Hollywood Heartbreak, or We Had to Kill the Villa Carlotta to Save It

Gentle reader...

For nearly a century, the Villa Carlotta held steady on Franklin Avenue, an apartment house of rare charm and conviviality. It housed actors and writers, singers and artists, and working folks who loved beauty. Once plush, it grew ratty, but residents picked up the slack where slumlords failed the old dame. The Villa Carlotta was that rare shared residence: a home.

But then came the Hollywood property bubble, and politicians who never met a mixed-used transit adjacent development they didn't like. Villa Carlotta was sold, and the new owners somehow formed the impression that they could evict every person from their rent-controlled units and reinvent the place as a hip hotel—never mind the lack of parking or zoning.

Their magic wand: the Ellis Act, a state law intended to shield small landlords seeking to get out of the rental business that has been widely abused by corporate property owners.

But the landlords didn't reckon on how much the tenants loved their Carlotta. Those that could fought boldly and creatively against the tide. Others, older, tired, took their payouts and went who knows where.

Fighting wasn't easy, as we documented in a podcast last February. The landlords turned the building into a hostile environment, filming the movements of their paying tenants, restricting guest access, playing residents off each other, destroying decades of charming interior improvements, cutting down all the shade trees.

And finally, last month, the place was empty. The landlords went to the Neighborhood Council for the rubber stamp that Neighborhood Councils are known for. And the Neighborhood Council said no. The new Councilman, elected on a reform ticket, said no, too. And the landlords said, "We're beat. No hotel for us."

So it's a happy ending, and the Villa Carlotta is saved. Let's celebrate!

But wait. The tenants are scattered to the winds, having relinquished their rights for cash. Despite the crushing need for affordable apartments in Hollywood, the Ellis Act forbids a return to such use for five years. Not a hotel, not an apartment house, Villa Carlotta is neither fish nor fowl. So, what happens now? Condos? Bankruptcy? There aren’t many options when the Ellis Act is employed prematurely, and large sums spent chasing an elusive zoning change.

Tonight, the Villa Carlotta sits empty, stripped of its laughter and stories. Maybe she whispers across the wind to her sister, the El Mirador, emptied in a spite Ellis Action more than five years ago. Two grand Hollywood ladies, stripped and lonesome, dreaming of glittering parties and lazy Sunday mornings. If we are any kind of a city at all, we'll find a way to make their dreams come true.

We're on the bus this weekend with a rare Sunday tour, the South L.A. Road Trip, packing 200 years of Southern California history into a 4-hour jaunt through parts of town where other tour companies never think to go. Join us, do!

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RECENTLY TOURED

We joined a walk to the Confluence of the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Seco in search of century-old hobo graffiti. More photos are here.

LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 11/6

Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State Los Angeles under the direction of Professor Donald Johnson to explore the history and future of American forensic science. Save the date of November 6, 2016 for our next program, with details to be announced very soon. See photos and video from the last program, Rituals: Sacred and Profane, here.

RECOMMENDED READING

Out this week from Brad Schreiber is Revolution's End: The Patty Hearst Kidnapping, Mind Control, and the Secret History of Donald DeFreeze and the SLA. Drawing on unpublished 1970s-era research into the notorious crimes and strange alliances of the misunderstood Symbionese Liberation Army, the book tells a very different story about the players and the politics, one Patty Hearst and the CIA would probably prefer you didn't know about.

COMING SOON

SOUTH LOS ANGELES ROAD TRIP: HOT RODS, ADOBES, GOOGIE & EARLY MODERNISM - SUN. 8/7... This rare Sunday tour in our California Culture series rolls through Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, and the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s most seldom-seen and compelling structures. Turning the West Side-centric notion of an L.A. architecture tour on its head, the bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse, hot rod kar kulture and the evolution of the city. (Buy tickets here).

BOYLE HEIGHTS & THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY: THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF L.A.'S MELTING POTS - SAT. 8/13... Come on a century's social history tour through the transformation of neighborhoods, punctuated with immersive stops to sample the varied cultures that make our changing city so beguiling. Voter registration, citizenship classes, Chicano Moratorium, walkouts, blow-outs, anti-Semitism, adult education, racial covenants, boycotts, The City Beautiful, Exclusion Acts and Immigration Acts, property values, xenophobia, and delicious dumplings--all are themes which will be addressed on this lively excursion. This whirlwind social history tour will include: The Vladeck Center, Hollenbeck Park, Evergreen Cemetery, The Venice Room, El Encanto & Cascades Park, Divine's Furniture and Wing Hop Fung. (Buy tickets here).

THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 8/20... This is not a tour about beautiful buildings--although beautiful buildings will be all around you. This is not a tour about brilliant architects--although we will gaze upon their works and marvel. The Lowdown on Downtown is a tour about urban redevelopment, public policy, protest, power and the police. It is a revealing history of how the New Downtown became an "overnight sensation" after decades of quiet work behind the scenes by public agencies and private developers. Come discover the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Features a visit to the Dutch Chocolate Shop, a tiled wonderland not open to the public. (Buy tickets here).

LAVA SUNDAY SALON / WALKING TOUR - SUN. 8/28... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market. For the August Sunday Salon, a merry band of musical mischief makers will bring their collection of altered thrift shop electronic toys and instruments for a hands-on Circuit Bending presentation. After the Salon, a free Broadway on My Mind walking tour explores lost tunnels and hills around Hill Street. Due to limited space, reservations are required for both of these free events.

THE BIRTH OF NOIR: JAMES M. CAIN'S SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE - SAT. 9/10... This tour digs deep into the literature, film and real life vices that inform that most murderous genre, film noir, rolling through Hollywood, Glendale and old Skid Row, lost lion farms, murderous sopranos, fascist film censors, offbeat cemeteries -- all in a quest to reveal the delicious, and deeply influential, nightmares that are author Cain's gift to the world. (Buy tickets here.)

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 9/17... Through the 1940s, downtown was the true city center, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core, and is especially recommended for downtown residents curious about their neighborhood's neglected history. (Buy tickets here.)

BLOOD & DUMPLINGS - SAT. 9/24... Forget Hollywood, babe, 'cause the quintessential L.A. town is definitely El Monte, its history packed with noirish murders, brilliant thespians, loony Nazis, James Ellroy's naked lunch and the lion farm that MGM's celebrated kitty called home. See all this and so much more, including the Man from Mars Bandit's Waterloo, when you climb aboard the daffiest crime tour in our arsenal, and the only one that includes a dumpling picnic at a landmark playground populated with fantastical giant sea creatures. Special on this tour: the secret diary of Vilma, El Monte's sassy Clifton's Cafeteria camera girl. Not frequently offered, you won't want to miss this ride. (Buy tickets here).

HOLLYWOOD! - SAT. 10/1... This new tour reveals the unwritten history of the sleepy suburb that birthed the American dream factory, a neighborhood packed with fascinating lore and architectural marvels. You won’t see the stars’ homes or hear about their latest real estate deals, but we’ll show you where some colorful characters breathed their last, got into trouble that defined the rest of their lives and came up with ideas that the world is still talking about. So for unforgettable stories you won’t hear on anyone else’s Hollywood tour, climb aboard and tour Cross Roads of the World (Robert V. Derrah, 1936) and much more. (Buy tickets here).

Additional upcoming tours: Wild Wild Westside (10/8), Echo Park Book of the Dead (10/15), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (10/22), The Real Black Dahlia (10/29).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

Episode #113, Pereira in Peril, a special mid-month edition focusing on two mid-century landmarks by iconic Los Angeles architect William L. Pereria that currently face the wrecking ball. Guests Alan Hess and Leo Wolinsky provide the historic and architectural skinny. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Not a teardown, after all. Every murder house has someone who loves it.

Saving a little something to remember the Sixth Street Bridge by.

Terrifying tale of a hiker who was nearly lost to the Sand Fire. Thanks, fire fighters!

Sneak a peek at How To Find Old Los Angeles, new travel guide available soon on the bus from our Kim Cooper and Herb Lester.

Video Vault: the secret diary of the Clifton's Cafeteria camera girl, revealed!

No landmark is safe: Route 66 icon Barney's Beanery in the redevelopment crosshairs.

Strange happenings at the landmarking hearing for gay and motion picture landmark The Factory / Studio One.

Celebrating Ray Bradbury with readings at his Square outside Central Library. Meanwhile, Bradbury's Los Angeles is vanishing, and with it, his favorite bookshop.

RIP to George Ehling, wrestler and B-movie actor turned visionary Hollywood Hills folk artist, who died this morning.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric