Is It Safe Part 3

My Megan's Law story

In every transaction wherein I represent a buyer, I include a disclosure detailing the Megan's Law database, which offers location specific information about registered sex offenders. Once a buyer fumed, apparently after consulting the site, "you were going to let me buy a house near registered sex offenders. What sort of neighborhood do you think I'll live in?!"
I didn't have any specific knowledge of nearby sex offenders--I'm not required to--and I didn't argue the point. I asked only, "did you check your current neighborhood?"
A day passed before the client called, full of even greater dismay, "my block [in West Hollywood]", they convulsed, " is teeming with sex offenders!"

People often presume their current neighborhood to be safe, or more safe, than the place less known, and less white*. But try telling people that the neighborhood they live in is unsafe, it's like going after their gods, particulary if they're illusional Westsiders, living in the "burglary box" (Santa Monica to Federal, Santa Monica Blvd. to Wilshire), or some other supposed safe haven. When a home invasion happens in Beverly Hills, residents cup their ears, eyes, and mouth. "Unusual", they drone, "the exception." But when a kid gets cut near Vermont Knolls, the whip hand sounds and the righteous nod dismissively.

*Ah the ugly ethic thang. But sometimes clients surprise, I once had a Mexican-born buyer voice particularly strong interest in neighborhoods populated with older African American residents. "Very respectful", he opined. "I don't want a neighborhood that's all Mexican", he elaborated, "things can get loco."

New and Reduced

Hilariously in a recent real estate e-flyer, a day old listing was touted as "reduced". Reduced, right out of the shute! Canny marketing acumen? Perhaps. Kooky salesperson typo? Possibly. Everybody loves a bargain? Surely. In what has become a comic buyer/seller dance. Listings debut, undergo a three week hazing, reduce, and then sell. Buyers, looking to tear the initial price down, feel triumphant. Sellers, having priced for a subsequent reduction, feel triumphant.

But what a way to get around that, newly listed properties heralded as reduced. I've decided therefore that my next listing will be promoted as "Twice Reduced!" Or "Savagely Reduced!" "Ruthessly Reduced!" Reductio ad absurdum?

Speaking of reduced, the duplex at 1114 W. 40th Pl. in underrated West Park, USC close, has reduced to $549K and is open today from 11: 30 am - 2 pm. My associate Suzie Henderson will be there to meet and greet.


Elsewhere, I'm holding my second brokers open at 2361 W. 20th St. from 11 am - 2:30 pm. If you're cruising, stop in.

Sunday's Action

Sunday I'll be at 2361 W. 20th St. for my first "non-industry" open, from 2 - 5:30 pm.
A few more photos then to lure the fence sitters:
2361 W. 20th St. is located in Western Heights, aka the Six Blissful Blocks, a close knit neighborhood nicely swaddled between Washington, the 10 freeway, Arlington, and Western.


That ain't no pint-size tub neither, it's a full six-footer. The bathroom also boasts a commodious linen closet.

Pretty nice kitchen stack, eh? I've got other beauty shots as well. Wait till you get a load of the O'Keefe and Merritt stove.

Also the house is located in a temperate pleasure dome, set for low humidity and year round temperatures in the high 70's. Ok, I made that last part up, but the joint does sport AC.

Dutch Revival

Los Angeles hasn't many examples of Dutch Renaissance Revival architecture (or Mannerist Revival also termed pont-street Dutch or Flanders Revival), the Van De Kamps Holland Dutch Bakery in Atwater Village may be the most noteworthy.




The trapgevel or Dutch gable is a stair step like design at the triangular gable-end of the building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roof-line and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a step-like pattern as decoration and as a convienent way to finish the brick courses. It was also motivated by practical concerns, access for roofers, chimney sweeps, etc.


This house might be considered Dutch Revival or Dutch Eclectic, for amongst other features, its steeply pitched parapeted roof and centered gable or pediment with rich entablature. The house resides regrettably and distractingly close to the 10 freeway Hoover off-ramp (on Arapahoe at 22nd). Always I crane my neck to look from the feeder lane, longer than I should.
The revival styles or neo-styles are inconsistent, sometimes because elements from several older styles were combined (so called eclecticism).

Pairs of square, fluted, Greek columns, a Greek revival element (though never found in Greek and Roman prototypes), add to an intense facade.




I think this qualifies as a Fractable, a coping on the gable wall of a building, when carried above the roof, and especially when broken into steps, or curves forming an oriental silouhette.

One day I'll introduce myself to the occupants: "Hi I'm Adam, and I regularly admire your house from the 10."

I haven't yet, but I will. Why not?

Anderson Plywood

Anderson Plywood in Culver City is my favorite place to buy plywood, and cabinet building aids, fasteners and adhesives.

