We had a lot enjoyable exploring LA in 2025. Listed below are our favourite tales

We made it. Happy (virtually) 2026.

All 12 months, the Explore L.A. group has introduced you tales of discovery and connection.

As we go away 2025 behind, we have handpicked our favorites of the 12 months.

We did quite a bit.

We went inside a Los Angeles establishment that has been left untouched for greater than a decade. We discovered to make peace with our metropolis’s yard city critters. We marveled at avenue artwork painted a long time in the past, pulsing with modern relevance. We watched as outdated homes moved throughout the town to turn out to be new houses for hearth survivors. We had a leisurely day — one among us at the least — hanging out at a lilac backyard to listen to tales of affection and devotion. We witnessed the closing of a household enterprise in Chinatown — and the way that loss ricocheted throughout the neighborhood. We grew to become obsessive about a cola from Japan bearing our metropolis’s namesake and tried to seek out the connection.

And there are such a lot of extra tales that took us to totally different components of the area this 12 months — tales that introduced us nearer to this place, tales that now we have introduced again to you.

We hope you want them as a lot as we preferred writing and producing them. Catch you once more subsequent 12 months.

When Yue Wa Market closes this week, Chinatown will lose a neighborhood anchor

Yue Wa Market blends into the storefronts of Broadway in L.A.’s Chinatown.

“I got to spend the final days of Yue Wa Market with the family who runs it — watching them say goodbye to their customers and closing a chapter in a Chinatown that was transforming around them. It’s a story that stuck out for me this year because it showed, in a surprisingly intimate space, how every person leaves an imprint on their neighborhood.”

– Josie Huang, Weekend Edition host and reporter

After 20 years, one man’s obsession with the lilac is coming to an finish in Idyllwild

A small bundle of lilacs on the Idyllwild Lilac Garden.

(

Nathanial Torres

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LAist

)

“My favorite story this year focused on flowers in bloom and the end of an era for the man who tended to them for over two decades. I particularly loved this story because it was one of the first where I was able to spend the entire day out in the field on my own. It was a nice little road trip where I crossed three county lines, drove into a mountain town, and shared an afternoon with lilac legend Gary Parton. It was an honor to catch the man at the end of his second career and an honor to tell his story.”

– Dañiel Martinez, Explore L.A. producer

Go inside LA’s outdated General Hospital earlier than it turns from a spooky Art Deco time capsule into new housing

The stairs to the outdated General Hospital.

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Katherine Garrova / LAist

)

“For me, exploring L.A. means bringing readers and listeners into places they wouldn’t normally have access to. It was an honor to get to go into a beloved building that thousands of Angelenos have a connection to, and learn about its future providing housing and mental health care. Oh, and decaying old art deco buildings are just cool and feel like a movie set.”

– Robert Garrova, Explore L.A. reporter

These LA houses have been about to be torn down. Now they’re getting new life in fire-ravaged Altadena

The prime of the Saint George Street home.

“Most of my reporting tends to stick in our region’s convoluted, quirky history — but I love this story the most because it’s about making something old new again. A group of fire-affected residents are reviving the mostly-forgotten process of house moving to get back on their feet. This showed me nothing is ever truly antiquated if you have enough drive. (As a bonus: check out what moving a home across L.A. County actually looks like.)”

– Cato Hernández , L.A. Explained reporter

When it involves figs, it’s lady vs. squirrel

A squirrel daring you to make a transfer.

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Boys in Bristol Photography

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by way of Unsplash

)

“Here’s my thoughts about squirrels: It seemed to hit a nerve — I got readers telling me their methods of deterring squirrels, and others offering their fig preserve recipes. One person said they were only left with one fig on their fig plant, which they cut up into four to share with their family.”

– Suzanne Levy, Explore L.A. editor

The story behind the Pico-Robertson mural depicting working-class Jewish historical past, painted by a Filipino artist

An picture of Cesar Chavez, on the prime of the picture.

(

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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LAist

)

“There’s a mural in L.A.’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood that stands aside from different Jewish themed public artwork in L.A. in that it doesn’t give attention to the spiritual or nationwide a part of Jewish id.

It’s referred to as ‘A shenere un besere velt – A Better and More Beautiful World,’ in yiddish. It covers a roughly 60 foot lengthy and 15 ft tall wall on a constructing occupied by the Worker’s Circle in Pico-Robertson, a mutual help group based by Yiddish talking Jewish immigrants that opened an workplace in L.A. in 1908, not lengthy after it began in New York.

I really like this story as a result of individuals I interviewed stated the mural’s message of id based mostly on working class solidarity with individuals of different races and ethnicities is simply as related now as when it was unveiled in 1998.”

– Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, Explore L.A. correspondent

We went on the lookout for a Japanese cola named ‘Los Angeles’ — and located a narrative about dwelling

Los Angeles Cola.

“I really like this story as a result of I had no concept the place it was going to take me. I wished to write down about this tender drink named ‘Los Angeles’ and the circuitous journey ended with me talking with somebody who grew up as a part of a Korean minority group referred to as Zainichi Koreans in Japan. The coolest factor of all? Hwaji Shin’s story has a lot coronary heart.”

– Fiona Ng, deputy managing editor, Explore L.A. and Weekend