So I definitely take great pride in wearing both uniforms.

I didn't think I would still be in the Marine Corps after 24 years.

There aren't very many of us on the fire department that are still actively in the reserves.

In the Marine Corps, I'm master gunnery sergeant, Nicholas Darcy.

I've been in the Marines for 24 years now.

Did five years active duty, been in the reserves ever since, and then on the fire department, it's firefighter paramedic, and I've been on the fire department since 2007, so about almost going on 19 years.

My name's David Arriano, an inspector with the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

I've been on the fire department for 22 years.

I'm also in the United States of Marines Reserves.

I hold the rank of master gunnery sergeant.

I've been faithfully serving for the past 28 years.

I was born in East LA.

My dad was LAPD, so kind of a hard individual.

His dad, my grandpa was a World War II Marine who was a Purple Heart recipient during the Battle of the Pacific and specifically on the island of Guadalcanal.

So he was brought up by a Marine, and he pretty much volunt my brother and I that we were going to be going to the Marine Corps after we graduated from high school.

My name is Jason Knoll.

I'm a master gunnery sergeant retired in the United States Marine Corps.

I did 29 years of service with the Marine Corps.

I've been with the Los Angeles Fire Department for about 17 years at this point.

I was born in Torrance, raised in Hermosa Beach.

When I was in high school, there was a Marine Corps ROTC program.

I found out I wanted to join the Marine Corps, mostly because I got to see the Marines that were running the program there.

I grew up in Castag, a little town outside of Santa Cruz, and being outside as much as I did kind of gave me the reason why I wanted to become a Marine.

So I default to Operation Iraqi Freedom because that's most um memorable of my deployments, obviously going to Iraq.

In Iraq, we were doing convoys, a lot of convoys.

We were doing a lot of protection of diplomats, the ambassador, you know, generals, stuff like that.

Through Iraqi freedom, enduring freedom, our other missions that we did was shipboarding.

We probably boarded a dozen ships that were suspected Al-Qaeda ships, and we would search them with other branches of the military and team who was a terrorist and who wasn't, and then just escorting ships through very dangerous waters.

As far as how it impacted me, I would say it gave me a great appreciation and deeper love for our nation, our military, and deep down pride of what I was doing and you know helping people.

When I was in Iraq, we were uh in Kuwait.

We were like living in a large tent city, and there was an electrical fire, and it burned down all of our tents, all of our equipment burned down, all of our personal belongings burned down.

We all tried to put it out with the fire extinguishers, but none of us had any like formal training on how to like extinguish a fire.

At that point, I started to have the desire to know what to do in that situation.

So then I started pursuing fire tech classes, and uh that's what kind of sent me on the path to end up being a firefighter.

While I was in the Marine Corps, um the decision to look towards the LAFD was not really a decision that I made.

Growing up in the in the 90s, everyone wanted to be a firefighter, and I didn't think that it was something that that was really possible for me to do.

Not because I wasn't strong enough, but I just didn't know anything about it.

And so I went to the Marine Corps, kind of found my voice, but I still didn't have any direction towards the fire department.

My mom, God bless her soul, she worked in the city, and she was like, come downtown with me to a fire and police expo, and hesitantly I I just honored her and um went downtown and filled out one of those green interest cards, and from that from that interest card came this job.

It's a wonderful testament to the dedication that my mom had to raise her son and to put me in a position that can provide for my family in the future.

It means a lot to have fellow firefighters in the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

There are also fellow master gunnery sergeants in the Marine Corps reserves to get to that level of rank in the Marine Corps.

It's not an easy task.

In fact, the percentage of Marines that do attain that rank are less than one percent.

It's an incredible feat.

When you're the rank of gunnery sergeant, you choose which path you want to go with in the Marine Corps.

You can either become a first sergeant, sergeant major, which is in charge of the administrations of the Marine Corps, or you can choose to be a technical expert, which is the Master Sergeant, Master Gunnery Sergeant.

So it's a pretty difficult to obtain the rank.

There's not that many of them within the Marine Corps reserves, and then to have two other ones just within our own departments, pretty remarkable.

We each have separate jobs, so we're all master gunnery sergeants, but each one of us has a different discipline that we handle.

So master gunnery sergeants are unique amongst their MOS or their uh job.

So with myself, I'm infantry.

So as a master gunnery sergeant in the infantry, my role is what's called an operations chief.

So I am basically in charge of a command working for a commanding officer, their tactics and their operations.

So anything on a tactical level, I am setting up, I am orchestrating, I'm organizing, and you know, also when units are deployed, I'm tracking where they're at, when they're coming back, where they're gonna be, how they're gonna get there, and stuff like that.

With my position, I get to directly work with hundreds of Marines and sailors.

So the joy I get is just helping with guys' proficiency, you know, in the military, just like the fire department, what we do is a matter of life and death.

So the better you are at your job, the safer you're gonna be.

And to have men and women over the last 20 years that I run into to tell me I appreciate everything you did, and this is years later, and they're like, you know, you set me up for successful future and you know deployments.

So just being able to be that person that helps somebody be so proficient that when they do deploy, they feel safe.

So the Marine Corps is all about teamwork, right?

You you take the best of everybody who you're working with, you bring it together so that you can accomplish the mission.

And those skills are transferable to the fire department just as is.

Being good at one makes me better at the other.

What we do in the Marines is very parallel to the fire department.

You know, we're working as a team, following orders, respecting people's experience above me.

The fire department and the military is not about age, it's not about rank per se, it's about your experience as well.

And there's many people out there that you know have a lot to learn from.

So bringing that over to the fire department was just natural progression.

And then just the fire department, you know, it's such a great organization.

Working in LA, working for LAFD in particular, I couldn't ask for two better careers, two better um paths, and they take great care of me.

I mean, the fire department allows me to do this.

If it wasn't for the support of the Los Angeles City Fire Department, I wouldn't be able to even maintain this career with the Marine Corps.

I find it important to serve as a firefighter and as a Marine primarily to give an example to my kids.

I want them to know that there's a lot of honor in serving, being a civil servant, someone who helps others, and I think that giving that type of service is one of the best ways to show that.

Veterans Day, it means a lot because not only have I spent the past almost three decades serving, but that would mean that my family has also done the same in one way or another.

It's not just the veterans, it's the family that that is supporting that veteran and numerous amount of spouses and kids that have had to go through multiple deployments.

That appreciation for veterans extends very far, and it's deeply appreciated.

So Veterans Day, for me goes back to way before I was in the Marine Corps.

My grandfather, he was a Pearl Harbor survivor.

He was at Pearl Harbor when his bombed.

So when he passed away between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, you know, those holidays mean a lot because we've had an interesting history in America as far as you know how each veteran has been recognized and how our you know the public perceived them.

And you know, we've had times where they were, you know, heroes, and we've had times, you know, that people weren't recognized as well, like Vietnam era.

So if you know a veteran, whether you thank him or just give them a pat or a hug.

They do appreciate it, especially the older veterans that you know may not have felt that love when they got out of the service.

For me, you know, showing that love and respect and honoring those people that came before me.

And the ones that are still serving, you know, and teaching my children that respect, it means a lot to me, and uh, you know, I hope that you know everybody else can show you know them that respect.

I've had a longstanding interest in time capsules.

Uh I love LA history, especially unique history and things that involve uh building and technical challenges such as this.

So it's been a lot of fun trying to navigate the different aspects of this project to get it to really happen.

It took us just about a year to figure out logistically how we were going to extract the time capsule.

We knew from just a couple photographs from May 3rd of 1925 when the Board of Library Commissioners uh formally dedicated the building by placing the time capsule in the cornerstone, and really not much more information than that to go by.

I mean, the biggest challenge was the fact that they never put out instructions or gave a plan for how we were supposed to get it out.

There was no access hatch or door or um clear method really for retrieving this at all.

We couldn't proceed without first being able to verify that it was still where we thought it was.

So we could drill some small holes into the grout line between the cornerstone and the other limestone blocks on the building facade.

We were able to drill these holes and run in a little boroscope camera, and almost immediately we were able to locate the box.

Prior to this, we were assuming that we were going to have to remove limestone blocks from the wall above the cornerstone, try to lift it up and uh basically remove the box as an exact reverse engineering of the way that it was initially placed and installed.

Through that process, we were able to determine that it would make more sense from a historic preservation perspective to go in through the interior of the building, which happens to be the men's restroom.

We we were able to take out a couple historic marble wall panels that will be replaced after the work is done.

We even had to cap off the plumbing that was obstructing our path to get at the actual time capsule.

But here is what I really wanted to show off at this stage because this is kind of really cool.

So this material here, these are terracotta blocks that are used in a lot of parts of the building, but this section is unique because it's actually just bricking over this square entry.

And so the next step was to drill Jack Hammer and break out enough of that block to expose the back side of this massive limestone cornerstone, and then hammer away, chisel cut until we could get the the back section of the cornerstone itself removed and then finally hammered away enough to actually pull the box out.

It took about a week to access the box itself and then additional time to repair the wall and reopen the restroom.

This was really meant to represent an institution at a moment in time.

In the original board of library commissioner meeting minutes, they submitted a list of the contents of the time capsule.

So this is uh currently all that we have to go on in terms of what to expect.

There's an immense sense of anticipation, but the journey of retrieving this, the box itself is an artifact, is an amazing thing, and uh whatever it contains will be valuable institutional history, if not something more indicative of life in Los Angeles.

We had to treat it with a lot of care to make sure that we didn't damage the contents.

This is a custom-made copper box that was soldered shut on all sides.

So we ended up drilling a hole just big enough to get some manual shears in so it could be hand cut around the perimeter of the lid.

The contents of the time capsule are remarkably well preserved, especially given the fact that they were sitting in the middle of our wall for a full hundred years.

One of the things that was on the list was photographs of the previous locations of the Central Library.

But what we didn't expect was that it would be compiled in this beautiful scrapbook, The Homes of the Los Angeles Public Library.

It's just really nice to see the care and attention that was put into preserving this, starting with the Downey Block on Temple in Maine, the old city hall in Los Angeles, the Homer Laughlin building downtown, the hamburger building, another department store, and the Metropolitan Building before you finally get this view of it says present building, but it's actually a painting because it was still in construction at that time.

This list of the employees of the Los Angeles Public Library is a really beautiful thing because, as simple as it is, it's presented with dignity and pride that really shows that they valued the contributions of everybody on the staff to help make the institution what it was.

Even on the first page here, you've got, of course, the city librarian Everett Perry at the top, but uh right below that is janitorial workers for Central Library, like a gentleman named Doc Cooksie.

This is another really interesting document here: a statement from the architects of the Central Library.

The statement really gets into some of the challenges that they face from an architectural and engineering perspective throughout the course of the building.

And like the library itself.

This statement includes the names of all of the draftsmen who worked in the architect's office and helped design this amazing library.

One of the most vague or kind of wildcard items on our inventory list of what was in our capsule was all of the contents of the cornerstone of the normal school building that was on this site before the library was built.

Uh the normal school opened here in 1882 and later would become UCLA and moved to Westwood.

We sort of had a time capsule within the R Time Capsule.

One of the most unique pieces certainly from the 1881 normal school capsule is this, which is refers to itself as a relic from the catafalque obsequious of President Garfield.

And we have a little bit of helpful context from our 1925 librarians who've included a couple of typewritten notes on blank catalog cards.

This one says, The year 1881 was also the year of the assassination of President Garfield.

The bit of black cloth and the dried moss are mementos from the funeral.

The badge was one worn by the members of a local engine company in the memorial services.

The population of Los Angeles in 1881 was only 11,183.

So the city was a dramatically different place than it was already by the 1920s when our library was being built.

Both time capsules contained objects that represented the city more at large.

So both of them had a lot of newspapers.

From the 1881 selection, I thought it was most interesting that we had a series of newspapers in languages other than English.

We have La Cronica, the Spanish language newspaper, as well as newspapers from LA from that weekend in uh French and German.

Just a kind of interesting demographic look at who was in Los Angeles at that time.

The population was small, but it was already extremely diverse.

We're always trying to expand the depth and breadth of the stories we have available.

And when we're able to do that for our own institutional history, that's a really special thing, and it just doesn't come along every day.

It's pretty incredible to have this direct link to the leaders and supporters of this institution a hundred years ago.

Their dedication and hard work has made it possible for the institution to continue to thrive.

It's in that spirit that we're really excited and energized to continue the work of making sure that the library remains relevant and uh critical resource for Angelinos for another hundred years to come.

My father was Peter Suho Sr.

And he started Chinatown.

