This won’t even cost you any money! Unless of course you decide to buy some great Patagonia clothes…

This month, AFC is competing with two other nonprofits for a grant through Patagonia Pasadena’s “Voice Your Choice” program.

If you’re in Old Town Pasadena during March, you might swing by the Patagonia store at Fair Oaks Avenue and Union Street to cast a vote for AFC. We’ll receive $2,500 if we get the most in-store votes — money that would fund our search for new open space to acquire and preserve.

AFC board members will be in the store between noon and 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20, talking to Patagonia customers about AFC.  Drop in and say hello! Or, if you’d like to join us at the table and help spread the word about local land conservation, reply to this e-mail and let us know when you’re available.

Best,

Nancy L.C. Steele

President, Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy

Posted via email from Tracy’s LA Real Estate

Check out Eichler Network: Feature on File: Blasts from the Past

For you Retro Midcentury lovers, here’s a great list of some surviving blasts from the past. I want to go to the drive-in!

First, check out Sean O’Toole’s latest report http://files.foreclosureradar.com/foreclosure-report/May+2010+CA+Foreclosure+Report.pdf. Hmm, where is that “shadow inventory” we have heard about for so long? From several different sources I have heard that at most, 10% of scheduled trustee sales actually sell on any given day. The rest are postponed or cancelled. Most of these trustee sales have no bidders and they go back to the bank. This is what we call a foreclosure or REO, for Real Estate Owned.

The big challenge ordinary potential home buyers are unaware of (until they try to buy one of these incredible deals with a 3.5% down FHA loan) is that most of these deals are selling for cash to investors. And most of these investors are fairly large scale–that is, they may have anywhere from 10 to 200 properties they are rehabbing and flipping at any given time. They will buy a property for cash either on the courthouse steps, or from the foreclosing lender, ”as-is,” close in 10 days. Can your FHA deal compete with that? Or your 20% down conventional deal?

Is this a terrible thing, big investors snatching up these great deals so the poor first time buyer doesn’t have a chance?  There is no one clear answer.

Consider that most of these deals are real fixers with all kinds of problems. A first time buyer generally doesn’t have the money on hand to make the repairs that really need to be done. A first time buyer also doesn’t have the knowledge or experience to take care of these problems in the most “professional” way. During the last big downturn in the 1990’s, there were a number of people who did “flips” around Northeast Los Angeles and Pasadena/Altadena. They did the cheapest, ugliest jobs possible. They would stucco over sweet old bungalows, take out original hardware and fixtures, install the cheapest sink and kitchen cabinets, fixtures, vinyl and carpet, slap a coat of really cheap off-white paint on the interior and call it a remodel. Ugh! I can still smell the ammoniated stink of that nasty paint.

Today, there are teams of investors who are actually doing a tasteful, quality job. Look at Better Shelter as an example: http://www.bettershelter.com/. There are several groups doing this kind of work, and I applaud them. They are improving the housing stock in Los Angeles, making homes that real people can live in and enjoy for a relatively affordable price. They are actually making things better for the community as a whole and in some really forgotten depressing neighborhoods.

My dream is that I have a part in the transformation of blocks of stuccoed-over cottages with their ugly cement-block-and-wrought-iron-fencing into attractive modern easycare homes that present an attractive face to the neighborhood. Even if you don’t remove the stucco but you make it smooth and contemporary with good windows with frames that add dimension and character to the exterior, even if you leave the fences in place but you stucco over the cement block and change the iron bars into maybe Trex rails or bamboo inserts–you could have durable beauty and privacy without it looking like a little jail! I’m excited because I see these things actually happening.

Have you seen any of these transformations around town?

