If we could choose the next Los Angeles Conservancy president...
Gentle reader,
If you care about Los Angeles landmarks, you’re probably a member of the Los Angeles Conservancy—which claims to be the largest member based historic preservation organization in the U.S.—or have taken part in their walking tours or film screenings in historic Broadway theaters.
And even if you didn’t realize it, you’ve certainly enjoyed the results of their advocacy, which has helped save landmarks including Central Library, the Wiltern Theatre and the brim-less dome of the original Brown Derby. Recent efforts have been less successful, with the sad losses of Lytton Savings, Dr. Jones Dog & Cat Hospital and Parker Center.
A month ago, President and CEO Linda Dishman announced she plans to retire after 31 years. A consulting firm is conducting a search for her replacement, though they have yet to list the position on their website.
[Update 5/16/2023 - The position is now circulating, with a shocking statistic. We wondered why the Los Angeles Conservancy stopped publicizing its membership numbers, and now we know: it’s due to a drop in household memberships from 7000 in 2007 to 4500 today, a 36% decline! It is time for fresh blood, not just in the Presidency, but on the governing board that let this happen.]
As independent preservationists who have in our own small way helped save places that matter in Los Angeles, and who too often have to listen to members bellyache that the organization seems to be missing in action, we have strong opinions about what kind of person the next leader of the Los Angeles Conservancy should be.
And while we haven’t been asked to participate in the search, we believe just sharing these ideas with others who care will have a positive impact. And if you happen to sit on the Conservancy board, or have included the non-profit in your estate planning, or are simply interested, please let them know if our suggestions resonate.
Because it is a very different Los Angeles today than it was in 1978 when the org was established, or in 1992 when Linda Dishman came on board. It’s never been easy to save a building whose owner wants to demolish it, but from studying past preservation tales and tracking how land use decisions have been corrupted, we can confidently say it used to be a lot easier.
Today’s L.A. lovers must stand in brave opposition to a City Hall that has lost its way, speaking up for what’s right for the city—even as the elected and appointed officials who have done so much that’s wrong are snared and tried. We saw this first-hand when we led a team that successfully nominated the Los Angeles Times buildings as a landmark, only to have confessed racketeer Jose Huizar rewrite the designation for the benefit of property owner and big money donor Onni Group!
Despite the confessions and convictions, the wire taps and casino chips, not much has changed in City Hall. Ethical civil servants left in disgust or retired long ago, and the slow drip drip drip of FBI raids, Federal charges, trials and mistrials has left a massive power and labor vacuum at 1st and Spring.
The result is that nobody in City Hall thinks much about old buildings unless a developer is asking for one to be torn down.
This sounds grim—and it is!—but we see it is an incredible opportunity for the Los Angeles Conservancy to recruit a charismatic, aggressive 21st century leader who can shape the conversation around adaptive reuse, tax credits and how the greenest building is the one already standing, a compelling advocate who the press calls for comment, who speaks at public hearings instead of sending staff, who hosts panels, who pushes back against disingenuous developer and lobbyist talking points, who presses politicians to make preservation pledges, who is the friendly face and persuasive voice of the dues paying membership, with the mission of changing public policy for the better.
Preservation doesn’t get much press, but we see it as central to many of the city’s problems.
For example, illegal Airbnbs contribute to the housing use crisis that keeps rents artificially high and Angelenos stressed. Many of these listings are in rent controlled historic multi-family housing that suffer bland remodels to appeal to transient guests. This makes it not just a real estate disruption issue, but a preservation issue. Where is the Los Angeles Conservancy?
Organized gangs have been stealing historic streetlights to sell to scrap dealers. This removes beautiful fixtures from public view, while creating electrocution and accident risk. Where is the Los Angeles Conservancy?
Skid Row Housing Trust collapsed in part due to a grant-funded pyramid scheme in which historic SRO hotels were marked for demolition and replacement. This anti-preservation business model led directly to 29 buildings falling into squalor and receivership. Where is the Los Angeles Conservancy?
It’s time for a new leader who is ready to fight for the city’s soul. And the Los Angeles Conservancy as an organization, too, could benefit from a makeover.
We’d like to see an ethics policy to ensure board members don’t do like Diane Keaton did with LACMA and go over to the dark side, a robust social media program to counter Yimby-ism, dues paying members seated on the board and helping to shape priorities, and fundraising to purchase historic buildings that might otherwise get demolished.
And then there’s the troubling matter of the vanishing Modern Committee. Better known as ModCom, this was a visionary group of independent citizen volunteers who from 1984 to 2013 brought fresh ideas to the larger organization, and got national press for their playful, inventive, winning campaigns, before mysteriously fading out.
