Beverly Hills, CA Experts in Container Rental, Sales & Customization

When searching for the best colleges near Beverly Hills, California, it's essential to consider proximity, unique features, and rich history. In this article, we will discuss the top colleges in the area, listing them from closest to farthest, and delve into what makes each of these institutions stand out.

Address: 405 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90095

UCLA's Uniqueness and History: As a world-renowned public research university, UCLA offers a wide range of academic and research programs. Established in 1919, the campus boasts a mix of modern and historic architecture, housing the prestigious Anderson School of Management and the School of Theater, Film, and Television. UCLA is known for its diverse student body and commitment to academic excellence, making it a top choice for students near Beverly Hills.

Address: 1 LMU Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90045

LMU's Uniqueness and History: Founded in 1911, LMU is a private, Jesuit Catholic institution known for its strong liberal arts curriculum, scenic campus, and commitment to social justice. The university offers more than 150 undergraduate majors and minors, with top programs in business, engineering, and film production. LMU's stunning location overlooking the Pacific Ocean makes it a picturesque and inspiring environment for students.

Address: University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089

USC's Uniqueness and History: USC, established in 1880, is a private research university with a global reputation. As the oldest private research university in California, USC boasts a rich history and impressive alumni network. Known for its strong programs in business, cinematic arts, and engineering, the university also has a renowned athletics program. USC's vibrant campus life and commitment to cutting-edge research make it a popular choice for students seeking an engaging college experience.

Address: 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125

Caltech's Uniqueness and History: Caltech, a world-famous private research institution, specializes in science and engineering. Established in 1891, it has a long history of innovation and scientific breakthroughs. With a small student body, Caltech fosters a close-knit community and offers a unique experience for students looking to pursue careers in STEM fields. Its proximity to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides students with unparalleled research opportunities.

Choosing the right college near Beverly Hills, California, depends on your unique interests and goals. Each of these institutions offers a distinctive experience, from the diverse and bustling campus life at UCLA to the picturesque and serene environment at LMU, the rich history and vibrant community at USC, and the small, close-knit atmosphere at Caltech. No matter which college you choose, you will find exceptional educational opportunities and a supportive community to help you succeed.

With over a million dollars in funding secured from the state of California, the city of West Hollywood is one big step closer to renovating the historic Log Cabin at 621 N. Robertson Blvd., home to the West Hollywood Recovery Center (WHRC). A hub for the local recovery community, the WHRC hosts over 90 different addiction recovery group meetings each week, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, and more than 4,500 meetings a year.

As part of AB 102 Budget Act of 2023, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on July 10, $1.15 million in appropriated funds will finance the anticipated Log Cabin renovations. A portion of those funds came at the request of Senator Ben Allen (CA Senate District 24), the California Department of Housing and Community Development approved $500,000 to support the project. At the request of Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (CA Assembly District 51), the California Department of General Services approved $650,000 for the cabin.

The renovations include updates to the current structure to meet health, safety, and ADA requirements; establishing a renewable energy hub by adding EV charging stations and photovoltaic panels on site; streetscape improvements and landscaping. All site work will be compliant with historic preservation standards, providing a long-term space for life-saving meetings.

While located within West Hollywood city limits, the property was previously owned by the city of Beverly Hills, which had purchased the land in 1928. In 1936, a portion of it was leased to the Lions Club in 1936, which built the cabin and fashioned it after a Boy Scouts clubhouse. Since the Lions Club subleased the cabin to the WHRC in the 1970s, it has been used as a space for addiction recovery group meetings. In March of 2022, the city of West Hollywood purchased the Log Cabin and its adjacent parking lot for $5.75 million from Beverly Hills. However, the purchase agreement stipulated that use of the log cabin would be limited to addiction recovery services. While a 2020 audit showed a contractor had “found portions of the building in poor condition,” the site is subject to environmental review and state standards given its historic status.

From the outside, the Log Cabin looks like it sounds: a quintessential storybook cabin. The exterior is made up of wood logs, with a small front porch located at the top of a short flight of steps. Currently, the Log Cabin has two meeting rooms, and renovations seek to add two more to the facility.

