Red Car Property South: Really Needs Brush Clearance

Photo: Red Car Properrty Neighbor, June 30, 2017.  After the 2016 Silver Lake Fire, you'd think the Red Car Property owner would clear the brush by May 1, like responsible hillside property owners.  Nope.  Nor did a number of neighboring properties on Silver Ridge Ave, Lake View Ave and one on Corralitas Drive bother with brush clearance.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 30, 2017.  When the slopes are so steep you can't see them from above, it's a clue you need to clear the dry brush and arundo from your lot. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 30, 2017.  The fire was spread by the dry grass on the Red Car Property and in particular, by the dry brush  and dry Eucalyptus on steep slopes.  This year, the dry brush is much taller and more dense than before the fire.

According to CD13, the Red Car Property owner was cited by LAFD.  Then why hasn't it been cleared yet?  Red Tagged? Neighbors on Corralitas and Silver Ridge received citations, dated last week, from LAFD, for failure to clear minor piles of debris their brush clearance guys failed to remove.  More than one remedied the hazard immediately.  Yet, these persistent non-compliant lots put everyone in the neighborhood at risk.  It's the same lots, year after year.

Illegal fireworks have been exploding in the neighborhood since the end of May.  In February, when it was clear we were having a big rain year,  I began reminding CD13 we would have explosive brush conditions on the Red Car Property.  Other neighbors have also been reminding CD13 and LAFD's Brush Unit of the hazardous conditions.   We're still looking for the Red Tags.

Send your concerns about the dry brush, homeless camps, unrestricted vehicle access or any other nuisance on the Red Car Property to Hector.Vega@lacity.org in CD13.  Be sure to include your name, street address and phone number.

4th of July is Tuesday.  Call 911 if you see smoke or fire in the neighborhood.  If you think you smell fire, go outside and walk around your house and investigate the source.  It's a good idea to become familiar with the neighborhood streets,  Due to the steep topography, you are more likely to see a fire on another street than the neighbors right there.  For instance, I had to learn how to direct the LAFD dispatch to an obscure spot on the LA River because I was often the first to report fires caused by the homeless camp on a portion of Parcel G  in Taylor Yard.  There's no excuse now with 3-D maps on your phone.  Take a few minutes this weekend and learn the streets you have a view of from your house, so you can help save the neighborhood if there's a fire.

I've written ad nauseum about brush clearance.  Click here for all our brush clearance posts.

Red Car Property: Lot C Neighbors Tired Of Dumping

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, April 17, 2017.  A new sign showed up on a fence on Lot C of the Red Car Property, north of India Street before the construction fence.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, April 17, 2017.  "No Dumping, Trash, This is NOT Your House!!!!!"  Of course the  "fence" is about 20 - 30 feet over the property line on the Red Car Property's Lot C.  

Homes on this downslope side of the Red Car Property front on Riverside Drive.

Corralitas Drive: Temporary No Parking Zone Reduced

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, April 12, 2016.  Tuesday, the City Department of Transportation (DOT) mistakenly placed temporary No Parking signs on both sides of Corralitas Drive between Rosebud and the top of the hill - covering 80% of the entire hillside street with only one means of access.

Today, we learned the signs were for the DWP to put in a water main connection to a duplex under construction at the top of the Corralitas Public Staircase.  After I spoke by phone to the DWP site supervisor this morning, he went to the street and removed all the unnecessary signs.  The remaining signs are around construction site at either end of the public staircase.  DWP needs the parking for their vehicles and to leave a lane open for cars going up and down the hill. 

Work should be complete next week.  The Corralitas Public Staircase will be closed to the public on the days they are working there.  Work should start later this week and take about 2 days (not a month as the no parking permit was issued to the DWP).

Tuesday, neighbors were fuming as there was no information, nor warning prior to the signs showing up.  Corralitas neighbors worked together quickly sharing information so we could follow up.  A number of neighbors spoke to the DWP site supervisor in the street today.    He encouraged us to talk to them on site if there are questions or problems.

