Los Angeles Downtown News 04-11-22

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April 11, 2022 I VOL. 51 I #15

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Covered NEWS California will help

Mel Wilson’s vision for a safer LA

By Luke Netzley LA Downtown News Deputy Editor hen Mel Wilson was a young boy growing up in Alabama, he saw a segregated society — white and Black Americans attended separate schools and shopped in separate stores. It was a childhood that has influenced much of who he has become as a leader today.

“My core values were shaped by my life experiences,” Wilson said. “Life was a harsh awakening for me as a kid, and at eight years old my first job was picking cotton in the hot dirt fields of Alabama. What I found out very quickly was that there was not much equity when it came to work and pay.”

After working for a week, he was only paid $2 along with a few coins. His employer said that he was to be paid by the pound, not by the hour, and to work harder in the next week if he wanted to earn more money.

Now running for Los Angeles mayor, Wilson was raised as the eldest of three children by his mother and grandmother. In the early 1960s, the family moved to Los Angeles on a six-day journey across the country in a ’61 Chevy with no air conditioning and a U-Haul trailer hitched up behind it.

After settling into Pacoima, his mother cleaned houses for $12 a day while ensuring her children would be provided with educational opportunities. Wilson attended Cal State Northridge and left as an all-American football player with a business degree. Once he graduated college, Wilson was drafted in the fifth round by the New York Giants and later played professionally in Calgary, Canada, for a year and a half.

After a career-ending injury, Wilson reassessed his life. Real estate, he decided, would allow him to help others and put food on his own family’s table. So, he returned to Pacoima.

“It was a place where the establishment would require that African Americans had to live there no matter your income strata or no matter what possessions or profession

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you had,” Wilson explained. “It was a low-income area for the most part, and it was really left out and left behind by the elected officials in the area. They didn’t do very good job of taking care of Pacoima, so I looked at that and looked at how we could make our community better.”

Wilson joined the Property Owners Association and was then encouraged to join the Pacoima Chamber of Commerce. After turning 30 years old, he was elected as the chamber’s president.

At the time, Pacoima was what Wilson would call a “food desert,” with no shopping centers in the community. Wilson persuaded his Pacoima Chamber of Commerce board colleagues along with a local developer to build a shopping center at Glen Oaks and Van Nuys boulevards.

Fulfilled by helping others through leadership, Wilson became a member of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, a coalition of 32 business organizations including 18 member chambers.

Wilson became the vice president of the fire commission, where he introduced a motion to hire 500 new paramedics citywide in five years, and served as a member of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board twice, under both former mayors Richard Riordan and Antonio Villaraigosa. He played a central role in building the purple and green lines, opening the 105 freeway, expediting the reconstruction process of the 10 freeway in the wake of the Northridge Earthquake and constructing the 25-story Metro headquarters.

Wilson is now hoping to take his passion for leadership and advocacy to the LA mayoral office.

“I’m the only one in this race who’s worked with three sets of LA County Boards of Supervisors,” Wilson said. “We work together in closed sessions on personnel issues, on strikes and building infrastructure all over this county. I’m the only one who

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LA mayoral candidate and former Metro board member Mel Wilson has been a legislative housing and small-business advocate for nearly three decades, supporting policies designed to expand opportunities for working families to own their own homes.

Mel Wilson/Submitted

really has been ingrained in the community city spend more than 50% of their income.

Wilson insists that by waiving and deferfor all these years, being appointed by three different mayors. I know what the prob- ring many of the city’s development fees, lems are in our city. I have solutions for these which are of the highest in the country, with problems. I have a vision of a better LA, so the agreement that builders will construct that’s why I’m running for mayor and my top more affordable units, the city’s housing shortage crisis can be mended. priority is making our city safe.”

“This is not just for the homeless but for Wilson recently attended a cleanup event in Watts’ Serenity Park, where three law en- the workers who are starving to have a place forcement agencies joined with community to live,” Wilson said. “We have to build smallleaders to cut weeds, trim trees and improve er. We have to build along transit corridors, the park’s image. He said he believes this and we can build more affordably.”

Wilson will also look to address homeunity can help enact meaningful change.

“I know that by working together, we lessness by creating 30,000 homeless shelcan hold our criminals accountable, and we ter beds in industrial areas along transhould hold our police officers accountable, sit corridors, moving populations from the too,” Wilson said. “I have a plan to hire up to homelessness crisis’ epicenter Downtown to 1,500 police officers and 350 mental health industrial properties across the city.

Christina In one instance, Wilson viewed an indusexperts whoEXECUTIVE will helpEDITOR: not only theFuoco-Karasinski police STAFF WRITERS: Andrew Checchia, Andres De Ocampo, Julia Shapero but the state of the mental illness crisis in trial building that was retrofitted into temCONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sara Edwards, Kamala Kirk porary this city.”

ART DIRECTORS: Arman Olivares, Stephanie Torres supportive housing and operational Along withSTAFF addressing publicLuis safety, Wil- within six months with mental health therPHOTOGRAPHER: Chavez CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Myriam Santos apists, a physician and a dentist on staff. son will focus the city’s housing affordabiliACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Michael Lamb ty, which he described as part of a “housing The building was meant to not only shelter FOUNDER EMERITUS: Sue Laris and feed the homeless but to help transishortage crisis.”

According to reports, 58% of renters in LA tion them from homelessness to affordable spend more than 30% of their income on housing.

“I have a master’s degree in commerrent, while nearly one-third of renters in the

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Christina Fuoco-Karasinski DEPUTY EDITOR: Luke Netzley CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Frier McCollister, Jeff Moeller,

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cial real estate, but my thesis was on how to create housing that’s affordable for the workers in LA, so I know how to solve this problem,” Wilson said. “We can do this with 30,000 units, and it doesn’t take three years to build. It doesn’t take $250,000 to build an 8-foot-by-8-foot room, but what we’re doing now is spending half a million to $800,000 for a one-bedroom unit for permanent housing. We can do this a lot more affordably.”

Wilson’s next main priority is to make LA more business friendly, an issue that is close to Wilson’s heart, as he spent four years on the city’s Business Tax Advisory Council.

While on the council, Wilson worked with USC’s Dr. Charles Swenson to create a recommendation for the mayor. They found that one of the reasons why businesses were moving out of the city was because of LA’s high business tax. While their conclusion was never acted upon by the mayoral office, Wilson still points to examples of his findings in the county today.

“If you look at all the major auto dealerships in this region, the majority of them are not in our city but are in Santa Monica, Orange County, Buena Park, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks and a handful in the San Fernando Valley, but the auto dealers I met with are saying this tax is just too high,” Wilson said.

“That’s why we have to make LA business friendly and we have to streamline the business processing for permits.”

Wilson wants to invest in youth by hiring

75,000 high school students to work part time for 16 hours a week on a basic wage of $15 per hour with the promise of increasing their pay by $3 per hour if they complete a semester’s worth of work.

By incentivizing work at a young age, Wilson hopes to foster a mutually beneficial cycle of employment for the city’s youth.

“I was a kid who had a part-time job, and it kept me out of trouble,” Wilson said. “I also want to invest in our kids’ parents’ child care subsidies. Right now, it costs $1,000 to $1,250 per child per household. If you have two kids, that’s $2,500 a month. That’s why it’s hard to get people to go back to work, because their child care is so expensive. So we’re going to subsidize child care based on the income of that household. The less you make, the more subsidies we give you, and we bring that out of the city’s budget.”

