Latest news with #JonathanGold
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery responds to health department closure
One of L.A.'s most iconic sandwich shops closed last week after health inspectors cited a vermin infestation among other infractions, but representatives for Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery — home of the famed Godmother sandwich — say that no rodents were found, contrary to multiple reports. A representative for the Los Angeles County Department of Health confirmed to The Times that the permit suspension was due to a cockroach infestation. "Vermin closures are consistently the number one reason for a permit suspension," they said in an email. Bay Cities celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, long a destination for Italian specialty goods and its sandwiches of imported and domestic deli meats and cheeses stacked on bread baked fresh each day. But on May 21 the Santa Monica culinary landmark was forced to shut down, and remains temporarily closed. The routine inspection from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found a major violation related to the presence of 'rodents, insects, birds or animals.' Read more: Sub Standard: Jonathan Gold reviews Bay Cities The organization lists this violation as a 'critical risk factor' in its online guidance for restaurants. Between Bay Cities' imports operation and its deli, the health department reported 14 violations. The inspections also cited infractions pertaining to its floors, walls, ceilings, food surfaces, food storage, unsanitary equipment and "proper hot and cold holding temperatures" (another major violation). Representatives for the sandwich shop and market could not be reached for comment but released a public statement on Tuesday that addresses both the closure and what they say is disinformation regarding the inspection's findings. 'We are actively working with the Health Department and third-party professionals to address all issues and make meaningful improvements to our operations,' reads the statement, which was posted to the Bay Cities Instagram account. 'We also feel it's important to address some misinformation that has circulated online and in select media outlets. Specifically, some reports have claimed that rodents were found on-site, this is false and not included in the official Health Department report. While we fully acknowledge the legitimate violations cited, we also believe in transparency and want to ensure our community receives accurate information.' The health department's inspection criteria group rodents with insects, animals and birds; a representative for the health department told The Times that "vermin infestations are defined as an imminent health hazard." Read more: Where to find the best Italian sub sandwiches in L.A. The deli remains indefinitely closed until its reinspection. 'We are doing the work to come back better,' the restaurant's public statement said. A hearing held Wednesday will determine whether Bay Cities' permit will be revoked — and not just suspended — because the facility's permit has been suspended twice in one year. A September 2024 inspection found major violations of rules for clean and properly washed hands, proper glove use, and clean and sanitized food contact services. A notice of the hearing's decision will be issued within five days. Closures due to health inspection findings are common. According to public documents, in May nearly 60 restaurants, markets and other food and beverage operations were shut down by the L.A. County Health Department. Nearly 50 of these — including Bay Cities — list 'vermin infestation' as the reason. Sign up for our Tasting Notes newsletter for restaurant reviews, Los Angeles food-related news and more. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
27-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Walking all 15.5 miles of Pico Boulevard in a day revealed hidden parts of L.A.