Good work neighbors!

Previous: Mystery No Parking Signs

LA River: Annual Clean Up, Saturday, April 18, 2015

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2010.  Although they're becoming more scarce, you'll still see shopping carts in the LA River.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Friends of LA River (FoLAR) presents

LA Gran Limpieza

The Great Los Angeles River Clean Up

Saturday April 18, 2015

9AM - Noon

6 Locations 

in the Glendale Narrows 

(our section of the river) 

Corralitas Public Staircase: Sierra Club Verdugo Hills Did Brush Clearance Today!

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2016. I ran into a group of volunteers from the Sierra Club's Verdugo Hills Group clearing brush from the Corralitas Public Staircase as a part of their Earth Day celebrations.  They planned a picnic in Red Car Canyon when they were done.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

They've adopted our public staircase and would like to plant some drought tolerant natives in the neglected triangle of slope at Corralitas & Rosebud.  Realistically, without water, we agreed it would be best to wait for next rainy season unless a neighbor was willing to water regularly.

In the big picture, they'd really like to extend the handrails all the way up the Corralitas Public Staircase.  I pointed out there were far more serious problems than handrails with these stairs.  Several flights are in need of structural repair due to partial slope failure.  

The original public staircase was likely built in 1922 (or earlier), when the tract was first subdivided.  ("Hunter Terrace" was cut in 1922.)  Handrails were not a part of the original staircase according to the Smith Family, who called Corralitas home from 1938- 2005.  The lower two flights of stairs were realigned in 1960-62 by the State, when they cut into the hillside and moved Corralitas and Rosebud to build the 2 Freeway.  That's when the handrails were added to the rebuilt portion of the staircase.

I gave the volunteers the list of (supposedly) all of the public staircases the City, prioritized by need for repair that our (now) City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell spearheaded in 2002, while a he was a deputy for (then) City Councilmember Eric Garcetti.  Corralitas is number 16, on the list of 220, in the most need of repair.  Corralitas has only gotten worse since 2002.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 16, 2015.  Corralitas Neighbors, how much of schmuck do you feel like for not clearing brush from this small patch of hillside below the public staircase, when a group of 6 to 8 seniors from the Sierra Club's Verdugo Hills Group  volunteered to clean it up?  

On behalf of my neighbors, I thanked them and asked them to give me advanced notice next time so we'd get some neighbors out there too.  In the meantime, consider a donation to the Sierra Club's Verdugo Hills Group.  

Red Car Canyon: Sewer Lines Dumped Last Week

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 11, 2015.  Last week,  it appears that someone replaced about 35' of sewer lines and dumped the old ones, including some old clay sewer lines, and a large wood beam in Red Car Canyon on the Lake View Ave side.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Respect your neighbors.  The City does not pick up your trash back here - it's private property.  Don't dump it out your back gates.  Don't drive here and dump either.  Considering the property owner still hasn't picked up dumping in the canyon from last summer, this is only going to sit here too.

If you see someone dumping - take photos, be sure to get their license plate & call the non-emergency 1-877-ASK-LAPD & report it immediately.

Who benefits from illegal dumping?  Developers.  

Neighbors complain.  Developers fail to clean up their property so you will embrace development.  Don't fall for their pattern of neglect.  File a complaint on the Building & Safety website. The address for this site is 2433 Corralitas Drive.  As if you could find it by address.  It's best to include photos.
 

India Street: No Parking Sign Is No More

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 11, 2015.  Yes we sent it to the Red Car property owner's rep yesterday.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

NOTE: In 2007 2009*, Neighbors from Riverside Place & Corralitas Drive put up the Neighborhood Watch signs on the Red Car Property ("Children at Play" sign came from Corralitas) in response to an increase in drug-related petty crime in the neighborhood; partying and graffiti on the Red Car Property.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 7, 2015.  We gave the property owner's rep a head's up re the sign and the Mercedes station wagon that still had not moved. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 4, 2015.  We also shot the rep an email/photo on April 4 re: the station wagon and the sign/gate.  