That's my earliest memories of working.

I just knew they worked all the time, but we didn't even think about it.

It's just like that was a normal thing you did.

You go to work and you had to take care of you were starting Chinatown, so you did all that.

And what he did, he was always at a meeting or with um people, mostly men at the time.

Um family members in of uh of Chinatown that wanted stores or restaurants.

Oh, this is Jin Ling gift shop.

There's my dad, and there's Mr.

Chow.

Oh, dear, you spend hours there.

In the back, we had a uh like a kitchen and a toilet with a sink.

And you know we had no hot water.

I mean, you boiled the water in the decanal if you wanted to make tea or anything.

And that whole block is owned by the uh shareholders of the Los Angeles Chinatown Corporation, of which my father was one shareholder, and that's how he was able to get this piece of property to build his restaurant.

But the streets there belong to the Chinatown Corporation.

So it's a unique little city in its own.

We're on the second floor of Phoenix Bakery at 969 North Broadway.

In Chinatown.

We are the second generation.

It was our parents who started this uh bakery in 1938.

We all grew up here.

Uh, as soon as we could stand and do something useful, we were here.

There were no no preschools, no nannies, no child care, none of this, you know, and if my mother had to be down here to help, we were down here too.

And some of my earliest memories are bagging fortune cookies down here.

Yeah, I got a quarter for that big can.

Yeah, we didn't get paid much either.

It has strawberries in it.

Lay money on it.

Well, it's a sponge.

Yeah, it looks like one of ours.

It was a place that attracted a lot of the quote American folks.

And uh there are also photos of the new Yihungui on Hill Street with a line of people out the door.

You know, you would think that you were at a popular fried chicken place.

We've had a long history of supporting immigrant businesses.

Uh, if you go to some of the outdoor shopping uh uh places, you know, uh whether along the sidewalk or inside of the dynasty center or alpine plaza, you'll find immigrant entrepreneurs who have set up shop, you know, whether it's selling uh clothing or toys or music, you know, they're um following a tradition that they've had before, you know, whether it's in Vietnam or in Laos.

When most people think of Los Angeles, they picture beaches, freeways, and the Hollywood sign.

But the city extends far beyond its skyline, all the way to the busy waterfront of San Pedro.

Here at the port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest seaport, massive cargo ships and towering cranes showcase the global reach of this harbor.

Yet, alongside its industrial might is a rich maritime history that continues to draw visitors from around the world.

Standing proudly on the waterfront is the battleship Iowa Museum.

Once a powerful naval vessel that served through the multiple conflicts, the battleship Iowa now welcomes the guests aboard as a living piece of American history.

So whether you're visiting the harbor for the first time or enjoying the community, you call home, welcome to Los Angeles.

Standing here aboard the battleship Iowa, it's impossible not to appreciate the scale of the Los Angeles Waterfront.

Docked in the heart of San Pedro, this legendary ship has become one of the harbor's most recognizable landmarks and a gateway to the area's history.

Now, as you walk these decks, you're following in the footsteps of sailors, service members, and even three U.S.

presidents earning the Iowa its nickname, the Battleship of Presidents.

And today, the museum gives visitors a hands-on look at naval history while offering some of the best views of the harbor where cargo ships, cruise vessels, and waterfront attractions all come together.

From the San Pedro Fish Market and Harbor Cruises to the LA Waterfront Promenade, the area welcomes millions of visitors each year who come to experience this unique side of Los Angeles.

It's also the perfect setting for one of the city's biggest waterfront celebrations.

During Port of Los Angeles Fleet Week, active duty members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard join the community right here at the harbor, transforming this historic battleship into the centerpiece of a weekend dedicated to service, community, and pride.

And it seems to keep getting bigger and better every year.

We've had the privilege of hosting the Los Angeles Fleet Week here for the last 10 years, and it's a privilege having the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and the Armed Forces in support of our nation here.

It's such a positive environment here.

We're coming together.

You know, we have first responders, we have military, we have our firefighters, our police officers, and it's just good to know that we're all one big family and to come together as Americans.

I'm so proud to be here, and I'm I'm so thankful for everyone's service.

Spend some time with the sailors, the airmen, the marines, the soldiers, as well as police officers, firefighters, public safety professionals here in and about the city of Los Angeles.

We'd love to see you, spend some time with you, and talk to you about a remarkable career path.

It gives people a sense of purpose, uh, a sense of hope, knowing that there is something out there for them.

Together we can stand unified as one country.

To the next generation, our young people here, you are our future.

We cannot continue without you.

And I just want to say thank you to all of our military families out here.

It is a momentous occasion for us to be here.

It is so great to see our wonderful Sea of Orange, Caltrans Proud.

In our district, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura County, we have a total of 32 lives lost.

Let's play tribute to the family members of our fallen who are with us.

Today we're participating in the workers' memorial, which is a big event for us because it's a remembrance of those that have passed in District 7 while they've been working on the freeway.

So for some of us, those are people that are really close to us.

Those are people that unfortunately didn't make it home to their family.

Today we gather not only to honor their memory, but to reaffirm our shared commitment to protect those who work each day to keep California moving.

I supervise a crew of about seven to ten people.

We do road maintenance and we do guard row repairs, fence repairs, pothole repairs.

Our main purpose is to keep the roadway safe for us and for the traveling public.

Caltrans builds and maintains freeways and highways here in Los Angeles and Ventura County, specifically our district for District 7.

Across District 7, motorists travel an average of 99 million vehicle miles per day.

Think about that for a second.

Our workers face constant risk, traffic at all hours, extreme weather and hazardous conditions.

That is why awareness matters.

Everyone, workers, drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, must stay alert and look out for one another.

To the public.

Please slow down and stay attentive.

Protect the workers who serve you.

Don't drive distracted.

Pay attention.

There are warning signs, their warning calls, they're flashing lights.

Do your part to pay attention.

We're people just like you, and we want to go home at the end of the day to our families, to our loved ones, to our pets, to whoever it is that we go home to, and we just ask that you don't drive distracted.

That text message can wait, that phone call can wait.

Our lives cap and be alert and be pay attention for yourselves and for us.

To all motorists, the message remains clear.

Lives can be saved when drivers slow down.

Move over, stay alert when approaching work zone or roadside operation.

When we're out there on the roads, we're not doing it to be an inconvenience.

We're doing it for your safety.

We're doing it to keep the roadway safe so you can make it home.

That pot hole repair can't wait because it is a safety hazard.

That guard row repair can't wait.

It is a safety hazard, and it's what's gonna keep all of us alive and safe so we can go home at the end of the day.

So you pure Mexicano Nasido en este suelo, and esta hermosa tierra.

All right.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for being here for what I call my annual Cinco de Mayo celebration where we come together to uplift and honor Chicano leaders and reclaim the significance of this holiday.

Cinco de Mayo has been traditionally been seen and confused as being Mexican Independence Day, but it's not.

Historically, what it is, it's a symbolic day that was born here in the United States to showcase the winning of the Battle of Puebla, which shows the resiliency of a very small Mexican army that beat a very well-funded French army.

So over the years of history, it has been turned into a very commercialized uh way to uh cater to the Mexican market.

But what we want to do is show that we're more than just that.

We're not just the consumers for some corporations to shoot for, but we really do contribute to the uh fabric of what is the American story, and that is why we are doing this today.

Today we brought together a diverse and dynamic group of honorees, Marcos Reynoso.

He is the owner to Chomti Chorizo.

I just really want to serve really good food to my community and really good pricing so everybody can enjoy, not just the one person or the people that have money.

I want everybody to enjoy.

The chorizo that he makes is something that I've never seen before.

What he puts really important to celebrate Cinco de Mayo is something that actually you can't really find anywhere unless you come from, where your tradition is, what to the border or actually cross.

Congratulations.

Thank you for being part of helping us redefine Cinco de Mayo.

Daniel Duno Lopez.

He is a content creator, podcaster, and comedian comedian who proudly represents his Mexican heritage and Echo Park roots.

Today, he's touring the country and selling out shows.

We are proud to celebrate his success and his voice.

In between Temple, I grew up walking distance.

I used to walk through here.

I would have never in a hundred years thought that I'll be here.

Um I'm 26 years old, I'm living live, I'm amazed.

Thank you guys for supporting.

Shout out the city of Los Angeles.

I love you guys so much.

Thank you.

The Chicano movement here in Los Angeles is thriving.

It's probably the biggest and best it's ever been.

And uh, you know, there's areas that we could be in a little bit more, like in the in the movie industry.

We got the music on log, we got art on log, we got food unlocked and um the only place I don't see us shining to our full potentials in the movie industry.

He is an internationally celebrated photographer, director, and urban lifestyle or entrepreneur whose work has captured the essence of who we are.

I represent the city to the fullest, and take it with me on my back everywhere I go.

And thank you very much.

Can I have Dr.

Amala Armenta and José Loya join me?

Dr.

Amala Armenta is an associate professor of urban planning at UCLA and the director of the Latino Policy and Politics Institute.

Mexican Americans and Chicanos have been part of LA before LA was even part of the United States.

And so we are leaders in every sector from art to entrepreneurship to academia to universities where I work.

Um our schools are full of amazing Mexican-American students, leaders, Latinos, and of all groups who are gonna grow and make a difference.

And Dr.

Jose Loya is as I mentioned, assistant professor of urban planning at UCLA, whose research examines inequality in housing and home ownership, particularly within Latino communities.

The Latino culture is part of the American culture, and so Latinos inspire, uh integrate and and often are mixing our culture with the American culture, and it's it's a beautiful thing to see and be a part of.

So more than 50% of the Los Angeles population um identifies as being from immigration descent, many of them being Latinos and Chicanos.

So what I'm hoping to do is to emphasize that our stories are complex and they're beautiful and very much part of the American fabric, and it's here in Los Angeles where we set the tone to what that identity is.

But the Iowa is more than a museum.

It has become a gathering place for the community, serving as a living link between Los Angeles maritime past and its vibrant future.

That spirit of connection was also on display as the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 100th anniversary by offering free harbor boat tours, giving Angelinos a rare opportunity to experience the nation's busiest port from the water and see firsthand the scale of the waterfront that powers so much of the region's economy.

We're turning a hundred years old, and as part of that celebration, the Port of Los Angeles is very proud to be hosting Free Harbor Boat Tours to the general public.

I'm here for the free harbor boat tour from the Port of Los Angeles.

My favorite part about it is that they give us so much history.

The speaker on the boat tells us so much about the shipping terminals and about all the trade that goes on from different countries that all comes in through the Port of Los Angeles.

It's a great family event, very safe.

I actually work at the port, so it's just nice to see it from you know this point of view.

It's great to be among community because I think it gives us a great opportunity for us to connect in the community to learn how every day the Port of LA impacts us, both through economy, through the environment, and you know, just learning about the great things that we do every day.

We especially invite the public to join us on these harbor tours because what they will get to see is an active port where we have cranes that are in movement, we have bars that are happening, we have just a whole slew of things that they get to be in front of, they get to hear about.

Somebody on the boat is talking about the important role that the port of Los Angeles plays in our country's movement of commerce.

I think it is very important for both the community and Port of Los Angeles to get involved with each other.

And part of this is this maritime park that shows how community can benefit from collaboration with the Port of Los Angeles.

It's just a fun activity to do.

Hopefully, we continue to have these yearly because they're just a great experience.

This tour is the most fun I've ever been on in Los Angeles.

The water is so calm.

You really just feel like you're on a gentle cruise, and it's really a nice family event.

We look forward to coming again next year.

Good morning.

On behalf of the United States Navy, I want to extend thank you to the city of Los Angeles for welcoming our Navy into port for Fleet Week LA.

To everyone here in uniform this morning, thank you for your service to our country.

We are incredibly grateful for your sacrifice, your discipline, and your willingness to serve something greater than yourselves.

We welcome you to the city of Los Angeles.

We thank you for the sacrifice of your service, but more importantly, we thank you for your incredible dedication to preserving everything that this country represents for more for approaching now 250 years.

God bless you all, and thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

And now we have a very special performance brought to us by Matthew Gordon and the Navy Southwest Band.

So I'm with Navy Band Southwest, and we are supporting the 10th annual Los Angeles Fleet Week this week in Los Angeles.

This is the best part of our job, and we just love connecting with audiences around the Southwest region.

We're looking to just play music, have a great time, talk to people, hear their stories, and share our stories, and just celebrate our Navy tradition.

These sailors and marines, uh, they do represent the the very best that our country has to offer.

Uh, we are fortunate to have them here in Port Los Angeles.

