Only in LA: Our Cold Property edition

Only in LA: Our Cold Property edition

By Steve Harvey | May 15, 2016 10:20 PM

Welcome to the tour, where you’ll get the real dirt on housing in this region.

We don’t need to tell you: real estate is sexy around here

Even the weeds are special.

But Cold Property has something for everyone. You like to pay way too much for stuff? No problem.

Sure it might hurt a little.

Tired of those deadly dull neighborhoods? There’s action afoot here!

You want to discourage visitors. Easy.

Speaking of no-frills places.

Cold Property can show you a unique one-room dwelling that won’t attract many solicitors.

On another property, a bit further inland, we remind you to read the directions carefully.

Let alone take a step.

There’s only a small chance that you will be trampled by wandering cabinets.

And we have some interesting fixtures. Hey! You said no-frills.

The appearance of some rooms may surprise you a bit. But that’s part of the fun!

One word of caution: Please don’t disturb the owners, even those who live in their cars.

Oh, and by the way, if you’re not ready to buy yet we have other tantalizing possibilities for you.

Steve Harvey can be reached at steveharvey9@gmail.com. His Twitter address is @sharvey9.

Another Day in Hell?

Nope. It’s just winter in Los Angeles.

Summer weather, beautiful views, everyone out in shorts.

We are in the midst of one of the warmest summers, oops I mean winters, in history. Some parts of the metro area seeing 90°F temperatures. San Fernando Valley 87°F. This will continue for at least another week.

Entrance Road to Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles

Observatory seen from Griffith Park Entrance

Downtown Los Angeles tallest building is US Bank on the left, Wilshire Grand under construction will be the tallest in 2018. From the Observatory parking lot.

Hollywood Sign and Broadcast tower. From the Observatory parking lot.

The city and the sea 20 miles in the distance, look carefully and you will see the ocean on the horizon. From the Observatory parking lot.

All photos taken on February 8, 2016 with Panasonic FZ200.

Boyle Heights and the 6th Street Bridge

June 16, 1933: Dedication ceremonies of 6th Street bridge and viaduct, built at a cost of $2,383,271. This photo was published in the June 17, 1933 Los Angeles Times.

The 6^th Street bridge and viaduct in central Los Angeles was built in 1933 to connect the downtown area with Boyle Heights; a hilly residential area that provided modest cost housing for many people working downtown. It became the city’s first major Jewish community before World War 2. As the city evolved, and people moved to the suburbs, the area became a major Mexican American community after that war and still has a high Spanish speaking community but now with an unsavory gang reputation.

Horizontal red arrow points to plastic bagging that is covering part of bridge that is crumbling onto cars and people below. Graphity on bridge.

Today to reach Boyle Heights via 6^th Street means driving through the heart of the Skid Row district in downtown. This is not a pleasant drive as we learned this past Sunday.

So who uses this boulevard and why are people making a big deal out of the planned destruction of the bridge because it’s falling apart?

Perhaps there are memories of the homeless who used to camp on the bridge’s sidewalk or it’s the people of Boyle Heights who have some romantic connection parking there to view the downtown skyline.

Police were called out to clear bridge of pedestrians on Tuesday night after about 100 people blocked traffic.

The police were called out to clear the roadway as some people walked out into the middle of the street.

A great view of downtown skyline that might help many recall wonderful times.

The designer of the new viaduct, Michael Maltzan, and city leaders are scheduled to participate in Wednesday morning’s final walk before closing the street for the teardown.

Incidentally the old bridge cost $2,383,271 and its replacement opening in 2019 will cost $449 million.

The font for this posting is typewriter “Courier New” in honor of our past.

You Yellow Bellied Snake and Other El Niño Issues

“Go ahead, make my day, you yellow-bellied varmint!” Yellow bellied varmint was an expression frequently used in American Western Movies. Or at least that is what I remember. It was meant to call someone as being afraid to confront or fight for their beliefs.

Now it turn out there is a yellow-bellied sea snake with highly poisonous venom that has washed ashore north of Los Angeles. The Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles is not known for its warm sea water. That snake’s arrival here definitely tell us we have a major dose of warm water. This species of sea snake is found in tropical oceanic waters around the world. That should put to rest the “yellow-bellied varmint” expression.

This photo taken in the Antelope Valley which is part of the Mojave Desert. Happily I don’t live in the mountain or desert areas of Southern California. 4.99 inches of rain on December 6, 1997 on my rain gauge during the last El Niño did not flood the house but the backyard lawn was a wading pool and water did flow into the garage through a back door. Sand bags should stop that this time. I had the roof inspected last year and it is in excellent condition said the inspector.

We are not going to the beach searching for those yellow-bellied varmints. I believe we are ready.

Los Angeles – The City that Never Looks Back?

Once upon a time there was a very smart man named Henry Huntington, nephew of Collis Huntington who built the Southern Pacific Railroad, who believed that Los Angeles would grow into a very widespread city. He conceived an electric railroad that would connect all of the area. That year was 1901. Along with his financial partner, banker Isaias W. Hellman, he proceeded with his dream. The electric car system, called the Red Car, stretched from Newport Beach to the south, San Bernardino and Riverside to the east, and the northern parts of the San Fernando Valley. The system was shut down in 1961. Its demise was caused by the belief that the Los Angeles area would be better served by the car. Large-scale land acquisition for new freeway construction began in earnest in 1951.

