 Ed Garren. By Ryan Gierach. |
A friend told me I could watch the Tara hearing on the city's streaming video page at the web site. I watched it, agonizing as it was. It conjured up a lot of old memories, and a few patterns became very clear.
Long ago and far away, I once owned a home of Vista Street across from Plummer Park. When I bought the house, I had been living in West Hollywood adjacent, a half a block out of the creative city, on Alfred Street. I was excited about returning to being a West Hollywood resident after almost ten years of living near, but not in West Hollywood.
I helped form a neighborhood watch with a neighbor. I single handedly chased away the young drug dealers who congregated in front of my house every night, made improvements to my home, held "National Night Out" barbecues in my front yard and was part of the formation of the new East Side Redevelopment Project Area Committee (PAC).
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As years went on, it became obvious that the aging felt shingles on my roof needed replacing. I looked at the houses of neighbors who had put on new roofs, and found their white asphalt shingles already starting to crack with age after only a couple of years. I calculated the weight on the roof of just one layer of shingles, about 3,000 pounds, plus additional weight of plywood sheathing on top of the existing roof boards another 2,000 pounds. After a lot of consideration, I just could not justify putting 5 or 6 thousand pounds of weight on my roof. Particularly weight that was not fireproof.
 West Hollywood Council member Sal Guarriello. By Ryan Gierach. |
I grew up in a home in Florida similar to the home of Vista Street. It had a standing seam "Five V" metal roof. That roof lasted for decades, and I loved the sound of rain on it, a muffled whisper that sounds like wind through pine leaves.
After some research, I decided to put a similar roof on my house in West Hollywood. I went to the planning department, filled with naive optimism, and presented my idea. The roof would be fireproof, light weight (less than 2,000 pounds) and would last up to 80 years. Made from recycled steel, it could also be recycled when the roof or the house was replaced. It seemed the perfect progressive "green" solution.
That was the beginning of a several months long battle because the planning department leadership insisted the metal roof was "not appropriate" for my house.
One of the things I did was an eMail campaign regarding my ongoing struggle to simply be heard on the issue. During that time, I spoke with all councilmembers about the issue except John Heilman's office, which did not respond to any of my queries. Steve Martin, Sal Guariello and Jeff Prang all basically said "They don't listen to anyone, including me, good luck." John Duran basically said, "I don't know what you expect me to do about it." I found this disturbing and told all of them that I thought the role of elected leadership was to circumvent inflexible bureaucracies on behalf of constituents.
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I ran into John Heilman at a candidates’ forum in Plummer Park. He was running for re-election. I asked him why he and his office had been silent regarding the issue. His response was, "Well, I happen to agree with the planning department, I don't think that sort of roof is appropriate for a house in West Hollywood." I told him the performance features of the roof (as stated above) and that there was no other roofing option that offered those features. He then told me, "I think there are other options that you haven't researched."
 Ed Garren at his B-B-que grill on a National Night Out. |
I was struck by this, and thought to myself, "John, when did you become an architect and a roofer?" Instead, I politely replied, "John, I've researched this a lot, this is the best roof for my house." He replied, "Well, I don't agree with you" and then excused himself.
I went home and things slowly started unfolding in front of me. Out of the fog of city bureaucracy, a clear picture began to emerge.
The roof saga was finally resolved when Donald DeLuccio, Jeff Prang's appointee to the Planning Commission, told me I should take the issue directly to the Planning Commission for consideration. I did, and they gave me a unanimous approval. The director of Planning who had been so difficult was released from city employment shortly after.
That is the power of due process, but it no longer exists in the city. Later after Steve Martin was defeated by Abbe, I had lunch with an old friend (not Steve Martin) who had once been an elected officeholder in West Hollywood years ago. I shared my concerns with my friend who looked at me across the table and stated flatly, "John has always wanted to run the city. Now that he's gotten rid of Steve, he will have free reign over the city, it's his now."
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Watching the City Council hearing on Tara was like watching a carefully staged execution. What has died in West Hollywood is meaningful due process, and respect for dissent. It has been replaced by a despot and his allies, who allow no one to disagree with them. I listened with interest as John Duran defended himself, and the city's decision. Abbe and John Heilman waxed poetic about affordable housing.
 Mayor John Heilman at his installation. By Ryan Gierach. |
John added his lengthy comments about the moral imperative of creating affordable housing at any cost. I almost threw up. I wanted to scream through my computer screen, "THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU BUILD 80 UNITS ON THE (former) PHONE COMPANY PROPERTY (Hancock and Santa Monica) THAT YOU SOLD AT LESS THAN MARKET VALUE SO YOUR "FRIENDS" COULD BUILT PRIVATE MARKET RATE CONDOS ON IT?"