“We are grateful to Senator Allen and to Assemblymember Zbur for helping the city of West Hollywood and the West Hollywood Recovery Center to champion funding to support renovations for this historic space, which is vital in safeguarding recovery services in our community,” said West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne. “Countless thousands of people have been helped by 12-step meetings offered at the Log Cabin, and I’m thrilled that we can look forward to many more years ahead in an improved space for life-changing meetings and community recovery.”

There’s no shortage of excellent sandwiches in Los Angeles. For the pastrami on double-baked rye fans, there’s Langer’s Deli. If anyone tells you another pastrami sandwich is better, they’re wrong.

A few years back, I put together a list of the best Italian subs in the city. It includes more than a dozen.

The tuna salad sandwich at Bub & Grandma’s in Glassell Park is a lunchtime hero. The beetroot Reuben at Loam in Downtown L.A. is a revelation that will capture the hearts of both carnivores and vegetarians.

Here are two more sandwiches to add to the list of the city’s best. Ideal for your next power lunch, beach picnic, or whatever situation calls for stuff between bread.

All the sandwiches at Lorenzo California

In the fall of 2019, Renato Araujo and his wife, Cynthia Raslan, spent a month in Florence eating sandwiches. Araujo, a longtime restaurant manager in Los Angeles, was on a research trip to find the best. Earlier that year, he and his wife decided to take the money they had saved to buy a house, and open a sandwich shop instead.

On one of the couple’s treks to try a new sandwich, Araujo couldn’t find the shop. While they walked up and down the streets of Florence, they spotted a family with a little boy. They were so taken with him, they stopped to say hello.

“He was dressed up like a gentleman,” he said. “I told him, ‘Man, you dressed up so nice.’ I asked what his name was, and he said ‘Lorenzo.’”

The family happened to be standing in front of the sandwich shop.

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“We stopped to talk to the family because of the little boy,” he said. “We never would have found the place. When we were wondering what to call our place, me and my wife looked at each other and both said ‘Lorenzo.’”

The pandemic hit shortly after their return to Los Angeles, and their plans to open a shop were put on hold. After three years, Lorenzo California opened on Little Santa Monica in Beverly Hills in March.

The sandwiches are modeled after the ones he ate in Florence: minimal ingredients on good bread.

Federico Fernandez, co-owner and executive pastry chef at Bianca restaurant in Culver City, bakes the bread for the shop at 4 a.m. every morning. It’s a variation on focaccia, though baked into individual rectangles versus large pans that need to be cut. It’s thinner, and lighter too, with a crust that cracks but doesn’t quite fracture. With good extra-virgin olive oil and flaky sea salt, the rustic flavor of focaccia is there, without the dense, heavy middle.

The bread is baked once a day, with enough to make about 75 sandwiches. Once they’re out, that’s it for the day.

Raslan takes the orders next to the deli case and Araujo slices the meats and builds the sandwiches to order.

The fennel-tinged finocchiona salame on the Salamino sandwich is shaved so thinly, it seems to melt right into the cushion of silky parmigiano sauce and sliced, oil-soaked artichokes.

The namesake sandwich, the Lorenzo, features the same parmigiano sauce, made with boiled and blended cream and parmigiano reggiano, along with roasted red peppers, toasted pistachios and pale pink sheets of mortadella. The flavors are simple and direct, though Araujo said some purists still come in asking for sliced mortadella on bread.

The most extravagant offering is the Zola, constructed with meaty, almost smoky bresaola, a drizzle of truffle honey, white onion agrodolce and gorgonzola cheese. It’s a whopping $35. The sticker shock is less of a shock when you account for the shower of fresh, shaved black truffle over the finished sandwich.

In the near future, Araujo plans to switch off the lights in the deli case in the evenings and open for dinner with a full menu of pasta and wine.

Venice Cowgirl at Lady & Larder

More than any other sandwich in Los Angeles, the Venice Cowgirl at Lady & Larder, the petite cheese shop and superette in Santa Monica, evokes a moment in time and a sense of place in the city. Its annual reappearance on the menu signals the start of summer. More than frozen desserts, salads or barbecue.

