Risk And Retna- Heal The Bay House

In 2008, a deco-style fortress built in the ’50s and originally belonging to a prominent family in Santa Monica fell into foreclosure in the middle of an extensive renovation. Until three months ago it stood vacant, an eerie house on a bluff with a homeless woman squatting the top floor. The terraced gardens in back had overgrown and were infested with rats. The neighbors on this otherwise upscale block wondered and complained.

Then came Adam Corlin, with a cause, a dare, and an endless supply of tarps. Corlin, a successful builder and a fourth generation Santa Monica resident, had his eye on this property, and when the price dropped to 50 percent of its original asking price, he jumped at the opportunity to own it.

But this was no ordinary flip — Corlin had some time in his hacienda rehab schedule and wanted to raise awareness for his favorite charity, Heal the Bay, the environmental group working to restore Santa Monica Bay. In speaking to the organization, he knew it had to be different than the usual donation or doing volunteer work. He had a blank house in Santa Monica, he had resources to do something big, and he had just met a graf artist appropriately named Risk………..

Continue Reading @LA WEEKLY

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Story And More Images From LA TACO HERE

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More Amazing Shots By Carlos Gonzalez @KNOWN GALLERY

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SABER WORD’S:

When I arrived to look at the amazing work my friends have done, the police were all ready there. The Santa Monica Police were actually really cool and thought the project was awesome. Once they got on the phone, the deminor suddenly changed. Their chief was contacted by some “higher ups” all the way from downtown LA, apparently forcing them to harass the people involved. They couldn’t find a reason why they were called then left. Right after, a city & code representative showed up and said he was told from those “higher ups” to figure out some sort of citation to write against the project. Even he was amazed on why he was called to harass this project so he basically had to make up a citation. Then the police came back and still couldn’t believe the pressure that was put on them to cause any sort of problem for the people involved. A couple hours past and another city & code person showed up this time armed with a $5000 dollar a day citation fee for the resident’s owner, basically the violation was working with the artist Risky. No laws were broken on this private property, the install is up to code and safety standards were clean. The Sheriffs even sent an undercover over in the morning posing as a journalist, of course that was a waste of their time as well.

So two local artist come together to raise awarness and possibly money for a great cause to help clean up the local beach and what unfolds is a complete abuse of local city power, sending multiple departments over to shut this amazing project down. That’s four different agencies spending hours of their day running around harassing  private citizens to fine an organization $5000 a day when the goal was to raise money for a great cause. This abuse stems from city hall and even went as far as using other jurisdictions man hours to satisfy some assholes with sticks up his asses. If this is how the City Attorney spends his time on his daily basis then know wonder this city is falling apart. First Amendment rights were clearly violated not to mention taking the money away from a positive cause. This is a perfect example on why we should vote these assholes out of office…….

And I’m sure more will unfold…….