Many of their colleagues are deployed overseas right now in very challenging times, and uh they soon will be deployed.

Uh, this is an opportunity for us to thank them and also for us to extend our thanks uh to the citizens in Los Angeles.

Many of these uh sailors and marines are the sons and daughters of Angelinos.

Um we just want to celebrate those tight connections.

Planning that goes into Fleet Week starts 364 days before the actual events and Wednesday night.

The Rear Admiral welcomed us to the USS Essex at the Port of Los Angeles.

We were greeted by the Pacific Southwest Band who also played today at Los Angeles City Council, bringing the spirit and talent of the arts to the USC services and the city of Los Angeles.

Such a great day.

On behalf of a very grateful and proud city of Los Angeles, congratulations.

When the battleship Iowa was in active service, it functioned as a floating city at sea, complete with its own bakery, baker shop, tailor shop, and more, supporting thousands of sailors living and working aboard this 45,000 ton warship.

Today, docked at the port of Los Angeles, it continues its legacy in a different way, welcoming visitors year-round and serving as a dynamic centerpiece of the San Pedro waterfront.

During Fleet Week, the Iowa comes alive again as a gathering point for service members and the public.

One of the highlights is the spirited galleys at sea cooking competition, where Navy chefs showcase their skills in fast-paced culinary battles right on the pier, turning the historic ship and surrounding waterfront into an interactive celebration of service and tradition.

The same harbor also plays host to one of the largest public waterfront celebrations in the region, drawing crowds to experience military demonstrations, ship tours, and hands-on exhibits that connect the community directly with today's active duty forces.

It's a powerful reminder that here in Los Angeles, history isn't just preserved, it's still actively being made along the waterfronts.

Just as you experience in New Orleans and Montreal and Montreux.

Those cities have been doing that for decades, and LA has just been behind.

But our time is now, and so we're really excited about it.

I reside in California, I reside in Van Nuys, and I'm so glad to be here.

This is a wonderful thing, especially now today, especially with jazz.

It's America's original art form.

And I think more people should be getting exposed to some world-class musicians, many of them that live here in Los Angeles with all these different artists from across the world.

You get a taste of everything work from jazz, New Orleans.

You got people from Cuba, Indonesia.

I'm looking more forward to going to the different places.

Like they said, it's going to be on the beach, it's going to be after dark.

There's going to be the Carnival Festival in the streets.

We're at the Inkwell.

The Inkwell is a location that we obviously were intentional about choosing for the announcement today.

This is a location where predominantly black and brown families were literally forced to bring their families to this passageway if they just simply wanted to have a day on the beach.

So we thought it was important to come full circle and announce this historic festival that really does have at its core the human rights narrative of pre-colonized Africans.

We're going down.

Brought to America in bondage.

Come to Congo Square New Orleans and through bondage and terror create this incredible sound called jazz and where it has now impacted the entire world.

Like Quincy Jones said, jazz is the only form of music endemic to this country, the United States of America.

So it should be worship, especially because of the history from it, how it developed.

You know, we had spirit shows to slaves developed the spirit just to help them through their hard times.

All of our ancestors went through such bitter hardship against them.

We need to really put this on a high, high pedestal in the world of music and in our lives because we can learn so much from it.

And it helps us when we go through hard times as well.

And it inspires us when we have those happy times.

And it's never done the same twice.

That's the thing about jazz.

You know, you can improvise, you can put whatever you're feeling in that moment on stage into what you show the audience and you hit them in their hearts.

And I'm gonna wrap it with this.

I'm gonna say that 75% of our tickets are free.

75% of our tickets are free.

Go to our website, www.la jazzfestival.com, Janelle Monet, John Legend, Raphael Sid, Charlie Wilson.

We've got artists from 13 nations.

Everyone on our stage are Grammy Award winners.

They're very international, and we're gonna keep building from here.

13 Nations and Climbing.

Go to our website, get tickets now.

So are you ready?

We are on the beautiful grounds of Banning Museum, and we are celebrating as part of Fleet Week, the Wilmington reception.

We are welcoming our sailors and our Marines to Wilmington.

We have food and games and entertainment for them, and just saying thank you for their service.

This is my first time in LA, but I'm stationed in San Diego.

So I like the environment.

It's real laid back and chill.

They got free food, drink, all for it.

Navy pride, heavy day.

While we're here, we're celebrating America's 250th birthday.

An awesome celebration.

We're glad that we could take that celebration and do that as part of the 10th anniversary of LA Fleet Week.

These are great, great anniversaries, a lot of fun.

Have a great time.

Well, I am so happy to see that we have everyone here at Banning Museum, the home of Phineas Banning.

And we are excited as a community to celebrate and again thank them for the sacrifices that they do for us so that we can enjoy liberties like today.

It means a lot truly for me to be performing around all these people because I especially grew up in the Los Angeles area.

So getting to play music growing up here and now doing it full-time as a profession is amazing and truly a blessing.

We appreciate their sacrifice, their family sacrifice.

Everybody contributes in the service that these people provide, and we just want to take a moment to say thank you to them.

We should thank them every single day.

But this particular week, it's a week where we celebrate them and we thank them and we uh give them some food and we welcome them into the community here in Wilmington and Tampi Joe.

Built to what stands some of the most hazardous conditions out sea, the battleship Iowa stands as a powerful reminder of the precision, discipline, and preparation required to operate safely in extreme environments.

Commissioned in 1943 during World War II, the battleship Iowa is more than 80 years old and remains one of the most iconic battleships ever built.

It was once among the fastest and most powerful battleships in the world, capable of reaching speeds over 30 knots.

And today, permanently at the port of Los Angeles, it continues to draw visitors from across the region as part of the LA waterfront experience.

The harbor itself is one of the busiest in the nation, where massive cargo ships and cruise vessels move alongside museums, parks, and public walkways that welcome millions of visitors each year.

That connection between history, industry, and community is especially visible during Fleet Week when the waterfront transforms into a citywide destination.

Service members, active duty members, and thousands of guests gather along the port for shift tours, demonstrations, and public events, making the harbor and the battleship Iowa one of the largest celebrations of maritime service on the West Coast.

I feel like people don't think about when they flip on the light switch what really goes on on the other end of it.

Nobody knows what we do.

I think we're a victim of our own success because the electricity just flows and it works.

People flip on the light switches and they enjoy necessities and conveniences, and nobody really focuses on how we get that electricity there.

Well, these are the folks that get it there.

So we're here today to celebrate the electrical line workers, our linemen.

This is our 34th uh line worker rodeo.

We have 10 teams from the department that are here competing.

Show the kids and the wives what we do.

Well, I think it's really important to celebrate the work that they do and actually see what it takes to run a power grid and keep it reliable and keep it delivering energy to the citizens of Los Angeles.

This is my first rodeo.

About a couple more weeks, and then I'll be having my climbing certificate and then hopefully getting a job on LADWP or any of the other utilities.

I wanted to learn a skill that couldn't be taken away from me.

I feel like nowadays a lot of things going towards AI and being a lineman is something that could um have a long uh career with.

It's hard work, but it's definitely a fulfilling job to have.

We get extreme events, and when that happens, these are the folks that are out there immediately restoring power so that we can all get back to our day-to-day lives.

There's a bunch of different events that relate to the work they have to do.

There's one where they have to rescue somebody from up on the line.

There's another one that's about speed and precision, and it's just an incredible showcase of the skill that our workforce has, and it's honestly amazing to witness.

My favorite event is definitely her man, which is simulating and rescuing an injured guide on the pole.

The work that they do is so high hazard, it really takes special training, special skills.

We're very proud of what we do.

We're very proud of our employees, and we love to showcase that.

I've met people here who they worked for DWP, they've retired, and now their kids work for DWP.

You know, people bring their their kids or grandkids.

You're looking at probably three or four generations of electrical line workers that are here.

The little babies and the strollers are gonna end up climbing these poles in the next 25 years.

Today, all 104 of our 106 fire stations are open to the public.

Celebrating fire service day.

We also have community events happening throughout the city where we invite the public to come meet their firefighters and get to know their fire stations.

So not only is it bring the community together, it brings them a little knowledge of what the fire department does and what it has to offer.

And it incites it gets kids excited about being firefighters and policemen and learning.

I'm the recruitment unit commander for the LAFD.

So my specific job is community outreach, try and gather that next generation of firefighters.

So here at Fire Station 112, we have the largest boat that LAFD has to offer.

We have four honorary fire chiefs that we recognize today, one for each one of our geographic bureaus.

We have organizations here represented such as LA Port Police, we have the CERT team, which is a community response team.

We also have Join LFD.org, which is our own recruitment office that helps kids in the community become firefighters for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

We have all of our apparatus, our fire engines, our fire trucks, our ambulances, climb on board, touch things, get to ask questions.

You know, the most important thing that I'm looking for from my young firefighters is passion.

Always support local, and uh you can't go wrong.

Fire stations are in every single community here in Los Angeles, and this is a time where we actually celebrate the partnerships, the friendships, and just all the hard work that our firefighters do to serve our community here in Los Angeles.

The port of Los Angeles, America's busiest seaport, spans more than 7500 acres of waterfront and handles thousands of cargo ships each year, serving as a critical gateway connecting Los Angeles to the global economy.

Anchored in the heart of it all is the battleship Iowa, one of only four Iowa-class battleships ever built for the U.S.

Navy.

And at its peak, the ship carried nearly 2700 sailors and officers, operating as a fully self-contained floating city, complete with its own onboard support systems, designed for long deployment at sea.

It was also armed with nine 16-inch naval guns, among the most powerful ever installed on a battleship, built for long-range precision and unmatched firepower in its era.

Today, the battleship Iowa serves as a floating museum at the LA waterfront, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors and standing as one of the harbor's most iconic landmarks.

Together, the ship and the port reflect a unique intersection of history, industry, and public access, where global commerce and maritime heritage share the same shoreline.

As Los Angeles continues to evolve, the harbor remains a reminder that what's anchored here continues to move the entire city forward.

Thanks for joining us, and thanks for watching another episode of LA this week.

Catch these stories and more on channel 35 or at LACity.gov forward slash TV and follow LA City on Instagram, Facebook X, and YouTube.

Until next time, step aboard, set sail, and enjoy everything that Los Angeles has to offer.

Sticking para que no es que no saben Ist malke.

Um to uh go through this morning.

Um, we uh first I'm looking for CD five, who will begin start us off with a very special announcement.

All right, thank you, Council President.

Uh, colleagues, today I'm proud to welcome the students, families, teachers, and staff of Cathedral Chapel School to City Hall.

If you all want to stand up, welcome.

Cathedral chapel is right in the heart of Council District Five, just around the corner from my district office, and it's built an incredibly strong reputation for helping students challenge themselves, support one another, and achieve at a very high level.

This year, members of the school's academic decathlon team who are here today advance to the national championships, an incredible accomplishment that reflects the very hard work of these students, the educators who support them and their families.

We're also recognizing someone who has helped make these achievements possible.

For three decades, he's mentored students, led the academic decathlon program, and made a lasting impact on generations of young people in Los Angeles.

So please join me in welcoming Cathedral Chapel School to City Hall.

Congratulations to your you.

Thank you.

That was the wonderful work of my team standing right behind me.

Colleagues, when I think of soccer, thank you.

When I think of soccer as the as a sport, it's the sport of the people.

It belongs to everyone.

Whether played on a professional pitch, a neighborhood park or a city street where many of us have gotten our scabs and scraps.

It reminds us that some of life's greatest experiences are built on simple human connections.

It's a sport that transcends borders, languages, cultures, and backgrounds.

It requires nothing more than a ball, an open space, and a sense of camaraderie to get started.

In many ways, it's the world's most accessible game.

It also reminds us of something very special.

Despite the challenges our city, our nation, and our world is facing right now, billions of people across the globe are looking forward to this moment.

The World Cup tournament represents hope, joy, and the opportunity to come together in celebration.

Even if, well, most countries are not going to take the trophy back with them, but still there's that sense of pride and celebration.

Beyond the excitement, soccer also teaches powerful lessons about perseverance and adaptability.

The sport tests players' sheer will, their endurance, resilience, and determination to keep going, even when the odds are against them.

It constantly challenges players to think strategically, maneuver through obstacles, and adjust to changing circumstances, sometimes in a split second.

And perhaps most importantly, soccer tells us that no one succeeds alone.

Soccer requires teamwork, trust, and a shared commitment to a common goal.

Every player has a role to play, and together they achieve something greater than any individual could accomplish on their own.

