Three Concerning Properties Around Franklin Village

1749 Garfield Place, a severely neglected brown Craftsman-style cottage, in a yard filled with junk, parked cars, and overgrown plants.

A longtime neighborhood advocate has been trying to get some answers out of the city about three empty properties for some time now.

Well…this is Los Angeles. Good luck getting an honest answer out of City Hall.

Or any answer at all.

Let’s start with 1858 North Van Ness Avenue. Multiple units were damaged in a fire in 2023. The owners had extensive renovations done, which is not especially unusual for fire damage, and permit information shows that they changed contractors multiple times. (For me, this in and of itself is not necessarily a red flag - ever had to deal with an unreliable contractor? - but multiple changes are unusual.)

The neighbor, who lives across the street, reports that tenants were still living in the building in the fire’s aftermath - including the tenant whose unit caught on fire. Owners are required to complete certain legal paperwork with the Planning Department (such as a THP) to remove tenants, but that doesn’t seem to have ever happened with this building. I’m told it’s been empty for months, despite the extensive remodel.

Next up, let’s talk about 1749 Garfield Place. I will freely admit I have a soft spot for smaller, older houses, and it really irritates me to see them neglected. 1749 Garfield has been reported to the city multiple times in the past few years for the usual stuff - junk in the yard, abandoned and left open to the public, overgrown plants, cars parked on the lawn, etc. There’s no preview on Google Maps, but go to Street View and you can see poor little 1749 looking like none of the code complaints were ever addressed.

On top of that, the tenants disappeared with no apparent eviction, and once again, this seems to have happened without the proper paperwork. Neighbors have complained about squatters. The city has done nothing.

Finally, there’s 1945 Carmen Avenue. Five years ago, there was a Craftsman house at that address. The current building was permitted as a duplex, but designed for co-living. The neighbor told me that the house’s demolition “put the neighborhood at risk for the way that it was not properly contained for the asbestos, etc.” Again, no THP on file and tenants vanished with no apparent eviction.

It’s been my experience that property owners who don’t properly mitigate demolition hazards are often equally unconcerned about the OTHER rules they're supposed to follow. Unsurprisingly, I found a code complaint on file for converting the property to another use, and neighbors report seeing home-sharing activity (after Venice, Hollywood is the second-worst neighborhood for home share violations). I’m told the property is empty apart from the home-share incidents.

Why does the city allow any of this?

1858 North Van Ness Avenue, Franklin Village.

1749 Garfield Place, Franklin Village.

1945 Carmen Avenue, Franklin Village.