They carry an astonishing assortment of plywood (plyboo, anyone?), lumber (oak, fir, maple, alder, ash, pine, etc), manufactured boards (like melanine, MDF, Sound board, etc), and veneer.


Four times a year, the store hosts a used tool swap meet in the parking lot. The next is scheduled for the third Saturday in November.

Anderson will work off cut lists, and trim pieces to your exact specifications with little wait.


Also nearby, at 11266 Washington Place is Anderson Moldings, a great place to check for basic and stock mouldings.

Anderson Plywood
4020 Sepulveda Blvd.
Culver City
310-397-8227

New Listing/Open Tuesday

Here's the skinny, I'm having my first open for 2361 W. 20th St. on Tuesday, from 11 am - 2:30 p.m.. I'll also hold a twi-light refresher that evening from 6 pm - 7:30 pm. So if you can't make it during the day, stop by after work. Now for the spiel.....

Western Heights Immaculate

2361 West 20th Street

3 bedrooms plus den 1 and 1/3 baths 1,966 square feet per appraiser

The Meyers Residence, c. 1908

Sensational craftsman bungalow with exceptional scale and exquisite, restored elements. Expansive, high-ceilinged public rooms bounded by architectural detail, endowed with pristine quarter-sawn oak floors, and broad, unpainted, character-defining woodwork. Abundant windows, some replete with leaded glass transoms, compliment the open floor plan, and render even discrete spaces awash in profuse natural light. Unexpectedly large secondary rooms and an exceptionally deep front porch maintain the airy aestethic. Located in the desirable Western Heights HPOZ, in prime West Adams.

*6,359 square foot lot
*Original built-ins in five rooms
*Period and custom reproduction light fixtures & hardware
*Impressive cast stone fireplace
*Freshly painted exterior
*New central heat & air
*Private rear yard with new sod
*Detached garage
*Easy 10 freeway access (Arlington exit)
*Potential Mills Act (property tax reducing) eligibility
*Preliminary neighborhood street closures
*Active neighborhood association

Offered at $779,000.00

I'll write more about the Meyers Residence later this week, but in short, it's one of the most ease-inducing homes I've ever been associated with. Be aware, 20th is closed off at Arlington, so one needs to enter from Washington Blvd. at Cimarron, or on Gramercy (either at Adams or Washington). 2361 is on the North side of the street, between Arlington and Cimarron. Thomas Guide: 633/G6. I hope to see everyone there.

More Sports Arena

The Men's Bathroom. A latrine!

Retrofit Items Part 1

Nearly all residential properties sold in the City of Los Angeles must show proof of installation of four "retrofit" items.

Hot water heater tanks must be braced and strapped.

A shut-off valve must be attached to the gas meter which operates during a seismic event.

Smoke detectors must be installed in and outside bedrooms. They needn't be hardwired, the battery powered stick-up kind is permitted.

The toilets must flush with 1.6 gallons or less (though some historical properties/toilets are exempt from this requirement).

The yellow pages are filled with retrofit companies who certify toilets, bolster hot water heaters, and install the "little fireman" valve. Other cities have different/greater/lesser requirements. In the city of Berkeley, hot water heaters must also have a R-12 insulation wrap, and attics must have insulation of R-30 or greater.

Not that I'm a regulation junkie, but here's four other items I might endorse if energy savings and safety were truly the retrofit goals (for Los Angeles and environs).

1. Limitations on lawn size (already adopted by some municipalities) and sprinkler volume. What sense does it make to chuck three-gallon flush toilets and install low-flow showerheads, when boss man keeps his quarter-acre backyard looking like the greens at Augusta? Or when his sprinklers bathe the driveway and sidewalk every night?

2. A damper requirement on chimneys. Insulation and weather-stripping are commendable, but if your chimney is open, you're losing that which you gained.

3. Security bar releases. Currently, only legal bedrooms are required (in case of fire) to have an unlocking mechanism. For real? We've got households with people sleeping in dens, breakfast rooms, and on staircase landings. All window bars need to have releases, and they need to be simple enough for a child to operate.

4. Trees, trees, trees. I know I'm a tree junkie, but here's the mantra: trees and vegetation cool the air by providing shade and through evapotranspiration (the evaporation of water from leaves). According to the U.S. E.P.A., shaded walls may be 9 to 36 degrees fahrenheit cooler than the peak surface temperatures of unshaded walls. Since we seem intent on stuffing the desert Southwest with an ineradicable wave of development, this is sort of a big deal. I won't even go into the powerplant water usage or emissions thing...

Is It Safe Part 2

Pupusas or dancing girls? Options abound at and around the corner of Vermont and Washington. "Con queso," came my reply as Rocky and I veered southeast towards University Park and North University Park. That's right, North University Park is South of University Park, don't ask me why.