As Los Angeles is welcoming the world, we have an extraordinary opportunity to showcase not only our city's openness and diversity, but our spirit of unity and hospitality.

FIFA certainly has found a way of monetizing this to the nth capability that's been offered to them.

So I'm extremely proud of the work everyone has done in this chamber to make sure that they bring this game, the sport of the people to the people without barriers, and I welcome all of you to also join either mine or anybody else's, but uh do participate.

Uh by the way, I also want to tell you I chose June 27th for a special reason.

That's the last day of the first round of the soccer of uh of the games.

That's when it gets determined where at least where the top two players, top two teams of six groups qualify.

This happened because back in 1982, two dominant teams, European countries decided to end their last game in a tie to oust a surprise team that had come in and beaten one of them, and was gonna make it into the second round.

Uh that inequity led to FIFA finally making some decisions where they paired the last two games of each group setting at the same time, simultaneously, so that no one has the advantage of knowing how to play out the game.

So, with that said, I invite everyone, thank you.

Thank you.

Equity is important, opportunity is important.

We invite everyone to come out and be a part of this unforgettable World Cup experience right here in Los Angeles because this tournament is more than a series of matches, it's a chance to bring people together and remind ourselves of what we can achieve when we work as a team.

So thank you for this opportunity.

I do hope you uh enjoy your jackets.

I know it doesn't get that chilly in June and July, but we are a desert, so there is a 20 to 30 degree drop at nights.

And since some of the games are gonna be at nights, I want you guys to all be uh taking care of yourselves.

Thank you.

And to the public, please come and join us in Noho Football Fest.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

And you gotta turn around so the camera can get the back of your jacket for everybody to see.

There we go.

Uh there will be uh parties.

Thank you, Mr.

Nazarian.

There will be parties in every district, multiple parties, I think, in every part of the city that will be free.

Um, lots of them sponsored by Wreck and Parks and the council offices.

Uh others by your local tavern or or other organization, but um I would encourage everybody that engages in FIFA, let's try to do as much of it as we can in community.

Uh it's a good opportunity for us to do uh stuff together.

Mr.

McCosker.

At the risk of having everybody press their buttons.

Could I put in a plug for tomorrow?

Thursday at noon, the first game of Mexico versus South Africa will be hosted for free, for free at Will Hall Park, Wilmington Recreation Center.

Come on out at noon, bring your chairs, bring your blankets.

We'll be showing both games tomorrow at Will Hall in the heart of the harbor, Wellington, California, Mexico versus South Africa.

Right on.

Council Member Rodriguez.

Thank you.

And obviously, we're all having uh events of our own, but I also just wanted to take a minute with so many restaurants that are struggling.

This is also a really great time that if you're gonna watch the games, I know a number of family-owned restaurants that are hosting watch parties that have different types of promotion.

It's a great opportunity to just help support your local businesses, and I want to make that pitch for everybody as well because restaurants are struggling, and it really is incumbent upon all of us to show up and be there.

Not when they announce that they might be closing.

We need to make sure that they remain open, and so I want to encourage the public to please go support your local restaurant and uh make sure that uh we all celebrate the games responsibly.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh and then Mr.

Price.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

In addition to the activities going on at our parks, let me just announce that Destination Africa is having a watch party at Trade Tech College on Saturday.

So all plan on coming out, it's gonna be a great game.

Food, music, and entertainment.

All right, LA Trade Chat.

All right, Councilmember Hernandez, what you got?

I'm joining too, because we're hosting an event in MacArthur Park.

Park of the Americas.

I thought you were changing it.

We're having uh watch party at MacArthur Park Monday, June 15th at 9 a.m.

So come through to MacArthur Park.

Thank you.

All right, anybody else?

Councilmember Hutt, come on.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

On June 18th, I'm closing down Seoul International Park for FIFA, Mexico versus Korea.

Just imagine how exciting that will be.

That's gonna be, yeah, that's gonna be a fun one.

All right, um, we will now move to our uh Council Member Padilla.

Oh, I mean, I feel like I have to say what I'm holding too.

It feels like an icebreaker.

I love it.

Um, so yes, uh, for those who want to join in the 6th district, we will be in Sun Valley hosting our fan zone at the unnamed Sheldon Arlita Park.

Um, I have a lot of work that I have to do for that green space, so this was my opportunity to showcase what is coming.

Um, so we you will be we will be hosting uh at 12 o'clock, Mexico versus South Africa, and they learn later on at 7 p.m.

South Korea versus um shh.

It's spelled weird.

Uh Shika?

Is that gonna be a game?

There's gonna be a game at 7 p.m.

A guys.

We hope that you guys can join us and also uh be introduced to this great park that we're slowly but surely building out.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh in the spirit of uh equity.

Uh Mr.

Lee.

What you got?

All right, soccer.

Well, on the heels of Councilmember Hutt announcing the Mexico Korea game.

We are also hosting that on June the 18th.

We're happy to host a host of games, uh including uh Czech versus South Africa, Switzerland versus Bosnia, Canada versus Qatar, and then of course, evening's event, the main event will be Mexico versus South Korea.

Right on.

Councilmember Bloomersfield.

You're putting them out there.

So Warner Center Park, that's the place to be, 6 p.m.

US versus Paraguay.

Uh, we're gonna have team giveaways, all sorts of fun activities as well.

And then on Monday, Lanark Park, you're gonna have a bunch of games starting at 9 a.m.

Spain versus Cabo, 12 Belgium versus Egypt, three Saudi Arabia versus Uruguay, six Iran versus New Zealand.

We've got Vallarta is giving us uh all sorts of free giveaways.

We're having uh clinics for kids.

It'll be a lot of fun.

Come on out, Warner Center Park Friday, Lanark Park on Monday.

All right, Councilmember Jurado, the 14th.

Yes, thank you, Council President.

We partnered with Recreation and Parks to put on not one, not two, not four, seven watch parties.

Okay, we didn't know that.

We didn't know we could have so much fun, and so do this Sunday, June 14th, the 19th, the 24th, the 29th, the 4th, the quarterfinal, July 10th, and even the final match we are hosting at El Sereno Park in CD 14.

This Sunday we have watch parties in little Tokyo as well.

Um, there is also gonna be a FIFA activation at Union Station.

Uh, there's also gonna be a FIFA activation in Boyle Heights, and there's something else happening uh that's FIFA related, but you know, we have all FIFA all the time this summer.

So El Sereno Park is where we're hosting it.

We're having local small businesses, we're gonna incorporate uh music and comedy, so it'll be a fun family event.

And just think about it as a larger version of your backyard party with your uncle on his tiny TV, but we have a big blow up this time.

So please please come.

And I I want to uh give Councilmember Rodriguez representative for all of our restaurants, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about the pieces in your district if you'd like.

Yes, um, so Saturday, we are actually hosting at Silmar Park, and uh the cool thing about our activation is that people are gonna be able to design their own customized jersey for the event.

So uh Silmar Park, we are hosting Brazil versus Morocco.

Wow.

So come on out, you can get a jersey.

We've got a lot of activations, food uh uh food trucks, and uh just a lot for the family, and then we'll announce all the other locations, but uh kudos to my colleagues.

We're all stepping up doing free events for our community.

There are some officially sanctioned one.

If you're a baller, by all means go support.

They're not cheap, but I'm proud to say that we're all hosting in partnership with our great Department of Recreation and Parks to make sure that our parks are activated, are safe, and ready to receive you.

So look forward to everyone's uh events.

Thank you so much.

So no excuse to stay home for World Cup in the city of Los Angeles.

Thank you so much, members.

Our next uh presentation will be brought to us by Councilmember Hutt of the 10th District.

Is this on?

Is it okay?

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Colleagues, today I'm proud to recognize and celebrate an extraordinary public servant, our very own Frederica McGee.

Well, I'm on your six.

I got your back.

No problem.

You mean three o'clock.

Throughout her distinguished career, Frederica has exemplified what it means to lead with integrity and an unwavering commitment to equity.

As chief of staff to Supervisor Holly Mitchell, she's played a vital role in advancing policies and initiatives that improve the lives of residents throughout Los Angeles County.

Frederica's influence reaches well past her current position.

Having worked with various California assembly speakers.

She's been instrumental in crafting public policy and advocating for safety of our marginalized communities.

Her long list of awards and recognition speak to her professional excellence.

But what truly sets her apart is her dedication to service.

Whether it's mentoring future leaders, supporting young youth through the Black Youth Leadership Project, or helping strengthen our legal and civic institutions.

Frederica has invested deeply in the next generation and in the future of our state.

As a proud Southern California native, she never forgot the importance of giving back to the communities that shaped her.

Her leadership and thoughtful direction has positively impacted all who have been lucky enough to be around her.

She's a role model of what is possible through hard work and service.

On behalf of the city of Los Angeles and the 10th District, I'm honored to congratulate, congratulate Frederica McGee for her remarkable achievements, and thank her for her decades of dedicated public service.

Your leadership.

I want to say happy retirement to you.

I know you're gonna do a lot of traveling, a lot of dining, and a lot of and some Pilates.

And um, you know, we're still gonna look to you for direction.

Because you are a lifelong public servant, and we appreciate you so much.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, now I would like to introduce to some supervisor Holly Mitchell.

Thank you.

Good morning, Los Angeles City Council and residents.

Thank you so much for welcoming Frederica.

Let me just say a quick couple things.

You know, I know she looks good, but this is 40 years of dedicated service to the residents of the state of California, multiple speakers.

There are countless young people in Sacramento, some who are here, who um found their path and found their careers as a result of tutelage and support.

Let me say to the staff here, all right.

You said your favorite word.

That's her favorite word.

Who knew?

Let me say to the staff, um, invest in your pension plans early so you can be her in 40 years.

But Frederica understood what it meant to step up to the plate.

And I can't tell you how deeply I appreciate the 10 million residents of LA County and the two million that we represent that she joined me on this voyage, built a stellar staff.

Because as those of you in the horse, you understand, we are only as successful as the teams we build.

And Frederica spent 40 years building teams to support elected policymakers to make California the fourth largest economy in the world and LA County the greatest ever.

And so I appreciate you for recognizing her stellar work, and I certainly couldn't have done any of it without you.

I appreciate you.

Thank you, City Council.

Speakers, yes, uh, Councilmember Price.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Councilwoman Hood, thank you for bringing this angel to our chambers today.

You know, Frederica certainly is known to uh serve others and to fight for what's right, and so Frederico, we just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

Uh, of course, your reputation uh precedes you, you know.

We had experience in Sacramento, and uh, supervisor pointed out, you have been a source of inspiration and support, not just for elected officials in Sacramento, but for staff, and specifically your your tutoring and working with young black staff, uh, encouraging them, letting them know what's possible, and showing by example.

So, we just want to say thank you, Frederica, for all your service for your commitment, uh, both here uh and in Sacramento and beyond.

Uh your presence is certainly well regarded.

We're gonna miss you.

We know you're not gonna be leaving, but thank you for your service and thank you for being a part of our city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, uh, Mr.

Price, and uh congratulations to uh to you, uh Frederica for uh a legacy of service and a track record that is the envy of all of us who do this work.

It is one thing as as I can say this as a person who raises their hand and say, vote for me.

You can take the office, but a lot of people that take the office don't end up making a difference.

And the people you've worked with have made a difference, and we know that you've been uh behind so much of that, and also help keep the door open for the folks coming behind you because that also makes a big big difference, and you get to go out on a on a big victory.

Uh I'm starting to call her Supervisor ER now, uh, who came through, supervisor, and you and your team came through on the behalf of the residents of this county to make sure we keep our health care amid the madness.

Uh, and that that's a big deal because some child's gonna wake up sick tomorrow, and they're gonna get to go to the doctor.

And they're not gonna know your name.

Uh, and they might even know the supervisor's name, but they're not they're gonna know that there's some adults there to help them get better, and uh that to me is the greatest that any of us can ever hope to be able to done, and you've done it in space.

So uh congratulations to our own Feder Frederica back to you.

Councilwoman Hutt.

Good morning, Council.

My name is Haley, I'm a field deputy for State Assembly Member Tina McKinnon.

We represent the 61st district, and I am here to present our very own Frederica McGee, a certificate.

Um, your hard work, dedication, commitment to lead, serve, protect our community, our constituents, and its surrounding neighbors is to be commended.

On behalf of the Assembly District 61, congratulations, thank you, and good luck and continued success in your future endeavors.

Sign assembly member McKinnon.

And so, from the city of Los Angeles, we say a lot of good stuff about you, and we made sure everybody signed up.

