Supposedly Neutralized Vine Street Tree Vandal Rage, Overkill Increases; New Attack Destroys More than Trees!

June 13, 2015 kohlhaas Leave a comment

Although the BIDs seem to feel they've caught the Vine Street Tree Vandal, our correspondent noted the pictured damage this morning. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that the vandalistic attacks have targeted not only trees but their paraphernalia as well. — Although the Sunset-Vine BID seems to feel they’ve apprehended¹ the Vine Street Tree Vandal, our correspondent noted the pictured damage this morning. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that the vandalistic attacks have targeted not only trees but their paraphernalia as well.

Our faithful correspondent, walking north on Vine Street early this morning, noticed that a jacaranda tree, individually one of the most favored targets of the BID bête noire locally known as the Vine Street tree vandal, was not only newly revandalized but that its wooden support apparatus² was also, for the first time in our experience, destroyed as well. Is it a coincidence that the vandalized tree is right in front of jittery little psychopath Carol Massie’s McDonald’s at the corner of DeLongpre and Vine?
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Announcements, Hollywood Property Owners Alliance

Emails between Hollywood Neighborhood Prosecutor and BID Now Available

June 13, 2015 Mike Leave a comment

Another attorney from California that we'd have all been better off without, singing the blues in Beverly Hills in 1962 — Another attorney from California that we’d have all been better off without, singing the blues in Beverly Hills in 1962

The emails are available here. There’s a lot of chaff, as usual, but a lot of tasty morsels as well. My colleagues will certainly be giving this material the fine-toothed comb treatment in the future, but I thought it’d be nice to announce the availability of the documents to satisfy your hunger and thirst for the truth which, as is well-known, shall set you free.

Picture of famed future president and California attorney is, according to Wikimedia, in the public domain. Take that, Helen Gahagan Douglas!

Announcements

2010 BID Patrol Images Now Available on Archive

May 22, 2015 Mike Leave a comment

I am pleased to announce the availability of about 1.3 GB of images, obtained from the HPOA under the California Public Records Act. The main archive page is here. You can see a listing of the files for individual download here. I rot13-ed the filenames to protect people’s privacy somewhat.¹ You can get the whole batch via bittorrent which, as always, is most efficient if you want local copies of these pictures. I’ll be organizing these into thematic PDF flip-books and publishing them at the Archive and on Amazon over the next few weeks, but as it may be a while I thought I’d make the raw images available now.

If you don’t know what rot13 is you need to get your internet user’s license renewed post haste!

Image of man explaining democracy to the BID Patrol is a public record.

Hollywood Property Owners Alliance

Vine Street Tree Vandal Turns the Hat-Trick on May 19!

May 19, 2015 kohlhaas Leave a comment

As you can see from the images to your right, the Vine Street Tree Vandal is still at large and hard at his dastardly work as of today, May 19, 2015. One of these three-in-a-row vandalized trees on the west side of Vine Street between DeLongpre and Sunset was hit just last week. What we have here is more than just a crime spree, more than just a peasant revolt against the ham-fisted idiocy of the Andrews International Security BID Patrol, it is in fact an indictment of the BID Patrol’s very competence. The big brass at Andrews will blether on about their self-proclaimed excellence in privatized facism, but when it comes to an actual ongoing crime spree they’re quite evidently helpless.
Continue reading Vine Street Tree Vandal Turns the Hat-Trick on May 19! →

Joint Security Committee

Kerry Morrison Announces De Facto Semi-Denazification of BID Anti-Panhandling Project; Hollywood Not to be Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace After All

May 14, 2015 kohlhaas Leave a comment

HPOA agents on Hollywood Blvd polishing their public image. They're not fooling US, though... — HPOA agents on Hollywood Blvd polishing their public image. They’re not fooling US, though…

Long-time readers of this blog will recall the two HPOA BIDs’ obsessive crusade to end the human-to-human sharing of money on the streets of Hollywood, thereby decreasing the probability that our saviour will arrive soon. One aspect of this campaign, previously pushed quite vigorously by the BIDs, is the satanic contraptions known as “donation stations,” which are some kind of weirdo parking-meter-esque devices that tourists are supposed to put money in instead of handing it to homeless people. This kind of corporatization of the loving human act of sharing money is, of course, characteristic of Nazi thought and its wannabe adherents throughout history. Well, at today’s Joint Security Committee meeting, HPOA head Honcho-ette Kerry Morrison announced the suspension (or “parking,” to use the same abhorrent managerialism used by the author of the document in question) of the donation station project.
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Hollywood Property Owners Alliance

Vine Street Tree Vandal Still At Large Despite Best Efforts of HPOA, LAPD, FBI, NSA, Other TLAs!!!

