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stories by:
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video interviews
Tent City Redux
Homeless Go Home! That's pretty much the message in Ontario these days, where March 24 was the city-imposed moving day for hundreds of homeless persons living in ramshackle Tent City near Ontario Airport. Residents who couldn't provide proof of having lived in Ontario were asked to move on.
(2007-04-16)
Irvine Mayor Beth Krom (part 2)
Irvine has more affordable housing units than most cities, so it came as a shock last year when the SoCal Association of Governments ordained that it must build 21,000 affordable units by 2014. Mayor Beth Krom is none too pleased about this, as you'll discover in this second of two parts of her FourStory interview. (2007-04-02)
Irvine Mayor Beth Krom (part 1)
Irvine has more affordable housing units than most cities, so it came as a shock last year when the SoCal Association of Governments ordained that it must build 21,000 affordable units by 2014. Mayor Beth Krom is none too pleased about this, as you'll discover in this first of two parts of her FourStory interview. (2007-03-20)
William O'Connell of Colette's Children's Home
Over the past ten years, Colette's Children's Home has helped nearly a thousand homeless Orange County women and children toward better lives by providing shelter, assistance and direction. That's laudable, remarkable. It's also nowhere near enough, says Colette's executive director William O'Connell, who says there are more homeless than cities want to count. (2007-03-05)
Residents of Ontario's Tent City
200-plus people living in a community where the most stable structure is a porta-potty; where rain-beat tents are planted in mud, jury-rigged with tarps, cardboard, blankets, discarded advertising banners and whatever else might fend off the rain and cold; where people wake, live and attempt sleep in the 24-7 jet wash of Ontario Airport traffic lumbering directly overhead. (2007-01-18)
Cathy DeMello of Integrity House
Integrity House members are a unique bunch, but, there but for fortune, you might be one of them: Say your car is broadsided and, next thing you know, you can't even form phrases like "traumatic brain injury" or "cognitive dysfunction." The world becomes a confounding, challenging and often cruel place, where everyone else looks at you differently. Hence, Integrity Housers proactively dub themselves droolers before anyone else has a chance to. (2007-12-11)
Artist Jorg Dubin
What if Vermeer had been around to paint your dental hygienist naked? (2007-11-13)
Tony Chavira
Trip the Light Rail
The Red Line
Unlike other transit lines in the Southland, the Red Line's a subway, and that comes with a certain stigma. This stigma derives from our completely rational fear of earthquakes and the ambient awareness of the foundational instability in everything we've ever constructed. (2008-04-14)
The Blue Line
I'm emotionally struck at certain stops: there's so much wasted potential and so many plans in the works that are just moving way too slowly. I sit on the train and constantly see opportunities for parks and civic centers, empty lots for low-income housing development, and chances for economy growth—if only a few mom and pop shops would collectively decide to take a chance. (2008-03-12)
The Gold Line
Tony starts a new series (don't worry, MasterPlanning! continues too) focusing on the multi-hued trains of L.A. He starts here with the Gold Line, which he remembers from when he was a kid. There's history and art and all sorts of culture, and TODs and LEEDs and the CRA. (2008-02-08)
MasterPlanning!
Political Development, De-Political Design
(part 1)
The response he got was practically unanimous: "This project’s too big. Get a city council member on your side and then we’ll see about that research you need." (2008-07-01)
Where Do You Put a Park?
There’s an image that appears in your head whenever you read the word "park," and it probably involves wide-open fields of controlled greenery: a few trees here, grassy meadows, tennis and basketball courts, a playground for kids, public restrooms, a water fountain donated by the Lions Club in the 80s. (2008-06-10)
A Vision for San Pedro
It was a development Catch-22: to create an identity that developed around the Ports but didn't necessarily incorporate the Ports' "ship-in ship out" schedule; to give culture to a community while not stifling any chances that it would develop a culture organically. (2008-05-19)
An Interview With Urban Designer Sevak Petrosian - Part 2: Experiential Learning Spaces
"You might say that it's a little kitsch or cheesy, but what makes it feel that way to people? It isn't necessarily the Disney-fication of the space; what we're actually doing is designing the negative space in a landscape."
(2008-05-12)
An Interview With Urban Designer Sevak Petrosian - Part 1: The Upward Spiral
"You need to think about the dynamics of self-sustaining systems like an upward spiral, like a silo: a spiral that allows access for people to continue to move upward based on a solid foundation."
(2008-05-05)
Green As Money Gets
Modular design is meant to be cheap and democratizing. Make 500 modular homes and the price of each drops, eventually to a point that should meet the constraints of just about any serious homebuyer. So how are architects able to get away with charging so much for such a potentially affordable product? (2008-04-21)
The Long Range Transportation Plan
Now that they've put the time and research into the Long Range Transportation Plan for the future of mobility throughout Los Angeles County, L.A. Metro is holding sessions to get some worthwhile feedback and ideas from the community. Tony went to one. Here's what he found out. (2008-04-05)
L.A.'s Oldest Redevelopment Plan
The Bunker Hill Urban Renewal Project has accomplished a lot in its time: it re-aligned the streets and developed over 14 million square feet, of which almost 3 million are residential. The planners brought in some cool stuff the Music Center, California Plaza, MOCA, etc. But what about the vision thing?
