Gentle reader,
What are you supposed to do when your familiar landmarks and landscapes are sold to developers, then get boarded up to sit vacant, rotting and changing into something you no longer recognize?
For some Angelenos, the answer is to look away, because it’s painful to lose the everyday things that make up a neighborhood. Others compulsively take photos of the decaying structures, until eventually there’s nothing left to shoot. Maybe you’ve trespassed onto a derelict property to take cuttings from a vine or salvage a pretty doorknob. Maybe you’ve called 911 as a place that’s been there for a hundred years goes up in flames.
Artist Evan Whale calls his neighborhood, which is not quite Echo Park or Chinatown or Angeleno Heights, over where Sunset Boulevard hooks to the south and spills into Downtown Los Angeles, “The Forgotten Edge.”
It used to be sleepy and working class, kind of the funky kid sibling to Angelino Heights. Today, it’s in the crosshairs of crisis.
As his gallery statement puts it: “But in the past five years, The Forgotten Edge has been remembered by environmental regulation-dodging developers as they clear land to make way for ultra-luxury apartments. This accelerating destruction of local businesses and community gathering places has left gaping holes in the neighborhood and in the collective memory of its residents. Since 2022, Evan Whale has been rooting around in these gaping holes of earth and memory for signs, both literally and figuratively, of this transitional moment. In The End of Sunset, Whale translates these signs into new works that mark his latest exploration of the precariousness of the Southern California landscape and photographic materiality.”
The Forgotten Edge is where ten rent controlled bungalow court homes were destroyed in July, and tenants scattered after decades of close community. It’s where the massive 1111 West Sunset project promised gleaming towers and green community space, got city approval, and immediately was listed for sale, though nobody’s buying.
It’s where the prettiest house in the neighborhood, the long vacant 900 N. White Knoll, sold and was quickly reduced to rubble.
And it’s where an old hardware shop’s backlit plastic sign came crashing down and inspired the artist down the block to collect the shards and turn them into something weird and gorgeous.
It’s easy to feel hopeless, as our civic “leaders” do nothing while overseas real estate interests with seemingly unlimited resources buy up the places where we shop and socialize and get things done, blighting entire blocks, making life harder and uglier.
But as Evan Whale shows us in the manipulated photos and sculptures inspired by his neighborhood’s erasure, these strangers can buy L.A. properties, they can board them up and tear them down and maybe even build something shiny eventually, but they can’t blot out our memories or love for these modest, useful places, and they can’t keep us from seeing, and mourning, what’s missing as we move through town.
(Ed Ruscha’s time capsule Sunset streetscapes help with that, too.)
If you’d like to see Evan Whale’s The End of Sunset, you still can: the show is on view through Saturday, December 14, with a closing event from 4-6pm at Tyler Park Presents, 3711 West Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016.
And if you’d like to see the Forgotten Edge for yourself, this is the block where we start our Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue walking tours. The next one is scheduled for January 18, and Evan will be joining us on the tour, and talking a bit about his work and the neighborhood, and things that aren’t there anymore.
This morning, we attended Los Angeles County’s burial of the unclaimed dead, an annual ceremony dating back to Victorian times which had gone a little off the rails.
Last year, free tickets for the public were limited to 75, and very few of those actually attended, making for a lonesome gathering. We’ve been advocating with the County to relax the capacity limit, and are pleased to report that a large and respectful crowd was on hand to honor those who passed in 2021—and they even allowed for walk ins of folks not on the list. Despite the cacophony of construction jackhammers from across the street, it was a peaceful and moving ceremony, and a sweet opportunity to meet others who are drawn to participate.
This Saturday’s tour is a mix of crime fiction, film noir and real Los Angeles crime and commerce, as we seek out the time capsule places where a young Raymond Chandler rose in the oil business and found dark inspiration for the Philip Marlowe stories. Chandler has been in the news this month, with Sybil Davis’ auction of some of his personal treasures and speaking about their friendship in his favorite paper, The Times of London. Join us, do!
And a gentle reminder that we got subpoenaed for third party discovery in the lawsuit by the Marilyn Monroe house owners, and are fundraising to cover our legal expenses with a 20% off holiday sale on bulk gift certificates. Or just buy one ticket or some merch—it all helps!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. 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 our main 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. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 12/14) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sun. 12/22) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher (Thurs. 12/26) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 1/18) • Broadway (Sat. 1/25) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 2/1) • Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 2/15) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 3/1) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice Downtown L.A. (Sat. 3/8) • Bunker Hill, Dead and Alive (Sat. 3/15) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 3/22) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (Sun. 3/30) • John Fante’s Downtown L.A. (Sat. 4/5) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 4/12) • Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles (Sat. 4/19) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (Sat. 4/26)
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