As Kevin de Leon Stinks Around for the Holidays, Our Modest Proposal to Clear CD-14's Stench from L.A. City Hall
Gentle reader,
In the 1930s, Angelenos witnessed the high drama of a popular Downtown cafeteria owner, Clifford Clinton, putting his business and personal safety on the line in a crusade against the systemic corruption that was strangling the city he loved.
Those interested could tune in to his radio broadcasts, drop by the cafeteria to meet with other citizen activists, or chat with one of the young ladies clad in modest, clownish costumes who were paid to circulate Clinton’s ultimately successful petition seeking the recall of Mayor Frank Shaw—the first ever such ousting in a major American city.
Clifford Clinton was on our mind in Spring 2020, when Kim was asked to write a promotional essay in the New York Times tied to the release of the Showtime series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.
In it, she shared the tale of Clifford Clinton’s brave advocacy, the crooked health inspectors who tried to shut his cafeteria down and the corrupt cops who set a bomb outside his Los Feliz home, and how for the longest time it seemed like nothing about the 1930s City Hall racket could ever change—until all of a sudden, after one intimidation bombing too many, change was inevitable.
It seemed impossible when that piece was published, but we’re now living in just such a transformative moment, with the recent election upset results, resignations, indictments and recall campaigns and that mysteriously sourced audio tape.
It’s thrilling and it’s exhausting. Was this how it felt for Clifford Clinton and his friends, teetering on the brink of a new Los Angeles, hopeful but worried about what would come after the rotten old guard was swept away? Can the digitally connected Angelenos of 2022 do a better job reforming the city than our analog ancestors did? We have to try.
Because we live in El Sereno and care passionately about Downtown’s landmarks and culture—all in the area “represented” by Council District 14—we’ve been privileged with an early ringside seat at the corruption circus.
Flashback to 2011, when it came out that our councilman, Jose Huizar, kept a grade school enemies list on which he rated community members on how useful they could be to his ego and career. But at a time when very few in the district cared enough to vote, horrible Huizar stuck to CD-14 like gum on a shoe.
It would be seven miserable years before his home and City Hall office were raided by the FBI, and two more years until he was removed from office and replaced by Kevin de Leon.
By Kevin de Leon, who, since some unknown benefactor leaked that red hot political strategy session recording, has been directed by the U.S. President, among many others, to resign his seat. But like Huizar before him, de Leon is unwilling to go unless forced out. Constituents are working on that.
After a month long social media blackout, de Leon is out kissing other peoples’ grandmas, switching on Christmas trees and passing out turkeys (paid for with public funds) to a carefully curated audience. Some staffer, also paid for with public funds, is editing these encounters into bite-sized wannabe viral videos meant to make the most toxic man in California politics look cute to his 412 Facebook followers. Comments on these publicly financed productions are illegally restricted. It’s an absurd waste of limited civic resources. And it’s boring!
Boring and enraging: that’s how it feels to be constituents in Council District 14.
After fifteen years of Jose Huizar selling Los Angeles out for poker chips and ladies who had to be paid to hang out with him, we’d barely caught our breath before CD-14 was enmeshed in a corruption scandal less lurid, but equally horrifying, than Sleazy Huizy’s excesses.
But it’s not just Huizar and de Leon. Something stinks in CD-14, and it has for a long time. Looking backward, we find a century of swaggering politicians tainted by accusations of self-dealing, racism, drug abuse, workplace bullying, sexual assault, drunk driving, child molestation, corruption and general obnoxiousness.
Councilman Isaac Colton Ash (served 1925-27) was accused of using public resources for lavish vacations and of voting to pave a road that would increase his property values. William G. Bonelli (served 1927-29) later fled to Mexico to avoid indictment on booze-based racketeering charges—though he claimed it was the owners of the Los Angeles Times who were the real crooks. Charles A. Holland (served 1930-31) was targeted for recall over unpopular land seizures for the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Edward L. Thrasher (served 1931-42) sought to maintain segregation and censor free speech. John C. Holland (served 1943-67) lead the campaign to renege on the pledge that citizens displaced from Chavez Ravine could return to live in modern public housing towers. Art Snyder (served 1967–85) was popped for drunk driving and molestation and convicted of campaign finance violations. Richard Alatorre (served 1985-99) was elected with dirty money and failed a court mandated drug test (bright blue = cocaine).
Which brings us to the men of recent memory: Nick Pacheco, Antonio Villaraigosa, Huizar, de Leon. Jokers all.
What a pleasure it is in contrast to learn about and honor cool, sweet Angelenos whose lives were dedicated to kindness, creativity and community.
Last week on Richard’s birthday tour of Highland Park, Montecito Heights and the lower Arroyo, we got to share one such beautiful character when we visited 4225 Griffin Avenue to pay tribute to Florencio Morales (1949-1992). He was a divinely inspired Mexican immigrant who decorated his deep front yard with outrageous holiday and religious displays. For about a decade in the 1980s and early 1990s, Florencio’s creations drew huge crowds that delighted in his cross-cultural storytelling and the free, wholesome entertainment of coming together to view it.
