The Surprising Turnaround Of The Now World Class L.A. Zoo

The Bronx Zoo in New York, the National Zoo in D.C. and the San Diego Zoo here in Southern California tend to get all the attention when the discussion is about America's greatest zoos, but in the last few years the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens has slowly been turned into one of the great attractions in Los Angeles. Decrepit and deteriorating by the mid-1990s, in recent years the zoo has opened acclaimed exhibits such as the Chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, the Red Ape Rain Forest, the Winnick Family Children Zoo, the Children's Discovery Center, Campo Gorilla Reserve, Elephants of Asia, and the LAIR (Living Amphibians, Invertebrates, and Reptiles). Last month saw the grand opening of Rainforest of the Americas, the newest exhibit to open at the Zoo, and the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association’s 44th Annual Beastly Ball on June 14th will celebrate the Rainforest of the Americas being the tenth and final exhibit of the Zoo’s Phase 1 Master Plan.

The Los Angeles Zoo has been a partner in the California Condor Recovery Program since the 1980s. The program’s primary focus is the captive breeding and reintroduction of California condors to the wild, with the aim of establishing a self-sustaining wild population. The world population of California condors, once as low as 22, has climbed to over 430, with more than half of those birds living in the wild. This remarkable success story is just one area that demonstrates the Zoo’s commitment to conservation, and they currently participate in over 20 conservation projects including the Turtle Survival Alliance, the Golden Lion Tamarin Project, the Madagascar Fauna Group, and the Philippine Spotted Deer Program. Special attention is given to programs that target wild counterparts of animals in the Zoo’s collection.

Most visitors to the Los Angeles Zoo come to see the animals. What is often overlooked is the vital connections between the fauna and the flora and this is where the Botanical Gardens is so important. The plants that provide food, shade, and even entertainment are every bit as vital as the animals, a fact that is as crucial in the wild as it is in the Zoo. The Botanical Gardens, spread throughout zoo grounds, has 15 different collections highlighting over 800 different plant species, with a total of over 7,400 individual plants.

More Homeowners Than Ever Planting Drought Resistant Lawns And Gardens

Xeriscaping, the conservation of water through creative landscaping and reduction of the need for supplemental water from irrigation, has become an increasingly popular trend among Southern California homeowners as the epic drought the state is experiencing enters another Summer. Recent home and garden tours through our local neighborhoods show that many Southern California homes have replaced grass turf with remarkably colorful and lush gardens that are inexpensive to maintain and ecologically sound. Xeriscaping can put a distinctive stamp on your yard and help the environment, but it also improves property value. 

In the 1500's, California (including the area that became Los Angeles) went through an 80 year drought. During the Winters there were blizzards in Central California and the Salinas river froze solid where it flowed into the Monterey Bay. During the summer, Southern California saw no humidity, no rain, 100+ degree temperatures for months on end. Amazingly, the same drought-resistant plants that lived through that are still thriving in Los Angeles today. These include hearty plants such as Hummingbird Sage, Desert Willow, Island Bush Poppy, California Wild Rose, and Desert Marigold. Some, like the California Poppy, Yarrow and Island Bush Snapdragons attract scores of butterflies and hummingbirds. Others, like Beach Sun Cups and the Scarlet Bugler, actually thrive the hotter and sunnier it is. 

This link offers some great suggestions on drought tolerant plants to get started with. The Southern California Metropolitan Water District also offers all sorts of wonderful programs and ideas, and this link will direct you to rebate offers on conservation materials, gardening tips, live and online landscaping tutorials and what the water restrictions might be in your neighborhood. Also, please feel free to share any tips, stories or photos if you or a neighbor are taking advantage of this water-conserving, creative landscaping trend.

Some Eclectic Suggestions For A Wonderful Memorial Day Weekend

The long Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to Summer here in Southern California and there are usually too many events going on to count. Here are a few of the things happening this weekend that I think would make for an interesting holiday:

One of the best celebrations of the year is the Topanga Days festival held over all three days of the Memorial Day weekend. This year, the 41st annual edition celebrates music, the arts and the work of local artisans with almost 3 dozen live acts, art, jewelry and clothing booths, and drum circles and drumming lessons. There is plenty of great food, games & activities such as horseshoes, sack racing, water balloon fights and pie eating contests, and a big parade on Monday. 