(2008-03-19)
Projecting the Far Future
The idea of "the future" is a very relatable concept to humanity, a part of everyday life that doesn't require thought in some cases: "if I take out the trash now, I won't have to do it in the rain tomorrow" or "going to college will lead to a higher paying job." Without dreams of what may lie in the future, why care about the present beyond your extinct to survive. (2008-03-04)
The Eminence of Domain
Almost all of the Master Plans in the United States have an Eminent Domain expiration date: at some point in the course of human events there were a bunch of empty lots that were owned by the government and the government alone. Legislators think, "We can do whatever we want with this land." Then you hear about the whole thing on 60 Minutes. (2008-02-14)
The Sole Owner of Irvine
Being the visionary that he was, James Irvine Jr. developed The Irvine Company in 1894, and thus began the process of environmental civic planning all the way back in these carefree olden times. How was this man so visionary, you ask? Imagine you were in the same scenario ... if you owned 100,000 acres of land and people wanted to start developing on it. (2008-01-17)
The Los Angeles River Revitalization
In 2005 the L.A. Department of Water and Power and the Public Works Bureau of Engineering requested proposals to develop a full-blown L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan. It took roughly 18 months to complete, but on May 9 of 2007 City of Los Angeles councilmembers approved a completed draft for the L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan. Tony tells us what it all means. (2008-01-02)
The Myth of the Far Future
Isn't there some happy medium between The Jetsons and Blade Runner? (2007-11-28)
Crammed Together in Utopia
From Le Corbusier to Laura Chick in one easy lesson. (2007-08-10)
more
What if Global Warming Were a Gigantic Liberal Lie?
Let's assume that this thrust toward environmentalism is really all a lie imposed on United States legislation. Let's assume that the Earth is not in peril, and instead that this is all just an attempt for knee-jerk liberal types to try and gain control of our federal agenda and force socialist regulation on us.
(2008-06-17)
Trip the Angels Flight, Funiculì, Funiculà!
The Angels Flight Funicular Railway is a roughly 300-foot long diagonal rail system that rolls up the east side of Bunker Hill from Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles. It is disconnected from the rail systems around it. The world of trolleys and street-walking has unfortunately departed. (2008-05-26)
The New "Los Angeles Style": It Sucks (with David Almada)
David and Tony, colleagues at RACAIA Architects, both feel a mixture of anger and depression when they talk about "standardized" architectural design in Los Angeles. They go to lunch all the time and rant, but this time Tony brought a voice recorder. Here's the transcript. (2008-03-28)
Toll for the Road: The Epic Quest for Gluttony
The review came from a book by Jonathan Gold called Counter Intelligence, a collection of his food critiques from his former LA Weekly articles, and had the coolest anything I had read in a while in regards to Derby's filet mignon, calling it "steak-flavored butter." With a promise to temporarily cut off my circulation like that, we headed down to Derby to feast plentifully or/and die trying. (2008-02-23)
The Coolest Architecture in Los Angeles
It was about 5:45 pm and all of the architects and designers were sitting in Tony's office working on their projects before they scurried home. Tony said, "I want to write an article on the 'coolest' architecture in LA." This is the result. (2008-02-01)
Saving Developers from Themselves—Hunting Land vs. Poaching Land
The Southland is millions and millions of acres of land ripe for development, and there are always people willing to put their hard-earned (or ill-gotten) gains toward building a space. And most of them are small. (2008-01-25)
What in the World Does the County Board of Supervisors Do?
They have power over all city councils in Los Angeles County. They allocate money for every city in their jurisdiction and rule over unincorporated L.A. like fiefdoms. Who are these mysterious men and women of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors? Why do they have so much power? (2008-01-11)
Holidays in Cosmopolis: Licking the Edges of the Melting Pot
Tony rants and raves about cultural identity because he can't make heads or tails of the rhetoric to turn Los Angeles into a "Global City." What does that mean? Does it mean that the design of buildings in Los Angeles will all be an IndoChine/Spanish-Moroccan combo? That everyone living here will eventually become a non-specific sort of beige color speaking Esperanto? (2007-12-21)
Green Movement Hype: When You're Far Too Lazy to Do Any Research
Everybody but the Mayans was green ages ago. (2007-12-13)
I'm Bored. Want to Build a House?
Custom design and all materials for under $70K. (2007-12-06)
Who Displaced Roger Rabbit and Didn't Give Him Relocation Assistance?
Many characters in Roger Rabbit are in the wrong, civically-speaking. (2007-11-16)
The Ugliest Excuse for a Building You've Ever Seen. Ever.
Including a nostalgic visit to several decades of architectural drivel. (2007-11-09)
The Los Angeles Mayoral Housing Summit: A Bag Full of Tricks
Getting to know TOD. (2007-11-01)
Where Do You Belong?
