the drawing board,” McHugh said.

The idea to do a short film with projection mapping came about in April, as LA life had essentially halted. It turned into a long process, with McHugh describing it as “eight months of collaboration, finding the time to make it happen, finding ways to keep things safe given the circumstances, and just building out the projects.”

Directed by McHugh, “Dear Los Angeles” was produced by Emma Stehli and executive produced by Sexton. Brad Virshup served as director of photography, while Nate Mohler handled projection mapping and was the location specialist. Austin Brown of Hablot Brown composed the music. And to top it off, LA rapper Curtis “Spider Loc” Williams provided voiceover work that he co-wrote with McHugh. Lila B edited it all together.

McHugh estimates something like 50 hours were spent gathering footage for the short film, traveling to the “farthest corners of LA,” spending late nights out and meeting people along the way, like a dancer who appears in the short film. Plus, they took advantage of the shutdown by doing things like projecting onto The Wiltern with no interference.

“I’m quite sure we hit just about every one of the 88 boroughs at some point throughout the shooting process, but that was the goal,” McHugh said.

When the initial idea came about, though, McHugh said the summer’s BLM protests hadn’t even begun yet—so there was more meaning to inject into the project.

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THE KOLLECTION, 7 “We knew that there was going to be a whole other level of significance to the year that had to be touched on,” he said. “We really, really started our rebrand when that came about. We started to make sure that all of our playlists had equal representation while still focusing on quality music; we were making sure to work with local community members, reaching out to the likes of Inner-City Arts foundation—we did a collaboration with them.

“We were really just trying to figure out ways that we could position ourselves within the incredible movement that was happening in LA and the life that was brought back into LA, really trying to figure out what was the best and most tasteful way to do so.”

Footage captured at the protests appears in the short film.

“Being in those spaces and hearing people’s stories and listening to speeches on

JANUARY 4, 2021

the street and then reading all sorts of journalism that was surrounding it, it was incredibly inspiring,” McHugh said. “And that was the moment that we knew that we had to dive deeper into the writing process.”

Williams’ involvement came about as a pitch from McHugh, who listened to the rapper while he was in high school. His voice, his flow, his cadence, his personal narrative, McHugh identified, “felt right, and it felt LA.” And McHugh said it just so happened to be serendipitous, as he recalls Williams re-

sponding to a request with a “big yes” and revealing that he had wanted to do voiceover work. From there on, they worked remotely—trading ideas and recordings, piecing together what they felt “captured the spirit and energy” of 2020.

“It was a very free-flowing process, but he was spectacular and he came on, he did what he wanted to do, he leveled up to the project tenfold, and we’re just so, so thankful that he would even consider doing it with us,” McHugh said.

The short film’s creation wound up with the team under a tight deadline, tweaking the final product until the day of its release to ensure the best possible outcome.

“We really just felt that we owed it to ourselves and we owed it to the city to continue editing it until it was at a point that was just near perfect,” McHugh said.

Blank slate Moving into 2021, McHugh said The Kollection has opened numerous doors to future opportunity.

“We’re kind of at this blank slate where there’s a lot of different directions we can go and … there’s a whole lot that we do,” McHugh said.

While events have fallen by the wayside as of late, other growth-oriented goals— like reaching 10,000 likes on Instagram, launching a YouTube channel, rebranding the website and launching an e-commerce platform—are working out. There will be an “exciting” merch drop/e-commerce launch in January, McHugh hinted.

“Going into 2021, the real ambitions come from, OK, how can we take this unique entity that we built and continue to nurture the community that we represent, all the young creatives that we represent, and ultimately start pushing it in a direction that has a sense of longevity?”

McHugh said.

“And while never sacrificing creative control or never sacrificing the intention behind it, we do want to grow this into something that could be a viable lifestyle brand in the truest form, where we’re selling products that pertain to our community, we’re creating bigger-budget movies that pertain to our community—so really just taking all that we’ve done and scaling it up and refining it to a point that it feels professional and at the caliber that we’ve always wanted to hit things.

