Los Angeles' Very Own Neighborhood Scandal

By Author: Tayne
Total Articles: 10
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Do you know who is a new brand of menace these days in the midst of all our other economic woes? A new malevolent presence in town is emerging who is grabbing and demanding the limelight in a very damaging way. This anomaly takes the unlikely form of a heavy-set lumbering elderly woman, in her 70's, who apparently reigns supreme in a trendy West Los Angeles neighborhood under the guise of a homeowner association president. She is one tough lady who knows how to make lives hell for a lot of folks. She recently came into public focus as the protagonist on a well publicized blog during the opening of the highly touted Magnolia Bakery on Third Street a few weeks ago. She is the Don Corleone of the Wilshire / Fairfax / Third Street / Beverly Blvd area, who sends her foot soldiers out into the neighborhood to do her spying , bidding, and hatchet jobs. What is her bidding? She is the neighborhood shake down artist, who takes on new start-up businesses in her jurisdiction with the zeal of a crime fighter. Apparently she has been waving her sword for many years, but she is suddenly so brazen in her demands that a lot ...
... of people are only now taking notice and shaking their heads in disbelief.
What is her M.O. and what is she after? Of course, she wants money, and lots of it, under the pretext of protecting the integrity and character of her neighborhood. She is the self-proclaimed doyenne-president of a local homeowner association that is amassing a war chest under the guise of soliciting tax-deductible contributions for her non-profit organization. She protests before city hearings every new business in the Third Street area that does not move, simply because she can. If that new business has anything to do with food, she will move her army in to block, challenge, persecute and financially drain the hapless new owners until they beg for mercy, waving their checkbooks. Only then will the neighborhood plague turn into a pussy cat, receding into the distance with a Cheshire cat grin on the way to her bank. She operates within the parameters of the administrative rights afforded to well-intentioned residents who legitimately want to ensure that their livability issues are addressed when new businesses open in the neighborhoods. However, she magically becomes the new best friend of business (big or small) as soon as she gets what she wants. - and to hell with everything else. She is rich, and politically connected, and she doesn't give a hoot about appearances or contradictions.
This woman is a study of contradictions. Her association is not a bona- fide non-profit organization although she solicits non-taxable donations. (I think we have an IRS issue here). She uses a attorney who is not a bona fide attorney. Her foot soldiers are not soldiers by any stretch of the imagination, but rather verbally challenged timid individuals. She appeals ALL decisions made by the Central Planning Commission relative to parking, conditional use permits, etc., regardless of the merit s in the case. And the clincher is this: she doesn't really want to win! Because if she wins, she can't appeal ! She just wants to appeal and appeal and appeal and tie everybody up, including scarce city resources (remember city employees are furloughed with substantial pay cuts), and cost everybody (private and municipal) a lot of money, because she can, so that people will pay her off just to end the madness. Quite a gig, huh? And at a time like this?????
Who is this woman? She is an incredibly well-connected highly placed member of a secret Democratic party Committee who must place her stamp of approval of all persons who want to be serious political contenders in the Democratic party in L.A. county. The rumors on the street abound that she has successfully extorted huge sums of money from all the big developers of major projects, malls in the area - The Grove, The Beverly Connection, the Beverly Center, and that she is a favorite chum of Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Koretz. So many rumors are circulating about her nefarious dealings, from many in the know kind of people - that the rumors are assuming a life of their own. Even if only half of the whisperings are true, we have a shocking situation on our hands. And the fact that this woman is so transparent, so vociferously raucous with her demands, makes it enormously puzzling why all these powerful developers and politicians would be so bound to her.
Among the range of charges of intentionally sapping scarce city resources to fatten her pockets to depriving city coffers of much needed tax revenues, this woman must be looked at in the bright light of disclosure. Maybe the plague of the Beverly Wilshire area will become one big fat Pandora's box very very soon.