We first emailed both Rose Scharlin Co-op Preschool's community rep & the Red Car Property rep on April 3, after the Mercedes station wagon had not moved in several days, parked in the area where Rose Scharlin is allowed to park 4 cars during school hours.

The Mercedes station wagon was finally removed from the Red Car Property on April 9.  More than a week after it first appeared. 

*Correction 4-29-15: The sign post with Neighborhood Watch and "Caution Slow Children" signs was erected by Red Car Property neighbors in 2009, not 2007.

Red Car Canyon: Who Is Trying To Make Dumping Look Like A Homeless Camp?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 29, 2015.  Last week, someone moved the blue tarp full of weeds into the bushes to make it look like we have a homeless camp in Red Car Canyon.  How do we know?  We've been documented the hell out of this pile since it was dumped in the canyon last summer.  (Click on photos to enlarge & use the links in this post to earlier documentation.)

The pile of old lumber, concrete and brush bound up in a blue tarp was dumped in Red Car Canyon last August, documented here and reported to the property owner's rep and City Council office (CD13) then, and monthly since.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 29, 2015.  If you don't walk the property on a regular basis, you wouldn't recognize the tarp full of weeds that the developer didn't even bother to have picked up during brush clearance last year.  Rumors then circulate that there's a homeless problem on the property.  No, there's a pile a crap that the property owner refuses to pick up.

Who benefits from these rumors?  Developers, who prey on the fear of homeowners.  "See, you need new development to keep the homeless out." How about, "You need to take responsibility for your property."  Your "broken windows" are only attracting graffiti, dumping and disrespect for the neighborhood. 

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, March 10, 2015.  The weeds had grown up over the piles, including the scrap wood that one Riverside Place neighbor has been hauling away one piece at a time as she walks her dog.  (Thanks for being a good neighbor!)  The same neighbor flipped the tarp full of weeds over to let the rainwater drain out. 

The second arrow in the above photo shows the pile of dry bamboo and brush dumped at the same time last summer.  It's still there and still dry.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 4, 2015.  This one was on the blog.  By then, weeds had grown through the broken glass tabletop dumped in November. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 10, 2015.  The big pile of dry bamboo and weeds will be extra dry this summer if it doesn't get picked up soon.  Brush clearance is supposed to be done by May 1.  (It's not so green anymore.)

Frankly we'd rather post photos of butterflies, hawks and wildflowers than have to focus on dumping.  While it does become a part of the landscape and you do really have to think about it when someone asks if the pile of dumping is still in the canyon.  After 7 months, it's time to haul it away.

*UPDATE 5-27-15: The blue tarp full of weeds got picked up on Sunday May 24, 2015.  The pile of dry brush and the pile of scrap wood, concrete and some of the glass is still there.

Red Car Canyon: TVs Dumped. Good Neighbor Hauls To Them E-Waste Center

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 28, 2015, 10:34 AM.  My dog is tired of posing with all the dumped TVs in the neighborhood for scale.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

After a long period with no new dumping on the Red Car Property, it's spring cleaning time. Here we go again.  

It takes effort to dump here.  Someone had to drive in from either India or Corralitas to dump them. They would not be intact if were launched over anyone's fence, more than 30 feet up the canyon walls.

It takes even more effort to get them picked up, since the property owner won't even pick up the piles of dumping that have been in the canyon or above the viaduct footings since last summer.  The City will not drive onto private property to pick it up. 

After shooting some photos, I texted one to a neighbor on Riverside Place.  He called back (after the joyriding episode) & said he was taking some stuff to the City's E-Waste Center, would the TVs fit in his car?  I thought they might be too big, but let's give it a try.

The Red Car Property owner's rep is always bitching at us when we tell him there's dumping on the property.   He fails to understand, as long as anyone can drive onto the property, dumping is going to continue to happen. He thinks we should be picking it up.  Well, some neighbors do way more than their share.  Here's more proof...

