Aug 10, 2023Liked by Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles
Wow...im surprised...I'm not surprised, this is L.A.....Eunisses noooo I hate voting for crooks! Did that once with Sleazy Huizy, luckily his corruption was so obvious that was the only time voting for him. Wow. Good job all thank you!
Sep 19, 2023Liked by Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles
The FBI prosecuted Councilmember Huizar because he interfered with the scripting at PLUM. Once a councilmember agrees to a project, that's supposed to satisfy of "One and Done Rule." One council member bribed and the developer is guaranteed that his project will get unanimous approval at city council. The role of PLUM was to hold so-called public hearings in order to avoid them at city council. Huizar ( and Englander) however would interpose delays at PLUM and often seek more niceties from the developer. In fact, to cur favor with important constituents it is even rumored that sometimes Huizar took citizen's comments seriously! Yes, he had the gall to take citizens' complaints seriously!!! Of course, it seemed that we wanted more than just at the developer address the citizens' complaints.
Well, this was an intolerable breach of the One and Done Rule. Huizar when so far as evening holding up a project at City Council for proof that Ellis Act fees had been paid to poor people. The FBI had no choice but to prosecute Englander and Huizar; they were endangering how LA City Council had become a criminal enterprise to make developers and their politico allies wealthy
Sep 23, 2023·edited Sep 23, 2023Liked by Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles
I have a little different take on the origin of PLUM, perhaps as the result of having spent most of my life in LA and about 5 decades involved in significant real estate projects and some fights against the endemic corruption. Rolling the clock back to the 60's (Vietnam war, the Beatles, free love, drugs and such) there was a time when there were only a few documents which defined what could be built on a given parcel of urban land - a) restrictions placed on the property by prior owners, b) local zoning laws and c) building codes and plus other government restrictions.
In that environment most was pretty black and white with the exception of zoning changes, zoning variances and building code variances. Out in the San Fernando Valley a single family contractor or even a framing contractor might join with a couple of professionals seeking investment opportunities, purchase several large, adjoining and older single family homes in an area zoned for multi family and go to the building department with plans for a 20-30 unit apartment building. Less than a year later families were moving in to the apartments. There was intense competition among the builders to gain an advantage through creativity in design, construction and marketing. Everything from landscaping, amenities , facilities , design and affordability were explored. Pools, a pool room, landscaping , attractive hallways were all pushed in the pursuit of creating value for the consumer.
The limited "juice" for politicians came from zoning changes and from Zoning Variances and perhaps a call or two to get plans processed faster or for less diligent building inspectors. Often the relationships with the building inspectors was directly with the developers/contractors. Other developers who intended to own projects for the long term saw the honest building inspector as a friend and teammate.
The extent of the risk to the public from sloppy design and construction review was not really appreciated until after the Northridge Earthquake when so many structures failed to perform as expected. There were design failures and the failure of inspectors to challenge substandard materials and workmanship in residential structures and other light construction. Unfortunately many of the inspectors were looking the other way either due to a relationship with the developer or a call from someone suggesting a lighter hand would be a career enhancement.
When Downtown LA recovered during 1980's there was a huge building boom. Councilman Lindsay and major downtown law firms benefitted greatly . Developers were told that then needed to support other council members lunch gatherings . There was so much juicy fruit to be picked from downtown developers that like an African Tribe seeking to further test young warriors additional hoops were created to lighten the pockets of developers.
It was a joke at first . After spending several weeks with two clients and a flow chart resembling the plumbing layout of a nuclear submarine I think we possessed perhaps the only diagram of the proposed approval process. It appeared to be circular with an entry point but no exit point. At each point it was reasonable to assume that further donations would be appropriate.
The foot soldiers in the pursuit of permits shifted from developers to major law firms.
PLUM assured more council members that their support would be needed for distant projects at multiple points.
One of the tragedies of LA was and most likely continues to be that the corruption is so blatant and widespread. DWP was monetized by the politicians with strategically placed "agents" who could delay and complicate the essential commitment and details of how power was to be supplied to a new project.
It has never been fully explained why Huizar was finally prosecuted when his corruption was known for many years dating back to his days at LAUSD. It may have been A) they needed to sacrifice someone to the volcano of public outrage, B) they needed to demonstrate that something was being done to protect others or C) Huizar had crossed someone along the way.
Until the probability and severity of punishment for public corruption increases dramatically it will be business as usual ........... and those who are least able are called upon to pay the highest price - unsafe neighborhoods, failing schools, substandard city services.
Sep 24, 2023Liked by Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles
Back in the days to which you refer, I was a newbie to town. Yep Gil Lindsay was a crook and everyone know. I was with the Amer Jewish Comte back them. People seemed to accept it and curse about it. The only people who seemed to have any plan, and not a plan that gave a damn about people, were the developers. In the late 1960's may early 1970, we were given the developers plan for the Beverly Hill Freeway. It was to tear 4 blocks are either of the freeway for 4 to 5 story apartments and to wipe of the incipient Gay community long Santa Monica Boulevard, especially unincorporated county area of west Hollywood. The city of Bev Hills stopped the Bev Hills freeway by demanding that it be cut and covered with no entrance or exit ramps on Bev Hill land.