Sisters and co-owners Sarah and Boo Simms dreamed up the sandwich, as they do with all the sandwiches at the shop, as a way to frame a particular cheese. The star of the Venice Cowgirl is Cowgirl Creamery’s Mt. Tam triple cream. They slice the cheese into thick tiles and layer them on a crusty Clark Street Bread baguette with habanero and apricot jam, sliced nectarines, basil, wild arugula, extra virgin olive oil and salt.

“People don’t always think of sandwiches as seasonal, but for us, they are super seasonal,” Sarah said during a recent call. “The Venice Cowgirl just came back, and it’s only available during stone fruit season.”

The nectarines may change to peaches, depending on what’s available. Last week’s nectarines were heavy with sunshine and sugar, ripe but not overly soft. They were the perfect counterpart to the bloomy rind cheese, with a slight firmness around the edges that turns to butter toward the middle. If you happen to get a bite with more cheese than fruit, expect a wallop of raw white mushrooms.

The basil might be Thai basil, purple basil and/or green Genovese, both floral and bright. The Simms buy their pepper jelly from Suze McClellan of Ojai Jelly, who drives to L.A. to hand-deliver jars. The sweet heat of the jelly reminds the sisters of the appetizers their mother would put out for company, typically a soft, young bright cheese accompanied by pepper jelly.

The specific combination made me greedy and giddy, the way I feel after an especially fruitful summer trip to the farmers market with my arms sore from heavy bags of cherries and stone fruit. There’s just enough good stuff crammed between the baguette to make me want more. More nectarines. More cheese. More pepper jam.

“It has all the things you want, salty, sweet, acid, texture,” Sarah said. “All the things that bring us joy in a sandwich.”

The Simms started making the sandwiches during COVID, when their orders for cheese and charcuterie trays dwindled with the shutdown and subsequent cancellation of events and parties across the city. There are typically two to three varieties wrapped and ready to grab off the counter.

The Venice Cowgirl will only be around while stone fruit is in season. Get it while you can.

Where to get a good sandwich

Lorenzo California, 9529 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (424) 332-2949, lorenzocalifornia.com

Lady and Larder, 828 Pico Blvd. Suite 2, Santa Monica, (310) 392-1700, www.ladyandlarder.com

One thing is true for the lover of melts, fondues, raclettes, and poutines: The refrigerator dairy drawer, no matter how capacious, is never large enough.

Especially after the dairy devotee has called upon a sublime shop like The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, one of Southern California's longest-running and most lauded cheeseries.

Founded in 1967, the stocked-with-sophisticated-snacks store has become a stalwart on the regional cheeses-and-more scene, offering a variety of cheddars, goudas, blues, and beyond, as well as all of the accompaniments that so flavorfully enhance such sublime supping.

But if you've been rolling your wheels in the direction of Beverly Drive for a good long time to pick up a wheel or two of your favorite savory spreadable, you'll soon want to look to 9705 S. Santa Monica Boulevard, where the new, greatly expanded Cheese Store will soon debut.

"For more than twenty years, The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills has been like a second home to me, and I am thrilled to combine all of the aspects of the store that our customers have cherished for the past half century with a much more modern, robust culinary experience," said Dominick DiBartolomeo, owner of The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

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"The new location will offer so much more to the community that's supported us since day one."

The specialty foods line-up at the new flagship store will also feature Domenico's Foods, which will soon be shipped nationwide.

The company, which features pestos, sauces, and more, is "...DiBartolomeo's fresh and imported Italian specialty foods brand, which he launched at The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills many years back with the debut of his home-made, sun-dried tomatoes."

But it isn't simply about shopping for great ingredients, gourmet gift baskets, or the sorts of quick pick-up items that make for a classy dinner at home; the expanded Cheese Store will include tony tastings, appetizing events, and other special happenings that will up the venue's convivial spirit.

Wines, craft beers, and celebratory libations will also be for sale. For all things cheesy and cheerful, wheel by this site for updates on the upcoming location.

Housing group files lawsuit to establish “that the city is subject to the builder’s remedy”

Beverly Hills has long ranked as one of California’s most difficult places to build new homes, a sentiment borne out by its population data: In 1990, the city had 31,935 residents. Last July, a Census estimate counted 31,896.

But for years Sacramento has mandated that the wealthy enclave accommodate more housing, and now a legal battle over the city’s housing plan could bring major implications for builder’s remedy, the controversial development provision that has taken the state by storm since the fall.