Photo: Diane Edwardson,  March 28, 2015, 11:30 AM. Walking toward Corralitas, I met the neighbor in Red Car Canyon.  It was a tight squeeze, but he got the the first TV in the back pretty easily.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 28, 2015, 11:32 AM.  The smaller of the 2 large TVs actually fit in his back seat.  Thank you for being a good neighbor and hauling the crap away.  

March 28, 28, 2015, 11:51 AM.  Less than 20 minutes later,  I received a text from the neighbor.  He'd already dropped off the TVs at the City's S.A.F.E.-Waste Center just off Colorado exit of the 5 Freeway in Glendale.  It's that easy. It's free.  You don't even have to get out of your car.

DON'T DUMP YOUR TVS OR ANYTHING ELSE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

Riverside & Fletcher: Clean Up Day, Saturday, February 21, 2015

Info: outreach@silverlakenc.org

Hyperion Bridge: Yet Another Plan

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 8, 2010.  

The City is proposing another plan reimagining the historic landmark Hyperion Bridge when it goes through an earthquake retrofit.  

Proposal 1A  leaves 2 lanes of vehicle traffic in both directions, but puts pedestrians in direct conflict with bicyclists on 8' wide sidewalks.  Expect lots of blowback from the bike & pedestrian lobbies.  Considering they can't share a 12' wide path in Elysian Valley - this will be a huge sticking point.  

Lots of Red Car Property neighbors have asked me what can be done to alleviate traffic in the area - particularly when it comes to losing car lanes to bike lanes.  If you care one way or another, pay attention & speak up to your City Councilmembers now.  

See all 3 plans: The Eastsider

Riverside & Fletcher: Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Thinking About Cleaning Up

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 2004.  The City of LA Cultural Historic Landmark Pacific Electric Viaduct Footings haven't looked this good in years.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC) is discussing how outreach to the community to clean up Riverside & Fletcher.  Rapid gentrification can't be far behind. 

The fact that it's a major commuter corridor doesn't help matters. As part of their effort to keep the district's neighborhoods safe & clean, City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell's staff (CD13) along with the LA Conservation Corps has cleaned up the Riverside Drive sidewalks between Fletcher & Gilroy and Fletcher into Atwater fairly regularly for the past year.   

Cleaning pastel paint off the vandalized viaduct footings will likely not be on the agenda at tonight's meeting.  The viaduct footings are on private property.  It's not a park, it just looks like one. 

SLNC Joint Community Liaison & Outreach Committees

click here for agenda

Monday January 5, 2015

7-9 PM

Neutra Institute Museum & Gallery

2379 Glendale Blvd, LA 90039

Stuff We Wished We Missed This Year: Dumping

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 2, 2014.  The Red Car Property at India Street was a popular dumping ground this year.  (Click on photos to enlarge)  

We had so many dumping photos throughout the Red Car Property in 2014, we did not run them all.  (Here are a bunch of previously unpublished photos).  However, they were all sent to the Red Car Property owner's rep and CD13 as they occurred.  In most cases, it took neighbors' creative efforts to get dumping cleaned up despite the Red Car Property owner's promises to clean up the piles of trash.  

At India Street, the neighbors finally convinced the City that if they are driving onto the Red Car Property to pick up the trash cans & turn around, they can pick up the illegal dumping too.  One neighbor started consolidating the piles at India the night before trash pick up in the hopes of encouraging the City to stop ignoring the neighbor's calls, after reporting the dumping to 311. It seems to be working.

Read more about trash dumping and the city efforts to clean it up: LA Times

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 27, 2014.  TVs multiplied like rats throughout the neighborhood this year.  Computers & TVs were stripped of wiring & dumped on the Red Car Property, Corralitas Drive, Riverside Drive, Glendale Blvd & Allesandro St.  Since they are considered toxic e-waste, it is particularly hard to get the City to pick them up.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 1, 2014.  The same TV languished for months.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, February 2, 2014.  Deconstructed office chairs were added to a pile of wood & glass that had been dumped in January behind Rose Scharlin Nursery School.  The neighbor who shot these photos, had just hauled the large pile of cardboard away, a few days before the chairs were dumped.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, February 23, 2014.  Apparently no one wanted the chairs.  The City issued an order to comply to the owner to clean up the dumping.  It was finally picked up in March.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 12, 2014.  Boxes with a return address on Lake View Ave & glass were deposited behind Rose Scharlin.