If he really wants affordable housing, why doesn’'t he try to buy some of the empty buildings that have been vacated due to the Ellis Act and convert them to affordable housing in the city. Now that construction financing for new developments is at a standstill (they can't sell the existing projects), soon many of these buildings will be on the auction block. Is that too creative a possibility for the Creative City?
If a whole building is too much, then the city could buy up repossessed and unsold condos to be used as affordable housing as well. These will be hitting the market in about two years, the city should prepare now.
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If continuing to insist on pursuing the development of Tara in the face of such massive opposition from residents is really about a "moral imperative" then why not at least honor Elsie’s gift by naming the new project "Elsie Weisman Place" to permanently honor her gift to the city?
 The estate given to the City “to preserve.” A 27-unit Senior housing unit will be built on the site. By Ryan Gierach. |
John Duran spoke of the Weismans not using the many opportunities to put restrictions on the gift of the property to the city. John Heilman went on to basically say that if Elsie had put any restrictions on the use of the property, he would have voted to not accept the gift of it to the city. He also implied that if the gift had any use restrictions, then the family might not get any tax breaks from the gift.
So just like everything else that comes out of these three, it's what is "between the lines" (or perhaps between the lies) that completes the story. Below is my belief of what happened. When I say "the city" please read "the Empire" (lead by John Heilman) because that's whose agenda is being pushed.
The city blackmailed the Weismans with the "Cultural Resource" designation, preventing any development by the Weismans on the property. Because of the "Cultural Resource" designation, she and her family could not make any developments or improvements on the property, and anyone they tried to sell it to would have the same restrictions. The city's declaration made the property worthless to all, except the city.
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Then, when Elsie decided to gift the property to the city, she and her family were further "boxed in" by a dialogue or negotiation process in which they might have been told that the could not place any restrictions on the use of the property by the city. With a "one/two sucker punch" the city then probably made it clear in the negotiations, "no restrictions" or we won't take it.
 Council member Abbe Land. By Ryan Gierach. |
Left with no other options, and with only hope that the city would in fact preserve the property and use it as some sort of "Heritage Center", she accepted that she was powerless to do anything else, and made the best of the situation.
Once the city received the property, and Elsie passed into the next life, John Heilman quietly laid his plans, and with no public hearings, no community input or any other due process, made a unilateral decision to develop the property.
From all of his comments, not just about Tara, but over many years, this is a man who only considers the house to have value, not the trees or the animals that live in them. It is the largest animal habitat in the city, but that is on no consequence to the Empire.
What he, and his supporters don't seem to understand (or do understand but don't care) is that it is NOT a senior housing project that has enraged this community.
John Heilman has ignored due process, creating a sham of the existing democratic structures by stacking all of them with people who will do his bidding, either from favoritism or fear. He has extinguished dissent on all of the commissions and advisory boards, and railroaded his personal agenda, cloaked as a "moral imperative" upon the residents of the city.
This is no different that how Bush and Cheney got us into the war in Iraq.
Tara was given to the City of West Hollywood, not John Heilman. But he appears to think that he is the city, with no regard to the rest of the people in it that may disagree with him. No matter how well intended, a despot is still a despot, and that is why ever increasing ranks of residents in the city are fed up with how it is run, favors for the Empire and it's friends, exclusion and punishment for everyone else.
 Council member John Duran. By Ryan Gierach. |
Those who know the story are particularly enraged by what appears to be legal extortion by the city with regard to acquiring the property from an elderly woman and her heirs. If they can do it to Elsie, they can do it to anyone.
Now that they have moved the project forward, there should be a community imperative to name the project "Elsie Weisman Villas." It is the least they can do to honor her memory and her gift.
I will be very surprised if they do. They are so shame and guilt ridden that they wish to erase any and all references to Elsie and her beloved "Tara" because it reminds them of their actions.
It's all a show, filled with actors on a stage, acting like they care, when they don't. And the worst part is that John Heilman, John Duran and Abbe appear to believe their own public relations, which as everyone in Hollywood knows, is the worst thing any actor can do.
There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. -- Molly Ivins
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Edward "Ed" Garren, MFT is a Family Therapist, justice activist, former West Hollywood City Council candidate, writer and sojourner.
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He is originally from the Tampa Bay area of central Florida. Ed has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Frontiers news magazine, and other books, including "Out of My Mind", a pictorial memoir by Kris Nelson. He is currently working on a book about Addiction in America.
Ed Garren can be reached, even in hie North Western haunts, at