We took about 37,000 steps forward and one step back. For the fourth iteration of what friends and I playfully call our annual big walk, we embarked on a considerably easier quest. One year after delineating our limits by walking all 28-plus miles of Western Avenue, two years after surmounting all 25-plus miles of Sunset Boulevard, we settled on perambulating Pico Boulevard this month. It lacked the grandiosity of our past pursuits. But Pico's 15.5 miles presented plenty of opportunities — to chat, to consider, to explore, to linger. We met at 9 a.m. on the outskirts of downtown and finished about 9½ hours later on the Santa Monica sand. Along the way we ran into friends, made new ones and reconnected with welcome parts of our collective home. Our guiding principles are simple. After selecting one long Los Angeles street that ends at the ocean, we start walking at its other terminus. Ideally, there's some sort of special marker there. While Western has the Fern Dell Stairs, Sunset's start is unceremonious. Wilshire Boulevard, the site of our first walk in 2022, has eight out-of-place palm trees, perhaps planted as a hint of what's to come. Pico wins with a giant Coca-Cola bottle, outside an entrance to the company's storied bottling facility designed in Streamline Moderne architectural fashion. We started there and never turned. Two miles in, at Pico's intersection with Union Avenue, we took over the street itself as part of CicLAmini. The car-free event put on by a local nonprofit was just beginning, so the street almost felt like ours alone. And we've walked enough to know how rare a public restroom is in Los Angeles, so the portable toilets were appreciated. Eight miles in, we stopped for lunch in Pico-Robertson, where options abounded. Pico, of course, was the street on which the late, great Jonathan Gold once set out to eat at every restaurant, and Pico-Robertson was the neighborhood where he resided during that pursuit. We didn't have that much time. We did, however, split up and sample an array of restaurants: a lauded Tokyo- and Neapolitan-style pizza place called Pizzeria Sei, neighborhood classics Factor's Famous Deli and Jeff's Gourmet Sausage Factory, and the Rooster, a newer addition. We would've loved to eat all together, but there is a remarkable dearth of green spaces near Pico, throughout the city of Los Angeles. Public green spaces, we should say, for we soon encountered back-to-back golf courses covering more than a mile. Pico proved pedestrian-friendly, at least compared to our past pursuits. Sidewalks exist for almost every step of the way. And, for several stretches, they have history built into them. Surrounding Bonnie Brae Street, in Pico-Union, there are a number of Victorian houses, modeled after actual nearby houses, engraved into the sidewalk. In eastern Santa Monica, information about the street and surrounding area is at several locations painted into the sidewalk, forming a timeline as you approach the Pacific. Just don't try to veer to the north or south. Between Arlington Avenue and La Brea Avenue, there are several gates visible from Pico that block both vehicles and pedestrians from easily visiting nearby neighborhoods. The gates, funded by neighborhood councils, date to the 1980s. They have remained a hotly contested issue in recent city council races. And don't accept every apparent office building at face value. At neither the Packard Well Site nor the Cardiff Tower, about 1½ miles apart, did we stop and take notice of the strange, tall facades shielding us from something. If we had, we would've realized there were no windows. There are not offices but massive oil derricks and rigs inside. As part of a 2015 survey on historic districts, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning called the Cardiff Tower 'significant as a rare remaining oil production facility located on a commercial corridor.' Los Angeles! Pico only calls two cities home, L.A. and Santa Monica, which is rare among our long streets that tend to snake between many cities. But double-digit Los Angeles neighborhoods include the street in some capacity. It feels like a relentless parade of new neighborhoods. At the northeast corner of the intersection with Fairfax Avenue, there are even signs for two neighborhoods that somehow start in exactly the same place: Wilshire Vista and Little Ethiopia. At the Daily Pint, where we sourced sustenance for our final leg, the bartender could tell something was up as soon as we all walked in, sweaty and setting down our backpacks. Just the week before, she told us, a similarly disheveled man came in on a solo journey from downtown to Pacific Palisades. It was his punishment for coming in last place in his fantasy football league. We told her we were just doing this for fun. She didn't say anything for a few seconds, then asked what we wanted to drink. Soon enough we were on the beach, admiring the last of the day's sun with the Santa Monica Pier as our backdrop. Pico actually meets the sand in a way that we have not seen with any other long streets. At its last intersection, with Appian Way, there's a little valet circle for a hotel restaurant, and anything resembling a typical road ends. Then there are eight steps down and 100 feet of connected S-shaped sidewalks guiding pedestrians down to the beach. That's still Pico Boulevard, according to every map we consulted. It's like an artist's last, tasteful touch. This was our largest group yet: 22 starters and 19 finishers, including one fearless 4-month-old. January's Eaton fire displaced four of our walkers, two of whom remain marooned far from home for at least a little while longer. Everything still feels a bit different here, obviously. The downsides of Los Angeles life might be a little more top of mind. All that, combined with blessedly less mileage to cover, gave this walk a different feeling than in years past. Less delirious, more contemplative, with more time to notice, to share memories with peers. Most of us have been here long enough to remember old iterations of spaces. One nail salon used to be a coffee shop, where a few of us first learned about Ethiopian coffee ceremonies. Catch One, now a club where bottle service with Jack Daniel's sells for $400, used to be Jewel's Catch One, one of America's oldest Black-owned discos and gay bars. The iconic Papa Cristo's Greek Grill, at Pico and Normandie, just closed, its building now for sale for more than $5 million. Some spaces continue to reign. The Mint, the music venue that once hosted the likes of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, has been around for 88 years. The Apple Pan is not far behind, at 78 years, long outlasting the Westside Pavilion across the street. One thoughtful walker brought along a book of Mary Oliver poems and slowly flipped through it during lulls. She asked others to stop her whenever they felt like it and read the resulting poem aloud. Toward the day's end, we happened on 'Yes! No!,' which was first published in 1994. 'How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly, looking at everything and calling out Yes! No!' reads one portion. 'Imagination is better than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.' We were not perfect. But on this day, it is fair to say, we completed our work. And what a luxury it was to do it once more.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump tariffs set to collide with back-to-school shopping
The worst impacts of President Trump's tariffs could hit just in time for back-to-school shopping. Whether or not Trump reaches new deals with China and other trading partners, spikes in prices are already affecting clothing, electronics and other classroom essentials, and the deepest cuts could be mere weeks away. Parents' back-to-school habits are already changing, and businesses are stressing about the effects to their bottom line, with major family retailers including Walmart and Target sending up warning signs to consumers. Shoppers might try to step up their purchases to avoid an end-of-summer hammer fall, echoing earlier advance work from the stores themselves. 'A lot of retailers tried to get ahead of tariffs and brought product in earlier. They front-loaded to try to protect themselves and consumers,' said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, adding many retailers also canceled product orders during the period when tariffs for China were over 100 percent. After Trump's agreement with China for a 90-day pause in the largest tariffs, stores are looking to increase their orders again to get product in during the peace. But even the nation's biggest retailers say they can't entirely plan around the trade war. Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said in an earnings call that the company is not 'able to absorb all the pressure,' infuriating Trump. 'Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,' the president wrote on Truth Social. 'Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected.' 'Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, 'EAT THE TARIFFS,' and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,' he added. 'I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!!' Last year, more than $41 billion was spent on back-to-school shopping, with 56 percent of consumers starting in early July, according to Capitol One Shopping Research. 'One of the things that already started to occur is kind of the lengthening of the season. People are already out there buying items. They're already trying to anticipate what their August purchases might look like in an effort to get ahead of either price increases or product shortages,' said Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. 'We've been trying to ship back to school for the last month or so. The products have to be on the shelves during the summertime when consumers are shopping, which means they have to arrive before the summer begins, or the early part of the summer, which means they had to be shipping already. So this tariff crisis, this tariff war, is hitting just as back to school shopping is occurring,' Lamar added. The Hill has reached out the White House and the Commerce Department for comment. According to Yale University's Budget Lab, the 2025 tariffs will cause a 1.7 percent rise in prices in the short run. The tariffs will also disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, according to The Budget Lab, with short-run apparel prices going up 14 percent and shoe prices rising 15 percent. 'One of the things that's hard is back to school is a really emotional time for families. It's a time of beginnings. It's often very exciting, and it's going to be hard for people when they feel like they can't do what they want to be able to do for their kids heading into the school year,' said Martha Gimbel, executive director for the Budget Lab. 