California Without People

Gentle reader...

And just like that, everything is different. Greetings from your friendly local Los Angeles tour company and historic preservation advocacy shop, presently mothballed and sheltering in place with the cats.

We hope you and your loved ones are holding up in these trying early days of social distancing and pandemic anxiety. This is scary! And it's hard to be unable to come together and support each other in the flesh. But it truly is essential that we keep apart and avoid spreading this terrible virus, so be strong, pace yourself, and don't let the cabin fever drive you potty.

Still, we invite you to join us as we raise a virtual glass (but not $34,000 in casino "bottle service") to last week's newsletter that we didn't get to write, celebrating the unsealing of the first Grand Jury corruption indictment of a Los Angeles City Council member, and more than we ever wanted to know about this erstwhile public servant's idea of fun.

Mitch Englander's Las Vegas debauchery in the company of his deputy (now sitting Council member) John "Staffer B" Lee, businessmen, lobbyists and sex workers is dumb, small change, but symbolic of the culture of plain sight corruption that has hobbled Los Angeles, as City Hall works hard for the interests of property development, and ignores the increasingly desperate needs of Angelenos. There were some laughs in the charging documents, and the thrilling hint that bigger fish were soon to fry, and in normal times we'd have had some fun with the whole thing.

But these aren't normal times, and last week found us preoccupied with winding down our tour season, checking in on vulnerable loved ones, contacting ticket holders and collaborators, along with advising on an historic preservation problem that had flared up into crisis mode. It was a bear to get through, and we're just settling in to take stock of what Esotouric's work will be while the CDC recommends against the close physical proximity built in to a sightseeing bus tour.

Funny old world. Although Richard worked the Democratic Convention as a teen, we never were interested in local L.A. politics until we got involved in historic preservation, and became aware that nothing happening in City Hall made sense. Backroom land use decisions made by the secretive PLUM Committee were , and not for the better.

First we were perplexed, then we got mad, and realized that we could make a difference, by advocating for threatened landmarks, telling their stories in a compelling way, showing up at City Hall, landmarking the L.A Times buildings. We didn't save everything, but we saved a few, and helped keep preservation of the cool built environment part of the cultural conversation, even as a few crooked creeps got rich behind the bulldozers.

The first of the long hinted public corruption arrests was supposed to symbolize a new dawn for the city we love, with the crooks flushed out of power and a real chance to preserve historic places and improve life for Angelenos. But the universe has a weird sense of timing. Hello, pandemic!

This is certainly a challenge, and it's going to test all of our resources, but we firmly believe that you're up to meeting it. Los Angeles isn't just any city. It's home to the most creative, kind and passionate people on earth. That's why we live here, why we celebrate our history, why we go out every Saturday (public health directives allowing) to share our discoveries, and why we know we're going to come through this stronger, with love, together.

And as we move through these times, our shared history and treasured landmarks will be stars to steer by. We'll continue to keep you informed about Los Angeles preservation and culture, ways you can help keep our mom and pop businesses alive, and stories you shouldn't overlook, despite the relentless pace of the news cycle.

We're resilient, creative, kind and special people, Angelenos. Let's stick together, look after one another, and use this time of retreat and reflection to imagine a better city on the other side... and then we'll make it happen!

So hold that thought. And just one more thing. Before we leave you to skim down to the links—and there are a lot to share this time—we want to tell you about California Without People.

Because we work on the weekends, with Saturday tours and Sunday forensic science seminars, we have the whole work week to explore Southern California. And because our tastes run to offbeat landmarks, small museums and forgotten backwaters, we regularly find ourselves enjoying some incredible place with absolutely nobody else around. Before the pandemic, we'd grin and say how much we enjoyed California Without People. But we knew then that we didn't really mean it, and right now the thought of empty landmarks breaks our heart.

Here's to a California With People, caring, curious, adventurous people who we cannot wait to share more sacred historic spaces with when this period of mass quarantine has ended! We've got some great tours on the calendar, still bookable with a rescheduled date to be announced, and much more to come! So be safe, and be part of it!
WANT TO SUPPORT OUR WORK? If you enjoy all we do to celebrate and preserve Los Angeles history and would like to say thank you, please consider putting a little something into our digital tip jar. You can also click here before shopping on Amazon. Your contributions are never obligatory, but always appreciated. Or you can reserve a gift certificate to join us for a tour once we're back on the road... & if you love what we do, please tell your friends.
AND WHAT'S THE NEXT TOUR? WHO KNOWS?! We're dark until public health officials determine that groups can gather safely. All tours through May 9 will be rescheduled, and the rest of the May-June schedule is to be confirmed or rescheduled. But we've got 132 episodes of the podcast You Can't Eat The Sunshine free to download for armchair explorers, and videos of the Downtown L.A. LAVA walking tours, plus new Cranky Preservationist videos. And while we're not shipping physical books right now, Kim's 1920s cult mystery novel The Kept Girl is available as an ebook.

