Downtown Los Angeles News 08-10-20

August 10, 2020 I VOL. 49 I #32

SERVING UP HERITAGE

Creating Safer Communities Private security innovator

Black Restaurant Week comes to LA

working with the city of LA Page 5

New Flavor McConnell’s creates boysenberry pie ice cream Page 7

Santee Passage Locals-only food hall to open soon Page 8

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The American Red Cross hosts Figueroa Street blood drive

By William Bergholz he American Red Cross is hosting blood drives at The FIGAT7TH Blood Drive, located at 735 S. Figueroa Street in Downtown, on August 11.

To make an appointment, visit redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code FIGAT7TH. All donations are now tested for COVID-19 antibodies.

The Red Cross is urging healthy individuals to give blood to restock the shelves for patients battling disease and facing the unexpected. Whole blood is frequently given to trauma patients and people undergoing surgery.

“Doing your part to stay healthy through this coronavirus pandemic takes many forms. One way you can make a difference is to donate blood if you’re eligible to donate. Our nation’s blood supply is vital to public health. Your donation could help save the lives of other COVID-19 patients,” said Christina Welch, the interim regional communications director, Southern California Region, American Red Cross.

For blood donation safety precautions and to protect the health and safety of Red Cross staff and donors, individuals who do not feel well or who believe they may be ill with COVID-19 should postpone their donation. Each Red Cross blood drive and donation center follows the highest standards of safety and infection control, and additional precautions, including temperature checks, social distancing and face coverings for donors and staff. These high standards have been implemented to help protect the health of all those in attendance. Donors are asked to schedule an appointment prior to arriving at the drive and are required to wear a face covering or mask while at the drive. This is in alignment with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public guidance.

All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients.

“COVID-19 patients develop antibodies in their blood. Proteins that might help fight the infection. So only those with complete resolution of symptoms for at least 14 days are qualified to donate. If you’re healthy and feel well, contact a local donation center so you can donate blood,” Welch said.

A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at checkin. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet cer-

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tain height and weight requirements.

On the day of their donation and before arriving at the blood drive, blood donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their predonation reading and health history questionnaire online. The instructions are at redcrossblood.org/rapidpass or use the Blood Donor App. Donation appointments can be made for the coming days and weeks by downloading the free Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enabling the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device.

“Blood donations for one unit of red blood cells take about 8 to 10 minutes. The blood is then sent to an ALYX machine for processing and testing, which takes about one hour and a half. Two to three days later, the blood is sent to a hospital, where it is distributed to hospital patients who need it,” Welch said.

As a thank you for helping ensure a stable blood supply, those who give blood before September 3 will receive a $5 Amazon.com gift card via email, courtesy of Amazon. They will be automatically entered for a chance to win a trip for four to Cedar Point in Ohio or Knott’s Berry Farm. This is redeemable through the 2021 season.

Regarding the American Red Cross’ plan for blood donations during and after the coronavirus, “The American Red Cross will continue to work with health officials to meet the hospital and patients’ needs,” Welch said.

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters, supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood, teaches skills that save lives, provides international humanitarian aid and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission.

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AUGUST 10, 2020

LA council votes to resume Care Plus Cleanup

By William Bergholz he Los Angeles City Council voted 10-4 on July 29 to resume The Care Plus Cleanup, which enforces the major cleanup of homeless encampments surrounding Los Angeles’ Bridge Home Shelters.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen. Mayor Eric Garcetti is set to make a decision soon.

“This 10-4 vote doesn’t mean the city has announced we will do this,” Garcetti said.

Among those who voted for the plan is Councilman Bob Blumenfeld.

“We made promises to the community that those areas would not become magnets for more encampments and for the buildups of items and trash,” he said. “This is a promise that LA needs to keep reducing future resistance to homeless shelters and housing.”

Councilman David Ryu, who voted against the plan, said, “Public health experts have made it absolutely clear that encampment sweeps during a pandemic are a bad idea.

Moving our unhoused neighbors around while they’re trying to stay safer at home is unsafe for them and unsafe for the community.”

Many Angelenos and activists called in to comment on the cleanup.