“I think ‘Dear Los Angeles’ really is the first tangible piece of media that I feel represents that. And I think that ultimately the goal in 2021 is to get that level of work and that level of a claim across all channels, across everything we do, and just continue to grow and support those who have supported us.”

The Kollection partner Kian McHugh estimates something like 50 hours were spent gathering footage for “Dear Los Angeles,” a short film tribute to LA in reaction to 2020. It features projection mapping from location specialist Nate Mohler.

Photo courtesy The Kollection

The Kollection thekollection.com

JANUARY 4, 2021

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Covered California will help BUSINESS

Downtown’s JibJab is all about having fun

By Annika Tomlin ast year saw more digital celebrations than previous years due to COVID-19. Through the help of the online greeting card and social expression company JibJab, thousands were able to share the organization’s humor during birthdays and holidays.

“Our company’s mission is to make billions of people happy, and we alternately do it by allowing them to be funny as easily as possible by starring in their own greeting cards and funny pieces of content,” said JibJab CEO Paul Hanges. “ We prided ourselves on making it something where people can say happy birthday, happy anniversary, happy holidays in new and exciting and fun ways that put a smile on people’s faces. We are a direct-to-consumer product, and we solely focus on making things that make people laugh and make it easy as possible for them to share.”

Since the Downtown company’s founding in 1999, JibJab has been through recessions, wars and national scandals. Its year-in-review videos are well known and, after Hanges spoke with Chief Commercial Officer Mauro Gatti, they returned.

“Looking at this year with the stayat-home orders and the pandemic, that is not something that we can just gloss over or miss,” Hanges said. “We completely revamped how we produce cards in our timelines and was able to keep quality of cards, and content and produce that in a lead time of two weeks and put it out there.

“We pride ourselves on quality of our cards, not quantity, but one of the downsides of that is that they take a long time to produce. One of our holiday cards could take up to two or three months to produce.”

The 2020 year-in-review video includes topics like Brexit, the president’s impeachment, “Tiger King,” murder hornets and stay-at-home orders in a less than 2-minute video.

One of the top-shared e-cards in 2020 was the company’s original song and production of “Happy Quarantine Birthday” that launched in April. Nearly 350,000 people put themselves in the e-greeting card to be sent around the country last year.

“It is still something that we all can laugh about and bring a smile to people’s face and when people are at home and celebrating their birthdays by themselves

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or only with their immediate family, we felt it important … to make light of a situation and allow people to say happy birthday in a fun way,” Hanges said.

Other holiday cards that had a 50% or higher use increase from 2019 to 2020 include Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Office humor decreased by 7% in one year.

“The one (e-card from 2020) that sticks out to me is again another original that we created called pumpkin spice latte just as the fall season was turning,” Hanges said.

“It just talks about the obsession that everyone has with pumpkin spice lattes and when that favorite drink item comes back on the menu everywhere.”

JibJab regularly collaborates with musicians to offer its customers the option of starring in one of their music videos. Some songs include “Yummy” by Justin Bieber, “Together” by Sia and “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo.

“A lot of times we make (songs from well-known musicians) into our e-cards and use holiday music or other music to be the background to our original cards, and then there’s other times where we work with artists just to make it so our users can star in music videos,” Hanges said.

One of the last collaborations of 2020

Paul Hanges has been CEO of online greeting card and social expression company JibJab since 2019.

Photo courtesy JibJab

was with K-pop star Jamie Park, for her holiday song “5 Christmas Languages.”

“We’ve always seen the rise and appeal of K-pop music and had the really exciting opportunity to work with Jamie Park, who has a music video that was released for the holidays,” Hanges said. “We think it’s a really cool and exciting venture for us into this genre of music that historically we haven’t fully ventured into but that we are really excited about.”

Through all of the hardships of 2020, Hanges believes that his team “adapted extremely well” to the work-from-home environment and was ultimately “very proud of every single employee” through it all.

“I was a bit apprehensive that we would be able to keep the collaborativeness of the company while not seeing each other. It’s actually something that we have thrived in, and we’ve produced more content than we ever have in the past,” Hang-

es said.

