Gentle reader,
There’s a word that old time carnies and circus people used to use to describe the civilians who came to the Midway to have some fun and get into fights: rubes. The rubes were operating from a place of weakness, because even though the circus is set up on the edge of the town they know well, within its boundaries, the carnies make the rules. If a rube is lucky, he’ll lose a few bucks to a crooked game, catch a wild show and have some laughs. If unlucky, he’ll lose some teeth.
Going to City Hall to make public comment on something we really care about sometimes feels visiting the carnival in those rough and tumble times. We walk in and sign up for public comment, but behind a door a couple of clowns are laughing themselves sick, because they know our item is going to be moved all around the agenda, leaving us seasick and confused.
Up on the horseshoe, behind police guards and velvet ropes, the lawyers and functionaries tee up tricky votes that are over before we rubes even see them coming. The rules seem to have changed since yesterday, because they have. The popcorn tastes like chalk.
So here’s what happened on Friday in the circus ring we call Los Angeles City Hall. Because Judge James C. Chalfant had firmly instructed the City Attorney and Catholic Charities to deliver a settlement to his court by Tuesday afternoon, they had to vote on the secret deal to (we assumed) allow demolition of the B’nai B’rith Lodge.
The item was at the end of a long agenda, and comments from the public were not allowed. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez appeared not to know what was in the deal: she stood up and said she had questions. Acting Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said they would be answered in closed session. But that never happened—somehow, during the council meeting, in text or email or backroom briefing, Hernandez was satisfied. Her meek yes vote likely constitutes a Brown Act violation.
Our dogged crew of preservation pals finally had a chance to be heard, but only after all the carnies voted unanimously to approve the deal which was as bad as we feared: immediate permission for the property owner to obtain a demolition permit and tear down the potential National Register landmark. We left City Hall feeling beaten and angry.
And as we left, our phones lit up, with news coverage of the meeting and the shocking vote, in the Los Angeles Times and from City News Service on KFI. We were glad that more people were learning about the demolition threat, even if it was too late for them to do anything about it.
Or is it? The motion, when it hit the council file later that evening, included an unexpected clause: the deadly decision was not set in stone, but was subject to the Mayor’s veto! And tonight, the file was updated with a deadline: if she acts by March 18, B’nai B’rith can be saved.
That means there is no way that Deputy City Attorney Lucy Atwood can truthfully tell Judge Chalfant tomorrow afternoon that she has reached a settlement with Catholic Charities. And that those of us who care about this beautiful, useful building and about fair play can still advocate to save it by asking Mayor Karen Bass to veto City Council’s motion and halt the demolition plan.
Won’t you please take a moment to call or email the Mayor with a simple, heartfelt message before the March 18 deadline? Telephone (213) 978-0600 or send a message via the Mayor’s Help Desk webpage at mayor.lacity.gov/Contact (note twice updated info—please just call the Mayor’s office if your message bounced back! And yes, the city is broken, and it’s not an accident that it’s so hard to communicate with elected officials).
Below is a sample phone message (which you can customize with your own words):
Dear Mayor Bass, I care about the historic B’nai B’rith Lodge at 846 South Union Avenue, a landmark for the Jewish and Labor communities where the Teamsters Union was integrated. Please veto the City Council motion (CF 23-1407), stop the demolition, and work with property owner Catholic Charities to find a preservation solution that truly serves the community and their mission. Thank you. (name, neighborhood or city)
You can also submit your email to the public record by clicking NEW and posting it to the Council File page here, and you can tag the Mayor on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but the most important thing to do is to get your message to the Mayor’s office.
Not every motion comes out of City Council subject to a Mayoral veto. We are grateful for the opportunity to remain hopeful, and to give you the tools you need to play a part in trying to preserve a wonderful and uniquely Los Angeles landmark.
B’nai B’rith Lives! And with your help, that can be for decades rather than days.
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
• SOLD OUT Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 3/16) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (Sat. 3/23) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (Sat. 3/30) • John Fante’s Downtown Los Angeles Birthday (Sat. 4/6) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown (Sat. 4/13) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases (Sat. 4/20) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (Sat. 4/27) • Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (Sat. 5/4) • 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)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Tuesday night at Skylight Books: release party for Pamela Prickett’s & Stefan Timmermans’ moving new sociological study, The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels, featuring the stories of Los Angeles County’s unclaimed dead and the people who cared for them in life and after. They spoke with Scott Simon for Weekend Edition, too.
Shared from silverlakecats via luxepaws: a scared pet cat abandoned at an LAPD station. The eviction crisis is forcing Angelenos into homelessness and beloved companion animals become homeless, too. We don't judge anyone for what they do in desperation. Please help foster and please help our neighbors and their kitties stay housed.
Now that the KPCC audio archive lives on LAist.com, here's Kim, recorded in 2017, talking about why the unsolved Black Dahlia murder case fascinated Angelenos in 1947 and still does.
Walking South Bonnie Brae in Westlake, we were shocked by a huge construction site where a few months ago there was a pretty RSO apartment house. The landmark Grier Musser Museum is to be obscured by an upzoned TOC tombstone. No light, no vistas, no beauty. This isn't planning.
Empty Los Angeles asks: Why is Hugo Soto-Martinez allowing demolition of 7 RSO bungalow court units at 5212 Melrose with no replacement project? We’ve been asking the same thing.
Landmark nomination filed for the Sword Apartments at 2nd and St. Andrews, within the newly designated National Register St. Andrews Square Historic District. That garden setback and trees are highly endangered in upzone drunk Los Angeles!
Tell Mayor Karen Bass: Veto the secret B'nai B'rith demolition deal! [updated contact info]