The Four Worst Bottlenecks in the Los Angeles Freeway System
Fun fact: "About 45% of all [traffic] delay statewide is experienced in Los Angeles County, and bottlenecks account for a significant portion of it," according to the head of Caltrans's office of performance. Certainly feels that way, doesn't it? Those bottlenecks are the hellmouths where the traffic is worse than normal and, using Caltrans's "mobility performance reports," which look at traffic congestion in order to help prioritize certain road projects, the LA Timesfinds that four of the most jammed-up sections of freeway in California are in Los Angeles County. That's a lot of delay, and a lot of frustrated people behind the wheel. Coming in at number one biggest time-waster is the 5 Freeway between the 710 and the 605, which probably isn't a huge surprise to anyone who regularly travels that section of the road.
Very Modest Home of Renowned War and Celebrity Photographer Phil Stern For Sale For $625k
"I was never interested in the glamour," famed photographer Phil Stern told the media in 1993 about his work documenting Hollywood stars. "I was interested in the tears and agony behind it." With that in mind, it's easy to see how Stern's Larchmont home might be a little shabby, because who cares about glamour? The one-bedroom, one-bathroom house, if it's just as Stern left it (and it seems like it is, more or less), certainly looks like it elevated function over form, from the collapsible bed shoved into the closet to the floor-to-ceiling cubbies and shelves in what looks like Stern's office.
Los Angeles Has the Biggest Disconnect in the US Between Wages and Rents
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but Los Angeles is in a rental crisis-is-is-is-is-is-is-is. It has the highest rental rate in the country, the most renters paying untenably high amounts of their incomes toward rent, and now a new report from the NYU Furman Center reveals that the city has the biggest lag of all major rental cities between rents (rising!) and wages (falling), meaning renting in the city is becoming more and more unaffordable for the average wage slave. Meanwhile, occupancy rates are dramatically low, suggesting there's just not enough housing being built for middle-income renters (there's a lot of luxury housing going up, but that's not much help).
Scarlett Johansson Quietly Buys a 1940s Nest in Los Feliz
Emotionally complex smartphone AI Scarlett Johansson has reportedly bought a new home in Los Angeles. According to Variety, Johansson made the $3.88 million "under-the-radar" purchase late last year, and though the seller's identity is unclear, Real Estalker seems relatively certain it was a "former high fashion model-turned-Chicago-based construction magnate." At approximately 3,500 square feet, Johansson's surreptitiously purchased 1940s home sits quietly on nearly an acre of land at the end of a very hush-hush Los Feliz cul-de-sac.
10-Foot-Wide Strips of LA Beaches Could Be Open All Night
Like a high school freshman, Los Angeles beaches have a midnight curfew. Nobody's allowed to be hoofin' it across the sand from 12 am to 5 am, as dictated by a 1988 ordinance that city officials say helps prevent crime. The California Coastal Commission, which protects access to the state's beaches (all public, by law), apparently didn't like the ordinance but acquiesced because crime stats were high around that time. But now crime's dropped and the commission is pushing for the curfew to be lifted, reports the LA Times. The city is trying to find a way to please the commission while still keeping the curfew in place, because they hate beach access apparently, so they've asked City Attorney Mike Feuer to draft an ordinance that would keep the curfew in place at Venice Beach and create a tiny designated beach access strip at Dockweiler and Will Rogers Beaches that wouldn't be subject to curfew.
Touring the Financial District's 22-Story 8th+Hope Apartments
It's not uncommon for luxury buildings like 8th + Hope in Downtown's Financial District to have a rooftop entertainment space with a play area for dogs, two gyms, a spa, a catering kitchen, a screening room—all at the disposal of the residents—so it has them all, executed in thoughtful ways with fancy finishes. But one thing developers Wood Partners are hoping will set the complex apart from other similar luxury buildings is 8th + Hope's street-level space for culture at its Ground Floor Project. The GFP will serve as the arts component of the fancy building's communal spaces, hosting events like film screenings and cycling art installations. It opened with an exhibit about construction by local artist Bettina Hubby.
Ugly Blue Samsung Sign on Wilshire Now Just Ugly Blue Box
The boxy blue hat that sits atop the 12-story E. Clem Wilson Building at La Brea and Wilshire has been wiped clean of its big white "Samsung", noticeably altering the skyline along Wilshire without improving it too much. The building's long-time manager tells the Beverly Press that Samsung just didn't renew their lease, so while the blue box remains, the white letters have disappeared, leaving only a faint outline of the company's name. "Samsung doesn't lease an office space. They just did the advertising on the building," he says.
Glassy Hilltop House in Mt. Washington by Case Study House Architects Asks $925k
In 1947, Kemper Nomland and his son, Kemper Nomland Jr. designed a Case Study House in Pasadena (#10). In 1950, they completed this wonderful little piece of hilltop heaven in Mt. Washington. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom house doesn't waste the view, but uses walls of glass, a large covered patio, and plenty of outdoor nooks to capitalize on it. It's got all the sleek, stylishness of a mid-century house, but doesn't look like it's aged one bit. The "re-imagined" kitchen seems to have been recently updated and shares space with other communal areas. It's listed for $925,000.
