What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin
Los Angeles is at a turning point. We are living in a defining moment. What happens next is up to us. Over the past few years, problems and challenges have shaken this city -- and tremendous opportunities for change have presented themselves. How do we rise to this moment and emerge a better place to live? What will it take to create a more just and a more equitable community? Working together, how are we going to create a stronger, forward-thinking Los Angeles? Mike Bonin, writer, teacher, progressive activist and former City Councilmember, looks at the issues and problems facing Los Angeles, examines ideas, and talks with the people who will lead us to a brighter future.
Produced in partnership with LA Forward.
What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin
A Dirty Eviction and a Dangerous Precedent
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Los Angeles is about to experience the biggest mass eviction in generations – and it might be just the beginning of a huge wave of mass evictions – unless we stop a corporate real estate giant that is trying to force hundreds of families out of their homes.
The multi-billion dollar firm Douglas Emmett is using the need to install fire sprinklers as a pretext to evict every resident of its 700 rent controlled units of the Barrington Plaza apartments in West LA -- even though sprinkler experts say the work can be done without evictions. Tenants aren't just fighting to stay in their homes. They are fighting a precedent that could be devastating to renters all over California.
Mike talks with residents and tenant advocates on this episode of What’s Next, Los Angeles, and explains why Douglas Emmett's eviction strategy is bogus, and what Los Angeles should be doing about it.
IMPORTANT LINKS
Barrington Plaza Tenants Assn: https://www.bptenants.org/
Barrington Plaza residents sue owners over alleged misuse of state law for mass evictions: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-14/barrington-plaza-residents-sue-owners-over-misuse-of-state-law-for-mass-eviction
The mass evictions at Barrington Plaza will happen again if L.A. doesn’t act to protect renters: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-05-18/mass-evictions-barrington-plaza-renters-decarbonization-protections
They face L.A.’s largest eviction in years. But these Westside renters won’t go quietly: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-26/westside-renters-barrington-plaza-mass-eviction
Fire-plagued apartment complex to remove tenants for sprinkler retrofit: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-08/fire-plagued-apartment-complex-to-remove-tenants-for-sprinkler-retrofit
In a Westside council race, a major landlord’s $400,000 donation causes a stir: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-12/westside-council-landlord-donations
Coalition for Economic Survival: https://www.cesinaction.org/
What's Next, Los Angeles? is produced and hosted by Mike Bonin, in partnership with LA Forward.
Los Angeles is about to experience the biggest mass eviction since Chavez Ravine, and it might be just the beginning of a huge wave of mass evictions. That is, unless we stop a corporate real estate giant that is trying to force hundreds of families out of their homes. We're going to talk with residents and with tenant advocates. That's on this episode of What's Next, Los Angeles. Hi everybody, thanks for joining me. It's Mike Baum. Tenants of the Barrington Plaza apartments aren't just fighting to stay in their homes. They are fighting a multi-billion dollar corporation that is trying to set a precedent that could be devastating to renters all over California. Last month, every resident of Barrington Plaza, three high-rise towers in West LA that comprise 700 units of rent control housing, got eviction notices, telling them that they were losing their homes. Now we're talking here about working class families. We're talking about seniors. We're talking about essential workers who are living paycheck to paycheck. We're talking about people who have formed a robust and supportive community. And with sky high rental costs, I assure you that the residents of Barrington Plaza, if they get evicted, there is no way, no way they're going to be able to afford to stay in the community that they call home. The owner of the complex is a huge and wealthy firm that owns dozens of apartment buildings and commercial buildings in the Los Angeles area. They are trying to evict everyone, everyone from the rent controlled units at Barrington Plaza by trying to manipulate a state law called the Ellis Act. If they succeed, it could set a precedent that means trouble for any renter in Los Angeles. Actually, the Ellis Act is a state law, so all of California would potentially be at risk. Here's the story. The Barrington Plaza complex caught fire in 2020, and it was not the first fire there. In that fire, several people were injured, and a resident died. Barrington Plaza is one of fifty five older high rises in Los Angeles that don't have fire sprinklers or modern fire safety protections. Back when I was still on the council, right after the fire, I proposed mandating sprinklers in all of these older buildings. Douglas Emmett, the company, at first said they were willing to install the sprinklers, and then said