May 13, 2015 kohlhaas Leave a comment

Newly vandalized jacaranda tree on Vine Street, May 13, 2015

We’ve been writing about the continuing story of the Vine Street tree vandal since October of last year. The Sunset-Vine BID has been announcing the imminent arrest of the criminal for at least that long. In fact, we could have sworn that they mentioned it again at last month’s Joint Security Committee meeting although we’ll be damned if we can find it in there now. We’ve also noted that this criminal does in fact seem to be targeting the BID’s trees, although as Kurt Cobain might have said but didn’t, just because you have enemies doesn’t mean you’re not paranoid.

Proof that the vandalism as pictured above was newly committed: as-yet unwilted tree fronds at the base of the tree. Is the baseball cap evidence of the workings of a depraved criminal mind? Obviously. Who else but depraved criminals root for American League teams?

As you can see to your left, though, the tree vandal is still at large and working despite the dogged efforts of Keystone Kop-wannabes Andrews International Security, the Hollywood Neighborhood Prosecutor, the LAPD, and everyone else. Perhaps there’s more than one tree vandal, and though they arrest particular instances, new vandals rise up hydra-like after the manner of peasant rebellion leaders everywhere.
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Historical and Theoretical Perspectives, The Race Card

Between the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the HPOA: 95 Years of Anti-Japanese, Anti-Black, Anti-Brown White Supremacism. “GET BUSY, JAPS, AND GET OUT OF HOLLYWOOD”

May 1, 2015 kohlhaas 2 Comments

A member of the Hollywood Protective Association and spiritual forebear of the modern BID, with the backing of the 1923 edition of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, announces to the world that she's a moron. Note sign in window stating "Member Hollywood Protective Association." — A member of the Hollywood Protective Association and spiritual forebear of the modern BID Board member, with the backing of the 1920s edition of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, announces to the world that she’s a moron. Note sign in window stating “Member Hollywood Protective Association.”

Long-time readers of this blog will recall that, last month, we broke the story of Hollywood Chamber of Commerce biggity-wig Marty Shelton’s bizarre distaste for black, brown, and poor people visiting Hollywood. Inspired by that, we recently wrote on the white supremacist roots of our beloved Hollywood sign and the inwrought caucasians-only policies of the real-estate development it once promoted. This line of inquiry got us interested in the jim crow history of Hollywood, which turns out to be quite rich.

For instance, a brief discussion in Scott Kurashige’s interesting book The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles¹ led us to read up in old LA Times articles on anti-Japanese hysteria in Hollywood in the early 1920s. It seems that in April 1923, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave some advice to a bunch of angry white people. The article is here, but the short version is that some Japanese people bought eight lots in Hollywood, four near Bronson and Sunset and four on Tamarind and Gordon, and had the nerve to wish to build some apartment buildings and a church.

Jess E. Stephens, City Attorney of Los Angeles in April 1923 when pitchfork-waving torch-bearing howling Hollywood lynch mobs came whining to him about how Japanese people were being meanies and building a church in Hollywood. His response doesn't seem to be available in the historical record. — Jess E. Stephens, City Attorney of Los Angeles in April 1923 when pitchfork-waving torch-bearing howling Hollywood lynch mobs came whining to him about how Japanese people were being meanies and building a church in Hollywood. His response doesn’t seem to be available in the historical record.

The white people got all in a tizzy, you can see one in the image above, and went to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce screaming for help. The Chamber, as opposed to the presence of non-white people in Hollywood as they are today, directed the howling mob to the City Attorney to seek a restraining order and they also started circulating petitions “urging the residents to agree to restrict the use of land to those of the Caucasian race.”² They were even inspired to poetry! See after the break for an especially creepy example.

By May of that year things had really gotten out of hand!
Continue reading Between the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the HPOA: 95 Years of Anti-Japanese, Anti-Black, Anti-Brown White Supremacism. “GET BUSY, JAPS, AND GET OUT OF HOLLYWOOD” →

Business Improvement Districts

Property Owner and Unwilling Media District BID Member Toni Werk Wonders Where Her $12,000 Went. We Have the Answer!

