Opinion: Life in Constructionville

ADVERTISEMENT

It’s a grey, overcast day on Dorrington Avenue at six o’clock. My hope is that there will be either some welcome rain or a more open sky with interesting clouds and just enough sun for a reasonable, seasonable temperature.

Carleton Cronin
Carleton Cronin

The newspaper used to arrive around six-thirty but now appears about an hour later. Thus I spend a little time staring out the kitchen window watching a group of house finches scrapping at the feeder. A disturbance, a movement across the street at David Jones’ former home, catches my attention. A large, white hydraulic boom crane is attempting to move unto the small space, once a patio, at the side of the building on the corner of Dorrington and Robertson. As my eyes are drawn to that scene, I failed to notice three other pickup trucks and a couple of cars take up positions on the north side of the street. Down the street, toward San Vicente, is another truck hauling a trailer. It looks like there will be no street sweeping there today.

Patience. Around seven o’clock I see that the crane has been positioned, and the truck down the street is moving up to join it. A trailer full of I-beams is its cargo. Then I spot a couple of ironworkers, with spud wrenches dangling at their sides, waiting to take up positions. A question is answered for we nearby residents, as we had wondered what was happening to the building, the site of almost constant demolition for the past five months. I see the two men who have lived beside the activity all that time out on the street, speaking with the construction people, probably telling them that such work should not begin prior to eight o’clock. To no avail, of course.

I made a call to the sheriff as an advisory, since the usual weekday traffic, a few hundred cars, would soon be jamming up the street. I’m not sure the city knew of the activity but guessed not since the entrance to the street on San Vicente was wide open. My good deed for the day amounts to just another squeak from a resident and probably my intentions were misunderstood anyhow. Then I remembered that everybody goes to work on Monday and goes home on Friday, so this morning’s flow of cars will be not much concern.

This is just one incident in the nearly constant construction activity on the 8700 block of Dorrrington Avenue. There have been many days when there were more pickup trucks parked than commuter cars. Residents were often put at odds to find a spot to park. Saturdays and Sundays were not inviolate as interior work was carried on then. The workers often showed up before seven since it was their fashion to start work early and finish early. A close neighbor has finally finished a large interior renovation after almost six months – should have taken no more than three. The David Jones building has been the scene of gawdawful noise and dust for at least that long as the entire interior, including his lovely top floor apartment, was demolished to make room for – we still don’t know what, but some commercial enterprise for certain.

We had a solar system installed, but that took only two and a half days. Still, we added to the confusion as well. Across the street a house will soon be on the market and it is a tear-down, I believe. And, another house near Robertson will soon be demolished to make way for a new structure. So, on it goes: Constructionville.

ADVERTISEMENT

We notice how often regulations are removed or set aside for certain projects, trucks with loads far surpassing the 6,000 pound load limit for our little street. Major encroachment permits given without notice to residents who scramble to make allowances for them. Our fuzzy noise ordinance, quite unenforceable, usually ignored. And so on, which causes we simple peasants to believe that any commercial activity is allowed and residents – well, you know that we are referred to by a long time council member as “oh, you people!” My eldest boy remarked the other day that he recalls that we were able to toss a football to each in the streets, moving aside occasionally as a car came by – not now. I know Dorothy, this ain’t Kansas, but still….

Carleton Cronin and his wife, Toby Ann, have lived in West Hollywood since 1974. They have raised four sons here, and Cronin has long been an astute observer of civic life.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