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, December 11, 2014.  Then there's the ever-popular migrating pile of dumping.

Despite the number of dumping incidents, this year was really was not that bad compared to previous years.  It's just extremely frustrating for residents because the City won't pick up illegal dumping from private property & the property owner fails to pick up dumping in a timely manner.  It doesn't help that so many of our City streets abut freeways & have no addresses, so the dumping in those areas sits for months awaiting City pick up.  The whole neighborhood can seem like a dumping ground.

People who walk the the Red Car Property regularly do their part to remove what they can, but there's also a liability issue for the property owner.  

Then there's the problem of neighbors dumping on the property.

Through the years, to prevent vehicle traffic, dumping, late night parties & stolen car abandonment on the property, our LAPD Senior Lead Officers have suggested steel gates with LAFD approved locks, similar to what they have in areas around Griffith & Elysian Parks.  Landscaping and earth berms could be built up other areas around the gates.  

When I first moved to the neighborhood 25 years ago, 3 such gates were in place at India St, north of India St above Gilroy and at Corralitas.  Somehow, gates were opened, then disappeared (probably to scrap metal thieves), but the posts are still in the ground at India.  One steel post is intact north of India & another was displaced years ago by the City's brush clearance & is at rest near the 2 Freeway fence at Corralitas.

We've written about dumping by the truckload: click here for all our dumping posts.

Read today's LA Times story

Stuff You Missed This Year is our annual wrap up of interesting photos and things we just didn't have a chance to run, because everything seems to always happen at the same time.

Town Hall Meeting: City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell, Saturday September 6, 2014

Photo: Diane Edwardson. July 22, 2014.  Politicians usually want to talk big picture, neighbors want to know when their streets will be repaired (above, Lake View Ave - recently patched with asphalt - photo for illustration purposes only); illegal dumping picked up; graffiti painted out.

City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell wants to hear your thoughts at a

Town Hall

Saturday September 6, 2014

9:30-11:00 AM

Sandra Cisneros Learning Center

1018 Mohawk St

Echo Park

Info: CD13.com

Red Car Property: It's Still A Lawless Place; Neighbors Cutting Down Native Tree, Dumping & More

Photo: Red Car Neighbor #1, August 15, 2014.  Friday morning, neighbors were alarmed at the sound of chainsaws coming from the Red Car Property, particularly when one discovered a neighbor in the process of cutting down a healthy, protected native Southern California Black Walnut Tree on the Red Car Property.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Neighbor #2, August 15, 2014.  Neighbors asked what they could do to prevent this from happening in the future.  Here's a piece from Enviro Defenders & The Sierra Club: Protecting Native Trees

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 17, 2014.  The City's Urban Forestry Division issues permits for removal of protected native trees*.  In this case, the Black Walnut Tree was definitely on the Red Car Property, behind Rose Scharlin Preschool.  There's also a new encroachment of stairs next door.

Those are just the latest problems.  Here's a review of the long since existing problems...

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 17, 2014.  Trash chute (for an abandoned construction site) still in place since it first appeared in February.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 1, 2014.  Adelbert Dumphouse, it's only gotten worse.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 17, 2014.  Then there are all the parked vehicles, some of which have not moved in years, dumping & storage of crap on Lot C.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 16, 2014.  This pile of dumping had collected for years behind one neighbor's house.  Last month, someone moved it behind another neighbor's house.  Really?  Just haul it to the dump at that point.  The City is not going to come onto private property to pick it up.  

In the meantime, other neighbors have gone out of their way to paint out graffiti & pick up trash on the Red Car Property, only to have their efforts undermined by their neighbors.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 27, 2014.  Back in February a graffiti artist decided to paint the historic landmark viaduct footings without permission from the property owner nor the City's Cultural Heritage Commission.

