Why doesn't anyone stop this madness?

[RondoHatton]

No, I haven't, I don't visit Hollywood very often... tell me more.
FM~

Here goes nothin:
It's been a long time since the Men's shops were on one side of Hollywood Blvd., and the Ladies' were on the other...
The idea to demolish the Capitol Record Bldg has been floated, may become condos.
Across the street where the Ontra Cafeteria (old "vodville" retiree hangout) once stood on Vine at Hollywood Blvd. is who knows what coming, but looking at the underpinnings, look out.
Kitty corner to that, an old luggage shop holdout will be engulfed by a glitzy work-live-play flogiston paradise complex.
Hollywood's classic skyline will not be improved, but I'm sure the hipsters rich enough to buy in will gloat over their views, until themselves walled in by the next wave of Mega-Neo-Manhattanization, much as the "Virgin" complex on the Sunset Strip robbed it's 20's apartment house next door of It's view.
Hey, FM, let's do a dutch lunch and I'll give you the curmudgeon's tour - you drive though, OK?

 

[HadleyH]

LAUSD reneges on saving Cocoanut Grove
Associated Press
LA Daily News
Article Last Updated:09/26/2007 09:26:08 PM PDT
The old Cocoanut Grove nightclub, spared the wrecking ball as part of a plan to use it as an auditorium for a school being built at the site of the historic Ambassador Hotel, appears doomed after all.



The Los Angeles Conservancy said the school district broke its promise to the community.

Has the old Cocoanut Grove nightclub bitten the dust too?
That's truly sad, it was such a Golden Era landmark ...

 

[dhermann1]

On the other hand . . . .

Brand new Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse to open in Buffalo.
Buffalo has preserved and restored a couple of absolutely brilliant Wright houses as well:
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/172267.html

 

[Twitch]

In Bel Air/Hollywood we have old homes of movie stars, mansions really, since they command prices in the 5 million and up range. While there could be an occassional one that is razed the vast majority as soundly being used as domiciles for the wealthy.

But in Belmont Shore near Long Beach we have a bunch of "craftsmen" bungalows from like the 20s that people compain about owners modifying too much. We had a 30 year battle to complete a freeway because of some victorian houses in Pasadena were in the way. After all this time it was decided to move them. Well Duh!

And each municipality that adjoins Los Angeles has different zoning rules, construction rules, structure placement rules, structural addition rules and tons more regulations that are maddening.

In many communities you may have bought a house 30 years ago then desire to sell it. OK, the local safety nazis come by and tell you that some part of it is now illegal and you'll have to change it at your own expense. It wasn't illegal when you bought the house 30 years ago but today it is and you are retroactively at fault. This could be something as simple as disallowing windows on a wall adjactent to a car port. Wouldn't want the possibility of car exhaust getting in to exist, right?

And it gets more complicated from there. So in an environment of rabidly enforced municipal building codes which vary from town to town it all becomes a futile boondoggle. A house here is restricted from being modified but in another town it isn't. This type of house is considered historic in that town but not in this one.

While we have a different archetectural style in California I can look at image of Cleveland or St. Louis and say the EVERYTHING should be preserved as is now and forever because it looks so quaintly vintage in comparison. Yeah every brick or stone building is a classic. No you can't tear down the old drug store and build something else cause the building looks cool.

There has to be a sensible manifestation of preserving truly historic buildings by consenses of majority versus the nostalgic whims of a tiny neighborhood who think the old Rexall is special in some way because it wasn't constructed with cement blocks like the Wal-Mart.

That's where we're at with rules all over the place and definitions of "historic" viewed differently by everyone.

 

[cowboy76]

Big business ala developers with deep unfilled pockets, eyes filled with dollar signs and a get rich quick mantra swirlin in their heads. Its easier to tear down and build new than to preserve,....or so they mutter!

That's like the "State Movie Theater" in Nanticoke, PA. Said it was beyond repair or preservation and was stucturally "unsound!" Amazing though, after three wrecking ball its the ball FINALLY went through the wall!! Structurally unsound though of course!! BS!:rage: