Dear Friend of the Chili Bowl,

Thank you for joining nearly 925 concerned citizens who have signed the petition urging councilmember Mike Bonin to pause the pending demolition permit and help to move L.A.’s last Chili Bowl from its longtime home at 12244 West Pico Boulevard to a safe location within the city of Los Angeles.

Things may look quiet in the public facing world of giant Chili Bowl preservation, but in the background, metaphorical beans are on the boil. We’ve been working hard exploring creative options for ensuring that this unique cultural and architectural landmark doesn’t end up in a landfill, and hope to have some encouraging news to share soon.

And the Los Angeles Conservancy, the member-based nonprofit that nominated the Chili Bowl to become a protected Historic-Cultural Monument, has just filed a Writ of Mandate with Los Angeles Superior Court, asking that a judge step in to make the City of Los Angeles abide by the laws of the State of California and undo every destructive vote on the Chili Bowl’s future that City Council has cast this year.

But that’s not all! The Writ of Mandate describes in excruciating detail how City Council's powerful Planning and Land Use Committee (PLUM) routinely disenfranchises Angelenos who want to make public comment about land use decisions, ignoring their virtual raised hands during teleconference hearings and refusing to even allow those who submit landmark nominations to be heard.

The Conservancy informed PLUM that they had been caught violating the Brown Act, and must reschedule the hearing and give the public a chance to speak. Instead of responding, PLUM sent the matter on to full City Council. The Conservancy informed City Council that the PLUM hearing had been illegal, and City Council went ahead and voted to deny the Chili Bowl landmarking—and once again, the public was ignored.

For a body that is currently under FBI and DOJ investigation, with PLUM’s former President Jose Huizar scheduled to stand trial on RICO charges next summer, it is a shocking and disturbing way to behave.

Sadly, it’s become apparent that Los Angeles City Hall is acting for the benefit of the big property developers who fund their re-election campaigns, and against the interests of Angelenos.

The Conservancy’s Writ of Mandate describes similar shenanigans surrounding recent landmarking votes for the Stires Staircase Bungalow Court (rejected) and Taix French Restaurant (not rejected, but rewritten by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell so instead of preserving the landmark, a few bits of scrap wood and metal are enshrined).

It doesn’t matter if you believe these particular buildings should be landmarked, or not. The broken preservation hearing process is revealing open corruption by our elected officials, and by the Deputy City Attorneys who staff the PLUM and City Council hearings. It's horrifying.

We will be watching the Conservancy’s Writ of Mandate with great interest, and hope a judge will step in to make City Hall abide by the law.
You can read that filing (PDF link) here.

We’ve also expressed our concern to the FBI, via their public corruption email tip line (pctips-losangeles@fbi.gov), and encourage anyone else who is outraged to do the same.

That’s all the news that fits in a giant Chili Bowl. Please continue to share the petition (http://www.change.org/SaveTheChiliBowl) with friends who love the Chili Bowl and want to see it saved. And stay tuned for additional updates as they happen.

Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim Cooper & Richard Schave
Friends of the Chili Bowl