November 2013 Casa de Rosas, 2600 S Hoover Street, LA 90007

November 2013
EPA Inspectors Sickened by
Toxic Fumes at University
Park Oil Field
Casa de Rosas, 2600 S Hoover Street, LA 90007
The famed Casa de Rosas at the southeast corner of Hoover Street and Adams
Blvd in West Adams is in serious danger,
currently abandoned, wide open, and
inhabited by transients, filled with knee
high trash, and at risk of destruction by
fire should the illegal occupants attempt
to build fires for cooking or warmth.
The large complex consists of three
adjacent buildings, the oldest dating from
1893, and totaling more than 37,000 square
feet. The original building was designed
by architect Sumner Hunt, who also designed such landmarks as the Bradbury
Building and the Auto Club headquarters
that anchors West Adams at Adams and
Figueroa. The Casa de Rosas is Los Angeles
Historic Cultural Monument number 241.
The building belongs to the City of
Los Angeles, which makes its neglect and
deterioration particularly outrageous. Leslie
Evans and Janice Robinson of the Southwest LAPD CPAB Blight and Homeless
Committee visited the site on November
12. Windows and doors on the sidewalks
facing Hoover and on the south side of the
property showed signs of recent break-ins
and shoddy repairs. Looking through a window into the living room showed the floor
totally covered with broken furniture, clothing, and trash.Worse, they found an opening
between the chain link fence and the building on the Adams Blvd side that offered free
access to the grounds. On the east side of
the property, once on the grounds, two doors
Continued on p. 2
Last month we reported that the South
Coast Air Quality Management District
(AQMD) had received some 250 complaints
from residents near the Allenco Energy Co.
residential oil field in West Adams’ historic
University Park, now mostly low-income
housing, asserting that their children were
chronically ill with headaches, nausea,
nosebleeds, and coughs. More than 100
residents had attended a meeting in October
with top AQMD officials asking for new
environmental testing to update inconclusive tests taken back in 2011. On November 8 a group of federal EPA inspectors
visited the urban oil field, and encountered
fumes so toxic they were sick for hours
afterward. The Los Angeles Times reported:
“Jared Blumenfeld, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency regional administrator
for the Pacific Southwest, was among those
stricken by the fumes during the recent tour
of the Allenco Energy Co. site in University
Park, about a half-mile north of USC. ‘I’ve
been to oil and gas production facilities
throughout the region, but I’ve never had an
experience like that before,’ Bumenfeld said.”
In response to sharply rising oil prices,
Allenco boosted its production at this facility by 400% in 2010. After that complaints
started to flood in. The EPA and the County
Health Department have stepped in because of residents’ skepticism about the
work of the AQMD. The new tests show
some episodic very high spikes in hydrocarbons, while according to the LA Times
the EPA and county health officials say
that they believe that prolonged exposure
even to levels that are not normally prohibited could well be causing the illnesses:
“Angelo Bellomo, director of environContinued on p. 2
1
Blight and Homeless Report
Distributed monthly by the Southwest LAPD Community Police Advisory Board (CPAB).
Community-Police Advisory Boards were created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1993 to give community members a vehicle to provide advice to and raise issues about crime and police-community relations with their local police stations.
Each of the 21 community police stations has its own CPAB chapter. Southwest CPAB is affiliated to
the Southwest Community Police Station, 1546 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90062.
Our aim is to identify homeless and blight locations within Southwest LAPD’s area, roughly from the 10 Freeway
on the north to Vernon on the south, and from the Harbor Freeway on the east to La Cienega. We log locations such
as blocked alleys, illegal businesses run from homes, and junk storage on residential properties. We accept requests
from residents to look into such problems. In each case we visit the location. If there appears to be a definite violation we photograph it and report it to the appropriate agency: Building and Safety, Housing, LAPD, Street Services,
etc. Determination of the validity of this judgment is always made by the professional staffs of these city agencies.
Blight and Homeless Committee chair: Leslie Evans, [email protected] 323-574-5586
Casa de Rosas Cont’d from p. 1
were wide open as well as several windows.
