People are doing the price chopper from coast to coast, and now the newest dance craze has the former Pitt-Anniston estate in Beverly Hills doing the wiggly-jiggly too. Previously listed at $28 million when first offered, the house is now being listed for $24.95 million according to the MLS listing and numerous news reports.
· Movers & Shakers [Forbes.com]
West Covina thinks it may have found a way to provide some affordable housing for its residents. The City is partnering with the East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupation Program (ROP) to construct new housing for free using student labor. The City would pay for the instructors, land and materials. This huge cost savings would result in affordable housing for West Covina residents with homes selling between $450,000 to $500,000. That's affordable, right? Actually, that qualifies as low- to moderate-income housing in West Covina's current market. Super.
· City, ROP link seen [San Gabriel Valley Tribune]
The headline that kept smacking us in the face all week and weekend was the report that the CRA was using eminent domain to knock out 30 businesses along Hollywood & Vine to make way for a new glitzy development. As PreserveLA reports, the development will also result in the destruction of much of the 1928 Herman Building. Naturally, preservation minded individuals are in an uproar. But in return we get a new W Hotel!
· Demolition at Hollywood/Vine [PreserveLA]
Another one of those stories always in the news but never the lead story, today is the day that farmers on a plot of land in South Central will be evicted to make way for a Wal Mart warehouse. That's right, those bastards at Wal Mart strike again! The farmers have been using the 14-acres of land for 13 years to feed an estimated 350 families in poor, inner-city Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the land is not the city's, nor the farmers,' instead it belongs to a private citizen. Hence, legal wrangling and issues of morality collide and everyone loses.
· LA URBAN FARM GOES TO THE WAL [City Hippy]