By using his leadership background along with his love for the communities across LA to address crises impacting Angelenos, Wilson hopes to turn his vision of a clean and safer Los Angeles into a reality as the city’s mayor.

“We’re focused on fighting for the workers, small-business owners and the middle class,” Wilson said. “Those are the people I’m on this fighting line for, and it’s an uphill swing, but I’ve been against the odds all of my life. This is just another one of those journeys along the way.”

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Los Angeles Mayoral Election The 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election is Nov. 8, while the top-two primary will take place on June 7. To learn more about mayoral candidate Mel Wilson and his campaign, visit mel4mayor.com.

Mayoral candidates to debate at Cal State LA

By LA Downtown News Staff ive candidates in the race to be the next mayor of Los Angeles will take part in a live televised debate on Sunday, May 1, at Cal State LA, hosted by the school’s Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs, ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles, and the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles.

Rep. Karen Bass, LA City Councilmember Joe Buscaino, businessman and nonprofit leader Rick Caruso, LA City Councilmember Kevin de León and LA City Attorney Mike Feuer have confirmed their participation in the debate.

The debate comes just before voters begin to receive their ballots in the mail for the June 7 primary election.

ABC7 anchor Marc Brown will serve as the debate moderator. ABC7 reporters

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will ask the candidates questions. A process for receiving suggested questions from the public is also being developed by the debate partners.

The debate will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and will air live on ABC7. It will also be streamed on abc7.com; the ABC7LA app; and ABC7’s Connected TV Apps on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Hulu and Roku.

Since 2013, the Pat Brown Institute, ABC7, and the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles have partnered to host nonpartisan, televised debates as catalysts for public and community participation in the democratic process.

These events have included debates and forums for candidates for city, county and national offices, including U.S. Senate and president.

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Covered NEWS California will help

Convention center expansion opens doors to bigger events

By Luke Netzley LA Downtown News Deputy Editor he city of Los Angeles has long fought to remain at the forefront of innovation and entertainment.

It has been exploring opportunities to expand and modernize the Los Angeles Convention Center to compete with the likes of San Francisco, Anaheim and San Diego for the past decade.

After progress has been stunted by the pandemic, the city planning commission will consider a proposal in the coming months that would include the expansion of the JW Marriott hotel complex.

The public-private partnership development proposed by the Anschutz Entertainment Group would fulfill the city’s needs for an expanded exhibition

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The LA Convention Center is home to a variety of annual conventions, trade shows and exhibitions that bring both crowds and organizations to the heart of Los Angeles.

City of Los Angeles/Submitted

facility and full-service hotel capacity.

Plenary Group is scheduled to create a development plan for the convention center’s expansion, along with an approximately 850-room JW Marriott hotel expansion with ballroom and meeting room facilities to support international events.

“Our convention center competes with convention centers all over the world,” said Doane Liu, executive director of LA City Tourism Department.

T h e p r o p o s e d c o nv e n t i o n c e n ter expansion project will feature a 700,000-square-foot new hall building, which would connect the existing south and west halls over Pico Boulevard.

The new hall building will include a new exhibit hall space with approximately 750,000 square feet of contigu-

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ous convention facilities, meeting rooms and a rooftop multipurpose hall.

The expansion also includes the interior modernization of the existing concourse and south hall buildings, including partial demolitions of each hall to connect to the new hall building, as well as construction of a new west hall lobby entrance at Chick Hearn Court adjacent to the JW Marriott expansion; renovation of Gilbert Lindsay Plaza; development of the Pico Boulevard underpass, often referred to as Pico Passage; a new Bond Street parking garage; and a comprehensive signage program.

Along with the direct sales from convention space, the convention center’s expansion will bring economic growth to LA from sources like hotel rooms, restaurants and shops. According to Liu, the potential loss of business in the next five to 10 years by not expanding the center could exceed over $3 billion.

“It’s a huge economic driver, as conventions are a big part of our tourism industry and tourism is a big part of our local economy,” Liu said.

“We’ve always lacked the number of hotel rooms that are needed, so a big piece of attracting conventions is not only the expansion of the convention center but also increasing the number of hotels rooms that are available in the Downtown area that are within walking

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distance.”

Hotels can play a central role in attracting conventions, as they can house employees and crowds within walking distance of the convention center. The expansion project would add 870 hotel rooms to the JW Marriott, nearly doubling its size and making it the city’s largest hotel.

Liu’s vision is that the newly expanded convention center will house medical or tech conventions. Previously, the center couldn’t hold events that large, like the American Association of Cancer Research, which hosts one of the world’s largest cancer research conventions.

The convention center’s expansion will also benefit its signature events, such as the LA auto show, Anime Expo and E3.

“Our signature events can grow, and we want to grow with them,” Liu said.

“We’ve heard from a number of these clients that if they had more space, they would take it, so we’re excited to be able to accommodate their growth, too.”

The convention center would be able to host multiple events at once.

“It’s more than just a big old building on Figueroa,” Liu said.

“It’s a home and it’s a gateway to the city for many people that never get a chance to come to Los Angeles,” Liu said.

DOWNTOWN NEWS 5

The convention center’s expansion project would increase the building’s total size by 45% with over 1 million square feet of exhibition space.

City of Los Angeles/Submitted

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Covered California CONSIDER THIS will help

APRIL 11, 2022

PETERS’ OPINION

Oy vey, such a fuss she made

By Ellen Snortland LA Downtown News Columnist was raised in South Dakota. The only Jewish person I was familiar with was Anne Frank… and, of course, Jesus.

The third Jewish person I knew, I married. His family was mortified and had to muster every “good sport” molecule they had to accept his choice of me as his fiancée: a shiksa, a non-Jewish woman. Oy vey!

My ultra Norwegian American Lutheran grandmother morphed her own religious bigotry into bittersweet acceptance. Grandma walked up to my handsome new groom at our wedding reception. She peered up at him and yelled as only slightly deaf people can bellow: “Your people killed my savior… but you seem like a nice boy!” Uff da! (“Uff da” is Norwegian for “oy vey.”)

Before our wedding, I offered to convert to Judaism because, frankly, from what I could see, the world needed more Jews. Who doesn’t like witty, frugal shoppers and conversationalists who throw in oh-so-handy Yiddish expressions? I figured I could add to the numbers.

My new husband, petrified at the idea of me becoming Jewish, envisioned my conversion and gently talked me out of it. He was clearly familiar with my meshuggah approach to life — slightly nuts, but with zeal!

He realized if I converted, I would next become a rabbi, remodel the kitchen to accommodate kosher requirements, and he’d spend his adult life like his child-

I

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Ellen Snortland hood: going to temple all the time and wearing things on his head. (My new hubby was a bareheaded-type guy.)

I magine his chagrin when I announced, “I’m creating a Seder!” I loved the idea of Seder, the ritual held at Passover commemorating the Jews’ exodus from Egypt at the hands of pharoah. Of course, we all have pharaohs we need deliverance from, whether that pharaoh literally enslaves a whole race or is the newly elected official who wants to prevent you from getting birth control or telling you who you can or can’t marry.

Seder is a beloved tradition for everyone, Jew and shiksa alike.

A theater producer at the time, I roped in every theater friend I could find and created a Seder production team — not all shiksas; some of us actually knew what we were doing. We also decided our Seder would be a feminist one and we would include — hold on to your yarmulkes — women!

Being an ardent women’s rights advocate, I was taken aback by some of the customs my husband had grown up with. His mom had dairy dishes, meat dishes, Passover dairy dishes and Passover meat dishes. I’m thinking, “Geez, women did not make up these rules.”

