Scoop: Los Angeles Councilmember Nithya Raman, who sits on the powerful PLUM Committee, seeks to demolish her 1948 Silver Lake residence
Gentle reader,
This newsletter is brought to you by the preservation-minded spirit of Marilyn Monroe, on the 63rd anniversary of her death.
For it was the contentious near-demolition of the only home Monroe ever owned—a 1920s Brentwood Spanish hacienda that she intended to restore when she died in 1962—that gave us the tools we need to identify good, demolition-threatened Los Angeles buildings early enough to make a difference.
This was an expensive lesson, since we received a subpoena to turn over records and appear for a deposition before the property owners’ attorneys and had to lawyer up—but we think it’s worth it if this knowledge can help save good buildings from the landfill.
While it sometimes seems as though demolitions of old buildings just happen in Los Angeles, there is a formal process that must be followed, and it exists to allow citizens or elected or appointed officials an opportunity to step in and try to save places that matter.
Under the Demolition Notification Ordinance, once a property owner applies with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) for permission to demolish any building older than 45 years (1980 or later), LADBS must produce a notification letter and send it to the local council office, to the certified Neighborhood Council or equivalent entity, and to nearby neighbors. A prominent physical DEMOLITION notice sign is also required to be posted in public view on the parcel for a period of 30 days.
We believe this did not happen with Marilyn Monroe’s house!
As such, we ended up spending thousands of dollars to protect ourselves from possible litigation, simply for having researched and reported on the matter and having contacted the office of councilmember Traci Park to express our concerns.
We are now extremely interested in the formal demolition notification process in Los Angeles and in ensuring the rules are followed.
And so, in honor of Marilyn Monroe, since July 2024 we have been filing regular public records requests to obtain these notices of demolition application as they are received by council offices, then researching the properties to determine if they are architecturally or culturally significant or represent much needed rent stabilized housing units.
For parcels where the owner wants to demolish and redevelop the site, an unwanted older structure can potentially be sold for $1 to Angelenos seeking to rebuild in the Altadena or Pacific Palisades burn zones. This means that instead of being destroyed, good houses can of use for many decades to come.
Morgan Sykes Jaybush from Omgivning’s Historic House Relocation Project is working through a list of dozens of houses that might qualify for such use, with two already slated for the move to Altadena, and many of them were first spotted in our public records searches!
Finding endangered houses that might become homes for fire victims makes us grateful that we have the hard won knowledge base thats let us be of service in a time of such loss and pain.
You really never know what you’ll find when sorting through a tranche of demolition application letters sent out to council offices. Our requests cover the entire enormous city, and a period of weeks, so one letter might concern a multi-million dollar mid-century modern post and beam home in the Hollywood Hills, and the next a derelict, half-burned church in South Los Angeles.
With no Esotouric walking tour scheduled, we spent last Saturday working our way through a long list of recent demolition notification letters, and among those addresses we found one that is of significant interest to all citizens of Los Angeles.
It is an application to demolish 2658 Lake View Terrace East (sometimes styled as 2658 N Lake View Ter), a 3-bedroom, 1,879 square foot 1948 Silver Lake ranch house in the desirable Ivanhoe school district for the purpose of redeveloping the parcel with a new 3-Story, 3,528.3 square foot single family home.
The house at 2658 Lake View Terrace is the official residence of Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, and the application was filed in July, during the City Council recess. The grant deed from 2017 conveying the property to the Chandra-Raman Family 2017 Living Trust and bearing co-trustee Raman’s signature is embedded below.
The demolition application process for a house like this one would ordinarily spark no particular interest beyond the immediate neighbors. But 2658 Lake View Terrace is owned by a sitting councilmember, who in addition to representing approximately 260,000 residents in Council District 4, is one of five members of the powerful Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) committee, making decisions that effect the whole city.
While the house is not itself a designated landmark, it is listed on Survey LA as a historic resource within the Silver Lake Residential Historic District (2014), with the house appearing to be eligible for listing on the California Register as a contributor to a district that is also eligible. This means the proposed demolition would have an impact on all surrounding buildings within the district.
For these reasons, and because public integrity requires that even the appearance of impropriety and conflicts of interest must be avoided, we believe that the ordinary, ministerial (by-right) process for granting a demolition permit and approving the construction of a new home should not proceed.
These issues need to brought into the light in public hearings before the Neighborhood Council, City Planning Commission, PLUM Committee and full City Council, with members of the public granted an opportunity on each occasion to express their opinions, and with the elected and appointed officials able to ask questions, express concerns and vote on the matters.
Among the questions raised by these public filings:
• Is the councilmember working with land use professionals (architect, engineer, consultant, landscape architect) who have projects pending before her at City Hall?
• Is the councilmember getting special service to aid her project from LADBS or others in City Hall?
• Where does the councilmember intend to live during construction, and will it be in her council district?1
• Does the councilmember intend to return to live at 2658 Lake View Terrace, or does she plan to sell the new house when the project is completed?
A councilmember is also a citizen, and they have every right to apply to demolish their house and build a new one. Public hearings will provide ample opportunity for any possible conflicts of interest to be discovered and for the community to weigh in .
The demolition permit has not yet been granted, and as of this afternoon, the required notice of demolition signage is not yet posted in front of 2658 Lake View Terrace. The clock won’t really start ticking until that sign goes up, and it remains on view for 30 days. (The paper on the mailbox is just a solicitation from a curb number painter.)
We hope that the councilmember will do the right thing to ensure that her constituents in CD4 and throughout the city have the opportunity to understand what is planned and to make public comment if they are so moved.
We already know what our public comment will be: “Councilmember, if you don’t want your pretty house anymore, instead of tearing it down and sending the rubble to the dump, please list it on the California Register and then sell it for $1 to one of the families who are looking for a house to replace the one they lost in the Eaton or Palisades Fires. This will convey significant benefits to the new owner, and Silver Lake’s loss can be another community’s good fortune.”
UPDATE 4/29/2026: Palisades Fire victim and Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt releases a campaign ad contrasting the state of his competitors’ Los Angeles homes with his family’s burned out lot. The video goes viral, with the Gary & Shannon Show calling it “the best political ad ever.”
Councilmember Nithya Raman complains to celebrity website US Weekly, “Filming outside my home, where I live with my young children, feels unnecessary and reckless.” Pratt responds on Twitter: “Nithya just validating the entire premise of our commercial. She doesn’t care if there’s homeless drug addicts in front of your home, in front of your kids school, but God help her if a man in a suit takes a picture on the public street for two minutes.”
Saturday’s tour is Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice, a true crime and cultural history romp along Downtown’s sweet and sleazy tenderloin. Join us as we stir up the ghosts of b-girls and taxi dancers, cruising sailors and tattooed ladies, serial killers and suspender button kings!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (8/9) • Weird West Adams / Elmer McCurdy Museum (8/16) • Christine Sterling & Leo Politi: Angels of Los Angeles (8/23) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (8/30) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (9/6) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (9/13) • Film Noir / Real Noir (9/20) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (9/27) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (10/4) • Know Your Downtown LA: Bradbury Building, Basements, Dutch Chocolate Shop (10/11) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (10/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (11/1) • Highland Park Arroyo Time Travel Trip (11/8) • Richard’s Birthday: Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (11/15) • The Real Black Dahlia (11/22) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (12/6) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (12/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sunday, 12/21) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases (12/27)
In 2014, councilmember Richard Alarcon was convicted of four felonies related to living outside his council district while his residence was being remodeled; the convictions were reversed on appeal.
thoughtful notes. thank you for bringing to light!
Absolute insanity