'The tariffs are hitting items that are really hard for people to plan around,' Gimbel added, noting how much a child will grow over the summer can be hard to predict, leaving parents to have to deal with August prices. Back-to-school shopping could also be stifled by fears of what is to come as economists are already having discussions about how the Christmas season could also face pitfalls with the tariffs. 'Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about how the Christmas season might get impacted, because companies need to place orders now for what's going to get produced for the Christmas season,' Gimbel said. 'I think in a time of uncertainty, people want to feel like they have control, and they want to feel like there's something they can do to respond optimally to the situation. And, unfortunately, there's not a really clear answer here,' she added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump tariffs set to collide with back-to-school shopping
The worst impacts of President Trump's tariffs could hit just in time for back-to-school shopping. Whether or not Trump reaches new deals with China and other trading partners, spikes in prices are already affecting clothing, electronics and other classroom essentials, and the deepest cuts could be mere weeks away. Parents' back-to-school habits are already changing, and businesses are stressing about the effects to their bottom line, with major family retailers including Walmart and Target sending up warning signs to consumers. Shoppers might try to step up their purchases to avoid an end-of-summer hammer fall, echoing earlier advance work from the stores themselves. 'A lot of retailers tried to get ahead of tariffs and brought product in earlier. They front-loaded to try to protect themselves and consumers,' said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, adding many retailers also canceled product orders during the period when tariffs for China were over 100 percent. After Trump's agreement with China for a 90-day pause in the largest tariffs, stores are looking to increase their orders again to get product in during the peace. But even the nation's biggest retailers say they can't entirely plan around the trade war. Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said in an earnings call that the company is not 'able to absorb all the pressure,' infuriating Trump. 'Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,' the president wrote on Truth Social. 'Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected.' 'Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, 'EAT THE TARIFFS,' and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,' he added. 'I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!!' Last year, more than $41 billion was spent on back-to-school shopping, with 56 percent of consumers starting in early July, according to Capitol One Shopping Research. 'One of the things that already started to occur is kind of the lengthening of the season. People are already out there buying items. They're already trying to anticipate what their August purchases might look like in an effort to get ahead of either price increases or product shortages,' said Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. 'We've been trying to ship back to school for the last month or so. The products have to be on the shelves during the summertime when consumers are shopping, which means they have to arrive before the summer begins, or the early part of the summer, which means they had to be shipping already. So this tariff crisis, this tariff war, is hitting just as back to school shopping is occurring,' Lamar added. The Hill has reached out the White House and the Commerce Department for comment. According to Yale University's Budget Lab, the 2025 tariffs will cause a 1.7 percent rise in prices in the short run. The tariffs will also disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, according to The Budget Lab, with short-run apparel prices going up 14 percent and shoe prices rising 15 percent. 'One of the things that's hard is back to school is a really emotional time for families. It's a time of beginnings. It's often very exciting, and it's going to be hard for people when they feel like they can't do what they want to be able to do for their kids heading into the school year,' said Martha Gimbel, executive director for the Budget Lab. 'The tariffs are hitting items that are really hard for people to plan around,' Gimbel added, noting how much a child will grow over the summer can be hard to predict, leaving parents to have to deal with August prices. Back-to-school shopping could also be stifled by fears of what is to come as economists are already having discussions about how the Christmas season could also face pitfalls with the tariffs. 'Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about how the Christmas season might get impacted, because companies need to place orders now for what's going to get produced for the Christmas season,' Gimbel said. 'I think in a time of uncertainty, people want to feel like they have control, and they want to feel like there's something they can do to respond optimally to the situation. And, unfortunately, there's not a really clear answer here,' she added.
