Gentle reader,
Most nights, because we’re weirdos, we dream about solving civic problems: illegal demolitions, diverted waterways, missing burials, vandalized sculptures, neglected trees, vacant SRO hotels.
Unlike the irritating, actual Los Angeles where we live in waking life, the dream city is full of hard-working helpers in positions of authority, who snap to it when asked, and bring the full power of their offices to repair, restore, refresh and replace.
The dream Los Angeles is beautiful. Its citizens are ecstatic. There aren’t any landlords paying firebugs to torch 100-year-old bungalow courts. It’s really boring. Sometimes in our dreams we just stand around marveling at how good they’ve got it.
Then we wake up and check the LAFD alerts to see if any historic properties burned down while we were sleeping, and if so if they was already on our worry map, or some new discovery that’s lost even as it’s found.
On Monday, the M. Flax Artists Materials Building on the south side of MacArthur Park suffered a major pre-dawn fire that left it gutted and roofless.
If you’ve been subscribed to this newsletter for a while, you know about M. Flax, the lovely, long-vacant structure that was the beating heart of the Westlake Art School District, and that recently got a demolition notice taped to its gate.
But because the building sits inside the Westlake Recovery Community Redevelopment Area, and because so many of our readers took the time to contact the city, demolition of M. Flax with no new project proposed was not approved. However the building was, apparently, left unsecured. We’ve heard from locals that squatters had gotten in, were removed by the police, and came back. Then this.
We visited M. Flax yesterday and were encouraged to see the facade intact, and barely scorched. The Artery kindly produced a DRONESCAPE overhead flight video later that afternoon, which documents nearly complete interior destruction, but shows the load bearing walls standing steady.
It is our sincere belief that M. Flax can still be saved, and re-roofed, restored and occupied instead of being a boarded up blight that forces its neighbors to flee their homes in the middle of the night, or becoming another vacant, weedy lot in a city that’s lousy with them.
If you agree that the M. Flax Artists Materials Building is worth preserving, please send an email to Office of Historic Resources, telling them that you care about 2416-20 West 7th Street and don't want to see the building demolished, especially not in response to a fire that could have been prevented if the building was occupied or properly secured. You can just write a single sentence or as much as your heart holds. Please send your email to Director Ken Bernstein (ken.bernstein@lacity.org) and Senior Architect Lambert Giessinger (lambert.giessinger@lacity.org) today, and cc us at tours@esotouric.com if you like.
The city’s discretion over development projects within former Community Redevelopment Agency zones is a little known and fascinating quirk of the law.
When Governor Jerry Brown dissolved the CRA in 2011, he (perhaps inadvertently) removed a governor that ensured non-profits like Skid Row Housing Trust maintained their properties and that the Planning Department engaged in, strange as it sounds, city planning. The crooks in City Hall ran off with the money and the successor agency doesn’t even pretend to meet. But the redevelopment zones still exist, and can be used to protect threatened historic resources.
That’s what has happened with M. Flax, and also with the B’nai B’rith Lodge at 846 South Union Avenue. In each case, the property owner seeks to demolish their potentially historic, long vacant building with no new project planned for the site. B’nai B’rith is owned by Catholic Charities, which first objected to Steve Luftman’s attempt to landmark the building, then sought a judge’s ruling that demolition could proceed.
We were in court yesterday as Catholic Charities assured Judge James C. Chalfant that they were very close to reaching a settlement with the Los Angeles City Attorney. The City Attorney countered that discussions were not actually that far along, and floated the possibility of a solution that would require Los Angeles City Council to put a motion up for a vote. This all went by so quickly that Kim was only able to scratch out the basic outlines of a courtroom sketch before it was over.
What was said makes no sense at all—a legal settlement over the right to override planning rules to tear down a building in a redevelopment zone exists on a different planet from the kind of ordinances a councilmember can propose, so we’re very glad to be tracking this case. The next hearing will be in two months—stay tuned!
This Saturday’s walking tour of the history and mystery surrounding Westlake Park will give you a chance to see M. Flax for yourself, as well as some of the fascinating relics of the old Art School District that still survive. There are unexplained deaths, weird trees, deadly parrots, murderous Murphy beds and many other strange tales to pique your interest. Join us, do!
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. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• 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
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