One Angeleno from Venice Beach said, “There have been a lot of broken promises to both the housed and the unhoused about how the cleanup of encampments would operate. Things aren’t being managed as the city had pledged.” Another Angeleno from Venice Beach said, “The trash is overwhelming now. It’s sad and disgusting. We’re going to end up with the bubonic plague.”

Some believe that cleanups displace and harass people who are experiencing homelessness, trash their crucial belongings, and put them at greater risk during the pandemic.

Many pointed out that Los Angeles’ existing shelters do not have enough room for all of

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the people experiencing homelessness on nearby streets.

Originally, the city of Los Angeles planned to spend $8.6 million to ensure round-theclock policing around the homeless encampments and shelter sites. However, budget reductions changed those plans.

All of Los Angeles’ districts have a Bridge Home, or temporary housing for people who are experiencing homelessness. One Bridge Home usually houses 80 to 100 homeless people. The Bridge Homes have services for homeless people to transition to having a new home. These services include teams that use data-driven tools to provide public health services to encampments, identify areas of highest need and ensure that the hardest-hit areas receive regularly scheduled cleanups and hygiene services. The teams also receive specialized mental health training and deliver public health resources, including daily trash collection and mobile restrooms.

When the coronavirus pandemic began, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health didn’t want the city of Los Angeles to make any alterations to the homeless encampments, because it might expose the homeless people to the disease. As a result, many efforts to resolve the LA’s homeless crisis, including The Care Plus Cleanup, were put on hold. This vote of 10-4 is the resuming of that cleanup.

When The Care Plus Cleanup is in action, the homeless people receive a notice from LA Sanitization and Bureau Street Services and LASA. The notice lets them know that they have between 48 to 72 hours before The Care Plus Cleanup comes. When the cleaners arrive, the homeless people are given half an hour to move before the cleaning begins. The cleaning includes tent removal and the steam cleaning of sidewalks and streets. The cleanups usually take anywhere from two hours to the entire day. The homeless people are not prohibited from returning.

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James Caspari is a private security innovator who is the founder and CEO of DTLA Patrol and LAPS—two companies that patrol different parts of Los Angeles and offer a variety of security services.

Photo by Marcel Indik

Private security innovator aims to create safer communities

By Kamala Kirk he highly publicized deaths of individuals like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, in addition to the recent protests, have shed light on police practices and violence, which has led many to demand reform and justice.

In response to the communities’ pleas for police reform, private security innovator James Caspari is working to partner with the city of Los Angeles to help make communities safer.

“LAPD has been defunded by $150 million, and we can take over lower-level crimes for a fraction of that,” Caspari said. “We can free up police time and resources to allow them to focus on high-level crime. Ideally through this partnership, we would like for the city to designate a section of Los Angeles to my patrolmen and I for a little over a year as sort of a test run, allowing us to prove the value and effectiveness of our services.”

Caspari founded Downtown Los Angeles Patrol (DTLA Patrol) and Los Angeles Professional Security (LAPS) 10 years ago. DTLA Patrol operates mostly in Downtown LA, while LAPS operates within the county of Los Angeles and is equipped with a K-9 unit. Both provide professional security services to apartment buildings, large shopping centers,

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entertainment venues, national fastfood chains and other places. Services include everything from video monitoring and vacation watch to patrol and alarm response, and more.

“We have a duty to protect our clients; the police have no such duty,” Caspari pointed out. “We have more power than a police officer on private property.

For example, if a business owner doesn’t want anyone on-site without a mask, we will enforce that along with any other rules. We also monitor cameras on clients’ property. If we see someone climb the fence and go inside, we will alert the police then search the building and arrest anyone inside, prepare a report and hand our arrestee over to local police.

On public space we have zero authority.”

Caspari’s team consists of a dense network of male and female officers in the field who are trained in theft prevention, parking enforcement, vandalism control, gang suppression, transient eviction and more. All officers wear state-of-the-art Axon Body 3 cameras to promote transparency and accountability while on the job.

“You can’t sit or kneel on someone’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and think that is acceptable behavior,” Caspari said. “Our new model of law enforcement transparency will prevent Continued on page 6

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Continued from page 5

tragic situations like this from happening again. If a wrongdoing is found, the officer will be suspended without pay and we will figure out what occurred. If there is no camera footage, we will automatically believe the victim. I believe in doing the right thing—transparency is key.”

