CityWatch Goes Suburban on McMansions
Coming out of CityWatch is a uniquely undercivilized article by one Charles Tarlow, which professes to speak the "truth" about Mansionization.
As prime evidence that McMansionization is good for a neighborhood (yes, there are still some of those in the City who believe this), Mr. Tarlow cites a Dunkirk-level atrocity: the conversion of the quietly marvellously proportioned, human-scale, enchanting modern garden-walkup on the left to the Kaufman & Broad-y, openfaced-garage-hoping-to-swallow-an-SUV, walls-built-to-four-feet-of-the-property-line, trapped-behind-Orange-Curtain, Wango Tango Tract special on the right.
Mr. Turlow opines:
My guess is that if you along with Mr. Turlow prefer the monstrosity on the right to the serenely dignified beauty on the left you also buy American only, haven't read a novel in twenty-five years (if ever), and hate the idea of women attending college.
Mr. Turlow also, of course, believes that building a Spanish Colonial knockoffs in California in 2007 is a good thing.
As prime evidence that McMansionization is good for a neighborhood (yes, there are still some of those in the City who believe this), Mr. Tarlow cites a Dunkirk-level atrocity: the conversion of the quietly marvellously proportioned, human-scale, enchanting modern garden-walkup on the left to the Kaufman & Broad-y, openfaced-garage-hoping-to-swallow-an-SUV, walls-built-to-four-feet-of-the-property-line, trapped-behind-Orange-Curtain, Wango Tango Tract special on the right.
Mr. Turlow opines:
"The only homesbeing replaced are small run down eyesores built back in the 1920's with no closet space, inadequate electricity, woefully little living space, and many of them are more boxy than the new homesthat replaced them. A picture is worth 1000 words. Which house looks more like a box? Which house would you want to live in? Which house is better for the neighborhood?
My guess is that if you along with Mr. Turlow prefer the monstrosity on the right to the serenely dignified beauty on the left you also buy American only, haven't read a novel in twenty-five years (if ever), and hate the idea of women attending college.
Mr. Turlow also, of course, believes that building a Spanish Colonial knockoffs in California in 2007 is a good thing.
Labels: los angeles politics, mc mansions
Posted by Joseph F. Mailander @ 12/07/2007 10:17:00 AM
17 Comments:
The new house featured isn't that bad, it's just ordinary -- the real problems are with really huge, ugly things, sometimes three times the size of existing homes, sometimes with fake Olympian statues and calling themselves grand names, some big enough for multi-gen families, often with no parking (this seems to have space for its own) --
Using this case to "prove" the anti- argument is bogus.
Turlow is an idiot, as this article shows.
And the comment leaves out the most important argument against mansionization: The old houses were built WITH THOUGHT.
The small size meant heating costs were low in the winter. The wall and roof construction materials meant that the house stayed cooler in the summer. The lot was also structured often such that an old tree blocked the southwest sun of the afternoons.
Now, it's basically a cheap square box up to the lot line. Who cares, run the AC, right?
And Bush will bailout your subprime ass.
The old house on the left is atrocious! An eyesore! With the price of dirt in this town, I see no reason not to replace these old eyesores with something TASTEFULLY done!
Also, most of the owners of the little old bungalows are in their 70's and 80's now...and we all know they don't want their aging neighborhoods changed. They don't need the space and they don't want to be disturbed with change!
BTW, the house on the right doesn't even resemble a McMansion! It's rather mundane.
Dang Mayorsam, u guys used to be all up on the scandals breaking out all over the city. Check out this slimeball Mega- Developer
Enrique Fainchtein bouncing checks to the City. Word on the street is there is more to that. Jump all over that yo
Chop off Turlow's feet and throw them to the croc's. This city is beset with more stupidity than Larry, Moe, and Joe could father with 72 virgins for a whole millennium. Wake up LA you’re a big city - act like one!
So much for Private Property Rights.
I agree the house itself isn't too bad, but if it takes up 80% of the lot's footprint, then no thanks.
Joseph, have you been drinking hard liquor?
Ah, those neighborhood gadflies over at CityWatch = c-r-a-z-y. Mayor Sam, by giving them attention you have dropped a notch in my eyes...
The house on the left is an old dilapidated eyesore. Neighborhoods evolve. I don't want to live in a planned unit development (PUD) with the retired Nazis walking though the area deciding what is and what is not appropriate. These jerks should move to an area with a Homeowners organization if they want real misery. I was almost suckered into buying into one of these PUDs until I bothered to read the CC&Rs. The ICO is illegal for homeowners that have purchased before the damn thing was approved anyway. The courts will soon set that outrage right.
