Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 8h

So cool! Bunker Hill historian Nathan Marsak made a new friend in a Angels Flight Facebook thread whose grandfather managed the lovely Astoria Hotel and Apartments on Olive Street, and he's shared some family photos and lore for Nathan's blog. bunkerhilllosangeles.com/2025/10/12/n...

5

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 10h

A special treat on yesterday's Know Your Downtown L.A tour: Paul welcomed the group into his pskaufman showroom in the beautiful F&W Grand Silver Store Building (Walker and Eisen, 1931) at 537 South Broadway. If you're looking for cool boots, stop on by www.pskaufman.com

1 5

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 12h

We've written about this: If we could choose the next Los Angeles Conservancy president...
esotouric.substack.com/laconservancy

If we could choose the next Los Angeles Conservancy president...

Gentle reader,

esotouric.substack.com

2

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 13h

Reading about Diane Keaton's 2000s preservation advocacy, it seems like the $4.9M LAUSD Ambassador Hotel settlement to end litigation broke the Los Angeles Conservancy's spirit. A once fierce organization grew quieter as the city was stripped for parts. variety.com/2025/film/ne...

How Diane Keaton Tirelessly Campaigned to Preserve Los Angeles’ Architectural History

Remembering Diane Keaton's work as a board member of the Los Angeles Conservancy, campaigning to preserve LA's architectural history.

variety.com

2 9 30

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 14h

SB79: is it about housing, or power? State regulatory agency HCD hid the pending collapse of the Skid Row Housing Trust pyramid scheme--while hundreds of units we all paid for went unused. esotouric.com/skidrowhousi...

Yeah, LA's a mess. Sacramento is, too. calmatters.org/housing/home...

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 16h

It is not a cooking provisions market as it was when it opened in 1917, mostly prepared food now, but it's the best and liveliest part of Downtown Los Angeles because people naturally want to be there.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 1d

The haunts are out at Grand Central Market -- happy Hallowe'en!

1 1 13

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 1d

Looking forward to reading public comments and hearing from concerned Angelenos at the Rec and Parks Commission hearing on 10/16. City Hall's lack of imagination and focus on punitive "solutions" holds the city back. MacArthur Park needs a Conservancy / Friends group to advise.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

Good lord! The city wants to FENCE MacArthur Park, a protected city landmark (HCM #100) that has never been cut off from the community.
www.laparks.org/sites/defaul...

This $2.3 Million scheme will be discussed by the Rec and Park Commission on 10/16 at 9am.
ens.lacity.org/rap/agenda/r...

1 1 4

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 1d

New from Mike Callahan: reverse engineering LA's deliberately opaque RHNA numbers to find an apparent statistical fraud in the 6th cycle allocation. Why are city employees misrepresenting the data, displacing families for tiny units with no green space? thedustyarchive.substack.com/p/housing-ne...

1

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

If you didn't snag one of the coveted tickets on tomorrow's Know Your Downtown Los Angeles tour, here's a virtual peep at the tunnel system beneath the Barclay Hotel, with its sidewalk prism illumination. It would have been bright as day, but so discrete.

2 3

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

Good lord! The city wants to FENCE MacArthur Park, a protected city landmark (HCM #100) that has never been cut off from the community.
www.laparks.org/sites/defaul...

This $2.3 Million scheme will be discussed by the Rec and Park Commission on 10/16 at 9am.
ens.lacity.org/rap/agenda/r...

7 7

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

We were there as work finished up replacing the red sandstone "Y" on the Bradbury Building facade that sloughed off earlier this week, and a kind artisan from Spectra gave us some real sandstone relics to keep!
youtube.com/shorts/jEhDx...

YouTube

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

youtube.com

2 6

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

As City Council signs off on the 4th and Central mega project that would take down George Wyman's lovely ice house (why no adaptive reuse?), we're beating the drum for locating, preserving and activating the service tunnels. If Cleveland can do it...
www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles...

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

SB79 disproportionately impacts Los Angeles, which is already reeling from unchecked land use corruption, money laundering vacant building hoards, unlicensed predatory rehabs and care homes, jail realignment, the fires and LADWP hacking. It's not urban planning: it's war on us.

1 3

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

Friends of Hart Park celebrate the centennial of William S. Hart’s "Tumbleweeds" with a live score from Ray Lowe. Tickets for the benefit support efforts to maintain historic resources and care for the park's menagerie. scvnews.com/oct-25-frien...

1

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

This blighted mess of a block could be the new beating heart of Hollywood's entertainment zone, with an owner who cares. Essex just wanted entitlements for the huge apt. tower, branded with Beryl Wallace's holy name. They got it--we got nothing. Fix this! www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFUm...

Hollywood Landmarks Blighted: Earl Carroll Theatre and Morgan Camera

YouTube video by esotouric

www.youtube.com

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 2d

It's working! The Earl Carroll Theatre is back on the market at $12M, with the to-be restored neon sign highlighted. Failure to complete this legally binding condition of Essex’ new development next door is why we sent out this newsletter in January 2024. esotouric.substack.com/earlcarroll

1 1 2

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 3d

For sale: Wetzel's Spartan Market, the red corner store with a 5-room grocer's flat above that's been serving Hollywoodians since 1912. It is actually perfect, so please don't buy if you want to "fix" it, and especially don't paint the awning! www.loopnet.com/Listing/1259...

1 9

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 3d

The spec affordable projects are falling fast, and our blighted, ruined historic apartment districts will never recover. RIP Normandie/James M. Woods charmers, 8 households Ellised, lot scraped clean, selling for peanuts, if it sells at all. www.loopnet.com/Listing/854-...

Mini golf?

1 1

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 3d

Just in time for Hallowe'en, there is a terrifying (yet strangely alluring) new attraction at the Elmer McCurdy Museum: half lady / half spider hybrid of horrors SPIDORA! Meet her if you dare when you visit www.elmermuseum.com

1 7

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 3d

The owner that never rented the TOC apartments, D and K Con LLC, also sought to demo the School of Eye Education next door—landmark designation saved it. Now it’s fenced and hard to see. What will happen to the protected HCM if the care home is abandoned? cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkc...

1

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 4d

Also, note the historic houses demolished for the 1540 S St. Andrews Soul Housing facility where the evictions began. This was permitted as TOC apartments, 38 units, 4 extremely low income. So why was it operating as a care home?! www.ladbsservices2.lacity.org/OnlineServic... @emptylosangeles

1 2

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 4d

A decade after we chronicled the sad state of the empty El Mirador Apartments, there are now (very expensive, less lovely than they used to be) units available for lease. Thanks to Janet “Houses of Hollywood” Grey for taking the tour and breaking the news. esotouric.com/elmirador/

2

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 4d

Remember the June Reddit post about Soul Housing kicking disabled residents out of their for profit facilities?
www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles...

Insurer Health Net has now severed all ties and hundreds who cannot look after themselves are about to be homeless.
laist.com/news/health/...

From the LosAngeles community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the LosAngeles community

www.reddit.com

1 2 3

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 4d

From Rev. Dylan Littlefield on Threads: RIP to Fr. Chris Ponnet, who many of you know from the annual memorial service for L.A.'s unclaimed dead at the County cemetery in Boyle Heights. His kind constancy will be missed this year and always.

4