Atlanta councilwoman likens developers to ‘carpetbaggers,’ urges seniors to not sell
And there it is! I’ve lived in Westview for nearly a decade now and have served on the community organization as the zoning and code enforcement chair. The vacant/derelict properties were a huge issue that we tried to address with the city and were told that many of them were holdovers from the downturn and they could do absolutely nothing about them. During the boom, people either owned derelict properties in the neighborhood and got cash out mortgages on them to "renovate" them and just left the property and ran with the money or they bought the property with fraudulent mortgages and ran with the money. The house next door to me was a case in point. Bought by a documentary film company out of Santa Barbara, CA, who is completely untraceable now, with nothing but a P.O. Box at a UPS store bought with a mortgage from Long Beach Mortgage (records show that this mortgage company was one of the WORST for fraudulent mortgages in 30310). When the bubble burst and those mortgage companies folded, the big banks bought tons of these mortgages in bulk. Now they can’t do a damn thing with them because they don’t have clear title and have no paperwork to prove their chain of title. The way that property laws are written in Georgia, the mortgage companies still hold the first lien so the city can’t foreclose on the tax lien. Until the politicians (yep, I said it, Joyce is one of those and she knows full well the issues) rally to change the way the laws are written to allow the city to foreclose and sell those properties the way Detroit does, they are just going to sit there an rot. All the while, these "we buy houses" guys will continue to prey on the elderly because for every 50 "no’s" they get, they get one "yes". The best we can do is try to keep our neighbors informed on the reality of what the "we buy houses" guys do and informed on the TRUE value of their property.
This cantilevering condo will bring 39 apartments to Park Slope
It’s still very much a canyon of mediocrity and except for a few shorter stretches I don’t think that will ever change. Fourth Ave is one of the biggest urban planning failures in this city. No vibrancy or street life, largely forgettable architecture and not as much density as the area could support.
This cantilevering condo will bring 39 apartments to Park Slope
Canyon of Mediocrity is more like Canyon of Innovative and Bold Design! This is such a refreshing and unique way to take advantage of a small lot. The prices are even better – $800,000 for a studio or small one-bedroom in Park Slope! Talk about expensive!
Q&A: Anti-density leader Jill Stewart answers questions about LA’s future development
Jill Stewart is a crank who routinely fights the wrong battles, but it’s true that MTA’s rail history has been plagued by bad decisions.
The Red Line was championed by Richard Riordan primarily as a means of luring Hollywood and Universal City tourists to downtown, the redevelopment of which was Riordan’s obsession. So yeah, the Red Line’s route wasn’t worth the expense; MTA should have spent that money building lines along denser commute routes first. But it didn’t look as sexy.
Then you have Henry Waxman stonewalling expansion of the Purple and Expo Lines due to his constituents’ NIMBYism ("methane will blow us all up!"), which delayed those lines for at least a decade.
And the city (as well as WH and BH) foolishly chose to widen Santa Monica Blvd. instead of looking into building light rail along the old Pacific Electric right of way. And let’s not even talk about the 405.
But Stewart’s complaint that the newer train lines are being rejected by middle class people and people who live along the routes sorely needs a source, because otherwise I think she’s flat out lying.
Let’s not forget that MTA could do a lot to improve bus lines and make them more attractive – if they finally increased fares. But the so-called "bus riders union" forced MTA to keep the fares down: standard fare is still just $1.75, the lowest of any major city in the country. I think only New Orleans is lower. Nearly everywhere else charges $2.25-$2.50 for single fare. With nearly 400 million rides on MTA buses and trains per year, imagine what an extra $200 million could do.
West Hollywood still pushing hard to get light rail ASAP
The route through WEHO should jog west from the Expo/Crenshaw terminus through to Wilshire/Fairfax and then head north up Fairfax to West Hollywood. There’s so much more going along Fairfax: Little Ethiopia, LACMA, The new Academy of Motion Pictures Museum (former May Company building), Peterson Automotive Museum, Farmer’s Market/The Grove, CBS Studios. After that, maybe it could go farther west to hit up the Beverly Center and then Santa Monica Blvd. main drag through WEHO. But, you just gotta hit those high-traffic spots along Fairfax with this routing opportunity.
West Hollywood still pushing hard to get light rail ASAP
I’ve lived in WeHo for over 20, and before that I lived in and around the area, going to fairfax High back in the class of 1985.
ABSOLUTELY – weho needs and would be great to have either, both ANY kind of rail access.
HOWEVER – IT IS PHYSICALLYIMPOSSIBLE.
Crenshaw is so far East, to turn it so far west to pass through weho is absurd. Further weho weho was an unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County until the city of Weho was founded in 1985.
The grid street layout is unlike anyplace in all of Los Angeles. the unfortunate reality is weho is a skinny long east west city. To pass though the city at one intersection (La Brea, Fairfax, La Cienega, San Vicente) would only give access to at bet 1/4 of the tiny city of weho.
FURTHER …. Once a light rail would reach weho at Santa Monica Blvd …. There may as be a "TRUMPWALL" because there is no way any kind of rail could every be put down to reconnect the San Vicenty and Santa Monica proposal back to the rail system.
Just east of La Cienega where the bend at Holloway meets SMB, is the spot where Santa Monica Blvd combines the already unbearable SMB east west with the north south La Cienega and the odd Holloway Diagonal BIG addition of cars to Santa Monica blvd ….
At the exact point where Santa Monica Blvd NARROWSDRASTICALLY. The City Over build and didn’t put any effort into the BOTTLENECK that stops the flow and the resulting gridlock all along Santa Monica Blvd. The regular MTA bus line stopping at Sweetzer (weho city hall) stops the entire right side lane (to add to the disaster).
I would LOVE a subway – but it would make no sense given the cost per mile and the actual number of people living in weho would actually use. The City is misrepresenting the situation due to the city election coming up and the universal desire for rail transit. IT WILLNEVER BE POSSIBLE (which I am personally very disappointed about – actually i’ve realized the situation for so many years … I’ve come to terms with it. The City KNOWS it can’t happen, yet they claim "A promise" which never was made. They promised to see if it was feasible. It’s not.
However the city raised the sales tax in WeHo on top of all other sales tax increase, which they collect knowing it won’t happen, but is yet another corrupt collection of massive revenue to redo tiny West Hollywood Park – Phase 1 was over $125 MILLIONDOLLARS – and Phase 2 is about to begin. Tell me how a tiny municipality of 30,000 people can spend that kind of money to redo a perfectly nice tiny local park?
Sorry to everyone’s hopes. It can’t be done due to the odd street layout and existing regular daily gridlock and the BOTTLENECK at the worst place possible.
Just look at the street map. Where all traffic comes together and the blvd narrows by more than 50%.
West Hollywood still pushing hard to get light rail ASAP
Please please please.
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I wonder if there’s any feasibility to the following compromise between the La Brea and San Vincente routes… because La Brea seems way better for the movement of the overall system, but San Vincente obviously serves areas that really should have rail… Basically, planning for a future line along Santa Monica going to Silver Lake / Echo Park in the east and down perhaps Robertson to hit the Culver City station on the Expo Line and continue along Venice to the beach to the west. Build out the La Brea route of Crenshaw North, but angle the Santa Monica/La Brea station so it can be shared by a north/south and east/west line, and build a short stub line sharing tracks from this station up to Highland. When funding comes through for the whole line, it can cease traveling up to Highland and instead go east along Santa Monica. Seems it would still be cheaper than the San Vincente option, gives WeHo some rail access immediately, and keeps the ‘best of both worlds’ option alive for the future.