As a preliminary step of the partnership with the city of LA, Caspari and his team would meet with the community in that sector to determine their role and expectations, including but not limited to how to be transparent, consequences for mistakes, negligence, gross misconduct and when to make contact. After taking over low-level crimes in LA, Caspari hopes to apply this new service in other markets that have a defunded police force. He also wants a federally regulated security force license that will grant his patrolmen advanced powers like the ability to take an arrestee to jail—something they are currently unable to do.

“If someone hits an employee at a fast-food chain with a metal pipe and crosses the street, we should be able to arrest him, but currently we can’t because he is off property,” said Caspari. “It’s unlikely in certain areas the police will respond, because they are too busy with high-level police work. Let us train at the academy and use the scenario simulator at the station. Right now, it’s very segregated. I believe together we can make Los Angeles a safer place for everyone with transparency.”

There are various properties in Los Angeles that LAPS patrols, and as a result, police have stopped or slowed patrol to those areas because they no longer receive low-level crime calls. Caspari and his team deter crime on surrounding properties as well because they have so many officers in the area, and the lack of police presence has turned them into the only local law enforcement doing low-level policing.

“LAPS has seen great success and reinvested it right into the equipment, the technology, the officer, the training, the dispatch team and more,” said Caspari. “So why not expand and let it be publicly funded? We want to help the cities that need us most. We would offer the community transparency far beyond the current transparency model of law enforcement. We can set the tone for a new wave of law enforcement. This is security by the people for the people.”

For more information, visit dtlapatrol.com and losangelesprofessionalsecurity.com.

AUGUST 10, 2020

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McConnell’s creates boysenberry pie ice cream

By William Bergholz cConnell’s Fine Ice Cream is celebrating summer with a new flavor, boysenberry pie.

Boysenberry pie features McConnell’s sweet cream base infused with housemade boysenberry jam and rye clusters—a nod to pie crust.

This McConnell’s flavor is available in the shop as well as for shipment to McConnell’s Pint of the Month Club subscribers ($144 for a three-month membership).

During the coronavirus pandemic, McConnell’s has pivoted from the food business to the food safety business. As a result, McConnell’s instituted new protocols. McConnell’s employees have set up temporary point-of-sale systems at the front of the stores, along with plexiglass barriers. The servers wear face masks and gloves and maintain a distance between themselves and the customers to ensure McConnell’s front-line scoopers and personnel and customers are safe.

McConnell’s isn’t just an ice cream shop. It has a diary in Downtown Santa Barbara, where staff members make their product from scratch, including the inclusions and swirls.

“Everything we serve to our customers we make,” said Michael Palmer, McConnell’s owner and chief executive officer.

For the production of boysenberry pie, McConnell’s takes in raw Central Coast milk and cream from the farm in the Paso Robles area, pasteurizes it, homogenizes it and ages it to make the ice cream base. Staff members then take boysenberries and cook them into a jam.

The ice cream base is frozen in machinery, and the jam is folded into the ice cream. The ice cream is then fused with the boysenberry jam.

To that, pieces of rye piecrust are added, which are made in the McConnell’s bake room, a full-scale kitchen on-site at the dairy. For packaging, McConnell’s has a pint line, where containers are hand filled. The McConnell’s packaging design is done in house with its own design team.

Founded in 1949, McConnell’s opened its Downtown Los Angeles store in 2014.

Now in its third generation of ownership, the family behind McConnell’s focuses on creating perfectly balanced scoops; the higher percentage of milkfat and lower percentage

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of overrun results in a great product. Along with being sold at McConnell’s stores all across America, McConnell’s ice cream is also available in grocery stores, on McConnell’s website, as well as Postmates, DoorDash and Seamless.

“We’re the only company in our competitive class, our competitive set, nationally, that’s not owned by private equity,” Palmer said.

“We’re still an independent company, still family owned and operated. We’re going to continue to grow slowly, and we’re going to continue to look for opportunities and seize them in that respect, as we always have.

