THE NIMBY DIARIES

By John Welborne

Rezoning not required to produce needed “affordable” housing

The Larchmont Chronicle and our readers, I hope, are grateful to Hancock Park neighbor Marilyn Wells for contributing six informative columns, over the past six months, dealing with the omnipresent and critical issue of unfortunate people living on the streets and sidewalks. Her final column appears on Page 2 of Section 2, and I commend it to our readers.

I absolutely agree with Wells that affordable housing must be built throughout the City of Los Angeles. However, I take issue with her suggestion that zoning changes are necessary for this to happen.

What really is required is for government, primarily state government, to provide taxpayers’ money to support construction of such affordable (below-market-rate) housing.

Although a particular state senator from San Francisco seemingly has a personal vendetta against owner-occupied, singlefamily homes and neighborhoods, his approach of shoving apartment buildings onto those existing residential streets is totally unnecessary to create needed, additional multi-family housing.

In fact, what most certainly will be shoved into city-center single-family neighborhoods — like those surrounding Larchmont Boulevard — would be high-end duplexes and expensive “big white box” condominiums or small-lot subdivision townhouses.

For-profit developers are not going to build inexpensive housing in an area where land values are so high. Zoned land exists already

The simple fact of the matter is that, throughout the City of Los Angeles, there exists underutilized land along major streets and boulevards (see, for example, many underutilized commercial blocks on Third Street, Beverly Boulevard, La Brea Avenue, Sixth Street, etc.) that already are zoned for commercial or multi-family residential uses. This land already can be (and is being) developed with needed apartments. Without public subsidy, however, these projects will continue to be expensive, market-rate apartments like those our readers have seen arising in recent years.

Anyone can see that Los Angeles has the already-zoned land. (View all the multi-family and commercial parcels in our area: tinyurl.com/and4jpuv.) There is no need to destroy single-family neighborhoods.

A 2019 McKinsey Global Institute study regarding affordable housing in Los Angeles (tinyurl.com/p28xx5wf) shows that, even for the excessively high growth projections (Regional Housing Needs Assessment — “RHNA”) dictated from Sacramento, every bit of “housing needs“ for our city (tinyurl.com/27mux8y7) can be met without changing any single-family zoning or disrupting any single-family neighborhoods (McKinsey page 28).

Those are the facts. And any astute observer will see that multi-family buildings already are being built, slowly but surely, on underutilized commercial portions of streets such as Third and Sixth.

Sacramento’s latest “bad bills”

This year’s bad legislation from Sacramento, seeking to dictate the undoing of single-family streets and neighborhoods, has yet to be approved by the full State Assembly.

SB 9, SB 10 and SB 478 were written by, and are financed by, builders and investors who produce and manage lucrative, not affordable, housing. For the past three years, similar bad bills have been defeated in Sacramento. There still is time (but not much) to stop this year’s greedy and overreaching special-interest legislation that will not result in affordable housing. Legislature’s recess ending

After the State Assembly comes back from recess on Mon., Aug. 16, there will be an opportunity for a majority of those elected Assemblymembers to vote “no” — to reject, once again, this petulantly vindictive and confiscatory legislation emanating from State Sen. Scott Wiener and his allies.

Do not be fooled. These bills are not designed to, nor will they result in, needed affordable housing. These proposed Senate Bills (already adopted in the Senate) will make windfall profits for property owners and developers while markedly decreasing the quality of life on owner-occupied, family-oriented, low-density neighborhood streets throughout the State of California. And what can we do?

We Mid-Wilshire residents absolutely should make telephone calls to, and request meetings and conversations with, our two local Assemblymembers — while they are back here in their districts until mid-August. (Please turn to page 4)

Wed., Aug. 11 — Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council board meeting via Zoom. Check greaterwilshire.org to confirm and for online login.

Mon., Aug. 16 — Los Angeles Unified School District begins new school year.

Thurs., Sept. 2 — Delivery of the September issue of the Larchmont Chronicle.

Mon., Sept. 6 — Labor Day.

Tues., Sept. 7 — Rosh Hashanah.

Letters to the Editor

Joy to see flags waving

My husband joins me in saying how special it is to have the realtors distribute American flags to all of our homes in Hancock Park and Windsor Square in recognition of the 4th of July. We love and appreciate it. It is such a joy to open the door in the morning and see the flag waving at us. Judith Miller Windsor Square

Exciting yoga opening

I am so very excited about the re-opening of The Center for Yoga (“Yoga poses for a comeback,” June 2021) and that it will again become independent of YogaWorks or any big brand corporation — where making a big profit far outweighs any true yogic principles.

I first dipped my toe into my yoga education at the Center for Yoga in the early 70s, and I so look forward to returning to the place where my yoga journey first began. I do hope Iyengar yoga will be on the schedule. Pre-pandemic, I was an intermediate / advanced practitioner. Post-pandemic, I would classify myself as begin “I moved from Ithaca, New York, and lived here for 47 years. The best memories for me are my kids growing up here.” Diane Sherwood Windsor Square

“I would say going to the beach and surfing when I was younger. I used to live in Huntington Beach. But my favorite activity here is coming down to Larchmont and having a Jeni’s ice cream cone and going to the Farmers Market.” Lynne Meredith Windsor Square

Larchmont Chronicle

Founded in 1963 by Jane Gilman and. Dawne P. Goodwin.