Calling Building and Safety, Evans
contacted Charles Kuan, the City Real
Estate Officer in charge of the. property,
213-922-8532. Kuan said a meeting was
scheduled for Thursday, November 14, to
discuss what to do with Casa de Rosas. It
would include representatives of the City
Council as well as Building and Safety and
other agencies. The City was aware that the
building was occupied by transients, but
there was disagreement on whether to move
promptly to remove them or to work with
them to find alternative housing. There was
also disagreement on whether to attempt
restoration of the building or simply to try
to secure it better, a debate that also raised
the problem of where to get the funds to do
anything. Kuan said to call him back around
November 26 when he might know more.
We have no further information at this
time. n
Allenco, Cont’d from p. 1
mental health for the county health department, said the symptoms described by
neighbors ‘are not inconsistent with what
we would expect to see after exposure to
low levels of hydrocarbons. So, while the
detectable concentrations of hazardous pollution may be below regulatory standards,
they are nonetheless making people sick.’”
On November 23 Allenco announced
that it would temporarily shut down its
University Park temporarily pending
the outcome of the EPA investigation.n
2
Update on Freeport-McMoRan Oil Co.
A second oil drilling operation in the
West Adams section of Southwest LAPD
territory in addition to Allenco Oil in University Park is Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas
Co., 1349-1375 Jefferson Blvd., between
Budlong Avenue and Van Buren Place, LA
90007. Also stimulated by skyrocketing
oil prices in 2010, Freeport-McMoRan
went before a Zoning hearing September
24 seeking permits to drill a new water injection well and to re-drill two older wells
that had been shut down for some time. The
drilling was slated to run 24 hours a day for
three months. We reported last month that
community protests persuaded Zoning Administrator Sue Chang to defer action on the
permits, ruling that Freeport-McMoRan Oil
& Gas had not properly notified residents.
Now, Freeport-McMoRan has become
alarmed at the proposal by LA City Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Mike Bonin to ban
all “well stimulation” within the city. The
embattled oil company sent out an October
4 flyer to people who receive royalty payments for mineral rights under their property
to email or phone all members of the City
Council to protest the proposed restriction.
On November 14, community activist
Richard Parks, who has been a central figure in opposing the new drilling operation,
met with Freeport-McMoRan’s director of
environmental health & safety and government affairs officer. The company had at
first agreed to a meeting with all concerned
but when Parks proposed representatives
from Comgressmember Karen Bass and
City Council member Bernard Parks the
company canceled, agreeing only to see
Parks alone. Parks repored afterward that the
official was “ready to argue everything and
concede nothing.” As with the Allenco Oil
Co. wells in University Park, residents near
the ramped up wells complain of bad smells,
headaches, broken sidewalks from heavy
truck traffic, and at least one blowout that
spalttered oil on cars and the adjacent house.
Whether the prolonged new drilling will
be allowed depends on a new Zoning Hearing
after Freeport-McMoRan has met its legal
obligation to inform community members,
or on the City Council’s action of the KoretzBonin statute which would ban the drilling.n
Closed in October
Homeless encampment, between 10 Fwy and 20th Street, east
of Normandie Avenue, LA 90007
A frequent spot for homeless camps
for many years, it was put on our list this
time in July 2013.It appeared to be a single
individual camped there. The alley is just
north of the 10 Freeway and runs east
from Normandie to Mariposa. It is located
in LAPD’s Olympic Division, but residents
south of the freeway in Southwest express
concerns as the westbound offramp from
BB Guns sold to children
from ice cream truck
The three air guns pictured below, powerful enough to put out an eye, were sold to
a ten year old child on July 1, 2013, from
an ice cream truck near Loren Miller Park,
2717 Halldale Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90018.
Unfortunately we have not been given a description of the ice cream truck or its license
number. Without that information there is
little that can be done and we are dropping
this from our active cases. If anyone has
further information please contact us.n
the 10 Freeway, which runs past the encampment, is a major entrance to the community south of there. Olympic cleared the
location at least twice in the last few years.