Hanges hopes his team will continue its hard work ethic into 2021 and continue to “make people feel happy.”

“We are proud looking back at 2020,” Hanges said.

“We are also proud to have played even the smallest role into making people feel connected while stuck at home while allowing our users to make other people laugh by receiving a funny video or happy birthday card from their significant other or kids getting those cards.

“Obviously, we hope that we have much happier times in 2021, when we can even accelerate that and have fun on top of fun.

That’s ultimately what we’re looking for and then expanding what we’re doing to touch more people’s lives to allow them to say happy birthday or send a gift or anything else in the classic JibJab style.”

For more information about JibJab or to create an ecard go to jibjab.com.

One of the top-shared e-cards through JibJab was the original Happy Quarantine Birthday.

Photo courtesy JibJab

10 DOWNTOWN NEWS

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Covered California will help ARTS & CULTURE

Center Theatre Group promotes Tyrone Davis

By Bridgette M. Redman henever Tyrone Davis takes on a new position, he does so with a feeling of responsibility for everything that has come before him.

It is a theme he continues as the Center Theatre Group—home to the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk

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Douglas Theatre—has appointed him as associate artistic director, a promotion from his previous job at the center’s Education, Engagement and Community Partnership Department.

His promotion is the first step in an ongoing organization shift that reimagines their structure to be more racially diverse and

make the theater more accessible to greater number of audiences.

“As a native Angeleno, it is a great honor with much responsibility to take on this position where artistic decisions are being made for the Taper, the Ahmanson and the Douglas—three theaters I grew up on,” Davis said.

“I owe a true debt of gratitude to BIPOC artists like Diane Rodriguez, Lee Kenneth Richardson and so many others who laid the foundation for me, and know that I am taking on a responsibility to those that will follow. I will keep both in mind as I help to shape Center Theatre Group’s future.”

Davis is the first person in his family to earn a college degree; he graduated from California State University, Northridge. He also earned an MFA in acting form the California Institute of Arts School of Theater. Davis said he feels he has a responsibility to accomplish

JANUARY 4, 2021

as much as he can.

The leadership positions he has held—including the community artistic director with San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre and an adjunct professor in drama at Contra Costa College and Los Medanos College—have prepared him for this role at one of LA’s premier theater companies.

“I have been placed in leadership all my life,” Davis said. “I’ve thought about what it means to lead, what it means to represent.

Those are things I’ve been grappling with my entire life. Now that I’m in this position to influence art in Los Angeles and the stories being told, it’s about being a good steward over what has been given to you.”

He’ll be working closely with the center’s artistic director, Michael Ritchie, who said Davis has already provided them with inspiration, as he has created an insightful new

Tyrone Davis is the first person in his family to earn a college degree; he graduated from California State University, Northridge. He also earned an MFA in acting from the California Institute of Arts School of Theater.

Photo courtesy Tyrone Davis

JANUARY 4, 2021

series of events that will be released on the Center’s Digital Stage.

The series, “Not a Moment, But a Movement,” pairs play readings with visual artists and musicians to create an interdisciplinary collaboration that amplifies and centers Black artists.

“When we began reimagining Center Theatre Group, we knew we would need to look at the very foundations of the organization,” Ritchie said.

“Still early in that reevaluation we have realized that Tyrone has already been operating at the core of Center Theatre Group’s mission to nurture new artists and audiences. For three years, Tyrone has shaped the pre- and post-show engagement that allows audiences to dive deeper into our mainstage productions, and he has curated programs that develop our audiences’ understanding of our productions as well as our mission and values. As we started to expand our thinking about audience engagement and development and centering our attention on racial equity in our work—particularly in this time without onstage productions—we realized that we truly needed his thought leadership and contributions embedded in the heart of our artistic strategy and team.”

Davis said he will focus on helping to curate the center’s artistic offerings on and off stage, pointing out it has four stages of programming—three physical ones and the digital stage.

Working for the center for three years will help shape his new position.

“In my previous role with audience engagement, I helped to deepen the experience of our shows as well as finding different entry points into a play whether pre-show or postshow,” Davis said. “I want to find ways to connect the plays to our daily lives in different communities.”