As general counsel, and that's how I met Frederico.

I had to meet with General Counsel, the speaker, and here comes the strong black woman.

I was really happy to see it.

So here you go.

All right.

Thank you.

Oh my goodness.

I didn't want to block the whole unit.

See Frederica, that's good staff right there.

And we're gonna head in the back for a picture.

Where's your heart?

All right.

Uh as they're departing, uh, Mr.

Clerk, can you call the role?

Blumenfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez, Hutt, Harado, Lee, McOskar, Nazarian, Padilla, Park, Price, Raman, Rodriguez, Soda Martinez, Yaroslavski, 12 members in a core, Mr.

President.

All right, uh, what's our first order of business?

Approval of the minutes of June 9th, 2026.

Councilmember Hernandez moves, Councilmember Padilla seconds.

What's next?

Commendatory resolutions for approval.

Councilmember Rodriguez moves.

Can we run through our agenda?

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Items one three eleven are items for which public hearings have been held.

For item ten, the planning and land use management committee report has been circulated and posted online to council file number twenty-six-05 four.

Items twelve through twenty-nine are items for which public hearings have not been held.

For item twenty six, the arts, parks, libraries, and community enrichment committee report has been circulated and posted online to council file number 26 26-0754.

Ten votes are required for consideration.

All right, without objection, those items are reforced.

Now is the time for specials members.

I see council member Blumenfield on the queue for special.

Uh yeah, three for question.

Three for a question, all right.

Council Member Padilla.

Council Member Jurado.

Thank you, Council President.

I'd like to call item fifteen special for a separate vote.

One five special for a separate vote.

Yeah, I want to call eighteen uh special for talk uh for for comments.

For discussion.

Okay.

All right.

Uh any other specials members?

Councilmember Hutt.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I have a special on item fourteen for uh substitute motion.

It'll be circulated shortly.

All right.

Any other specials members?

All right.

Uh what items are available for votes at this time?

The council may now vote on items one, two, and four, three, eleven.

All right, let's open the roll on those items.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Clove eyes.

All right.

What's next?

The council may now continue on to presentations.

All right.

As we continue on to presentations, I'll take it item nine, and uh congratulations to our uh new general manager.

Let's give her a big round of applause.

All right.

With that, we'll go to uh presentations, the first of which will be led by council member price of the ninth district.

Hello, everybody.

Hey, how you guys doing today?

Does anybody know the name of this drum?

Yes.

Thank you, brother.

This is a gym big.

Hey, thanks, boss.

All right, cool.

This is a West African instrument.

They play this all across West Africa.

It's not just one country, not just one ethnic group, but it's a drum and a symbol of unity.

So that's why it's a great honor for me to be joined by my brothers here.

Uh huh.

So we'll do call in response.

Marco.

Uh huh.

So we got a high part and we got a low part.

Okay, so listen up.

Me and the fellas, we're gonna do it one time, and then you guys join in and you do it with us, okay?

Let's try.

We are the Mafia ensemble.

Thank you so much, Michael, Shannon, Sebastian, Ramon, Adama.

And my name is Sally Web.

It's been a great honor.

Thank you so much to the city of Los Angeles.

And of course, Mr.

Price.

And now Councilman Hood and I are pleased to uh welcome to the stage Abi Koya, who is going to present the African Union anthem for our enjoyment.

Well, an incredible way to begin our celebration.

Thank you to the Mafe Ensemble for opening today's program with a powerful sounds of African drumming.

And thank you, Avi, for that beautiful performance.

Together they remind us of the many traditions and talents that can be found across Africa and throughout the continent.

Drumming, of course, reminds us of the opportunity to bring people together.

And that's what we're doing just here today.

But before we continue, Mayor Bass has a special message for us.

He wasn't able to join us, but we have a video.

It is a privilege to join you in celebrating the rich cultures, traditions, and contributions of Africa and the African diaspora here in Los Angeles and around the world.

I want to express my gratitude to Council members Price, Hutt, Council President Harris Dawson for recognizing the African Council or Corps and the extraordinary community leaders who strengthen and uplift LA every day.

Your leadership reflects the diversity and global spirit that define our city.

This celebration, of course, is especially meaningful to me because of my long-standing connection to the African continent.

Throughout my life, I have had the opportunity to build relationships with African leaders, communities, and partners across the continent.

And those experiences have deepened my belief that our futures are connected.

As mayor, I remain committed to increased partnerships across continents to expand cultural exchange, strengthen economic partnerships, and create new opportunities that make LA an even stronger cultural and economic hub for African communities, both near and far.

Together, we are building bridges that benefit our city, our region, and future generations.

Happy Africa Day, and thank you to all who make Los Angeles a global city that celebrates and embraces its African heritage.

Thank you, Mayor Bass.

Africa Day is observed each year to commemorate the founding of the African Union in 1963.

It marks a historic moment when newly independent African nations nations came together and shared a vision of cooperation and progress.

More than six decades later, Africa Day is celebrated all around the world.

From community gatherings to cultural festivals across the continent to celebrations right here in the United States and here in LA.

People are coming together to recognize Africa's contributions to the global economy.

Here in Los Angeles, that story is especially relevant because Africa is part of who we are as a city.

Our neighborhoods are home to people from Senegal, South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali, Eritrea, and many other nations whose influence can be found in our businesses, house of worship, community organizations, and even in our city families.

Their stories continue to shape Los Angeles every day.

The drumming we heard this morning is an illustration of that connection.

Across many African cultures, drums have been served as instruments of storytelling.

This year's celebration invites us to think globally while leading locally.

Africa Day is a reminder that the relationship between Africa and cities like LA continues to evolve.

Africa is home to more than 1.5 billion people, and it's projected to reach nearly 2.5 billion people by 2050.

The continent is home to some of the world's fastest growing cities, one of the youngest populations on the planet, and growing innovation across technology, business, education, health care, and the creative economy.

With a land area larger than the combined size of China, Europe, India, and the United States, Africa offers tremendous possibilities for economic partnerships and global collaboration.

Yet, despite the potential, Africa remains underrepresented in trade and investment activities, both in Los Angeles and in the United States.

Today, African countries account for less than one percent of LA's goods that are exported, and less than 1.5% of total goods in the United States.

These numbers show that there is still a lot of room to grow.

As we look forward to the 28th Olympics and Paralympic Games, it's going to be another opportunity to deepen the ties between LA and nations across Africa.

I proudly served on the LA Council ad hoc committee for the 28 Olympics and Paralympic Games, and we know that Africa will be an important part of that story.

That participation will bring together more than athletic competition.

It will also encourage tourism, cultural exchange, and meaningful engagement among people from around the world.

It's also important that we introduce visitors to the neighborhoods that make LA such a special place.

So while we're excited about what the future holds, we know that Africa Day is ultimately a celebration of people, and it honors those who carry the heart and soul of their heritage wherever life takes them.

It reminds us of what's possible when people share ideas and values.

This morning, we also pay tribute to the relationships that continue to bring Los Angeles and the African continent closer together.

That spirit is reflected in the members of the Los Angeles Consular Corps who are joining us today.

The Los Angeles Consular Corp represents more than 90 countries from across the world.

Today we're joined by seven honorable consulares who represent countries in Africa.

Through diplomacy, they help strengthen understanding and engagement between Los Angeles and countries around the world.

We are honored to be joined today by six distinguished representatives with ties to nations across Africa.

As I call your name, please stand and be recognized.

And bear with me as I call your names.

Grant Cochin, honorary consul of Tonglo.

Togo.

Representing Togo, which gained independence in 1960, Mr.

Gochin was appointed honorary consul in 2009, has spent more than 17 years advancing diplomatic and cultural ties, including serving as Dean Emeritus of the Los Angeles Consular Court.

Jordan Jose Maria Garcia, honorary consul general of Guinea.

Representing Guinea, which gained independence in 1958, Mr.

Garcia was appointed honorary consul general in 2012 and is the founder and president of Alcante Group, a consulting firm focused on government and investor relations across Africa.

Okay.

Mamie.

Molly Tonseler Mabay, Honorary Council General of Senegal, representing Senegal, which gained independence in 1960.

Miss Mabier was appointed honorary consul general in 2015 and is the president of Los Angeles Council Group and Corp and a respected leader of the Association of Honorary Councils of Senegal in the United States.

Joan Chanman Forbes, Honorary Consul of Trinidad and Tobago.

Representing Trinidad and Tobago, which gained independence in 1962, Miss Channel Forbes was appointed honorary consul in 2016 and brings extensive experience in operations, human resources, and finance.

We continue with Yvette Gentil from the Vice Council for Belize.

Belize gave this independence in 1981, and she has been vice counsel here since 2022, following more than three decades of public service of supporting government programs and community development initiatives in her home country.

We also recognize Hassam Ali, the Consul General of Egypt.

Egypt got its independence in 1956, and Ambassador Ali was appointed Council General of LA in 2023.

Previously, he served as Egypt's ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to 2020.

We next have Isra Chimulu, Council General of Kenya.

Mr.

Simiu was appointed in 2024 as a council general to LA, where he leans on his experience in innovation, policy work, and forging meaningful partnerships to enhance Kenya's international standing.

Also, Derek, the honorary counsel for Ghana.

Derek was appointed also in 2024 as the first Honorary Council of Ghana in LA with experience experience in international law, immigration, business finance.

Please join me in thanking all of our distinct council representatives.

Yeah, let's give it up for her.

Today we're proud to recognize four such individuals whose contributions reflect those values.

Councilwoman Hutt.

Thank you.

I have the honor of introducing Sega Habite.

She's an Eritrean American pharmacist, community advocate, a longtime civic leader in Los Angeles, known for her decades of work connecting immigrant communities, public health organizations, faith institutions, and local government.

Often affectionately referred to as Mama Sega, she has become widely recognized for her community-centered leadership, relationship building, and dedication to public service.

Born in Eritrea, East Africa, Sega pursued pharmacy studies in Romania before emigrating to Los Angeles.

She's fluent in five languages and has used her multicultural and multilingual background to build trust across diverse communities throughout Southern California.

Over the years, she built a career spanning health care education and community engagement, including her work with Martin Luther King Junior, Junior Drew Medical Center, Charles R.

Drew University of Medicine and Science.

Her mentorship efforts continue to focus on empowering youth through education, cultural connections, and public service.

Sega gained broader recognition during COVID-19 pandemic for organizing culturally focused vaccination clinics in partnership with Kedron Community Health Center and local community organizations.

Her outreach efforts help connect over 3,000 people in the African immigrant community with critical health care resources through multilingual education, trusted community partnerships, and grassroots organizing.

Please join me in welcoming Sega to the podium.

And we also go to church together.

Behind all right.

During COVID-19 pandemic, I was culture and generation.

Thank you again for this honor.

May we continue to uplift each other, celebrate our shared humanity, and build a better future generation to come.

Happy African Day 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

Now I'd like to introduce Mona Lisa Okeiji.

She's the owner and the founder and CEO of Expose, a California 501c3 nonprofit organization that she's led for almost 14 years.

It focuses on youth empowerment, mentorship, STEAM education, mental health awareness, leadership development, and community engagement throughout Los Angeles.

Through Expose, she works to bridge the gap between the students between what students learn in school and additional life skills mentorship, exposure, and support they need outside the classroom.

OKG Signature Program at Exposition Park uplifts community youth through the creation of safe, supportive environments where students feel that they can grow socially, academically, and emotionally.

She also serves as the chairperson of Destination Africa, a first of its kind cultural festival that will bring together more than 22 African countries and diaspora communities during the FIFA World Cup period at the LA Trade Tech College on June 13th to celebrate African culture, unity, music, food, education, wellness, and community engagement here in Los Angeles.

Okeiji is a lawyer by training from Nigeria and also holds a master's in business administration and a master's degree in psychology from USC.

Please join us in welcoming Okeiji to the podium.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm truly honored and humbled to receive this recognition today.

I would like to thank the city, the elected officials, and everyone involved in making this acknowledgement possible.

This award is not just for me.

Thank you all for your support, your love, your patience.

I tend to drag you guys to do all the community work with me.

So I thank you for always being there with me, like you are today.

You have shared in sacrifices and challenges and victories along the journey.

And seeing you here makes this moment even more meaningful for me.

Through my work with Exposed and our Community Initiatives, I have learned that when we come together with a purpose, compassion, and determination, we can actually create lasting change and open doors for others.

I accept this award with gratitude and a renewed commitment to continue serving our community and empowering the next generation.