Oh yeah, brush clearance within 100' of structures (including combustible fences) was not done this year, unless a neighbors took it upon themselves to clear the brush from the area near their homes.

The Red Car Property is a lawless place.  If neighbors don't respect it, how can we expect anyone else to?

*Los Angeles Protected Native Tree Ordinance: 177404

Corralitas Public Staircase: Neighbor Shovels Mud, Questions Hillside Stability

Photos: Corralitas Neighbor, March 4, 2014.   One incredibly fit Corralitas neighbor sent these photos and the following email:

"Just moved hundreds of yards of wet dirt off the stairs. Noticed that, if not fixed we will lose the use of these stairs. Will the city take any action to save these stairs?"

Yes, that's a question we've asked many times, as have all the neighbors who use the Corralitas Public Staircase regularly.  But first, we'd like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the neighbor who got a great functional workout moving all that mud from the public staircase - BRAVO! 

The Corralitas Public Staircase has been around since at least 1922. In 1961, the lower 2 levels were realigned & got handrails, when the 2 Freeway was built.

 

The Corralitas Public Staircase is #16 in most need of repairs on the 2003, Citywide list of 222 public staircases.  The list was spearheaded by our City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell while working as deputy for then City Councilmember (now Mayor) Eric Garcetti in CD13.   

Unfortunately, even during the real estate boom years, when the City was flush with money, there was no money allocated with the City budget for staircase repair & maintenance.  The City places responsibility for maintenance on the adjacent property owners, as they do with sidewalks.  It seems a bit onerous since there are larger grading & structural issues with public staircases, than with ordinary sidewalks in front of people's homes.  (The City can't decide who's responsible for paying for City sidewalk repair right now anyway.)

Further complicating matters, the City also considers the public staircases as "streets."  Which would seem even more absurd since you can't drive on them. The City budget for street repair includes nothing for public staircases.  The City does not expect the adjacent homeowners to pave or repair the City streets.  Does the City expect homeowners to do structural repairs on the City public staircases?  If so, then why was the Corralitas Public Staircase not repaired during construction of the adjacent houses? 

In December 2009, the City did a partial repair to one landing on the Corralitas Public Staircase.  Apparently, the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council paid for it.  However, it failed to address the more important structural issues.  According to the 2003 survey, 40' of concrete needed replacing in addition to structural repair.   It was like putting a bandaid on broken leg.

So again, a big thank you to the neighbor who cleared the dirt and mud from the 6-story, Corralitas Public Staircase so the rest of us could continue to use it.  We'd also like to encourage other neighbors to pull the weeds as they sprout in the staircase, before the dirt hardens up again.  The castor bean seedlings will be sprouting by the weekend - pull them as soon as you see them - so they don't damage the staircase further.  

Red Car Property: "Red Car Line Park? Is This A Scam?"

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, January 25, 2014.  Red Car Canyon: not a park, it just looks like one.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

A letter landed in mailboxes of Red Car Property adjacent property owners today claiming to be from "Red Car Line Park" with a gmail address similar to ours & a mailing address in Oakland.  Since about 4pm this afternoon, neighborhood email about it has been non-stop.

Let's look at some facts.

The "Red Car Line Park" group is in NO WAY affiliated with this blog nor Community Residents' Association for Parks (CRAP is a 501c3).  

The letter claims they are working in partnership with the Trust for Public Land.  The property owner has failed to sign an option agreement with the Trust for Public Land since they first listed it for sale back in summer of 2012.

The letter claims to be needing your help in "cleaning the property lines."  In other words they have no idea where the property lines are because there are so many encroachments that have to be cleared so they can show they own the land free & clear of encroachments.  They cannot sell or submit development plans to the City without showing "clear title" to the land. 

The letter even offers to come haul away your fence if it's encroaching on their land. Yet they never seem to be able to paint over graffiti on your fence, pick up dumping & downed trees nor do their own brush clearance. 

