Got Earthquake Insurance?

Recent rumblers in Los Angeles map (USGS).

Here's the new Caltech 3D representation of the quake.


Here's the Governator...

Racist Covenants: Remembering or reliving Jim Crow LA?

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre doesn't want to live with housing covenants that endorsed segregation.

LA TIMES reports that "though the decades-old contracts are illegal, their rules are still attached to some deeds. State legislator Hector De La Torre has introduced a bill that would clear them from public records."

Surely, here's a story that every thinking, breathing Angeleno needs to grapple with.

Los Angeles had its own Jim Crow "restrictive covenants" since the 1920s that forced buyers to comply with explicitly offensive racist rules. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. Yet these discriminatory rules remain in print and part of the public record in property purchase agreements in tens of thousands covenants across the state.

Our own Mar Vista community has community associations with such racist covenants.

De La Torre wants to "wipe the stain" by expunging them from public records. Others say they're already illegal and their removal is costly. Here are the pros and cons as delineated in the bill's analysis.

Here's one simple solution to remove the relevant clauses in a retrictive covenant. And here's another for $350!

And here's SB 1148 (Burton, Ch. 589) passed by CA legislature in 1999:

DISCRIMINATORY COVENANTS: Prohibits a common interest development document from containing any restrictive covenant that discriminates in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, marital status, disability, national origin, or ancestry; requires homeowner associations to amend governing documents to delete discriminatory restrictions; requires persons who disseminate declarations of common interest developments to mark the document, advising that discriminatory restrictions are void; and specifies that, as of January 1, 2001, housing discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act includes the existence of a restrictive covenant; in addition, permits an owner to require the county recorder to remove any blatant racial restrictive covenant contained in any recorded document associated with the property.

What do you think?

JORGEPENICHE.COM: RESPONSE TO BABAK NAHID

JORGEPENICHE.COM: RESPONSE TO BABAK NAHID

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Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Time to visit the LA Natural History Museum?

Mar Vista Resources

Open Mar Marvista is an evolving new community social network using Ning.com. Created by talented professionals and driven by the community, it promises to grow into a virtual marketplace of ideas.

Al Gore: Hectoring Hero? Zero Carbon in 10 Years
Smart, alert, and clear-eyed--Gore is 21st century jeremiad who deserves our close attention (and our forgiveness for his supercilious tone.) If only a Green America (and the peace and prosperity it could birth) was more than just a twinkle in the eyes of "liberals" and "progressives."

Don't Whine! Don't Panic! Or you'll get arrested!

As the US economy melts down, so do people and institutions. And there's no superhero in sight! http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-indymac16-2008jul16,0,1217522.story

It's a jungle out there: Working together to mitigate crime

Westside Village neighbors, SLO Ceja and hardworking gardeners clean up the Kingsland/Rose stairway (View Larger Map) to improve visibility and help mitigate crime.