Then, the patriarchs had the audacity to create ritual texts for the Seder (called a Haggadah) and not have one mention of women in the flight from Egypt? Really? Come on! Let my people go, except we’ll keep our women serving us like slaves. You let us go!

Oh, sure, we were supposed to gather manna, milk the goats, clean the tents, bake the unleavened bread — quick-

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ly! — keep the kids quiet, separate the meat and dairy dishes and the separate set of Passover dishes, prepare the table and cook the special Passover meal while smiling at relatives we don’t really like… but then, to not even have a nod to our own unique form of oppression while we wait on you patriarchs? Not at our table!

This goyishe momma wasn’t having any of the same ol’ same ol’ regarding an ancient religion celebrating liberation. I also have the same disdain for the Christian holiday of Christmas, where the women do all the food shopping and prepping, wrapping of gifts, and decorating while Santa gets all the credit.

My first shiksa Passover finally came to pass, excuse the expression, and was a sit-down Seder for 60 people. As custom dictates, we set a place for the wandering prophet Elijah if he decides to return. As it turns out, Elijah probably did more to wipe out the matriarchal goddess cultures than any of other the prophets did, but that’s another column.

In any event, we set a place for Miriam, too, just in case she wanted to also drop by.

After all, if it hadn’t been for Miriam and that ancient shiksa Princess Bisyah, pharaoh’s daughter, Moses would have had a very different fate than leading the Jews — females and males — out of

Egypt. There have always been women and girls throughout history, making everyone’s history possible.

This year, during my shiksa Seder, each guest will reflect on: 1. The current oppression in their lives: “I feel enslaved by the addiction to please everyone all the time,” “I think I have a drinking problem,” or “I have a compulsion to customize holidays to my personal liking.”

2. Actions they could take in the coming year to cut those self-designed ropes of said enslavement.

3. Five things they are grateful for.

Sadly, my marriage to my first husband ended, but I’ll always be grateful to him for being a mensch and opening the door to a rich heritage I continue to celebrate.

Happy Pesach, everyone!

Ellen Snor tland has gotten a little verklempt while writing this column for decade, and teaches creative writing. She can be reached at ellen@ beautybitesbeast.com. Her award-winn i n g f i l m , “ B e a u t y B i te s B e a s t ,” i s once again available for download or streaming at vimeo.com/ondemand/ beautybitesbeast.

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Covered California will help BUSINESS

Kruse appointed regional president of Kidder Mathews

By LA Downtown News Staff idder Mathews continues its SoCal expansion, adding Jim Kruse as regional president of brokerage for the firm’s LA offices, including Downtown LA, Century City, El Segundo and Pasadena. Kruse will oversee recruitment, strategic business pursuits and client relationships.

Kruse is well known in Southern California, as he has worked 35 years in commercial real estate. His experience includes 15 years as senior managing director for CBRE’s LA offices until 2018, and prior to that, he was executive vice president for Grubb & Ellis’ greater LA offices. Before Grubb & Ellis, Kruse was a top-producing broker at Cushman & Wakefield, and in his most recent position, he was CEO at LA-based investor/developer DPI Retail.

A lifelong LA resident, Kruse was an All-American water polo player in college and inducted into the University of California Irvine Hall of Fame. He was a member of the U.S. national and Olympic water polo teams, competed with the U.S. team for seven years, and was later invited to be an Olympic water polo commentator for NBC and ABC Sports for the following five Olympic Games.

“The consistent pattern of success throughout Jim’s career speaks for itself, and we’re very fortunate to have him join us. His outstanding background, drive and positive personality are a perfect fit for our broker/client-centric culture and to lead our LA growth,” said Bill Frame, Kidder Mathews’ CEO. Kruse is just as enthusiastic about joining the firm.

“Kidder Mathews is on an incredible trajectory for continued growth along the West Coast, and I’m excited to be part of our expansion in Southern California,” Kruse said.

K

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DT Spring blossoms with new Downtown restaurants Covered DINING California will help

By Frier McCollister LA Downtown News Contributing Writer sense of relief and renewal pervades Downtown.

The latest pandemic surge has abated dramatically, in perfect time with the advent of spring. The ebullient mood is reflected in a new, more positive surge: an exciting wave of new restaurants has opened for this season — and there are more yet to come.

Following is a partial and eclectic list of bright new eateries sprouting on the already colorful landscape of Downtown’s vibrant restaurant scene.

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Yangban Society 712 S. Santa Fe Avenue Arts District yangbanla.com The husband-and-wife team of Katianna and John Hong opened its now highly lauded Yangban Society in January.

In a few short months, the creative venue has garnered positive critical plaudits and a burgeoning loyal following among Downtown’s ravenous roving foodies.

Conceived as an elevated Korean deli and convenience mart, Yang Ban Society is an ode to the chefs’ respective backgrounds as Korean Americans and their impressive resumes.

The couple met while working at Josiah Citrin’s Melisse in Santa Monica. Katianna also cooked at Napa’s Restaurant at Meadowood, which earned three Michelin stars. She ultimately became chef de cuisine under Christopher Kostow. John Hong then assumed her position when Katianna led the opening of Kostow’s more casual turn at Charter Oak. That said, their inspiration is articulated with the mindful detail expected from two gifted chefs. The food menu here runs the gamut of simple deli items to full dinner entrees.

The former category features more than a dozen items, including soy eggs with mirin, onion, garlic and assorted mushrooms; blistered snap peas with everything bagel seasoning, soy and lemon; chilled “dotori” acorn noodles, roasted Korean seaweed, fried garlic, scallions and pickled perilla seed in a shirodashi vinaigrette; and a kimchi pozole, a stew of pork belly and aged kimchi with Rancho Gordo hominy.

There is also an organic egg salad, with chives and dill, and a smoked trout

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spread with fresh horseradish root and pea leaves.

Three salads are offered as well, notably including a kimchi “ppang” panzanella with fried ppang croutons, basil, arugula, red onion, housemade bacon and a kimchi vinaigrette.

Kitchen specials indicate more substantial fare: braised beef short rib with roasted mushrooms; baked sea bream with chili daikon paste and toasted breadcrumbs; congee pot pie with roasted chicken stock, short grain rice, ginger and white pepper; yangban wings with a soy-garlic glaze; and pork belly with roasted kimchi fried rice.

Canned and bottled cocktails, wines, beer and spirits are aplenty. But don’t forget the convenience mart, where sundry retail items are for sale — artisanal soaps, incense and candles; bamboo-handled toothbrushes and silk dental floss; scented hand sanitizers and herbal bug spray; natural lip balms and face masks. It’s one-stop shopping and eating at Yangban Society.

Suffice it to say, this is not a conventional Korean deli.

Kato ROW DTLA 777 Alameda Street Building 1, Suite 114 katorestaurant.com Chef Jon Yao and his partners Nikki Reginaldo and Ryan Bailey opened the first iteration of Kato on the bustling Asian dining strip of Sawtelle Boulevard in 2016.

Yao’s winning Taiwanese-influenced tasting menu format quickly took the district by storm, resulting in awards and recognition, including a Michelin star. Unfortunately, the pandemic pivot to takeout and delivery did not support Yao’s unique vision and the location shuttered.

For tunately for Downtown’s fine dining denizens, Kato’s new location opened in early February at ROW DTLA. This is not a trivial outing. When Kato opened on Sawtelle, Yao’s tasting course was priced under $100 and caused a sensation for its relative accessibility.