Brown, yellow, no black, no white. (2007-10-26)
Money's Gettin' Cheaper: When Your Rent Is Out of Control
Unincorporated areas of L.A. County really get the shaft. (2007-10-19)
Didn't You Know? Art Is Only for Rich People
Something amazing, and a need to understand it. (2007-09-28)
Manning the Drawbridge: The Way of the NIMBY
Lifeboat ethics for the 21st century. (2007-09-14)
10-Mile Island: Fighting the Freeway in Los Angeles
Lamenting the I-10 corridor. (2007-08-01)
Gary Phillips
Saving the City: The Unending Mission of Mister X
The first comic book with an architect as hero. (2007-09-12)
The Underbelly
Installment 16 (2008-02-06)
All good things come to an end. Thus it is with The Underbelly.
Installment 15 (2008-01-23)
What some people won't do to get a head.
Installment 14 (2008-01-09)
Floyd enjoys the fruits of the Internet, and Magrady retrieves something from Nam.
Installment 13 (2007-12-26)
Drywall, polo, and Tamock's head.
Installment 12 (2007-12-12)
Magrady anticipates getting buried in the system.
Installment 11 (2007-11-28)
In the prison infirmary with the Singing Vato.
Installment 10 (2007-11-14)
"Tamock's head's gotta be worth something."
Installment 09 (2007-10-31)
Was it a fire or some new form of mutant smog?
Installment 08
A hot chase through Westwood. (2007-10-17)
Installment 07
Magrady digs up clues at a farmers' market. (2007-10-04)
Installment 06
Magrady does the Jessica Fletcher thing. (2007-09-19)
Installment 05
Magrady and the three stigmata. (2007-09-05)
Installment 04
The plot begins to thicken. (2007-08-22)
Installment 03
Magrady gets the crap knocked out of him. (2007-08-08)
Installment 02
Floyd flies the coop. (2007-07-25)
Installment 01
Meet Magrady. (2007-07-09)
Mike Plunkett
How to Gain and Lose a House in Ten Months
In a sign of perpetual political irony, Congress passed a resolution celebrating April as "Financial Literacy Month." This came as the President decried Congress for not doing anything to pass his legislation to boost the economy, while Congress decried the President and Republicans for stonewalling legislation. (2008-06-02)
Daddy, How Come I'm Named Char-Lanta and My Brother is Named Greater Tokyo?
Globalization amalgamates the world and redefines community and neighbor. Physicality is reassigned value in the hierarchy of needs. Place is immaterial. Mike kindly translates the academic-speak into English. (2008-04-18)
Down on the District
Dying Industry Converted to New High-Rise…Film at 11!
On April 11, journalists finally got their own memorial in D.C. The Newseum opened its doors to the public, complete with interactive gadgets and $20 admission price. It's touted as the world's foremost interactive museum. (2008-04-28)
Becoming a Virginia Slim, Thanks to the Bus
Having run out of L.A. area municipalities to be down on, Mike moves to the nation's capital and immediately runs into new stuff to riff on. This time around it has to do with reading maps, taking the bus, and freezing his ass off. (2008-03-26)
Down on the Town
Are You Experienced at the Cerritos Library?
At night, the Cerritos Library looks like a benevolent nuclear power plant. The area is unusually lit and morbidly bright. The inside has this eerie greenish glow that covers every nook and book. If you listen closely, you might hear maniacal shrieks, which may or may not be an off-key soprano at the Performing Arts Center. (2008-03-01)
Lakewood Striving to be Tomorrow's City, Two Days From Now
Reinvention, in dealing with development, is really a goofy concept. Supposedly, it's more than a little varnish and a twist; it's a new face, possibly a new place. In the case of development, it often means a rebuilding. Tear down the old wood and prop up some new firs. And oh, yeah, a Costco would be nice.
(2008-02-05)
Bellflower Changing, One Plaza at a Time
You know a coffeehouse is in trouble when it starts selling Top Ramen. And can't break a twenty. Aside from a smattering of regulars and people passing through on a hazy Thursday, Perks Coffee in downtown Bellflower, California was as quiet as Mitt Romney's campaign office in South Carolina.
(2008-01-16)
Donna Schoenkopf
Oklahoma Dreaming
Make Your House Affordable
Don't throw away ANY wood. It is unbelievable what you can build with it. Just lay it on the ground if it is in plank form and you have instant walkways and decks. Hey, if it rots, just put in another plank. You can make gorgeous walkways of all different kinds of wood. Your artistic ability is all that is needed.
(2008-07-03)
Getting Tough
I feel myself getting tough. I always thought I was already. But life out here in Affordable Housing Country has taught me that I am a pansy. A dilettante. A wannabe. I was going to be a pioneer, build my own house, brave the elements. All with courage and bonhomie. But no. (2008-06-13)
Outdoor Shower
I turned on the water and it cascaded over the moss and wooden grate. It soon turned warm and wonderful and I stepped under its waterfall. A waterfall of water of the most perfect temperature. I turned and wet my hair and shampooed and soaped and rinsed and listened to the birds sing.