Publisher and Editor

John H. Welborne

Managing Editor

Suzan Filipek

Associate Editor

Billy Taylor

Contributing Editor

Jane Gilman

Staff Writers

Talia Abrahamson Helene Seifer

Advertising Director

Pam Rudy

Advertising Sales

Caroline Tracy

Art Director

Tom Hofer

Classified and Circulation Manager

Rachel Olivier

Accounting

Jill Miyamoto

606 N. Larchmont Blvd., #103 Los Angeles, CA 90004 323-462-2241

ner / intermediate.

Lisa Walford and Marla Apt were two of my favorite teachers … but there were so many good ones that I also experienced (Anna DeLury, Carmen Fitzsimmons, Chigusa Saga, Koran Paleman, Hikiru, Tod Nemo, etc.). I can’t wait to reconnect to my yoga community!

Sasha Marcus Beverly Grove

Rita Moreno: Just a girl

I enjoy receiving your paper and regularly read Tony Medley’s column, “At the Movies,” but his film review in the July 2021 issue really made my blood boil!

I’d often overlooked his comments along the lines of “even though this movie was a ‘chick flick’, I enjoyed it,” just writing him off as another insensitive male, but I was deeply offended by his review of a new documentary entitled “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It. ” His review reeked of outright sexism, misogyny and his own right-wing political views.

Not only does he make clear he believes women should not have the right to control their own bodies with his sentence: “One nauseating segment is how Moreno gushes about having an abortion …” but (Please turn to page 19) Write us at letters@larchmontchronicle.com. Include your name, contact information and where you live. We reserve the right to edit for space and grammar.

CORRECTION

In our July 2021 article, “Community was left out of Raman’s housing plan,” there was a typographical error in the second paragraph, which should have read: “Raman filed a motion last month to redevelop the 41-car city parking lot at 728 Cochran Avenue for permanent supportive housing and/or 100 percent affordable housing.” It incorrectly said “permanent affordable” instead of “permanent supportive.”

‘What is your favorite summertime memory?’

That’s the question inquiring photographer Talia Abrahamson asked locals along Larchmont Blvd.

“One of my favorite summertime memories is going to an amusement park. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and it was called Belle Isle. We used to catch a boat, and it was a nice boat ride, and they had music playing and families getting together. We used to go every year, sometimes twice a year with my grandmother, mother, father, brothers and sisters.” Kenneth Manning Hollywood

By Caroline Tracy

Flip through any Larchmont Chronicle of the past few years with a Rhodes School of Music ad in it, and you will be met with a creative photo treatment featuring a child holding his or her instrument. The ads struck me during a recent flip- through (for research purposes) of past issues of the paper. Simple yet polished, and many in full-page format, the ads apparently feature actual (and likely local) students. I commenced an investigation and learned that David Rhodes, owner of the school, is creative in more ways than just music, and he is a community champion to boot.

When I spoke to Rhodes, I first wanted to confirm that the children featured in the ads are indeed pupils of Rhodes School of Music and not model stand-ins.

“Yes they are, and, being situated here on Larchmont, most are hyper-local,” Rhodes shared.

My next question, “was such a great idea the work of an advertising or creative agency?” was quickly answered. Rhodes himself came up with the idea. So the piano instructor, composer and owner of the school is also a creative director and marketing talent.

“No, I didn’t use a marketing firm or ad agency or anything like that,” Rhodes told me. “I like to be hands-on and design things myself. I played around with a couple of ideas before settling on the concept of the kids with their instruments. Seeing the kids looking so happy seemed to lend a certain potency. It also conveys a real sense of community when you see the community reflected back from the ad.”

To execute the idea, Rhodes uses photos captured on recital day and obtains permission from parents for usage across

LOCAL musicians are (left to right) Aria Uttamchandani, Halle Benincasa and Luke Villalpando.

all marketing channels.

“I always hire a professional photographer to cover our recitals, and I rent out a cool art space for the occasion, so there’s all sorts of fanfare around the actual concert and the photo shoot,” says Rhodes. “I offer free family photos in addition to the student portraits. The whole atmosphere on that day is celebratory and, again, really touches on the community aspect of the school.”

Speaking of community, Rhodes, in addition to featuring locals who patronize his school, also is an active board member of the Larchmont Boulevard Association (LBA). He is a major asset to the group, according to fellow LBA board member Vivian Gueler.

“David is always willing to help out and is a technical wizard,” Gueler remarked. “He is the first person to solve (Please turn to page 4)

SECTION ONE

TAILS WAGGING. 13

SCHOOLS 10 YOUTH SPORTS 12 ENTERTAINMENT On the Menu 15 Theater 16 Movies 17

SECTION TWO

VIEW:

Real Estate Libraries, Museums Home & Garden

HERO WANTED. 8

THE NIMBY DIARIES 2 HOME GROUND 5 REAL ESTATE SALES 6 ON PRESERVATION 8 LIBRARIES 12 MUSEUMS 12 POLICE BEAT 14 BEEZWAX 15 CLASSIFIED ADS 15

SECTION THREE