Oh, We Noticed, All Right, Part 2

Earth to City Hall and to speculators: Angelenos share information with each other.

If you're not on Reddit, two recent posts drew attention to some vacancies.

Let's start with 1111 W. 6th Street, pictured above and shared in this post by Redditor Scientific_85.

This Late Moderne campus was designed by Kistner, Wright, and Wright for the California Teachers Association way back in 1954. The buildings have been empty since 2009, minimum.

Squatters have moved inside, vandals have tagged the hell out of the campus, and although a fence has gone up, the buildings are still empty and blighted.

A year ago, demolition plans for the existing buildings were still on the table.

The current owner had big plans for the property. The Sapphire Project, as it was titled, was to have 22,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, topped by 369 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units.

I hasten to add that the property owner is very much still active (unlike the owners of Oceanwide Plaza). It is certainly possible that the project is merely stalled and not dead in the water. I haven't seen any updates since the demolition plan, but if and when I do, I'll share them here.

There was another post, one that is arguably more concerning because it reveals MULTIPLE empty properties in a single neighborhood.

Redditor diggemsmaccks posted seven pictures of empty, possibly abandoned, homes and businesses in Highland Park.

I don't have full stories on any of them - hell, I haven't hunted down all the addresses yet - but I wanted to get the word out that this is happening. And I wanted to include some insights from affected Redditors:

We've had 4.5 houses burn down within 3 blocks of us because of these absentee landlords. They're a literal threat to our community. (Buzumab)

And here I can't find an affordable place to live. Seeing stuff like this is hard. (KirklandMeeseekz)

There's an "abandoned" property on our block. I put "abandoned" because I know the owner. He's doing everything he can to renovate it so that it's habitable, but the city of LA refuses to issue any of the permits he needs. Because it's inhabited. By squatters. That he can't evict because the city of LA won't let him. Don't blame the property owners, blame our city government. (IIRiffasII)

My dad spent part of his childhood in Highland Park, so as you can imagine, we've seen it change significantly since the 1950s. Somehow, I never pictured this.

1111 W. 6th Street, Westlake.

Vicinity of N. Figueroa Street and Avenue 61, Highland Park.

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