Called LA Homeless Services Authority June 3, 2013. They were not
aware of this camp and said they would
send out a team. The alley was cleared
in observation of October 27, 2013.n
Closed in November
4300 W. Adams Blvd. (north side of Adams
between Crenshaw and Bronson)
After the Sanitation Department and
LAPD cleared the large homeless camp
on the west side of Crenshaw north of
Adams Blvd. on September 10 a number
of the homeless men set up camp on Adams between Crenshaw and Bronson, in
front of a Chevron Station and an empty
lot. Sarah Elisabeth Washington of the
Bureau of Sanitation in a Sept. 23 email
reports that a request for an authorization
to clean the 4300 block of Adams has been
submitted, noting that under current legal
rules shopping carts and other personal
property of homeless people is immune
from being discarded in a city cleanup.
Local residents have reported to us that
the homeless on Adams are dumping their
trash and using the sidewalk on Bronson
as a toilet. Some are exposing themselves
to schoolgirls, and one man threw his
wheelchair in front of an MTA bus. It is
alleged that some of this group of homeless were engaged in sales of crack cocaine
when they were on Crenshaw before that
camp was closed, and are believed to be
continuing drug sales in their current location. Nearby residents have been cleaning
up the trash and excrement on Bronson.
We inspected the Adams Blvd. location
on Friday, October 18, were we met two
staff members of the Los Angeles Homeless
Services Authority. They said the visit this
location regularly and offer the homeless
immediate transportation to a shelter. This
is regularly refused by the members of this
group of homeless. The LAHSA representatives said they particularly come out any
time a city cleanup is scheduled, to give the
homeless a chance to accept shelter before
they lose some of their possessions. n
3
Closed in November
Continued
Kenwood to Normandie alley, just south of Jefferson
Reported to Street Services Oct 15. Received email confirmation Oct 16, confirmation
# 06825595 saying it had been scheduled for pickup. Was clean in observation of November 21.n
Vacant duplex, 821-823 W. 43rd Pl, LA 90037
Abandoned duplex. Building and Safety had case on this location since March 2013.
Put on our list in September 2013. Phoned Inspector 9/25/ 2013. He said Building and
Safety erected the chain link fence and had the place boarded. The owners were doing
extensive remodeling, but ran out of money and had halted constructdion. We found
the gate unlocked and the plywood removed from a back door. Inspector Corpuz on
9/25 had a city contractor replace the plywood over the back door. On October 17 we
found the city’s gate unlocked. We filed a new LADBS complaint October 20. In visit
of November 21 we found gate securely locked and construction had resumed. The existing building is being gutted.so looks worse than before but should be better soon.n
4
Active Cases
2633 Van Buren Place
Homeless Camp, Alley Between Western Ave and
Manhattan Place, Just North of 27th Street, LA90018
There appear to be a few people living in this north-south alley, just west of
Western Avenue at 27th Street. There were several piles of human excrement on
the grass of the parkway at this location on 27th Street. We reported the location to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, 213-683-3333, on November 21, 2013. They said they would send out an emergency response team.n
2500 S Normandie, Los Angeles, CA 90007
This property consists of a 1911 Craftsman 4-bedroom home with a 1940 garage
with two upstairs apartments. Abandoned
several years ago and illegally occupied
by the Harpys street gang. After foreclosure, owned by Deutsche Bank. LAPD got
the bank to evict the gang squatters and
seal all doors and windows. At present the
seals have been removed and many of the
windows are broken. Public records say the
property was bought by Samuel A. Wilkins,
who appears to live in Mill Valley in the
Single family house used as group
home. House has 5 bedrooms. Unlicensed
group homes are allowed only 6 tenants.
Large amounts of wall board and new
doors have been delivered. One tenant has
told neighbors that the absentee owner has
partitioned bedrooms pack more tenants into
the house. We reported construction without
permits to Building and Safety August 5,
2013. Assigned to Inspector Bruce Todd,
323-789-2786. We spoke to Todd in midNovember and he said an inspection was
scheduled for late November. Listed as
Under Investigation, November 24, 2013n
Bay Area, on 4/12/2012. One window appears to be open, and we have seen people
entering the building who do not appear
to be workmen. We do not know if the
building is in process of renovation or if
the vandalism is because it is untended. To
be on the safe side we reported it to Building and Safety November 21, 2013 to let
them determine the status. Case assigned
to Inspector Tim Fong, (213)252-3959 n
5
Leimert Plaza Park, some homeless on the far side.
