How will LA's new Airbnb regulations affect hosts? A new exhibit looks at the evolution of street art, for our latest ‘Hear in SoCal’...peacocks!
More than 800 buildings in WeHo could collapse in earthquake
More than 800 buildings in West Hollywood could either collapse or be damaged during an earthquake. That's according to a new inventory conducted by the city, which is working to identify buildings in need of retrofitting, following West Hollywood's passage last year of a retrofit ordinance.
WeHo Mayor Pro Tem John Duran says almost 80% of the city's residents are renters and that most of the vulnerable buildings are apartments.
Why WeHo conducted an inventory of vulnerable buildings
Part of the issue is WeHo has a lot of beautiful historic neighborhoods and apartments that have been around for decades that have withstood other quakes, but we know from Northridge that Santa Monica and Hollywood got hit really hard, so we want to make sure we're prepared for the next one. We are due. We live along the ring of fire. We live in earthquake country. We've seen what happened in the Bay Area.
Are the people who live in these buildings safe
I think generally they are. What the city did was an initial visual inspection and inventory of every building in town, and now we move to the next stage which is to have engineering reports done on the buildings to make a determination to see if a retrofit is required. We want to preserve our housing stock, and in a major quake that could red tag a lot of buildings, we could lose that affordable housing. One major quake, and a lot of property owners may think they'll demolish the buildings and make a new one that isn't subject to rent control.
Apartment buildings with carports are most at risk
Those are called soft story buildings. I actually live in one. They were constructed in the 1940s and '50s when developers were eager to put up buildings quickly. They have parking underneath. Those are the ones that are possible for collapse, so that's the kind of damage and human destruction we want to prevent.
What took WeHo so long to inventory its buildings
I think that a lot of So Cal, we live in a constant state of denial. We love the beautiful weather. We're wearing shorts in January, but the price we pay is the eventuality of an earthquake. We're seeing a lot of action right now in Santa Monica and L.A., but there are 84 other cities in L.A. County that need to also start to inspect their buildings. I'm hoping other elected officials get on it.
What's next for the buildings on the list
Now we go through the process of having these buildings identified through engineering reports. Property owners have a year to submit them. The next big issue is cost sharing. We want to make sure we don't put the economic disadvantage in front of a property owner who says, 'I don't want to do it. I'm just going to demolish the building and create luxury housing.' We want to prevent that, so we have to figure out cost sharing between property owners and tenants and have city subsidies for those who are disabled or elderly or low income.
Timeline for WeHo retrofits
We're going for soft-story buildings first on a five-year timeline. After that we've got to go to steel structures, primarily office towers and hotels especially along the Sunset Strip.
Host with the most rules: Regulation could be checking in to LA's Airbnbs
The L.A. City Council took a big step Wednesday towards regulating short-term rentals – that means Airbnb.
The council unanimously voted for rules that emphasize two things:
- A host must live on the property he/she is renting out.
- A host can rent out a room for a maximum of 120 days, unless that person gets an exemption by paying a $1,149 fee, they do not have any nuisance violations because of guests, and nearby neighbors agree to it.
It's a victory to those who believe short-term rentals are displacing families in L.A. trying to find affordable places to live.
"We do have a housing crisis," says Rick Coca, spokesperson for Councilman José Huizar. "[Airbnb property owners] are the people we want to rent out to long term renters."
But hosts themselves are exasperated by this law on the horizon.
"Some of the people I've talked to are fine with it, others find it excessive," says Robert St. Genis, executive director of the Short Term Rental Alliance of California, which represents hosts. "The whole idea of having your neighbors decide whether or not you're allowed to do something, it's just asking for problems."
Others balk at the idea of having to live on the same property, like host Margaret Priest who rents out a Mid-City home that isn't her primary residence.
"It may force a sale. I just don't know how we can maintain a house that we can only rent for 120 days a year," she says. "I thought there would be more discussions."
But officials argue that the process has been meticulous.
"It's taken us three years to get to this point," says Coca. "[Councilman Huizar] has heard it no fewer than four times with a lot of input from people from all perspectives."
Airbnb backers argue, however, that there are different kinds of hosts, and the law lumps in the "bad" with the "good."
"I personally have an issue with people who clear out entire apartment buildings and turn it into a hotel," says Priest. "My problem is the way they're addressing these issues is sort of punishing everybody."
The details of the law have yet to be ironed out by the city planning commission and attorney's office, and then it will head to a final vote before the council.
Cracking down on warehouses to stem pollution from trucks — will it work?
California is becoming an oil island
Southern California is famous for always pushing to go green, green, green. But for all our environmental enthusiasm, we're still consuming a whole lot of oil.
While you may see plenty of those oil rigs bobbing up and down all over the place, we're simply not producing enough oil to match our current needs.
How much oil do we use?
California uses more gas than any other state in the country. "It's bigger than a country the size of Russia," said Laura Blewitt, oil reporter for Bloomberg. "So there's about a million barrels a day of gasoline consumption in California, alone."
There's an
derrick towering over Beverly Hills High School, right behind the bleachers. But it's coming down soon, a sign of waning interest in pumping crude in the Golden State.
