FEBRUARY 7TH, 2024

CURATEDLA: GOOD L.A. VIBES

👋 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7TH 2024

• 🚨 STORM RESPONSE: The City of Los Angeles has activated an emergency events page. This webpage is in partnership with County and State agencies, and provides real-time updates on active situations and responses to hazardous conditions that still pose threats to life, health, property, or the local environment.

⚡️THE HOV LANE

EATS

😋 HEADLINES

• 🍔 MOOYAH BURGERS: MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes is set to bring its mouthwatering offerings to even more locations in Southern California, with a recent franchise agreement paving the way for three new spots in Orange and Los Angeles Counties. MOOYAH is actively seeking new franchise owners and is offering attractive incentives for qualified multi-unit operators, such as reduced royalties and marketing fund matching.

• 🌿 DELTABEV: DeltaBev, the world's largest cannabis beverage facility, has opened its doors in the San Fernando Valley. The plant’s facility covers 45,000-square-feet and boasts state-of-the-art processing and packaging capabilities. The plant will process THC-infused drinks, including the micro-dosed THC tonics under the CANN brand.

• 🥤 GATORADE ID: Gatorade announced Gatorade iD, a free membership platform that offers us the ability to customize sports equipment, providing us with access to exclusive experiences, drops, and benefits such as personalized gear, limited edition drops, and discounts on Gatorade products. We can customize our own Gatorade iD bottle by choosing the pattern, color, adding personalized text, and team logos. Gatorade iD launched in partnership with DJ Khaled and is available for sign-up on the Gatorade official website.

• 🍔 AI WHOOPER: Burger King is offering a unique opportunity for burger enthusiasts to showcase creativity and potentially win a staggering one million dollars by designing their own Whopper using the power of AI. Participants will have the chance to see their flame-grilled curation come to life through a preview AI version, then customize the version with a personalized AI-generated jingle and a thematic background.

🚀 OPENINGS

• 🍕 LA MORRA PIZZERIA: La Morra Pizzeria will host a pop-up today in Echo Park at Canyon Coffee from 5pm - 9pm. As we are one week away from Valentine’s Day, today’s pizza pop-up will include heart-shaped Margherita pizzas that look deliciously hearty. Wine will also be served as it’s been said that wine is also good for the heart 📍Canyon Coffee: 1559 Echo Park Ave, Los Angeles 90026 | 📸 @lamorrapizzeria | 📸 @canyoncoffee

🧭 GUIDES

• 🍜 NOODLES: Seven of the best biang biang noodle restaurants in Los Angeles via Los Angeles Times

• 💯 BEST DISHES: The Best Dishes Eater Editors Ate This Week via Eater: Los Angeles

EVENTS

🔮 TRENDING FUTURES

🚨 It was a bit challenging to curate today’s newsletter. A lot of weather-related information. Many events were either cancelled, or my gut said ‘IDK…’ for whatever reason. This said, I do not want to have ‘cancelled’ events (at no fault to anybody) because of weather. Thus, I am going to start events back on Monday. This also includes the daily events found on Event Masters. 🚨 🫶 

• 📆 THIS WEEK: Things To Do This Week in Los Angeles, We Like LA

• 🥳 MORE EVENTS: Things To Do in San Fernando Valley, LA Daily

🧭 GUIDES

• 👨‍👩‍👦 LUNAR NEW YEAR: Best Events for Kids in Los Angeles

• 🎈INDOORS: 27 Free Things To Do Indoors on Cold and Rainy Days

• 🎉 BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Celebrate Black History Month with these events

➡️ Event Masters (back on Monday!) ⬅️ 
 🔖 Bookmark Event Masters for Daily Events
Our newsletter runs 6:00am MWF, events daily

ACTIVITIES

• 🎶 2024 HOLLYWOOD BOWL SEASON: The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association announced the 2024 Hollywood Bowl summer season yesterday. The exciting lineup opens with a 100th birthday celebration for 20-time Grammy winner Henry Mancini. Special holiday performances will honor Juneteenth, with T-Pain and special guests, and the July Fourth Fireworks Spectacular with Harry Connick Jr. The season will also include the world debut of the highly anticipated Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga Concert Experience. Conducted by Dudamel, the concert will transport audiences on a cinematic journey through the franchise’s first twenty-three films, weaving together the legendary characters of the Marvel Universe into one story from an all-new perspective.