they would only do so if the city would give them a special exemption from rent control laws, allowing a massive eviction. Perhaps, I learned, the largest in LA in generations. So what Douglas Emmett was saying was that they'd make the unit safer, but the people living there couldn't stay in the safe units, and the owners would then be allowed to jack up rents significantly. The city, of course, said no, and the city said the law says that you, Douglas Emmett, are supposed to help relocate tenants during sprinkler installation and then allow them to return later to units still under rent control. That is the law. So Douglas Emmett bided its time a bit until I was out of office and until COVID-era eviction protections ended. Then they decided to try a new approach, using the Ellis Act, which is a law which is designed to allow owners to evict people if they're going out of the rental business. So Douglas Emmett gave all of these tenants, some of whom have been there for decades, eviction notices under the Ellis Act. But here is the thing. What Douglas Emmett is trying to do is based on two big lies. Here's line number one. The Ellis Act allows property owners to evict tenants, as I said, if they want to go out of the rental business. But Douglas Emmett is not going out of the rental business. They are staying in the rental business in many other buildings in LA and Santa Monica and the general area. And they aren't even going out of the rental business at Barrington Plaza. They have not firmed up their plans, and they may actually re-rent the apartments. They are evicting tenants for just long enough to get around rules protecting tenants. And then they may actually re rent the units again at higher rents to different tenants. And that brings us to line number two. Douglas Emmett says that installing sprinklers at Barrington Plaza is so complex and so expensive that they need to evict everyone instead of doing what the city law requires, which is to temporarily relocate people and let them move back in. But here's the thing the Sprinkler Fitters Association, the Sprinkler Fitters Union, the people who actually do the work on these type of projects, they say the work can be done without evictions and for a small fraction of the costs that Douglas Emmett is claiming. They say look at the Bunker Hill Towers in downtown LA, older buildings, recently installed sprinklers in that building for a fraction of the cost that Emmett is projecting, and they did so without requiring evictions. Additionally, in reports to the City Council in 2021 and in 2022, the Los Angeles Fire Department said that in most cases, this kind of work, installing sprinklers and modern fire safety protections, can be done without requiring evictions. Two big lies. Now people need to understand how big a deal this is. And so I spoke this week with Larry Gross. He's a tenant rights leader, has been for several decades with the Coalition for Economic Survival. And then later I talked to a couple of the tenants themselves. First, my interview with Larry. And joining me now to discuss this situation is Larry Gross, the Executive Director of Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenant advocacy organization here in Los Angeles, one of the premier tenant advocacy organizations here. Larry, thanks for joining me. Oh, it's my pleasure, Mike. Great to be with you today. Larry, you have been uh fighting on behalf of tenants in Los Angeles for a long time, uh, both in terms of policy and in terms of individual tenants. Uh, how big a deal is this current situation with Barrington Plaza?
SPEAKER_01So, in my five decades of fighting for renters in the city of Los Angeles, having been the uh leader in winning rent control for the city of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, we have never seen such a case like this and the impact it's going to have both on the tenants that are directly uh impacted, as well as the city as a whole, as far as the potential of losing valuable, uh rent-controlled, affordable housing. This is really the largest uh mass eviction attempt since Chavez ravine to build Dodger Stadium. And so uh it's important that every tenant in the city know that it's not only the Barrington Plaza's fight here, it's every tenant's fight because if they get away with this outrageous, unjust evictions, it could put a target on the back of every single rent control tenant in the city of Los Angeles because it will provide a uh pathway for other uh developers and landlords to do the same.
SPEAKER_02Let me talk specifically about the the population at Barrington Plaza. A lot of folks hear, oh, it's the West Side. They think this this must be wealthy folks. This is a rent control unit. Tell me a little bit about the profile of the people who live there.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, this is like the last bastion of this many affordable housing units on the west side. And most of the people there are working people, retirees. Some people have lived there over 30 years. They are not paying high rents. Uh, if they were forced to move, they would end up paying double or triple the amount they're paying. Uh, it's it's very affordable housing uh for that building in that area. And that's why it needs to be preserved because it will have a ripple effect in the city of Los Angeles if they get away with this.