Thank you to all my friends that I dropped from all over, Kenya, Pamela, different people that are here today, and so many of my friends who have worked with, like mom, Senate, and so many other people, I'm a Masega, of course.

So I'm grateful to be here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next one I'll read is Kuyu Babu.

Come on up here, Babu.

As founder and executive producer of the Pan African Film Festival, Babu has spent more than three decades creating one of the world's premier platforms for African American and black storytelling.

Under his leadership, the festival has introduced audiences to filmmakers, artists, and storytellers from across Africa and the diaspora while establishing LA as a global destination for black and African cinema.

His leadership has fostered long partnerships with film institutions and festivals throughout the Africa and the world.

Please join me in acknowledging Babu.

Good morning and good afternoon.

And the ancestors are here watching us.

That's the message they told me to tell you.

You know, we sort of live in the moment, and we forget about the ancestors all around.

I was in Nigeria once, and um a brother said, Do you know why God doesn't answer your prayers often?

How many people have a lot of problems giving God's attention?

And the brother said, I'm sitting in Nigeria.

So the reason why God doesn't answer your prayers often is that you need somebody to try to catch up with God, and that we in Africa have understood that a long time, that how big is the universe, how big is the cosmos.

So if God is in charge of all that, he's busy.

So we need ancestors to say, look, help Babu.

You know, he's going across to the scene.

And so we always forget, we we we pray to everybody, but we forget and take the ancestors.

So they asked me to tell you today, always remember the ancestors, your immediate ancestors, and all the great ancestors, and ask them for a little help, and they'll see you through.

Um I'm actually a um example of that.

I'm I was raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming, born in Arabic, Texas, and I couldn't understand them how in the world I get to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and they said, Well, sometimes God moves in mysterious ways, so he put you an African in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to get very, very conscious.

Because sometimes when you run a bunch of white folks and white supremacy, you get real clear.

I saw Dick Taney play basketball against basketball against Dick Cheney in Wyoming.

So that prepared me to understand the mission.

Because I knew that was important.

So what they've done now is that if you look in this room, the whole continent of Africa and the Caribbean is here.

So that means that the work that you do is supposed to take us to the next step and to make sure it happens.

And the final, one of the great proverbs is the final test, and the final test for special people, and everybody in this room is special.

And so this has made that possible.

The final test of special people is ego.

The final test for special people is ego.

Because you're so bad, you're so incredible.

You know, you got it going on.

And then all of something something so big and so beyond you, you have to humble yourself.

I don't know how to give up and talk to the ancestors.

So thank you very much.

Do that, listen to that.

And may uh may Jehovah Yahoo.

May go do I.

Oh, bless you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen.

Our last uh honoree was born and raised in Ghana.

So Lesi Ahuru was uh dedicated his career to creating pathways for business growth, collaboration, and investment.

As a founder of Afropolitan LA, he has developed programs, events, and business networks that celebrate African culture while supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout LA.

Through his Afropolitan, this is Africa Travel Initiative.

He's helped members of the diaspora build meaningful relationships and new avenues for collaboration across the continent.

His work continues to create opportunities that extend far beyond cultural exchange.

Please join me in welcoming Salasi.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm usually behind the scenes during production work, so forgive me.

I'm not used to stuff at talking in front of people.

I'm truly honored and humbled by this recognition as part of African Day celebration.

I want to thank the city of Los Angeles for this incredible honor and uh for celebrating the contributions of the African community.

While my name is on this uh recognition, uh I stand on the shoulders of invisible giants who work behind the scenes all the time.

They might not be named today, but I just wanted to slide a few names in, like uh Dr.

Akrofi, Shayi Brown, we have also um Charles, a lot of our community activists are constantly working to uplift my beautiful wife, Nikki, for allow me and believing in the dream that we always out there trying to push to bring our communities together.

I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

And as this honor belongs to all of us, let's continue to build bridges, strengthen communities, and reconnecting to each other, because together we can win.

I appreciate you and thank you.

Well, Councilman Huddle, that you have some closing comments.

I think this uh concludes our program for today.

Well, I I just want to thank everyone uh for your contributions to Los Angeles and for reminding the rest of the world how wonderful it is to be here in the city that is for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Happy Africa Day.

Thank you so much.

Uh thank you so much, uh members Price and Hutt and all the honorees that are here today.

Uh, this is always a special day for me, members.

Uh, and I'd like to say on the record every time I get an opportunity that this day was not supposed to happen.

When Africans were brought to this country, we were not recognized as human beings, and the nations that you all now represent weren't recognized as nations.

Uh so the fact that we can come here and be in this great city that welcomes everybody, and you can find both the descendants of slaves from the African continent and folks who have immigrated here since that time, uh, all at home, all thriving, all doing well in the city of Los Angeles is truly a miracle and a testament to our culture, uh to our tenacity and uh to our love and care for each other, and so I want us to always, always, always remember that when we do do these celebrations, it is truly a miracle, and we've got to do everything we can to protect it.

Uh secondly, uh Mr.

Price, uh Councilwoman Hutt, in 18 months from now, 18 months from now, the 2028 Summer Games will be here in Los Angeles, and we're gonna have an African Caribbean nation house village in the heart of Los Angeles that we want every country to participate in.

This is this has never been done in the history of the world.

It's gonna be dynamite.

We're gonna have performances, we're gonna have music from all over the African diaspora and the continent.

Uh, and we're gonna show the world how it's done.

So, you know, we'll be down the street from the Coliseum and down the street from SoFi, but in the heart, we'll be celebrating the the cultures of African people all throughout uh the globe, but especially on the continent, the Caribbean here in the United States.

So thank you once again, uh Mr.

Price Councilman Hutt, Councilwoman Hutt, and uh we look forward to celebrating going forward.

Councilmember Rodriguez, before you leave, Mr.

Hold on, hold on, Kern, don't walk away.

Um, first of all, thank you both Councilmember Hutt and Price for this wonderful presentation, and it's really beautiful to have you all here.

The commencement with the performances was stunning, and uh it's just a beautiful reflection of what this city is composed of, and so I want to thank you all for being here.

But I would be remiss if I didn't thank councilmember price for leading this presentation each and every year because we're a little melancholic knowing that this is your last one, and I would be remiss if I didn't recognize you and the first lady of the new ninth.

Come on, get up.

No, get me back.

You both have been wonderful friends, and uh my husband and I both cherish you both, uh, and thank you both.

But I want to thank you for this beautiful presentation each and every year.

It's wonderful to have you all here in council chambers to watch generations that succeed in the examples that the elders are bringing to our community in every role that each of you play.

It's wonderful to have you here, and uh again, a little melancholic, just because I know this is the last one, but thank you for always bringing in this beautiful presentation.

Uh, I look forward to that continuing with Council Member Hutt, and uh, and again, it's wonderful to have you all here and uh and to celebrate this very special occasion and and really embracing how beautiful and diverse our city is and all of the contributions of the diaspora that are here.

It's uh it's really special.

So I thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Price to close.

Well, that's all, Ms.

President.

Happy Africa Day.

Thank you so much.

All right, um, Mr.

Clerk, what's next?

Councilman, and move on to public comment.

Mr.

City Attorney.

So, for people providing public comment, when it's your turn to speak, please state which of the agenda items you'd like to speak to.

You have one minute per item, up to three minutes total for the items open for public comment.

When speaking on the agenda items, you need to be on topic.

Our goal is to get through as many speakers as we can.

If you're not on topic, or if we can't tell whether you're on topic, you'll get one brief warning from me or the president.

At that point, you really need to get immediately clearly on topic.

If you don't, or if you again stray off topic, you will forfeit the rest of your speaking time and we'll move on to the next speaker.

The items that are open for public comment are items for twelve excuse me.

Items 30 and 34 are in the special agenda, which we'll turn to later.

Um members of the public may also speak for up to one minute for general public comment.

During the general public comment period, you may speak on any of the items or anything else within the city subject matter jurisdiction.

We'll let you tell you when your time's up.

Um I have a few more announcements before we begin, and I'd ask the interpreters to please make this first announcement aloud in the room.

If you require a Spanish language interpreter, please um make sure to pause every few sentences so the interpreter can interpret.

And while you're being interpreted, don't worry, we'll pause your time so that you'll get the same amount of speaking time as everyone else.

Additionally, if you uh make an accommodation request pursuant to the ADA with the clerk's office, or you'd like to make one today in order to make use of the wireless hand held microphone, after you hear your name, you signed up under, called aloud, please raise your hand so the sergeants can provide you with the wireless microphone.

Uh finally, to help us uh run an efficient uh public comment period, please wait until you hear your uh name that you signed up under read aloud before lining up in any order to speak.

Doesn't matter what order you come in, but please don't line up on that side of the uh your left side of the uh hall until your name is read.

And with that, Mr.

President, we're ready to begin public comment in the regular meeting.

I'd like to begin public comment by calling up a few names.

Smith and Wesson Jr.

Johnny Walker, Blanca, Norma Norma Daniel, Go Puppet the Second, Daniel Sosa, and Riggs votes.

Yeah, we it looks like uh we've got a small enough number of people here that if you've signed up to speak, you can just line up uh on the aisle, and when you come up, let us know the name that you signed up under, so that we can make sure you get off the list.

So uh we'll start the time with the current speaker and ask what name you signed up under and what name you signed up under and what items you want to speak on.

Yes, mass uh item of what name did you sign up under?

I signed up, motherfucker, under GP number two, foo.

Okay, thank you very much.

Isn't that what the motherfucking name is?

Okay, you have three minutes for the items, followed by a minute of general.

Please begin.

And the items are open twelve through twenty nine.

And that wide, motherfucker, uh number twelve foot.

We'll get the data tree seven foo.

We motherfucker over here going to dead information for five years, my fucker.

I say no to this motherfucking shit.

Brother, sister, Africa, don't know my fucking shit about that.

I say support, no, I say not supplied.

And then we get number thirteen, god damn white woman over there, park, goddamn vacating the land for motherfucking project to some goddamn kind of corruption.

Never helping our people, Marquee.

Never helping our people, oh, helping them rich white motherfuckers.

So say no today.

I'm gonna stay on topic.

I try, number 14.

It up a fucking other dinner.

Yes, it earned we get home on Taylor Lenny Jackson, the dedication of a pleque.

A pleque for a laptoptime of fucking sips.

Only a goddamn pleque.

Is that all you get?

Like the way you did Herb West and do.

So Mr.

Little Plague.

Please get back on the agenda.

The fucking compelling goddamn plaque for an honorary to another honory.

How come when it's a black man like her voice and you get a tiny little hidden plaque, but it's a white motherfucker, you get a big plaque.

You don't treat not people wrong.

Number 15.

Well, we get this motherfucking CD6.

That's the amount of dilla over there in North Heels.

Stopping the goddamn drug trade.

Let's give her a hint.

Yes, uh C D6 is called 41.18.

That means you don't camp and you don't sell drugs to kids and you don't trap children.

And Melda is against drug dealing.

She's against Epstein.

She's against the power structure, fool.

My teaser, you ain't a favor of that.

You like that shit.

Then you get number 16.

We get Jurado.

Look at this motherfucker.

Nine million motherfucking dollars.

Look at that.

How come you nissus can't get nine million dollars of housing in C D1 for the brown folk?

How come that little Filipina getting 9 million dollars?

Mr.

Weezar couldn't get the 9 million dollars.

He gotta go up the river.

Mr.

DeLeon couldn't get the 9 million dollars.

But how come she can get the 9 million dollars?

That's because this motherfucker place is full of goddamn corruption.

And now we get to the public comment.

Again, all over the world, especially Africa understands.

Let's give a hand a voter fraud, everybody.

I love it.

That's how we get people elected to goddamn office all over the world.

LA now is join the world.

We are the world.

We are the children.

We are not registered to vote, but we vote anyway to make a living.

There's money to be paid.

Cash money for drugs and guns.

And all we have to do is stuff the ballot box for another day.

That's right, motherfucker.

That's all you gotta do is go to the gym and get a dollar.

Get your gym membership.

Go down, register to vote on Skid Row.

They give you a hundred dollars, and you give yourself those forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty two ballots.

So Nithia can screw that whack out of second place.

See you later, FBI.

Thank you, Mr.

Spindler.

Next speaker.

Mr.

Gravener, which items did you want to speak to?

All items in general.

We have three minutes for items 12 through 29, followed by a minute general.

Please begin.

So item 15 is a motion from Nuri's bestie, Amelda Padilla, to further criminalize homelessness in her district in CD6.

So no on any 4118 motions.

4118 is violence.

4118 criminalizes homelessness.

It does not get them housing or services.

