Gentle reader,
There’s so much to tell you, not all of it bad. But things are pretty awful at 846 South Union Ave. in the Westlake District, where City Hall’s dirty tricks are on stark display.
If you’ve been walking with us for a while, you know about the B’nai B’rith Lodge, a gorgeous 1923 Jewish social club turned Teamsters union headquarters that Catholic Charities bought to turn into transitional housing for foster youth—before switching gears to a bizarre plan to tear it down “for nothing.”
We don’t actually believe they plan to tear it down for nothing. But getting rid of an inconvenient architectural and cultural landmark prior to submitting a big development project—perhaps one taking up the entire block, all owned by the non-profit or the Archdiocese—is a good way to avoid public hearings and CEQA review.
A small group of preservation pals has been fighting for B’nai B’rith, and it felt like we were nearly alone. The council rep, Eunisses Hernandez, wasn’t interested, and after Catholic Charities went to court to get its demo permit, the City Attorney just said sure, you can have it. And by the way, our settlement is a secret nobody can ever see.
That was really weird, just one of a number of odd things to come out of that office.
What a relief then when the Los Angeles Conservancy announced it had filed an appeal to try to save B’nai B’rith! But the city rejected it—and a second appeal, too!
Meanwhile, the beautiful building was wrapped in its death shroud, and crews started punching holes in walls, ripping the roof up and gouging Batchelder tiles out.
The original Jewish symbols, obscured since the union moved in 80 years ago, came back into view. The LA Conservancy appealed again in mid-May, and on Wednesday, July 3, we saw the City Planning case file light up that it had been accepted.
But—nobody in City Hall had bothered to upload the actual appeal, or the opinion it challenged! We emailed a bunch of people in City Planning before the holiday, but got nothing. And when we visited the building on Saturday afternoon, we were horrified to find significant new demolition, and made the cranky video embedded above.
The appeal documents finally appeared online this afternoon. They seem on first glance to be voluminous, nearly 400 pages, but almost all of that is historic surveys supporting the simple legal case found on pages 26-28.
There’s no good reason for the city having rejected two prior appeals, or for taking so long to process and accept this one. And even now that the appeal is lodged, demolition continues, with valid permits—because even if City Planning accepts an appeal, apparently Building and Safety has no obligation to honor it!
We have asked Catholic Charities if the work will be halted while the appeal is heard. That seems to us the honorable thing to do, and we think a religious non-profit ought to behave honorably. We’ll see what they do.
The preservation spirits are also working overtime a mile away at the Silver Platter, Westlake’s oldest—and also demolition threatened—gay bar.
Retired engineer and civic advocate Mike Callahan was interviewed by Q Voice News about his win/win suggestion for how councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez can work with the developer to keep the bar in the new project. Mike also dug into the alphabet soup of competing state and local housing laws and found compelling reasons why the legendary bar ought by right to have its demolition permits pulled while a true historic assessment is made. Mike believes the city has been misinterpreting new laws for the benefit of developers and at the expense of historic preservation—a pretty big deal if he’s right. Read all about it in Mike’s newsletter.
We’re also quoted in the Q Voice News story, which includes a disturbing account of elected officials and city staff ignoring calls and emails and dodging interview requests from the LGBTQ+ press all through Pride month, and an historic consultant slamming the phone down when questioned about the omission of gay history from the Silver Platter report she prepared for the developer.
We really hope the Silver Platter gets a chance to stick around. Despite its significance as a pre-Stonewall gay bar serving immigrant communities, it is physically a modest, simple place that could easily be reconstructed inside a new building, if the city and developer merely cared enough to try.
Want to help? Please email Councilmember.Hernandez@lacity.org or call her office at (213) 473-7001 and say “The demolition threatened Silver Platter at 2700 W. 7th Street is a legacy gay bar that matters to me, and under CEQA, the project has not been deemed complete and you have the power to halt demolition until it can be properly assessed as an historic resource. I am counting on Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez to follow the law and try to save this community landmark!”
Tomorrow, Tuesday July 9, is the regular monthly meeting of the St. Vibiana Circle, a new organization dedicated to historic preservation and protecting renters. We plan to attend and hope to see you on the plaza at the downtown Cathedral at 1pm.
Also on Tuesday at 6pm, Santa Clarita City Council is expected to vote on a proposal to take ownership of William S. Hart’s historic ranch and house museum from Los Angeles County. For the past two years, concerned about Hart’s priceless collections—his is the only golden age silent film star’s estate never to have been dispersed—we’ve been advocating for his will to be honored. The proposal presented by Santa Clarita and attached to Tuesday’s agenda addresses some of the security, staffing and professional standards concerns we shared with County and City representatives. If approved, the matter will next go to probate court, where a judge will make the final determination. And hopefully Hart’s house museum, which has been closed for more than four years and suffering theft and neglect, will reopen soon!
And finally, a disturbing coda to the happy news of Marilyn Monroe's house being landmarked late last month: drone footage has been posted by x17online which appears to show the swimming pool has been filled in and sodded over. This is not allowed under the terms of the Historic Cultural Monument designation and would be in direct violation of the 9/8/23 LADBS notice rescinding the pool backfill permit #23030-30000-04877. Will the city do anything about it? We wonder!
Saturday’s tour is Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue, a time capsule neighborhood packed with offbeat lore—join us, do!
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
• Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 7/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels and Madness (Sun. 7/21) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 7/27 - sorry, sold out) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sun. 7/28) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 8/4) • West Adams Sugar Hill and Angelus Rosedale Cemetery (Sat. 8/10) • 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)
City Planning Slow Walks L.A. Conservancy Appeal Just Long Enough for Catholic Charities to Start Demolishing B'nai B'rith Lodge