If You Love This City, Just Say "No" To Los Angeles Land Use Decisions Made Under The Cloud of Corruption

Gentle reader...

Here we are, teetering between two visions of Los Angeles. Can you feel the ground shifting under your feet?

For years, boosters have sold us a mirage of a gentrifying Pacific Rim metropolis, soon to host its third Olympics, soaring glass towers representing an influx of investment from distant lands. Once desolate neighborhoods are celebrated in the pages of glossy magazines, cheap ethnic meals photographed like movie stars. How fortunate we must feel, to be Angelenos in such a marvelous new world!

And as Eric Garcetti logs more time out of state than did even "Suitcase Sam" Yorty, the towers shimmer in our technicolor sunsets, the number of souls shivering on the sidewalk grows exponentially, neighbors and familiar shops are evicted, and basic infrastructure failures leave us wondering if anyone in City Hall is doing the job they were hired to do.

If this is paradise, why does it feel so lousy?

As preservationists, we might just be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to public corruption: we've been complaining for years that something screwy was going on at City Hall.

We told people that a visit to Jose Huizar's City Hall office felt like visiting a high end real estate firm, and that we found this confounding. Huizar's district contains high flying downtown, yes, but also the barrio of Boyle Heights, the tough alleys of Skid Row, and suburban Eagle Rock.

Now, with FBI searches, email warrants and rumors of bigger fish flying, we all know why the mood felt so wrong.

But, perhaps due to the government shutdown, or the complexity of the financial crimes being investigated, the actual indictments have yet to come. And Huizar and his cronies, some explicitly named in the warrants, others suggested, continue to make city policy, collect their paychecks, and at least in Huizar's case, use the resources of the City Attorney's office to defend against multiple lawsuits.

Our local newspapers, such that they are after decades of cuts and ownership swaps, cover this huge scandal as little as possible, responding to scoops from counter-terror experts 3000 miles away, but seldom breaking news. It is chilling and distressing.

So sleuthing out the clues of what the hell is happening in Los Angeles is left to real estate websites, public radio blogs, independent newsmen and passionate, hard-working amateurs like Adrian "Michael Kohlhaas" Riskin, whose faith in the power of the California Public Records and Brown Acts has brought enormous swaths of sunlight to the noir practices of Los Angeles City government, and quasi-governmental agencies like BIDs and Neighborhood Councils.

Among his latest scoops, which you won't read about in the sleepy Los Angeles Times of El Segundo: a conspiracy between two powerful city councilmen (Cedillo and Huizar) to create the appearance of wide-spread public support for the demolition of Parker Center. Ever wonder how it is that the Garcetti-Wesson City Council almost always votes in lockstep? Adrian found them in the "City Family" kitchen, cooking up a vote trading conspiracy. There are presumably shadowy people making money from selling these lies, but it's the citizens who will be paying the $900+ Million bill.

Some activists have the Grand Jury to intervene, while others are showing up at City Hall, demanding that elected officials stop voting on huge development projects like Crossroads of the World, which are tainted with the strong suggestion of corruption. The last 30 minutes of the Crossroads hearing are astonishing, a significant moment in Los Angeles history that received scant media attention. Stick with it to the end, when Gil Cedillo screams about "Trumpism" and "Day of the Locust at City Hall!"

But we won't be teetering between two visions of Los Angeles forever. Eventually, this will come to an end, and the criminals who have almost destroyed this city will be held accountable. But there is no prison sentence, no fine, nothing at all that can compensate for the human suffering, the lost communities, the shortened lifespans, the friends dispersed, the landmarks demolished, the small businesses destroyed, the harm inflicted. That is as much a part of this city's shame as the Chinese Massacre, the Zoot Suit Riots, Bunker Hill, Watts and Chavez Ravine.

It's beholden on all of us to start thinking about what the new Los Angeles looks like, once the dust settles, prison doors clang and a leadership void aches to be filled. Are we going to settle for business as usual, with backroom deals where projects are crafted that yield huge profits, while decreasing quality of life for citizens? Or are we going to choose leaders who love Los Angeles more than they love money and power?

There is still so, so much to love. Let's roll up our sleeves and save our city.

***

There is just one seat remaining on the debut Silent Echoes cinema locations tour on Sunday, March 3.

New on the LAVA calendar is the April forensic science seminar, Toxicology Trees & Canyon Cultists: The Gettler Boys & Krishna Venta’s WKFL Fountain of the World.