5:51, well put about the "retired Nazis" who bully people on the streets and take over the HOA,s and in my area, the NC too -- horrible.
But while this photo is an improvement in the new house vs. old, posters are right that when a house builds out to within the 5' of lot, they intrude on neighbors' privacy, sometimes can see into their windows, and their driveways ruin their sleep.
Plus playing music so close to the neighbors -- no end of problems.
But far worse: in the hills, homes are being built on steep/ sheer "lots" which should be unbuildable, and the only way they can do it is to gauge out a hillside and build to every permitted inch into the hillside to maximize living space.
The narrow streets already suffer from street parking which makes it hard to drive by or park your own cars and visitors' safely in front of your own house. Let alone fire danger. The construction periods are hell. If there were reasonable sizes of homes to lots, especially in hills, it would be a good start.
If you want to see tacky nouveau riche, especially Persian, look at Mt. Olympus or Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills. Ruins the whole neighborhood with faux-Greco-Persian gaudy. Then there are cultures in Valley Village where whole families want to live together and build giant monstrosities with maybe 1-2 parking spots for 4 families.
The clowns at CityBeat are indeed "City Snipers" as they say: sometimes Alan Mittelschaft is on target, but like in this article, their contrarian (to common sense) bent shows.
Usually they're way left, like in how they conduct/ spin their interview with Rosendahl last week.
Joe, you just blew it by extolling the virtues of the shitty old house on the left.
6:35: You're right in general and about the Beverly Wilshire Homeowners Assn. in general -- they are a bunch of malcontents who, as Turlow says, whatever you give them, even if it's just what they want minus one tiny concession to the other side, they'll criticize and want more, more, because "that's just who they are."
Their newsletters are often full of misrepresentations and false attacks against their Councilman, who has bent over backwards to help them. He put a restriction on the size of new homes (NOT leaving them as tiny as they want but no bigger than 3,600 ft., which is average)-- but many of these old homes, like the busybody residents, are way outdated and NOT to the benefit of the neighborhood, contrary to their misguided opinion that they have some sort of special protected heritage homes. Tiny old houses are just that.)
Your only confusion is, this piece is in CityWatch, the Neighborhood Council volunteer paper, not CityBeat, which also criticizes the city but from a different view.
By the way -- CityWatch thinks it's a positive step that there's a two- month moratorium on DWP raises while the city and NC's discuss it, but Daily News Opinion crucifies the Council for the "delaying tactic" as proof they think the public is stupid.
I'm beginning to think the Daily News is pretty stupid.
How amazing is this post! Another elitist fake liberal who seems to believe that their subjective account of good taste equates to freedom from “McMansions,” all the while ignoring the fact that the greatest designs were created without regulations and idiots who think that they can regulate “good taste”. Ever read “Animal Farm.” That’s where we are heading if idiots like the original poster gets their way!
9:43 is an incoherent fool, references to Animal Farm making him sound even dumber. Obviously some homeless nutcase from Venice Beach, someone who has no property and has no business offering an opinion -- which is incomprehensibly stupid, anyway, except that chaos should reign everywhere.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This farm is home to the Blogging Burros. Savvy?
"Another elitist fake liberal" -- that's Joe! Go back to being a bank teller, you drunk!
All these people calling Tarlow an "idiot" obviously didn't read the whole original letter he wrote, and what the HOA he has to deal with, is really like. Or they'd agree with him or at least shut up and not insult the guy for having the guts to sound off against a bunch of "retired Nazis" who hold everyone else hostage to their reactionary views.
It's unfortunate that this was chosen as an example of the faults of "mansionization," since the biggest house to be allowed in this tract is a mere 3600 feet, average for new tracts in the burb, not even huge let alone a Mansion.
Genuine Mansionization is a real problem, raising like issues posters said about building to the edge of their lots, tacky designs which make the whole hood look tacky and drag down prices, lack of parking, extending generations squeezing into one megahouse to save money (an upscale version of the barrios or Russian peasant life on some farm compound).
Joe M, with his usual editorial skills, just picked the totally wrong example to rail against Mansionization and both devalued real problems with that trend, and this poor guy's opinion.
Does everyone who offers an opinion and spills his guts about his real life problems, have to be trashed in this blog with some awful names?
Posters, stop taking after your mutt master and rise above that.
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