COMMUNITY

• 🏫 UCLA HONORS: Three UCLA faculty members, Dariush Divsalar, Rong Fu, and Jonathan Stewart, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors granted to American engineers. The academy membership recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education.

• 🛫 HOLLYWOOD BURBANK AIRPORT: The Hollywood Burbank Airport broke its passenger traffic record in 2023, reporting a total of 6,034,729 passengers, which is a 1% increase from the previous record of 5,983,737 passengers in 2019. December 2023 totals for passengers saw a significant increase at 548,116, a 24% liftoff from 440,542 passengers the previous December, in 2022. There was also a four-percent increase for November YTD.

• 👋 MORNING, TROJAN: I would like to welcome Tomoki Chien and his newsletter, College Brief to the Beehiiv platform. Though Chien’s newsletter is tailored to USC Students, it has helped me start my day as College Brief has five USC, Los Angeles and California stories that hit my inbox every weekday morning. Welcome, College Brief!

• 🧑‍⚖️ BEVERLY HILLS MAYOR: Spectrum News 1 recently sat down with Beverly Hills Mayor Julian Gold to discuss his third term as Mayor of Beverly Hills, one of the most famous and most filmed cities in the world.
  
  Note: CuratedLA does not promote political opinions. We do, however, promote in-the-knows from local government. If you are interested about our personal politics: we watch CNN, FOX, NBC, MSNBC, and listen to political podcasts while drinking Capri-Sun.

DEVELOPMENT

• 🏗️ ECHO PARK: A new development is underway on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park. The project involves the construction of a seven-story building with 176 studio, one, two, three, four, and five-bedroom apartments. The development is expected to feature amenities such as a courtyard and a rooftop deck, as well as 203 parking spaces in a podium and basement garage. The design of the building, inspired by the site's hillside location, includes a contemporary look with an exterior of metal panels and wood siding. The completion of the project is anticipated to occur over a roughly 28-month period.

• 🎭️ WESTWOOD: Filmmaker Jason Reitman is leading an investment group in the purchase of the historic Fox Village Theater in Westwood. The theater, located on Broxton Ave, was listed for a reported twelve million and has not been previously up for sale. The property is a landmarked art deco building and is in need of an upgrade. It is unclear what Reitman and his investors plan to do with the property. The theater, with 1,375 seats, is considered an iconic and landmark property in Los Angeles. The acquisition is expected to be finalized in the next few weeks.

• 🎬️ HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD: The L.A. City Planning Department is implementing the Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project, which will include two miles of protected bike lanes along Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to Lyman Place. These improvements will serve our densely-populated neighborhoods of East Hollywood, Hollywood, and Los Feliz. This project is part of the city's efforts to prioritize bicycle travel on approximately 1,200 miles of streets and other rights-of-way, as outlined in the Mobility Plan 2035. | LADOT: Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project

BUSINESS

• 🛍️ NEW RETAIL OPENINGS: Several new retail openings have been reported in Los Angeles, including a variety of boutiques and stores

• 💰️ LYFT DRIVER EARNINGS: Lyft has announced that it will guarantee weekly earnings for its drivers, which is a first in the U.S. ride-hailing industry. This move is aimed at luring more drivers to the platform. The company will ensure that gig drivers earn at least 70% of rider payments each week, after external fees, providing them with a guaranteed minimum pay. This initiative is significant in the context of the competitive ride-hailing industry, where attracting and retaining drivers is a key priority for companies like Lyft.

• 🪸 MALIBU MINIMUM WAGE: The minimum wage in the City of Malibu is set to increase to $17.27 per hour starting on July 1st. This increase is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and is part of the city's efforts to ensure that workers are paid adequate living wages. The annual adjustment is determined by the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. This initiative is aimed at preventing workers from leaving Malibu for higher-paying jobs and reducing traffic on local streets and Pacific Coast Highway.

