Hayes Davenport

Since I'm seeing it everywhere: I worked in LA City Hall when the budget passed. Our office voted No. But the idea that LAFD was "defunded" to increase the LAPD budget is not accurate. Both got increases due to salary hikes. LAFD's deal just happened after the budget process -- LAPD's was before.

I went by one of the former Skid Row Housing Trust buildings that was sold to a developer. Two tenants were locked out because their keycards failed, one with a dog in his room. There would be no staff on site for two days. They were all being evicted due to black mold. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Wrote about the guy who went around setting all the fires bigcityheat.substack.com/p/the-arsoni...

"I feel sorry for the dog passing away, but the person who should be wearing a muzzle should’ve been his stupid ass." lamaterial.com/p/pups-in-th...

Short stories are suddenly and bizarrely driving a huge number of sales in Hollywood right now. Some are from Reddit, some never published at all. Established screenwriters are getting in the game despite never having written a short story before. Why? This guy: lamaterial.com/p/short-stor...

“This is the greatest level of detail about any specific property that I've ever been down." lamaterial.com/p/why-is-amc...

Bill Essayli, Trump's man in L.A., talks a lot about fraud. Something he doesn't talk about: his family's federal fraud case, and how he defended it against the office he now runs. Our reporter Matt Hamilton uncovered the case and went deep on a major Trump player. lamaterial.com/p/bill-essay...

I was served an Instagram ad for this immersive art exhibition in a hospital and got so invested I ended up getting kicked off the property three days later. lamaterial.com/p/it-was-a-c...

A mosaic of cult leader/mass murderer Jim Jones has been up outside an L.A. elementary school for almost two years with no explanation. A couple weeks ago I finally found the guy who made it. He told me the whole story. lamaterial.com/p/mosaic-of-...

How much did it cost Fiverr to get space on public land to put up a humongous ad over one of the busiest freeways in America all week? $1526 lamaterial.com/p/the-story-...

The kid (me) went and did his first newsletter for @lamaterial.bsky.social I found some self-described cult members in a parking lot and they told me how to get famous by destroying an apartment in a historic building. lamaterial.com/p/the-cult-t...

For about a year I've been working with some of the best reporters and editors in L.A. to build a brand new city news outlet. It launches tomorrow. Is it possible to operate a sustainable local journalism business in 2026? Let me know! lamaterial.com

Hosting a show about LA and how it works at the Elysian this Saturday. Please don't make me tell you again www.elysiantheater.com/shows/lapowe...