(2008-05-28)
Inside the Storm
I kicked my lazy butt off the bed out of sheer guilt, picked up the large ziplock storage bag FULL of redbud seed pods, sent by darling Priscilla after I confessed to killing the redbud seedlings she had transported all the way from Austin, put on my Earth Shoes, and went out into the brisk afternoon.
(2008-05-14)
First Spring
I kicked my lazy butt off the bed out of sheer guilt, picked up the large ziplock storage bag FULL of redbud seed pods, sent by darling Priscilla after I confessed to killing the redbud seedlings she had transported all the way from Austin, put on my Earth Shoes, and went out into the brisk afternoon.
(2008-04-23)
Animal Farm
I noticed the first dog when I walked the half mile to my mailbox. It's my morning constitutional and is extremely pleasant. I get to survey my land, either by walking my long, beautiful drive to the county road, or by walking down, then UP, the hills that reveal some new little bit of nature for the day.
(2008-04-08)
Two Cities
San Pedro is old. And full of history. The ACLU was born there when Upton Sinclair was arrested for reading the Bill of Rights to the Longshoremen. Harry Bridges first organized those Longshoremen. There is a bridge which is not named after Harry, although it should be. Harry Bridges Bridge. Don't you love it? (2008-03-25)
Bob and Mom
This morning the sky was on FIRE. The sunrise rose in the east, then bled into the southern sky. You could tell it was going to be a humdinger by the way it started. The first inkling of light was an INTENSE orange-red. Then, as it unfurled, the color rose high into the sky and turned the southern sky that pastel pinkish apricot color with an aqua sky. (2008-03-07)
Lightning
Over 600 people a year are hit by lightning in this country. Like Gretchen Ehrlich, as she rode through a storm on horseback in Wyoming herding sheep with her dog, who was also struck. Blew her off her horse. This is what Donna was thinking about when she went to vote. And to buy fabric. And to proselytize for organic beef. (2008-02-21)
Blowin' in the Wind
She did it. After three and a half years of working seven days a week, morning, noon and night, scrimping and saving, plotting and dreaming, she's moved in. She built a house on thirteen acres of paradise for UNDER $50,000!!! And it is ecologically friendly ... and it turned out to be more beautiful than she thought it would be. (2008-02-13)
Fidel
He was an orange tabby kitten, the son of the calico school cat who lived under my classroom bungalow which hunched up next to the Harbor Freeway in South Central L.A. Flower Street, as well as the off-ramp, bordered our school on the east. It was piled with detritus deposited by the poor. Paying for garbage service is not the highest priority when you're poor. (2008-01-30)
Feeeeeelings, Woh, Woh, Woh, Feeeeelings
The water pipe is leaking half a gallon a day and Peewee will not REST until he finds it. He thinks it's in the turnoff valve, but can't get to it until it's dryer out there. There is a swamp of red mud everywhere. It sticks like glue to everything. (2008-01-22)
Gallstones and Weather
Nowadays they make four small incisions (a quarter inch) in your abdomen and just fish around and eventually pull the gall bladder out through your belly button. Recovery was fast and pretty painless, ALTHOUGH they did kick me out of the hospital in LITERALLY one hour. (2007-12-19)
Tidbits
I still feel like an alien, but I really like it here. (2007-11-20)
I Just Want to Be a Good Person!
Peewee and Clint don't come Monday. Clint's back is bad. Hospital. (2007-11-07)
Week From Hell
With a little heaven mixed in. (2007-10-24)
Sitting
From the primordial ooze to dragonflies, frogs, and hawks. (2007-10-12)
Guys
Duct tape and easements and staples in your head. (2007-09-26)
Water
Peewee's back, and he's digging a trench. (2007-09-07)
Weather
Thunder and lightning and rain, oh my! (2007-08-31)
Peewee
A man, a plan, a bulldozer. (2007-08-20)
The Prettiest Thirteen Acres You've Ever Seen
Cheaper than Mexico or Costa Rica. (2007-08-13)
Rebecca Schoenkopf
Neighborhoods, A Semi-Regular Review
Costa Mesa 92626
92626 isn't a bad zip code at all. It's got the Orange County Fairgrounds, which has been known to book both X and Isaac Hayes. It's got the Mitsuwa Marketplace, should you find yourself with a hankering for ramen from the bitchen food court, sushi-grade fresh fish from the grocery, a bookstore, a video store, tea sets, and, you know, other stuff. 92626 also has other other stuff. (2008-01-28)
UC Irvine 92697
Becca's not actually a professor—she's a lecturer. That means she doesn't have a doctorate or even a master's, just real-life experience in the place that is the real world. Also, she totally knows stuff about political science. Also, the poli sci chair is totally in love with her, as men in their 50s are wont to be. (2008-01-14)
Long Beach 90803
Rebecca never cared much for 90803, the zip that encompasses Long Beach's yuppified Belmont Shore and Naples. Really: Canals? The real Naples doesn't have canals, you pretentious yet oddly ignorant twits! But the lights, the lights, like a moth she's drawn to the lights, and Christians and Jews alike rejoice. (2007-12-24)
Anaheim 92805
Kind of a bummer, but pretty cool too, and no Starbucks on Anaheim Boulevard. (2007-12-10)
Orange 92867
The hot 12-year-olds were out in force, nothing coming between them and their Calvins. (2007-11-27)
Fullerton 92832
"I really love zip code 92832." (2007-09-03)
Newport Beach 92660
A piano man shines; ladies' room lines. (2007-07-21)
California Dreaming
My City Was Gone
All of a sudden the schmoozers for Calabasas' "indie" film fest are gone, and the slick environs of Chapter 8 are populated exclusively with 21-and-a-half-year-olds listening to the foulest hip-hop. Sludgy tracks without wit or interest, the kind you might hear on Power 106. (2008-04-07)
I Love You, You Pay My Rent
I do not have rent control. You do not have rent control. Rent control is utilized strictly by the able-bodied great-nephews of long-dead old ladies whose princely $350 rents have not grown a dime in the 50 years they've lived (and died) in swoopy Art Deco apartments. And I am totally okay with that.