RNZ News
15-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Tariffs devastated America's ports. Soon, they could face a surge from stockpiling
By Vanessa Yurkevich , CNN Containers at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California on 12 May. Photo: Tim Rue/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource US ports are facing a dramatic slowdown in cargo - but they could see the exact opposite in a matter of weeks. Starting Wednesday (local time), cargo leaving China bound for the United States will carry a 30 percent tariff rate - a reduction from the higher 145 percent tariff that was in place for six weeks. The United States and China announced a dramatic de-escalation in tariffs on Monday, lowering cripplingly high rates for 90 days. Experts say retailers will likely frontload more cargo during the pause, working against the clock to bring in inventory before things change again. "You're right kind of smack dab in the middle of when all that holiday merchandise is supposed to be coming in. So, there might be some retailers who decide to bring more product in early to get ahead of that potential expiration if they're able to," said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation That's exactly what retailers did before the first wave of tariffs took effect on 9 April, stockpiling imports in March. China is one of America's most important trading partners, where it gets most of its clothes, footwear, toys, electronics and microchips. For many businesses, the higher tariffs make it too expensive to do business with China. The Port of Seattle's commission vice president Ryan Calkins told CNN Wednesday "we anticipate that by mid-summer we are going to see a surge, and we will staff up significantly… to make sure we can operate at full capacity to manage all that". Flexport, a logistics and freight forwarding broker, said Monday it was too early to predict the exact scale of the surge following the US-China announcement, but that they were anticipating a "boom" in bookings. Charles van der Steene, North American president of shipping giant Maersk, told CNN Wednesday that shipment volumes from China into the United States had fallen by as much as 40 percent, because of significant uncertainty around tariffs. Most shippers simply pressed the pause button on trade, he said. "Because of the uncertainty, unsure what would be happening, they literally stopped their supply chain," van der Steene told CNN's Jon Berman. "So now that we look ahead and there's a reprieve against lower tariffs for 90 days and clarity about what we have in front of us, the expectation is the pent-up supply will now make it back into the supply chain." Peter Boockvar, an economist at The Boock Report, says that while it's still unclear how much a 30 percent tariff rate on China will make a difference, some retailers will take advantage of the lower rate. "You are going to see a rush of ordering over the next 90 days the likes we've never seen before. You are going to see the cost of transportation skyrocket too in the coming weeks/months," Boockvar wrote. Despite experts predicting goods will soon surge into American harbours, West Coast ports are still projecting the number of ships, and the volume of cargo, to fall significantly this month. That because it takes ships three to four weeks to arrive on the West Coast from China. "By the end of this month, we'll be down 20 percent the number of ship calls and probably about 25 percent in the volume of cargo," Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Monday. The Port of Long Beach also saw a 35-40 percent reduction in cargo last week and noted that for a 12-hour period on Friday, no ships left China bound for the San Pedro Bay Complex, which encompasses both Long Beach and the Port of Long Angeles. It was an occurrence officials hadn't seen since the pandemic. Currently, there are 17 fewer ships than usual bound for the two ports through 16 May, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California & Vessel Traffic Service Los Angeles Long Beach. The Port of Seattle also reported empty docks last week, another anomaly that hasn't happened since the pandemic. The Northwest Seaport Alliance, which represents the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, expects volume to drop anywhere from 8 percent to 15 percent compared to normal times. Vessels from China that are set to arrive this week are carrying 17 percent less cargo than usual, the alliance said. "These (tariff) reductions don't undo the consequences of their implementation. The uncertainty, market disruption, cargo fluctuation, and lost business caused by the initial and remaining tariffs is still a significant concern. Both reductions in cargo and surges have consequences that impact the supply chain. Consistency is a requirement of a fluid supply chain and the jobs that depend on it," the Northwest Seaport Alliance said in a statement. It's not just the West Coast - it also takes four to six weeks for ships to reach East Coast ports from Asia, which would push back any cargo surge till next month. "If they (retailers) start placing orders now, mid to late June is when that cargo might start to arrive. So you'll probably see a slowdown for the next few weeks and then an uptick up until July," said Gold. But a 30 percent tariff on Chinese imports, while significantly lower than 145 percent, is still unworkable for many businesses, especially smaller ones. The US Chamber of Commerce said Monday that "tariffs are much higher overall than they were at the beginning of the year," and reaffirmed their request for the Trump administration to exempt small businesses from tariffs. "The larger retailers are in a better position than some of the smaller retailers to be able mitigate" the costs of tariffs, Gold said. "I think there are a lot of ongoing discussions right now about how this is all going to work out." - CNN