Times change. The current tasting menu is priced at $225 with a choice of three beverage flights: The wine flight is an additional $125, the vintage wine flight is $175, and the alcohol-free flight is a mere $75. An obligatory 18% service charge is added as well. Regardless, Yao

Since opening in the Arts District in January, Yangban Society has been highly lauded.

Dylan+Jeni/Submitted

has proved himself worthy.

Yao’s tasting menu evolves. Courses have included charcoal-grilled A5 wagyu strip loin with braised tendon, potatoes and black garlic; a “donut” stuffed with Iberico ham topped with Santa Barbara uni and brown butter; a fresh vegetable course with edible flowers and Taiwanese seasoning; and a jujube dessert with muscovado, scorched ice cream and gold flakes.

Everything tastes better with gold flakes.

Kato books quickly, so patience is required when procuring a table. Kato is better off in its move Downtown, and Downtown’s fine dining scene is better off with this exciting new arrival.

Pi LA 124 W. Fourth Street pila213.com Pizza is having an extended moment across the city. The latest turn Downtown is the recent February opening of Pi LA. It’s the brainchild of Octavio Becerra and, notably, Fred Eric.

Eric is the pioneering chef and serial restaurateur behind the long-beloved Fred 62 in Los Feliz.

Touting “Los Angeles-style pizza,” Pi LA was inspired during a fit of pandemic boredom for Eric, when he began experimenting with pizza dough. He uses Continued on page 10

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Try what the Los Angeles Times called "The Best Chicken in town at any price: moist, juicy and fragrant."

Downtown Los Angeles 611 W 7th St. 90017

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Asterid’s spring opening was highly anticipated at The Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Wonho Frank Lee/Submitted

sprouted flour, which has less gluten, and kombu water for flavor. The dough is then cured for 72 hours, resulting in the crust’s crispy structure.

Despite its claim to native authenticity, Pi LA’s pies owe a modest debt to Detroit. These pizzas are baked and served in square pans. The pizzas can be ordered whole ($21) or in a half portion ($13).

Each of the pies is named after a classic car model: the GTX Muscle Car features cupped pepperoni, fennel pollen sausage, roasted red onions and fresh mozzarella; the Impala lowrider is topped with chicken mole, roasted pumpkin and Oaxacan melting cheese.

More exotic takes include the Galaxie with a Mediterranean twist of baba ganoush and hummus; the Love Bug with a potato gratin, truffle-infused gruyere cheese sauce, “jambon ham snow” and onion confit; and the Wolfie’s Packard sports smoked salmon, cream cheese, cherry tomatoes with dill and chives.

The dining room was designed by famed street artist Shepard Fairey, and the eclectic take on pan pizza is undeniably intriguing. Eric always delivers a spirit of fun to his projects, and now Downtown can join the party.

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Camphor 923 E. Third Street, Suite 109 camphor.la Opened on Feb. 23, Camphor boasts two canny and highly skilled young chefs, M ax Boonthanak it and Lijo George. The pair met in Bangkok, while they worked the stoves at Blue, created by the renowned master French chef Alain Ducasse.

Boonthanakit already marked local territory, as pastry chef at chef Mei Lin’s Nightshade (which formerly occupied the site where Camphor has just opened). George only recently moved to Los Angeles from Thailand, and he directly collaborated with Boonthanakit on devising Camphor’s menu.

That menu presents highly elevated bistro fare with distinct South Asian inflections. Caviar served with blini and pomme souffle is listed under the snacks heading, along with “gunpowder” baby shrimp.

Starters include oysters served with an amaretto mignonette, clams in garlic and parsley butter, steak tartare with herb tempura, and a “barbajuan” fritter of Dungeness crab.

The five salads and side dishes offered

are listed as garden salad, glazed vegetables with truffle, lentils and lamb, sauteed spinach, and asparagus and bearnaise.

The current six main dishes are mussels with white wine and bacon, mushroom with rice and madeira, chicken with thyme and jus, scallop “demi lune,” lobster in a coral bisque, and steak au poivre. There are five desserts as well, notably a savarin with a choice of alcohol accompaniment.

Suffice it say, the menu is presented in lower-case lettering, cryptically clipped descriptions and no pricing. When dining here, the point is that the two talented young chefs in back are fully in control and that a simple surrender to excellence is the wisest approach.

Asterid The Walt Disney Concert Hall 141 S. Grand Avenue astertidla.com One of the most highly anticipated openings this season was the late-March launch of Asterid with chef Ray Garcia at the helm.

A native Angeleno, Garcia is best known locally for his imaginative and

well-received riffs at Broken Spanish and B.S. Taqueria, as well as Viva! at Resorts World Las Vegas. On the way to Asterid, he garnered the title of chef of the year from Esquire magazine.

Named for the largest family of flowering plants, Asterid’s menu, as devised

by Garcia, emphasizes fresh local produce and a plant-forward sensibility.

Highlighted menu items include a sunchoke rosti, with sunflower creme fraiche and strawberr y pepper jam ($37); a risotto of red beet carnaroli and fresh dill ($25); lamb shank served with charred eggplant puree, warm flatbread and pickled chiles ($67); and maitake mushrooms served with turmeric aioli, fried lemon and parsley ($21). Dessert options include a strawberry shortcake featuring Harry’s Berries on hibiscus angel food cake ($14).

Formerly with Broken Spanish, Garcia’s beverage director, Chris Chernock, has devised a menu of rejiggered classic cocktails as well as notable zero-proof options. These include a daiquiri with Oaxacan rum as well as a zero-proof coconut milk punch.

With Asterid’s arrival at Disney Hall Continued on page 12

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SPRING BLOSSOMS WITH NEW DOWNTOWN RESTAURANTS, 10 and Frank Gehry’s new The Grand development looming across the street, Bunker Hill has quickly come back to life.

Smoke City Char Bar 899 Traction Avenue smokecitycharbar.com T h i s n o u ve l l e s m o k e h o u s e j u s t opened March 25 in the Arts District. Executive chef Omari Williams mans the coals here. Arts District-based designer Mary Dailinger created an airy, lightfilled space decorated with artwork, including a large hanging sculpture over the dining room.

Williams smokes everything on-site.

The usual suspects here: brisket, tritip, pulled pork and turkey. However, fish, vegetarian and vegan options can also be identified, including salmon and jackfruit preps. All of the main dishes are served with a choice of house-made sauces like cayenne honey, molasses harissa, soy ginger and mustard cider.

Williams’ menu concept is based on a “mix-and-match” style, where diners choose a smoked protein that can be served as a plate, sandwich or salad along with scratch-made sides.

The menu highlights are sandwiches served on a brioche bun with Havarti cheese and napa cabbage slaw or on a fresh ciabatta roll with sharp cheddar, butter lettuce and pickled red onion.

Recommended salad options: the Southern style with baby kale and romaine, golden beets, shaved fennel, heirloom tomatoes, smoked chartered corn and feta cheese; or the California cobb featuring kale, butter lettuce, hard-boiled egg, avocado, cucumber and radish.

The dressings are creative: mustard vinaigrette, honey balsamic, smoked jalapeno ranch and gorgonzola cream.

Williams’ sensibility and approach here is worth noting. Regional authenticity often becomes the standard by which barbecue and smoked meat is evaluated and judged. At Smoke City, there is no pretension to such concerns.

A sense of playful creativity and a simple focus on deliciousness wafts through the air here.

