URGENT ALERT: Karen Bass's Planning Commission nominee is a real estate industry lobbyist whose org lied in City Hall to kill a landmark. Tell her NO today!

UPDATE: Illisa Gold’s nomination passed 4-0 at PLUM despite 100(!) written public comments opposing in the case file. If you agree that her Abundant Housing L.A. leadership role is DISQUALIFYING—read on for why we think so—there is still a chance to stop this appointment. Please call or email and ask your councilmember to oppose the nomination when it reaches full City Council at 10am on June 28, 2023 (agenda link here). You can also express opposition to the nominations of Ilissa Gold’s Abundant Housing L.A. colleagues Jaime Del Rio (North Valley Area Planning Commission) and Haley Feng (West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission). This can be done through emails and calls, as well as written or (most effective) in person or telephonic public comment at the June 28 final hearing (instructions on the agenda). (Direct link to the council files: Illisa Gold, Jaime Del Rio, Haley Feng.)

---

Gentle reader,

Once upon a time, a cool cat named Art Whizin built and operated a chain of L.A. diners that looked like giant bowls of chili, one of scores of California Crazy creations that caught the eye of speeding motorists and inspired generations of Angelenos and tourists to think big and follow their weirdest dreams.

One of those patrons was Kim’s PopPop, who told her how much he loved the Chili Bowl as a young man, driving a truck delivering exotic foods to Grand Central Market and other clients. So when there came an opportunity to help save a Chili Bowl, we leapt at the chance.

By 2021, only one Chili Bowl was left in the city of Los Angeles, and we and the Los Angeles Conservancy worked hard to save and/or to move it.

It would have been landmarked, too, if it wasn’t for a pro-development lobbying group called Abundant Housing LA circulating deceptive official letters, social media posts and public comments, all claiming that the little, portable building—which had been moved once before, from Silver Lake to West L.A.—stood in the way of a 24-unit housing project.

It was all a lie. There was no housing project. Landmark status was rejected, the owner chopped the Chili Bowl into pieces, and the prominent Pico Boulevard parcel is now a vacant lot.

Abundant Housing LA went on to endorse Karen Bass for Mayor, and now she’s returned the favor by nominating Board President Ilissa Gold to the Planning Commission.

With land use corruption rampant in Los Angeles and four City Council members indicted, it is essential that Angelenos have a Planning Commission they can trust. As Board President of Abundant Housing LA, Ilissa Gold represents a real estate industry lobbying organization willing to deceive City Council and the public to promote its pro-developer agenda and destroy Los Angeles landmarks.

So what can you do to ensure we don’t have someone whose organization lied about new housing to kill California Crazy making land use decisions for all of Los Angeles?

Send two short little emails—and you can also pass this newsletter on.

1. Please email Mayor Karen Bass TODAY (mayor.helpdesk@lacity.org) and ask that she NOT appoint Ilissa Gold to the Planning Commission, because it is DISQUALIFYING that Ms. Gold is board president of Abundant Housing LA, a real estate lobbying group that has used dirty tricks to deceive City Council and the public.

2. Also go to the City Council file (https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=23-1200-S122 ), click "NEW" then send the same message to the PLUM Committee, which hears the nomination on Tuesday, June 20. If approved, the appointment will go to full City Council for consideration. You can help keep that from happening. 

   yours for Los Angeles,

   Kim & Richard

   Esotouric

   P.S. Thanks to OnlyTheFacts12 on Twitter, there’s more. One Abundant Housing LA nominee could be an accident. Three is a deliberate policy choice: 1) Jaime Del Rio / North Valley Area Planning Commission (Organizing Director, Abundant Housing LA) https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=23-1200-S70 2) Haley Feng / West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission (Occupation: was Communications Manager / Digital Advocacy Manager for Abundant Housing LA, now Assistant Project Manager for Thomas Safran & Associates—the developer implicated in the Curren Price indictment!) https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=23-1200-S64

   

   ---

   Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, 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. Or just share this link with other people who care.

   UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS

   The Real Black Dahlia Bus Tour (Sat. 6/24) • Echo Park Book of the Dead Bus Tour (Sat. 7/1) • New! The Run: Gay Downtown History Walk (Sat. 7/8) •Westlake Park Walk (Sat. 7/15) • Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles Bus Tour (Sat. 7/22) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue Walk (Sat. 8/5) • Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles Bus Tour (Sat. 8/12)