Gentle reader,
It is the centennial of the birth of Beth Short, the transient young woman whose unsolved 1947 murder is the lens through which for nearly two decades we have sought to understand the city she knew and the lost cultures that were documented as a side effect of the crime. Please spare a kind thought for her eternal soul, if you are so moved.
On the Human Sacrifice true crime tour, we discuss Beth Short’s housing insecurity, and how her lack of a permanent address and anyone who might notice she was missing made her more vulnerable to being kidnapped and killed.
Also on the tour, we visit the Hotel Cecil, to talk about how that historic Skid Row SRO got a hip makeover to appeal to young, budget conscious tourists. When one of them, Elisa Lam, suffered a psychiatric emergency, the Cecil’s untrained staff made poor decisions that left her vulnerable to the misadventure that took her life.
After Elisa Lam’s body was found in the water tank in February 2013, the Cecil became both a stigmatized and very famous building. And because we’ve been telling its stories on our tours for many years, we became a part of its legend. We appeared as neighborhood historians in the widely seen Netflix documentary about Lam’s death, and later turned detective to get to the bottom of an illegally painted over wall sign and the years long lack of any progress in renting out its 600 rooms.
Eventually, people did move into the Cecil—not 600 people, but dozens of Angelenos coming in off the streets. And our friend Rev. Dylan Littlefield was there, too, in a voluntary capacity, advocating for the tenants in matters spiritual and corporeal.
At the request of his flock, and after much consideration, tomorrow morning, Tuesday 7/30/2024, Rev. Dylan will be marching with tenants from the Hotel Cecil at 640 South Main Street to Los Angeles City Hall, so that the tenants can make public comment to their elected officials.
Members of the public who would like to support the tenants are invited to march with them, starting at 9:00am, or meet them at City Hall in the John Ferraro Council Chambers at 10:00am.
Can’t make it downtown? Tune in to the council’s live feed to hear their comments, and consider calling in to express support.
To call in: call 1 669 254 5252 and use Meeting ID No. 160 535 8466 and then press #. Press # again when prompted for participant ID. Once admitted into the meeting, press *9 to request to speak.
Sadly, Los Angeles City Councilmembers don’t always pay attention when constituents take the time to visit their workplace and express their concerns. They have a bad habit of leaving the room, talking among themselves or fiddling with their phones.
We very much hope that tomorrow will be an exception, and that all in attendance will listen closely to the Cecil tenants as they express their concerns and complaints about their home, a place that is privately owned and operated, but relies on taxpayer funds to fill its rooms.
If the councilmembers attend respectfully, they will learn something they won’t hear from anybody else. The Cecil tenants will feel empowered by the experience. And perhaps some help will come their way, from the city which has such vast resources, but too often fails to direct them where they could make a real difference.
The Hotel Cecil is pleading for help—listen!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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 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. You can share this post to win subscriber perks. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 8/4) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 8/17) • Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess (Sun. 8/25) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 8/31)• Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (Sat. 9/7) • Highland Park Arroyo (Sat. 9/21) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 9/29) • The Run: Gay Downtown L.A. History (Sun. 10/13) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 10/27) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (Sun. 11/3)
Tuesday morning: March with the Hotel Cecil tenants to Los Angeles City Hall