White People Are Far More Likely to Get a Loan and Own a Home in Los Angeles
In the 1920s, real estate agents could have their licenses revoked for integrating the then-white neighborhood of Compton. Restrictive housing covenants barred black people (and Jews, Asians, and Latinos) from buying homes in many neighborhoods; by 1940 "80% of property in Chicago and Los Angeles carried restrictive covenants barring black families," according to the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston.
In the 1930s, President Roosevelt formed the Homeowners' Loan Corporation, which hired real estate agents to create "safety maps" of good and bad neighborhoods; good neighborhoods were generally white and considered safe for lending; bad neighborhoods had Jewish or Mexican or black or Chinese residents and housing loans there were treated as bad bets (this became known as "redlining"). Meanwhile, white homeowners did their part "to 'scare off' prospective black home buyers, including vandalism, cross burnings, bombings, and death threats," according to a paper by Josh Sides, a history professor at CSU Northridge. The mechanisms may be more obscure, but the legacy of that discrimination is still very much alive today.
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"Spray-Tanner to the Stars" and Asthmatic Cat at Center of Very Weird Landlord Battle
Jimmy Jimmy Coco, a West Hollywood "celebrity spray-tanner and former Chippendale's dancer" is suing a West Hollywood City Council candidate named Larry Block, who is also maybe Coco's landlord. Coco, who keeps Ariana Grande golden, claims that Block evicted him unfairly from his home, a converted garage on Block's property, the LA Times reports. Block says the garage conversion is illegal and that Coco wasn't actually supposed to be living there, just using the space for storage. And now the whole thing has come to a head because of Coco's asthmatic cat and WeHo's parking permit system.
See the Big Transformation at Hollywood's 1924 Taft Building
Late last month, the historic Taft Building at Hollywood and Vine unveiled the result of a $15-million series of upgrades that exposed some of the structure's original beauty and beefed up its ability to withstand earthquakes. Originally opened in 1924 as Hollywood's first high-rise office building, the Taft was once filled with movie biz tenants like Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and numerous publicists and agents, says the LA Times. In the 1980s, a remodel put in some then-fashionable, now-dated features like drop ceilings, carpet, and coverings for the handsome brick, completely hiding so many of the attractive features that newish owners DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners are now proudly showing off. These before and after photos show how the light of this historic gem was hidden under a bushel of drywall and high-traffic carpeting. The results are very much the stylish office space, but also pretty practical; central air and heating will be introduced in phases as new tenants come in.
Armed with an X-Acto knife and a point-and-shoot camera, Michael Paul Smithcreates incredibly life-like scenes of midcentury America by photographing tiny model buildings in front of real cities and vistas. Curbed National takes a look at a recently released mini-doc on his background and craft, this way. [Curbed National]
How Inglewood's NFL Stadium is Moving at Lightning Speed
The developers of a proposed 80,000-seat NFL stadium in Inglewood have been doing some fancy footwork to speed up the often sluggish process of building an enormous project. St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke just announced last month that he's joining Stockbridge Capital—which was already building an enormous megaproject with housing, a hotel, parks, and more on the old site of the Hollywood Park racetrack—to add a football stadium and entertainment venue to the project, and they want to break ground by the end of this year. That's lightning fast in SoCal development terms. How do they plan to pull that off?
Is Traffic Really Getting Worse on the Westside of Los Angeles?
It will probably never ever feel like traffic is getting better, but is it actually getting worse? Using Caltrans data from 2002 to 2013, Let's Go LA plots the rise and fall of traffic on Westside arterial streets and freeways to see whether or not things are actually as grim as they feel. The overall consensus is: traffic isn't getting much better, but it's also not as bad as it was back in the early aughts in many places. (Yes, there are charts from LGLA that just focus on peak traffic hours, too.)
Rustic 1940s Bungalow in Topanga Asking $795,000
Open House: Sunday, Feb 8, 2015 between 1 PM - 4 PM
1738 Topanga Skyline Dr, Topanga
Price: $795,000
Beds, Baths: 3 beds, 1 bath
Floor Area: 1,048 sq. ft.
Per the Listing: "Incredible setting and complete privacy. Situated on a private road and commanding beautiful cross canyon views this three bedroom house offers the perfect canvas to remodel and update. The open living/dining room has an original rock fireplace and large windows that look over flat usable land and beyond to the stunning views. The kitchen features a corner eat-in area and leads to the three bedrooms, all of which offer good storage, and a large bathroom. Bonus office and a large laundry/storage room."
Beds, Baths: 3 beds, 1 bath
Floor Area: 1,048 sq. ft.
Per the Listing: "Incredible setting and complete privacy. Situated on a private road and commanding beautiful cross canyon views this three bedroom house offers the perfect canvas to remodel and update. The open living/dining room has an original rock fireplace and large windows that look over flat usable land and beyond to the stunning views. The kitchen features a corner eat-in area and leads to the three bedrooms, all of which offer good storage, and a large bathroom. Bonus office and a large laundry/storage room."
Here's hoping there's some nice hardwood floors under that hideous brown carpet! While this quirky home could certainly use some freshening up, and is on the petite side, it's also sited on a .93-acre lot, so no need to fear neighbors complaining about your loud parties/arguments.
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