Letters to the Editor: L.A. has a solution for dangerous neglected properties that it isn’t using
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To the editor: The recent article about a fire at an abandoned Studio City property reflects a larger Los Angeles failure: Government agencies trade blame while dangerous, chronically neglected properties remain hazards to nearby residents (“Fire at abandoned Studio City property creates another Raman-Bass clash,” Aug. 28).
How do we make L.A.’s neighborhoods more livable? The city already has a practical remedy. California Health and Safety Code Section 17980.7(c) allows the city attorney or another enforcement agency to ask a court to appoint an independent receiver for unsafe, privately owned properties. A receiver can secure, repair, rehabilitate or sell a dangerous site when its owner refuses to act.
This approach need not burden taxpayers: Costs are recovered from the property itself. Los Angeles has tracked hundreds of chronic nuisance properties for years. Rather than accept political gridlock and recurring emergencies, the city should use this existing authority to hold absentee owners accountable and restore safety to our neighborhoods.
John McKinney, Los Angeles
This writer is an L.A. County deputy district attorney and is running for L.A. city attorney.