Homeless Outreach in Leimert Park
Homelessness has been a growing
problem in the country since the Great
Recession began in 2008. There are
58,000 homeless in Los Angeles County.
While this is concentrated in the Downtown Los Angeles Skid Row area, it has
been spreading into other communities, particularly in South Los Angeles.
Southwest CPAB has been a regular participant in a united effort of a
group of public agencies, nonprofits, and
community volunteer groups to reach
out to homeless people in the Leimert
Park area near Crenshaw and Vernon.
The main vehicle has been the Homeless Intervention Project (HIP), designed
to bring homeless people and service
providers together. A particular gathering place for the homeless is the stretch
of grass in Leimert Plaza Park as the
confluence of Crenshaw and Leimert
Blvds. with Vernon Avenue, south of
the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza mall.
Flyers were circulated asking homeless persons willing to accept public
services to meet with service providers
at the Degnan Blvd. overflow parking lot
a block north of the park, at 43rd Street.
Two events were held. In Phase 1, 39
individuals received either housing referrals
or placement, and 6 individuals received
Department of Mental Health referrals.
In Phase 2, 20 homeless community
members were contacted and provided case
management services. Appointments were
set with Los Angeles County Department
of Public Social Services. Section 8 housing vouchers were provided for two clients.
The participating organizations in
the Homeless Intervention Project are:
6
•
•
•
•
•
•
Los Angeles City Council Districts 8
and 10
National Alliance on Mental Illness
(NAMI)
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA)
Los Angeles County Department of
Mental Health – West Central Division
South Central Health and Rehabilitation Project (SCHARP) – Oasis
House
Los Angeles Department of Public
Social Services (DPSS)
• Los Angeles Police Department –
Southwest Division
• Los Angeles City Department of Public Works, Street Services Division
• Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office of
the Neighborhood Prosecutor
• Los Angeles Third Church of Religious Science – Volunteer Corps
• Black Employees Association – Volunteer Corps
• Veterans Administration (VA)
• Crenshaw Business Improvement
District
• Southwest Community-Police Advisory Board (C-PAB)n
Degnan Blvd. overflow parking lot, where the homeless met service providers.
3115 W Adams Blvd., LA 90016, the Elegant Manor
1903 Italian Gothic mansion, Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #258.
It has sat empty for almost a decade at the
corner of Adams and Arlington. It has been
on and off the market since 2007. Building and Safety has had orders for repairs
pending for a long time, enforcement held
off on the assumption that there would
soon be a new owner. We were informed
by Linda Marais of the West Adams Avenues Association on September 16 that
the latest escrow had fallen through. The
historic house appears to be threatened
with destruction by calculated neglect. The
accumulating neglect has led neighbors to
fear that the owners hope that deterioration
will reach such a point that it will override
the protections the house has as a historic
monument and it can be torn down and
replaced with something more profitable.
The LADBS website lists the current
orders to comply on this property:
“Maintenance and repair of existing
building located in an Historical Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) and designated as an Historical Monument (#258
‘Fitzgerald House’).
“Maintenance and repair of existing
building designated as an Historical Monument. Windows in need of maintenance,
repair or replacement. “Maintenance and
repair of existing building. Brick chimney at rear of house in need of repair.
Chimney at the front of the house repaired
without permit nor inspections.”
The deadline for compliance was
7/18/2013, The inspector is Dave Matson,
213-252-3957. Our information is that the
case has gone to Frank Lara, the Principal
Inspector for Building and Safety’s Vacant
Building Abatement Group, 213-252-3931.