By
— BBG Energy News (@BloombergNRG)
There's an #oil derrick towering over Beverly Hills High School, right behind the bleachers. But it's coming down soon, a sign of waning interest in pumping crude in the Golden State. https://t.co/t94x0fV2L2 By @roberttuttle @laurablewitt pic.twitter.com/6m4YxECX2r
— Bloomberg Energy (@BloombergNRG) April 26, 2018
How much oil do we produce?
California is producing a lot less oil than in the early 1980's. "Back then, there was about one million barrels a day being produced," said Blewitt. "Now it's about half that."
The Golden State's pre-existing wells are simply running out of their reserves. For example, the famously flowered oil derrick atop Beverly Hills High School has already pumped about 90 percent out of its stock out of the ground. It will be plugged and dismantled over the next year.
And environmental concerns have halted the drilling of new wells, be they on land or offshore. "California is sitting on one of the largest reserves in the world," said Blewitt. "So, it's there. California producers just aren't able to get to it at this point."
Where does our oil come from?
On top of pumping out our own oil, California used to import a lot from Alaska. But with Alaska's oil production meets the same challenges as California, the state has turned to foreign sources. "More than half the oil that California is refining is coming from overseas. It's coming from as far away as Saudi Arabia."
Laws limiting how oil can be transported, combined with a lack of infrastructure to move oil from nearby states leaves California with few options to feed our hunger for oil.
Why is California oil so expensive?
California gas prices are higher than any other state in the U.S. Simply put, it costs more to bring oil to us, than it does to produce it ourselves.
Blewitt and her colleagues at Bloomberg assessed the price disparity between importing oil from within the U.S. versus from overseas. "The oil imports are about six dollars a barrel higher," said Blewitt. "So if you look at the price of Texas oil, it's nearing 70 dollar a barrel. So, instead of getting that 70 dollars a barrel, California is paying $76."
Until Southern California is able to truly curb its oil consumption, drivers will have to keep ponying up at the pump.
Hear in SoCal: The peacocks of Arcadia
If you spend enough time in Southern California, chances are you've had at least one run-in with local wildlife. It's usually a squirrel dashing out in front of your car or a raccoon rattling your trash cans.
But for a handful of SoCal communities, the jarring honking-squawk of the majestic peacock has become a familiar sound.
One such place is Arcadia, California. Nestled in the San Gabriel Valley, Arcadia is home to a large population of wild peacocks... or peafowl, to use the technical term. Just like chickens, the males are the peacocks, while the females are called pea-hens. (Although the peahens lack the long, colorful tail of feathers.)
And they are indeed a form of fowl. You might find them acting a lot like chickens. Giant, colorful, loud, chickens, pecking away at lawns and perched above on rooftops.
Newly settled Arcadia residents tend to go through a rollercoaster of emotions when first discovering their new neighbors. Wow'd by their unexpected presence and beautiful feathers, the peafowl are a welcomed site, at first. But locals report that it can be short honeymoon before the peafowl display a little bit of their wild nature causing damage here and there to property.
But for the rest of us who don't have to deal with the peafowl in our own backyards, the occasional sight of the unusual creature can be pretty exciting. Some of us don't even mind when a line of peafowl brings traffic to a halt as they cross the road, often on a seeming last minute whim. But it's definitely best when there's a trail of babies in tow.
Where, you may ask, did these exotic birds come from?
About a hundred years ago, the wealthy businessmen Elias "Lucky" Baldwin, one of California's early real-estate investors, imported breeding peafowl from India to adorn his sprawling Arcadia estate. That estate is now the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Gardens.
Since the peafowl can fly with an impressive six-foot wingspan, the theory goes that the peafowl just wanted a larger territory to call home, which is why Arcadia is now home, to roving groups of wild peacocks.
If you have a specific sound you hear often in Southern California that you think really defines your community, let us know. Tweet us or leave a post on our Facebook page. We welcome you to leave a recording.
Need a car wash? There's an app for that
It's difficult to drive even a few blocks without seeing a car wash here in Los Angeles. But a couple new apps are flipping the business model, bringing the service to you instead.
Think of it like Uber ... for washing your car.
It's only natural that in Los Angeles -- land of sun, surf and 6.5 million vehicles -- that such services would exist.
Mobile Wash is one of them. Using an app, car owners can get a wash delivered to their doorstep in minutes or schedule one up to 48 hours in advance. The detailer brings all of the tricks of the trade along -- a high-powered vacuum, a huge tank of water and, of course, cleaning supplies.
"There was such a big need for people having a car wash at their convenience, I just felt like there was nothing that can guarantee you a good guy coming to your door," said Alfred Davtyan.
He's CEO of Mobile Wash, which has been serving LA, OC, Riverside and Ventura Counties for two and a half years. It does about 250 car washes each day and has about 50,000 customers, paying anywhere from $20 to $80 per wash, depending on the vehicle's make, model and location.
"You don't want to give your car to your neighbor's kid," Davtyan said. "You want to make sure it's a professional washing it, because cars are like people's babies."
