Now, the forthcoming development at 1412 N Marisoposa makes some sense, because for once, it's actually affordable housing, instead of "let's demolish 12 units of affordable housing from this here lot, and build a 113-unit in its place, which they'll allow us to do because it has 8 affordable units, for a 33% net loss of affordable units, nyuk nyuk!"
That said: when you look at a street like North Mariposa—
—and you note that it stretches into the distance, miles on end, with one-story houses and, every so often, a two story house or apartment building. You look at your average house, like say this one, at 1412:
Just the typical 1,600sf house from 1920, like so many others on the block—
—with its original windows and lack of stuccofication, and your initial reaction is there! Right there! THAT's where I'm gonna put a 65-foot building!
Well of course that's exactly what you think, if you're a YIMBY, none of whom live in the neighborhood, making the "my back yard" part of their name kind of ironic. "Those fucking homeowners DESERVE to have structures three times as high and ten times as dense in their neighborhood!" crow the YIMBY. Hey, maybe they're right! Demonstrably worse than child molesters, they're homeowners, literally the source of all problems and the eradication of which will solve all problems.
Your tax dollars at work:
And here's the best part—not only is it replete with density bonuses "just because," this development also falls under and makes use of Mayor Bass' Executive Directive 1, so there will be NO competitive bidding, just like in a big league mob town! Moreover, this project will circumvent the city's planning review process, AND there will be NO public hearings, NO due process, NO right of appeal if you don't like it. Remember when the government took Chavez Ravine and Bunker Hill away from property owners for the greater good? Small potatoes! Bass' new Executive Directive allows her to commandeer property on a greater scale with zero oversight! Hooray, big government!
But anyway, speaking of this block, here are some others houses a little farther up: 1438, 1440, 1442, 1444, 1448 N Mariposa:
These were designed in 1915 by the relatively unknown, incredibly talented, and quite important architect Charles Edward Finkenbinder (1879-1954) aaaand so they were demolished a couple years ago—
—in preparation for a seven-story 40-unit apartment complex. Eight of those units will be low-income, replacing fourteen units that were low-income, for a net loss of six low-income units.
As I mentioned at the top of the post, giving insane zoning variances to DeveloperCorp in exchange for some "affordable housing" means less affordable housing, albeit we make up for that, you see, via the five-story 73-unit towers of taxpayer-funded Low Income Housing we're putting on every block in each residential neighborhood. YIMBYs win every time! Join the winning team, you NIMBY losers!
About Nathan Marsak
NATHAN MARSAK says: “I came to praise Los Angeles, not to bury her. And yet developers, City Hall and social reformers work in concert to effect wholesale demolition, removing the human scale of my town, tossing its charm into a landfill. The least I can do is memorialize in real time those places worth noting, as they slide inexorably into memory. In college I studied under Banham. I learned to love Los Angeles via Reyner’s teachings (and came to abjure Mike Davis and his lurid, fanciful, laughably-researched assertions). In grad school I focused on visionary urbanism and technological utopianism—so while some may find the premise of preserving communities so much ill-considered reactionary twaddle, at least I have a background in the other side. Anyway, I moved to Los Angeles, and began to document. I drove about shooting neon signs. I put endless miles across the Plains of Id on the old Packard as part of the 1947project; when Kim Cooper blogged about some bad lunch meat in Compton, I drove down to there to check on the scene of the crime (never via freeway—you can’t really learn Los Angeles unless you study her from the surface streets). But in short order one landmark after another disappeared. Few demolitions are as contentious or high profile as the Ambassador or Parker Center; rather, it is all the little houses and commercial buildings the social engineers are desperate to destroy in the name of the Greater Good. The fabric of our city is woven together by communities and neighborhoods who no longer have a say in their zoning or planning so it’s important to shine a light on these vanishing treasures, now, before the remarkable character of our city is wiped away like a stain from a countertop. (But Nathan, you say, it’s just this one house—no, it isn’t. Principiis obsta, finem respice.) And who knows, one might even be saved. Excelsior!””
Nathan’s blogs are: Bunker Hill Los Angeles, RIP Los Angeles & On Bunker Hill.
