The house on Sierra Bonita Avenue that went up in flames last year was finally demolished Thursday morning, a victory for neighbors who narrowly escaped the Thanksgiving Day fire.
Resident Stefanie LaHart broke down in tears as she watched the bulldozer tear apart the blackened husk of 1030 N. Sierra Bonita.
“I came out here and started crying because I was so relieved,” LaHart said. “I was so relieved that it was just going to be gone, and I didn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘Is this the night my building’s going to burn down?'”
@wehoonline ‘Hell house’ on Sierra Bonita in #weho ♬ original sound – WEHOonline
LaHart organized the neighborhood response in the wake of the fire, researching who the developer was, contacting city officials and sharing the story with the media. Her work was instrumental in getting City Hall to expedite the clean-up.
Before it went up in flames, the house was used nightly as a drug den by homeless people. LaHart and other neighbors felt helpless after the sheriffs and City Hall did little to keep vagrants who were terrorizing them off the property.
“For the past two years, we’ve all been feeling like just hostages here, almost suffering from PTSD because the stress has been so incredible. All kinds of things were going on all night — trespassing, drug use, fights,” LaHart said. “We were constantly calling the sheriff and the Block by Block ambassadors. People would come out, scare the trespassers off, and they’d be back within 10 minutes because there was no accountability. Also, there were no repercussions, and it just seems like there weren’t repercussions for anyone, from the developer down to the people trespassing.”
The blight of 1030 North Sierra Bonita is now gone, but LaHart isn’t quitting until the real problem gets solved: the development process in West Hollywood that allows vacant properties to sit so long.
“I don’t want to see anybody else in the neighborhood go through this. If a developer is going to come in and have access to a property, there has to be a timeline. You can’t let a neighborhood like ours be held hostage, like we were, with a property that just sat there vacant. And you can be sure, as I’ve put them on notice, I will be at every single Council meeting, doing public comments until something is rectified regarding those concerns.”
WEHOonline is still waiting for the city to fulfill our Freedom of Information Act request for all communications and documentation regarding 1030 North Sierra Bonita during 2023. City Hall has twice informed us that they needed additional time to compile the information. The request was made at the end of November.
Why did it take so long to accomplish the demolition? Must be a time limi for adequate response to residents’ complaints about such issues. Perth’s too many layers of administration at 8300 SM BLVD???.
We keep hearing the refrain from staff “we are working on it….”, but that “work” is seldom evident. The City needs to cite owners of nuisances or people operating in violation of our Codes rather than say we are “working with them” to come into compliance. Scofflaws need to be warned and then cited. That should all take less than 30 days. We have hard working people in our Code Compliance Division that seem to be under cut when it comes to actual enforcement.
Did people get an opportunity to collect some great recyclable items, like old lumber? Glass? Stone?
I hope so.
Mission Accomplished🏆👏👏👏👏👏
👏👏👏 To Stephanie for providing a needed spotlight on this debacle and hopefully we will see a new “ policy and protocols “ item regarding such buildings presented by Danny Rivas at an upcoming City Council Meeting.