If You Really Loved LA, You Wouldn't Let It Burn

Today's entry is courtesy of Los Angeles Conservancy President Adrian Scott Fine, who eulogized 1027 N. Heliotrope Drive earlier today on Instagram.

The words are Fine's, but the links and bolding are mine:

Here’s a before and during tale…of a house and neighborhood and trend that’s increasingly becoming commonplace in LA and other cities…built in 1908 in East Hollywood, this house served as a home for many families for 111 years, including Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Iosigi who welcomed a daughter here in 1913, and as a place of comfort for Mrs. Armilda J. Howard to mourn the loss of her husband after an auto accident in 1930…

In 2019 the house sold (for $950k) along with a neighboring church building (for $2.2M), and both were promptly left vacant…a demo permit was filed in August 2020 and two months later, on October 27, the house was on fire and 36 firefighters were deployed to put it out…nearly 4 years later, and despite 13 complaints to the City, it still sits abandoned with its blight spreading down the street in a domino effect…

The owner/developer is working to secure building permits for 3-story duplexes, and states in their materials that they love LA and have a “deep passion to improve the greater Los Angeles community” and have “an intimate understanding of LA’s housing crisis,” and ”[w]e want to do our part to solve the city’s urban housing crisis.”…if only this tale and scenario were an isolated incident, as destruction, loss, and disrespect to a neighborhood and a city is no way for LA to address its affordable housing needs of Angelenos…we can and should do better than this…

I couldn't have said it better myself, which is precisely why I didn't try to.

And I'm just going to call shenanigans on the owner/developer's claim that they "love" LA. I don't believe that for a second. If they really loved LA, why would they leave these properties empty and vulnerable to fire?

To me, loving your hometown means being a good steward. Does this look like good stewardship to anyone?

Speaking of which, guess what caught on fire THIS MORNING? The adjoining church building! The owner also has longstanding plans to demolish it and replace it with three-story duplexes.

Look, I'm all for infill housing and I think duplexes are great, but NOT. LIKE. THIS. All these vacant-building fires are dangerous, pose a risk to neighboring buildings, and release toxic soot and smoke into the air that EVERYONE in LA has to breathe.

Will there ever be any accountability, or will what's left of my hometown go up in flames before that happens?

1027 N. Heliotrope Drive, East Hollywood.

1017 N. Heliotrope Drive, East Hollywood.

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