Good morning. It’s Thursday, May 25.
- Staff are hiding Dianne Feinstein from the press.
- Downtown Los Angeles faces an office vacancy crisis.
- And a look back at Wilt Chamberlain’s Bel Air oasis.
Statewide
1.
Even before Sen. Dianne Feinstein came down with the shingles, she was shielded from the press by a phalanx of handlers. Since her return to Capitol Hill this month, the protective bubble has grown thicker, with security personnel conscripted to help chase journalists out of hallways. The photographer Kent Nishimura recalled taking a picture of Feinstein as a staff member tried to hide her behind a pillar, above: “A Capitol Police officer shouted at me to move back — despite already being 30 feet away from the senator.” L.A. Times | Insider
- Columnist Gail Collins: “Dianne Feinstein is giving old age a bad name.” N.Y. Times
2.
A new analysis found that the California State University system isn’t generating enough money to sustain itself. All told, the system’s revenues during the school year that began in 2021 covered only 86% of its costs, according to the report by a Cal State workgroup. The shortfall suggests that tuition hikes are likely on the horizon. One trustee, Julia Lopez, likened the problem to climate change: “If we don’t heed the warning signs right now, we’re going to find ourselves in a world of hurt down the line.” CalMatters
3.
Zoo baby news from around the state:
- A baby koala recently emerged from his mother’s pouch at the Los Angeles Zoo. Koalas are born the size of a jellybean about a month after conception. They then climb into their mom’s pouch, where they develop for the next six months. L.A. Times | Pasadena Star-News
- The Sacramento Zoo welcomed the birth of a tiny male Sumatran orangutan, a critically endangered species. “Every birth is a monumental success for the species,” the zoo said. @sacramentozoo | KCRA
- In Eureka, Sequoia Park Zoo announced the arrival of two black bear cubs, found orphaned and ill-equipped for survival in the wild last year. They named the female cub “Oak” and the male “Tule.” @sequoiaparkzoo | North Coast Journal
Northern California
4.
What remained of the Ghost Ship, the Oakland artist colony where 36 people died in a fire in 2016, was quietly demolished this month. A nonprofit acquired the property and has been in conversation with victims’ families about how they’d like it put to use, said Mary Alexander, a lawyer who represented the families. The expectation is that it will host low-cost housing and include a memorial to the fire victims. “It’s hard to imagine a better use,” Alexander said. East Bay Times
5.
The charming Gold Rush town of Groveland has thrived on the tourism economy thanks to its location at a western gateway to Yosemite National Park. But this spring, when the town is normally buzzing with activity, Groveland is empty after winter storms opened a 200-foot crack in Highway 120, cutting it off from the park. The repair is not expected to be done until as late as July. Finn Horsley, the owner of Groveland’s Hotel Charlotte, said he has been brought to tears. “What was looking to be so promising a season suddenly collapsed.” SFGATE
6.
Savvy hikers carry ponchos when walking to Yosemite’s Vernal Fall. The popular Mist Trail got its name for a reason — you’re going to get soaked. Fed by torrents of melting snow from California’s epic winter, the falls are sending up mist so thick right now that it’s creating a secondary falls down the granite steps that go up the mountain. A hiker captured video last Friday. 👉 r/Yosemite
7.
The Sea Ranch, a modernist utopia along the Sonoma coast, enjoys a sort of cult status among architects. The vision for the community borrowed from the local Pomo Indian way of “living lightly on the land.” The Los Angeles architect David Ross described it as “all about the landscape — and then there happens to be architecture.” After two decades of visiting, Ross and his partner found a place of their own, built in 1980, and set about restoring its original grandeur. Architectural Digest took a tour.
- The Sea Ranch Lodge is now taking guest room reservations after new owners renovated the storied property. Surface magazine
Southern California
8.
While San Francisco’s emptied downtown has evoked portents of a “doom loop,” downtown Los Angeles is facing a crisis of its own:
- The office vacancy rate in L.A.’s central business district soared to a record 30% in the first quarter of 2023.
- The top three dozen downtown office buildings are almost all underwater on their loans, meaning they owe more than the properties are worth.
- And Brookfield Corp., downtown L.A.’s biggest office landlord, defaulted on $1.1 billion of loans on three buildings. Bloomberg
9.
A 17-year-old who was filming himself climb one of the arches on Los Angeles’s 6th Street Viaduct slipped and fell to his death over the weekend, officials said Tuesday. Police Chief Michel Moore said the boy apparently intended to post the stunt on social media. The bridge became a social media hotspot after its unveiling last July, as visitors recorded themselves peeling out, making a music video, and posing atop the concrete arches, which soar as high as 60 feet. L.A. Times | A.P.
10.
Among the migrants massing at the San Diego border in hopes of a better life are thousands of Afghans who were left behind after the American withdrawal from Kabul in 2021. Most of them set out for the U.S. border after flying to Brazil. They traveled for months through as many as 10 countries. Nearly all of them were robbed or extorted. The N.Y. Times traveled with a group through one of the hardest parts of the journey, the mountainous tangle known as the Darién Gap.
11.
A Kern County Superior Court judge held the Bakersfield Californian in contempt of court on Wednesday after the newspaper refused to turn over a reporter’s unpublished notes. A public defender had demanded the notes from a jailhouse interview of a murder suspect, arguing that they could be exculpatory for her client, a codefendant in the same murder. The newspaper planned to appeal, citing protections of the First Amendment and California’s Shield Law. Bakersfield Californian | KERO
12.
In 1972, the Laker legend Wilt Chamberlain — who stood 7’1″ and 275 pounds — built himself a home atop a promontory in Bel Air that matched his proportions as well as the flamboyance of the decade. It included a 14-foot tall front door, a wine rack at his eye level, a master bedroom with a retractable ceiling, and a swimming pool that wraps like a moat around the living room. Life.com looked back at a feature on Chamberlain’s oasis with pictures by Ralph Crane.
- The Chamberlain house could be yours for $12 million. Realtor
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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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