He said he felt the artistic offerings and events around a play can deepen the impact of the work and that is a big part of what he sees his new role accomplish, in addition to being part of the team that decides what will be onstage.

“I think the power of storytelling is incredible,” Davis said. “I believe theater can be a powerful tool—a tool for social change, a tool for conversation—and these large theaters have been around for a long time and have an incredible amount of resources. I’ve been attracted to these theaters that I feel have a good responsibility and great resources to represent and tell stories that represent and tell the stories that represent the communities they serve.”

He refers back to an experience he had at the center long before he came to work for it. His wife, whom he said is not a theater person, bought him tickets to see the work of one of his favorite playwrights—August Wilson. The show was “Joe Turner Has Come and Gone.”

It became his favorite show because it had an outstanding cast and put in a performance that blew him away—even though it wasn’t opening or closing night, it was “just” a Thurs-

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day night performance.

“The show was so rich, and the performance was so great that my wife went home quoting lines from the play and reenacting some of the performances for days and days afterward.”

The team, with whom he hopes to collaborate, is working right now to reimagine who they are and who they are going to be. “(We want) to figure out what our values are, the stories that we’re telling, the process of how we go about creating these stories,” Davis said.

“All of that is something I’m so excited to be a part of, to provide access to folks whose communities may have been on the margin and we’re finding a way to bring them to the center. That’s what I’m really focused on and excited about—creating a theater that connects to Los Angeles and that represents Los Angeles.”

They’ll be looking at ways to create new policies and processes that are as inclusive as possible. The plan is to have new pathways and to be able to cultivate artists from all walks of life.

“We are committed to changing structures which have sustained a lack of diversity in our organization, including our hiring practices, professional development investments, and organizational leadership and hierarchy,” said Meghan Pressman, Center Theatre Group managing director and CEO. “We know this is a small and preliminary step toward a long overdue goal, but with hiring and professional development investments largely paused due to the current shutdown and resulting financial challenges our organization faces, we have begun plans for an assessment of those practices and know that adding Tyrone to the conversation at the leadership team level now will help create a better framework once we can resume those activities.”

Because many of the changes are backstage, Davis said the audience might not notice it at first, but that there is a real shifting in culture and energy, and he hopes that energy will resonate with people who come into the center’s buildings.

He also recognizes this is a critical time for theater in the United States as it prepares to end a prolonged shutdown and figure out the next chapter in its life. He said he is prepared to be a good steward of the theater as it prepares to meet the challenges of the time.

“I certainly understand what this moment means and what is happening and the shift in the American theater,” Davis said.

“I’m so excited to be a part of that shift, a part of creating something we’ve never seen in the American theater before. We’re looking at all aspects of our work, and I get to be a part of the creative process and to live during this uncertainty and what is the future of the theater going to be. To have all that is remarkable. I’m grateful for all the people who have paved the way and the people who will be coming after me. I hope I create a place for them.”

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JANUARY 4, 2021

New Zealand Mustafa “Lil Mussie” Sheikh hopes to use the money he makes off his latest single to help the poorest children in LA.

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Covered California will help ARTS & CULTURE

New Zealand rapper set to help LA kids

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski ew Zealand rapper Lil Mussie wants to change the world—especially that of poverty-stricken children in LA. His latest single, “On Me,” focuses on ambition and drive. Lil Mussie—also known as Mustafa Sheikh—said his drive paid off by forging a relationship with Kid Cudi collaborator King Chip and Kanye West’s producer, multi-Grammy winner Anthony Kilhoffer, on the single.

“When I recorded my verse, I felt like I needed his flow to complement the song,” Sheikh said of King Chip. “Forty-eight hours later, he sent me a verse.”

When King Chip returned the verse, it included nods to Sheikh’s work, which impressed the fledgling rapper. “Breaking

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bread” refers to Sheikh’s charity, Bread, and giving back to his city.

He continues to give back. Sheikh donates the money he makes from his music to Bread, which he founded at age 22.

The charity aims to assist children in lowdecile schools through mentoring and student funding.

