Gentle reader,
After six full days of preliminary hearing testimony in the public corruption case against councilmember Curren Price, we are still reckoning with the magnitude of all we heard and how best to share it with concerned Angelenos.
So this newsletter is not our courthouse wrap up. Stay tuned for that.
If you have read mainstream news reports about Judge Shelly B. Torrealba’s decision to refer Price’s case upstairs to Phil Spector trial judge Larry P. Fidler and thought you were getting the full story of the case that deputy D.A. Casey Higgins presented, we’re sorry to report that you did not.
Only two tiny media outlets were present for all six days, one of them us, the other the South L.A. religious journal LA Focus on the Word, as one of the most powerful and long-serving politicians in California was held to account.
Los Angeles Times reporting is central to this case, as evidence that Price knew of his illegal votes for projects in which his wife Del Richardson had a financial interest. Our necks got sore from looking around to see if the Times’ reporter was present during these portions; sometimes yes, but not always.
We’re not blaming an individual journalist for sitting out some of these grueling proceedings: the blame falls squarely on Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has never hired a publisher to manage the paper, has gutted the newsroom (and the historic Globe Lobby) and is not providing remaining reporters with the resources needed to do their work.
It’s absentee journalism like this that compelled us to show up every day to bear witness, because we love Los Angeles and are dedicated to seeing it reformed.
This case is not just about one termed-out councilmember and the impact of his alleged corruption on his South Los Angeles district.
As a member of the powerful PLUM Committee, long controlled by confessed racketeer Jose Huizar, Price’s votes had a toxic effect on the whole city, especially Hollywood, where his wife’s relocation company hollowed out two whole blocks (Yucca-Argyle, Selma-Las Palmas) once occupied by neighbors, voters, taxpayers, friends.
So stay tuned for a deep dive into a fascinating, exhausting, revealing preliminary hearing, which could well be the end of Curren Price’s career and the last time he appears in court, should he weigh his options and decide to make a deal rather than go to trial.
And if you’d like to hear more about the Price case before we publish, join us on tomorrow’s stroll through two beguiling National Register districts near MacArthur Park: Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract. We’re happy to answer courthouse questions between tour stops. This very occasional walk features gorgeous houses, mod signage and tales of strange, fascinating and sometimes dangerous Angelenos. 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
• Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (1/31) • Hollywood Noir (2/7) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (2/14) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown L.A. (2/21) • Weird West Adams & Elmer McCurdy Museum Visit (2/28) • Film Noir / Real Noir (3/7) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (3/14) • Bunker Hill, Dead and Alive (3/21) • Christine Sterling & Leo Politi: Angels of Los Angeles (4/4) • John Fante’s Downtown L.A. (4/11) • Early Hollywood’s Silent Comedy Legends (4/18) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (4/25)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Santa Monica has quietly done what blighted Los Angeles refuses to try: enshrined vacant property registration—with consequences for ignored citations—into law. Imagine old buildings occupied by tenants and small business, instead of left open to burn, or illegally rented to tourists instead of citizens.
Strange twist in the Marilyn Monroe house landmarking drama: the property owners have leapfrogged over their own pending appeal to file a new claim in Federal court, alleging unconstitutional taking and seeking a jury trial to grant a demolition permit. We remain perplexed by their repeated claims that a landmark cannot easily be moved to a different location and admitting in court documents to allowing the protected landmark to fall into a state of demolition by neglect. Also perplexing: the claim that this lovely, world famous house in a highly desirable neighborhood is “worthless.” If they listed it for sale, even if just for the house and not the land, we believe a bidding war would break out between Monroe fans and displaced Palisadeans. Read the new filing below, and our ongoing court reporting here.
American Cinematheque announces a February series celebrating the beloved, endangered Hollywood Center Motel on screen, with L.A. Confidential, Fun with Dick and Jane and Hit Man. The next landmarking hearing is 2/5, 10am at City Hall room 1010: join us in supporting designation for the remaining residential structures, signs and breeze block wall. Will there be five commissioners by then? Possibly. Karen Bass quietly removed 16-year Cultural Heritage Commissioner Gail Kennard after she moved to landmark Hollywood Center Motel—and said it should stay housing. A replacement commissioner in the wings.
