🦟 Mosquitoes, bike lanes, and running club.

Welcome to your bite-sized Valley update for August 1, 2024.

It’s not just you—there are fewer mosquitoes this summer.

In May, Los Angeles launched a pilot program to fight the mosquito problem.

An LA public health agency released tens of thousands of sterile mosquitoes into the air this year.

These mosquitoes can only produce non-viable eggs, thus reducing the number of mosquitoes around town.

The lab-grown mosquitoes also don’t bite! This means they can’t spread diseases like Zika or dengue. It also means fewer ankle bites and more time outside!

Many types of mosquitoes are invasive to Southern California. Climate change and urbanization have forced them to change their habitats.

Or maybe that’s us transplants…

Here’s what’s happening this week:

News

🚆 Metro broke ground on a new light rail line from Sherman Oaks to San Fernando. The 7-mile railway will open in 2031. Metro is buying property, moving utilities, and preparing the neighborhoods for the expansion.

🍟 Minimum wage for LA fast-food workers rose to $20 per hour in April. Despite businesses claiming that they would cut hours and jobs in response, job openings and placements are both up.

🎫 Metro’s “TAP-to-exit” program, which enforces Metro fares at subway exits, aims to cut down on illegal riders. It is expanding to 10 more subway stations. Right now, only the North Hollywood train station has this program. Since May, it has identified 25,000 riders who didn’t buy tickets.

🚴 New bike lanes on Hollywood Boulevard from La Brea to Gower make it safer to ride. There’s now a dedicated 1.3-mile bike lane protected by plastic bollards.

Food and Drinks

🍇 Prosperity Market is a traveling farmers market featuring 60+ Black-owned businesses around LA: farmers, chefs, and vendors. Join their 4th annual August scavenger hunt. Visit new businesses, earn points, win prizes. August 1 to 25.

🏁 Checker Hall (Highland Park) serves Mediterranean-inspired dinner and cocktails above a 100-year-old Masonic lodge. Speakeasy vibes with live jazz. Happy hour craft cocktails and snacks are $10. Music on Wednesday and Sunday.

🍺 NoHo Singles Night (North Hollywood) is a dating event at Lawless Brewing, a craft beer bar. Meet fun people who are single and live in the Valley. August 2 at 7 PM. $10 per person. 21+.

Things to Do

🏃 Studio City Run Club (Studio City) organizes small-group runs every Wednesday and Saturday around Studio City. Meet your neighbors, get some exercise, and hang out after. Free.

🧹 Neighborhood Cleanup (North Hollywood) is a volunteer-powered cleaning project in the SFV. Pick up trash with new friends. All equipment is provided. August 3 at 8 AM. Free.

✈️ Wings Over Camarillo (Camarillo) is a weekend air show featuring classic aircraft and stunts. War planes, jets, and hobby planes. Non-profit supporting STEM education. August 17 and 18th. $30 adults. $10 kids.

🔍️ Pasadena Scavenger Hunt (Pasadena) uses your phone for a self-guided walking scavenger hunt around Old Pasadena. Uncover stories and hidden treasures around Pasadena on a 90-minute walking tour. $13 per person.

📽️ Accidentally Wes Anderson (Santa Monica) lets you explore wacky locations around the world through photographs that accidentally look like Wes Anderson movies. Based on the NYT best-selling book of the same name. August 2 to August 18. $20 per person.

🎻 The Just and the Blind (Hollywood) is a multimedia performance commissioned by Carnegie Hall. Music, poetry, movement, and video projections highlight the experiences of incarcerated youth, exploring themes of race and the prison-industrial complex. August 2 at 8 PM. $25. Save 30% with FORDSUMMER.

LA By the Numbers

☀️ $3 million given to 1,400 Pacoima residents to protect their homes from climate change.

🛳️ $500 million given to LA by the EPA for clean air initiatives near LAX and shipping ports.

🧑‍🚒 4,600 active wildfires in California are burning 750,000 acres. For reference, that’s twice the size of the entire city of Los Angeles.

Random

🎷 A Hollywood Bowl subway station was proposed by Metro to alleviate traffic congestion before and after events.

🥪 The Arby’s restaurant sign on Hollywood Blvd may become a historical landmark. The sign, built in the 1960’s, is facing demolition, and some locals want to protect it.

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