Gentle reader,
There’s something very tender in the work we do, monitoring newly filed demolition applications across Los Angeles.
These bland documents—terse descriptions of project plans and permitting lingo—have no soul. But the places they concern are often marvelous, and we’d never know about them if they weren’t menaced by the wrecking ball.
Take for instance the unusual 1921 corner bungalow court compound at Bronson and Johnnie Cochran Vista in the West Adams District, on a lovely block of large garden apartments and Craftsman homes. It’s such a nice neighborhood, already quite dense.
If the state and city didn’t make it so easy for developers to knock existing affordable housing down, a block like this would be what it’s been for a century: a great place to put down roots.
But instead, the bungalow tenants s will be facing displacement, and their neighbors the anxiety of realizing it can happen to anyone, at any time, if their landlord decides to sell to a speculator.
Even a “protected” landmark isn’t safe: in Valley Glen, while the residents and neighbors of the The William Mellenthin Birdhouse Apartments at 5922-5930 Buffalo Avenue were celebrating the successful designation, city staff continued processing plans for the complex to be demolished for a new tower, with the work starting with the tenants’ garages.
This makes no sense, and the simultaneous processing appears to be in violation of the spirit of the historic preservation ordinance, but that’s what’s going on in our mixed up City Hall. Every road seems to lead to prying Angelenos out of their rental homes.
And once the tenants are gone, and their units are empty, the buildings can be knocked down and the lot cleared with no requirement for the owner to actually construct the new affordable micro-units that were used to justify it all.
Owners are left with a much more valuable vacant lot with development entitlements attached that they can flip to another investor, or use to raise money for other projects. It’s happening all over Los Angeles, and it’s just wrong.
The candy colored Bronson bungalows are special. We’re glad to get to know them, even if that means we have to worry about them.
By sharing them with our viewers, we hope to empower Angelenos to keep an eye on their own neighborhoods, learn how to look for and to read city planning and building documents, and know their rights when it comes to protecting their own housing and to watch out for vulnerable neighbors.
And if we hadn’t stopped by the Bronson bungalows, we never would have spotted the sweetest relic: the side by side vintage single shoe prints of a nameless man and a woman, who like the movie stars in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood carefully stepped out onto wet cement maybe as long as a century ago to mark the sidewalk in front of their bungalow home as their very own piece of the Southern California dream.
Imagine them there, balancing against each other and standing on one foot, the school kids across the road laughing to see grown ups being so silly—two anonymous L.A. angels leaving their lovers’ mark for us to find today.
Los Angeles has never been in such rough waters, neglected from within and attacked from without. But this magical city, its beautiful places and its kind and cool people, its sidewalks bedazzled with flower petals and clues from distant times, it is still here, it’s still ours and it’s everything.
Don’t lose heart and don’t give up, and keep an eye open for messages from Angelenos past. These signs are there for you to see, and they can lead us to a brighter future.
For Saturday’s new tour celebrating the friendship of artist and writer Leo Politi and Olvera Street visionary Christine Sterling, we’re joined by Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison on a true time travel trip across the scar of the 101 in search of lizard people, hauntings, lost tunnels and forgotten graveyards. And tickets are half price, so bring a pal and join us, do!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, 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. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• SALE: $25 TICKETS! Christine Sterling & Leo Politi: Angels of Los Angeles (8/23) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (8/30) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (9/6) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (9/13) • Film Noir / Real Noir (9/20) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (9/27) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (10/4) • Know Your Downtown LA: Bradbury Building, Basements, Dutch Chocolate Shop (10/11) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (10/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (11/1) • Highland Park Arroyo Time Travel Trip (11/8) • Richard’s Birthday: Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (11/15) • The Real Black Dahlia (11/22) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (12/6) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (12/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sunday, 12/21) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases (12/27)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Restoration project: storybook architect Ben Sherwood's (Snow White cottages) own eclectic Spanish baronial castle overlooking the Cahuenga Pass. Great bones, a green bathroom to die for, and so much to tear out! Bonus boring house included. Auction 9/23.
