Will the Historic Los Angeles Times Buildings be Destroyed Because Jose Huizar Sold His City Council Vote? A chance to be heard Thursday at 10am.
Gentle reader,
When we were budding preservationists, still riding the high of having made ConocoPhillips blink by Saving the 76 Ball, we took a meeting with Tribune’s blogging team at the then recently sold Los Angeles Times.
The executives we met that day were such obnoxious nincompoops that we left the building convinced that we’d better landmark it before the Chicago-based owners tore it down!
The Los Angeles Times complex was obviously a landmark, but the Chandler family’s enormous political power and wealth had kept it off the official civic roster. Now it fell to a ragtag team of volunteers to protect it.
It was a big job and it took years to finish, and when we did, we found ourselves in a battle for the soul of Los Angeles, up against the greasy great gorilla Jose Huizar. The ambitious Downtown councilman was under 24/7 FBI surveillance as he took our efforts and ripped them up, rewriting the landmark designation for the benefit of his donors, and new owners of the building, Onni Group.
Tomorrow morning at 10am, the Cultural Heritage Commission meets to hear a very interesting agenda. There’s a family-initiated landmark nomination for the magical Coronet Theatre Building on La Cienega, the contentious application to preserve the Disabled American Vet’s Hall in Woodland Hills and first on the list, an informational presentation on the “proposed rehabilitation plan” for Times Mirror Square.
Update: hearing video is here, including Richard’s public comment at 48:00.
Only it is, in fact, a proposed demolition plan, born of corruption and land use votes that were sold before they ever came up for a public hearing. You can preview the slideshow here.
We’ve been speaking out against this horrible project for many years—since the crooked councilman and his crooked staff members rewrote our landmark nomination!—and we hope you will consider calling in to tell the Commissioners to reject this presentation and use their not inconsiderable political power to ask that the demonstrably corrupt approvals for this project be reversed.
Below is Richard’s written public comment that we emailed to the CHC, which you’re welcome to use as inspiration for your own public comment. You can call in on Zoom, or go to City Hall in person to make a short verbal comment, or you can send written public comment to chc@lacity.org. All instructions are on the agenda.
Dear Cultural Heritage Commissioners,
Onni Group is coming before you to present an informational slideshow on their redevelopment plans for Times Mirror Square.
This project is so polluted by public corruption that you cannot give it a fair assessment, and I am asking you to use your power as commissioners to ask Mayor Karen Bass and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto to reverse the project approvals, and for you not to dignify the presentation with your tacit approval.
I produced the Times Mirror Square landmark nomination with a team of architectural and California historians and Los Angeles Times executives. Our initial attempt to designate only the 1934 Gordon B. Kaufmann building was rejected by Ken Bernstein, who directed us to landmark the entire block. We did so, and you voted unanimously to send the nomination to City Council.
But when the nomination reached PLUM, Jose Huizar rewrote it to exclude the 1973 William Pereira addition, which Onni Group wished to demolish to build a tower. Subsequently, it was reported that Onni Group and their land use attorney had made substantial contributions to a PAC supporting the City Council campaign of Huizar's wife.
Jose Huizar has since been arrested and indicted on racketeering charges, and has confessed to selling his votes on PLUM and in City Council. He faces sentencing later this year.
If Jose Huizar hadn't told Onni Group that they could demolish part of Times Mirror Square, then they would have been forced to come up with a creative solution that integrated the Pereira building.
I know that you remember what Jose Huizar did to Parker Center, this commission's landmark nomination. It was demolished for nothing-- the city's redevelopment project quietly shelved after Huizar was arrested.
I don't want to see Times Mirror Square destroyed. I don't want to see the Norman Chandler Pavilion, a character-defining addition by William Pereira to the east shoulder of the Kaufmann building, destroyed.
Thank you for your good work and attention.
yours sincerely,
Richard Schave
There is no vote happening at tomorrow’s hearing, so it’s really just a symbolic presentation. But the demolition of Times Mirror Square cannot move forward without the active participation of many elected and appointed officials. First on that list is the Cultural Heritage Commission, who will be asked to okay the proposed demolition plan, which is not the landmark designation they approved.
It’s important to remind them that we’re paying attention and that absolutely none of this is okay—and that it’s not enough to tweet your distaste, as Nithya Raman did in 2021. Those granted power by the public need to use that power.
This is the first opportunity for the public to speak on this project since Jose Huizar admitted his guilt. We’re speaking out and demanding the city act now to STOP JOSE HUIZAR and his corrupt project, and we hope you will, too.
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
Highland Park Arroyo Walk (Sat. 6/10) • New! 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)
Are they demolishing the original building on the left, or the 70s addition on the right, or are they bulldozing the entire thing?
When I worked there several years ago, I was told they were keeping the building on the left, but only bulldozing the building on the right. They couldn't sell it because it contains hazardous materials. That's what I was told.
What an enormous and valuable project to save what is truly Los Angeles history. How sad that corruption has taken over our historical identity