It does not do anything like that.

It's just pushing them down the street, forcing them to move their stuff.

For no reason other than just to, you know, appease rich people so they don't have to see the unhoused people.

And meanwhile, all the unhoused people stuff's getting thrown out, they're losing their access to services that they're getting because no one knows where they are because these asshole council members keep pushing them down the streets because this is contributing to the fact that six unhoused people die on the streets of LA every single day.

So let's move on.

We have item 17, which is care plus sweeps from Bob Womanfield, CD3.

So no uncare Plus as well.

You could call it cruelty plus, because that's what it is.

It's cruelty to unhoused people.

Again, to appease rich people, so they don't have to see unhoused people on the streets.

And again, they're not getting housing or services.

It's just criminalizing their existence because, you know, that's apparently what this council does is violence.

So no on items 15, no on item 17.

So we have a few motions related to World Cup fan zones.

Is anyone actually a fan of the World Cup?

Like who's excited for this?

Just like a normal person.

So I mean, at least here, but I mean, you know, these are just hot spots for ICE to show up and target people.

It kind of sounds like a good idea.

It's also just kind of sad because, you know, no one can actually afford to buy a ticket to an actual World Cup match unless they're rich.

And so this is kind of the little consolation prize, I guess.

It's these fan zones that also further are places that could attract ice, which is another huge concern.

So just I guess I guess it's kind of sounds like a good idea in theory, but it's basically just the consolation prize since the World Cup tickets aren't actually affordable by any means.

So, let's see.

Item 24 is this another criminalization, war on drugs thing.

No.

We don't need the war on drugs here.

Let's go on to general public comments.

Okay.

So for general public comment, we've got where is everyone?

Now I'll just walked out after the pre after presentations.

You know, I thought presentations were gonna be on Fridays, so that the rest of the days we wouldn't have to sit through presentations for almost two hours.

But here we are, apparently you're expanding it to Wednesdays now.

When is the council gonna properly implement SB 707?

That requires by July 1st, that requires you to reinstate Colin Comment, that requires you to promote your meetings, that requires you to pass a technology disruption policy.

It requires all this stuff, it requires you to reopen public comment on a lot of items.

So when is this council gonna make sure that it's fully implemented?

You haven't even started that process.

And I know it's because Marquise up there hates the public, that's why Colin Comment was eliminated in the first place.

So when's SB 707 gonna be properly implemented?

Fire Jim McDonnell, fire that racist ISA agent.

Hello, Speaker.

Which items or general public comment did you want to speak to?

Good morning, it'll be um, or good afternoon, it'll be general.

Okay, you have a minute.

Please begin.

Thank you.

This year we celebrate 250 years as America on July 4th.

We also will remember the 25th anniversary of 9-11.

And on November 3rd, hopefully everyone participates during our general elections, because currently our primary elections only had a voter turnout of 37.55%.

My name is Roelio Martinez.

As of 2028, I will become the next Board of Supervisor in District 4.

I do not promise priorities, goals.

I bring one simple promise.

I promise that the 2 million people that I will serve will have a greater quality of life.

And lastly, mediocracy.

Thank you.

Have a great sir.

Hi, speaker.

Which items are general public comment, did you want?

Uh, I would like to speak on item number 260707.

Okay, please begin.

Good morning, honorable members.

My name is Edon Garcia.

I'm the LA County Director of Advocacy for Streets Are for Everyone.

First, I would like to extend my gratitude for your efforts in expediting the implementation of speed safety systems in Los Angeles, a proven deterrent against one of the deadliest behaviors on our streets.

Speeding.

The pilot program in San Francisco has already shown measurable success.

After implementation, speeding dropped by an average of 72%, and two-thirds of drivers who received a recitation did not receive a second one, showing that the program is changing dangerous habits.

LA is already behind other cities piloting the program.

Malibu, Long Beach, and Glendale have already selected a vendor and have actively moving forward with implementation.

Selecting a vendor today is more than an administrative action.

It is a necessary milestone that brings us one step closer to turning the promise of AB 645 into a life-saving reality that will protect people walking, biking, taking transit, and driving on our streets.

The data is clear that technology exists, and yet people are still waiting for implementation.

After selecting a vendor, I urge this committee to continue moving forward.

Thank you.

Okay, you have a minute for each.

Please begin with the item.

Uh greetings, council.

My name is Daniel Sosa.

Um, we need lower taxes for the cannabis industry, and it needs to happen in conjunction with the tax amnesty program.

Over taxation is the single all-important issue that the cannabis industry is facing.

We are taxed at 100 times the rate as other businesses in the city.

And there are significant social costs of over taxation.

Over 60% of the market in the state is the illicit market.

That means 60% of cannabis consumers in the state and a higher percentage in LA are getting cannabis that is unregulated and untested.

That's millions of people.

It's being sold on the street in Santee Alley.

It's being sold in smoke shops, it's being sold in unlicensed shops.

These places do not do age verification.

They could be selling to minors.

They could be selling other illicit drugs, including nitrous oxide and hopefully not fentanyl.

Who knows where they are getting their cannabis from?

The marijuana is likely full of mold and pesticides.

So there's a significant social cost, a serious public health issue due to over taxation.

Because over taxation directly causes consumers to go to the black market.

Thank you.

That seemed to be general public comment.

Uh no.

You had literally two sentences, two words on Noctural Sites, that it was all about cannabis.

And not really.

Thank you.

Sounds like you had your general public comment.

I said it sounds like you had your general public comment.

So we'll go to the next speaker.

Thanks.

Alright, uh, it looks like there are no more public speakers.

Uh Mr.

Clerk, can we recess the regular meeting and convene the special meeting?

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Blumenfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez, Hutt, Herado, Lee, McOskar, Nazaren, Padilla, Park, Price, Raman, Rodriguez, Soda Martinez, Jaroslavsky, 13 members, and a quorum, Mr.

President.

Alright, we'll go to public comment for the special meeting.

If you are interested in public comment in the for the special meeting, line up on the um aisle.

And uh, Mr.

City Attorney, do we need to read the instructions into the market again?

Hey, a just brief uh change.

So this is a special meeting, so there's no general public comment.

Um, but you have um up to three minutes for the I think it's four or five items, and just to be clear, the items are outside council, mikla funds, um, reserve end funding, and that's it.

So it has to be on one of those topics.

So 30 and what are the other items, and I'm doing two items.

So item 30 is related to a lawsuit that's outside legal counsel for a lawsuit because the former LAFD chief sued you because you fired her.

Um, and you know, that's be you fired her because she called you out.

Because she called out the mayor, so you fired her because you took away all our money, so she couldn't fight the fires as easily and quickly, gave it all to the LAPD.

So now now you've got a legal liability payout here that you're about to probably have to do here.

More money for liability payouts, and of course, the city attorney can't apparently um defend anything, so she hires leg outside legal counsel for every single, you know, every single lawsuit she's gotta hire this expensive outside legal counsel because she doesn't know how to defend anything, she just got kicked out of the runoff entirely.

So she's a lame duck now, quack quack.

So item 33 is related to year-end reserve fund borrowing.

So hopefully these reserve funds will be borrowed for good uses and not for anything ridiculous like giving more money to the LAPD, who's already getting almost 3.6 billion dollars next year.

So, hopefully, these reserve funds can be done to do things like maybe helping the city recover from the fires a little faster, or getting people housing and services that they might need, or things like that.

There's a lot of good things that could be funded with this in your year-end reserve fund borrowing.

But again, all you seem to do is just give more money to the LAPD while they kill people at record numbers and ate it about nice kidnappings, all under the leadership of their racist police chief.

You refuse to do anything about it.

Thank you, Mr.

Spindler.

Which items do you want to speak on?

Well, speaking all the motherfucking.

Okay, three minutes go ahead.

Fuck it.

So here we go.

What name did you sign up under?

Well, I signed up under GP2.

I signed up under good truth.

I signed up under fuck, I signed on a goddamn name.

So just going forward, Mr.

Spindler, it's totally fine for you to sign up under a pseudonym one pseudonym.

It makes it difficult to first to manage the meeting.

It makes it difficult to manage the meeting if you sign up under multiple pseudonyms.

Is your first warning?

Go ahead, Mr.

Spindler.

Yeah.

And let's get to the lesbian item of number 30, the first lesbian to lead the LAFD.

The great crowd leaders give her a hand.

So you see, she turned around and snitched, she got demoted.

She didn't get fired.

She got demoted.

And Tracy Puck when she was in law school and buckethead, and even little Gerardo when she was in law school called it what constructive what?

Constructive termination.

She was constructively terminated as the police chief.

So that's why she's suing for those damages.

And you're gonna spend 500,000 of our money to hire an outside law firm?

You fuck dead shit.

Pay that nice lady.

Number 31.

This is the Amalda Padilla Moment of Truth.

Is a milder gonna do this to the city budget of mild?

Are you gonna take 83 million dollars of borrowed money and turn it into a hundred and sixteen million dollars of debt?

Are you gonna borrow 38 million a milde and cause the city to pay 154 million for it?

Or are you gonna pay the fuck attention to this?

Now you see, Eunice, if she hadn't sold out to those unions on that convention center bond measure, we would have had the 133 million dollars, and we could have bought this goddamn bond cash, but she had to sell out for that 133 million a year that the convention center's getting.

That's why we go in bankrupt.

And then, of course, we get tomorrow of the scheme of the construction projects.

Now, isn't it a shame that we don't have a U.S.

attorney with an accounting background?

We just get people like dumb Bill Asahi and dumb people like Army D.

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.

They don't have a goddamn accounting and GAAP background.

Like I do, I took four years of accounting.

And I know that this shit is nothing but stealing.

5.5% interest, motherfucker.

When you go to the bank, you can't get 4% on your CDs.

So you're also paying administrative costs to goddamn Wall Street.

So I know a male do you try, but now you're having those sundowner times right now.

So you gotta go get a little.

Thank you, Mr.

Spindler.

Do we have anybody else lined up?

Nope.

Okay.

That's all the speakers.

Alright, that concludes the public comment.

Before we call these items, I want to ask members if they'd like to call any items from the special agenda special, Mr.

Nazarian.

Item 30 for a separate vote, please.

All right.

Alright, so uh seeing no other specials, uh, Mr.

Clerk, uh what's next?

Uh Mr.

President, before I run through the agenda, would council like all items on the special agenda to go forth with today?

Yes, please.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Items 30 through 34 items for which public hearings have not been held.

Ten votes are required for consideration.

All right, without objection, those items are reforced.

With public comment satisfied, the council may now vote on items 31 through 34.

Alright, let's open the roll on those items.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

13 eyes.

Alright, what's next?

Council may now vote on item 30 called special by Councilmember Nazarian for a separate vote.

Council member Blumentfield.

You're good?

Okay, all right.

Let's open the roll on that item, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Twelve eyes, one no.

All right, what's next?

Would the council like to adjourn the special and reconvene the regular meeting?

Yes, please call the roll.

Plumenfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez, Hutt, Harado, Lee, McOscar, Nazaren, Padilla, Park, Price, Rami, Rodriguez, Soda Martinez, Yaroslavsky, 13 members, and a quarter, Mr.

President.

Alright, uh, what's next?

Council may now vote on items 12, 13, 16, 17, and 19 through 29.

All right, let's open the roll on those items.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

13 eyes.

Alright, what's next?

Council may now vote on item three called special by Councilmember Blumenfield.

Just uh 23 fourth width, please.

23 forth width.

All right.

Without objection.

And do you have comments on item number seven?

Um, sorry, item number three.

Yes, okay, Mr.

Bloomfield.

Yeah, uh, uh comments and actually a qu uh an amendment that I've worked out with councilwoman Padilla.

Uh I called the special.

I was gonna ask a bunch of questions, and I've been spending time talking with the cannabis folks and the city attorney.

Uh what gave me pause on this uh was that, you know, if we are uh allowing businesses to sell their license to anybody, that what we're what will ultimately happen is that Philip Morris and other big tobacco companies are gonna come in and buy it all up.

Which was the reason back when we did this why we when we were talking about social equity, why we didn't uh allow this, why we created a social equity program and it was flawed for lots of reasons, but um it was so that the individual um businesses would actually be local and and connected.

But I understand and if uh that we have screwed around a lot and and that there is a um we're trying to give a lifeline to some of these businesses that are out there that basically cannot function right now with the way things are set up, and they need to get the capital, they need to get the equity, and the only way that's gonna happen is if we let them sell out either all or whole of their business, but eyes wide open.

What that means is that this the social equity concept is will not be the same.