Although ModCom is mentioned glowingly in Linda Dishman’s retirement notice, and still has a present tense presence on the Los Angeles Conservancy website, there has been scant activity since June 2013.
The core members never told us what happened, just that there had been a meeting called and big, unwelcome changes announced from on high. Soon after that, the independent modcom.org website was pointed to the Conservancy website, and archived versions blocked from view.
The closest thing to an explanation came in this odd announcement shared on Facebook, posted by ModCom but in a stiff, alien voice:
“Get ready for some new, exciting changes for ModCom! Together with the Los Angeles Conservancy, we want to help give you the tools needed to protect your favorite places in Los Angeles County! Our schedule will change from a monthly meeting to a quarterly outreach event and yes, we will still have a fabulous holiday party in December. There will also be a "working group" of volunteers that meets with LAC staff on a quarterly basis to coordinate advocacy efforts and target specific issues…”
Whatever happened, the result was chilling: L.A.’s most passionate preservation community was hobbled, fracturing into new, much smaller non-profits and independent groups that struggle to save places without the Conservancy’s deep pockets or administrative support.
But that was then—let’s look to the future: with a large dues paying membership and a mission to help preserve a city that’s crumbling before our eyes, there are no limits to what the Los Angeles Conservancy can accomplish, if it only tries.
We just hope those conducting the search understand what’s at stake and deliver the warrior that Los Angeles needs now.
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 to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 5/27) • Highland Park Arroyo Walk (Sat. 6/10) • Bunker Hill’s Modernist Marvels with Nathan Marsak Walk (Sat. 6/17) • The Real Black Dahlia Bus Tour (Sat. 6/24) • Echo Park Book of the Dead Bus Tour (Sat. 7/1) • New! The Run: Gay Downtown History Walk (Sat. 7/8) •Westlake Park Walk (Sat. 7/15) • Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles Bus Tour (Sat. 7/22) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue Walk (Sat. 8/5) • Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles Bus Tour (Sat. 8/12)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Alpine Village is now available as truck parking. What a waste! Tell Supervisor Holly Mitchell you want L.A. County to take the lease, save the landmark, and do something better here. Save Alpine Village!
Please join us in helping to save the Coronet Theatre / Largo by supporting the landmark nomination. Why? Protecting cultural landmarks that still function as places where artists can work and fans can support them is crucial if Los Angeles is going to be a place that's not just profitable for developers and politicians, but worth living and creating in.
New in the DRONESCAPE series: ascend to greet the lovely Elks Lodge No. 99 angels who have watched over Westlake Park for a century and never judge. The building, like the park, is being rebranded The MacArthur.
You can read our live tweets narrating the informational Netflix presentation to the Cultural Heritage Commission about their bait and switch multi-colored LED sign on the tile roof of the Egyptian Theatre, and the skeptical reaction from Commissioners and members of the public.
Oops! Eric Garcetti was in such a rush to unveil his ghoulish Shepard Fairey portrait that it never got formal approval process at the Cultural Affairs Commission. Four months later, it gets a vote, but as of now it is not in the city art collection!
Cheers to UN4LA for including our Skid Row Housing Trust public records investigation in their newsletter: "It seems evidence is emerging to paint a different, far more disturbing, picture of what happened."
LADBS ignored complaints about squatters at 255 South Reno, a 1913 Craftsman owned by alleged slumlord hoteliers tucked between two big apartment houses. It burned in February, displacing many families. What a pretty door handle (center right). What a shame.
This is screwy. On 5/2 PLUM rejected the neighbors' CEQA appeal of the dangerous Gardner Junction redevelopment—but city planning staff ignored the property owner's 4/28 email withdrawing the project! The matter went on to full City Council where it was approved. Hello...?
Save the date and buckle up: the extremely contentious landmark nomination for the shuttered Pacific Dining Car—supported by the business owner, opposed by the property owner—comes to PLUM for a vote on May 16 at 2pm. Can it be saved?
If you, like Thomas Peters, chose to defraud every Angeleno while collecting your Los Angeles city attorney salary, hope you get a brain dead judge like Stanley Blumenfeld to slap your paw and say "bad civil servant!"
R.I.P. 1274 West Court Street, demolition by neglect sped by one of those mysterious fires. It is one of the oldest unaltered homes in the neighborhood, called out on Survey LA as an historic resource. As we see too often with these fires, a demo permit is sought, but there is no new project in the case file.
Boo on Victor Watana, owner of House of Pies, who is expanding into Santa Monica. We liked the offbeat Googie architecture, but we hate the illegal chopping down of sycamores the neighbors planted 30 years ago.
How can I help you?