In the last few weeks a For Sale sign
has gone up on the property, indicating
that it is back on the market. The sign lists
David Spangler of Strategic Home Realty,
818-402-1989. The Strategic Home office
number is given as 866-698-8644. Calling
this last number produces the message:
“The person at extension 400 is not available.” The website is listed as www.strategichomes.com. That link is dead. We have
no further information as of November 24.n
Weekly Yard Sales at
1609 W. 36th Place, LA
9018
This location, a single family home,
holds weekly yard sales every Saturday
and Sunday as a regular business. Neighbors say this has been going on for eight
years. This was reported to Building and
Safety by the Empowerment Congress North
Area Neighborhood Development Council
almost two years ago, on November 1,
2011, but the case was closed and the yard
sales continued. We photographed a yard
sale there on Saturday, August 3, 2013. We
filed a new complaint with Building and
Safety that day, Case has been assigned
to Inspector John Lobue, 323-789-1491.
Listed as Under Investigation, 10-20-2013
Below are photos of yard sales
at this location on Oct 22, 2011,
Aug 3, 2013, and Oct 19, 2013.
The LADBS website liste the location as
under investigation as of November 24, 2013,
Inspector John Lobue, 323-789-1491.n
7
Abandoned Motel, 1474-1478 W. Jefferson Blvd., LA 90007
This long-vacant motel and its adjacent
empty lot at the southeast corner of Jefferson and Normandie is a major eyesore
for our community. The windows are
“boarded” with random scraps of plywood,
most not actually covering the window.
The frontfacing Jefferson, was covered
with grafitti. We reported it to Building
and Safety October 19, 2013, at least for
the unpainted grafitti, which is a violation,
but also as a blight problem. It has been assigned case #317517. It has been assigned
to Inspector Bruce Todd, 323-789-2786.
The property is listed as owned by
University Inn, Llc, 3027 S. Vermont Ave.
In turn, this company is listed as owned by
Tarek Aly, who runs an income tax and auto
insurance business, also at 3027 S. Vermont,
phone 323-730-9090. Both the motel and
the empty lot (address: 1480 W. Jefferson)
are secured by a tall steel fence. This may
8
limit Building and Safety’s options. There
are two dogs confined in the empty lot.
We reported that to the South LA Animal
Shelter on October 11, case #A13031300.
An Officer Bacon went out that day and left
a “Preseizure Hearing Notice” on the gate
addressed to “dog owner.” We found the
notice unclaimed on October 17. We phone
the shelter, and on October 18 were able to
reach Officer Navarro, the person in charge.
She said that, while she did not have the
field inspectors final report that her impression was that the dogs were supplied with
food, water, and some kind of shelter. We
did not see evidence of those things during
several visits, but the fence is solid and can
only be seen through in a few small holes in
the sheet metal so we may have missed it.
We reached Inspector Todd by phone in
mid-November. He said the property had
been given order both to paint out the grafitti
and to reduce the derelict appearance, with
a compliance date of November 28. He said
there had been a $356 fee imposed for investigating the complaint, and that there would
be a $550 fine for failure to comply. If the
property owner missed a second compliance
date that second fine would be about $1,000.
In observation of November 21 the
grafitti had been painted out, but the unsightly scrap plywood remained on the windows.
The Building and Safety website as of November 24 listed two orders for the November 28 compliance date, the grafitti, which
has been fixed, but also “Building premises are not maintained,” which has not.n
Four H Shaped Alleys
There are four H shaped alleys, one in
each of the four blocks between Vermont
and Normandie Avenues and between
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Leighton.
They are entered at the upright posts of the
Hs, which run north and south, one house
in from the corners at Vermont, Budlong,
and Normandie. The long cross bar runs
east and west in the interior of these four
blocks. The seclusion - the interior alleys
can only be seen from the back yards of
the houses or by entering the north-south
segments and walking to the center of
the block - encourages illegal dumping.
In addition, there is a homeless man
living in the Vermont-Budlong-BrowningLeighton alley, which discourages Dept.
of Sanitation workers from entering. We
reported all four to Sanitation August 19.