“At the end of the day, ice cream is something that brings a smile to people’s faces, and people have really been tested by this virus. People have been largely sitting inside their homes or their workspaces for the better part of six months. There’s a tremendous amount of pent-up demand for getting our lives back to normal or some version of what normal is.”

McConnell’s ice cream, he added, is one of those products that brings smiles to people’s faces and reminds them of happy times and memories.

“If we can be that little bit of happiness that brings a smile to people’s faces, in these times, as they continue to be challenging, then we’re doing our job,” he said.

At McConnell’s, new flavors are released every six to eight weeks. On August 4, McConnell’s shops introduced s’mores ice cream. For this flavor, McConnell’s infuses its ice cream base with toasted vanilla beans to create marshmallow ice cream, then folds in McConnell’s bittersweet chocolate sauce and housemade graham cracker chunks.

McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams Grand Central Market 317 S. Broadway, Downtown Los Angeles 213-346-9722, mcconnells.com 1 to 8 p.m. daily

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Covered FOOD California will help

Locals-only ‘Santee Passage’ food hall to open soon

By Sarah Donahue owntown will soon be home to another food hall, but this one prioritizes giving first-generation business owners a space to try their concept in a hip open-air environment instead of pop-up stands.

“We want to create essentially a community-based food hall that is not populated by Starbucks or those kinds of major retail players of the world,” said Nam Trang, portfolio manager at Essex Property Trust, developer of Santee Passage and the Santee Court Apartments above it.

The purpose for Santee Passage at 700 S. Los Angeles Street is to “hone in the up-

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and-coming Angeleno concepts and incubate them to potentially give them a platform to grow, and hopefully they become something bigger than what they are today,” Trang said.

The first two tenants at the 23,000-square-foot building hope to open within the few months. They are Vegan Hooligans, a pop-up restaurant serving vegan comfort food since 2018, and Virtu Coffee, making its debut within Santee Passage.

Other future tenants include Holy Basil, a DTLA pop-up serving Bangkok street food, as well as Korean-inspired BBQ+RICE and specialty beverage retailer The_Base.

AUGUST 10, 2020

“Our end goal is you can be dirt poor but if you make this amazing concept, we’ll find a way to put you in there,” Trang said. Many tenants have a cult following in the community, where they constantly get requests for a physical location, he said.

Vegan Hooligans runs its pop-up restaurant by renting out an Eagle Rock 1950s diner after hours and using its kitchen. The pop-up has almost 45,000 followers on Instagram and is known for its fast-food favorites like the McDonald’s McRib and Taco Bell’s Crunch Wrap.

“What we want to do is reach out to the whole community and not just vegans,” said owner Jose Mejia. “The biggest misconception is that a lot of vegan food just consists of salads and fruits and stuff like that.”

Vegan Hooligans is the only all-vegan vendor in Santee Passage, which Mejia said has its benefits. If everything goes to plan, they hope to be open for business in the next three weeks, he said.

The space at Santee Passage will allow them to offer their new widely anticipated breakfast menu featuring breakfast burritos and chilaquiles, Mejia said, also mentioning that they’ll keep running their pop-up in Eagle Rock.

“That’s the location where I was born and raised, and I definitely want to stay

Virtu Coffee owners Justin Geeter and James Fastiggi anticipate their concept in Santee Passage will open in October or November.

Photo courtesy Virtu Coffee

back and continue to serve my community,” he said.

The developers of Santee Passage aren’t just signing leases with anyone; they are taking their time to select the best vendors that will create an authentic Angeleno food hall.

Rather than have a bunch of similar food options, Santee Passage strategically chooses unique vendors to offer a variety of tastes and flavors, also offering spaces for offices and boutiques, Trang said.

Becoming a part of Santee Passage is almost like dating in a way, Trang explained.

He said he gets to know potential tenants for sometimes as long as six months, meeting with them often to taste the products and ask them their goals and values as a business before he decides if they are a good fit.

“There are two reasons why people want to go into the restaurant business,” Trang said. “One is because they want to make money” and two is because they “want to share the concept with the rest of the world.”

Younger “mom-and-pop” vendors who want to make a difference in themselves and their community are most likely to get the green light to move in, Trang said.

