Gentle reader,
On Wednesday, we encouraged you to send an email or telephone councilmember Kevin de Leon’s CD14 office and ask that Angels Knoll park and the Metro plaza beneath it be opened to the public, after 11 years behind locked gates.
Re-opening these quasi-public spaces to Angelenos and visitors is the first priority, but because this is such a significant site—the last undeveloped portion of the old Bunker Redevelopment Plan under which an estimated 9000 people were displaced—we’re also asking that the upper landscaped park portion be named for the artist Leo Politi, his wife and partner Helen, and the vanished neighborhood itself: Leo and Helen Politi Bunker Hill Park.
In this newest video shot atop Angels Knoll, we hear from Suzanne Politi Bischof, Leo and Helen’s daughter and herself a one-time resident of old Bunker Hill, to learn a bit about her folks and why she considers this naming proposal to be a blessing.
And your calls and emails appear to be working!
On Friday, the councilmember submitted a motion asking Mayor Karen Bass to help grant some breathing room, 36 months to be precise, in the deadline for the city to purchase the land from the former redevelopment agency.
If the Mayor acts, that would provide time to find the funds to make a real park out of Angels Knoll.
The alternative is that the clock will tick until the end of this month and then the city would lose its purchase option. Nobody’s lining up to buy Parcel Y-1, which has failed to find a private development partner in boom times and bust, but if it were to sell cheaply during the current economic downturn it’s unlikely it would be because some zillionaire has a soft spot for Zooey Deschanel movies and wants to preserve that special (500) Days of Summer bench.
If you like the idea of making Angels Knoll a real park, here’s how you can help:
Send an email or call the office at councilmember.kevindeleon@lacity.org or (213) 473-7014 and ask that the councilmember ensures that Angels Knoll and the Hill Street Plaza are open to the public permanently, and that the upper portion is named Leo & Helen Politi Bunker Hill Park.
We’ll continue to advocate for this precious spot in the heart of the city, and post updates on the original newsletter.
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 9/29) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels to Towers to the Dutch Chocolate Shop (10/5) • Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess (Sat. 10/12) • The Run: Gay Downtown L.A. History (Sun. 10/13) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 10/27) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (Sun. 11/3) • The 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times Walking Tour with Detective Mike Digby (Sat. 11/9) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice Downtown L.A. (Sat. 11/16) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (Sat. 11/23) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 12/7) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 12/14) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sun. 12/22) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher (Thurs. 12/26)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Wondering why you haven't heard anything about the landmarking of Marilyn Monroe's house in months? Yeah, it's kind of a funny story. Stay tuned and don't be complacent. Because remember: Preservation is pain, and nothing is safe in this wretched world.
Yet more Bunker Hill Then and Now from the mixed up files of Mr. BH, Nathan Marsak. Dig it!
In February 2020, we exposed LACMA's lease violation at the South LA satellite gallery. As the real off-site home is revealed to be Las Vegas, the "County" museum walks away from LA. Angelenos should sue over this bait 'n switch. Meanwhile, the neglected city park is in nasty shape, and we think LACMA director Michael Govan should clean the port-a-potties.
Onni Group recently sued Nexstar to get a $30,000,000 deposit back on a development project a block from the LA Times, complaining a transitional housing planned nearby ruins their luxury building plans. Now Onni's Times Mirror Square is site of an encampment. Coincidence, or legal strategy?
Since Monastery of the Angels no longer offers pumpkin bread at the gift shop, or pretty much anything since the Vatican suppressed it, we BYOPB on our recent Franklin Village walk. It got jostled into big crumbs, but still tasted yummy. And yes, that is the apparently bogus “city” sign above the treat.
At the Parva Sed Apartments, where Nathanael West lived and wrote Day of the Locust, the century old half-timber decoration was rotting and has just been taken down—we're so hopeful the pattern can be retained, in tinted plaster or wood veneer!
Westside Current is going door to door, documenting the "housing" we're all paying for. No surprise, but pretty sickening: After Spending $550 Million, Over 70 Percent of Los Angeles County’s Project Homekey Homeless Rooms Vacant.
City Council settlement to silence a public corruption whistleblower? Zachary De Corse alleges LADBS didn't clean up its act after convicted racketeer Ray Chan moved into Mayor Eric Garcetti's office. Want to know more? You won't!
Holy cats—appeal granted at City Council’s powerful PLUM Committee! This never happens, and yet it did: the giant Tripalink (worst thing ever?) co-living dorm for USC students masquerading as an apartment house struck down at 1500 W Adams in the Adams-Normandie HPOZ.
New in the Catholic Book Club from America, The Jesuit Review: John Fante: the almost-forgotten scribe of Los Angeles. Fun fact: the striking fellow at the top of the piece is not Fante, but British poet Stephen Spender. Some wag put Spender’s mug on Fante’s Wikipedia page, and it’s spread widely.
Professional Drum Shop is on Session Cat Row, Hollywood, next to Stein on Vine, across from the old Musicians Union. They don't own the building, now on the market. Can this legacy business time capsule be saved?
HUD awards $10,000,000 to AIDS Healthcare Foundation to empower low-income tenants, preserve affordable housing. Good! The war on extant affordable units by city planners who favor developer profit over constituent rights is a big contributor to homelessness, and AHF is one of the only housing nonprofits getting this right.
RIP Villa Lor Nic dingbat signage (1964 per this post, seen up close thanks to a fan in 2020), lost to a trendy marketing makeover. These types of apartment names are usually portmanteaus honoring family members of the original developer. Lorraine and Nicolas?
Just listed: our late pal Shelley Ganz' rock 'n roll pad at 147 N. Formosa, minus a lifetime of cool collectables, still sporting some far out wallpaper, shag carpet and a mod pink bathroom. Dig his band The Unclaimed here.
Wild scene at the Rancho Mirage City Council meeting Thursday, when radio station owner Meg Marker flipped out before a vote on a conflict of interest policy and resigned. The resolution passed unanimously after she left the dais. The FPPC has been instructing the Markers on Section 1090 since shortly after Meg was elected. No, councilwoman, you can't vote to steer city contracts to your business associates.
Sold in 2022 to a Sacramento LLC, the magnificent 54 unit Hollywood complex, Clinton Manor Courtyard Apartments (J.J. Rees, 1939-40), nominated for landmark status. Fun fact: Barbie's "parents" Elliott and Ruth Handler, lived / dreamed here pre-Mattel!
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A motion to consider commissioning statues or plaques to honor L.A. writers at Central Library misidentifies Claremont based David Foster Wallace as an Angeleno, has us cracking up over possible poses for Bukowski in bronze.
Post-mortem on the Los Angeles Conservancy’s 9/17/24 appeal hearing for B’nai B’rith: the fix was in, and the hearing was purely symbolic with the ruling already pre-determined by the choice of venue. The Zoning Administrator’s only question to answer was “did LADBS err when it approved the demolition permit?” which left all the illegal improprieties and lack of transparency out of the equation. The public comment was powerful and damning, the legal arguments compelling, but in the end, the city rubber stamped its own lawless action. The Zoning Administrator could only rule that LADBS, like good Nazis, was just following orders, and so he did. Because the public comments at this hearing were so powerful, and so damning, we asked for a copy of the Zoom recording. The city’s incredible response: “Our Zoning Administrator hearings are not recorded and minutes are not kept.” We very much hope that the Los Angeles Conservancy saved the hearing as it was streaming, and have asked them on social media if they did. No response.
Keep On Asking Councilmember Kevin de Leon to Re-open Angels Knoll Park—it's working!