The 28th Annual Jazz Reggae Festival is Saturday and Sunday at Intramural Field at UCLA. A fusion of music, culture, art, and food, this event has become a tradition of the Los Angeles community. Founded by and produced by the students of UCLA, the Jazz Reggae Festival is the largest student-run festival in the nation. The festival showcases both emerging and legendary artists and this year's acts include Snoop Dogg, Black Uhuru and members of the Marley family. Go to this link to see the exceptional amount of food and crafts that are also being offered at the festival.

Howl at the Moon, an indescribable dueling piano bar in Universal City that also features big bands and plenty of dancing, has its Summer Kick Off Party from 7 pm to 2 am on Sunday. Featuring covers of diverse artists ranging from Journey to the Charlie Daniels Band to Mumford and Sons, there will be plenty of entertainment as well as tons of food and drink specials to get Summer started off with a bang. 

Finally, since the purpose of Memorial Day is to honor and remember the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces, Santa Monica's historic Woodlawn Cemetery, Mortuary & Mausoleum is hosting its 76th Annual Memorial Day Observance on Monday. This year's event will be a special one with the unveiling of the Commemorative Wall honoring Santa Monica war veterans who lost their lives while serving our country. Other program highlights include patriotic music by the Santa Monica Oceanaires, a Condor Squadron Missing Man Formation Flyover, and guest speakers. This is a family friendly event and food and beverages will be available for purchase from Earlez Grille.

Southern California Housing Market On The Rise In April

A report issued last week by La Jolla-based DataQuick shows that the Southern California housing market showed robust signs of life in April as sales rose more than usual from March. This is especially good news after a lackluster 1st quarter. Though down from April 2013, the Southern California home sales are higher than they were in 2012 and 2011, and show a shift from February and March when sales were at a six-year low.

DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said the housing market’s quickened pulse could be a sign it is getting in position to swing up but will need more inventory on the market for those numbers to grow. Southern California homeowners have seen home sale prices rise for 25 consecutive months, and in many cases have just regained equity positions, but the inventory issue has been a concern for awhile now. DataQuick predicted it is likely inventory will pick up quite a bit as the summer listing/buying season hits full bloom.

April also saw builders ramp up construction of new homes, providing a jolt to the housing market and the broader economic recovery, the L.A. Times reports. Nationally, new construction has been muted in recent months, a trend economists blamed partly on severe winter weather across much of the country. In California, new home starts climbed 11.1% from March, and building permits, a gauge of future construction, jumped 8% nationwide according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Some Interesting Facts About The Importance Of Grammar To Real Estate Agents

The California Association of Realtors recently cited a Wall Street Journal article that points out it is not just English teachers who notice misspellings and poor grammar. When it comes to luxury-home listings, things such as typos and missing commas can slow sales and drag down prices. An analysis of listings priced at $1 million and up shows that "perfect" listings—written in full sentences without spelling or grammatical errors—sell three days faster and are 10% more likely to sell for more than their list price than listings overall.

On the flip side, listings riddled with technical errors— incomplete sentences, misspellings, outdated jargon, etc.—stay on the market longer before selling and have the lowest percentage of homes that sell over list price. The analysis, conducted by Redfin and Grammarly (an online proofreading application) examined spelling errors and other grammatical red flags in 106,850 luxury listings in 52 metro areas in 2013. The study shows that good spelling and grammar may indicate the agent is attentive to other details as well, like pricing the home correctly and weighing offers.

The analysis also looked at style preferences in listings. One of the most common style gaffes is phrases that are written in all capital letters. These listings saw the least success in terms of sale price, with only 5.6% of homes selling above list price. The practice is most common in Las Vegas, where 28.5% of listings were written in all capital letters in 2013, compared with 8.4% of listings nationwide. However, common abbreviations, like "bdrm" for "bedroom," and short phrases that "pop" fared well by comparison.