Benny Boy Brewing 1821 N. Daly Street Lincoln Heights bennyboybrewing.com Local craft breweries have proliferated and thrived across Los Angeles over the past 10 years or so. However, LA’s first combined brewery and cidery just opened in nearby Lincoln Heights on March 26.

The husband-and-wife team of Ben

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Smoke City Char Bar is a nouvelle smokehouse that opened in March in the Arts District.

Restaurant Marketing/Submitted

Farber and Chelsey Rosetter spent more than five years exhaustively researching old-school European fermentation and brewing techniques. They adapted these techniques using modern equipment.

The venue produces, by its own admission, “clean, dry ciders and classic European-inspired beers with a California twist.” Farber is the brewmaster, and he avidly eschews the use of additives in the brewing process. Unprocessed whole flower hops are employed in every brewing formula. The ancient ingredients of time and gravity produce clear, naturally carbonated beers.

“Flagship” beers here are Backyard Basil (5% ABV), a saison brewed with fresh basil; Midnight Swim (8% ABV), a Belgian dark ale; Other Lover (5% ABV), a “dry table beer” with pilsner malt; and Desert champagne (4.6% ABV), a sour Gose style with fresh prickly pear and sage.

The primary house hard cider is the Dry Cider (7.8% ABV ). It’s made with 100% raw apple juice fresh pressed from the orchard. A selection of natural wines

is offered on tap, courtesy of a collaboration with Pali Wine Co. There is also a pommeau (17% ABV), produced with Downtown’s The Spirit Guild. It’s made with apple brandy and premium apple juice that is blended and barrel-aged for three years.

Benny Boy Brewing boasts an expansive, 3,200-square-foot brewery and tank bar with a 55-foot bar topped with reclaimed wood and direct taps. The cider house is 1,200 square feet with barrel walls and an apple tree installation featuring red globe lights hanging from rafter branches.

The two buildings are connected by a landscaped beer and cider garden, with lounge seating, fire pits and occasional pop-up food vendors. It’s the beer garden Downtown has always wanted.

Polanco Modern Mexican Steakhouse 840 S. Spring Street polancorestaurantgroup.com The April 15 opening of Polanco Modern Mexican Steakhouse on Spring

Street has been in the works for some time. The Downtown project’s status has been buzzing since before the pandemic. It also represents the second Polanco, following on the successful launch last May of the Hawthorne location.

More important to note is that Polanco’s executive chef is the esteemed Daniel Godinez. A stalwart on the scene in Orange County, Godinez helped pioneer elevated haute Mexican cuisine locally.

His first venture in the greater Los Angeles area was the 2016 opening of the popular and elegant Maestro in Pasadena.

At the new Polanco, expect a superior steakhouse experience with Mexican flair. Highlighted menu options include starters of oysters, guacamole, ceviche, aguachile and a tostada of ahi tuna chicharron.

Reliable favorites are here, too, like Caesar salad and a wedge with blue cheese and bacon.

Hot star ters include street corn smeared with chipotle ranch, cotija cheese and chili dust; Spanish octopus

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with frijoles de olla and green onions; and a queso fundido of molten Oaxacan cheese and fresh chorizo.

Main dishes of scallops and branzino are here, as are “traditional” chicken tinga enchiladas and pork carnitas with burnt avocado.

That said, it’s a steakhouse. There are the big-ticket tomahawks and porterhouse options as well as ribeye, hanger and filet mignon. Slightly more exotic cuts are an outside skirt and a pork tomahawk chop. All the meat mains are served with roasted cabbage, onions and serrano chiles with a bean puree and salsa verde.

Under Godinez’s guidance, Polanco promises a steakhouse the way Downtown eaters want to eat right now.

Smorgasburg LA ROW DTLA 777 S. Alameda Street – Arts District la.smorgasburg.com The bustling and hugely popular Sunday food fair at ROW DTLA reopened in January with more than 60 food and 20 craft vendors.

The event has served as an impressively effective incubator for new food pop-ups that have graduated to brickand-mortar operations. Fresh developments at Smorgasburg can indicate

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impending hot trends and bold new flavors. Two brand-new food purveyors were added in March.

Comfy Pup, offering Midwestern comfort food, started as a pop-up inside 1802 Roasters on Cypress Avenue. Its fare is typified by the “River Grove”-style hot dog, which is largely a classic Chicago dog slathered with mustard, bright green relish, chopped fresh onions, sport peppers and celery salt.

Dog-R LA, the other new contender at Smorgasburg, also features the timeless tube steak. Featuring Venezuelan-style hot dogs, Dog-R LA and its owner, Gerardo Pacheco, serve chicken, pork and beef sausages. A plant-based option is in the works. Served in the style found in Caracas and Valencia, the “classic Venezuelan” bears no resemblance to Chicago. The sausage is topped with hot corn, shredded cabbage, onion and carrot, crispy potato sticks and cilantro. A combination of ketchup, mayo, garlic aioli and cheese sauce is mopped on, before being covered in cheddar cheese. It’s all jammed inside a fresh Italian roll.

Hot dogs and hard ciders, kimchi pozole, pan pizza and gold flakes. It’s all new now to Downtown diners and the year has only just begun. Spring has definitely sprung. Stay hungry!

Benny Boy Brewing, located in Lincoln Heights, is LA’s first combined brewery and cidery.

Kat Hanegraaf/Submitted

LOS ANGELES ATHLETIC CLUB

BEST SPORTS BAR IN DTLA

LAAC.COM

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Covered California will help FEATURE

Carey Hart founded Good Ride to support veterans through motorcycle rides and donations to military charities.

Luke Netzley/Staff

Good Ride raises over $32K for veterans at Tanks for Troops

By Luke Netzley LA Downtown News Deputy Editor ental health has long been an issue that many veterans face after returning home from service. Famed motocross pioneer Carey Hart is dedicated to addressing this through his nonprofit Good Ride.

The husband of pop star P!nk, Hart founded Good Ride alongside rapper Big B to bring veterans together through motorcycle rides and to raise money for military charities. Recently, he raised more than $32,000 for veterans and their families through the third annual Tanks for Troops.

The event featured a silent auction of 24 Indian Motorcycle tanks that were hand-painted by Hart’s favorite artists and longtime friends, with all funds

M

Carey Hart’s daughter, Willow, designs one of the 24 Indian motorcycle tanks each year for the Tanks for Troops silent auction and has consistently been one of the top fundraisers.

Luke Netzley/Staff

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Good Ride’s Tanks for Troops event was held at Bike Shed Moto, an LA venue that opened April 8.

Luke Netzley/Staff

going directly to Infinite Hero.

Good Ride’s last two Tanks for Troops events raised a combined $60,000, and this year the nonprofit raised just over $32,000, with Hart’s daughter Willow’s tank selling for $3,300.

Hosted by DTLA’s Bike Shed Moto, Tanks for Troops was sponsored by a host of organizations, including Whiskey & Donuts, the Donuttery, Fiji Airways and Yasawa Island Resort & Spa, which provided two round-trip tickets and a sixnight, seven-day stay in Fiji, respectively, for the raffle.

The raffle also included a custom 2017 Indian Motorcycle Chieftain built and designed for P!nk, born Alecia Beth Moore.

Although Good Ride was successful, Hart said he’s focused on helping more veterans, especially through the entry purchase program.

Through this program, anyone can buy a veteran’s entry to one of the nonprofit’s rides for $75. Donors receive a limited-edition hat courtesy of Good Ride.

