Scorched in Silver Lake
No neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles is immune to demolition by neglect.
While it isn’t nearly as common in Silver Lake as it is in, say, nearby Hollywood, it’s happening there too.
A neighbor reached out regarding 2301-2309 Kent Street/801 Waterloo Street, formerly a stately 1917 Craftsman-style multifamily home.
The rent-stabilized building survived for more than a century, including two world wars, changes to the neighborhood when the freeway came through a few blocks away, and the rough old days when Silver Lake had a sketchy reputation. Like so many other buildings, it did not survive being left empty. You guessed it - another fire.
Code enforcement complaints of “abandoned or vacant building left open to the public” began in February. Unsurprisingly, those complaints were deemed “no violation”, “referred to general”, or “referred to Housing Department”.
In other words, typical buck-passing from bureaucrats who have no respect for the city that issues their paychecks.
The building was slated for demolition at least as recently as July 2024, but no permit for demolition or construction has been issued. This is yet another example of why I simply cannot take (most) developer promises at face value - sometimes, the planned project doesn’t get built.
Does that give the owner of the property carte blanche to just leave the existing buildings unattended and insufficiently secured - particularly when it could have been moved? Not in my book.
The neighbor told me that the fire began around 3 (LAFD says 4:21) in the morning. So, in addition to putting neighboring buildings at risk of catching on fire and releasing toxic soot and smoke into the air, the neighbors were deprived of sleep, too. Lovely.
Good neighbors don’t neglect their properties, let alone make them someone else’s problem.