Gentle reader,
If you’ve been tuned in for the past few months, you’ve seen our visits to the increasingly blighted 5212 Melrose Avenue bungalow court, a potential National Register landmark just east of Paramount Studios that was affordable housing for a century, but is now a haven for taggers and stray cats.
We’ve been advocating for these vacant units with a special fervor, because another 1920s neighborhood bungalow court was recently demolished without permits by a developer who wants to combine two lots into an oversized project, and prefers not to be bothered with environmental reviews; the first public hearing is next week.
We couldn’t save the pretty Waring Avenue bungalow court, a property we got to know while taking our sweet little cat Numa to his chemotherapy appointments. The bungalows are gone now, and Numa is, too, but in their memory we started to map L.A.’s precious and increasingly endangered historic bungalow courts. If you know one that’s not on the map, do tell.
People on our walking tours often ask how we know so much about the city. The short answer is that we’re obsessed with Los Angeles and with Angelenos. The longer answer is that we try to read everything: books and magazines, public records, court transcripts, old newspapers, oral histories, correspondence and unpublished manuscripts at archives like the Huntington Library (a collection which we’ve also helped to grow), etc. etc.
We also read pretty much every document that comes out of Los Angeles City Hall. Most of them are dull and predictable, but every so often, something remarkable appears.
Council File 21-1328 has been stalled in committee for years, and just came back to life with a revised motion (original one here). It describes how the city’s housing department is taking ownership of 2949 Edgehill Drive, a rent controlled bungalow court in West Adams that was about to be foreclosed upon—putting the tenants at risk of displacement and the buildings of demolition. Instead, the city plans to restore them for people with housing vouchers.
What a great idea! And the co-signer on councilmember Heather Hutt’s motion is Hugo Soto-Martinez, in whose council office the Melrose bungalow court stands.
If it’s good enough for West Adams, it’s good enough for Hollywood.
We’ve been asking the councilmember to step in and preserve the charming, affordable Melrose units as homes for Angelenos for months. Now they are under the gun of a demolition permit. Even worse, the property has just been listed for sale as a .29 acre vacant commercial lot.
Absentee property owner Steven Molasky wants to make the inconvenient residential buildings go away to make it easier to sell off for development, and so far the city has only helped, by rejecting the art hotel scheme that would have preserved most of the buildings, then by allowing the longtime tenants to be displaced.
But Council File 21-1328 shows that the city can do better, by saving good buildings for people to live in.
Please send an email (Councilmember.Soto-Martinez@lacity.org) or call Council District 13 (213-473-7013), with this urgent message, which you can personalize to put your own spin on:
“I’m asking councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez to take a stand for Hollywood’s historic multi-family housing and work with the housing department to pause the demolition permit and try to purchase the 5212 Melrose Avenue bungalow court to preserve it as affordable housing. Don’t let the property owner tear the buildings down to make it easier to sell as a vacant lot. Also, please ensure the feral cats inside the buildings are trapped and moved to safety before any demolition happens.”
We’re hopeful that by reminding the councilmember that Angelenos care about historic bungalow courts and see preservation of these existing homes as a great tool in the battle against housing insecurity and homelessness that he’ll call on the city’s vast resources to do the right thing for the Melrose Bungalow Court… and for the cats!
Maintaining Hollywood bungalow courts as affordable housing isn’t even a new idea: in 2010, the Los Angeles Conservancy gave an award to Hollywood Community Housing Corporation for their restoration of four neighborhood bungalow courts, to house 42 low-income households—including Maila Nurmi. We can’t think of any better reason to save a bungalow court than that somebody as cool as Vampira might live out her days there.
In other news, we’re thrilled that the Los Angeles Conservancy filed an appeal to halt the demolition of the B’nai B’rith Lodge, subject of our urgent alert a week ago. The historic building is still open to the elements on the parking lot side, but on our last visit, the wrecking machine was no longer lurking nearby.
It’s weird and distressing that the Los Angeles City Attorney has made a secret demolition deal with a private nonprofit property owner. Hopefully now the courts will step in and make some sense of this crazy situation, before any more bricks are broken—or dangerous legal precedents set.
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. 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
• Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (Sat. 5/11) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (Sat. 5/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 5/25) • POP – Preserving Our Past (Sat. 6/1) • Westlake Park (Sat. 6/8) • Highland Park Arroyo (Sat. 6/15) • Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 6/29) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 7/13) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (7/27) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (8/31)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Demolition notices are lined up like ten little soldiers on Sunset Boulevard, each one marking the destruction of a landmark RSO bungalow unit that we begged councilmember Eunisses Hernandez to protect before she took office. RIP Stires Staircase Bungalow Court and promises to help poor Angelenos stay in their homes. For shame. The hillside could be developed with dense housing, leaving historic units and old trees untouched. The vacant block to the east could be developed, too. But that would require nimble leadership and courage to say no to property owners who were convicted of car wash wage theft.
