Los Angeles Dreaming

Thuc Nhi Nguyen

Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.

A presentation given last week to the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council's  Land Use Planning Committee has unveiled renderings of a proposed small lot subdivision that would replace a church and surface parking lot at 847-879 W. 10th Street.

The project, filed in October 2018 by an entity called 867 RR, LLC, calls for the construction of 19 single-family homes arranged around two private driveways.

The proposed entitlements for 847-879 W. 10th Street call for density bonus incentives to allow a slight increase in height, which would be granted in exchange for reserving one of the homes for very low-income households.  This would be the second small lot development entitled with a density bonus, following the Coolidge Place project in Frogtown.

The project's design is described as having a "coastal fishing-town clapboard," look, with large windows glass garage doors, and rooftop decks.

Additional details are not provided in the presentation.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Farhan Zaidi understands the intrigue that stems from his unique baseball path: from the small-budget Oakland Athletics to the big-spending Los Angeles Dodgers and back to the Bay Area to join the rival Giants.

San Francisco's new front-office whiz plans to incorporate plenty from the franchise's rich tradition by leaning on some of the entrenched baseball minds behind its success this decade, even if there are varying ideas about how to get the Giants back into playoff contention.

''It's a convenient narrative to see this as kind of a clash of schools of thought. I just don't see it that way at all,'' the MIT-educated Zaidi said of mixing his analytics expertise with the old-school practices of veteran executive Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy. ''Obviously we didn't get to these points in our career the same way or in a similar way, but I think that's part of the beauty of the game, how we all wind up together and then pulling toward a common goal.''

Following four years as general manager of the Dodgers, Zaidi received a five-year contract to become Giants president of baseball operations Tuesday. He was formally introduced Wednesday at AT&T Park, then headed back to Southern California and the GM meetings in Carlsbad. He'll join up with San Francisco's front office on site - a trip Zaidi figures will bring some ''normalcy'' back to his life after a whirlwind few days switching organizations.

Giants CEO Larry Baer and Zaidi first met Friday for a planned two-hour session that carried on for 6 1/2 hours. Zaidi on Wednesday thanked the Dodgers for allowing him to pursue an opportunity with their NL West rival, saying ''I'm incredibly gracious.''

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, said it would be fun competing against Zaidi.

At the GM meetings, Friedman said the Dodgers would miss Zaidi's ''creativity, work ethic, ability to connect with people. He's extremely talented and somebody who's obviously made a huge impact for us the last four years.''

Friedman said he and Zaidi had conversations about the Giants' job during the last week. ''I kept telling him, obviously I'm biased but I'm trying to do everything I could to support him and be a sounding board and set my bias to the side.''

The Dodgers didn't try to lure Zaidi back, Friedman said. ''No, I mean that was the point. If this was something he wanted to pursue we were going to support him.''

The next step for Zaidi is hiring a general manager and a farm director, something he hopes to do soon if the right candidate emerges.

It'll be a new direction for a franchise that won World Series championships in 2010, '12 and '14.

Zaidi's Dodgers reached the World Series the past two years without winning.

''The response was just total heartbreak, I guess. I don't know how else you say it,'' he said.

Zaidi will spend the coming months learning more about a franchise he's watched closely for decades. He has already exchanged text messages with some core players, and he plans to visit a few this offseason. Zaidi's first baseball game came at Candlestick Park in 1987, so this feels like coming ''full circle.''

Zaidi earned his bachelor's degree in economics from MIT in 1998 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2011. He spent 10 years with the A's before joining Los Angeles.

''It was quite compelling the way Farhan was able to put together winning franchises throughout,'' Baer said, noting he hopes Zaidi will lead the club decades into the future.

San Francisco went 73-89 during an injury-plagued 2018 with a major league-worst 5-21 record in September, missing the playoffs for a second straight year and third time in four seasons.

Zaidi has no plans of tackling a turnaround on his own. Sabean will stay directly involved, and Bochy is allowed the last word when it comes to on-field moves, including the lineup and rotation.

''Anything that is under the privy of the manager, the manager has final say - period. That is not even a question for me,'' Zaidi said.

Zaidi and Bochy spoke briefly already and will meet in person at some point. Bochy is scheduled to attend late Hall of Famer Willie McCovey's celebration of life Thursday at the ballpark after Zaidi is already back in the San Diego area.

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I had read about the miscommunication between the Department of Homeland Security and the California Department of Motor Vehicles before my appointment this month for renewing my license. As a result, I took multiple forms of proof of residence with me for the Real ID. When checking in, I mentioned clearly that I had multiple forms of proof of residence (utility bill, medical bill, property tax and a jury summons, to boot).

At its meeting next week, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission is scheduled to hear two appeals of a proposed apartment tower at the eastern gateway to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The proposed Hollywood and Gower development, which would replace a parking lot at the southwest corner of that intersection, calls for the construction of a 22-story building featuring 220 apartments - including 11 affordable units - with 3,270 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 279 parking stalls.

Designed by HKS Architects, the tower would rise 252 feet in height and feature an exterior aluminum exoskeleton underlaid with glass.  Two setbacks planned at the building's ground level would create plaza areas, and artistic displays would mask above-grade parking levels.

The two appellants - the Hollywood Residents Association and the Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility - both allege inadequacies and mistakes in the environmental review conducted for the project.  The first organization is attached to an individual named Sarah Garcia-Rill, while the latter is based out of the same El Monte address as the Southern California District Council of Laborers, the Los Angeles-area affiliate of the Laborers International Union of North America.

