TRANSITIONAL STREET

HUBBARD STREET WITH CHINESE ELMS

Hubbard street is lovely. The street is lined with Chinese Elms, tall enough to carry swings. The trees are shading a variety of housing types. Spanish revival labor units, 3 per lot, built in the ‘20-s, small single family residences from the ‘50-s and recently a growing number of Mac Mansions. A couple of my neighbors have been building ADU’s in the back, some really clever and pretty. And my direct neighbor transformed the Spanish labor triplex into a cute Spanish Revival Village. 

For 5 years, I have been renting a labor unit for a reasonable rent. My landlady and landlord, who bought the property in the ‘70-s never wanted to invest in it, so the building with all its utilities is falling apart. Rumor goes they want to sell the property. What will happen next? It is less than half a mile walking from the Culver City Expo Station and houses in Culver City are in high demand. The current General Plan allows 1 or 2 units per lot as a maximum. Conform the current zoning plan, Culver City would lose at least one housing unit and probably 3 “reasonably” affordable units.  The 3 units are grandfathered in and the potential buyer could decide to keep the 3 units if the units are just being remodeled. No loss of units, definitely loss of affordability. If the buyer thinks like other developers did, the units will be demolished and a 2 million dollar home will rise. 

The General Plan Update should be clear about these transformations. I asked my Revival Village neighbor what he would like. He wants to see up-zoning in the zoning plan. Rebuild at least the same amount of units as existing and allow for more. He told me that rent protection would be acceptable for him if he could rebuild more units than before. I like that perspective. I would also like a perspective in which the lot was being sold to a land trust and being developed with at least one affordable unit. More units and less parking, I am all for a shared parking structure at the “entrance” of the neighborhood, instead of everybody parking on their own separate lots. Hubbard street becomes a full slow street! 

TRANSITIONAL WEEKEND

Cucurbita foetidissima - Wild buffalo gourd

Last weekend of June, 2020. Finally I made a site-visit again, with masks and a friend to measure a garden in Mount Washington. The residence is beautifully situated above Elyria Canyon. We topped the work with our lunches somewhere on the slope of this hidden canyon. On a small sliver of park leading into the canyon, we stumbled upon Californian Walnut, Dragon Lily, dried Wild Cucumber and these rhithmic arrow-shaped leaves of a squash plant. I promise myself to pay more attention to edibles in gardens and public space and decide that this will be my first blogpost in UPLA Studio.