Preservation pal Mike Callahan documents Echelon Studios engaging in unpermitted demolition work at the East Hollywood Sears... and determines the inspector signed off on a building demolished a decade ago! This beautiful building deserves better.
On Instagram, fiddygobragh sounded the red alert that the long derelict, recently sold, National Register Garfield Building is the new Downtown LA graffiti tower—and the side door was busted wide open! There are priceless Art Deco artifacts in the ground floor lobby, or there were last time we caught a glimpse. So we informed the city and the project architect, went down to investigate, and found signs of hope… and of great concern.
We’re remembering Don Clinton (1926-2024), who kept his family's Clifton's Cafeteria chain alive into the 21st century, providing a place of warmth, hospitality, community and kindness in a city that can be awfully tough. His love for Los Angeles and Angelenos never wavered, and we loved him back!
Etan Does LA gets a tour inside Richard Neutra's long derelict Jardinette Apartments, an active construction site, and Empty Los Angeles takes note. Here’s the backstory about the city’s questionable oversight of the Mills Act contract with the prior owner.
Preservation pal Damian Sullivan reports that the deconstructed, numbered segments of the Pico Boulevard Chili Bowl, and the unique diamond pane roof sign and armature, have been hauled off to the dump by the property owner. The cleared lot—which was deceptively claimed by pro-development YIMBY lobbying organization Abundant Housing LA during the public landmark hearings to be slated for redevelopment as an apartment building—is being used as car storage. The community has lost a National Register eligible 1930s programmatic building which was home to a Michelin starred sushi restaurant, and this is all the city's fault. But don't count the Chili Bowl out just yet... after all, it was a chain!
Dinah's Family Restaurant survived the redevelopment scheme in its parking lot, but is being displaced from its amazing Googie building anyway. And word is they hope to take the historic stone facade and bucket sign with them. As more info filters out, it sounds like the developer's "preservation" promise was a bait and switch that forced the legacy business out of LA entirely. Good luck to them! But what happens to the Googie-style diner building now?
It looks like Redcar sold the landmarked, long vacant Tokio Florist property to a newly formed entity called Tokio Inn LP. The name suggests they might have plans to turn it into a boutique hotel, which could be a cool use.
Here's the landmark nomination for Astro Family Restaurant, submitted by Save Iconic Architecture. It's a perfect Armét and Davis time capsule, and for us holds priceless memories of late night frolics with absent friends.
A Diner on Main update by request: Alhambra preservation pal Rev. Dylan Littlefield talked to the contractors and it will be a $$ Chinese restaurant, with only minor changes to signage and outdoor seating for fire safety. This retro treasure won't be demolished and will re-open soon!
On April 18, the Cultural Heritage Commission initiated a rare landmark nomination, for the Disney Brothers Studio in Los Feliz. Councilmember Nithya Raman just sent a shot across the preservation bow with a motion to make the demo threatened corner "just" an honorary square.
Want to help save Los Angeles and use social media? There's a new post flair on our subreddit LosAngelesPreserved called Immediate Demolition Threat. When you see a demo permit, green fence, bulldozer or signs of blight, please post your issues of concern so word can spread and others can get involved ASAP.
If you wondered how the City of Los Angeles has failed so miserably to contain its metal theft epidemic, look no further than this report from the Board of Police Commissioners, which says there was a dedicated LAPD Commercial Crimes Division (CCD) Metal Theft Detail from 2011 through May 2019, when it was disbanded. Now, LAPD will use $200,000 from CD14's share of the Neighborhood Service Enhancements from the General City Purpose Fund to resume this activity and study its effectiveness. We don't need a study to see that a metal theft epidemic followed close after LAPD stopped tracking the recycling yards.
CORRUPTION CORNER: Happy Jose Huizar was supposed to report to Federal Prison Day... only he's still free—which seems unjust considering the generational harm his gross, greedy "leadership" inflicted on Los Angeles and Angelenos. But hey, it's also Walpurgisnacht. Happy Witch's Sabbath to all!… Update on the April 25 Curren Price hearing mentioned here: nothing happened. The case documents were apparently misplaced by a clerk and sent to a different courtroom, so Judge Kerry L. White didn’t get an opportunity to read them. The parties agreed to return to his courtroom on June 5 at 1:30pm…. Deputy Mayor Ray Chan's attorneys respond to government opposition to his mistrial motion: until the jurors are interviewed, we can't know if they only talked about his public corruption case outside of deliberations that one time they were overheard on the sidewalk. Judge Walter to Chan: dream on!
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