A staff response rejects the assertions of both appeals, and recommends that the City Planning Commission uphold the approval of the Hollywood Gower project.

Construction of the tower is expected to occur over a period of 24 to 26 months, according to past environmental review, with a build out period between 2020 and 2023.

The development site, now owned by an entity associated with Metropolitan Life Insurance Group, was previously entitled for a 20-story apartment tower by the Hanover Company.  However, the Houston-based developer's approvals were overturned by a lawsuit in 2012.

Marijuana may be legal in California, but that doesn’t mean companies in the industry are finding it easy to make a home here.

One of the hardest obstacles to overcome is finding real estate. Pot sellers, some say, are willing to pay a premium for space to grow and sell marijuana. Others associated with the industry, from law firms to marketing groups, have also faced negative reactions from landlords when looking for space to occupy.

“People assume tenants are flaky, or the business is more high risk,” said Joshua Shelton, the co-founder of Green Street Agency, a group offering creative services to cannabis companies.

But it’s also presenting opportunities for savvy investors, and Shelton, who is also a lawyer for pot outfits, is trying to capitalize.

Along with Bow West Capital, Green Street is offering a solution to space-hungry cannabis firms − a downtown building completely devoted to the cannabis industry. The 67,000-square-foot building is located at 718 S. Hill St., and tenants are expected to start occupying the building in the first quarter of 2019. The building is 95 percent leased already, according to Shelton, and will feature a dedicated floor operating as a co-working space run by Green Street.

“Our guys are just happy they have real architecture and real landlords,” Shelton said. “They know they can build some roots here.”

Companies taking office space at the new development include Timeless Vapes, which makes cannabis products; Dab Nation, which sells products like vaporizers and rolling paper; and Zzz Natural, which focuses on cannabis as a sleep aid. These brands will use the building as a showroom and place to do backend business, not as a retail location for cannabis products, Bow West Capital President Sean Beddoe said.

Beddoe added that the venture is currently restoring what they can of the more than 100-year-old building, which will be smoke-free and geared toward executives.

“We’re very carefully curating the building to get the best of the best in the industry,” Beddoe said. “This is the first project of its kind, and we want to make sure only the best of the best are included.”

The building was purchased in 2017 for $14 million. Its remodel is being done by M-Rad Architecture.

“We are trying to make it a more luxurious place, so we can give life to these companies whose revenues are strong,” M-Rad Chief Executive and co-founder Matthew Rosenberg said.

Streaming giant Netflix is rapidly renting up office space in Hollywood, now the company is reportedly in talks to make a purchase. Deadline reports that Netflix is in “preliminary talks” to buy the Egyptian Theatre, a landmarked 1920s-era movie palace built for showman Sid Grauman.

Located east of Hollywood and Highland, the Egyptian is owned by the nonprofit American Cinematheque and is used to host special screenings, talks with notable filmmakers, and film festivals. It spent nearly $13 million on a renovation of the Egyptian in 1998.

Sources tells Deadline that the discussions seem to have both Netflix and the Cinematheque making use of the space, with Netflix using the historic theater for screenings and private events on weeknights and the Cinematheque running its programming on weekends.

Neither Deadline nor Bloomberg, which independently confirmed that talks are in progress, mention exactly how much the Egyptian might change hands for, though Deadline hears it would be in the “many tens of millions of dollars.” Both agree that the deal would represent a serious windfall for the American Cinematheque, which also owns the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

The Egyptian’s location would be very convenient for Netflix, which leases an entire 14-story building and 92,000 square feet of space on the Sunset Bronson Studios lot. Late last year the company signed on to rent the entirety of a 13-story building under construction across from Sunset Bronson, as well as all the office space in the Academy on Vine project, which takes up an entire city block near Vine Street and De Longpre Avenue.

A proposed apartment tower near the Gold Line's Chinatown Station is the latest project to take advantage of a state law which exempts transit-priority developments from the California Environmental Quality Act.

Earlier this year, Vancouver-based real estate firms Townline and Forme Development jointly submitted plans to redevelop a shopping center across the street from Chinatown's Central Plaza.  The project, called Harmony, would consist of a 27-story building featuring 178 residential units - including nine to be set aside for very low-income households - with 36,814 square feet of retail and office space.  Plans also call for five levels of subterranean parking, with 116 stalls for residents and 51 stalls for commercial tenants.

Christ Dikeakos Architects is designing the proposed tower, which would stand approximately 291 feet in height, with SWA Group serving as landscape architect.  The building is conceived with a series of offset masses, with amenity spaces to be located on the fourth-, sixth-, and roof levels.  By concentrating the bulk of the buildable density into a tower, the project allows for a large public plaza to front Broadway, connecting to Chinatown's commercial core through a mid-block crosswalk that would be relocated in front of the property.

Townline and Forme, which are partnering with Los Angeles-based developer Urban Offerings, have previously indicated that construction of Harmony could begin as soon as 2019.

The Sustainable Communities CEQA exemption that the development team is employing for the Chinatown tower requires that a project is located within a half-mile of a major transit stop and dedicate at least 50 percent of its floor area to residential use, with a minimum density of 20 dwelling units per acre.

Following the completion of Blossom Plaza next to Chinatown Station, a number of other mixed-use projects have entered the pipeline for North Broadway.  A nine-story hotel is planned across the street from Harmony, and a multi-building development is proposed for a narrow strip of land to the north.

Townline and Forme are also planning a 32-story tower near the intersection of 6th Street and Shatto Avenue in Koreatown.