“It’s a small contribution, but it goes a long way because for every single entry that we sell, we make sure we fill it with a vet,” Hart said. “Last year, we raised about 100 vet entries. Our hope is that we can sell more of these vet entries and that we can do vet-specific rides. One day it would be amazing to have 500 veterans at a ride that’s exclusive to veterans and all paid for by the public.”

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The charitable Hart was inspired to help veterans because his father-in-law and stepmother-in-law are Vietnam veterans. His brother-in-law is a retired lieutenant colonel who served in the Air Force. When he became involved with Indian Motorcycles, he noticed motorcycle rallies were popular with veterans.

“This is a perfect opportunity,” Hart said. “We’re with veterans. We work with great brand. Motorcycling is a huge contingency of veterans. … Let’s start Good Ride.”

Good Ride’s first organized ride drew around 50 riders, and the nonprofit has only grown larger since. Six years later, it hosts three rides a year, often at motorcycle rallies, and its proceeds go toward the Infinite Hero Foundation, which donates $1 for every dollar it receives.

“For that one moment in time, it’s a distraction for them,” Hart explained.

“They’re riding with other motorcyclists and they’re checking out motorcycles.

We feed them, and we tell stories. We go for these amazing police-escorted motorcycle rides, and for those eight hours of the day they don’t think about whatever physical or mental issues they may have from the military. They’re just out on a motorcycle and they get to meet new people and reconnect.”

Good Ride goodriderally.com

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Covered ARTS & California CULTUREwill help

In the semi-staged production of “Fidelio,” a deaf actor will play each character in the opera with a hearing vocalist singing each part.

Submitted

Arts groups unveil opera for deaf and hearing audiences

By Bridgette M. Redman LA Downtown News Contributing Writer eethoven wrote only one opera and, by the time it was staged, he was already coming to terms with hearing loss.

That is part of what contributes to the beauty and poetry of the collaboration between the LA Philharmonic and Deaf West as they produce “Fidelio,” Beethoven’s opera about justice and marital love.

From Thursday, April 14, to Saturday, April 16, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Gustavo Dudamel will conduct a semi-staged production of “Fidelio,” one in which a deaf actor will play each character in the opera with a hearing vocalist singing each part.

The show will be directed by Venezuelan-born Alberto Arvelo, who is now a Los Angeles resident. He calls it an emotional project for everyone involved in it.

“This opera is connected in a very special way with the deaf audiences, from the premiere in November 1805, when its composer was not able to listen to it,” Arvelo said.

“It is possible that, since then, this is the first time that ‘Fidelio’ has been conceived so that deaf audiences can fully enjoy it.”

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The deaf aspect is in the very DNA of the opera because it was composed by someone who couldn’t hear it. It elevates this project to another level.

“This is an homage to the composer and to the deaf community and certainly a triumph of their efforts,” Arvelo said.

“What we are achieving here is something that is more than just adding different ingredients. It’s not one plus one equals two. It’s one plus one that equals seven or eight. It’s not easy to describe, but it is very easy to feel. Every day we rehearse, we’re finding ways to try to understand the essence of every scene and to find the best way to recreate this and to serve the deaf community in the most powerful way.”

Deaf West Theatre’s artistic director, DJ Kurs, said he deeply connects with the opera. Deaf West Theatre is nationally renowned for its work, whether it is projects such as the deaf version of “Big River” or “Spring Awakening” on Broadway, or bringing ASL performances to the official Disney Princess YouTube channel.

He said they have roughly 70 deaf actors in “Fidelio,” a production he and the director set up so it worked for deaf and hearing audiences.

“It was a really great opportunity for us to really assess the story and go more in depth,” Kurs signed during an interpreted interview.

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“We had to kind of blend the two worlds. We’re using all of the tools that we have developed. We really enter a vision that makes it very relevant to what’s happening today with social crises and everything going on. That’s going to really be the heartbeat of the opera.”

Kurs said this is an opera about people who want to be redeemed and who are desperate for freedom, something his audiences can relate to.

“That theme is just something that absolutely makes a great connection with our audience members,” Kurs said.

“Our audience members will be able to relate with the story throughout the show.”

Arvelo added the project is deeply connected with the sublime possibilities of human expression.

“All of us involved in this project feel that ‘Fidelio’ will be a revealing experience for the deaf and hearing audience,” Arvelo said.

“The creative integration that we are promoting has its roots in the most primal search of arts: beauty and communication. This collective effort has confronted all of us with very deep reflections about the integrative possibilities of art.”

They searched for ways so both audiences could experience music in new ways. Kurs said there is more than one

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way to experience music.

“It’s not only through the mechanical or physicalness of the ear,” Kurs said.

“There is a physical, visual aspect with opera. When I see our actors deliver it — their thoughts, their inner voice is expressed to the audience. You guys are hearing all the music going on, but I’m able to see four signers at the same time performing harmony.”

One of the things that the two worked out was how to make a crescendo be seen as well as heard. Arvelo said with Deaf West Theatre there are moments with a crescendo, which grows with the visual energy.

“An area at the beginning is narrated by a single deaf actor. As the music grows, more deaf actors will join it so that now we have not one actor but four or five provoking a real visual crescendo, in an effort to bring musical discourse to the realm of the visual,” Arvelo said.

Arvelo said he fell in love with the actors during the rehearsals, and daily they all learn something new as they have embarked on this creative journey together.

“It’s hard to even describe this collective human effort and learning process for all of us,” Arvelo said. “It’s been so powerful because we are doing something that is the first time for all of us.

It’s so special and powerful at every re-

hearsal.”

He said from the first to last bars, they’ve worked to ensure they are always interpreting the music in visual terms. They want to ensure that they recreate the music’s energy and spirit.

It’s a process that he feels will deepen the experience for all audiences, both deaf and hearing.

“Exploring the characters from this point of view allowed us to talk about the soul,” Arvelo said.

“The audience process will be different in many ways. We will have important moments of the opera in silence — absolute silence. Just acting, pure and wonderful acting. It transforms the music. I mean, Beethoven’s music was transformed by the fact that he was not hearing at the end of his life. Composing from the point of view of being deaf definitely changed his music. So, we will even hear the music from a different point of view.”

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While he believes it will be transformative for hearing audiences, he said the goal is to offer the deaf community a profound and complete “Fidelio.”

To achieve this, the double cast does not simply replicate each other’s work but creates a dialogue between the two expressions. At some moments, the actors will be front and center with the singers behind. At other moments, they will interact, almost creating a dialog.

Arvelo said sometimes the characters appear to have an alter ego or physical representation of their soul. It is what he calls a choreography of energies guided by the narrative and the music.

Kurs said he thinks all music should be signed and this is a collaboration that he and Arvelo hope will continue with more operas performed this way.

“All of us who have come together around this project are deeply moved and honored by the challenge that lies ahead,” Arvelo said.

“Fidelio” by LA Philharmonic and Deaf West WHEN: Various times Thursday, April 14, to Saturday, April 16 WHERE: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles COST: Tickets start at $71 INFO: laphil.com

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Covered ARTS & California CULTUREwill help

Playwright Velina Hasu Houston’s work “Tea” will be presented by Hero Theatre.

Hero Theatre/Submitted

Hero Theatre pours cup of Japanese ‘Tea’

By Bridgette M. Redman LA Downtown News Contributing Writer ero Theatre knows that art can change the way people look at the world. It’s a mission running through everything they do.

This month — and running into mid-May — the theater is opening a modern classic with the goal of modeling social justice during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at a time when violence against AAPI people has been on the rise.

