One Empty Museum, Multiple Fires, NO F***ING HELP

Like so many who care about Southern California’s rich history, I’ve long been bothered by the Southwest Museum - the first museum in Los Angeles - sitting empty.

Yes, it’s an important building, but emptiness also equals vulnerability in Los Angeles.

The Southwest Museum’s Casa de Adobe annex was added a few years after the original building. Casa de Adobe, a replica adobe house which showcased the Spanish Colonial period more than a decade before the Avila Adobe was saved from the wrecking ball, had a fire very early this morning.

Casa de Adobe’s main building is fine. The garages, including some neighborhood residents’ cars, did not survive.

This is FAR from the first fire. One neighbor, a 73-year-old woman whose car was destroyed, spoke with Fox 11:

She said homeless people break into the homes that are empty all the time and there have been multiple fires in the area. She said neighbors have reached out to the Casa de Adobe for help and nothing has been done. There have also been multiple fires in the rent-controlled community.

"I have been complaining for the last five years. I've been complaining to the city and I have names and numbers. I have been complaining to them that this is an issue they need to take care of. I understand there are new requirements for dealing with the homeless but we have been complaining about the homeless in this area for many years," she said.

So…years-long problem with break-ins and fire, no help from the long-shuttered Casa de Adobe, no help from the city, and now several innocent neighbors have had their cars destroyed.

I’d like to remind you, dear readers, that this could happen to ANYONE in Los Angeles. That empty (or even just mostly empty) building nearby could very well set YOUR home (or car) on fire someday. And if there isn’t an empty building near you today, there could very well be one in the future.

4600 block of Woodside Drive, Mount Washington.