SPEAKER_02So some folks are are are saying, folks who are jumping to the defense of Douglas Emmett or Douglas Emmett themselves, are saying, hey, we're just trying to make these places safe. Uh, we want to protect people, we need to put sprinklers in. Uh, you you've got, along with me, a little history on this. Uh, tell us what you know about uh uh what what their plans really are.
SPEAKER_01So, yes, they've been trying to do this for a while, and uh, we were both involved in dealing with uh Douglas Emmett, who originally wanted to get a complete exemption from the rent stabilization ordinance to evict all all the people. And you asked me to come and meet with them, and we did, and I suggested to them that there is a provision in the rent stabilization ordinance that allows them to do these types of renovations. And of course, we want to make it safe for tenants. We have no objection to putting in fire uh uh sprinklers, uh, but we don't want to see people evicted and we don't think they need to be evicted. There's a provision called the primary renovation ordinance and the tenant habitability plan, where they can temporarily move the tenants and relocate them while they do the repairs, and then the tenants have the right to move back in with a slight uh rent increase. And and really, what they're doing here is is invoking the Ellis Act, which was never supposed to be used in these types of situations. The Ellis Act was uh passed in 1985, it was geared towards allowing small landlords who could no longer operate their property to get out of their rental business. Here we're seeing a complete um corruption of the Ellis Act uh to do renovations. They are supposed to go out of the rental market if they're using the Ellis Act. Unfortunately, in the city of Los Angeles, we've seen since 2001 uh over 28,000 uh units of rent-controlled affordable housing lost uh due to uh developers primarily using the Ellis Act uh to evict tenants and convert their housing to luxury housing. Uh, these are mainly corporate entities who have owned the property for less than a year and are purchasing rent controlled units to turn them over to luxury housing. It's not the small mom bops anymore. And so if Douglas Emmett, I mean the Ellis Act is bad enough as it is, this will make it worse and essentially will change the Ellis Act to the Emmett Act because it will it will show that the landlords can um undermine the Ellis Act and use it for mere renovations and evict uh tenants, which was never the intent of the Ellis Act.
SPEAKER_02And and people who follow tenant issues uh in Los Angeles generally, Greater Los Angeles, they're pretty much quaking in their boots over this. I mean, you've got folks uh representing constituencies in in East Los Angeles, uh Santa Monica, other cities that that are really engaging on this and are worried, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh, everybody's worried about this. And and just to think that here in Los Angeles, we have the worst housing crisis and homeless crisis in the nation. So if we allow, how can we really address the homeless crisis to get people off the street when we're allowing corporate entities like this to put more people on the streets? It has to be a joint effort to both preserve our existing affordable housing as well as building new affordable housing to get people off the streets and keep the roof over the heads of people who now have those roofs.
SPEAKER_02And uh you're working with the the newly formed Barrington Plaza Tenants Association, and they are going to be uh seeking declaratory relief, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um we've assisted the tenants in organizing a tenant association. We're working with them uh to secure uh legal uh representation, and they're looking to take uh legal action to challenge the misuse of the Ellis Act.
SPEAKER_02And my understanding is uh there's a lot of other folks uh around Los Angeles County who are supportive of that effort.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yes, we're we're we're getting tons of emails and calls from people who want to help. We uh we have the city of Santa Monica and West Hollywood, both are interested in filing supportive uh briefs uh to any legal action that's taken. Uh other legal uh aid entities are doing the same. Uh the tenants have put up a GoFundMe page. They're they're urging people to the way that they can support is by donating uh to their legal funds so they can get representation. Uh, they're up against a corporate giant. And so this is a really a David and Goliath situation. And so they need the support of everybody. So we urge people to donate if they can, uh, let their council member or representative know that they need to do everything in their power to stop this unjust eviction.
SPEAKER_02So it it sounds like West Hollywood and and Santa Monica are stepping up more for the tenants of Barrington Plaza than the city of Los Angeles is. My perspective, having lived a little of this issue, is the city is really dropping the ball in its role of advocate for its constituents. What do you think the city should be doing?
SPEAKER_01A lot more than that, what they're doing, which is basically nothing at this point, other than saying they're gonna monitor the uh evictions and the relocation uh benefits to tenants and uh help them with relocation. Well, the tenants don't need that help. They need the city to step in and do whatever they can to put the political pressure on Douglas Emmett to back off and stop these these evictions.