While Pizza Hut will be grandfathered in, as it was a legacy tenant in the building,

Jose Mejia, owner of Vegan Hooligans, prepares food on the grill in the company of his girlfriend, Ashley Ellis.

Submitted photo

AUGUST 10, 2020

the other spaces will be reserved for local Downtown LA business owners, he said.

“It’s not so much about the rent, but it’s about finding the right people who can add value to the project and ultimately add value to the community as a whole,” said Trang, adding Essex Properties doesn’t plan to profit much from the project.

Already a little community has been formed among all the vendors, as they have lunch and hang out often, said Justin Geeter, co-owner of Virtu Coffee.

“It’s not just big companies coming in,” Geeter said.

“He’s definitely doing a good job vetting businesses and making sure everybody has their own place and has something to contribute.”

Santee Passage is a couple of blocks away from Skid Row. That being said, the creators seek out tenants who want to accentuate the community and give back, Trang explained. Most of the tenants already have plans to volunteer and provide assistance programs for unhoused individuals, he added.

“Obviously next to Skid Row there are always issues that kind of come with that,” he said. “The neighborhood is gentrifying already, but we want to do it in a manner where it is part of a community versus us coming in and essentially pushing people out.”

Anyone is free to walk through the courtyard, and they strategically select vendors who offer a wide range in prices to work for just about everyone’s wallet, he explained.

“We’re not just about making all these high-end concepts and just gravitating toward one demographic; there’s ultimately something for everybody,” Trang said.

Virtu Coffee will make its first launch in Santee Passage in October or November, according to Geeter, who created the coffee concept with James Fastiggi.

“The situation keeps getting pushed back further and further,” he said. The first-time coffee shop owners signed their lease in January and anticipated opening in June, but due to the pandemic’s spread their opening was significantly delayed.

However, with the building’s open-air design, he said they soon hope to serve coffee with a fun, music-filled atmosphere while following the rules of social distancing.

“We’re optimistic,” Geeter said. “People drink coffee and they’re going to drink their coffee no matter what, and we don’t necessarily have to have people seated to provide them with that product.”

COVID-19 has hindered Santee Passage’s ability to open overall. Construction permits that would normally take two to three weeks to process now take two to three months and many people don’t want to open a business in the current state of our world, Trang said.

“We expected more lease-up, and obviously, with the economy how it is right now, it’s definitely challenging to effectively ask somebody to open a business when they don’t necessarily know what the future is going to bring,” Trang explained.

The property managers and tenants said they are playing everything by ear and accomplishing what they can, based on the changing guidelines. Trang said they soon hope to be able to have the bustling, music-filled Los Angeles food hall they envisioned once the pandemic becomes more controlled.

Despite the unprecedented challenges COVID-19 presents new first-time business owners, the owners of Virtu Coffee say they believe in each other and that the community will support them.

“This is our community. Especially with the way it is now, we want to push it and make sure that we’re not all giving up on Downtown, or just anywhere, because of the situation we’re living in,” Geeter said.

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Black Restaurant Week was founded by, from left, Derek Robinson, Falayn Ferrell and Warren Luckett.

Photo courtesy Black Restaurant Week

Black Restaurant Week Los Angeles serves up heritage

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski ince Nubia Stephens opened Downtown’s Numaade Café in March, she’s endured forced closings due to the COVID-19 pandemic and riots.

Thanks to Black Restaurant Week, which runs through Sunday, August 16, Nuumade Café is getting the recognition the eatery deserves and needs.

“I’m participating to get awareness out there,” Stephens said. “Any kind of advertising I can do is great. It’s been difficult.”

Numaade Café, which, Stephens said, focuses “on the healthier side,” is one of a handful of restaurants participating in Black Restaurant Week throughout the LA area.

The trio of founders hope the event will bring dollars to eateries like Numaade Café—at 548 S. Spring Street, Suite 114— that are struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Supporting the entire culinary industry, from farm to table, is necessary for providing more opportunities for the whole community to thrive,” said Black Restaurant Week founder Warren Luckett.