To raise money, Bread runs the largest supercar events in New Zealand. Supercars from manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren take part in this event, during which police escort the cars down Queen Street in Auckland.

“We’re taking the car to schools to have a physical embodiment of what you can do,” he said. “Kids are creative thinkers, so it makes so much more sense to them. I’ve dedicated

Photo courtesy Mustafa Sheikh

my life to this. I want to change and influence generations.”

Now 25, Sheikh was born in London but moved to New Zealand as a child. Music is a longtime goal of his. He recalled getting kicked out of class at Gisborne Boys High because he sat in the back of the class writing raps. Sheikh had decent grades in classes like biology but preferred music. He played piano in competitions and writes songs on his laptop.

“We’d write the most stupid raps,” he said with a laugh via telephone from New Zealand. “It was funny. I guess even the teachers thought it was a negative thing back then, that it wasn’t productive in that stage of life.”

Proceeds from “On Me” are slated to help poverty-stricken children in LA. He grew up in an area of New Zealand like the poorest reaches of Los Angeles.

“My friends have lost their lives to the cycle of poverty,” he says. “When I went to school, it wasn’t uncommon for kids to have no lunch or the right shoes. I’ve shared a lot

of that pain. I feel a responsibility to give back to my people.

“We have plans to make Bread international and donate to LA. Music is such a good way to raise awareness. We donate everything. We don’t do it for personal gain. Focusing on the youth is such a crucial aspect.”

Sheikh’s next goal is to launch a youth center.

“For me, it’s not so much the connection to the community. It’s just the message and seeing how life unfolds. I just love learning from people’s success and the method they took, like Eminem’s persistence. It took a lot of courage for a white male to enter those rap battles, to muster up the courage to follow a dream.”

Sheikh likens his drive to Eminem’s journey, which the Detroit rapper shared in the film “8 Mile.”

“It’s so much easier to write about feelings as opposed to making stuff up,” he said. “Just like Eminem, I’m a kid with a dream, and no matter what it takes it’s going to happen.”

Lil Mussie “On Me” is available on Spotify Bread bread.org.nz

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JANUARY 4, 2021

Covered SPORTS California will help

MLS team helping community through pandemic

By Nicholas Barker sk anyone, and they would probably say they have been affected by COVID-19 in some manner. Their business might have closed. They could have lost their job or even a family member.

One local professional soccer team has worked endlessly to try and help surrounding communities, and without their effort, many families and businesses would not be afloat.

Known as LAFC, Los Angeles Football Club has done everything in its power to ensure that Los Angeles, which is going through another shutdown nine months after COVID-19 hit the community, is able to deal with this ongoing pandemic.

LAFC President Larry Freedman knows 2020 was a year to forget. His team’s season was challenging with countless other world events going on.

“It was certainly an unpredictable and unprecedented year across the board,” Freedman said. “It has really been a mix of incredible experiences and emotions. This has been hard. It’s been a struggle, and we had to adapt and rise to the occasion.”

One way LAFC rose to the occasion was by providing relief to those who needed it the most. The franchise created the Black and Gold Community Fund to support those who were impacted by this virus. The fund provided food and perishables to families who were in need, and free personal protective equipment (PPE).

“We did food distribution to those in need outside of Banc of California Stadium,” Freedman said. “We served over 20,000 households through those efforts. We did three blood

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drives in the Figueroa Club in the stadium.

And we provided 888 units of blood, which translated into saving over 500 lives.”

On top it, the team donated $35,000 to 42 applicants who were in need of funding.

About 10,000 masks were donated to frontline workers, and 1,500 students were provided hard-copy books for the upcoming semester.

LAFC’s efforts included obtaining the city’s approval to turn Banc of California Stadium into an early voting site.

“We wanted to make sure everyone was wearing a mask, staying socially distanced while waiting in line,” Freedman added. “It was many months in the works, but not unique to us. Staples Center did it. Dodger Stadium did it. It was a small effort that was significant in its execution and participation.

We were really happy to do it.”