(2008-03-31)
Cranks
And cranks they were. Mostly, anti-tax cranks. Probably a few religious cranks. And all, but all, of them were old and white and therefore crotchety, except for the two awesome Greens who make common cause with their oldnesses on the topics of gadflying and righteousness. (2008-03-24)
There Goes the Neighborhood
She's living with four men, two large dogs, and a cat who jumps over her Dad's sleeping German shepherd to sneak to her room in the middle of the night. The rest of the time, he very sensibly gets gone. She would like to get gone too, and not just for some quick pink drinks. (2008-03-17)
Eat the Rich—Vodka Wishes, Caviar Dreams
It gets tiresome writing about the poors and the poor, pitiful middle class, and when Rebecca does get tired of writing about the poors and the middle class, she likes to go hang out at South Coast Plaza and find rich people who will give her a proper lunch, so that she can bite the hand that fed her.
(2008-03-10)
No. 1 With a Bulleit
I think it was the bourbon. I don't drink Jack Daniel's because it makes me fight and then cry. I don't drink Knob Creek because it makes me vomit then drive. But it was my house, and my party, and a new friend had brought Bulleit bourbon in the prettiest bottle. My friend Suparna and I drank it down—and it wasn't one of those cute little ones, either. (2008-03-03)
Happy Boo-hoo Birthday to Me
Rebecca lived a lot of places before she hit 18 and decamped Thousand Oaks—12 different houses, if she counted right, and she counted right. There was the first house she remembers, on Calle Abedul, where she would cross the dead-end street and pick mustard flower bouquets for her mom when she was three. There was a charmer on Lake Sherwood. There were so many more. (2008-02-25)
I Have a Crush on Ed Rollins
I have a GOP crush on Ed Rollins. I do that sometimes. In fact, I do that a lot. There's all kinds of Republicans I have not very secret things for, most especially including our disgraced ex-OC sheriff, and maybe sometimes Arnold Schwarzenegger too, at least when I see him in person (and let me assure you, he most certainly sees me). (2008-02-18)
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her—I'm White!
And so I went to court last week. I'd tossed a cigarette out my car window at a stop light in Santa Ana and was facing up to a thousand dollar fine, which was making me very unhappy. I'm a good citizen! A single mother! I care for my aged father! I even vote in off years! (2008-02-11)
The World Is Watching—Escape From L.A.
Becca drove and drove to a conference in San Francisco (and drove and drove), and by the time she got there, she was sick and tired and woozy and wheezy. She thinks it's psychosomatic: every time she travels without her son, she ends up fearing for her life and terrified there's no one to care for her. All this and Snake Plissken, too! (2008-02-04)
Watching Scarface With My Son
I wouldn't let him watch Scarface or Reservoir Dogs, I said, until he was 14. Then Christmas came around, and I decided to lower our personal NC-14 to NC-13-and-a-half. That way, at least a couple of his gifts would have the thrill of the illicit. And so we watched Scarface last night. (2008-01-21)
I'm a Celebrity—Get Me Out of Here!
There's mildew in the bathtub and pine needles rimming the wall. There's a pregnancy and a 17-week abortion. There's a cop car and a sinister Mini. There's fighting and screaming in the street. "We're that house now," Rebecca's sister says with a sad fatigue. (2007-12-31)
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
After two months, my dad was moved out of the ICU and into a regular room, a room with a roommate and a view of the palm trees and the beach. His roommate was a swarthy pocho dude with muttonchops and bloodshot eyes. I figured him as in need of a liver. (2007-12-31)
A Brief History of My Roommates
Featuring vacuum and carpet cleaners, and all sorts of illegal substances. (2007-12-03)
The End of the American Empire
Did you know air is supposed to be invisible? No, I swear, it's true. (2007-11-22)
Wednesday Night and Friday Morning
Oh, those alcoholics will say anything! (2007-11-15)
All My Indicted Friends
Just how are the amenities in Club Fed, anyway? (2007-11-05)
Malibu Is Burning
No, this is the final insult to a 68-year-old body. (2007-10-29)
Daddy's Home
The final insult to a 68-year-old body. (2007-10-15)
Not a Bad Place, Actually
A peaceful place of healthy boringness. (2007-10-08)
Your Universe at Work
For $40 a night, you got a room in a shared apartment, and breakfast! (2007-10-01)
How George W. Bush Destroyed Your Life—Again!