“The [thinking] among some cities has been, ‘Well, we can deal with the builder’s remedy on a project by project basis and force developers to expend the resources to actually litigate it,’” said Matthew Gelfand, an attorney with Californians for Homeownership, a housing nonprofit that recently filed a lawsuit against Beverly Hills. “Our goal is to establish legally that the city is subject to the builder’s remedy right now.”

Californians for Homeownership is affiliated with the California Association of Realtors. FIled on Jan. 18, the suit seeks a court ruling against the city’s housing element — the document that outlines every California city’s housing plan — which has already been declared non-compliant by the state.

In response, the City of Beverly Hills, which has already adopted multiple versions of the document over the past year and could adopt another draft to send to the state later this month, signaled it doesn’t plan to acquiesce easily.

“This lawsuit … alleges that we have not done enough to provide for housing,” Larry Wiener, the Beverly Hills city attorney, said in a statement provided to TRD. “However, anyone who has been following the city’s efforts to fulfill the massive state mandate to zone for more housing units knows that the city has gone to incredible lengths to meet this mandate and the city has fulfilled our housing element requirements.”

Multiple rejections

The current dispute traces back to October 2021, when Beverly Hills and other Southern California jurisdictions faced a deadline to update their housing elements to meet state-determined quotas. For the current planning period, the state has determined that Beverly Hills, a highly desirable city with a strong local economy, needs to accommodate approximately 3,100 additional units, including nearly 1,700 affordable units. Under California law the updates are required on eight year cycles.

But more than 15 months after that deadline, the city — along with dozens of others — is still out of state compliance.

In January 2022 the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), the agency that oversees the process, rejected the city’s first updated element, determining that it had failed to identify legitimate sites for potential housing. In late November HCD rejected another version. In mid-January, it rejected Beverly Hills’ revised element yet again.

“The list continues to include questionable sites,” the California Association of Realtors said in a Jan. 19 release, “including modern and recently renovated office buildings, a Jewish community center and a theater.” The sites also included health clinics run by Cedars-Sinai and UCLA.

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Non-compliance theoretically opens Beverly Hills up to builder’s remedy, a provision that allows developers to bypass local zoning considerations as long as their housing projects include at least 20 percent affordable units. And one application using the strategy has already hit the city: a proposal for a 16-story, 200-unit apartment tower on Linden Drive filed by the developer Leo Pustilnikov in October.

But the builder’s remedy, which surged into statewide prominence only last fall after going all but forgotten for three decades, remains untested in the courts. If HCD and the attorney general’s office decide to pursue a case against Beverly Hills to enforce the non-compliance decision — and allow builder’s remedy projects in the city to proceed — that process could still take months, Gelfand pointed out.

Development implications

The lawsuit amounts to a test case to expedite the process by securing a court ruling on the city’s housing element. A win for the plaintiffs, or a favorable settlement, could then compel the city to revise its housing element to meet state requirements, and clarify that until it does so the builder’s remedy is valid in Beverly Hills. Under state law, the option remains on the table until a non-compliant city regains compliance, although a separate dispute is brewing about the definition of compliance.

“There could be other [developers] that would come out of the woodwork, if there were a clear legal decision that the builder’s remedy applies in the city,” Gelfand said.

Wiener, the city attorney, did not respond to a follow-up question about how Beverly Hills intends to respond to the builder’s remedy application already filed or applications that could still be coming. Another official only said that the city “will continue to address any additional applications.”

More specific court fights in Beverly Hills and other cities are likely coming. Under a different state law, developers can lock in builder’s remedy rights with only a preliminary application and then file a full project application within six months, and some cities have opted to wait to respond until the full applications are filed, adding another wrinkle to the legal drama.

To date, more than a dozen builder’s remedy applications have been filed in Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, West Hollywood and other L.A. County cities, with the charge led by Pustilnikov and WS Communities, the development firm run by Neil Shekhter and Scott Walter.

While the larger builder’s remedy story has so far largely been confined to Southern California, where developers first utilized the provision, the focus will widen soon to include the Bay Area, where jurisdictions faced a Jan. 31 compliance deadline.