While navigating through those unprecedented times, the team still had games to play. After a shutdown, the MLS announced that Orlando would host a tournament to help restart the season. Teams traveled to Orlando, where they stayed in a bubble for more than a month, and played a minimum of three games, which counted toward the regular season.

LAFC made it to the quarterfinals of the MLS is Back tournament, where they would eventually lose to Orlando City. LAFC returned home to play 17 more games and landed in seventh place in the Western Conference.

LAFC was part of the group of MLS teams that did not have the luxury of playing home games in front of a limited fan base. Banc of

California was empty for the year, but Freedman does expect fans to be in attendance when the new season soon starts.

“I am expecting a full season, and there’s confidence out there in the sports world that, by some point, we will be back, thanks to the rollout of the vaccine, to where venues can operate at full capacity,” Freedman said.

Having a season postponed, then playing two months later in a bubble and then going back home to finish the season during a global pandemic is no easy feat. All major sports had their challenges—some easi-

CLASSIFIEDS/ LEGALS BULK SALE NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned intends to sell the personal property described below to enforce a lien imposed on said property pursuant to Sections 21700-21716 of the Business & Professions Code, Section 2328 of the UCC, Section 535 of the Penal Code and provisions of the Civil Code.

The undersigned will sell on the 5th day of January 2021 at 11: 00 A.M. on the premises where said property has been stored and which are located at Thriftee Storage Company LLC, 1717 N. Glendale Blvd. in the city of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, State of California, the following: Name of owner: Space number Description of goods Amount Virginia Hannah F23,L46 Personal effects $1234.00 Felipe Juarez Florentino E16 Personal effects $1312.00 Jerome/Ellen Chong U71 Personal effects $460.00 Nicholas Fittiro L7 Personal effects $470.76 Purchases must be paid for at the time of purchase in cash only. All purchased storage units with the items contained herein are sold on an “as-is” basis and must be removed at the time of sale.

Sale subject to cancellation in the event of settlement between Thriftee Storage Co. and obligated party.

Thriftee Storage Company LLC Dated at Los Angeles, CA by Felipe F. Islas / Manager December 28, 2020

LAFC rose to the occasion by providing food distribution services, blood donations and monetary funds to those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Submitted photo

er than others—but Freedman couldn’t have been prouder about how the organization handled everything.

“I am proud to be a part of this club, and I am exceptionally proud of the way every individual in the club has responded to what has been an incredibly challenging, trying and unprecedented year,” Freedman said.

“I truly believe the amount of pent-up emotion at the first match back, with a full Banc of California Stadium, will be on a completely other level,” he said. “Even more than opening night in April 2018.”

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JANUARY 4, 2021

Kwini and Michael Reed have donated over 3,000 meals to residents of Skid Row, local front-line workers and responders through their restaurant Poppy + Rose.

Submitted photo

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Covered DINING California will help

Poppy + Rose: Community cornerstone

By Frier McCollister s Los Angeles enters the new year in the midst of a second pandemic lockdown, with new COVID-19 cases continuing to surge and local hospital ICUs reaching capacity, Downtown businesses and restaurants again face an uncertain abyss.

That said, if we have learned anything over the circuitous and confusing course of the last nine months, it is the vital importance of community.

It seems unlikely that a humble breakfast and lunch joint in the Flower District would emerge as one of the most engaged and effective community stakeholders through the ongoing course of the pandemic. But indeed, Poppy + Rose and the husband-andwife team of Michael and Kwini Reed have

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provided a striking community example and some worthy inspiration for us as we all move into the year ahead.

“We try to see the need and then try to fill it,” Kwini said.

As reported here and elsewhere, through their efforts at Poppy + Rose, the couple has partnered with over a dozen local nonprofits and distributed upward of 3,000 meals, many of them to residents of nearby Skid Row and local front-line workers and responders.

A cheery, sunlit, 60-seat café, Poppy + Rose opened on Wall Street in the Flower District six years ago, when chef Michael Reed partnered with food truck operator Ryan Lamon to relocate his catering operation—The Root of All Food—and Lamon’s prep spot to a more expansive and afford-

able kitchen.