And balloons used to be such fun. (2007-09-24)
Please Pass the Porn
Kicking off our special House Porn Week. (2007-08-27)
The Ballad of Casey Serin
Fooling many of the people a good deal of the time. (2007-07-29)
Better Shelter Through Chemistry
Groovy housing for groovy people. (2007-07-16)
She's Glad
CommieGirl reacts somewhat gleefully to the bottom falling out. (2007-07-09)
Nathan Walpow
Bad Developments
12: Rain, Rain, Go Away
I dreamed I was playing with the L.A. Philharmonic. I was in charge of the cymbals, responsible for one big crash. Right before it was due I lost count of the measures and freaked out. Then Michelle Obama came out of the wings and crashed the cymbals and saved my ass. (2008-06-28)
11: The Gang of Three
She lived in Studio City, south of Ventura Boulevard, where Laurel Canyon starts to rise toward Mulholland. She said, "Night, gentlemen," when she got out, then opened her gate and stepped quickly up to her house. When she was safely inside and the lights went on we moved out. (2008-06-21)
10: No, He's Really Missing
Neither he nor I was going to say, "John, that's a stupid idea." You don't say things like that to John Santini. And among the others, even the people who didn't know John Santini from their elbow sensed he just wasn't the kind of guy you call on something you think is idiotic. (2008-06-14)
09: Manipulated Again
"The top ten or twelve floors are apartments. Some are what they call affordable apartments. You're supposed to put a certain number of those in, and Robbie did nearly twice as many. Not because he had to, but because he's one of the guys you don't hear about on Channel 6." (2008-05-31)
08: Get the Hell Out of My House
He shoved the shotgun into the gap just before the gate finished its slide. There was a clang and a clunk and a whir. Then the gate, no doubt convinced it had just attempted to clamp down on a small child's leg, reversed course and slid smoothly back to the open position. Where it stayed. (2008-05-17)
07 - Yet Another Guy in a John
I may have let out a small shriek. You're looking at a presumably dead guy, someone sneaks up behind you and says anything at all, it gives you a start. No matter how much time you've spent with Vito. I turned, blocking the door on general principles. "Who are you?" I said. (2008-05-10)
06 - Such a Deal
Billy Ventura knew he'd seen me before, and recently, but it took him a second to put it all together. Maybe two, possibly three. In that time I'd walked past him and gotten to where I could tell there wasn't anyone else in the office. "You're the guy from last night," Billy Ventura said. (2008-05-03)
05 - A Couple of Dots
Luis sat on a stoop across the alley from René's. He had an unlit cigarette in his mouth. It looked like it had been sitting around in his pocket for two or three months. I said, "So Frankie is your nephew? You're from Venezuela?" He looked at me like I was insane. (2008-04-25)
04 - The Other Guy in the John
By this time she was getting into it. For whatever reason she wanted to help me dig up Frankie's story. She speed-dialed another number. A moment later: "Charley? I'm here with—" She saw me waving her off. No sense letting him know the guy who humiliated him the night before was involved. (2008-04-17)
03 - Something Disconcerting
So I went down to the coffee shop and found a guy who knew a guy, and three days later I knew Frankie's last name and where he lived. I went up and found the place gated and couldn't talk my way in. More "research," and I knew about the porn company, and who owned it. (2008-04-10)
02 - Everyone's a Comedian
I pulled a cable tie from my inside jacket pocket. John Santini's underling Vito had shown me all sorts of things that I'd never expected you could do with cable ties. I fastened Charley Szyzmanski's wrists behind his back. Had him turn over. Let him sit up. Watched his eyes go to the door a couple of times. (2008-04-03)
01 - Anywhere You Hang Your Keys
Our new piecework fiction begins this week, with this first chunk of our editor's new Joe Portugal epic. Joe's gone to work for L.A. fixer/manipulator/dark presence John Santini, tracking down evildoers the cops won't touch; as usual, dead bodies materialize. (2008-03-27)
Permanent Source
Los Angeles Report
So I show up at the L.A. meeting at USC's Davidson Conference Center on March 13, and everyone from HCD (well, the peons, at least) recognizes me. I'm the first to sit down, and suddenly I'm concerned there aren't going to be any more people here than there were in Riverside. (2008-03-29)
Riverside Report
There was a suggestion involving title insurance, and some blonde nearly leapt out of her seat, declaring that she worked for a title company, and that she wasn't there to defend the title insurance industry. Whereupon she did exactly that, at great length and with great passion. (2008-03-21)
Orange County Report
So I'm sitting here at the FourStory offices, and I get an e-mail that says there are going to be seven sessions conducted across the state to address the possibility of a permanent funding source for affordable housing in California, conducted by Lynn Jacobs, Director of the state's Housing and Community Development Department. The first one's in Irvine. I decide to go. (2008-02-16)
Up From the Co-op
Spider, Spider, Burning Bright
For a while it had a macrame hanger. Which, fortunately, disintegrated, sending the plant to the ground. Where it stayed for a while. And rooted. The babies, you see, have baby roots, and when they find growing medium they send them in. You snip the spider-shaft and voilà, more plants. (2008-03-15)
Century Rolls
A hundred features in, and we're still going strong. Your editor reflects on where FourStory came from, where it's been, and where he hopes it's headed. Chock-full of anecdotes, vignettes, and Washington Mutual-trashing. Includes news about our second serial mystery. (2008-02-19)
Equity Waiver
