Good morning, it’s Wednesday, May 6. It will be surprisingly cloudy, with some insurgent patches of sunshine (low 70s). In today’s newsletter, we have Mayor Karen Bass’ first reelection debate, USC’s big AI money and a suburban Northeast L.A. dining renaissance. But first, the backstory behind Metro’s big D marketing swing.
Back in late February, when the nation’s third-largest transit agency dropped their official “Ride the D” merch line, the risqué shirts sold out almost immediately — and spawned endless questions about whether Metro had been in on the joke.
The answer is yes. But there’s more to it: The viral shirts were actually a gift to Metro’s ardent Reddit fans, according to a top Metro executive.
“We appreciate them. This is something that they had been talking about [on Reddit]. And we just decided that the time was to give them something fun, because they were so excited about the D Line Extension,” Metro Chief Customer Experience Officer Jennifer Vides told L.A. Material.
Officials at the transit agency had been reading the comments on the extremely active r/LAMetro Reddit community, where posters had been using the sexual innuendo phrasing for the new subway extension. The first “ride the D” reference, for the record, appears to have been posted to the SubReddit five months ago, and users began begging for shirts not long after. The shirts have since sold out multiple times, and the design now has its own Wikipedia page.
(Screenshot of the Metro Shop)
“We did not expect it to go like this,” Vides said of the slogan’s virality. “For Seth Meyers to be on national television talking about the fact that Los Angeles actually has a subway? You know what — that’s a win.”
Part of what appealed to the transit agency, said CEO Stephanie Wiggins, was the implicit challenge from their fans on Reddit: “Like ‘Metro would never. They would never. No government entity would ever [actually use the slogan]’.” But they did — and now they can barely keep them in stock.
“I know we would be pushing the line, versus crossing it,” Wiggins said.
The D Line Extension opens at 12:30 p.m. on Friday with subway service to the new stations at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega.
Karen Bass and Nithya Raman debated for the first time.
Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman — erstwhile allies turned 2026 mayoral rivals — debated for the first time last night in a two-person forum that was both substantive and very testy. Bass argued that Raman was disingenuously acting like an outsider when she had gotten to City Hall years before the mayor and chaired the council’s housing and homelessness committee. Raman countered with disbelief at the notion that she, as one of 15 council members, had as much power as the mayor, and suggested that Bass was sidestepping accountability. Much of the discussion focused on housing and homelessness.
The event was hosted by the politically potent Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, which had drawn flak for not inviting other prominent candidates to participate (the group said they chose the pair because they are both elected representatives for the area, and didn’t want the chaos of a crowded debate).
The live-streamed mayoral debate competed for airtime with a separate gubernatorial debate that aired live on CNN.
Don’t worry if you missed either event: Bass and Raman will be back on stage tonight, this time joined by Spencer Pratt, in a televised debate on NBC4. And the gubernatorial candidates will be back on stage after.
Now that we've been live for a little over a month, we want to hear from you!
READING MATERIAL
FEDERAL PROBE INTO LAUSD: The U.S. Department of Education is investigating LAUSD for allegedly reassigning, rather than removing, teachers accused of sexual misconduct while allegations against them are investigated. The district, however, says the issue is coming from the definition of the word “reassignment” — which it says “typically means an employee is directed to remain at home and away from students and schools during an investigation.”
MISSING IN ACTION: Inglewood is supposed to have a citizen police oversight commission. It hasn’t met in nearly 9 years.
A MADE-FOR-TV CAMPAIGN: The Real Deal has a profile of Spencer Pratt — who’s found a base of support for his mayoral bid in the real estate industry.
THE LIFE OF AN AMERICAN TWEEN: The New Yorker has a perfect, lengthy profile of a San Francisco tween that masterfully and delightfully captures a 12-year-old’s world in the “murky, thrilling bardo between childhood and maturity.”
NORTHEAST L.A.’S SUBURBAN DINING RENAISSANCE: The most ambitious restaurant in L.A. is actually in the Glendale foothills, Eater LA proclaims.
UNIVERSITY OF AI: USC got a $200 million donation to help make it a national leader in artificial intelligence research and creativity. The money, which comes from venture capitalist Mark Stevens and his wife Mary, will be used to apply AI across academic disciplines.
RAW MATERIAL
For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, @Walker made the humiliating (for us) discovery that we had a repeat poem in yesterday’s newsletter. We unfortunately will not be offering subscriber refunds, but there are two poems included below today.
AND FINALLY… Two poems to pair with your morning coffee: ”blessing the boats” by Lucille Clifton and “For the Graduation [Bolinas, 1973]” by Robert Creeley.
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