On January 21, we saw a rare and wonderful thing: the Hotel Clark neon illuminated! The 555 room residency hotel just south of Angels Flight Railway has been vacant for 30+ years.
Roomy 1 bedroom available in the iconic Chateau Alto Nido, a 1930 time capsule of genteel Hollywood apartment living that got its close up as Joe Gillis’ pad in Sunset Boulevard.
Mountain View Mausoleum is the most beautiful in the west. It survived the Eaton Fire when cemetery staff stayed to fight, but the smoke and heat has created a critical threat to the Judson stained glass. You can help restore it!
Two cool landmark applications just accepted: Eagle Rock’s shuttered Moorish Revival Sparkletts Bottling Plant and the wild Californio Craftsman Arturo & Mabel Bilderrain House, which we visit on our Highland Park Arroyo tours.
DOJ announces: Executive Director of South L.A.-Based Charity Arrested on Federal Complaint Alleging $23 Million Swindle of Homelessness Funds, and as we read the criminal complaint, a familiar address popped up, owned by indicted homeless services fraudster Alexander Soofer.
Our October 2025 post about this weird, vacant property when it hit the market:
The Hauerwaas-Kusayanagi House, a landmarked Mission Revival gem with a fascinating history seeks its next steward. Current owner the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center has done some institutional remodeling that could be reversed.
Just listed: The Supply Sergeant compound in the heart of Hollywood’s underappreciated commercial district—including the iconic rooftop neon sign!
Bigfoot Lodge for sale?!
Taix set to close for demolition on March 29. Shame on former councilmember Mitch O’Farrell for destroying L.A.’s cultural heritage ordinance by creating bizarre pro-demolition “landmark” loopholes for the benefit of out-of-state developer Clyde Holland, and on the corrupt PLUM Committee for approving his scheme. Shame on out-of-state restaurant operator Mike Taix for not putting this complex—which could easily be redeveloped while preserving Taix—on the market for a local who gives a damn to buy and operate.
A modest proposal from French L.A. historian C.C. de Vere picked up by community members: why not move some or all of the Taix building to Altadena to replace a restaurant lost in the Eaton fire instead of sending all those high quality 1920s-era materials to the dump?
Dig the beautiful, recent Posada-inspired murals on 1036 S. Alvarado, a 1905 spec house built by George Stimson, likely designed by his son, Wrigley Mansion architect G. Lawrence Stimson. Does anyone know the name of the artist-in-residence?
In this video, and on Saturday’s tour, we visit 1230-1232 South Bonnie Brae in the Pico-Union District, where a burned house just about the same age and style as El Nido was allowed to stand, damaged, flush up against the sidewalk, from 2016 to 2026—and is now being restored by its new owners! Why did LAFD treat El Nido as if it was an immediate threat to public safety and destroy it, throwing the landmark designation into doubt and preventing such a happy ending for that house? Also included in the video are our remarks from the Hollywood Heritage webinar The Hollywood Center Motel: A Case for Preservation, which you can watch in its entirety here.
When Roast to Go closed at Grand Central Market, we asked if the iconic menu board sign might be preserved. The answer was YES! Between Curren Price corruption court hearings, we met an old friend on its way to the market archives. Now open in that stall: La Sandunga Oaxacan.
Onni Group’s blighting of an entire block in the Civic Center comes to an end, as General Services Administration (GSA) signs a lease for the Los Angeles Times Mirror tower we helped landmark, including the Federal Public Defenders that confessed racketeer Jose Huizar used after he rewrote our landmark nomination for the building. Now do the 1935 Art Deco HQ—and reopen the globe lobby!
Shameful: Curren Price’s office claims to know nothing of Urban Alchemy plan to shut homeless housing tent project down due to LAHSA underpayment, the same week Price is sent to trial on corruption charges. Wonder how many staffers no longer live in CA, like one quoted in this story?