“From the increased exposure for blackowned restaurants on our new national website to the professional business guidance gained from the educational events, Black Restaurant Week helps businesses expand its customer base and receive re-

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sources for ongoing success.”

The palate-pleasing showcase celebrates more than the flavors of African American, African and Caribbean cuisines.

“There are a lot of Harold & Belle’s-type restaurants that have been in business for more than 50 years,” said Black Restaurant Week co-founder Falayn Ferrell.

“We have some newer restaurants, like Numaade Café. We have vegan restaurants, barbecue, Memphis grill and Caribbean restaurants. It’s definitely a mixture, and that’s the beauty of it. We’re not monolithic in our food. We’re not just soul food. You can find a bit of everything. Gwen’s Specialty Cakes and Catering has wonderful pecan tartes. There’s literally something for everyone to try during the week—sit-down, formal or fast casual.”

Stephens specializes in sandwiches with fresh ingredients—no additives or lunchmeat here.

“I have a chicken chipotle sandwich that’s popular, and a vegan protein cheesecake, too,” she said. “People can’t believe it has 18 grams of protein in it. I’m baking them now because they sell out really quickly.

“I do no-sugar-added desserts and lots of vegan, gluten-free, salads, sandwiches, wraps and soups. We roast our own turkey and we use roasted chicken for our sand-

wiches and salads. Everything is fresh and top-grade quality. When you get your sandwich, we serve it with chips as a special treat.”

During Black Restaurant Week, foodies, culinary influencers, locals and guests will be treated to prix-fixe brunch, lunch and dinner menus at participating restaurants within the area. Foodies can also participate in virtual cultural events, too.

“We usually have live events,” she said.

“That’s how we showcase the caterers, the food trucks and bartenders. However, we’ve had to suspend live events. We are still able to do digital programming.

“One of the things we always do is a business panel discussion with SoCalGas. We have resources businesses can use. We’re having a virtual bartending competition with Maker’s Mark featuring 16 bartenders from all over the country. They have a chance to win $5,000.”

Set during a time of financial uncertainty and injustice incidents, Black Restaurant Week waived the financial participation fee for all restaurants.

Luckett and Ferrell co-founded the week with Derek Robinson in 2016 as a one-city food experience.

“It started in Houston as a way to connect the local community to the Black culinary industry, bartenders and caterers,” Ferrell said. “We created restaurant week to bring community awareness to what restaurants existed in the local neighborhood and to help the small businesses that

didn’t have the marketing budget to do mass citywide campaigns on their own.”

Since then, the culinary experience has expanded to 11 cities with involvement from 270 minority businesses and professionals nationwide.

“Houston was a really great success, so in 2017, we expanded and added Atlanta and Oakland,” she said. “In 2018, we added New Orleans, Philadelphia and Dallas. Last year, we premiered LA. We were testing the waters to see if it would be a good fit.

“This year is our most aggressive year.

We have 11 campaigns. We want to help as many businesses as possible recover from COVID.” During “normal” times, businesses fail because the community didn’t know they existed, she said.

“They didn’t know about some of these local gems in their neighborhood,” Ferrell said. “We wanted to see who the Blackowned businesses are in different cities.

Some have said, ‘All we have is soul food.’

We did some digging and we’ve found African and Caribbean restaurants. We want to expand that awareness.”

Ferrell said she hopes the efforts snowball.

“We understand you’re not going to eat at all participating restaurants during the week,” she said. “But now they have this awareness. We hope guests will say, ‘I didn’t get to try that during Black Restaurant Week. Let me try it now.’ We want to continue the conversation.”

Black Restaurant Week blackrestaurantweeks.com

AUGUST 10, 2020

DOWNTOWN NEWS 11

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Raffle to benefit Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski he Pasadena Jaycees have teamed up with local race car driver Jonathan Eshom to create the “Race for Relief” raffle, which will help benefit communities most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Jaycees, Eshom and his team, US Racetronics, wanted to highlight that minority communities have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and this raffle will help raise funds to give back to those communities. Funds will go toward hygiene kits that the Pasadena Jaycees will distribute to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Friends in Deed, Foothill Unity Center and the Downtown Women’s Shelter.