All in all, some great, practical advice from C.A.R. and the WSJ. Of course, proper grammar is a must no matter what your job is but we in the real estate industry need be extra cautious since so much of our business relies on written transactions, well-worded marketing and advertising and correspondence.

The Grand Success of Downtown's Grand Park

Grand Park, which opened in July 2012, has proved to be quite the jewel of the Downtown L.A. scene. Part of a Downtown renaissance that has been happening over the last decade, the park has been a popular location for lunch breaks, picnicking, and outdoor events. The pedestrian friendly space near the Music Center connects Bunker Hill to the Civic Center and includes tree-shaded sidewalks, native drought-tolerant plants, an interactive fountain plaza, performance lawns and courtyards, plenty of street lights and movable park furniture.

A big milestone for Grand Park occurred this past New Year's Eve. The City of Los Angeles had long wanted to stage a centralized celebration like those in New York, Chicago and other major cities but previous attempts always fizzled. This time, organizers took advantage of the buzz surrounding the new park and, hoping to attract at least 10,000 people, went all out with DJs spinning tunes, art installations, photographers stationed in front of brightly-lit fountains to take pictures of revelers, food trucks, craft beer kiosks, and balloons and confetti everywhere. The star attraction was a colorful 3-D light show projecting images of flowing water, bouncing balls and psychedelia onto the side of City Hall. Taking event planners by surprise , over 25,000 actually showed up. Things ran smoothly and the City plans to make this an annual event. Because of the success of New Year's Eve, one of the top concert tours of the past year, Jay Z's popular Made in America 2 day festival, will be the first paid-entrance event planned for the park and could draw more than 50,000 over Labor Day weekend.

The park offers plenty of weekday events for Downtown residents, workers and visitors. Every Wednesday and Thursday is LUNCH ALA PARK, when the region's top food trucks line Olive Court (between Grand and Hill) & Marketplace (between Spring and Broadway). On Wednesdays and Fridays free yoga classes are offered over the lunch hours, and live music fills both weekdays and weekends in the summer. There are free ballet performances, jazz concerts, outdoor movies and a Dance Media Film Festival scheduled over the next few months, and on July 4th the park is planning a huge fireworks bash that organizers hope will be as successful as the New Year's Eve festivities and become another annual centralized event for Angelenos.

All-Cash Home Sales Hit Record High

Those of us in the real estate industry have certainly seen the number of all cash home sales shooting upwards as of late but I had no idea just how high the number was. According to a CNNMoney report Thursday, 43% of all home sales nationwide were all-cash deals. The 1st Quarter numbers, complied by nation-wide real estate information and statistics company RealtyTrac, are up from 19% a year earlier and are the highest levels reported since RealtyTrac began tracking such deals in early 2011.

The jump is mainly due to two factors: strict lending standards that make it difficult to get a mortgage and intense buyer competition. Institutional investors - defined by RealtyTrac as entities that have purchased at least 10 properties in a calendar year - accounted for 5.6% of all sales in the first quarter, down from 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2013 and down from 7% in the first quarter of 2013. That seems to indicate more individual buyers are purchasing single homes, and even first time buyers who would ordinarily finance their purchases are making all-cash offers to appear more attractive to sellers, said Daren Blomquist, Vice President at RealtyTrac. "If they have the ability to, homebuyers will put up cash bids just to jump to the front of the line," he said.

Cape Coral, Florida, had the highest level of all-cash deals at nearly 74% of first quarter sales, and four other Florida cities followed: Miami (67%), Sarasota (65%), Palm Bay (64%) and Lakeland (62%). About 33% of all California residential property sales in the first quarter were all-cash purchases, up from 20% percent in the first quarter of 2013. 

Another interesting report came out Thursday from the California Association of Realtors that a recent survey showed luxury buyers preferred hilltop homes over oceanfront properties four to one in 2013, with only 10 percent of multi-million dollar home buyers opting to purchase a home on the water. By contrast, 41% of buyers who bought homes in the luxury home market said they purchased a home with a hilltop view.