Neighbors who received the letter said it looked like a scam.  Several sent me copies & I have to agree.  Just because someone can look up your Assessor's Parcel Number (APN) & access your name & address via public records, in this day of identity theft, you should be reluctant to respond to such a letter.  It doesn't even identify the Red Car Property owner's name & address.  Neighbors are saying it just looks shady.

Trust for Public Land (TPL) has been talking to the Red Car Property owner's rep listed on the letter. 

Without an option agreement with TPL, if the property owner clears up all the encroachments on the land, they do not have to sell to TPL.  Even with an option agreement, when the option expires, they do not have to sell to TPL, but it is a sign of good faith that they are taking the land off the market for a specific amount of time while TPL would do appropriate appraisal to prepare a fair market value bid. 

In 2001, another developer sold the property out from under us when CRAP, in partnership with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC), secured a grant to purchase the property.  The difference in price was a mere $40,000 & we were NOT given notice of the impending sale, nor given the opportunity to increase the offer after we worked in a "friendly" manner with that developer on park acquisition.  

Stay tuned.  I put in a call to the Trust for Public Land, since I'm the one getting all the calls. 

This column is strictly meant to enlighten neighbors to recent history.  It was not prepared in cooperation with any of the aforementioned organizations.  Any opinions expressed, are my own or those of your neighbors. It is in no way intended to be legal advice.  If you are concerned about your encroachments, you should seek advice from a real estate attorney.  Anytime you buy a home next to vacant land, there is risk that it will be developed.     
 
Diane Edwardson
24 year Corralitas Drive resident
22 year community leader
redcarproperty@gmail.com

One Red Car Canyon neighbor said in a group email, "My feeling is wait till TPL and the owner have reached a deal on the sale of the property. Otherwise you're just helping them clean up their property for sale to anyone including developers."

Read the long development history of the Red Car Property.

Editor's note: Our recent hiatus from daily posting has nothing to do with this recent news, it is an unfortunate coincidence. 

Red Car Canyon: Neighbors Taking Action

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, 2014.  Fed up with the slow or no response from the City's 311 service, when it comes to painting over graffiti on the Red Car Property, neighbors on Riverside Place & Lake View have been working together for months to keep it painted out as quickly as possible.

Graffiti vandals have been running amok throughout the area, not just the Red Car Property.  Despite assurances from one of the City's contractors that tagging reported as "on the rear fence of street address, fence is on the Red Car Property" would be painted out for accessible fences, there still seems to be a problem finding the locations. Heck, they can't seem to find the Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase.

Like neighbors in Elysian Valley, Riverside Place & Lake View neighbors have been photographing the tags to send to the LAPD officer who tracks gang tags in Northeast Division, before painting it out in the event it is gang related.  Most of it is not. 

Don't let the graffiti vandals win by creating fear in the neighborhood.  Paint it out immediately.  If you are unable to do so, report it to the City's My 311 service (with photos) either by smartphone app or on the City's website.  If you call 311, the operator doesn't usually record enough information on location for the contractor to find it. 

LAPD strongly advises people to NOT confront graffiti vandals.  If you see someone tagging & can safely take a picture, do so.  If not, write down a good description of the kid(s) & call the LAPD non-emergency line, 1-877-ASK-LAPD immediately. 

Kudos to the neighbors working together to make the Red Car Property a cleaner place.  At least one neighbor spends a couple of hours painting out graffiti several times a month on the Red Car Property alone.

Lake View Ave: Fresh Landscaping For The Free Little Library

Photo: Russell Bates, December 5, 2013.  The Free Little Library on Lake View Ave just got some new drought tolerant landscaping from neighbor and landscape designer Seth Baker. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Russell Bates, December 5, 2013.  Bates adds, "It's
really going to look great as these plants get established, and it's a big improvement on that bare (and neglected-by-owner) hillside."

Bates & wife Amy Seidenwurm established the Lake View branch of the Free Little Library on Lake View in 2012.  Neighbors of all ages are welcome to take a book and leave a book.