The Green Fence Project

April 9, 2015 12:34 PM

The Green Fence Project
For many Los Angeles residents, the green fence represents dramatic change. Its arrival signals a tear down of an older home and months-long construction of a mcmansion on their street. The Green Fence Projects documents the transformation in one neighborhood that's seeing a growing number of these tear downs and build ups.

Who are the developers? Who are the investors? Who is buying homes listed at ~$2.5 million, more than twice what the demolished homes sold for?

Opposition to these projects has been vocal, and officials recently passed an ordinance to slow down construction in several neighborhoods. The day-to-day impact has largely gone unexamined, though. Dumpsters line streets for months at a time, large trucks snarl traffic as they rumble down streets and jackhammers can be heard as early as 7 am, six days a week.

Role: documenter

posted by tallthinone (2 comments total)

I was riding my bike through Hancock Park/west Koreatown last week and saw a yard sign that said something to the effect of 'No More McMansions!' I chuckled to myself a little because, looking in the immediate vicinity, there was just a bunch of venerable old mansions. But sure enough, half a block down there was one of those tan stucco monstrosities seemingly transported directly from a cookie-cutter community out in the valley.

Gauche gotta gauche, good luck stopping them.
posted by carsonb at 1:30 PM on April 11, 2015

Those signs are much more prevalent in my neighborhood of (dwindling) single-story houses, where there are nine active construction projects on the 500/600 blocks of four consecutive streets: Stanley, Curson, Sierra Bonita and Gardner. There are houses on the corners of Clinton/Stanley and Clinton/Curson that are surrounded on all sides by construction.
posted by tallthinone at 10:52 AM on April 13, 2015