What will we do about the bike teens?
Tomo Chien
December 04, 2025
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and these are the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
Apologies for skipping yesterday’s newsletter.
1.
The fuckers are everywhere. Everywhere being Figueroa Street, mostly, and the fuckers being the bands of bicycle-borne teenagers who beat, rob, and terrorize the residents of University Park with seeming impunity. A recent spate of such incidents has left students wondering: What, dear God, will we do about the bike teens?
2.
More than 100 professors signed an open letter decrying layoffs at Dornsife. The letter, which came weeks after the fact, doesn’t include action items — but is nonetheless sharply worded. “Top-tier faculty and students do not join institutions that are in a state of chaotic retreat,” the letter says.
3.
Elite colleges have an accommodations problem. Over the last decade, the number of students reporting conditions like ADHD and anxiety, and thus receiving academic accommodations, has exploded. Data suggests some diagnoses are dubious. “It’s rich kids getting extra time on tests,” one professor said.
4.
LA schools are missing thousands of students amid continued immigration raids in the region. Teachers say they try to provide their students with resources — but in some cases, they simply disappear. “We just don’t know what happened to them,” one teacher said.
5.
Eater published its annual restaurant awards, and the results look mouthwatering. Awardees include a high-end Korean restaurant in Little Tokyo, an Altadena establishment that survived the Eaton fire, and a Mexican restaurant specializing in corn tortillas run by a former Holbox chef (in the same food court near USC).