I drove out in February, 1979 in my '76 Fiat Spider, which promptly suffered from water pump failure outside Shamrock, Texas. Eventually a bus brought the part in from Amarillo, and off I went, little knowing that the entire cooling system was disintegrating and would plague me for the next two months. (2007-12-14)
Coping With Apartment Living
Your editor's journey from a Jewish ghetto in Queens to a townhouse in Oklahoma City. (2007-07-09)
Jim Washburn
Lost in OC
Parched and Gay, Welcome to the New California
For about $109,870,000 less than the production budget of Live Free or Die Hard, real-life terrorists could cut off the conduits supplying LA’s water—or flood it with salt water by blowing some Central Cal dikes—and then sit back to see how soon the white-on-white killing starts over that last latte on La Brea. (2008-06-23)
Lost in Transit
We don't need an Einstein to tell us time is relative. If you've got all the time in the world—like if you're young enough to listen to machine-generated noise all day, because what better way to say you have time to burn than to burn it?—then maybe you don't mind taking the slow road. (2008-06-04)
Cancer Drive
Cancer is uncontrolled, invasive growth; the replication of cells without regard to the whole organism. The article on cancer in Wikipedia is accompanied with hideously vivid photos of tumors from human bodies. You get the feeling that just looking at them could cause the stuff to metastasize through your eyes. (2008-05-21)
Whoops! Everything's Broken
Remember Ontario's Tent City that we visited in January? Police are forcing the majority of the residents to gather what they can of their lives and leave. It's a muddy, dusty field buffeted by airport jet wash, the last place on earth where any of these people wanted to wind up, and now they don't even have that. (2008-04-09)
But I Digress
If you're old enough, which means too old, you'll remember the days when Shakey's pizza parlors had house pianists who wore straw hats. Shakey's also had wooden plaques on the walls throughout, with clever sayings painted upon them such as "Shakey's made a deal with the bank: The bank doesn't make pizza and Shakey's doesn't take checks." (2008-02-12)
Let's Talk of Patience to the Afflicted
Jim's thinking still about Ontario's tent city, where the wind is getting right up into their mess non-stop all night: lean-tos now leaning-from; tarps flying off to tarp heaven; the huddled masses stumbling in the dust with tent stakes and duct tape trying to hold what-all together, or just trying to pull the blanket tight in hopes the wind might give up and go bother someone else. (2008-01-24)
Too Many Peoples: How I Spent My Thanksgiving
You know those strangled mewling sounds that Harvey Keitel makes when one of his characters smacks up against the shabby desolation of his existence? Jim does a fair imitation of that sound while tearing through his garage, looking for his passport, so he can go to Victoria, B.C., and marvel at the crummy exchange rate. (2007-12-04)
The Fire Next Time
From Styrofoam noodles to apocalypse, with a few stops in-between. (2007-10-30)
others
Pat Devine: I Am Pigeon Man (part 2)
The sound coming from atop my ceiling was akin to a brawl between two clumsy drunks on a peanut shelled bar floor. After a crash that sounded like something was going to come through the ceiling in my kitchen I threw off my covers and did what any lunatic without a weapon does. I sat for an hour and composed an e-mail. (2008-06-26)
Robin Starr: Up From the Co-op: On Our Way to Suburbia
Almost every wall was covered with white paneling with gold streaks (which covered two layers of hideous 1950s and 1960s wallpaper). The carpet was a sculpted Kelly green, and the kitchen was a mess, metallic copper appliances and all. The main bath had pink and black tile with red fleur-de-lis flocked wallpaper. (2008-06-19)
David Deutsch: Bent Flyvbjerg: Teach Your Kids It's Not a Dirty Word
Know his name. Care about what he has to say. Because he's probably the world's leading expert on wasteful public works projects. And he can prove with scientific certainty that the vast majority of public works projects will likely cost a lot more than their publicly-touted price. And this is not an accident. (2008-06-07)
Pat Devine: I Am Iron Man Pigeon Man
While the beaver is considered the engineer of the animal world, the pigeon should be awarded the title of obsessive-compulsive interior designer. It's astonishing just how much rearranging these birds do. Everyday I hear them rolling rocks and dragging branches. It sounds like they are moving two-by-fours. (2008-05-23)
Robin Starr: Up From the Co-op: The Sister's Point of View (part 2)
Almost daily in the summer I called up to my mother's window on the sixth floor for ice cream money. The coins came down via a plastic baggie with a knot tied at the top, and hopefully would land somewhere within reach. Our ice cream man would give out prizes on Saturdays—some hunk of junk like a squirt ring. (2008-05-07)
David Deutsch: Los Angeles' Mass Transit System Is a Form of Neo-Apartheid
On September 10, 2006, I woke up early, ready to visit the Getty Museum with two friends. As I walked to my car, I noticed it was distinctly no longer there. I could not fathom why, so I flagged down a cop aand asked him what happened. "Was that your Civic?" he half-snickered, not even trying to conceal his amusement. (2008-05-01)
Robin Starr: Up From the Co-op: The Sister's Point of View (part 1)
Although I did not grow up in what was earmarked as low income housing, it just might well have qualified as that. My father, a World War II veteran, could not even scrape together the money for the down payment on a Levittown house. And so, the Walpow family ended up at the newly built Forest Park Co-Op in Queens, NYC. (2008-04-15)
Jennifer A. Thomas:
Beyond Brick and Mortar:
Putting Community Back Into Real Estate Development
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) was founded in 1980 to assist local community-based development organizations in revitalizing their neighborhoods. Their first steps are to stabilize neighborhoods with quality housing.