The City Living Realty offices sit at the crosshairs of Union, 24th, and Hoover. A current Volkswagen tv spot, showcases these marvelous Victorian Village facades. A sympathetic tow truck driver, opts not to abscond with an errantly parked Passat, and instead tows the objet du desir five feet forward, out a red zone.



Continuing East along 23rd, we increasingly share the sidewalk with USC students or at least student aged youth, skateboarding, biking, wearing backpacks, engaged with their i-things. This brick apartment building has been recently and encouragingly restored. Once, when it was filthy and boarded up, I saw film schoolers shooting a WWII love story against its facade.


I seldom travel further East than Figueroa, not because of what lies beyond--the 110 freeway, warehouse districts, underappreciated East Adams--solely on account of distance. Time to arc West, beginning North on Toberman.

Recently, a client sent me a link to a site titled LAlife.com/WestAdams. The site offers a safety score, the API scores for local schools, and house per square foot data.
The "West Adams" safety score, my prospective buyer bemoaned, was 0.5 on a scale of 0 to 10 (with 10 being best). Furthermore a thing called the LAlife crime index, which purported to measure violent crime, assigned a rating of 54 to the West Adams area, 200% higher than the LA County average. I was a bit taken aback, crestfallen really, and I considered any number of responses and sorry, partial refutations, anecdotal, statistical, the testimonials of others; until, I studied the LAlife site again. The "West Adams" borders were completely misidentified, all wrong, utterly wrong, thoroughly wrong, and included much higher crime areas, adjacent to Baldwin Village for example.

Isn't that just the problem with the world? People who know nothing, read things written by people who know little, and then everyone thinks they know a lot. I'm guilty of that.
At any rate, I'm still out there walking, nearly every night, thus far with only happy incident, greetings from neighbors, short, friendly exchanges with other passers-by, and occasionally a good taco.

Guess the Location (again)

1. Burnt bungalow shell bounded by boring box-o-miniums.

A. Venice
B. Inglewood
C. South Los Angeles


Answer: A (Abbott Kinney Boulevard)

2. Tatty craftsman with front yard billboard, wall of cinder block and chain link.

A. Venice
B. Hollywood
C. South Los Angeles

Answer: A (Abbott Kinney Boulevard)

3. Neon-clad body art parlor in handsome 1920's storefront

A. Venice
B. San Pedro
C. South Los Angeles

Answer: C (Washington & Harvard Boulevards)

Concrete Countertops

In an effort to finish my kitchen before the next millenium, I asked Seth Ernsdorf to fabricate countertops of tinted concrete.

My original countertops I suspect were wood, later tiled over, and badly sagging by which time I came along, compromised by grout-less fissures. Unable to reuse the original materials, I installed plywood atop the cabinets as a stop gap measure, whilst we debated the universe of countertop choices. Ultimately we opted, impressed by Seth's craftsmanship, to carry the spirit of the tinted concrete on the porch, into the kitchen.

The concrete tops (1 and 1/4" thick) are reinforced with rebar, polypropalene fibers, water reducer and admixture. The concrete is sealed with a food-safe penetrating sealer and finished with a topical curing sealer. The wet mix was pigmented to our color specifications, and Seth included three color passes. Our counters also included a backsplash, sink cut-out, drop-skirt, eased corners, and holes for a wall mount faucet. The total countertop square footage was about 35, and the job, including painless installation, ran around four thousand dollars.

For more information and other examples visit Seth (and his right-hand man Ivan) at www.ernsdorfdesign.com, or call him at 323-377-6965.

Tuesday's Caravan

We're supposedly swimming in inventory, thousands of foreclosure notices and re-setting mortgages have combined to create listings by the bushel. Properties are being hocked on street corners like bean pies, hot house roses, or illegal fireworks.

On Monday I leafed through the MLS open house guide, hoping to set a Tuesday caravan itinerary, maybe split between a couple of clients and numerous new and repeat listings. Nothing. In all of area 16, my epicenter, not a solitary open in the guide, and only one single-family open in area 17 (Mid-Wilshire). In area 19 (Beverly Center, Miracle Mile), nothing was featured under $1,139,000.

I'm not claiming all is good in the real estate world, ignoring the grey financial markets, and the sub-prime submergence, down the rabbit hole, into the looking glass, and off to see the wizard. Still, I have to guffaw when people bleat-on about inventory and scads of sales signs. Despite the media broad-brush there are entire neighborhoods without a single offering of undisputed quality or value, others with strong sales and rising prices. (Insert my usual disclaimer here: I have no idea what's on the bluffs or by the bay.)

"Buyer's strike" or no buyer's strike, there just isn't that much good available, even if that which is good is taking a little longer, in some instances, to sell. Maybe that's just my conservatism. Maybe I'm on strike too.