Miracle! The city might buy the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round, mostly dark since beloved operator Julio Gosdinski died in 2020. The estate will accept a lowball $1M to keep the 1926 landmark in L.A. To be discussed at the Rec and Parks Commission on 8/21.
Santa Clarita Elementary School (Smith, Powell, and Morgridge, 1960) is a stunning mid-century modern campus that's like a flying saucer with a garden inside. The school district is talking about demolishing this gem. Locals say Save Our School instead!
Empty Los Angeles airs shock allegations of RSO buildings held vacant for months until USC students return to town, and refusal to rent to black people—including displaced Eaton fire victims.
Are you kicking yourself for missing the debut of our silent cinema locations walking tour? Kick not: it's available as a private booking. So gather some pals who share your love of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy and come explore their world!
In 2020, the landmarked Gless Farmhouse, an SRO popular with mariachis that had been operating as an illegal hotel, was sold 100% vacant. It's back on the market and looks terrible. This great house deserves some love—and tenants!
Dizzying, delightful decorative features in the Mayan Theater forecourt, including Malibu tiles from the great Rufus Keeler. You can still catch a show at this incredible venue before the longtime operator pulls down the curtain next month!
Gulp! 1845-57 Taft Ave. is getting flipped as three vacant lots with entitlements. Two fine Craftsman houses were rush demolished for a vaporware ED1 affordable housing project. One has been saved to move to Altadena, at least.
Mayor Bass is switching up the Cultural Heritage Commission: term expired Diane Kanner, who pushed for Boney Island tree house to get a hearing to halt demolition, and was stymied by incorrect city staff advice, is out.
File under: empty Los Angeles. In 2020, the owners of City Walk on Vineland sought to demolish the poolside apartments, then instead just kept the big units empty. Only 12 of 33 are occupied now. What will the buyer do with this cool and wasted place?
Cheri-Ann Leon, direct descendant of the Cota family that founded Santa Barbara's Fiesta a century ago, says the festival has been co opted by rich people who don't care about its cultural aspects. Dancers, especially the kids, deserve more respect.
Swell news for the Long Beach Petroleum Club, as caterer 24 Carrots moves in. The mid-century modern dining hall, clubhouse and pool has been looking for an operator who sees the vast potential.
Roberta Court in West Adams, on a block of pretty 1920s bungalow courts, was emptied out by the Ellis Act in 2019. Now a big new apartment building is planned. Can the cottages find new life in Altadena? No demo permit... yet!
New mystery from Nathan Marsak's Institute for Advanced Bunker Hill Studies: who are these cute codgers clowning around in the last days on Bunker Hill Avenue?
Cheers to Heather Hutt for this motion to fix a weird gap in the 2011 Jefferson Park HPOZ and add the south side of Adams from 7th to Edgehill. Explore the forgotten wedge—it's worth protecting!
The burned up Diamond Bakery building, next to the gutted Fairfax Theatre nobody wants, is now on the market, too. $4 Million, no rugelach.
Longtime Los Angeles Times journalist Sam Quinones has launched a newsletter for his independent reporting on the intersection of meth and fentanyl abuse and homelessness in the city. This story about a fatal fight and dog attack outside the poorly managed Los Feliz Bridge Home is a true American tragedy that began when long distance trucker Richard Ware returned from the road to find squatters in his house, got arrested for fighting them, and ended up on the street. It's horrifying how a hard working man's life can unravel so quickly, and so unfairly, and how many people end up hurt in the aftermath. This city can do so much better, and it must.
Demo sought, with no new project, for a charming wartime RSO Spanish duplex, 3327-29 E. Darwin Ave. Sold for $760K in 2024. Where are the tenants? It’s a lovely multi-family home in a great location, and a rare instance of wartime development in 90031. Thanks to policy work by Kevin de Leon's team, no RSO unit in Boyle Heights (like these bungalows) can be demolished or tenants evicted until there's a community plan in place to ensure protections—and councilmember Ysabel Jurado just extended that policy. Why should the neighboring community lose desperately needed attractive housing for nothing? That roof alone!
