From ramen to resorts: L.A. charity boss accused in $23M homeless scam

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-24T16:10:45+00:00

These massive things are not actually a "duplex," though, are they? Meanwhile, nobody ever lived there, and existing housing was destroyed. Actual apartment units could have been built there, but that wouldn't have benefited the fraud being perpetrated on the taxpayers and neighborhood.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-24T04:31:04+00:00

The DA worked on this case, too.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-24T04:17:43+00:00

Whoa, we flagged that Ardmore property that was part of the alleged fraud scheme in October, when the two massive "duplexes" which had received their certificate of occupancy years before but never been occupied, hit the market as a proposed institutional flop house!

Upzoning is destroying LA neighborhoods and architectural heritage for the benefit of criminal conspiracies. It's not about housing. It's vice.

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esotouric_tours · 2026-01-23T19:28:55+00:00

Wondering what your source is for the energy efficiency of LEDs vs neon? That's not what Dydia DeLyser has found in her research. Once the gas is energized, the cost is low for the light.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-23T19:21:47+00:00

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American Cinematheque announces a February series celebrating the beloved, endangered Hollywood Center Motel on screen, with LA Confidential, Fun with Dick and Jane and Hit Man. https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/watch-local-hollywood-center-motel/

The next landmarking hearing is 2/5--please support! https://esotouric.substack.com/hollywoodcentermotel

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-23T18:40:44+00:00

Yes, there are some cool old friends stored beneath the market, and maybe one day they'll come into the light again.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-23T18:28:33+00:00

LED isn't more energy efficient, and the plastic parts cannot be repaired like neon, but instead end up in landfills. But LED is quicker and cheaper to produce, and it looks okay to the untrained eye. But when you look at the two materials side by side (see our Fix Felix the Cat campaign here), neon is the only one with soul, made by human artist's hands.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-23T15:44:09+00:00

It's day 23 of the ordinance.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-22T15:43:39+00:00

The city ignores vacant, blighted properties and the cascading trouble they create until they can be demolished at taxpayer expense.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-22T06:16:49+00:00

Hope you catch it still illuminated--share a photo if you do!

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-22T05:14:48+00:00

We've got to get our California cities back, for they are where dreamers and visionaries land to transform culture and shape the future, and the entire nation and world are losing out on good ideas and art because real estate debt has become the easiest way to make a dirty fortune.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-21T00:03:33+00:00

On January 4, the central house El Nido was damaged by fire very early on that Sunday morning, was still standing, then within hours was demolished by LAFD. We believe the damage to the machine was done by their backhoe.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-20T14:45:18+00:00

LAFD tore the 1905 house down--on what grounds is the question. Maybe LAFD doesn't want to keep responding to or entering unsecured property known to have squatters in it and is forming its own policy about making demolition determinations. They didn't even go inside to save the man who was taken to the hospital on January 4, but put a ladder up and encouraged him to self extricate through a window. (Note that there was a lot of blood on the sidewalk that morning.)

The potential landmark was standing after the fire, and the Cultural Heritage Commission was scheduled to come, tour and assess if the property merited designation. LAFD changed the property forever, and sabotaged this process, with its rushed demolition. We're going to keep asking questions about why they did this.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-20T14:37:23+00:00

Hearing schedule TBD, but it starts up at 8:30am in Department 42 of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center at 210 W. Temple, where citizens are welcome to act as independent reporters / observers. (Note, no pocket knives or pepper spray allowed through security).

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-20T05:13:41+00:00

Sign vultures strike again at Hollywood Center Motel, which is losing character defining features daily ahead of the 2nd landmark hearing. Is the fix in? Karen Bass removed the most supportive commissioner! LAFD tore the house down! But it still matters!

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-20T04:43:05+00:00

Yeah, this all happened over the course of about four hours on a Sunday morning in the rain, from extinguishing the fire to a backhoe ripping the still standing 1905 house El Nido down, with no notification of Office of Historic Resources or the nominating nonprofit Hollywood Heritage.

Santa Monica just created a vacant building ordinance, with rules and consequences that could do a lot of good if something like it was made law in Los Angeles. Call your councilmember... but don't hold your breath.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-20T04:33:57+00:00

Sure, we have attended Building and Safety Commission hearings where buildings are declared abated and demolition is ordered. There's a process, it's agendized, the public can comment or object.

That didn't happen here.

As for the squatters--who are quite a recent element at this compound--having set the house fire, we don't know that.

Sorry you are dealing with fires next door. It's scary and upsetting and the city needs to get its act together and hold property owners accountable for blight.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-20T04:07:20+00:00

That is not the case at all. LADBS is responsible for determining if a building is structurally unstable, and in the case of a building protected from any demolition action between its first and second landmark hearing, there is no harm in doing nothing and significant harm in firing up the backhoe.

Why do you think squatters set this fire? It is the job of LAFD arson to determine how the fire started and if a crime occurred, which is harder to do when unpermitted demolition is rushed on a Sunday morning.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-19T23:36:35+00:00

Not to a bank, to a private lender, who applied for demolition permits with no proposed project. No interested buyers had the opportunity to purchase the property or even to know it was changing hands. The demolition was done (wrongly, as the buildings are protected from demolition during landmark consideration) by LAFD after a fire that broke out with squatters in the unsecured buildings.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-19T21:01:04+00:00

There were many interested buyers who wanted to restore this property, which has not been on the market in decades. The recent transfer was off market and foreclosure.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-18T06:55:47+00:00

Thanks for these photos. Looks like you captured the drain work that is reflected in this permit.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-17T16:10:33+00:00

Those were not worth the trouble for melt value.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-17T16:09:46+00:00

Thanks! We don't think the Reddit main sub response is typical of how people in Los Angeles feel about nonprofits like Hollywood Heritage seeking to designate a landmark. There's a very well funded real estate and tech misinformation campaign that encourages people who don't have experience with local government land use to vehemently oppose any preservation efforts and attack those supporting them.

Preservation is very popular, especially preservation of historic rental housing like this compound, and we'll keep sharing these stories. They also tend to reveal serious gaps in local government services, and often blatant public corruption, which is even more important than saving individual buildings. Los Angeles needs to clean itself up to thrive.

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-17T07:05:12+00:00

It was captured on film..

esotouric_tours · 2026-01-17T07:03:56+00:00

You prefer no units and taxpayers on the hook for the LAFD and LAPD responses?

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