The Curious Case Of The Getty's "Victorious Youth"

Many of the folks who know me know that I am a huge art lover and supporter of local museums and galleries, and the world of art is endlessly fascinating to me. Beyond the art itself, the details of how a painting or sculpture came to be owned or exhibited by a particular person, museum or even country is often times as interesting as the story behind a work of art's creation. Such is the case with one of the centerpieces of the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, the bronze sculture known as Victorious Youth. Believed to have been hewn in Greece between 300 and 100 BCE, possibly by Lysippus (the personal sculptor to Alexander the Great), the sculpture was found in the summer of 1964 in the sea off Fano on the Adriatic Coast of Italy, snagged in the nets of an Italian fishing trawler. 

The bronze statue apparently was being transported by ship and lost at sea. Brought to land after 2,000 years, it is so beautiful, well preserved, and rare (and delicate) that it commands a climate-controlled room of its own at the Getty. But since the statue surfaced 5 decades ago, it has been the subject of numerous legal and moral quandaries, and the Getty, which purchased the statue in 1977, is seeing its ownership hanging in a legal balance this week in Italy's highest court. At issue is the fishermen's right to have owned and sold the treasured art and whether the Italian courts can prove it was actually looted. Italians who want the statue back believe that clear subterfuge took place in the mid-1960s after Victorious Youth reached land, which makes it ethically damaged goods that should be returned. They assert that the bronze was smuggled out of Italy (after being buried in a cabbage patch and later hidden by a priest in a bathtub) without the proper export papers, and that the Getty was willfully negligent in carrying out due diligence before buying the work.

It is unclear what the Getty Board will do if the court finds the statue is the rightful property of Italy. Italian courts and Italian and German investigators have been over this terrain before — first in the late 1960s and 1970, when Italy's highest court found no reason to declare the statue Italy's property, and again in a 1973 police investigation when the bronze had landed in Germany and J. Paul Getty was mulling whether to buy it. In 2007, a regional court in Marche, Italy concluded a prosecutor's request to have the statue declared Italian property was not valid because the legal deadline for recovering allegedly stolen property had passed. Local prosecutors kept trying, however, and in 2010 the regional court reversed its previous decision and ordered the Getty to return Victorious Youth to Italy. The Getty appealed and, after subsequent twists and turns, it's now up to the high court in Rome.

It appears the intrigue surrounding this priceless find may soon be over...or not, considering its history since being discovered. If you are interested in more details about the crazy journey of Victorious Youth, please visit this link and this link. And for those who share my passion for art, the Google Art Project is an amazing online platform through which the public can access high-resolution images and virtual tours of artwork housed in many of the world's greatest museums including LACMA, The Getty, MOMA, the National Gallery in London, the Smithsonian, and the Palace of Versailles. Take a step into this amazing world here.

L.A. Residents Speaking Out Against The Recent Uptick In "Mansionization"

Many Los Angeles homeowners and  residents were overjoyed when the City implemented a 3-Part plan starting in 2008 to regulate the rampant over-development of McMansions and massive home remodels on small parcels of land in neighborhoods throughout the area. The Baseline Mansionization Ordinance was designed with specific limitations regarding size and height but, unfortunately, it seems many builders are ignoring these limits or taking advantage of the ordinance's many loopholes. As happened during the housing boom in the middle of the last decade, Angelenos are once again protesting these unsightly and misplaced buildings.

The anti-mansionization frenzy sweeping the area from Burbank to Mar Vista reached a crescendo in early February when West Hollywood residents called for an immediate moratorium on all two-story single-family house construction until the city sets clearer design guidelines. There are weekly incidents where people complain to City Hall that their plants and gardens are dying because their neighborhood of bungalows now has huge homes springing up that block all of the sunlight. And Monday, the L.A. Times published an article that voiced the frustrations of residents all across the City, spotlighting how, even though Studio City and Beverly Grove were successfully able to get their neighborhood councils to enact stricter building codes, the City of Los Angeles needs to tighten up all of the exceptions and bonuses that allow the BMO guidelines to be skirted.

