Dear Friend of the Chili Bowl,
Thank you for joining 1225 concerned citizens who have signed the petition urging former councilman Mike Bonin to stop the demolition and help to move the giant programmatic Chili Bowl restaurant from its longtime home at 12244 West Pico Boulevard to a safe location within the city of Los Angeles.
Sadly, the Chili Bowl was not landmarked, and the property owner cut it into pieces. We continue to advocate for a preservation solution for the partially demolished building and its vintage roof sign.
Today, we need everyone who is angry about what happened to the Chili Bowl to send a quick email letting Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles City Council know that her Planning Commissioner nomination of Ilissa Gold is not acceptable. It is DISQUALIFYING that Ilissa Gold is Board President of the deceptive pro-development lobbying group Abundant Housing LA, which endorsed Karen Bass in her mayoral run.
DIRTY TRICKS: In February and again in November 2021, when Planning Commission nominee Ilissa Gold was on the board, Abundant Housing LA directed its members to urge City Council NOT to landmark the Chili Bowl, making the false claim that there was a 24-unit TOC housing project planned for the site. See links below for evidence of this deception.
In part due to Abundant Housing LA’s lies, the Chili Bowl was not protected. The site is now a vacant lot, with pieces of the potential National Register Chili Bowl stacked on the ground.
With land use corruption rampant in Los Angeles and four City Council members indicted, it is essential that Angelenos have a Planning Commission they can trust. As Board President of Abundant Housing LA, Ilissa Gold represents a real estate industry lobbying organization willing to deceive City Council and the public to promote its pro-developer agenda and destroy Los Angeles landmarks.
Please email Mayor Karen Bass TODAY (mayor.helpdesk@lacity.org) and ask that she NOT appoint Ilissa Gold to the Planning Commission, because it is DISQUALIFYING that Ms. Gold is board president of Abundant Housing LA, a real estate lobbying group that has used dirty tricks to deceive City Council and the public.
Also go to the City Council file (https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=23-1200-S122 ), click "NEW" then send the same message to the PLUM Committee, which hears the nomination on Tuesday, June 20. If approved, the appointment will go to full City Council for consideration. You can help keep that from happening.
yours for Los Angeles,
Kim Cooper & Richard Schave
Friends of the Chili Bowl
Update added later: Thanks to OnlyTheFacts12 on Twitter, we've learned there’s more. One Abundant Housing LA nominee could be an accident. Three is a deliberate policy choice: 1) Jaime Del Rio / North Valley Area Planning Commission (Organizing Director, Abundant Housing LA) https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=23-1200-S70 2) Haley Feng / West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission (Occupation: was Communications Manager / Digital Advocacy Manager for Abundant Housing LA, now Assistant Project Manager for Thomas Safran & Associates—the developer implicated in the Curren Price indictment!) https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=23-1200-S64 )