The car wash and detailing industry is an $11 billion business, according to the research firm IBIS World. And nowhere is that business more visible than here in California, which has about 4,500 stationary car washes statewide, not including on-demand washes.That's about a third of all retail car washes in the country.
"At the end of the day whether you visit a car wash retail facility off the street or have a mobile car wash, the basic proposition is the same: providing a clean car in a way that's convenient," said Eric Wulf, a spokesman for the International Car Wash Assn. in Chicago.
"The mobile model -- the use of online ordering and reservation making, etc. -- will be a model adopted by both sides whether traditional retail or mobile."
Jeremy Collins is general manager for another on-demand mobile car washing company -- Washos -- which has done more than 52,000 mobile car washes in LA and Orange Counties since opening three years ago.
"I know it's easy to go down to your local car wash, but the benefit of Washos is we know people are busy every day," Collins said. "So you could be at your office, you could be working from home, you get caught up in your everyday life, so why not have a service where you can just click a button and have somebody to your location in 90 minutes?"
Based in L.A., Washos charges $33 for a regular wash and up to $159 for an ultimate detail job. Washos will soon expand its operation to San Diego and Las Vegas.
And it will also be part of a pilot program with Hyundai Motor Company.
Much like the partnership Amazon announced last week with General Motors to deliver packages directly to people's cars, Under the Hyundai program, Washos can access the drivers' vehicles so they can be cleaned without the car washer ever needing to meet the car owner.
It's all arranged through the vehicle itself.
"On-demand car washing is one of many types of services that are possible with a connected car," said Cason Grover, a vehicle technology planning manager at Hyundai Motor America in the Fountain Valley.
The Korean auto maker will operate its first remote-access, on-demand car-washing pilot in Los Angeles later this year.
"Everybody needs a car wash basically and this takes a trip out of it, so car washing comes to you instead of you going there."
Taking graffiti 'Beyond the Streets'
When you live in a city as big as Los Angeles, you probably experience graffiti or street art on a regular basis, but you might not take a lot of time to consider the creators or the culture behind it. L.A. has a long history with street art, and it's all explored in the new art exhibit in downtown L.A. called "Beyond the Streets."
One of the most locally focused pieces in the show is the last thing visitors see before they exit through the gift shop (or at least exit adjacent to it). It's a re-creation of the Venice Pavilion skate park that gives people a chance to step back in time and see the graffiti-covered walls and tables that were once a hub for street artists to show their work.
"A lot of the original graffiti artists that painted the Venice pits came down and painted," said Roger Gastman, show curator.
In addition to installations like the Venice Pavilion, the show features paintings, sculptures and photos from local L.A. creators and well-known street artists, and it's not all the sort of tagging and graffiti writing people think of as street art. Gastman said he was hoping to create an exhibit that could give people a greater appreciation for the history of the medium.
But while some, like Gastman, see street art as a creative culture, others see it as vandalism. Gastman said he wasn't trying to hide from the fact that street art and graffiti, when it's not a sanctioned mural, are illegal.
"There's definitely a huge gray line with this culture. It's on the fringe. Some people accept it. Some people don't," Gastman said.
But he also pointed out that street art is growing in popularity, and whether or not people deem it to be art, it's not going away. Some galleries are taking chances on street art and putting it in a fine art setting, creating exhibits like Beyond the Streets.
"Some would call that the Shepard Fairey and Banksy effect" Gastman said.
Shepard Fairey is now known for creating the Obama 'Hope' poster. But he's also a prolific figure in the street art world. He sees the rise of street art differently.
"Impressionism was seen as heresy at first, pop art was seen as heresy. New ideas are slowly embraced by younger people who then shape culture and it happens," Fairey said.
Several pieces by Fairey will be a part of the Beyond the Streets exhibit, and Fairey hopes his art and the exhibit as a whole will inspire Angelenos to look more closely at the art they drive past every day.
"L.A. is a driving city, so I always put my posters at signal boxes at the corners so when someone's a captive audience stuck at a traffic light, they're looking at my work, but I think a lot of it's worth actually getting out of the car for," he said.
Beyond the Streets is set up in a massive, warehouse-like space, with more than 35,000 square feet, Gastman said. One of his favorite pieces is the fake record store he's lovingly dubbed "Trash Records."
You can see how street art actually has permeated popular culture through things like t-shirts and album covers that help legitimize the art, Gastman said, but that doesn't mean the work loses its street soul.
"If the artist did true work on the street and had a legitimate career on the street, you can always sense that energy on their art," he said.
Commodifying street art may have benefits for the overall medium, but it doesn't always help individual artists. Estevan Oriol took the now famous 'L.A. Hands' or 'L.A. Fingers' photo, a close-up of fingers making and L and A sign. The image is featured on everything from hats to coffee cups, but Oriol said he hasn't seen the profits.
"It's like the most ripped-off photo," Oriol said, standing in front of a print of the iconic photo that is his contribution to the Beyond the Streets show.
It's not a new story in Oriol's mind.
"Like the Artist's District now was part of Skid Row... But now the artists made it look cool, developers came and bought everything up and now their putting their spin on it with some money and yeah it's nice, but the artists start it, developers finish it and cash in on it," he said.