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STUBBORN NAILS: Holdout Properties in Los Angeles and Around the World Carl Fredrickson had become very lonely. His wife and fellow adventurer Ellie had died decades earlier, leaving him alone in their dream home overlooking the scenic Paradise Falls, which they had restored together. Presumably, Carl had nice neighbors, but he lost those too, as developers had bought-out most of the homeowners in the neighborhood to build large skyscrapers. If it wasn’t bad enough that the place he called home his entire life was now unrecognizable, a court ordered him confined to a retirement home after he accidentally injured a construction worker. I won’t spoil the ending of this touching story, but I must inform you that it is not a true story: It is from the 2009 film Up. The events depicted in Up are fictitious, but many of the concepts are not, namely the concept of holdout properties. Commercial and residential buildings are referred to as holdouts when the owners refuse to sell them to developers (or re-developers), usually because of pride on the part of the owners, or because the owners do not accept the sum of money that the developer offers them. Or both. And why not? Some things are more important than money. Your dignity is one of them. Holdouts occur all over the world, and for reasons other than (maybe in addition to) pride and low-ball offers. We will discuss some of these reasons, as well as occurrences of holdout properties in Los Angeles and around the world. I. AROUND THE WORLDThe front facade of the former Wickham’s Department Store in East London is noticeably interrupted by a squat, two-story market. The story goes that the Wickham family, longtime fur traders in the area, obtained Numbers 69, 71, and 73 on Mile End Road throughout the mid-late 19th Century. In 1892, the Wickhams bought out a German family, the Spiegelhalters, at No. 75, and consolidated all the smaller buildings into one. The Spiegelhalters, meanwhile, moved down the block to No. 81. In 1926, when the Wickham’s attempted to buy up the block in order to build their monumental store, the Spiegelhalter Bros. Jewelers refused to sell at any price. The Wickham’s simply built around the building on all sides. As it went with many historic downtowns, the building fell out of use and into disrepair in the 1960s, before receiving total restoration work between 2017 and 2019. In the early days of many communist societies, holdout properties were a form of protest against the abolition of private ownership of real property. Noble as this resistance was, the communist governments assumed ownership and dictated the use of all private property. After the rise of free markets in the 1990s, China made its first attempts at private property rights; however, until the ratification of a 2007 law, there were accounts of developers working with the city to force holdout owners out of their properties. In China, developers have coined the term “nail houses” (____ or ____) to describe holdout properties, and “stubborn nails” to describe the owners. Indeed, the most dramatic and humorous examples of holdout properties are the “nail houses” of urban China. Along similar political lines, there was resistance to development in post-World War II Japan. When the Japanese government announced that it would build an upgraded airport in Narita, just outside Tokyo in the prefecture of Chiba, the humble townspeople were enraged. The government of Japan had eminent domain laws, but it preferred not to employ them and instead resolved land disputes consensually. Many residents accepted the government buyouts. However, a select few did not, and steadfastly held out even as airplanes roared literally meters away from their yards. A lot of this resistance was due, undoubtedly, to pride, but some of it was also political. The Narita Airport holdout was one of a few events that led to the rise of the left-wing group Chukaku-Ha, who argued that urban development moves like airport construction were just an outgrowth of Western capitalism, and a way for American military forces to establish presence in the event of war with the Soviet Union. The former is a little farfetched, but hey, the latter is incontrovertibly true. II. HOLDOUT PROPERTIES IN LOS ANGELESA history of holdout properties in Los Angeles would not be complete without mention of Chavez Ravine. Chavez Ravine was built on land acquired by City Councilman and namesake Julian Chavez, along with much of the land that is now Elysian Park, in the 1840s. The Stone Quarry Hills, as they were known then, already contained several ravine enclaves in and of itself. By the late 19th Century, “Chavez Ravine” was defined by four neighborhoods: Palo Verde, Bishop, La Loma, and Solano Canyon. Disdained as worthless land, it was initially the site of a blasting mine. In 1926, LA City Council voted to zone Chavez Ravine for exclusively residential use. Most people know about Chavez Ravine because of the way in which it met its demise, rather than its fascinating and diverse history. Originally, the streets of Chavez Ravine were razed, one by one, through [the governmental power of eminent domain] to make way for public housing. As it goes, because of the anti-Communist political atmosphere of the time, this “socialist” form of land use fell from favor. Ultimately, the land was purchased by the Dodgers, and Dodger Stadium was constructed in the early 1960s. This was achieved by leveling the ridge lining the Bishop and Palo Verde neighborhoods and infilling the remaining gap with silt. Fewer than a dozen families remained by that time, most notably the Arechiga family, who were infamously physically dragged from their home by LA County Sheriffs while news cameras rolled. Angelenos formed communities in Chavez Ravine for a century before Dodger Stadium came around. A truly sui generis community, its humble, owner-built bungalows and country markets contrasted with the density of Downtown, less than one linear mile away. A mostly Latino community by the early 20th century, it also had Eastern European, Italian (mostly in the Bishop neighborhood), Jewish, and Anglo minorities. A remarkable mixture of people, mostly working class, flocked there to avoid housing discrimination in other parts of the City, and to live the simpler life. The article also contains a lot-by-lot record of the owners and/or builders of the homes that once stood on the four remaining streets from Chavez Ravine’s La Loma neighborhood: Aqua Pura Drive, Spruce Street, Brooks Avenue, Pheonix Street. Contrary to the media coverage of the time, nearly every resident of the hillside village pulled their permits lawfully, and many also built their own homes. As for some modern examples in Los Angeles: This prominent example is found on Hollywood Boulevard between Garfield Place and Western. The three loft towers were built at roughly the same time by the same developer, who was unable to acquire the small storefront between them. In Westlake, in the vicinity bound by 3rd Street on the north, 6th Street on the south, Lucas Avenue on the west, and Beaudry Avenue on the east, we see an interesting example of a government-created holdout. Note how the large-scale development of downtown seems to be halted in this area. Are all the landlords stubborn? Maybe, but that isn’t why they havnt sold their properties to developers. Instead, the city issued a moratorium in 19__ on demolishing residential hotels, an occurrence that happened en masse throughout the mid-20th century and created a massive shortage of units. This neighborhood is a snapshot illustrating how much of Downtown LA looked prior to the massive urban renewal efforts of the mid-late 20th century. Some of my earliest memories are of the remnants of the neighborhood where L.A. Live and the Staples Center now stand; the development of L.A. Live was heavily promoted in the 2002 film Like Mike. There are two humorous examples in West Hollywood. Once a railroad town called “Sherman” serviced by what is now San Vicente Boulevard, West Hollywood nowadays is a high traffic urban village. As of the 2010 Census, the 1.9 square mile city is the 18th most densely inhabited area in Los Angeles County. Most dwellings at present are medium-height apartment buildings, with small sections of the southern part of the City zoned for single-family housing. Prior to the mid-20th century, San Vicente Boulevard between Sunset and Melrose was a trolley route and a switching yard. Humble cottages and manufacturing shops lined the boulevard. Most of them sold their properties during the mid-20th century development boom, but there were some notable holdouts. In 1972, the Pacific Design Center announced that it would build its landmark headquarters, designed by Cesar Pelli, spanning the northeast corner of San Vicente and Melrose. However, there was one holdout: a railroad-era cottage owned that housed Hugo Castaneda’s metal restoration shop. Despite repeated (an exorbitant) offers to the owners, Emma and Otilia Diaz, the sisters refused to sell the 900-square foot cottage. After over a year, the Pacific Design Center simply decided to build around and behind the cottage. A whooping 25 years later in 1997, the sisters finally put the property on the market. Castaneda, who had occupied the space since 1969, received the usual treatment: one day, the Diaz sisters said they were raising his rent from $450 to $1000. There was no rent control in those days. Guess what happened to Mr. Castaneda and the cottage? A second presumed holdout in West Hollywood is also on San Vicente, just north of Santa Monica Blvd. Tall apartment buildings flank a quartet of cottages—three on the west side of San Vicente and one on the east side. The southernmost cottage is a turn-of-the-century Foursquare cottage, the middle one is a late-era victorian cottage with gable roofing, and the northern most one is a late-era hipped roof Victorian. The one across the street is a gable-on-hip Queen Anne cabin. It has English and Italianate decorations as well, esp. the pediments and porch dormer. In 2018, RD Olson Construction undertook a massive full restoration of the beautiful turn-of-the-century STYLE cottages, which were actually built in the teens. They even built granny flats on the rear setback to preserve the cottages, while also adding units to the neighborhoods. Mad creds to RJ Olson Construction. Let me send y'all my resume real quick?
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