Uh and it will uh we are going to see the medmeds and the RJ Reynolds take over this market, and that's gonna happen.

Uh I did also was concerned about moving forward if we were to continue to give out licenses and allow people to sell them at the very same time.

Then what ends up happening is we're just creating a market for people, you know, to profiteer, you know, or big companies to come in and hire somebody to get the equity license and you know and then turn around and sell it to the company five minutes later.

And that doesn't make a lot of sense either.

So to try to deal with these issues, I'm gonna offer the amendment that I've worked out with Councilwoman Padilla, which is one to put a grandfather clause on this, so that we would say social allow social equity individual applicants to sell ownership interests or applicants and then add in who held the license uh as of June 10th, 2026.

So basically, anyone who currently has a license, we're gonna offer this uh handout, which or helping hand where we're saying you can sell out to whoever you want.

Uh, but we're not gonna say going forward that you can just go up to the counter, buy a license, and turn around and sell it.

So number one is a grandfather clause, that's the main thing, and then also just adding in the words as we ask them to draft it to say um to report with the draft ordinance and allow social equity and individual applicants to sell ownership interest to any individual or entity with appropriate guardrails so that when they're doing this, they can think about what are the guardrails that could allow us to maintain some sort of social equity, whether that's uh stakeholder interests or uh community benefits or or something.

We're we're adding in those those words to to at least show that we want to have some appropriate guardrails.

So I'm offering that as an amendment, and I believe Councilwoman Padilla will second that.

Yes, is seconded that amendment, and rather than ask a little bunch of questions, I'm just gonna offer that as a solution.

All right.

So let's uh open the roll on this item as amended by uh Blumenfield seconded by Padilla.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

13 ayes.

All right, what's next?

Council may now vote on item number four, called special by Council Member Hutt for a substitute motion.

We will need to take two votes.

The first would be to question whether to substitute.

All right, let's open the roll and substitution.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Just need a moment, Mr.

President.

13 eyes.

Alright, and let's open the roll on the item.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Thirteen eyes.

Alright, what's next?

Council may now vote on item number 15, called special by Councilmember Herado for a separate vote.

Alright, let's open the roll on this item, call special by council member Jonado for a separate vote.

Let's close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Eleven eyes, two no's.

Alright, what's next?

Item number 18, called special by Councilmember Padilla for comments.

Councilmember Padilla.

Yes.

Hi colleagues, this is this item uh before you is going to support the creation of 46 new affordable housing units at Odis Place in Council District 6, helping address the city's ongoing housing storage.

I want to thank Decrow, Daylight, and Downtown Women's Shelter for developing this housing opportunity and for being steadfast partners who weathered extreme difficulties such as closing a budget gap and overcoming materials material failures that threaten the project.

Named in honor of Mary Luce Odis Oates, a prominent journalist and activist who helped raise funds for the downtown women's center.

The development is designed to provide trauma women survivors with a safe and stabilizing environment.

Odis' place is dedicated to serving women experiencing homelessness and survivors of domestic violence as well as providing uh support services.

It's one of the first modular construction projects to be finished in CD6, and it demonstrates our continued work around addressing sex trafficking and protecting women.

This new development will provide more than will also include resources, and as mentioned, a place for women to drive and get back on their feet.

The resolution authorizes an issuance of a multifamily housing revenue bond that is going to help finance this project.

Approval of this item positions the project to secure the financial the uh financing to move forward and of course the ongoing work to address our housing crisis.

Thank you so much.

I ask for your I vote.

Alright, thank you so much, Councilmember Padilla.

Let's open the roll on this item.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Thirteen eyeball.

All right, congratulations on that.

What's next?

Council has motions for posting and referral.

They are posted and referred.

The desk is clear.

Alright, announcements, members.

Any announcements?

All right.

Seeing no announcements, I'll ask everyone in the chamber to rise for adjourning motions.

Look to my left.

Seeing none, look to my right.

Alright, with that, we're adjourned.

Thank you so much, everybody.

The people that brought the country up, and then when the bombing of Pearl Harbor happened, everybody went crazy, and we have to look like the people that bomb Pearl Harbor, and they saw us as the enemy, and as great a man as Roosevelt was, Roosevelt was a human being.

He got swept up in the hysteria.

There are people on the West Coast that look exactly like the people that bomb our arm.

Who knows what could be a spy?

They might be planning to bomb San Pedro.

After a year of that unjust imprisonment, the government realizes there's a wartime manpower shortage.

And here are all these young people, men and women, that they've categorized just arbitrarily as enemy aliens.

We're Americans.

Born, raised, and imprisoned by America, born here.

They just made up this enemy alien thing, but now they need us.

So they come down with a loyalty questionnaire.

What's the matter with this government?

They should have asked that before they imprisoned us, before they took our homes, destroyed my father's business.

Hearing this story, I keep telling people the ideals of democracy are noble.

A government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

That's us.

The people.

Okay.

How many times a day do you find something illegal with your canine?

Also, can canines smell laundered money?

Well, to answer the first part, uh it depends on the day.

Sometimes we have agency assist, so our canines will go and assist our outside agencies like LAPD, or we'll help assist our own patrol officers, and we'll search vehicles, and sometimes we'll find something like narcotics, or we'll find firearms, and some days we won't.

So it just depends on the kind of day that we're kind of having.

But we're always training, we always want our canines to find stuff.

So it just really depends on the day.

Also, can canines smell laundered money?

Uh, our canines are not trained to smell for or detect laundered money, but other outside agencies do have dogs that can detect that.

Why did you want to work as a canine officer?

Well, who wouldn't want to work as a canine officer?

We get to work with dogs every single day, and it is so much fun.

It is really fun watching your canine partner smell and detect and work and just be able to detect things like explosives or narcotics or track down suspects.

It's really fun watching them work.

They are a great tool for law enforcement.

I think it's one of the best uh positions anybody as a police officer could have.

And yeah, your partner is a dog, and who doesn't want to have a partner as a dog?

So, yeah, it's the best.

I suggest be a canine officer.

How old was the dog when you first started training it?

Was the canine a puppy when you trained him?

So when I got my dog, and my dog's name is Puma.

He was about a year and a half years old.

So he was still a puppy, but he wasn't puppy puppy, so he still has puppy like behavior.

Um, he's super high-energetic, he wants to play and run around and and he wants to find things, which is great.

Um, so yeah, he's a he was a year and a half, so he's now uh three years old, and he's so much fun to work with, and it's great.

Okay, next question.

What positions did you play in volleyball and softball?

So I played volleyball, I started playing volleyball and softball probably when I was in the fifth grade, which was so long ago.

Um, in volleyball, I played left side hitter and right side hitter, and in softball, I played first base, second base, and outfield, uh, specifically left field.

And yeah, for volleyball, it was definitely my main sport.

I played all the way from fifth grade all the way up into college, and it is probably one of the best sports out there, and yeah, it's great.

It's great playing on team sports, and you get to have a lot of fun and you get to win and go out there and have fun.

Okay.

Let's see.

Next question.

How do the canines get trained to go on missions?

So we train our canines as if it's a real world scenario.

So every training scenario that we set up, it's as if our canines are going out there and searching for a real uh explosive, narcotic, or suspect.

So we train in vehicles, we train in container terminals, we train in um for in open areas, in packages, luggage, anything you could think of, we train because we want our dogs to be prepared for any type of scenario, and we need us as handlers to be prepared for whatever comes.

So with our canine unit, we have single-purpose explosive dogs, we have narcotic detection dogs, and we have patrol dogs.

So all of our handlers are capable of training our dogs as if it's a real world scenario, and that way when the time comes for our dogs to be out there, they got it.

They can handle the situation, and we trust our dogs to know that they can find something.

How long have you worked as a police officer?

I have been a police officer for six years going on seven.

I became a police officer in December of 2014.

So I just had my sixth year anniversary.

Now I'm on my seventh, and it is a very noble profession, and it is one of the best things to come to work and you have people that you enjoy working with, and we all have the same goal is to keep the port safe, keep our community safe, and keep each other safe and co home at the end of the shift.

So, yeah, I've been a police officer for six years, and I look forward to the next six years to come.

Let's see.

Next one.

Do you live with the canine and do you train with it every day?

So yes, Puma does live with me.

He has his own kennel set up in the backyard.

He comes home with me every night.

I take care of him.

So he has his own little place to run around and just be a dog.

And we only train when we come to work.

So when we're at work, it's work time.

We don't, we don't get to play around.

We don't get to, you know, do what we don't get to be a dog.

He's a working dog.

So when we're at work, we work, when we're at home, we get to chill and relax and he gets to have fun.

Let's see.

How long does it take to train the canines?

Well, let me say this.

Training never stops when you're in law enforcement, specifically when you're a canon officer too.

The training never never stops.

You never want to get complacent in your work.

You never want to feel comfortable.

You always want to train for the what ifs.

So but generally when you get your dog, um if it's a single-purpose dog, like mine, like Puma, he's a single-purpose explosive canine, you have uh one month of training.

Then you get certified.

So you take the dog and the handler, take a test to make sure that he has odor recognition, he can pick up uh the scent, he can find odors, and the and the handler can watch his behavior and know what the dog is doing.

So once the training is passed, the dog gets certified, then he or she can go uh is certified to work in the field.

But just because that month of training is done, doesn't mean the training stops.

We are constantly maintaining our canine skills, improving them so they can be the best that they can be.

Now, with that, we do have dual purpose dogs.

So some of our canines are uh narcotics and patrol dogs or explosive and patrol dogs.

So their training, it takes a little bit longer, about two months.

And once they're done with their two months of training, once again they get certified, and then they go back out in the field.

But like I said, their training is constant.

We need them to be the best that they can be so they can detect anything that comes their way.

Let's see a couple more.

Okay.

When you guys are working and a person comes up and asks, can I pet your canine?

Do you let them pet your canine?

This one depends on the handler.

Personally, for me, I do not let anybody pet uh canine Puma.

Um he's a working dog, so when he's out in the general public, he's working, he's working to keep everybody safe, and I personally don't want anybody coming up there to pet him because he's working.

But um it just depends on the handler.

Some handlers might feel um that they can.

It just is totally a handler preference.

Um so I simply just say no, thank you.

He's just he's working right now.

But yeah, I know the public loves the canines being out there, they love seeing them, they love, like I said, it's cool having a canine as your partner, and so the public is just so excited to see them out there.

So I would be energetic too if I saw a can out there.

I would want to pet him too.

Okay, last one.

Okay.

How long have you been with your canine?

So I just got Puma about a year and a half ago, going on two years.

So he is him and I are super brand new, I guess you could say.

Um, but yeah, we've been together for a year and a half, and he's great.

He's a Belgian Malonwall, so he is super high energy, he always wants to work, he has a drive to work, and it's great watching him work because he he can pick up and find things, and it just makes it fun because, like I said earlier, these dogs are awesome for law enforcement.

They're great tools to have.

So having a partner um that just wants to work is really great.

So I've been with him for a year and a half, and I look forward to the next couple years that I get to have with him.

And it looks like that is all of those questions.

Thank you so much.

Once again, my name is Alex Garvey, and this has been my career report.

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and give us a like.

Thanks.

When most people think of Los Angeles, they picture beaches, freeways, and the Hollywood sign.

But the city extends far beyond its skyline, all the way to the busy waterfront of San Pedro.

Here at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest seaport, massive cargo ships and towering cranes showcase the global reach of this harbor.

Yet, alongside its industrial might is a rich maritime history that continues to draw visitors from around the world.

Standing proudly on the waterfront is the Battleship Iowa Museum.

Once a powerful naval vessel that served through the multiple conflicts, the Battleship Iowa now welcomes guests aboard as a living piece of American history.

So whether you're visiting the harbor for the first time or enjoying the community you call home, welcome to Los Angeles.

Standing here aboard the Battleship Iowa, it's impossible not to appreciate the scale of the Los Angeles waterfront.

Docked in the heart of San Pedro, this legendary ship has become one of the harbor's most recognizable landmarks and a gateway to the area's history.

Now, as you walk these decks, you're following in the footsteps of sailors, service members, and even three U.S.

presidents, earning the Iowa its nickname, the Battleship of Presidents.

And today, the museum gives visitors a hands-on look at naval history while offering some of the best views of the harbor, where cargo ships, cruise vessels, and waterfront attractions all come together.

From the San Pedro fish market and harbor cruises to the LA Waterfront Promenade, the area welcomes millions of visitors each year who come to experience this unique side of Los Angeles.

It's also the perfect setting for one of the city's bigg