A Big Oops... and a Big Sigh of Relief to Match

I reported the demise of a Culver City house in my post of April 18. Apparently I was walking down the wrong street when I saw the construction of a new condo. Today, on my way to take photos of the Postcards from Ballona mural restoration, I saw the house still standing. Not only that, the proposal for demolition and new construction sign has disappeared. Is this a dream come true?

Another construction sign just a few blocks away, posted alongside three small cottages, also has been removed. I'm hoping this is a good sign. Or a good non-sign!

A Walk on the Dark Side


This cute Spanish-style house is gone, gone, gone in order to make way for more condominium living.

Today I was thinking about what I like to write about. I think the title of Thursday's blog says it all: Beauty.

One of my favorite things to do in life is to walk around (a neighborhood, an art gallery, a park...), look at beauty, think about what it means or how it makes me feel, and to write about it. Wow, if I could make a living doing that, would I be the happiest person in the universe? Quite possibly.

Of course, the other side of Beauty is Ugliness, without the one there could not be the other. And sadly, it's the Dark Side I must write about today.

My favorite form of exercise is walking. I have always made a point of living in places where most of the things I need to do are within an easy (say 45 minute) walk from my house. That way I can get some exercise while taking care of necessities like shopping at Trader Joe's or stopping in at the post office. But sometimes walking is just for the sake of walking, and maybe clearing my head in order to solve a problem.

I love walking around the streets of Culver City which are lined with trees and pretty much free of traffic (except for parents with strollers, neighbors walking their dogs, and bicycle riders). I enjoy looking at the single family homes in the styles of California bungalow, Mediterranean or neo-Spanish... maybe not very exciting, but for the most part well-kept up with nicely landscaped yards.

But Progress has arrived in our little town. "With a capital ‘P' that rhymes with ‘C' and that stands for ‘Construction!!!!!!!'" (With huge apologies to the Music Man.) Since the advent of the new downtown area, the arrival of avant garde art galleries, and upscale "food nouveau" restaurants, change seems to be afoot in the adjacent residential neighborhoods too. And not for the better, in my humble opinion.

To be blunt, what used to be a beautiful neighborhood is becoming uglified with massive multi-story condos towering over cute one-story cottages. Now, I live in a small condo complex, so I have nothing against condo living; it's necessary if you can't afford or don't want to live in a house. My building was constructed in the 70s and is on a street that you could not possibly describe as quietly residential, so it doesn't really count.

What I am concerned about is the potential loss of the single-family home neighborhoods that make life worth living for so many people. I would be afraid to buy a home on a street where I didn't know from one day to the next if the house next door was going to be pulled down and replaced by an eight-unit condo. Similarly, I'm not sure I would want to put a lot of money into remodeling my home (with the thought of living there for the rest of my life) if I knew tomorrow I could wake up to find my house surrounded on all sides by condos.

Unfortunately, what may be making a quick profit for a few developers now has the potential for a disastrous effect on the quality of life in those neighborhoods, and the reason people moved there (whether into a house or one of those very condos) in the first place.

And while I'm on this subject, I can't let homeowners off the hook either. Some people, when remodeling their homes, don't seem to give a hoot about the ambience of their own street. Or understand anything about the history of the area they live in. A Tudor-style house belongs in England, not in Southern California. And, unless you are Frank Gehry, please think twice about erecting something that looks like it just arrived from outer space next to your neighbor's Spanish bungalow!

So, getting back to Beauty... on my next walk around the neighborhood, I would like to merely look forward to a visual delight I didn't notice yesterday—perhaps a blossoming wysteria or a new planting of pansies. I don't want to be holding my breath in fear of yet another installment of the Uglies—and the horrifying surprise that one of my favorite little houses bit the dust overnight.

(photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Beauty
I've been busy working on the PR for the "Postcards from Ballona" mural restoration. But the worst is over now so I was anxious to get back to this blog.
For a long time now I have wanted to clear everything out of my house and start over. I mean everything. But right now I'm not in a position to replace all my worldly possessions. So I'm doing the mini version.
Yesterday I cleared all my cookbooks off the shelves... I have well over one hundred... and I never look at them. They are not living up to their potential... they belong in a kitchen where they will be used. Now the cookbooks are gone, I can dispose of the bookshelf that is really in the way.
I've now started on the living room... the VCR and all my old VHS tapes (all my Richard Simmons tapes have been replaced with DVDs anyway)... books that I've never read... knick knacks, bric-a-brac, all those "dust-catchers" I've harbored over the years... all relocated to the garage. I'm getting to the upstairs tomorrow.
The only decision left is yard sale or thrift store? I've checked out selling some stuff on e-bay but is it really worth the effort?
Throwing note cards in the recycling pile I came across this quotation:
"Beauty, which is what is meant by art, using the word in its widest sense, is, I contend, no mere accident to human life, which people can take or leave as they choose, but a positive necessity of life, if we are to live as nature meant us to; that is, unless we are content to be less than men."
~William Morris, 19 February 1880
Don't you wish we still wrote in that kind of language?