We're also now getting to this point where, despite all of those changes, we're still the slowest city to build. We have to now take a stab at the harder problems, including Charter reform, to enable us to be able to make those changes.
First Interstate Mortgage Co.'s income property division has arranged a $2.3-million construction loan and $2.6-million permanent loan for the rehabilitation of an existing three-story building in Pasadena, located at 95 N. Marengo St.
As the weights touch, they get a bit musical and there's a kind of harmonic ring in your wall. It's like the house is alive. But with soulful age come other sounds: rattles, wind whistling through gaps and a homeowner's curses because the blasted contraptions won't open and close properly.
At the very root of our affordability crisis is the high cost of housing. High rents and expensive homes are driving families and high-wage jobs out of California. Our housing crisis makes it harder to hire teachers, child care workers and law enforcement officers; and it is closely linked to our crisis of street homelessness.
On top of devastating losses and rebuilding and insurance claim headaches, survivors of the 2025 Los Angeles County firestorms have faced an increasingly existential threat to their communities: large investment firms buying up burned lots, which many worry will forever change the fabric of their treasured neighborhoods.
My house is my history book. Like a wise grandfather, this splendid relic of 1903 has been teaching me about the city that adopted me 15 years ago. The old place has watched Los Angeles grow from just over 100,000 to more than 3 million. It was here before the movies, before the aircraft plants, before the car dealers.
The eight-story, 116,000-square-foot building on the edge of Old Pasadena was the largest commercial building in the city at the time of its completion in the 1920s, according to Ross Wallach of Diversified Commercial Investments, who represented the buyer along with Douglas Cancienne of Diversified.
It's very nice for Larry Stone if he's paying only $3,000 a year in property taxes on a $3.8 million home. I'm guessing he has a very nice pension, too. However, property taxes are a significant burden on other seniors like me, who pay more than five times as much on a much cheaper house, and with a limited fixed income. In fact, my Social Security income isn't even sufficient to cover my property taxes.
California's emerging housing fracas over a single stairwell may become a lightning rod, affecting both building codes and capital investment in more multifamily projects in more places. California's Fire Marshal is reportedly in the final stages of a report due this month on whether the state will allow singlestair multifamily buildings above three stories, and on when and how they may be permitted.
California lawmakers are advancing a bill that could reframe how housing, transportation, and infrastructure projects are approved in urbanized coastal communities, seeking to balance environmental protections with the state's urgent housing and climate goals. Assembly Bill 1740 (AB 1740) - introduced by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-West Hollywood/Santa Monica) - would allow qualifying cities to bypass individual California Coastal Commission approvals for certain housing and transportation projects if they meet specific urban, multimodal criteria.