The Jewish Community killed the Laurel Canyon Freeway was it was designed to go up Fairfax, wipe out Canter's and a lot of grandparents homes.
I am not certain when the One and Done Rule came into existence. I think the unanimous city council voting requirement may have begun benignly with councilmembers' trusting each other. I'd trust Eddie Edelman and the Zev when he was on the council. Maybe I was just naive and thought they had values, but I still think they did. I got to attend a lot bigwigs meetings as the fly on the wall, and all the machers really seemed to have decent values -- Robert Weil thought he as the incarnation of the Biblical prophet -- I appreciated his dedication to solid values. Maybe, he gave those speeches because he could see what was coming.
I went on to become a Bev Hill atty and then in the later 1980's, I started to see corruption and it has grown worse each day since then.
Sep 24, 2023·edited Sep 25, 2023Liked by Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles
LA missed the chance to cleanup the city and county when it went back to the old ways after Mayor Richard Riordan finished his duty as Mayor. Few people are aware that it was Richard Riordan's involvement in the Marina del Rey ground lease renewals that exposed the "deal" that would have amounted to a $500 MILLION gift to the developers and which sent Marc Nathanson to state prison. Nathanson was also selling coastal permits on behalf of Willie Brown's vast influence peddling empire. This was in an era when $500 mil was real money.
Huizar was known to be compromised when he was at LAUSD where he unsuccessfully attempted to do a $100 million "favor" for a friend but was successful in preventing the District from fully utilizing the rights it had in a large downtown property owned by the same group. By every appearance the fix was in on the billion dollar iPad deal promoted by the District's textbook supplier. Nobody seemed to want to ask some basic questions about software that had not been developed , much less tested. Nonetheless approval was crammed through the
Board to meet outside needs. And there was a greater question. How did anyone think that kids were going to be able to walk through gang and drug addict infested streets with an iPad on their way to and from school. The secretly recorded conversations between the local labor leader and City Council members was everything about power and racial politics and nothing about what was good for the law abiding, hard working taxpayers standing between the city and fiscal and cultural bankruptcy
Sep 24, 2023·edited Sep 24, 2023Liked by Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles
I have some friends who are having a hard time right now with their Marina tower. I don't know one from the other. I like land. The last place I'd want to live would be in a tower by the ocean. I suppose on a boat would be worse. LOL
If the report is accurately quoted "no danger of imminent collapse "
my reaction would be one of expecting a more confident report. Older concrete mid rise and high rise concrete structures have shown the need for seismic upgrades including the Welk tower in Santa Monica which suffered near catastrophic damage during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Wow...im surprised...I'm not surprised, this is L.A.....Eunisses noooo I hate voting for crooks! Did that once with Sleazy Huizy, luckily his corruption was so obvious that was the only time voting for him. Wow. Good job all thank you!
The FBI prosecuted Councilmember Huizar because he interfered with the scripting at PLUM. Once a councilmember agrees to a project, that's supposed to satisfy of "One and Done Rule." One council member bribed and the developer is guaranteed that his project will get unanimous approval at city council. The role of PLUM was to hold so-called public hearings in order to avoid them at city council. Huizar ( and Englander) however would interpose delays at PLUM and often seek more niceties from the developer. In fact, to cur favor with important constituents it is even rumored that sometimes Huizar took citizen's comments seriously! Yes, he had the gall to take citizens' complaints seriously!!! Of course, it seemed that we wanted more than just at the developer address the citizens' complaints.
Well, this was an intolerable breach of the One and Done Rule. Huizar when so far as evening holding up a project at City Council for proof that Ellis Act fees had been paid to poor people. The FBI had no choice but to prosecute Englander and Huizar; they were endangering how LA City Council had become a criminal enterprise to make developers and their politico allies wealthy
I have a little different take on the origin of PLUM, perhaps as the result of having spent most of my life in LA and about 5 decades involved in significant real estate projects and some fights against the endemic corruption. Rolling the clock back to the 60's (Vietnam war, the Beatles, free love, drugs and such) there was a time when there were only a few documents which defined what could be built on a given parcel of urban land - a) restrictions placed on the property by prior owners, b) local zoning laws and c) building codes and plus other government restrictions.
In that environment most was pretty black and white with the exception of zoning changes, zoning variances and building code variances. Out in the San Fernando Valley a single family contractor or even a framing contractor might join with a couple of professionals seeking investment opportunities, purchase several large, adjoining and older single family homes in an area zoned for multi family and go to the building department with plans for a 20-30 unit apartment building. Less than a year later families were moving in to the apartments. There was intense competition among the builders to gain an advantage through creativity in design, construction and marketing. Everything from landscaping, amenities , facilities , design and affordability were explored. Pools, a pool room, landscaping , attractive hallways were all pushed in the pursuit of creating value for the consumer.
The limited "juice" for politicians came from zoning changes and from Zoning Variances and perhaps a call or two to get plans processed faster or for less diligent building inspectors. Often the relationships with the building inspectors was directly with the developers/contractors. Other developers who intended to own projects for the long term saw the honest building inspector as a friend and teammate.
