I told you so: a semi-Halloween story

[pjthompson]

In my apparent research into ghost hunting for my next novel, I came across a book called Ghost Hunter's Guide to Los Angeles by Jeff Dwyer. It's part of a series, each set in a different city, and basically gives a brief overview of ghost hunting techniques and equipment followed by a long list of "haunted" locations.

Imagine my peaked interested when Playa Vista was listed, the rampant development taking place where the Ballona wetlands once peacefully coexisted with the undeveloped runway of Hughes Aircraft. Hughes refused to develop this land—the last piece of prime, undeveloped land on the Westside of Los Angeles—so at his death the money men were wetting themselves in anticipation of the plunder. It was a massively controversial development from the start, as many wanted to protect the wetlands and the openness of the area, but the LA Board of Supervisors caved, as they always cave when massive amounts of money are involved. The Playa Vista development was bulldozed through the approval pipeline.

Imagine everyone's chagrin when the excavations of this property uncovered human remains: what was left of a massive Gabrielino-Tongva Indian village that used to occupy the site. The developers were required by law to call in archaeologists, and tried to pass it off as a few paltry bones which they flung into a storage shed, treating them with great disrespect. It turns out that this was actually a major archaeological site and nearly 400 bodies have been recovered so far. You can read about the whole sordid story here. (Long story short: the Indians got shafted yet again.) You can see pictures of the development and surrounding lands at doisneau's LJ here.

I remarked in this blog at the time that I really would not want to be part of that development or live in those units. Disturbed Indian grave sites are just asking for trouble. Mr. Dwyer states that, "Disturbance of these graves may be linked to strange mists that have been seen in the area. Small blue clouds float a foot off the ground and rise to a height of about four or five feet. At times they are stationary but sometime (sic) they move, slowly, against the wind." Those pesky orbs have also been sighted and "there are reports of electrical and mechanical problems" at the construction site. "It is anticipated that occupants of several new homes and offices in this development will experience paranormal activity..."



I will confess that having lived in this area all my life and passed through that particular stretch of highway more times than I can count, "tooley" fog (aka tule fog) has always been prevalent in that stretch of land between Westchester bluffs and the Los Angeles River (probably no more than a quarter of a mile away). This is one of the only places that I know of in LA where this happens and I've seen it many, many times. Although I don't remember it ever being blue or moving against the wind. Mostly it just sits there like the spirit of malcontent, thick as dread, hugging the ground while ten feet off the earth the air is clear. Ballona wetlands has always been an eery place, with no street lights, dark as the ace of spades, no buildings, and that ground-hugging fog in the right weather. Driving through there late at night by myself really gave me the shivers. Quite easy to imagine uneasy spirits in that fog even before they dug up their graves.

The development has civilized it somewhat, lifted the highway ten or fifteen feet (which was a good thing as it flooded rather badly when we actually had rain), put in street lights and masses of buildings. They ruined a perfectly good scary place and I will never forgive them for it, but the strange fogs are not particular convincing to me as evidence of spirit activity.

Orbs spotted with the naked eye? Maybe. (On digital cameras—no, I don't think so. Too many rational explanations.) Electrical and mechanical problems? Maybe. Or maybe not. Things flying around a Playa Vista apartment and horrid noises in the night? Now that I'd like to see—if anything like that had been reported as happening. And maybe that's all the Playa Vista stories are at this point—resentful people like me who didn't like to see that rapacious development and would like to cast a ray of darkness upon it for spoiling our fun.

But I still would not want to live in one of those homes.

Comments

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

Makes you wish he stuck something in his will about the land never being able to be developed.

[pjthompson]

Which will...that's the question.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

Ah.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

An interesting story and a good post. I wouldn't want to live there, either.

But the Indians shouldn't feel singled out for being shafted. They did the exact same thing out here with British soldiers killed in the Battle of the Brandywine during the Revolution, and discovered by developers. All it takes is a sense of not-one-of-us, which is of course endemic in humans of all tribes.

[pjthompson]

You're right. "Not my granny" goes hand in hand with the money trail.