Auntie Em’s Market Dinner
Periodically, Auntie Em’s Kitchen (4616 Eagle Rock Blvd. 90041) offers a Farmer’s Market Dinner and the sold-out crowd thoroughly enjoyed the one last night. Here’s the menu:
Starter
Oro Blanco Grapefruit, Blood Orange, Cara Cara Orange and
Three Beet Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette
Main Course
Falafel, Muhammara, Cilantro and Jalapeño Hummus, Tatziki, Tabouleh and Pita,
all handmade in-house
OR
Spring Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Oil Cured Olives, Leeks, Roasted Garlic, Spinach and Fresh Herbs
served with a sauté of Asparagus, Fava Beans, Fresh English Peas, Snap Peas, Fennel, Pea Tendrils and Chervil

Cheese Course
Hudson Valley Camembert Square (sheep/cow, NY)
Jasper Hill Farm’s Bayley Hazen Blue (cow, VT)
Capriole’s Old Kentucky Tomme (goat, IN)
Cesar’s Cheese’s Oaxacan-Style String Cheese (cow, WI)
served with Peppadew (sweet/spicy Red Pickled Peppers), Pine Cone Bud Syrup and Strawberries

Dessert
Trio of Cream Puffs filled with Meyer Lemon Mousse, Orange Mousse and Seascape Strawberry Mousse
with a pot of Dipping Chocolate

$45 PER PERSON
We picked up our wine from the Colorado Wine Company, where Jennifer gave us 3 great pairings (there were several of us!). We started off with a light, grassy Caliberico Verdelho which went perfectly with the citrus and beet flavors of the salad course. For the lamb/falafel main course we first had the Falasco Valpolicella and then finished through the cheese course with the Rothschild valde l’ours. That cheese course was fascinating. Have you ever heard of pine cone bud syrup? Suffice it to say, some cheeses and flavors were distinctive and new to me.
The dessert of 3 little cream puffs each with a different fruit mousse filling with a pot of chocolate to dip them in was the perfectly tasty end to a rich and interesting meal.
To find out more about Auntie Em’s, check out the website at www.AuntieEmsKitchen.com. Besides the restaurant, Auntie does catering and also offers organic produce delivery with recipes! Read about it on the website. Terri Wahl, the owner, is passionate about this way of supporting locally grown food and small businesses while enabling busy families to eat fresh healthy meals.

This is a reprint of an email from the LA Conservancy. I’m posting it because we have many modern historical properties here in Los Angeles that are vulnerable to development. The LA Conservancy is the premier organization that stewards the preservation movement in Los Angeles, and it needs and deserves your support. Please pledge your support and send this on to everyone you know.

Yamasaki Associates

Happy Birthday, Minoru Yamasaki!
Today would be the ninety-seventh birthday of Minoru Yamasaki (1912 – 1986), the acclaimed architect of the Century Plaza Hotel. The Seattle-born Yamasaki produced distinctive designs in a career that spanned five decades.
In addition to the Century Plaza, he was responsible for buildings including the 1956 Lambert-St. Louis Airport Terminal, the 1962 U.S. Science Pavilion at the Seattle World’s Fair, the 1961 Dhahran Air Terminal in Saudi Arabia, Century Plaza’s Twin Towers (1975), and most notably, New York’s late World Trade Center Twin Towers, completed in 1973.
Yamasaki created a complex body of work that is just now beginning to be fully understood and appreciated.
Today we celebrate one of America’s great architects and his contributions to the field. Yamasaki’s Century Plaza is one of Los Angeles’ most beloved and iconic hotels, and we thank him for it.
Yamasaki profile on the National Trust for Historic Preservation website, with links to other articles: http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/diversity/asian-pacific-american-heritage/profiles/minoru-yamasaki.html
More about the Century Plaza Hotel: http://laconservancy.org/centuryplaza/

Help Spread the Word
Thank you for pledging your support for preserving the Century Plaza Hotel. We have more than 1,350 pledges to date and would like to get to 1,500 before the end of the year. Please help us create an even stronger coalition to save this beautiful hotel!
Forward this message to a friend
If this was forwarded to you, pledge your support!
If you have any questions, please contact us at savecenturyplaza@laconservancy.org or (213) 623-2489.
Thanks for your support!

Photo: Minoru Yamasaki on the cover of TIME Magazine (Reprinted through the courtesy of the Editors of TIME Magazine © 2009 Time Inc.)

Minoru Yamasaki