Jessica Koslow

To say Sandra Mejia and her husband Bantalem have green thumbs is an understatement. The owners and founders of The Plant Chica, now located in Leimert Park, are spreading green love and oxygenating the atmosphere one indoor plant at a time.

The Plant Chica started as a side project in 2018 when the couple welcomed their son, Alem. They grew and cared for the indoor plants at their at-home greenhouse.

“We didn’t think anything of it,” Mejia explained. “It was just us setting up on random corners, selling plants and then it kind of took off. We started selling plants online on Etsy, and we became very popular there.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

CORE, according to its website, was started by a scrappy team of idealists determined to ease the suffering and destruction around them. One of those idealists was actor Sean Penn, who met CORE’s (Community Organized Relief Effort) co-founder, Ann Lee, at a displacement camp in Haiti while responding to the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, that killed more than 220,000 people and left another 1.5 million homeless.

Since 2010, CORE has grown into a global team and, on Jan. 7, 2025, the organization prepared to respond to what would become the tragic aftermath of the wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

CORE Program Area Manager Matt Gsell lives in Sherman Oaks, just between both fire areas. He is responsible for the 14 caseworkers who each work with about 35 clients/families from the affected areas. CORE helps with everything from basic needs to rebuilding, housing to educational support — “anything that people need to get them back to where they were pre-disaster,” said Gsell. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

As the co-founder and CEO of the e-commerce platform Stan, John Hu identified a problem: Even the most promising creators rarely get the resources or funding to turn early momentum into sustainable businesses.

Successful entrepreneurs find solutions, and so Hu launched the Dare to Dream Challenge to, according to its press release, “flip the traditional American Dream narrative, moving away from the ‘white picket fence’ ideal toward a new version of success defined by creative freedom and doing work you love.”

More than 2,500 creators from around the world shared their dreams as part of the 2026 challenge, which ran from late 2025 through early 2026, with the winners announced on February 27. The grand prize is $100,000 to dedicate 2026 to building your dream, and five runner-up Creators each received $10,000 in funding. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Bryant Acosta may look young, but his resume is impressive. As a chief creative officer, he has built systems using advanced technology and helped shape global brands. As the CEO of Nightbreed, he has brought communities together through events that amplify marginalized voices and create safe spaces for all people.

He is also a first-generation American, openly gay Latino, and he is running for LA mayor alongside around 40 other candidates.

“I did my research on my opponents, and I don’t see anybody that’s bringing the experience that I’m bringing to the table,” said Acosta. “No shade to people, but there are a lot of community organizers, lawyers, people that are working in the public space, but they don’t have the organizational skills and multimillion-dollar budget experience. They don’t have multidisciplinary team experience. I feel like that is my lane and I’m sticking to.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

There are quite a few characters roaming around on Venice Beach, so why would the beachfront paddle tennis courts be any different? Loving both the sport and the eclectic beachside community, Sveinn Ingimundarson and S.D. Saltarelli picked up their cameras and began to shoot the players and the game. The result is “Kings of Venice,” which premiered at Slamdance Film Festival this month and won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

“We both have a deep love of Venice,” said Saltarelli. “Sveinn and I were both out in Venice Beach, playing this little sport, paddle tennis, and Venice is just a magical place. It attracts some magical people, and we decided to try to put a camera on them, and we think we ended up with something kind of magical.”

According to the documentary, in 1961 there were over 8,000 paddle tennis courts in the U.S. Today only 50 remain, and 11 are in Venice Beach. The game is similar to tennis except it is played on a quarter-sized court with a lower net, wooden paddles and a tennis ball with its pressure reduced by a hypodermic needle. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Executive Director Valarie Gomez has been working at the West San Gabriel Valley YMCA for 21-plus years. This is not the most impressive Y-related trivia relating to her life. Her grandparents met at the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA on 4th and Hope Streets after World War II. 

“My grandmother was a part-time bookkeeper, and my grandfather didn’t want to go back to Nebraska, so he came to California for the opportunity of growth and development — very similar to what the Y offers — and he landed at the Y because of the boarding that they had at the downtown YMCA,” said Gomez. “They met and fell in love, and they both stayed at the Y. My grandfather did the printing until the last 10 or 15 years of his life. Unfortunately, they’re not living anymore, but I wish they were because I could share this joy with them that I found at the Y.” . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.