“We found this spot that was not as pretty as you might want, close to Skid Row, but it was a fully functioning kitchen, and the landlord at the flower market was very reasonable,” Michael said.

“So, we started to figure out how to serve the community.”

Because the flower market typically opened at 2 a.m., an early morning breakfast-and-lunch operation seemed the obvious choice for a daytime retail outlet, while the kitchen provided prep and staging for catering and the food truck in the afternoons and evenings.

It should also be noted that at the same time, the classically trained Michael was serving as executive chef for The Standard in West Hollywood. There, he met Kwini, who was serving as The Standard’s accounting manager. The couple married in June 2017, and they secured full ownership of Poppy + Rose in August 2019. Kwini serves as chief operating officer of the restaurant as well as the catering operation, The Root of All Food, which serves as their holding company.

As of the middle of March, her title could also be community outreach organizer. On the advent of the initial lockdown, the early morning activity at the flower market

abruptly ground to a halt.

“We started to see a lot of homeless people sleep out on our street specifically,” Kwini said. “We had about 10 people camping out on our street. We would have leftovers of stuff we didn’t sell that day that was just technically going to the trash. So, we started passing that out to the people.”

They also devoted part of the dining area to a neighborhood convenience mart, supplying necessities made scarce by the initial pandemic hoarding.

In the wake of the June protests, spurred by the death of George Floyd and the subsequent widespread local circulation of the list of Black-owned restaurants, business at Poppy + Rose surged considerably.

“It steadied our revenue out,” Kwini said.

“It allowed us to level off. We know what our numbers are and know how to plan for the week. It’s extremely consistent. So, we had started to steady out, and we wanted to pay it forward.”

Soon after, a regular customer offered to sponsor meal donations.

“We picked up Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital and we donated our first 150 meals.

From there the Drew Medical testing center reached out and we did another 150 meals to them. (We said,) ‘OK, this is the part we’re

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Chicken and waffles are served with maple syrup and smoked honey butter.

Photo by Luis Chavez

Korey Burton is the manager of Poppy + Rose.

Photo by Luis Chavez

Poppy + Rose’s signature pulled pork hash.

Photo by Luis Chavez

Blackberry raspberry-muddled limeade virgins.

Soju rose-based mojito.

Photo by Luis Chavez

Photo by Luis Chavez

supposed to play in this,’” she said.

Most recently, the Reeds raised funds for one of their homeless neighbors.

“We adopted one of the people who was sleeping outside here. We did a GoFundMe for him to get him off the street and into rehab,” she said.

“And we were successful with that. We had a little bit of money left over. So, for Christmas, we sponsored two families. The total we gave out was about $4,000.”

One of the best ways to support the ongoing community effort at Poppy + Rose is to simply sample its menu. Perusing the menu, bear in mind that Michael is a graduate of the legendary Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and is a well-practiced fine-dining chef at heart. In fact, to that end, the Reeds will be opening a new venue—Poppy + Seed—in Anaheim in February. It will focus on dinner for a change.

In the meantime, Downtown menu favorites include the buttermilk fried chicken and waffle ($15); the avocado toast with a

fried egg, pickled chili and radish ($12); the pulled pork sandwich with fresh coleslaw ($14.50); and the smoked beef sandwich featuring sliced strip steak, pickled red onion, arugula, swiss cheese and horseradish aioli on your choice of bread ($16). Housemade custom cocktails are also available for takeout and delivery ($14).

Finally, there is no better person than Kwini to help inspire our focus on the year ahead Downtown.

“What we’ve learned and the message we’ve taken from this whole thing is community is extremely important. Out of all this, even though a lot of us are struggling, I think overall, we’re going to come out better. Downtown is not lost. We love Downtown,” she said, “We’ve seen so many businesses and restaurants that we love go away. But we’ve also seen a spirit Downtown that we haven’t seen before. Through all of this, if we hold on to that (spirit), 2021 will be so much better, so beyond what any of us ever imagined.”

Poppy + Rose 765 Wall Street, Los Angeles 213-995-7799, poppyandrosela.com

16 DOWNTOWN NEWS

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

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JANUARY 4, 2021