PLUS, the June forensic science seminar with arson and bomb expert Ed Nordskog is still scheduled, and our hope is by then we'll be able to host a group event. Snag your spot soon for Detective’s Casebook: Profiling Serial Bombers & Mothers’ Burning Rage, because it will sell out!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Recommended Reading: Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass by David Judson, the inside story of L.A.'s multi-generation stained glass masters, featuring rare images from the workshop archives. Find more L.A. book recommendations.

Spotlight on Small Business: The puppets recently moved into new quarters but The Bob Baker Marionette Theatre can't perform... Divine’s, Monterey Park's oldest and coolest business, wants to help you antique shop virtually... Skylight Books and Vroman's have closed their stores, but can deliver any book you want by mail... our Arts District tour departure spot Urban Radish delivers groceries and prepared foods in Downtown... and here at Esotouric, we'd sure appreciate your thinking of us for your gifting needs.

In LACMA News: South L.A. LACMA Satellite Site in Violation of Sweetheart City of Los Angeles Lease?... The LACMA debacle keeps getting worse... LACMA loses Ahmanson Foundation support as it undergoes redesign... Save LACMA!

New Cranky Preservationist Videos: Our natty anti-hero cares about cool old signs and buildings, and has a lot to say about those who wreck 'em. What The Hell Happened to the Pantages Neon?... 3 Beauties Bite the Dust... The L.A. Preservation Imp makes itself known inside the Dutch Chocolate Shop, and the fight to keep cool old Los Angeles intact just got a whole lot stranger... Don’t F— With My Bunker Hill Retaining Wall... Koreatown’s Little NYC in Peril... The Mystery of the Shrinking Pico Historic District.

An important piece of Chicana art will return to public view, but that doesn’t fix the city’s lax public art preservation policy.

Alice Schenker changed the world, from behind the counter at the Print Mint. RIP, hep lady.

Newsstands once dotted the landscape, a place to pick up your hometown rag, buy some smokes, even (shhh, be cool, man!) make a bet. One of the last, in Boyle Heights, might not be around much longer. Go shopping!

This tiny 1933 log cabin with the giant frying pan sign is/was a rare relic of old LA roadside cool, until it burned on February 23. But wait, there's hope!

What a life she made, with stardom in the rearview mirror. Farewell "Baby Peggy."

Lovell Health House is a Neutra with a pedigree, and a desperate need for a preservation-minded caretaker with deep pockets. Hey, LACMA?

If Mohamed Hadid really wants to do something to help the homeless, he can testify in open court about all the City of Los Angeles employees and officials who violated California law and city ethics rules to help him build illegal mcmansion monstrosities.

On COVID-19 and illegal Airbnb rentals in Los Angeles, an early worry from a blog worth reading.

Frenchtown Confidential looks to L.A's past for lessons from the 1863 smallpox epidemic, and they are incredibly relevant to 2020.

Silver Lake's streamline moderne gas station is vanishing into storage, and RiverLA has no comment.

John Bengtson's campaign for historic designation for the unassuming Hollywood alley featured in some of the greatest silents ever shot makes the Guardian. We hope to sleuth cinema sites with JB on a very special tour on June 20-21.

Support the 410 Rossmore Tenants in their petition against co-living conversion. Rent controlled historic apartment buildings and the Angelenos who call them home should be protected at all costs.

Photographer Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin is that rare thing: a native of Hollywood. He chronicles his vanishing working class neighborhood, lost to hyper-development and AirBnb, because "The people who live in Hollywood are just as important as the landmarks.".

RIP to a gem featured in our How To Find Old L.A. guidebook: Art's Famous Chili Dogs (1939-2020).

Bye bye USC, don't let that magnificent stained glass Gamble House front door on the way out!

So many layers in this association copy of Raymond Chandler's Playback, inscribed with love in the month of his death. The other signer, Helga Greene, was not actually his fiancee, but she did profit handsomely from the writer's death. Get the skinny when our Chandler tour resumes!

Bono's Orange Stand on Fontana's Route 66 has seen better days. Chip in to this fundraiser to help make a cool piece of the old Mother Road gorgeous again.

Petition to Save the Historic San Dimas Packing House, a time capsule worth preserving.

Glendale Centre Theatre, a community treasure since the 1940s, is on the market and at risk of redevelopment. Tough time to try to find a new creative tenant for a 380 seat performance space.

Hundreds of historic homes owned by Caltrans are blight along the 710 corridor. This week, activists popped the locks and moved homeless families inside to shelter in place.

yrs for Los Angeles,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric