Well it seems that the deep-rooted Barlow Hospital is up for sale. California’s seismic codes will force the brick and mortar main hospital building to shutter its door come 2013. The plan, sell the majority of site to the highest bidder and build a new hospital with the proceeds of the sale on one corner of the property. Apparently several bidders are interested in the site for high density residential development. Unfortunately for them the site is zoned Agricultural and the preponderance of the structures on the site are Los Angeles Cultural Historical Landmarks which protects them from wholesale destruction. While Barlow Hospital has always been a good neighbor, allowing the community unfettered access to Williams Hall for meetings and events it has been obvious for many years that the facilities and structures on the 25-acre site have long been neglected. While several developers and the Los Angeles School District (demolish established communities in the name of education) may have their eyes on Barlow, I believe the communities surrounding the site will have different feelings regarding any drastic changes there. Ken Bernstein of the Los Angeles Conservancy has stated flatly that any changes to the site would be a significant preservation issue for the Conservancy.

Michael Connelly fans, stay tuned, his next bit of fiction is titled Echo Park

Fishbowl LA’s Media Predictions for 2006:

Hot ironic T-shirt slogan in Silver Lake: ‘I [heart] My Prius.’

Hot ironic T-shirt slogan in Echo Park: ‘I Hate Your Prius.’

And finally the Hipster Score: It seems Palm Springs thinks Echo Park is still hip AND chic: For example, in Los Angeles, the neighborhood of Echo Park was never seen as a chic area. Now, it’s one of the hippest locations in that city, he said.

The New York Times visits Angeleno Heights and finds Murray
Burns peering out his front window:

It was a sunny March morning, and a white rental sedan
was parked in front of Murray Burns’s Victorian home on Carrol Avenue in Los
Angeles. From the car’s front seat, two German women snapped photos of the
ornately ornamented 1887 house, a Los Angeles landmark famous both as a
pristinely restored example of this period architecture and also as the set
for the television show “Charmed.”

Mr. Burns, wearing a pink Nehru shirt and Birkenstocks,
watched the gawkers from his front lawn and sighed. “This is what we live
with, every day,” he said, and, shrugging, shuffled toward the car. The women
watched him approach with trepidation, prepared for a scolding. Instead, Mr.
Burns flapped a hand at them with equal parts impatience and benevolence:
“Would you like to come in?” he asked.

The Germans ooh-ed and aah-ed as they peered around Mr.
Burns’s museum-perfect house, which is just one of 12 restored Victorians that
Mr. Burns and his wife own — mostly as income-producing rental properties —
and constantly end up showing to strangers. “We may own these homes, but we
think they belong to the people of Los Angeles,” Mr. Burns explained, as the
tourists snapped photos on his staircase. “There’s an obligation to let people
like these experience it too.”

A Home to Its Owners, A Museum to Its Fans

Finally! The Four-Family building currently known as 1214 North Alvarado is MOVING the evening of August 7th! The move is expected to start at 11.00 PM, take a couple of hours to move down Sunset to Angelino Heights and by about noon the next day, will be situated at its new home at 1121 West Marion Avenue.