Get your costumes ready! Autumn is here, and Westchester/Playa is full of frightening fun events and activities that the whole family can enjoy this month. Mark your calendars for weekends filled with spine-tingling mazes, carnivals with rides and scary delicious treats, creepy ghost stories and more! Here are our top picks for Halloween happenings and fall fun! Carnival in the NINE double oh FOUR FIVE Friday, October 18th through Sunday, October 20th | Various times For more than 50 years, Visitation has been hosting its every-other-year carnival and the beloved community tradition is back this month for the whole neighborhood to enjoy. Visit this three-day carnival for classic rides, games, music, a beer garden, bingo, face painting, raffles, a prize room and more! The event will run Friday from 5 to 10 p.m.; Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. and  Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Visitation is located at 8740 Emerson Ave. in Westchester. Discounted presale tickets are available through October 11 at VizCarnival.givesmart.com. Haunting of Hannon XII Friday, October 18th & Saturday, October 19th | 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Ghosts, witches and other mysterious creatures will be lurking in the stacks at LMU’s 12th Annual Haunting of

By Sarah Howard and Jolie Delja, One Voice Westchester Opinion: For over a year, our community has been abuzz over the issue of upzoning. In 2023, with the prospect of thousands of homes in Westchester slated for upzoning into high-density housing districts, our community rallied together. We advocated tirelessly with elected officials and urged City Planning to protect our residential properties in the Westchester Playa Ladera Community Plan Update (CPU). Thanks to the dedication of Councilwoman Traci Park and the efforts of community members, we achieved a significant victory. The revised CPU released in March 2024 protects many of our homes from upzoning. This win is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together. Your voice matters! The Fight Continues Now, we face the continuation of a process that is far from settled. Though we have made significant strides in protecting residential areas, these hard-won victories are now at risk. The Citywide Housing Incentive Program (“CHIP,” an Ordinance of the Housing Element), designed to incentivize affordable housing through density bonuses and reduced parking requirements, poses a new issue. While the initial version of CHIP aimed to eliminate single-family zoning across Los Angeles, protections for single-family residences were

Who doesn’t love dessert? Westchester mom of three boys, Sarina Grady, is making it easy for locals to treat themselves with her new home baking business, Serenity Bakeshop. Since launching late last year, Sarina has been delighting her customers with deliciously baked-to-perfection cookies, and this month, she’s looking forward to being a vendor for the first time at the Westchester Arts & Music Block Party! Read this month’s business spotlight to learn more about Serenity Bakeshop and make sure to visit her booth on September 21 to pick up a dozen! Q. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. A. I grew up in Irvine and moved to L.A. in 1998 to attend UCLA, and have been an L.A. girl ever since! My family and I moved to Westchester in 2015 and it has been such a wonderful place to raise kids. We love the community and neighborhood feel here. After graduating UCLA, I worked as a CPA for many years, but then left the corporate world to focus on raising our three boys. I launched Serenity Bakeshop in early 2024, as I didn’t want to return to the corporate world, and it was always a dream of mine

Save the date for September 21st and head to Emerson Avenue! Summer’s not officially over in Westchester until the WAM Block Party rolls into town on September 21 from noon to 8 p.m.! Now in its ninth year, the day-long celebration on Emerson Avenue has become a highly anticipated community event, where art, music and community combine for a good cause. Guests this year can expect the same family-friendly atmosphere and festivities that the event is known for, as well as a few marked improvements, including a bigger outdoor bar area and new vending hours. With community booths shutting down at 6 p.m., but the party continuing in the beer & wine garden until 8, organizers hope that the volunteers and vendors who usually miss out on the entertainment will get a chance to enjoy a frosty brew and the headlining band. “I’m so excited for our music lineup this year, and I think our closing band, Dr. Wu, is going to hit it out of the park,” said new event producer Courtney O’Donoghue, who has taken over the reins from event founder John Sharpe. “I love watching all the bikes and the strollers roll into the event, and community

More than half of new restaurants fail in their first year, and even successful family-owned eateries sometimes struggle to survive the transition from one generation to the next. Fortunately for Ayara Thai founders Andy and Anna Asapahu, not one but two daughters are committed to not only staying in the family business, but pushing the Westchester beacon of Thai cuisine to even greater heights. This month, Ayara Thai is celebrating its two decades of operation with a special 20th anniversary brunch on  August 17 and 18. Prix fixe menu highlights include Kanom Jeab Thai-Chinese crab, shrimp and chicken dumplings, stewed beef soup, fried chicken with a pandan mochi waffle, and a Kanom Krok coconut pancake blini board including caviar, smoked salmon and corn. “Celebrating 20 years of running our family-owned and operated restaurant feels incredibly rewarding, yet emotional,” said co-owner and head chef Vanda Asapahu. “It’s a testament to years of hard work, dedication, and the ability to overcome countless challenges. It’s a moment of pride, reflecting on our growth, lessons, and success, and the relationships built with customers, staff, and the community. It’s also humbling, recognizing the support and loyalty that have been essential to our journey. Overall, it’s

St. Anastasia Catholic Church has nearly completed a remodel of the interior of their church, and they’re excited to share their progress with the community! Planning for the project began before the COVID pandemic as a part of the “Called to Renew” capital campaign initiated by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. St. Anastasia committed to raise $1.3 million as their portion of the overarching Diocesan goal, of which half was to be directed back to help with the remodel, deferred maintenance and various projects for the school as well. The physical renovation began in the late fall of 2022 starting in the sanctuary of the church. The first part was to remove the existing platform and altar to make way for the new marble flooring and custom-built retablo and altar. The retablo and altar were created with inspiration from liturgical studies around the world to create the center of the liturgical celebrations. The beautiful wood-crafted retablo stands from floor to ceiling and was hand painted, inch by inch, creating details to resemble actual marble. The same marbling technique was used to capture the similar details on the altar and ambo. The flooring was removed from the nave of the church,