Although Florencio died thirty years ago and his creations were retired, it was sweet to bring a small crowd to the fence and conjure up this lost spirit. We’re grateful to folk art scholar Amy V. Kitchener, who wrote the book on The Holiday Yards of Florencio Morales, and captured his wacky installations for posterity.
We want to live in a Los Angeles where an immigrant laborer like Florencio can afford to have a home, share his dreams and inspire others to express the voice within themselves that is great. Corruption has stolen so many of these opportunities and connections, and we want them back.
Think of the tour guides of the future—they deserve a more interesting present!
There’s been talk about reforming L.A.’s broken political system and rebuilding the public trust by expanding City Council. Because City Hall has been crooked for a century, the representative count has stayed a stagnant 15 as the population grew by 700%. Each councilmember is supposed to represent the interests of a quarter million Angelenos—but more often, they seem to represent the interests of a half a million dirty dollars.
If Los Angeles does expand the horseshoe and fix the corrupt redistricting map, we’ll watch the changes with great interest. But like many tall buildings have no 13th floor, maybe Los Angeles should no longer have a 14th Council District at all. After a century of such lousy leadership, it could be best to retire the tainted number and start fresh. What do you think of CD-0? After all, there’s nowhere to go from nothing but up!
yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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 on demand, in-person walking tours, gift certificates and a souvenir shop you can browse in. Or just share this link with other people who care.
Upcoming walking tours into the Secret Heart of Los Angeles:
• Sunday, December 4 - La Brea Tar Pits Time Travel Trip
• Saturday, December 10 - All Around the Auto Club West Adams History Tour
• Saturday, December 17 - Bunker Noir! True Crime on Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill Tour
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Small update to our advocacy campaign to ensure cowboy star William S. Hart's exceptional house museum doesn't fall through the stewardship cracks if L.A. County does hand it off to Santa Clarita: the Natural History Museum's report back has been posted.
Demolition notice be damned! On December 1 at 10am, the Cultural Heritage Commission will hold its second vote on the Jay Risk Standard Oil Co. Service Station on Route 66 in Eagle Rock, and the staff report says it should be a city landmark! You can call or tune in (PDF link).
Fans of early cinema know how combustible nitrate is—and have likely seen Serge Bromberg set a strip ablaze. Why he stored hundreds of reels in a residential basement is a question for his analyst, or his maker.
In 2020, Irving Gill's Samuel Raymond house (1918) in Long Beach sold for $2.5 Million. The new owner has hired a small local firm to expand the house, instead of a preservation architect to restore it. Here’s a chance to weigh in.
Josefina López' new play Remembering Boyle Heights: Part 2, is set at the base of El Pino, the iconic Bunya Bunya tree on the East L.A. border that’s threatened by redevelopment.
Relevant Group, the developers who illegally gutted the potential National Register Morrison Hotel downtown, are facing foreclosure for two of their noisy Hollywood hotels.
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Congrats to preservation pal Brody Hale, who helped a community nonprofit buy St. Stephen Church in Pennsylvania after Rome shuttered the 175 year old congregation. He's advising the Monastery of the Angels project in Hollywood.
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Driving by Howlin' Ray's new Pasadena digs, we were happy to see a line out the door, and the rediscovered Adohr Milk Farms neon sign lending some subdued 1920s glam to the signage scheme. Visit after dark to see it flash “HR,” because it was meant to be!
Odd story out of San Diego, with accusations of self-dealing aimed at Save Our Heritage Organisation's Executive Director. But the goods are mediocre antiques overvalued for tax purposes, and we suspect dirty tricks to discredit an influential preservation voice.
Deadline reports that at the American Cinematheque Awards ceremony, opening remarks from board members included the claim that, after spending its actual centennial as a fenced construction site, the Egyptian Theatre "will reopen next year with a celebration of its first 100 years."
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CORRUPTION CORNER: In Pacific Palisades, 15021 W. Bestor Blvd. neighbors allege the hearing about putting a pool and hedge in front of the 1926 Methodist Parsonage was cancelled, then the city approved these illegal alterations anyway… We just had a trial that exposes how Jose Huizar and others on City Council took bribes in exchange for rezoning land, but you'd barely know it if you read the L.A. Times. We're grateful Courthouse News exists and is syndicated, and for the Daily News, too… Chinese billionaire Huang Wei, convicted in absentia of bribing Huizar to aid luxury Downtown L.A. developments, reported in Chinese Voice of America to be a CCP delegate… Wild that Eric Garcetti's Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan, who will be tried with Huizar early next year on public corruption charges, still has a dedicated page on USC’s Marshall business school website… Justin Kloczko suspects the State Bar is investigating ten attorneys involved in LADWP's massive ratepayer fraud, including City Attorney Mike Feuer and Water & Power Commission President Cynthia McClain-Hill… In 2014, community members were excluded from a meeting Mitch O'Farrell called at Lehrer Architects to discuss his gentrification plans for Hollywood. They sued, and as the door hits Mitch's bum, the city may be about to settle… On L.A. Taco's election night livestream, we asked incoming CD-1 councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez if she'd consider using Section 1090 to claw back some of the multi-million dollar properties tied up in Jose Huizar’s public corruption case for the public good. We hope she does!