14 Comments
Newest
Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ron Rita
Ron Rita
8 years ago

Great article, Carl

Manny
Manny
8 years ago

The contractor had NO authority to choose a time before 8am to begin work. They also had NO authority to decide on street sweeping day as being the day that is most convenient for their crew…..Streets need to be cleaned and workers must park off-site. If the contractor indeed PAID for an encroachment permit, official CITY issued No Parking signs would have been clearly visible 72 hours prior to the crane’s arrival at 8AM (not 6am) so that the crane could be positioned. It is obvious that this contractor did not want to pay for the proper permits and took… Read more »

carleton cronin
carleton cronin
8 years ago

A few elements I left out from my pice due to aging synapses: The code enforcement official would not be available until 7 AM; the parking enforcement biker parol came by and was shown a document which he said was an encroachment permit – but not for the entire street; I phoned the sheriff to see if they were interested in traffic control on Dorrington because of the activity at Robertson and the fact that the 200 or so cars which usually drive west on Dorrington between 6AM and 9AM were shortly due. I did not ask then to interfere… Read more »

Sheila
Sheila
8 years ago

This is an article worth reading about this subject matter: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/us/california-drought-tests-history-of-endless-growth.html?_r=0 Yes, growth can be good and is inevitable but if not done with consciousness will only create bigger problems down the road. Sustainability is actually not a dirty word but something that should be taken into account when large scale changes are given permission to take place, all at once, in a less than 2 square mile area. And living in sunny southern California we could be a natural for green alternatives for new construction, especially in light of what is predicated to be a life altering draught –… Read more »

Lynn
Lynn
8 years ago

@Disco Dan: I think the ‘disco” in Carmel probably closes at 10 pm due to a noise ordinance. Lol!

Mike Dolan
Mike Dolan
8 years ago

Strong Economy = Development = Improved West Hollywood. Any question… nothing new in this idea that has played out since the Industrial Revolution. This is not Sleepy Hollow and my own quality of life is good with optimistic outlook for the continued improvement of West Hollywood.

Its 2015!

Chris Sanger
Chris Sanger
8 years ago

Carmel’s center city is historic and compact. It is also not the epicenter of a 10 million+ county. WeHo’s is mostly (not entirely) the result of a mishmash of pre-city lax code development that is mostly not. I suspect center Carmel is more expensive than WeHo. Not remotely comparable.

Manny
Manny
8 years ago

@Disco Dan……Are you hoping at SIX PM that there be “just enough sun for a reasonable, seasonable temperature”……??

Do you get your newspaper delivered at SIX THIRTY PM…..??

I gotta a funny feeling everybody, except you, figured out that Mr Cronin was referring to the morning hours.

OY VEY!

Don’t you think you’d be bored in Carmel?

Disco Dan
Disco Dan
8 years ago

Mr. Cronin – excellent article but not until about the third paragraph did I realize that you were referring to the morning NOT the evening because you failed to state “six o’clock pm.” You knew what time of day you were mentioning but do not assume a reader would. Plus, neighbors should have called Code Enforcement and also many people should have shared their distress and dismay at a City Council meeting where one can speak about anything during Public Comment. Manny – I was informed that the city will grant a waiver for even Sunday construction, as I personally… Read more »

Chris Sanger
Chris Sanger
8 years ago

I know in my neighborhood when construction rules are broken, it takes one call and usually someone shows up to enforce them. 2 of our 5 council members are neighbors of his. I assume he can get their attention and make sure the problems are dealt with. It’s one of the great things about the city – you can get action. The sheriff’s dept in any event is the wrong place to go on things like this usually (they sometimes respond on nighttime noise/party issues, but I doubt on construction violations). My constructive suggestion is to call your neighbors D’Amico… Read more »

Manny
Manny
8 years ago

@Chris Sanger…..Even “Calabasses” has rules.

I took Carl’s point to be about quality of life and unreasonable disturbances by mismanaged construction sites.

Chris Sanger
Chris Sanger
8 years ago

We are the epicenter of the second largest metro area in the country. I moved here in 2000, and chose WeHo despite assuming construction and growth and maximizing of its potential. I respect the author’s longeurs for the pre-city world here, but what we have is much better than the WeHo I visited for years before I moved. At some point, most of the construction in his area will pass. You can’t live within a couple blocks of Beverly, Doheny and San Vicente and assume your lifestyle was always going to be like living in Callabasas. With are center city.… Read more »