Velina Hasu Houston’s “Tea” tells the story of five Japanese women who are adjusting to life in rural Kansas after marrying American GIs after World War II. Originally produced in the mid-1980s, the play has been in production for the past 40 years. Hero Theatre will produce it at the Rosenthal Theatre at Downtown LA’s Inner-City Arts from Saturday, April 23, to Sunday, May 15.

The characters are based on people who Houston knew from when she was growing up in the Midwest with a Japanese mother and a half African American/half Native American father.

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The play is set in the late ’60s, focusing on war brides who married American soldiers during the American occupation of Japan. They aren’t a closeknit group, but when one of them dies by suicide, the others come together to clean her house and perform a ceremonial tea service.

The five women include the spirit of the dead Himiko Hamilton; the snooty Atsuko Yamamoto, who feels she is “above” the others because her husband is a Japanese American; the assimilated Chizuye Juarez, who loves coffee and is known as “Chiz” to her friends; Teruko MacKernzie, who is married to a white man; and the kindly Setsuko Banks, whose African American husband recently died.

While Houston is now a professor at USC in Downtown Los Angeles and has had her work performed worldwide, she grew up in a small Kansas town. She wanted that environment represented in the play.

“People in the United States think about multicultural experiences existing on the coasts,” Houston said.

“People who live and die on the coasts don’t understand that there’s a huge

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swath of American culture that emerges from the Midwest that is very different from life on the coast. For me, I wanted to explore my Japanese world, my immigrant world, as it existed in the small Kansas town so that people would understand the welfare of the people and hopefully understand the difference between Japanese and Japanese American culture.

“There are Japanese immigrants who are building lives in other parts of the country that we don’t think about, and those are areas in which the populations are largely white.”

While the play was written 40 years ago, “Tea” touches on a universal human experience.

One of the themes deals with isolation, with which Japanese female immigrants were intimately familiar.

“For these Japanese female immigrants, particularly in the 1960s, particularly in small-town Kansas, that kind of isolating social/political experience was par for the course,” Houston said.

“There’s something about being the stranger in a new land, being the new person at school, the new person in the neighborhood — that whole idea of being, if you will, foreign. When a foreign element comes into an environment that is somewhat close and homogenous, then the foreign element is going to find themselves isolated, misunderstood and marginalized.”

That is the case for the women in her story, who were disliked because they were war brides. The Japanese American community equally rejected them.

The community’s loyalty was tested because of the incarceration camps.

Many of them worked hard to prove they were loyal Americans and to shed anything Japanese.

The war brides are still wearing kimonos and have heavy accents. They represented a culture that many Japanese Americans had just put behind them.

The war brides spoke very broken English and found it difficult to go to the grocery store or put gas in their car or go for a walk. They were in fear for themselves and for their children. Houston witnessed this growing up — and it’s not restricted to the 1960s.

“In 2020, last year, we’re seeing this kind of anti-Asian sentiment rise up again in a very violent, ugly and loud way,” Houston said.

“So, to me, it means we need to hear more stories, more novels, more poetry, more films that explore experiences outside the mainstream, because if we do that, then you know it will be good for all of us because we’ll learn about things.”

The Hero Theatre’s resident director, Rebecca Wear, is leading a fully double-cast company, which includes Elaine Ackles, Olivia Cordell, Hiroko Imai, Tomoko Karina, Hua Lee, Yukari Black, Alix Yumi Cho, Ariel Kayoko Labasan, Sayaka Miyatani and Bolor Saruul.

There are separate casts for evening and matinee shows.

Houston has made changes to the script after seeing the show several times. After staging in the United States, Japan, Singapore and China, “Tea” had speed bumps, so she enriched the storytelling.

She didn’t rewrite any scenes, but she fortified certain areas so people would have a different experience. Audiences have struggled with a racist character, who considers herself better than the other Japanese female immigrants because she married a Japanese American rather than someone of a different race. She says negative things about Koreans, Blacks and other Japanese folks.

“Over the years, when people have said something to me about those speed bumps, they have a very narrow field of vision,” Houston said.

“For instance, Korean Americans will complain to me about what this character says about Koreans. African Americans will complain to me about what she says about Black people. But, somehow, they don’t see that the character is this way towards everybody. It’s just part of her nature to feel that, somehow, she’s exalted over other ethnicities, including her own people.”

She hopes people will understand it’s in the context of the play. The lines reflect one of five characters and not the entire play. She decided that, with this production, she strengthened how other characters respond to her. She hopes people will understand that the character’s words are about her point of view and that she isn’t the playwright’s mouthpiece.

She also hopes mixed-race cultures are better understood.

“While I don’t expect that I’m automatically going to get the reaction that I hope for, I hope that this will be a smoother experience for people that allows those ideas to be better illuminated,” Houston said.

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APRIL 11, 2022

Covered SPORTSCalifornia will help

Jon SooHoo celebrates in 2020 as the Dodgers capture the organization’s first World Series title since 1988.

Jon SooHoo/Submitted

Jon SooHoo reflects on sports photography career

By Jeff Moeller LA Downtown News Contributing Writer efore Jon SooHoo embarked on a career as a professional sports photographer, which has included thousands of baseball games and hundreds of different baseball players as the official team photographer of the Dodgers, he worked on his craft during his college days at USC. As the photo editor at the college newspaper, little did he know that one of his classmates would be someone SooHoo years later would try to capture, as that pupil turned out to be one of the baseball’s greatest pitchers of all time.

“At the Daily Trojan, I remember giving Randy Johnson his first photo assignment.

It was to capture the final The Who concert at the LA Coliseum. He shot the event, and it is one of so many rock concerts he has gone on to shoot as a really good photographer who has so many beautiful images,” SooHoo said. “He has enjoyed such a great post-baseball playing career, shooting photos, spending a big part of his life doing it, taking pictures with his Cannons.”

Ironically, it is Johnson’s cannon of a left arm that helped propel him from the Trojans baseball team and stint as school photographer to the Hall of Fame after a 22year big league career. SooHoo, of course, could not hit Johnson’s fastball. Nor could he figure out how to capture the essence of the 6-foot-10 Johnson standing on top of a 10-inch pitcher’s mound.

“The hardest thing for me with him was for the 400 millimeter — this is some geeky camera stuff — lens on a film body at Angel Stadium. When he pitched there, I could never fit him in horizontally. He would not fit. His head would cut off or his shoulder would cut off. I could not get his whole body in at Anaheim, and even at

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Dodger Stadium it was tough with how tall he is. My biggest issue with Randy Johnson … was his height,” SooHoo recalled.

“Jon SooHoo was very instrumental in getting my photography career started in college by allowing me to shoot for The Daily Trojan,” Johnson told LA Downtown News. “He would give me my assignments for the paper, and it was the foundation of my motion photojournalism major at USC.” Johnson never played for the Dodgers. But for so many of the hundreds and hundreds of players who have since 1985, the first year SooHoo began shooting games at Chavez Ravine, he has been a fixture, with camera in hand, helping document the journeys for one of the most popular and iconic sports brands in the world.

For SooHoo, the job has been the opportunity of a lifetime. Born in Boyle Heights, he attended LA Marshall High School in Los Feliz. He actually majored at USC in gerontology (the study of the aging process).

His most vivid childhood memories relating to photography date back to when he was in eighth grade. A fifth-generation Chinese American — his grandfather Peter is the founder of LA Chinatown — SooHoo’s uncle was active in taking family photos in and around the holiday season. It was during these times when SooHoo took his first photography class at school, where he quickly found himself immersed in the darkroom.

