IT'S ALL IN THE SPIN

I live in historic Cultural Monument 769 also known as Toberman Mansion, the last home of James R. Toberman. This honor has been conferred from a very odd "beginning." It all started over a bathtub.

A bit of history..........

Toberman was the first Anglo Mayor of Los Angeles, serving 7 one-year terms in office. Under his administration, the first electric street lights were lit, the first synagogue was built, the trolleys began running & USC was opened. Additionally he turned Los Angeles' finances from a deficit to a surplus by the time he left office. This house, built in 1907, was his residence until his death in 1911.

When I moved in, it was owned by Maria Kushko & her son Ted Wojdyla. It had been part of an inheritance, conferred by her uncle. The home was anything but a historic or cultural. While it resembled the Munster House of Mockingbird Lane, I was always able to see the beauty under the peeling paint, dirt & decay. I knew the house was something special, although Ted & Maria didn't seem to care enough to even clean it. (I could give details, but no one would believe it.) Naturally Ted also hated to make repairs. One tenant's bathtub was separating from the wall, with the shower spout hanging by a thread. It was so bad that in spots you could see into the basement.

This tenant begged, beseeched, cajoled & finally threatened him to fix it. In his "wisdom" he sloshed roofing tar around the tub & the spigot. This of course, stunk to high heaven & ultimately fixed nothing. After 6 months of exasperation, she called the City to complain. When the house didn't appear on any tax revenue records, the City Inspectors descended on this house like flies. (More about these trials & tribulations, at a later date.)

The house was declared "substandard" by the City with over 40 Code violations. Not wishing to disrupt his lifestyle, Ted put the house up for sale. Since this is an acre of corner, raised property in Los Angeles, it sold to a developer overnight. The house was quickly slated for demolition upon close of escrow.

Enter The Hollywood Heritage Foundation.....

A quick Internet search yielded the fact that this was J.R. Toberman's former home. The Heritage Foundation effectively blocked Ted's sale. In an emergency City Council meeting the house was quickly endowed with Cultural status. With it came a 1 year moratorium on its demolition. Simultaneously the City Attorney's office was putting the screws to Ted in the form of violations & compounding fines. We tenants got caught in the middle of City Inspectors, repairs, Council tours, the News Media, Property Estimators, potential Buyers & the increasing lunacy of the Owners who were stressed out of their minds & wallets.

It's been a long, sometimes painful, journey from the start of the City's intervention & the turnover of the house to Fran Offenhauser (President of the Hollywood Heritage Foundation). Which brings me to the present & the dedication of the house which was covered by the local news stations & press.

It's really all smoke, mirrors & some paint.....

I will gloss over the inconvenience of this "renovation," to the paying tenants. It has included moving out of the house for termite spraying, not being able to park in the driveway for days, not being able to open the windows for 8 weeks while sanding & spraying was going on... etc.

The day of the official presentation of the house to the "community" (a mixed neighborhood of immigrants & the young trying to get a toehold in LA) was attended by the local Councilman & the friend of Offenhauser - Mekeel, the husband & wife architectural team that owns it. I can only call this event a backslapping cluster f**k. To hear Fran & her friends tell it, they have done something amazing. It is Fran that suffered great burdens, cured cancer & rid the world of hunger. One such friend actually suggested to Greg (the other tenant that has been through this with me) that "living here now must be like a breath of fresh air."

Now here's some spin, in Fran's own words, "Although buying this property -- as well as the eight unit apartment building -- was a surefire money losing proposition. Saving a part of Los Angeles' history was worth every penny."

Whoa, hold on a minute! Ms. Offenhauser lost money? She INVESTED IT. This property was purchased for a mere 1.5 million dollars. Single family dwellings with less property & square footage are going in this neighborhood for 1.2 million. Additionally she has already sent out rent increases to every tenant in the house & in the apartment building. This is not to mention that Greg & I will eventually be displaced when she is ready to renovate our units. She intends to double the rents if he & I did so choose to return after the work is completed.

Make no mistake about it, I'm happy to see the house get a cosmetic make-over. (For the most part that's all they've been. No strutural or safety improvements have been made.) These historians who gentrify an area do no more than make it a playland that only the rich can afford. Take the gentrification of Harlem for example. The very folks who bought brownstones there & have cleaned up the neighborhood are now being taxed into oblivion. Mom & Pop shopkeepers are forced out because they can't pay the rent. This is also true of SoHo & the East Village in New York (The latter an area in which I resided in the early 80s when cab drivers wouldn't go there & it was still a neighborhood of immigrants, the poor & young professionals who braved this unknown area for its cheap rents, tree-lined streets & large units. Hey, sort of like where I live now!)

Funky, old original areas in Los Angeles like Pasadena, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Venice have all become over-priced. That which gives an area its flavor, its uniqueness is gobbled up by the big corporations, chain stores & the wealthy who can afford to patronize them. But somehow those involved convince themselves that they've done it for the community. A community that can now only afford to visit. It must be wonderful to live under your own ether!