“I think it is important to highlight social and economic injustices,” Eshom said.

Team Principal Shane Seneviratne added, “We are excited that Jonathan wants to

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create change in the community, and we are even more excited that he has chosen to involve the team in this raffle.”

Raffle tickets are $10, and each of the three winners will get to experience what it is like to be a race car driver for the day.

They will receive up to five laps, at speed, in a Lamborghini Super Trofeo race car. In addition, their name will be featured on the car as if they were the actual driver.

The raffle closes on Friday, August 14, and the winners will be announced the following Monday.

To enter the raffle, go to pasadenajaycees.org/raffle.

The Pasadena Jaycees began in 1929 and have been a volunteer and leadership training organization for people aged 21 to 40 ever since. For more information about joining or about any of the Jaycees’ other projects, visit pasadenajaycees.org or email info@pasadenajaycees.org.

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Covered California will help ARTS & CULTURE

The Music Center showcasing local artists this fall

By LA Downtown News Staff he Music Center is gearing up to celebrate creativity in the community—all for the love of LA. Through the new digital series of the same name, For the Love of LA, The Music Center will give more than 35 local artists— from areas such as music, dance, visual culture and more—a means to show their current views of the city.

Up to three new works will be shared on Instagram every Tuesday from August 11 to October 27, with the complete creations as well as artists’ biographies and statements showcased on The Music Center Offstage, a virtual platform through which the organization curates programming such as original artwork.

For the Love of LA projects will include video, such as documentation of a performance; photography, including art photography, photo essays or documentation of another visual art form; and creative writing. The public is also encouraged to contribute their own works, some of which may be shared by The Music Center on social media.

“For the Love of LA will highlight the broad and expansive array of Angeleno

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creativity across diverse disciplines and geographies,” explained Josephine Ramirez, executive vice president, TMC Arts. “In addition to presenting new works by professional artists, we hope that members of the LA community, from all ages and corners of the county, will join us in a collective effort to express ourselves in ways that spark joy, share a perspective on the times, and reflect and shape the world.”

One of the frist pieces is a five-minute collage of photos, poetry and music highlighting current events like social distancing and political uprising. The work is helmed by photographer Rafael Cardenas and scored by Eddika Edule Organista, with poetry by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Joshua Evans, Féi Hernandez, Jenise Miller and Jasmine Williams.

Two other launch pieces include screen printing from visual artist Yaneli Delgado spotlighting various minority communities and a contemplative experience from painter Manuel López, who will complement a landscape drawing of an East Los Angeles neighborhood with sound and animation.

Beyond these initial works, For the Love of LA will present a photo essay from

Ken Gouw and Jonathan Eshom in the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO. Photo courtesy Pasadena Jaycees

photographer Stephanie Mei-Ling and a painting from artist Amani Holbert. Ethiopian musicians Kibrom Birhane and Etsegenet Mekonnen, DJ/musician/composer Mark de Clive-Lowe and Brazilian jazz vocalist Thalma de Freitas will perform music, too. Additionally, vocalist San Cha and artist Maria Maea will meld the fields of music and visual arts.

Guest curators include Marvella Muro, director of programs for Self Help Graphics & Art; Ed Barguiarena, a musician, composer and producer; Raélle Dorfan, executive director for Dance Resource Center; Karen Mack, founder and executive director of LA Commons; Lotti Rippon, who handles events and special projects for DUBLAB, in collaboration with Quarantine Gallery co-founders Max Rippon and Kate Emery; and multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Dexter Story.

More artists and curators will be announced, and artists are subject to change.

“While the challenges of the times we are in make it difficult to connect with each other in a meaningful way, The Music Center remains committed to its vision of deepening the cultural lives of all in Los Angeles by offering programs that help create those connections through the power of the arts,” said Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO, The Music Center.

“For the Love of LA will not only showcase the creativity and resiliency of artists and community members from across the county in the present but also provide a time capsule that will document this moment through art. We’ll be able to reflect on what was in our hearts and minds and know we were able to lift each other up through creative expression and cultural participation.”

For more information, visit musiccenter. org/tmc-offstage/for-the-love-of-la or follow The Music Center on Instagram @MusicCenterLA.

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