We're back on the bus on Saturday with Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, a noir writer's journey from his Jazz Age career as an oil company vice president to tough days in the screenwriting trenches in Hollywood, with a stop along the way for boozy gelato from Scoops. Join us, do!

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LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 4/28

Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State L.A. to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On April 28, join us for an inquiry into Toxicology Trees & Canyon Cultists: The Gettler Boys & Krishna Venta’s WKFL Fountain of the World. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research.

COMING SOON

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 2/2... Follow in the young writer's footsteps near his downtown oil company offices to sites from The Lady in the Lake and The Little Sister, meet several real inspirations for the Philip Marlowe character and get the skinny on Chandler's secret comic operetta that we discovered in the Library of Congress nearly a century after it was written. Plus a stop at Scoops for noirish gelato creations and a visit to Larry Edmunds Bookshop. (Buy tickets here.)

BOYLE HEIGHTS & MONTEREY PARK: THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF L.A.'S MELTING POTS - SAT. 2/16... 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, El Encanto, Divine's Furniture and Wing Hop Fung. (Buy tickets here.)

THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 2/23... 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.)

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 3/16... 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.)

Additional upcoming tours: Special Event: The 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times (4/6), Blood & Dumplings (4/13), The Real Black Dahlia (4/20), Special Event: John Fante (4/27), Charles Bukowski (5/4) and Special Event: Tom Waits.

Tours that are full, with waiting lists: Special Event: Silent Echoes (3/2, also 3/3 - 1 seat still available), Special Event: Mansonland (3/9, also 3/30).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

Episode #132 is Illuminating Los Angeles: Elmore Leonard & The Triforium. Meet Gregg Sutter, who is hosting a new bus tour about the screenwriter he aided for 33 colorful years, then get the skinny on reactivating Joseph Young's 1975 musical phantasmagoria. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Everybody's talking about Beth Short and the unsolved Black Dahlia mystery in advance of the new TNT television series I Am The Night. As hosts of the long-running tour about the case, we were interviewed by Paste and Curbed L.A. and contributed something new to the conversation: exclusive photos inside Dr. George Hodel's whimsically weird childhood home.

In Chicago as in Los Angeles. Does retiring wire-wearing Alderman Danny Solis equate to L.A. Councilman Mitch Englander, who retired the morning after a fundraiser & just before Jose Huizar's FBI raids?

Save Lytton preservationists call shenanigans as Townscape Partners does the minimum to appear as if they’re respecting Kurt Meyer’s landmark bank.

Will the World Heritage Committee vote to place Hollyhock House on the World Heritage list, even though Donald Trump has withdrawn the US from UNESCO?

Nate 'n Al is (almost) dead, long live "Nate 'n Al" the brand. And please keep the wait staff, because they're adorable! Our grandma Cutie loved the place.

The end of the line for KLYT, the last of the Skid Row Turkish bath houses. What's next for this mysterious time capsule of old Los Angeles?

How convenient for the developer: Fire Tears Through Iconic Sportsmen's Lodge.

No comment as Tom Gilmore’s art folly shutters, happily without turning the landmark corner of 4th & Main into a goofy human Habitrail.

C.C. de Vere's Open Letter To All The Snobs Who Say SoCal Has No History. Here's video of her LAVA Sunday Salon on L.A.'s French roots, with a cameo from Jean Bruce Poole, who saved the Siqueiros mural at Olvera Street.

Ted Rall lost his case against the Los Angeles Times for defamation. Freelancers: they'll use you to look progressive, hang you out to dry.

And then there was one... Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour.

Back from a long hiatus, our favorite old school restaurant blog Remains of L.A. finally makes it to Langer's Deli.

Hear KGIL's coverage of the Sylmar quake on February 9, 1971: The San Fernando Valley's Longest Day.

Demolition by neglect is always awful, but extra awful when it’s the city of Los Angeles is the culprit. RIP to the Pickle Works.

A beautiful story about the city of Eureka's unsolicited return of stolen tidal marsh land to the Wiyot tribe.

Video vault: A glimpse of Muhammed Ali and the enticing Long Shot Room at the Watts Summer Festival, 1967.

No more steaks, but the wonderful sign for Glendora's 100-year-old Golden Spur roadhouse lives on.

He Built An L.A. Landmark - RIP Alan Canter.

The waterfall flows again at the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial. To learn more about the preservation and interpretation of this complicated monument, see video of our LAVA Sunday Salon and walking tour.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric