Gentle reader,
Los Angeles is drowning in unchecked real estate corruption, and too many Angelenos have terrible stories about what that feels like from the tenant side.
It feels scary and gross and bad. And the same stories are repeated across town, because landlords hang out online sharing tips and tactics for getting rid of poor tenants, and they all hire the same horrible lawyers.
We’re talking about property owners who illegally list apartments on Airbnb instead of letting locals rent. Tenant harassment, from annoying to life threatening. Wrongful eviction. Loss of parking or storage space. Cruel new rules banning plants or outdoor furniture. Hostile video monitoring. Reno-viction. Required switch from secure, functional keyed doors to unreliable “smart” locks. AI fueled rent spikes. Demolition by neglect. Aggression escalating even to arson and attempted murder.
This is relentless. It’s wrecking the city.
And if you’re really unlucky, a sitting City Councilmember’s wife will set up shop in a vacant unit and run her cash for keys tenant displacement business out of it, emptying out a full city block of historic rent controlled apartments for a huge new project that her husband unethically voted to approve.
In Hollywood, there are actually two city blocks where multiple interconnected RSO buildings have been emptied out through the “professional” efforts of Del Richardson, who is married to Councilmember Curren Price.
Tenants’ rights and clean government activists have been screaming about the blatant corruption of the Price-Richardson team for years. It seemed like nobody cared.
But then last June, Price was indicted on criminal charges related to his failure to recuse himself from City Council votes from which his household profits, and to report all of his wife’s income and developer clients. He has pleaded not guilty and remains a sitting, voting Councilmember, recently placed on the Olympic Committee. In March, it was alleged that Price’s wife was engaging in witness tampering. The case is moving through the courts and is likely to go to trial early next year.
We wrote about the charges and the significance of the District Attorney taking on City Hall corruption here.
But while Curren Price and an exhausted public wait to hear all the evidence that’s been gathered against him, the apartment buildings that his wife Del Richardson emptied out are threatened with imminent destruction.
Over on Las Palmas, across from the historic Crossroads of the World shopping center, 82 RSO garden court units have recently been vacated, set to be demolished for a massive complex that intends to take out the street itself. Windows are broken, doors boarded up and the grounds unkempt. The neighborhood feels desolate and unhappy. Demolition permits filed many months ago have not been approved, but could be at any time.
More worryingly, at Yucca and Argyle, site of the video tour at the top of this post, new demolition permits have just been posted for all 40 RSO units!
In both cases, there is no approved new project [clarification: the city approved the project, but no actually new building has received permits] ready to break ground and replace the empty apartment buildings, just glossy renderings and a history of votes decided by the criminal-helmed PLUM Committee.
Should Curren Price be convicted of the charges against him, the displacement of these 122 households will be proven to have been a criminal act. But even the appearance of impropriety by an elected official should be sufficient to demand conservative, careful action now.
Many L.A. developers have spent years obtaining entitlements for huge new projects, only to put the now much more valuable land on the market rather than actually build something. Some of these parcels have derelict, blighted empty buildings (see 1111 West Sunset), others are just vacant lots (see Lytton Savings).
In the current real estate downturn, with sources for cheap loans dried up, these big, expensive properties aren’t moving. They could revert to their lenders and rot unsold, uncared for, for years.
In our present housing availability crisis, it would be a serious mistake to allow the owners of rent controlled buildings to tear them down when there’s no immediate plan to replace them with anything else. Vacant lots are easier to sell—but it’s not the city’s job to make it easier to sell a white elephant.
And the Yucca Argyle Apartments, especially, shouldn’t be torn down if they don’t need to be. They were for many years the home of citizen activist John Walsh, who amplified the voices of Metro whistleblowers and helped clean up transit corruption, and whose last activism before dying was assisting his neighbors as they organized a tenants’ union to fight for their rights to return to this land when (if?!) the new tower is built.
And while presently empty, the pastel triplets are still much needed affordable housing in the heart of Hollywood. They’re beautiful, and what a great location.
If you’d like to know more about why believe this remarkable corner should be dedicated as John Walsh Square and the apartments protected, tune in to our podcast You Can't Eat the Sunshine Episode #135: Hollywood’s Historic Preservation Heroes & Villains, in the conversation with preservationist John Girodo that begins about 45 minutes into the recording. You’ll hear about John’s love of the magical, fenced off garden next door, the incredible, terrifying things we found in John Walsh’s apartment after his death and how his work changed Los Angeles.
If the Yucca Argyle Apartments are demolished for nothing, it will be a stain on this city. John Walsh fought for all of Hollywood, and he died fighting. You can help carry his fight on into the future.
Please contact Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez and ask him to stop the proposed demolition of the 40 RSO units at 6210-24 Yucca and 1756-60 N. Argyle because there is no approved new building and because these buildings are part of the charges in the public corruption case again Curren Price. The office email is Councilmember.Soto-Martinez@lacity.org or you can speak to a staff member or leave a message at 213-473-7013.
Thank you for sticking up for a pretty place that matters!
This Sunday’s tour Franklin Village Old Hollywood will visit the corner of Yucca and Argyle as one stop on our path through a neighborhood rich in passion, beauty and heartbreak. We look forward to paying our respects at John Walsh’s apartment, and hope it won’t be the last time. Join us, do!
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 BUS & WALKING TOURS
• Franklin Village Old Hollywood (9/15) • Highland Park Arroyo (Sat. 9/21) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 9/29) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels to Towers to the Dutch Chocolate Shop (10/5) • Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess (Sat. 10/12) • The Run: Gay Downtown L.A. History (Sun. 10/13) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 10/27) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (Sun. 11/3) • The 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times Walking Tour with Detective Mike Digby (Sat. 11/9) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice Downtown L.A. (Sat. 11/16) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (Sat. 11/23) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 12/7) • 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)
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez: Stop Demolition of 40 RSO Units at Yucca & Argyle in Hollywood