“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Why not sit down first and estimate the cost to make sure you have enough money to complete it? “If you lay the foundation and fail to finish, everyone who sees it will laugh at you, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.”
– Luke 14:28-30
Capture the Tower
A highlight of last month’s 2024 Grammy Awards was Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs’ duet of their 1988 hit “Fast Car.” The performers teamed up to deliver several minutes of musical magic.
The hollow event took place at the luxurious Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as Staples Center) in downtown Los Angeles. It’s one of the few places in LA that can draw the rich and famous from the western reserves of Malibu Colony and Beverly Hills.
The exterior seen from the entrance to the stadium’s Star Plaza presents Los Angeles-style beauty. Something that pleases the eyes and makes them tear up at the same time.
Beyond the panoramic statues of famous LA athletes sits the Oceanwide Plaza development. These three incomplete luxury towers were abandoned in 2019. That’s when developer Oceanwide Holdings ran out of money.
In January, talented graffiti artists began tagging the vacant Oceanwide Plaza tower. This is no small task. You’ll need to scale the building’s unfinished exterior and then spray-paint creative phrases using a colorful palette and designs. Then please base jump I went off and paraglided along the flower path.
An organization called the Los Angeles People’s City Council – an abolitionist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist group that amplifies the voices of the people. specialized It is as follows:
“It perfectly describes Los Angeles: political corruption, real estate, ‘crime’ + the LAPD, and people who create beautiful art. The graffiti is beautiful. Occupy the tower.”
Undoubtedly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Opinions may differ on the aesthetic appeal of the vibrant graffiti that currently adorns the Oceanwide Plaza tower. Nonetheless, the group is interested in something.
Without a doubt, this graffiti perfectly depicts political corruption and crime in LA.
ransom
At this point, Oceanwide Holdings, a China-based development company, officially posted the scammer to Shanghai at city hall. Now city officials must use public funds to stop the madness.
For example, last week the LA City Council approved the initial plan. $1.1 million To get things done. So far, efforts are being made to stop graffiti artists and derelicts from trespassing on the site by removing abandoned construction scaffolding and installing new fencing.
All of this is happening in Councilman Kevin de León’s 14th District. According to de León, the $1.1 million will be used to protect the city.
“Someone will climb up there, push the limit, and end up dead. Somehow, some way, the city will be held accountable.”
Mr de Leon is said to be merely trying to respond to the chaos that began when his predecessor, former city councilor José Huizar, was under surveillance. Huizar represented District 14 for 15 years. But somewhere during his tenure, he became embroiled in some shady business.
In late January, Huizar was sentenced to 13 years in prison on at least related corruption charges. 1.5 million dollars Cash payments in exchange for expedited approval of downtown real estate projects. There is also video evidence that a box of Johnny Walker Blue Label whiskey contained $200,000 in bribe money and a box of Don Julio contained $200,000 more.
Let’s be honest, this kind of rotting oil applies to big city skids all over the world. Plus, it’s small potatoes compared to what’s happening in Washington. We don’t like it. We are simply aware of the corrupt underbelly of the world we live in.
In this regard, it is unknown whether Huizar’s racketeering activities are related to Oceanwide Plaza. But he was distracted, at least when this failed development was approved.
hell on earth
Within District 14, not far from Oceanwide Plaza, lies a half-square mile of urban decay where corruption, chaos, addiction, madness, and endemic disease grow and bounce like metastatic cancer. Skid Row, centered around the Union Rescue Mission at 545 South San Pedro Street, is home to approximately 10,000 zombies.
There they live in huge homeless encampments filled with garbage, excrement, rats and decay, rolling around on a dirty ground cover made up of fragmented concrete, glass, stones and gravel. Diseases that thrived in the Middle Ages, such as typhus and flesh-eating bacteria, infect street dwellers and those trying to help them with surprising efficiency.
take Pastor Andy BalesFormer CEO of Union Rescue Mission. He is a man with a big heart and a personal commitment to action. His late father and grandfather lived homeless in tents for many years.
After 20 years as CEO of Union Rescue Mission, Pastor Bales retired in October 2023 and returned to Iowa. Good for him. But alas, he should have retired 10 years ago.
In the mid-2010s, while handing out water bottles to those he served, Pastor Bales became infected with three deadly bacteria: E. coli, Streptococcus, and Staphylococcus. Unfortunately, this toxic mixture of microorganisms attacked his body mercilessly and consumed his flesh. This meeting led Pastor Bales to make an important choice. Legs or life?
He now gets around in a wheelchair most days. Wear cycling gloves and ride up and down the street. Sometimes he wears prosthetics. However, until his retirement last year, he continued rescue work with a warm heart and extraordinary wisdom. According to Pastor Bales:
“Skid Row is the worst man-made disaster in America. until now.”
If you want to witness hell on earth, take a stroll down San Pedro Street through Skid Row on a weekday evening when the Union Rescue Mission serves dinner. Thousands of patients waved their arms as they flooded the streets from city campsites. ‘By the grace of God I go there.’
The Ghost of the Alexandria Hotel
District 14 is a strange and wild place. We know the area well. For over 20 years we have worked tirelessly in downtown LA.
Last year it was the site of three large commercial real estate defaults. In particular, Brookfield Properties’ DTLA fund has approx. $1.1 billion The debt is tied up in three towers between February and May 2023. These properties include Gas Company Tower, 777 Tower, and EY Plaza.
The reason for the default is usually simple. Post-COVID, higher vacancy rates and higher interest rates have turned these buildings from revenue-generating ventures into giant money pits.
Unfortunately, these large-scale CRE defaults are not limited to LA’s 14th District. A new report from real estate data company ATTOM shows a significant annual spike in U.S. commercial foreclosures in January 2024.
ATTOM’s approach is simple. Calculate the number of commercial properties that have at least one foreclosure filing each month. In January, the tally was 635. 97% This is more than the same month last year and 17% more than December 2023. According to ATTOM, this is all part of a natural process.
“The 97% year-on-year increase signals a revitalized market that navigates long-term economic changes following global events and adapts through resilience and strategic adjustments to new commercial realities.”
Maybe ATTOM is right. Perhaps the huge increase in foreclosure filings could signal a revitalized market. But at what point?
In LA’s 14th District, there is the Alexandria Hotel, not far from the Gas Company Tower, which is now under management. When it opened in 1906, it was the most elegant hotel in Los Angeles. Early guests included President Teddy Roosevelt, King Edward VIII, and numerous early Hollywood movie stars.
However, the Alexandria Hotel went bankrupt and closed in 1932. To this day, it is still not self-reliant.
After many ownership changes, closures and reopenings over the decades, the former grand estate degenerated into a single-occupancy home where drug addicts and pyromaniacs experimented with low-key hedonism in the 1990s.
And despite revitalization efforts, including recent apartment renovations, today the Alexandria Hotel remains a mix of market-rate and subsidized housing.
Perhaps Oceanwide Plaza and many other failing commercial properties across the country will recover. Perhaps this could happen without first triggering a major banking crisis.
But if the ghost of the Alexandria Hotel can talk, these ruined buildings could be a nuisance to local municipalities for more than a century.
[Editor’s note: Do you know the smartest thing you can do during a recession? Simply put your fear aside and do the OPPOSITE of your friends and neighbors. >> Here’s why and how.]
thank you,
minnesota gordon
for economic prism
A return to the economic prism in The Haunting of the Alexandria Hotel