April 29, 2015 kohlhaas Leave a comment

Media District BID property owner Toni Werk's parcel at 6065 Melrose Avenue. She's paid over $12,000 into the BID for this piece of land. Where has it all gone? (Image via Google Street View).

On October 7, 2014, Hollywood Media District BID property owner Toni Werk wrote to Jim Omahen, HMD operations director, about her parcel at 6065 Melrose Avenue. The gist of her complaint is this:

For the more than $12,000 that I have contributed to the BID, I, or my tenant, have not received one word of promotion in your newsletter. During business hours, my tenant says he has seen your bike patrol only a few times. And during after hours, there is no one staying on our property to phone your Security Patrol if there is an issue. As I originally did not want to participate in the bid [sic], and I voted no against it again, I have been forced to pay a tax that has not been any benefit to me or my tenant.

Indefatigably feckless dudebro Steven Whiddon running over that long list of MBA jargon in his mind, because it WILL be on the test! — Indefatigably feckless dudebro Steven Whiddon running over that long list of MBA jargon in his mind, because it ***WILL*** be on the test!

Jim, rightfully, forwarded this complaint on to his boss, the jolly but rather knuckle-headed Steven Whiddon, who replied, in characteristically evasive¹ fashion, replied:

I am happy to report that Captain John Iragoyan [sic] and myself [sic] completed a site visit of your property 6065 Melrose Avenue. We spoke with your leasee, [sic] Tom Pena about the issues you stated in the email below. We made sure he understands we are here to serve and has all of our contact information. He understands that he can contact us at any time to assist with the issues below. …

Thank you again for reaching out to us.²

Notice how Steven doesn’t mention the money at all. Read on to see just where DID that $12,000 go…
Continue reading Property Owner and Unwilling Media District BID Member Toni Werk Wonders Where Her $12,000 Went. We Have the Answer! →

Announcements, Business Improvement Districts

Document Dump: About 150 Miscellaneous Emails to/from Media District BID From October/November 2014

April 27, 2015 Mike Leave a comment

Brett Goldstone's lovely gate at the Los Feliz Blvd. entrance to the Los Angeles River, one of the few segments that it's legal to walk. Of course this image has nothing whatsoever to do with this post, but we like it just the same. — Brett Goldstone’s lovely gate at the Los Feliz Blvd. entrance to the Los Angeles River, one of the few segments along which it’s legal to walk. Of course this image has nothing whatsoever to do with this post, but we like it just the same.

I am pleased-ish to announce the appearance of about 150 unsorted emails to and from the Media District BID in October and November 2014. These are available from our static storage either as individual PDFs or as a single zipped archive. I’m sorry the dates don’t match the numbering, but this is how they came to me and I have neither the time nor the heart to sort them. There’s some interesting stuff here and some chaff. I’m sure my colleagues will be analyzing some of the hidden gems in days to come, but I didn’t want our avid readers to have to wait until that happens to see the fruits of this public records request. Happy voyeurism!

Historical and Theoretical Perspectives, The Race Card

Protect Your Family From the Despoliation of “Metropolitan Development.” Move to Racially Restricted Hollywoodland!

April 26, 2015 kohlhaas 1 Comment

Ad for Hollywoodland development from the L.A. Times, September 7, 1924, page D2, fearmongering about minorities in Hollywood, just like now, 90 years later.

While flipping about in old issues of the L.A. Times, we came upon the enlightening 1924 advert you see to the right, luring buyers for the famous Hollywoodland development, from which we inherited not only the iconic sign but the famous racist attitudes, it seems. See what it says?

…to the “Old Timer” of Los Angeles! You…..who have seen the fine residential districts of Los Angeles despoiled by metropolitan development—must realize now that Los Angeles is destined soon to be a city of millons.

Protect your family by procuring at today’s prices a home place in the Hills of Hollywoodland—secured by fixed and natural restrictions against the inroads of metropolitanism and yet within twenty-five minutes of Seventh & Broadway.

Today is Your best opportunity. Are you going to sit idly by and let the March of Progress pass unheeded?

Continue reading Protect Your Family From the Despoliation of “Metropolitan Development.” Move to Racially Restricted Hollywoodland! →