SPEAKER_02Uh all right, Larry Gross, thanks so much for joining me on What's Next Los Angeles. My pleasure. Thank you, Mike. There are hundreds of stories in the Barrington Plaza apartments. Let's take Mickey Gurrell. She's lived there for 34 years. She doesn't own a car, and living next to public transportation in an affordable home not far from where she works, has always been a priority for her. Lewis Fendel has been there for 50 years. He just had surgery and cannot imagine how he can move the home that has been his life for 50 years. They and hundreds of their neighbors, people who have been there for decades and people who moved in just during the pandemic, have joined forces and have formed the Barrington Plaza Tenants Association to fight these evictions. I spoke a few days ago with two of the tenant group leaders, Robert Lawrence and Claudio Montanari. Here's that interview. And joining me right now are two tenants of Barrington Plaza, Robert Lawrence and Claudio Montanari. Robert and Claudio, thanks for joining me on What's Next Los Angeles. Thank you for having us, Mike. It's very good to have you both. Uh let's start out by uh just introducing yourselves uh to the listeners. Tell me a little bit about uh uh who you are and and how long you've been there. Why don't we start with Robert?
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, I'm a writer-producer. Uh did a number of movies, Clueless, Dired with a Vengeance, you know, a number of other action movies. And um I uh had recently broken up with a uh a girlfriend or it was an engagement, and I ended up needing a safe space. Uh we were living in a house for five years, and this was right down the block, and it was just the perfect fit for me. Uh my kids are also within a mile here. So uh due to an uh an accident, I had three neck surgeries and I can't drive. So um their support system was critical for why I chose to live at Barrington Plaza. Uh Claudia, how about you? What's your story?
SPEAKER_00In my case, I moved to Burrington in 2021, February. Uh I moved from the POMS area, which is only a few miles away from here. So I found this great opportunity to move into Burrington. The rent was very, very affordable for me. It wasn't something that I thought I would be able to do to move to the wheelchair area. And I moved in here, you know, right after the fires. And that was my reason to be able to move here with my girlfriend at the time. We moved in together. So that's how I got here to Barrington for what I thought it was going to be my home for more than just a few years, you know. But now we're we're going through all of this and I'm fighting this eviction now.
SPEAKER_02And then boom, a few short weeks ago in in May, uh, everybody in in all three towers got an eviction notice, right? Exactly. Correct. And uh tell me a little bit more before we get into the eviction notice about the the the people who live there in the building. I understand that over the past few weeks you've sort of developed a sense of community. Tell me about the people you've gotten to know and and and and what are the portraits of the people who live in Barrington Plaza.
SPEAKER_03Well, one of the reasons I love living here, which is a delightful surprise, is that it is it represents the best of LA in terms of multiculturalism. It's diverse, it's intergenerational, it's international, it's LGBTQIA friendly, uh, and it's it's a tolerance for pets. And it's just sort of like this very rich, you know, Hillary Clinton said it takes a village. Well, that's that's how I feel living in parity classes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's uh something that also uh once I moved to Brainton and this pet-friendly building, you know, I we I got my first dog here in LA, which is something that I always wanted the same because it's just such a pet-friendly place. We got all these people that I met through Indy, through my dog. Um same thing, it's just a great community to have. And you know, after this addiction thing, we we just became so so united with all my neighbors and friends now, like Robert. And we have Linda, which is our godmother for our pets. It's an older lady that has been in the building for more than 35 years that we also always see in the in the dog park. Today we were with her, she was in Building B saying hi to Indy. Like she almost does every day with us.
SPEAKER_02And I I had the the pleasure of coming to to Barrington Plaza a few weeks ago to meet with a bunch of the tenants on on Sunday afternoon. And I was really shocked at the the number of people there who've been there literally for decades, many of whom have have a disability.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's true. I mean, uh you know, um Claudia just mentioned we call her Auntie Linda, the dog mother of Barrington Plaza, because these dogs who play in the segregated dog park are her grandchildren. And she comes out every day just to visit them, right? And so there are other people like Linda who've been here for decades, who are disabled, who are crippled, who have walkers or in wheelchairs, and they really depend on loved ones who live close by to care for them. So um, you know, it it's it's it's instead of assisted living, which is where Linda is heading, headed now, because of this eviction, they have this wonderful support system that they'll be losing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like I was talking to my neighbor from across the hallway from me. Uh, her parents live here. Uh her dad, unfortunately, was just diagnosed with dementia last year. Her mom was in the hospital till yesterday, and I was receiving her packages here in my house. She was texting me, you know, can you check up on the apartment? We have this amazing support system between all our neighbors here. And, you know, it's something that we don't want to lose. It's it's our home, it's our community. It's not just a building, it is our community right now.