About 10 years ago Los Angeles County created a 1½ mile long replica of the old Red Car in the San Pedro area near other tourist attractions just for fun. It cost millions to build and maintain but only collected $460,000 in revenue. Now it too will be shut down.

These are my photos taken with a Panasonic FZ150 camera.

There used to be a funicular in downtown Los Angeles but that too has been shut down.

Angel’s Flight

Interestingly the Los Angeles new light rail and subway system that won’t be complete for another 20 to 30 years is being built along and near the paths of Huntington’s Pacific Electric. They also want to build a loop trolley line in the downtown area.

A Balloon Art Exhibit

A little over a week ago the news media started publicizing a balloon art exhibit at McArthur Park in central Los Angeles. It’s not in downtown. It is just west of downtown. The area is poor and has a large immigrant population. The park is named for General Douglas McArthur of WWII fame. Previously the park was named Westlake and contains a modestly large lake for a city park.

The exhibit of the hand painted balloons was a delightful sight in an area populated by the poor and homeless. From both Wilshire Boulevard and 6^th Street you can see an outstanding view of the downtown skyline.

It was a cloudy day and a few drop of rain fell thanks to monsoonal clouds that drifted in from Arizona.

All photos taken with Panasonic FZ200 camera. A total of 18 photos were taken. 17 are useable. All will be displayed on my Flickr page in the Balloon Art Exhibit album.

1/640 sec; f/4.0; ISO 100

Balloon Photo #5_edited-1

1/800 sec; f/4.0; ISO 100

1/1000 sec; f/2.8; ISO 100

Cities Grow or Die

Updated May 22, 2015 because of data reported in the Los Angeles Daily News.

Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are examples of large cities that are dying. They all have one common issue. A lack of jobs. Cities that are thriving are growing and they all have one common reason. New jobs. Los Angeles grew in population by 136,243 people since the last census says the U.S. Census Bureau. That is a growth of just the city and does not include surrounding towns such as Long Beach which have all seen similar or greater population increases.

I live near the very end of the northwest part of Los Angeles. The nearby boulevard ends about 2 miles west of my home. Despite that fact the traffic is busy all of the time. It is obviously crowded during rush hours. Simply put, we have run out of space. The land beyond the end of the city has been set aside as protected land to preserve open space with the idea of establishing a wildlife park to protect both animals and native habitat.

The question is how do we provide housing for the growing population? The answer is more apartments and condominiums. With that conclusion in mind the city has decided to permit that kind of construction. Cities do not remain static. They either grow or shrink. The growth is into the suburbs, more high rise buildings, or a combination. Spread of the Los Angeles area is a fact and is probably known throughout the world. The travel times has become nightmares for some people driving as long as two hours to get to work. Finally the city has become wiser and now has started permitting the dreaded high rise housing. Many in our city are continuing to fight this kind of construction.

Thus we have arrived at a time when many new proposals are being submitted to neighborhood councils and the city council for approval. In my area:

Two part with phase 1 for the construction of a 7-story, 193,000 sqft building to house 170 apartments including 13 live-work units and 5,700 sqft restaurant. There will also be parking for 258 cars and 196 bikes. The 2nd phase is for the construction of 166,000 sqft commercial office building with 10,000 sqft for restaurant and retail space. There will also be parking for 490 cars and 254 bikes. The office buildings being replaced are modern two story structures.
A 707 unit apartment complex that was the home of Panavision manufacturing consisting of a one story building and parking lot.
A 300 unit apartment complex most likely replacing one or two story office buildings.
A 4,000 multifamily unit development on the former Rocketdyne facility that is expected take 10 years to complete. That project is in the design phase and has not been released for public scrutiny. The information released to date says that the buildings will vary in height from 6 to 18 stories high.
The former Catalina Yachts manufacturing site will be converted into 600 units.

That is a total of 5,777 housing units which more than likely means an additional 11,000 people and their cars added to already congested boulevards. To make the additional housing more palatable new nearby shopping centers and business offices will provide jobs.

You don’t like it? Some alternative places to live are Fresno, California and Medford, Oregon. Those are two nice communities that are not faced with large growth but do offer a pleasant climate and many of the benefits of larger cities.

Mountain Lions Just Outside of Los Angeles

Female Mountain Lion looking into a camera

New photographs of a mountain lion and her offspring are giving park rangers a closer and more intimate look at how the animals are surviving in the Santa Monica Mountains. The report in the Los Angeles Times does not detail the location of the camera that caught these pictures. The Santa Monica Mountains start just north of Hollywood and extend west and north bisecting the city and ending in Ventura County. The famous Mulholland Drive and Highway starts near the Hollywood Bowl traverses the ridge of the mountain range.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-mountain-lion-photos-20150305-story.html

Walk Around Downtown L.A.

Inside the Bradbury Building opened in 1893

functioning elevator on right side behind the staircase

Four hours of walking will help you sleep at night. I spent Tuesday, December 23, walking around the north end of downtown Los Angeles and still did not see it all. The trip was made with two other photo hobbyists with really expensive cameras. Mine is the Panasonic Lumix FZ150. Lunch at Grand Central Market was really bad. Definitely not something to photograph and barely eatable. That said I have posted my pictures on flickr – look for the “Walk Around Downtown L.A.” album or click here.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48969186@N04/sets/72157649521818338/