• 💯 BEST PLACES TO WORK: Built In has released their list of Best Places To Work in Los Angeles. The list includes one hundred companies in Los Angeles, with the top three being Warner Bros. Discovery, LogicMonitor and Skechers. 

• 🚀 BEST STARTUPS TO WORK FOR: Built In also published a list of the Best Startups To Work For in Los Angeles. Fifty startups made this particular list with Scratch Financial, Counterpart, and Cie, topping off the first three.

ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 MEGA SPORTS BUNDLE: Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox are joining forces to launch a sports streaming platform that will offer live linear channels like ESPN, ABC, Fox, TNT, and TBS, as well as games and other sports rights from all three media giants on a nonexclusive basis. The platform, set to debut sometime this fall for NFL season, will be a skinnier bundle of linear networks specifically tailored for sports fans, providing access to sporting events, including NFL, NBA, and MLB games. The new service, which will be owned by a newly formed company with its own leadership team, does not yet have a name or price.

  • 🗞️ BUSINESS INSIDER: ‘It could change TV forever’

• 🍿 FOOL ME ONCE: Netflix is not fooling anybody with success here: Fool Me Once streamed over three billion minutes of screen time during the series’ debut week, January 1st - January 7th. And that’s not all, Netflix has six more titles that topped one billion minutes of streaming, each within the first week of 2024 alone.

• 💃 AMERICA FERRERA: America Ferrera's directorial debut, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, has moved from Netflix to Amazon MGM Studios and Orion Pictures. The film is an adaptation of Erika Sánchez's best-selling 2017 young adult novel of the same name. This move marks Ferrera's first feature directorial project, and it is set to be developed at Amazon MGM Studios' Orion Pictures. The script for the film was written by Linda Yvette Chávez.

• 🙈 PASSWORD CRACKDOWN: Disney and Hulu are tightening the reins on password sharing, sending a clear message to freeloaders: the party's over. In a not-so-magical move, the House of Mouse is updating its terms of service to crack down on account mooching. So, if you've been borrowing your cousin's best friend's ex's login, it mivght be time to start considering your own subscription. This password crackdown takes place on March 14th and will impact those that subscribe to Disney+, ESPN+, and/or Hulu.

• 📺️ APPLE’S SIZZLE REEL: Apple TV+ has released their sizzle reel, providing us with an upcoming look at 2024 TV+ shows and films.

• 🥜 SNOOPY: Apple also released a trailer for Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin,’ which will be available to stream on Apple TV+ on February 16th.

• 🎒 ABBOTT ELEMENTARY: The new season of Abbott Elementary will premiere tonight on ABC. The show has been renewed for a third season and tonight’s premiere will be an hour-long episode. In celebration of the new third season, here is a behind-the-scenes with the real teachers of Abbott Elementary via Los Angeles Times.

• 📈 GRAMMYS VIEWERSHIP: The Grammy Awards drew in an average of 16.9 million viewers. This represents a 34% increase from the previous year's show, which had an average viewership of 12.4 million. The 2024 Grammys were the most-watched since 2020. The most-watched quarter-hour of the show began at 9:45pm, during the In Memoriam segment, which drew 18.3 million viewers. The show also saw a significant increase in streams on Paramount+, with 173% more streams than in 2023.

SPORTS

• ⚽️ WORLD CUP AT SOFI STADIUM: SoFi Stadium has been selected to host eight matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including the opening match for the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT) on June 12th, 2026. The stadium is undergoing modifications to accommodate a FIFA regulation pitch, including the installation of retractable corner seats to increase the field size for soccer. The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the largest in history, featuring 48 teams, 80 matches, and 16 host cities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This will be a significant event for SoFi Stadium and our region, as SoFi will become the only venue to host the Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, and Olympics in three consecutive years, with the Super Bowl LXI in 2027 and the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games.

• ⚾️ LOS ANGELES ANGELS: In one of baseball’s most competitive divisions, where will the Angels finish? Previewing the American League West via USC Annenberg Media.

QUESTION

CU FRIDAY, LA!