SPEAKER_02And when when a lot of people in other parts of the city hear the West Side, they think, all right, this is a bunch of wealthy people, but that's not the profile of who's living in these buildings. There are people here who are living on fixed income, living paycheck to paycheck, working class uh individuals and families. Am I right?
SPEAKER_00That's right. Uh we're not wealthy, I can assure you, especially in my case. We have people that are doing Uber, Ubereat, their drivers. People that have their business. In my case, I do have my own business, which is struggling after the pandemic. I do own a restaurant, and I am also a lift driver. I go out every day, I work 35 hours a week on lift, you know, to supplement my income. We are not, you know, rich people, we are just regular people that are working hard, you know. Like I said, we're not the typical West Side person that thinks we're rich or anything like that. No, we're regular folks working uh like double jobs sometimes to be able to live in this uh in this area.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I would think to sort of bootstrap on on what Claudia is saying, a lot of the people who live here are actually service workers for the their affluent neighbors. You know, there's a there's a dog groomer who lives here and who walks dogs. There's a hairdresser for fancy clients in Beverly Hills. Okay, there's a waitress at Polloco. There's um, you know, so it's a uh a lot of people who just are just getting by and really need rent-stabilized apartments to even live here.
SPEAKER_02So everybody got an eviction notice, uh middle of May. Tell me, what happens to the people you just described if they're evicted? Uh, where do they wind up going?
SPEAKER_03It's a good question. They're terrified. There's no easy answers. I mean, to find comparable rents, uh, you have to go way out in the valley or South Central. You know, there's one heartbreaking story about a woman who has worked for the county for 20 years, um, and she takes care of homeless people. She gets them off the streets. When she got this eviction notice, she actually had a breakdown because she said, Now I'm going to be living with the exact same people that I help. She's afraid she's going to become homeless. Homeless or living in an area that's way away from where she and her mother, who she takes care of, lives right now. And um, if she doesn't drive, that's you know, really debilitating.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, in my case, the eviction to me, it's not an eviction from the building, it's an eviction from the city. I've been looking for rental units in the area, and to be honest with you, they are way beyond my reach. It's it's just way too expensive. So for me, I'm I would be end up leaving the west side uh, you know, after all these years living in this area. It's just the way that the rents have skyrocketed. They are extremely expensive, and this is a community that, you know, the the rent was still affordable at the time, and that's why we're fighting. We're fighting for our homes. We're fighting to have our place in the city, not to have to move out of the of the city.
SPEAKER_02And and just to be clear, because you know, some people have been defending the owner, Douglas Emmett, saying this is all about safety. They're they're they're trying to make the unit safe by installing the sprinklers. You want them to install the sprinklers. You just don't believe that they need to evict hundreds of families to do so.
SPEAKER_03They definitely do not. This is uh, you know, uh structural engineers, fire experts have told them that it's possible to do this either by relocating the tenants from floor to floor. There's hundreds of vacant units now in the building. Um they could easily do it several floors at once, shift the tenants to another building, and then move them back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh they they this the fire sprinklers, it is a safety thing for us. And in we know we needed it, and we know it's necessary. In the case of the fire, my girlfriend was living here at the time of the fire. One of my very, very close friends was actually in the apartment across the hallway from the apartment that burned down. They almost died. They did not know the fire was going on until the firefighters knocked on their door to evacuate them from the apartment. So we know, we know this is something that is necessary to do, but we know that it's not necessary to evict all of us. Like Robert was saying, there are eight floors completely empty that can be completely rehab, and then you can move chunks of building like eight floors from that are occupied right now to the empty ones, do the fire sprinklers there, and then move us back. And you know, there are there are ways. There are ways that even the fire chief in 2022 and I'm sorry, 2021 recommended that the way to do this without evicting a single person from this building. And here we are getting an eviction a year and a half after they recommended this.