The extent of the risk to the public from sloppy design and construction review was not really appreciated until after the Northridge Earthquake when so many structures failed to perform as expected. There were design failures and the failure of inspectors to challenge substandard materials and workmanship in residential structures and other light construction. Unfortunately many of the inspectors were looking the other way either due to a relationship with the developer or a call from someone suggesting a lighter hand would be a career enhancement.
When Downtown LA recovered during 1980's there was a huge building boom. Councilman Lindsay and major downtown law firms benefitted greatly . Developers were told that then needed to support other council members lunch gatherings . There was so much juicy fruit to be picked from downtown developers that like an African Tribe seeking to further test young warriors additional hoops were created to lighten the pockets of developers.
It was a joke at first . After spending several weeks with two clients and a flow chart resembling the plumbing layout of a nuclear submarine I think we possessed perhaps the only diagram of the proposed approval process. It appeared to be circular with an entry point but no exit point. At each point it was reasonable to assume that further donations would be appropriate.
The foot soldiers in the pursuit of permits shifted from developers to major law firms.
PLUM assured more council members that their support would be needed for distant projects at multiple points.
One of the tragedies of LA was and most likely continues to be that the corruption is so blatant and widespread. DWP was monetized by the politicians with strategically placed "agents" who could delay and complicate the essential commitment and details of how power was to be supplied to a new project.
It has never been fully explained why Huizar was finally prosecuted when his corruption was known for many years dating back to his days at LAUSD. It may have been A) they needed to sacrifice someone to the volcano of public outrage, B) they needed to demonstrate that something was being done to protect others or C) Huizar had crossed someone along the way.
Until the probability and severity of punishment for public corruption increases dramatically it will be business as usual ........... and those who are least able are called upon to pay the highest price - unsafe neighborhoods, failing schools, substandard city services.
Back in the days to which you refer, I was a newbie to town. Yep Gil Lindsay was a crook and everyone know. I was with the Amer Jewish Comte back them. People seemed to accept it and curse about it. The only people who seemed to have any plan, and not a plan that gave a damn about people, were the developers. In the late 1960's may early 1970, we were given the developers plan for the Beverly Hill Freeway. It was to tear 4 blocks are either of the freeway for 4 to 5 story apartments and to wipe of the incipient Gay community long Santa Monica Boulevard, especially unincorporated county area of west Hollywood. The city of Bev Hills stopped the Bev Hills freeway by demanding that it be cut and covered with no entrance or exit ramps on Bev Hill land.
The Jewish Community killed the Laurel Canyon Freeway was it was designed to go up Fairfax, wipe out Canter's and a lot of grandparents homes.
I am not certain when the One and Done Rule came into existence. I think the unanimous city council voting requirement may have begun benignly with councilmembers' trusting each other. I'd trust Eddie Edelman and the Zev when he was on the council. Maybe I was just naive and thought they had values, but I still think they did. I got to attend a lot bigwigs meetings as the fly on the wall, and all the machers really seemed to have decent values -- Robert Weil thought he as the incarnation of the Biblical prophet -- I appreciated his dedication to solid values. Maybe, he gave those speeches because he could see what was coming.
I went on to become a Bev Hill atty and then in the later 1980's, I started to see corruption and it has grown worse each day since then.
LA missed the chance to cleanup the city and county when it went back to the old ways after Mayor Richard Riordan finished his duty as Mayor. Few people are aware that it was Richard Riordan's involvement in the Marina del Rey ground lease renewals that exposed the "deal" that would have amounted to a $500 MILLION gift to the developers and which sent Marc Nathanson to state prison. Nathanson was also selling coastal permits on behalf of Willie Brown's vast influence peddling empire. This was in an era when $500 mil was real money.
Huizar was known to be compromised when he was at LAUSD where he unsuccessfully attempted to do a $100 million "favor" for a friend but was successful in preventing the District from fully utilizing the rights it had in a large downtown property owned by the same group. By every appearance the fix was in on the billion dollar iPad deal promoted by the District's textbook supplier. Nobody seemed to want to ask some basic questions about software that had not been developed , much less tested. Nonetheless approval was crammed through the
Board to meet outside needs. And there was a greater question. How did anyone think that kids were going to be able to walk through gang and drug addict infested streets with an iPad on their way to and from school. The secretly recorded conversations between the local labor leader and City Council members was everything about power and racial politics and nothing about what was good for the law abiding, hard working taxpayers standing between the city and fiscal and cultural bankruptcy
I have some friends who are having a hard time right now with their Marina tower. I don't know one from the other. I like land. The last place I'd want to live would be in a tower by the ocean. I suppose on a boat would be worse. LOL
If the report is accurately quoted "no danger of imminent collapse "
my reaction would be one of expecting a more confident report. Older concrete mid rise and high rise concrete structures have shown the need for seismic upgrades including the Welk tower in Santa Monica which suffered near catastrophic damage during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
How scary
Keep up the good work. Babs