Clear Coating

More and more I'm transitioning to water-based products, even in my finishes. In the kitchen, of all rooms, I'm using General Finishes Polyacrylic, on my ebony-stained woodwork.

I first sought out water based products after a series of tests revealed the yellowing effects of the oil-based top coats. I wanted to maintain the stain color, but the amber base of the varnishes and shellacs (shellacs use a natural resin secreted by a tree beetle) overly intensified the warm accents. (Which sometimes is a desirable effect.)

The General Finishes Top Coat, looks milky but goes on clear. Fine Woodworking Magazine rated the General Finishes product, available through Rockler, best in the water based finishes brush-on category. The water based products still contain many of the same materials as oil-based products, notably urethane, alkyd, and acrylic, but some of the flammable and most polluting chemicals have been replaced by water.

Oh and another thing, the stuff hardly smells and its drying time seems shorter.

Civic Embarrassment

My other big-city friends think I'm moonlighting for the Chamber of Commerce, such is my fealty.

"You're a booster," they tease, "but your city has the worst traffic in the country."
"It may have the lengthiest average commute," I counter, "but only because a bunch of loons drive from Tehachapi to Carson, or from LaPuente to Lomita, which is like the equivalent of travel between Crystal Lake and Robbins." "Well that's nutty", the agitators admit, "who'd try to do that?"
"Exactly."

"But there isn't any nightlife," they complain. "No, it isn't in the open," I respond, "there're clubs and bars and late night restaurants, maybe not a district per se like the French Quarter, though West Hollywood and the Sunset Strip come pretty close. The difference is, plenty of entertaining goes on in the home. People aren't fleeing cramped apartments or winterly isolation, they're hosting dinner, sometimes alfresco, in large, lovely formal dining rooms, or on poolside banquettes."

"What about leadership," they'll pepper, "what in the heck is Villaraigosa doing?"
"Tree planting."
"Good, what else?"
"Stumping for more money for the 405 freeway expansion."
"Lame. Bloomberg's mandated hybrid taxis."
"Presiding over the grand opening of a downtown supermarket."
"Come on", they chant becoming more disagreeable, "the downtown thing was already in the pipeline, as was Bratton."
"Schoolboard control?"
"Control?! Some influence is more like it."
"He bedded a looker from Telemundo?" Predictably, this breaks up the exchange and only draws sorry comparisons with the better complected Gavin Newsome. As I stammer on about Los Angeles becoming less about more, and more about better, and what a sea change that is, I do start to wonder.....

Is It Safe (Continues/Returns)?

Another night, another walk, through the supposed favelas of mid-city, courting almost certain danger, maybe a stiff hamstring or a mild case of turf toe.

Two of the many storefront churches I encounter. In this corner of town, these venues are commanded almost entirely by Hispanic congregations, and are not necessarily limited to Catholic denominations. Some of these modest retail-built spaces formerly hosted African-american congregations.

For the record, I'm accompanied by a dog the size of the Nandi bull, but only because my orange tabby won't accept a leash.

Looking for hot spots, we light out for Loren Miller Park. The only rowdies are playing soccer on a tennis court, basketball games are in full swing, and a man sells salted sugar cane. No one takes any notice of us.



Angling through Adams-Normandie we confront the Budlong Tunnel, West Adams' most infamous dump site. Legend has it, Roland Souza furnished an entire house with Budlong Tunnel discards, including window treatments. Tonight it's quiet and only a few items have been left behind.

Elsewhere Washington Boulevard is still at work. Near the school-site, no the other school site, no the other school site, Allied Uniforms is busy. But not too busy to offer a tour.
"You're just out for a walk?" the supervisor questions.
"Yeah", I answer, "there's a lot to see."
(Ipso facto, the supervisor thinks I'm without use of a car.) "A lot of our employees walk too," he adds courtly.

END OF PART ONE

Out of Town Newspapers

People send me things, sometimes out-of-town newspapers (real estate sections). Most are pretty informative and pleasingly devoid of the latest on Frankie Muniz's remodel, or gossip from the Malibu colony.

This paper features an article on real estate counselling for couples. He wants a farm house, she wants a chic highrise, whatever will they do?

My sister-in-law sends me the Milwaukee Herald-Tribune, obsessed with green building and spiraling assessments. One such article interviewed a woman who had the misfortune of new neighbors from California. (Presumably the fiscally irresponsible Californians were to blame for her adjusted taxes.)

I used to look forward to reading the sports pages when I traveled, now it's either the local section or the real estate supplement, and little else. Sometimes this myopia causes me to lose touch.
"Did you hear the big news about Scooter Libby," I'm asked.
"No", I might respond searchingly, "but the Canal Fulton feed mill collapsed...outside Akron....Ohio."