BLACKBURN AND SWEETZER

Nothing against these girls that work at Nylon mag and write on its blog, but it really amazes me when I read crap like this—their weekend was kicked off by a a cowboys and Indians themed party. Jesus, people (and I mean this in a masses sort of way), don’t dress up like Indians! Would you dress up like a Black person? Like a Mexican? Speaking of dressing up, don’t dress up in any sort of Asian themed garb either—no geisha crap! And if you have kids, don’t dress them up like some other minority either. I think it just feels like more of an annoyance since it’s not even friggin’ Halloween. Let me tell you, though I cannot speak for all 500+ tribes in the world, but I can speak for my own tribes (specifically, Tlingit, Nisga’a, Winnebago and Ojibwe) you never get it right anyway! It’s ridiculous, and please, please don’t say you’re honoring us in any way because that’s bullshit.

OK, so I can’t believe I didn’t know this was going up—the King on Kings development at 123 North Kings Road, just north of West 3rd Street and before Beverly Boulevard. I only noticed it because I was taking pics of the development on Orlando. This development of condos is rather large, two big buildings that seem to be connected at the back. According to the site, only  9 residences are remaining for purchase, but there’s no indication of how many there were to begin with. Scroll down to the bottom three images to check the renderings, which look very lofty modern, but no renderings of what the exterior will be like. Wonder how much these are going for…

This kitty on Kings Road was not into playing any games, took off down his/her cobbled walkway, tail down cautiously…

Here’s a big one for you at 480 North Orlando Avenue at Rosewood.  It takes up quite a bit of the block, in fact, as there’s a whole other garage structure that is in back of the house.

The view on Rosewood

From the garage looking toward Orlando

Uh, looking up

These real estate photos seem to be getting increasingly headshot-y. This one at West 3rd Street and Orlando. Is there a biz just for taking these pics? Is there hard data that it helps sell? It makes me think of that study with babies that without fail responded favorably to better looking adults…

by Alex the Sea Turtle

This block of North Hayworth is mostly apartment buildings and senior assisted living homes from the 60’s and 70’s. they are primarily your classic ding bat apartment buildings. 643 North Hayworth Avenue is a small Spanish revival home from 1924 with an overgrown front yard with an old car covered in friendly liberal bumper stickers. The home is 1,600 sq foot with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

The home was sold in March of 2007 for aprox 860,000. This home sits about 4 lots south of Melrose. This stretch of Melrose is home to Paul Frank, Johnny Cupcakes and many other hip new expensive retail ventures.

Before the Neighbor Council Land Use committee is a proposal to raze this property and replace it with 3 single family homes, and a duplex. The builder would like to have variations to build past the normal height restrictions to 35 feet and reduce the front set back to 12 feet, I think current code is 15.

While I hate to see LA loose architectural history, in cases like these where these homes are on streets that no longer have any relation to them I concede this is probably a nice change.

Speaking of crime, this is pretty shocking. Early Sunday morning, June 15 at nearly 4:00am, there was an armed robbery at West 3rd Street and Croft Avenue. Here’s the small print:

“Victims 1, 2 and 3 were walking on 3rd St when they were approached from behind by suspect #1. Suspect #1 pointed an unknown caliber handgun at the victims and ordered them all into some bushes. Once inside the bushes they were met by three other suspects. The suspects ordered the victims to give them their property. The victims, in fear of their lives, complied with the suspect’s demands and gave them $32,1100.00 worth of property. Susp Info: Four males, no other info on the suspect. Weapons used: Unknown caliber handgun.”

I have to say, I’ve never felt unsafe in the neighborhood, but I also haven’t ever been walking around at 4:00am, which clearly is to be avoided. West 3rd Street is just completely empty at that time of night, and much earlier. That’s a lot of property, too! Even for three people.

Formerly Kiwiberri at the strip mall just east of La Cienega on West 3rd Street, has now become Kiwibear. I went in to ask about it, just to make sure I was remembering correctly, and the young girl manning the counter acted very odd about it. Checked online and the Kiwiberri website is down.

This is for post-Brat Brothers… Beverly Hills Health & Fitness bullies us onto the Stairmaster.

North End Pizzeria moved to the strip mall at the corner of West 3rd Street and La Cienega not too long ago, and now Brats Brothers is coming right next door. The gourmet sausage grill is expanding from The Sherm (that’s how the husband refers to Sherman Oaks, not sure if anyone else does…) to bring us goodness in a bun.

by Alex the Sea Turtle

This 1929 Spanish Revival Duplex, 8241 and 8245 Blackburn, had 2 bedrooms and 1 bath in each of the units. The total sq ft of the building was 3,400 on a 7,200 sq ft lot. From the looks of the current construction it’s not being torn down but rather having a major remodel done. I expect that it is being expanded upon.

This duplex was previously discussed, including an interesting lease option, in this post.

The following picture is of the back of the building from the alley. The garage has been torn down and I wonder if they will build apartments above it. That may not be possible with parking requirements but if I owned I would want to.

It appears that it changed owners in 2005. However, property taxes are being paid on 430,000 or so value so this doesn’t appear to have been a normal sale.

This week around 2am Wednesday, Derringer Cycles was broken into and four bikes were stolen. The robbers had to get through serious security to pull it off, which sounds like a professional job. $14,000-$16,000 worth of merch was stolen. Get the full account on Racked LA, where I posted extensively about it. Haven’t there been other break-ins in the area? I recall Krisol had its till stolen…