(2008-04-11)
John Schoenkopf: On the Couch
I have no special needs. I can adapt to whatevaz. Every single place we've looked at, I've been ready to jump on. Even the fatally flawed ones: no kitchen? We'll eat out! It's a studio, even though the ad says it's a one-bedroom? That just means there's more closeness for us to love each other in!
(2008-04-01)
Nicole Farnoush: Persian Palaces: The Levittowns of Beverly Hills
Larger-than-life moldings and innumerable layers of cornices, coupled with highly-wrought grillwork, make these structures highly distinguishable—and loathed by spectators. Having become so widespread, they no longer stick out like a sore thumb; instead, they have forlornly become part of the fabric of the Los Angeles megalopolis—and especially of Beverly Hills. (2008-03-14)
John Schoenkopf: Not Takin' What They Givin', He Ain't Workin' for a Livin'
Faced with paying his own rent for the first time in eight years of renting, our latest Schoenkopf did what any unemployed 25-year-old stoner would do: subleased his $880-a-month room in his four-bedroom Santa Monica house and started looking for a bunk bed in the classifieds. Awkward, sure. Especially if one of them plans on ever having girls over. But does it beat entering the work force? Absolutely.
(2008-02-28)
Peter Villegas: Permanent Source: Key to California's Health and Welfare
Californians have twice expressed their support of funding for affordable housing, first with the approval of Proposition 46, and more recently with the passage of Prop 1C. Although these propositions have, and will, provide significant funding for more affordable housing statewide, they have specific dollar amounts. When the funding is gone, it's gone. California HCD director Lynn Jacobs seeks something lasting. (2008-02-26)
Neil Seldman: Counting Down to Zero: Solid Waste Planning in Los Angeles
Los Angeles recycles and composts more than any other large city in the U.S.—but that's just the start. The city is in the midst of an extraordinary planning process. No other city has made the commitment of staff time to meet with individual citizens, community organizations, waste-haulers, recyclers and processors in order to co-plan the system that will serve the city for the next 20 years. (2008-02-20)
John Shannon: Lost San Pedro: What We Talk About When We Talk About What's Gone
We all know L.A. is the city that eats its history. Don't blink or it'll be gone. Kleenex architecture. Sure, but. The problem is I don't think I know the right questions. The seediest sailor joint serves its time as part of a vast nexus of cultural bric-a-brac. (2007-12-18)
Don Livoni: Walk to Rico's
Shot December 5, 2004 with an inexpensive Kodak DX3500 camera while on a walk from San Francisco's Nob Hill, through Chinatown and North Beach, in search of a burrito and perhaps a churro for desert. The technique is: walk 50 feet, shoot a single still of what's in front of you, and so on ...
(2007-11-30)
Amos Smith: The Upside of the Credit Crunch
The focus should be on the coupon, not the spread. (2007-10-22)
Allan Roberts: Housing Double Whammy: Low Income and Disabled
All too often, the latter also means the former. (2007-10-10)
Glenn Hayes: Irvine vs. SCAG, a Matter of Equity
It may seem like arcane legalities. But it's much more. (2007-09-21)
as told to FourStory: Wally's Story
Legless and homeless in Santa Monica. (2007-09-17)
Barbara E. Hernandez: The Rise of House Porn
House Porn Week continues with beefcake and cheese. (2007-08-29)
Paris Merriam: Irvine Hit Hard
... with a state mandate to build more affordable housing. (2007-08-24)
Bruce Matthias: Housing Is a Personal Challenge
Working to buy a house. Then working toward a better one. (2007-08-06)
Mary Kaiser: Housing: Affordable
California makes affordable housing a Mission: Impossible. (2007-08-03)
Barbara E. Hernandez: The Curse of the Median Home Price
It's not only the first house that's tough to afford. (2007-07-19)
At least an order of magnitude more news coverage.