SPEAKER_02So basically, you think that installing the sprinklers isn't their end game, that's just the the tactic they're using to to get all of you out and charge a hell of a lot more money. Exactly. What's what's what's the mood there? How are how are folks holding up with this this news and this battle?
SPEAKER_03Uh well, I think it went from absolute panic uh to live in anger and outrage to we're gonna fight this, we're gonna stay together, we are a community united, and now we're gonna fight for our rights.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And it this this fight it right now is beyond just our eviction. This is something that we're fighting, it's not just for us, but it's gonna be for the whole city. This could be the beginning of the end of rent control in the city of Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_02Taking on a multi-billion dollar uh real estate company, that's a that's a big task and it's gotta seem daunting. Uh, where where are you and the other tenants getting your your resolve, your determination, your fight from?
SPEAKER_03Well, as Claudio said, uh, we see ourselves as sort of taking the last stand as the kind of the final bulwark against a complete decimation of rent-controlled affordable housing in Los Angeles. If there so that kind of like empowers us that this fight is is bigger than us. And what does the the fight look like? How are you fighting this? We've been able to uh retain these this top law firm, uh Campbell and Farrarani, and they are you know filing a complaint to get an injunction against our eviction. And we've been able to raise in less than two weeks almost $20,000 in to support our legal defense because there are a lot of groups now who feel solidarity with us and are coming to our aid, and a lot of people around the city who are starting to donate because they like us recognize that this is bigger than just Barrington Plaza. That's that's great news.
SPEAKER_02And you're also calling on the cities to steps to step up and and help you as well.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh Claudio and I are now veterans of the city council meetings where we've represented and shown up to to you know to to you know plead for our cause. Uh with the although it's ultimately a legal case, we're looking for any political assistance that we can.
SPEAKER_02And for anybody who's been listening to this who wants to support you in this fight, uh, how can they do so?
SPEAKER_03We have a GoFundMe page on um our website, which is BP, that's for Barrington Plaza tenants.org. And we we would love any donations we could we could solicit to continue our our desire to stay here, keep our homes.
SPEAKER_02I will be sure to put that in the show notes so that people can see that. Um, and uh you know my best wishes are with you and uh I'm with you in this fight, whatever I can do. Um, Robert Lawrence, uh Claudia Montanari, thanks for joining me on this episode of What's Next Los Angeles. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike. If Los Angeles is really serious about protecting tenants, if Los Angeles is really serious about keeping teeth in its rent control laws, if Los Angeles is really serious about preserving affordable housing and preventing more homelessness, it needs to step up right now and stand with these tenants and fight these evictions. The city cannot be a bystander simply monitoring a mass eviction. It needs to be a forceful advocate for these and other tenants. Some city officials who keep saying there's nothing they can do. That is false. That is false. In addition to publicly standing with the tenants and prevailing on Douglas Emmett to reverse course, which many people could do, the city actually has legal authority here. Little known fact, cities the size of Los Angeles in the state of California have the legal right to file what is called affirmative litigation. That means the city can file a lawsuit on behalf of any of its residents who are victims of fraud or unfair and unlawful practices. It is a huge and a rarely used power, but it applies here, and it sure as hell should be used here. The fate of not just the Barrington Plaza tenants are at stake, but the fate of renters throughout the city and the state. There is a large and there is a growing coalition that understands that Barrington Plaza is the tip of the spear and that Douglas Emmett is pioneering a new way to use no fault evictions to clear out rent control units. Advocacy groups and tenants around the city are banding together to fight this. And you can help. You can support the Barrington Plaza Tenants Association at the links in the show notes. In the middle of a homelessness and a housing crisis, Los Angeles cannot be a place that allows mass evictions. I am standing with the tenants of Barrington Plaza, and I hope that you will too. Thank you. And that is it for this episode. My thanks to Larry Gross and to Robert Lawrence and to Claudio Montanari for joining me on this podcast. My thanks as always to Brian Holmes for editing and producing the podcast, and of course, my thanks to you for listening. Please remember, if you get a chance, follow this podcast on whatever streaming service you use to listen to the podcast. Until next time, thank you. Take good care and peace.