At USC, SooHoo worked as a lab technician, processing and developing all the film as the editors helped construct the periodical. As he reached his junior year, SooHoo was collecting photography equipment and building his own portfolio while taking advantage of USC’s nationally renowned athletic department by shooting football and basketball games on campus.

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Jon SooHoo covered Dave Roberts when he played for the Dodgers from 2002-04, and now again as the manager of the team.

Jon SooHoo/Submitted

On one day, he shot a women’s basketball game featuring future U.S. Olympian Cheryl Miller, and as he was wrapping up, Clippers team photographer Andy Bernstein arrived at the Sports Arena to prepare for that night’s NBA game. A friendship soon blossomed, with Bernstein getting ready to play a pivotal role in SooHoo’s burgeoning career.

“That was the start of the NBA photos. I would shoot the Clippers at USC and the Lakers at The Forum,” SooHoo said. “I have not graduated from college yet and I am shooting Magic Johnson and the Showtime era. It was a great way to get my feet wet.”

That was 1985, and Bernstein was also the official team photographer of the Dodgers. SooHoo arrived at historic Dodger Stadium with Bernstein then — and hasn’t really left.

“One of the things I am so lucky is that the Dodgers place a premium, a high value, on their photography. That began with club owner Peter O’Malley,” SooHoo said.

“I have always sort of been able to do my own thing, and collectively there is a great appreciation for the history here. I have shot the Dodgers now for 35 years.

“Take, for example, Dave Roberts. I covered him when he was a player here. Now I cover him as the manager here.”

What has helped make SooHoo successful is the type of content he strives to capture. The team plays 162 games. He does not overly focus on the play on the field. It is the behind-the-scenes access he is allowed that really helps tell the special story of the franchise.

“I am a photojournalist, but being on the team side I love the images that I take outside the playing lines. With social media you see more photos now off the field than ever before.”

Baseball more than just about any other sport is about patience, and patience is

critical to any good artist.

SooHoo loves the pace of a baseball game and the cadence of nine innings. He is, after all, quick to say he is not in any hurry while the game is going on, except for an occasional restroom break during play.

SooHoo’s approach to the job also was key, he felt, in the moment he took one of his favorite Dodgers photos of all time.

“It was Old Timer’s Game. I wanted Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw together, and I ended up getting a photo of them together walking down the hallway. It was just a moment when two legendary Dodger players were walking and talking — nothing out of the ordinary, really — but it wasn’t anything staged. Nobody else was in sight.

“It was just a baseball moment for them, but to me that photo will always be the favorite photo I have taken. It was 2015; it brought the old and the new, at that time, together.”

And, like any good photographer, there are also the ones that got away. It is just ironic that the first image that comes to SooHoo’s mind occurred some 20 years ago.

Yet he gets a regular reminder about it.

“Dave ‘Doc’ Roberts, our manager now, we were in Houston, and the field there in center field used to be configured in a strange way in that the centerfielder must go back on a deep flyball and sort of climb a mini hill with a flagpole as part of.

“That has since been removed, but he made a great play on a ball hit in that area. It was an amazing play he made, as not only did he catch the ball, but he also evaded a fan trying to snag it. I saw it, but the problem is that I saw it on TV. I had gone to the bathroom and was watching a monitor.

“I am happy to be pulled off the catch, but I am bummed I missed it. And he reminds me of it to this day. Often.”

One of his favorite photos, Jon SooHoo in 2015 captured a special moment featuring Dodgers legends Clayton Kershaw, left, and Sandy Koufax.

Jon SooHoo/Submitted

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APRIL 11, 2022

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Clippers, Crenshaw Skate Club unveil limited collab

By Jeff Moeller LA Downtown News Contributing Writer e is 18 years old. He attends Stanford University. And he is proving representation matters while becoming a source of inspiration for kids growing up in inner cities.

Tobey McIntosh does not play for the Clippers. But he is applying his craft for the team off the court, injecting the organization with his unique skill set, just like team stars Paul George and Kawhi Leonard do on the hardwood while wearing their Clippers gear.

Speaking of Clippers gear….

McIntosh and the Clippers recently unveiled the Clippers x CSC limited-edition collection. It dropped in late March with multiple goals — to empower kids while showing them someone who comes from their community can achieve whatever they want and to of course bring a new-look, cool design that appeals to Clipper Nation.

“Ever since I was a kid, I worked hard to make my ideas come to life. You are going to fail a bunch of times, but every time you fail you learn more about what it takes to be successful. That mindset of not wanting to give up has carried me through the four years of having this brand,” McIntosh said.

A special collaboration was created between the popular NBA team with a brand called Crenshaw Skate Club (CSC). The founder of that up-and-coming brand is a lifelong Clippers fan — the young McIntosh — who grew up going to games at Crypto. com Arena in Downtown Los Angeles with his family.

The new collection includes staples such as T-shirts, a hoodie, crew neck and a snapback hat. Each piece of merchandise features original artwork by McIntosh, who is also the founder of CSC. “When I started Crenshaw Skate Club, I did not envision it growing into a brand this large,” McIntosh said. “Making cool T-shirts is one thing. I think the overall message, however, goes beyond the clothing itself.”

Born out of Clippers fandom and a shared vision for the future of Los Angeles, one of the primary reasons the Steve Ballmer-led Clippers were drawn to McIntosh (he sometimes goes by Tobias), beyond his obvious artistic talent and work ethic, was CSC’s commitment to representing inner-city skaters in skate culture.

Marrying the worlds of skateboarding and basketball was a natural fit for the Clippers. The team is always looking for more supporters, and tapping into area youth at any level is always appealing.

McIntosh, from South Central LA — “I grew up in an area called The Don, where I

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Tobey McIntosh has partnered with the Clippers to launch a unique merchandise collaboration. The 18-year-old McIntosh sports the newly designed gear here with Clippers star Terance Mann.

Tim Hans/ LA Clippers/Submitted

made so many connections, had so many meaningful conversations” — noticed a certain amount of underrepresentation in the neighborhood he called home. He jumped at the chance to work with an NBA franchise.

“Every Clipper game I went to was me and my dad, together. Me being a Clippers fan helps it make more of an impact.”

CSC’s values of inclusion and representation are a nice match with the Clippers’ commitment to leveling the playing field and empowering the next generation to be great.

McIntosh has vivid memories in the Crenshaw District, where he skated with his friends around Leimert Park. At age 14, McIntosh started his new business venture largely because he said he did not see anyone who looked like him or his friends represented in skate culture.

From there he got to work, printing T-shirts for him and his friends. That, in turn, has helped lead into a rising brand, exponentially growing the business; hiring employees; and partnering with other streetwear brands, like Born x Raised and The Hundreds, and global brands like Lacoste and Jordan Brand, where he helped to rebuild the Crenshaw Family YMCA. Terance Mann, for one, is impressed.

“I love the collab. I love the coloring. I love the cartoon characters. He has had this vision since he was 14. To see him do that and do big things in his community is great to see,” the Clippers shooting guard said.

McIntosh said he likes Mann for his play on the court, and off the court the light that shines on Mann’s style and swagger.

Mann and McIntosh are now teammates with the Clippers, proving those with a special drive are indeed a source of inspiration for not only young creatives in Los Angeles but any kid growing up in an inner city across the country.

“If I had told my 10-year-old self about this, I would not have believed it,” the young entrepreneur admitted.

To learn more about the limited-edition collab, which is now available, visit the team’s website at clippers.com.

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