On the flip side, some owners say that if you limit what people can do with their properties, you limit their home value. Others point out that one loophole, the bonus that allows builders who use eco-friendly technology to design homes that are 20% to 30% larger than normally allowed, is justified because implementing green improvements also helps the environment and increases a home's resale value. An architect quoted in the L.A.Times article said that since the tighter Beverly Grove building limits were approved last year, his firm hasn't had any projects in the area. The families that hire him typically want at least five bedrooms to accommodate two children, a master bedroom, a guest room and an office. "It's become a real bear to deal with, from the design point of view," he said. "People hire you to build what they want. But then you have to tell them — they can't have what they want." 

I feel that we are all part of a community and should work to the achieve what is best for our community. Builders could still craft larger homes without blocking light and boxing in neighbors, and I am hopeful builders and remodel specialists can find the right balance when building or adding onto larger homes in neighborhoods primarily populated with more modest structures. As the members of the Neighbors United group in Faircrest Heights state, growth can be a part of preserving and strengthening the quality of their neighborhood but it must include neighbors who strongly practice communication, participation, and involvement .

Celebrating The 75th Anniversary Of Union Station

Sunday marked the 75th anniversary of the opening of Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles and the iconic transportation hub drew tens of thousands to celebrations that included more than a dozen musical acts playing Jazz, Blues and Swing, a children’s theater performance and model train displays. The crowds were celebrating the Golden Age of trains even as we in Los Angeles are in the midst of a growing boom in rail travel.

Built in 1939 for $11 million, the “union” station brought together three disparate railroads: the Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe. The station’s high ceilings, spacious waiting room filled with leather chairs and airy outdoor patios are part of the legacy of John and Donald Parkinson, a father and son architectural team who also built the L.A. City Hall tower, Memorial Coliseum and Bullocks Wilshire. Over the decades, Union Station has grown to become the last great railway station in the United States and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. 

Today, the station envisioned by the Parkinsons fills up daily with a mix of well-dressed professionals catching Metro’s Red Line and Gold Line trains and tourists from every part of the world boarding Amtrak. A face-lift has included polishing the brass fittings on the windows and dusting off the 3,000-pound orbital chandeliers that hang from the faux wood ceilings made of steel. 

In the decade after Union Station opened in 1939, it handled about 13,000 rail travelers a day. That number today is roughly 75,000 and will keep climbing in the next few years as Metro, which bought Union Station in 2011, expands the subway and light-rail network in L.A. County and remakes the station and the surrounding area under a new master plan. Of course, the figure will jump again if the plans for a high speed train running between LA and San Francisco come to fruition.

This Weekend Will Be Heaven For Westside Bargain Hunters!

It’s a grassroots marketplace weekend as both Venice and Playa Vista hold huge community yard sales this weekend. Along with the opening of Playa Vista’s recurring summer-long night farmers market, these events are a great platform for neighborhood bonding over free entertainment, fun activities for the kids and killer deals for bargain hunters.

The Playa Vista Community Yard Sale will take place Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Concert Park. Previous sales have included jewelry, bikes, tools, furniture, collectibles, antiques, toys, clothing, gym equipment, sporting goods, kitchen wares, appliances and all kinds of rare and unusual items. Sanrio is sending the decked out "Hello Kitty Guy" to cart around all sorts of Hello Kitty products that he will be selling for super cheap, and there will be a balloon-maker and face-painter to entertain the kids.

The 2nd Annual Venice Neighborhood Yard Sale is organized by a local realtor and is a well organized affair with 70+ families participating and maps, and directional signs posted throughout the Penmar Park area will make navigating the neighborhood extra easy.  This event will take place Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m, and the neighborhood's Penmar Recreation Center always has a lot of fun activities going on for the family when you are done with your yard sale browsing.

By the way, the Playa Vista Night Farmers Market I mentioned starts its summer run next Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. In addition to fresh produce, pastries, coffee and typical farmers market fare, the night market offers an array of live entertainment for kids and adults, a Dancercise class led by Olympian Althea Moses and a variety of ready-to-eat foods including artisanal pizzas from Urban Oven, Middle Eastern breads and cakes by Bakeshack and the homemade flavors of Big Cup Soup.