As of November 21 only one of the alleys
has been cleaned: the Budlong-NormandieBrowning-Martin Luther King segment.n
H shaped alleys between
Leighton and Browning and
between Vermont Ave and
Normandie Avenue
These were reported to Street Services
on August 19, confirmation # 06710025,
but were not cleaned as of October 17. We
filed a new cleaning request online October 20, 2013. On a site visit on November
21 none of the remaining three alleys had
been cleaned. We spoke to the residents of
a home that backed onto the Vermont-Budlong-Browning-Leighton alley and they
said they had called Sanitation many times
and the city had never cleaned this alley.
There is no homeless issue in BudlongNormandie segment but Sanitation has not
cleaned that either in the more than three
months since our first service request.n
9
H shaped alley between
Vermont and Budlong and
between Martin Luther King
and Browning Blvd.
This is one of four adjacent alleys reported to Street Services on August 19, confirmation # 06710025. It was not cleaned as of
October 17. We filed a new cleaning request
online October 20, 2013. In a site visit of
November 21, no cleaning had taken place.n
Illegal Outdoor
Restaurant, 1741 W.
Jefferson Blvd., LA 90018
Tenants in Apartment 114 of this 14
unit building operate an illegal outdoor
restaurant on the public sidewalk on the
northeast corner of Hobart and Jefferson
Blvds. They set up a propane grill on the
sidewalk, folding tables, multiple propane tanks, and outdoor lighting running
on extension cords from Apartment 114
(which faces Hobart). The food service
runs every Saturday and Sunday afternoons
well into the evenings, and sometimes on
Friday evening. Reported to the Housing
Department Code Enforcement section on
Sunday, October 20, 2013. Case #s 454738.
We received a phone call from a Housing inspector who said that they consider
their job to be to enforce habitability issues
and not to monitor tenant behvior. In fact,
several years ago code enforcement, which
had been entirely with Building and Safety,
was split, so that Building and Safety re-
10
tained occupied single family homes, commercial buildings, and vacant structures,
while Housing was given responsibility for
multifamily units beginning with duplexes.
Building and Safety will investigate
many kinds of tenant misbehavior, including excessive junk storage, too many yard
sales, and any kind of illegal business,
such as a restaurant run from a home.
The Housing inspeactor proposed calling the Health Department. We did that and
received two calls from Health inspectors,
who agreed that the “restaurant was illegal
and that they would cite the operators. We
have no further information at this time.n
Abandoned food stand and storage container,
4319 S Hoover Street LA 90037
We have received several complaints
from nearby residents about the condition of this property. This mostly empty
lot at the corner of Hoover and 43rd Place
contains an abandoned 720 square foot
food service stand built in 1950. Permits
were issued in 1999 to keep a 40 foot
steel storage container on this large lot.
That permit expired on 3/19/2008. A second permit for a storage container was
issued on 2/26/2007, and that expired on
10/1/2009. There is one storage container
on the lot now. Both the container and the
abandoned food stand are heavily grafittied.
A complaint was filed by someone with
Building and Safety on July 25, 2013. It is
listed as “closed” on the LADBS website.
The inspector was John Klarin, 323-7891488. We phoned Klarin in early October.
He said the owner could not be located and
that the property appears to have been abandoned. He was frankly annoyed at the call
and very defensive, complaining that he had
to cover the whole of Council District 9 and
that issues such as this could not be fixed.
We did a property search and quickly
found that the owner is Harold W. Dickens.
In addition to 4319 S Hoover he owns 3
other properties. His home appears to be
at 3842 S Hobart Blvd., LA 90062, and he
has an apartment or office at 1245 Martin
Luther King Jr Blvd., LA 90037, as well
as a home at 14905 S White Avenue in
Compton. So the owner is not impossible
to find. The blight appearance of the property encourages massive illegal dumping
in front of it on 43rd Place just west of
Hoover. We see the Broken Windows theory
of quality of life crime in operation here.
When one element of blight is allowed to
fester it lets vandals know that the location
is up for grabs and no one cares about it.
We filed a new Building and Safety
complaint on October 21, 2013. It was
again assigned to Inspector John Klarin.
The LADBS website on November 24 declared it “No Violation.” We believe this is
a failure by Building and Safety to enforce
its existing ordinances, at the minimum
over the unpainted grafitti and most probably in regard to the storage contained for
which the permit appears to have expired.n
11