Putting your money where your mount is
Apr. 15th, 2010 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonYes, I know. There are so many charities asking for your financial support these days. But here's a chance to save some lovely wilderness and an iconic bit of Hollywood history. We only have until April 30 to do it.
Howard Hughes originally bought Cahuenga Peak, the land on which the Hollywood sign sits, to build a mansion for Ginger Rogers, but when they broke up, he let the land sit there, as he did so many of his plots of land around L.A. That's why a number of them, like Ballona Wetlands and the Cahuenga Peak, have been saved from the rapaciousness of developers. In 2002, the Hughes estate decided to sell off the Peak. The city of Los Angeles and the Trust for Public Land wanted to buy it and save the land in its wilderness state, making it a part of Griffith Park, the large wilderness area inside the city. But the Hughes estate was asking a whopping $22 million dollars. L.A. and the Trust tried to raise that much, but were unable to, and a group of Chicago vultures swooped in with a plan to build butt-ugly McMansions on the site. The bottom fell out of the real estate market, as you may know, and the Chicago syndicate couldn't march forward with their plans. Another chance arose to save the site, at the now "reasonable" price of $12.5 million dollars. The Trust for Public Land, some big donors inside and outside of Hollywood, plus a lot of little Jo/Joe Average donors have managed to raise $11, but the deadline for raising that other $1.5 million is April 30. One of the big donors has put up another $500k as a matching fund, so every donation from the public is worth that much extra.
From the Trust for Public Land site:
Individuals may donate online at www.savehollywoodland.org, or with their cell phones by texting the word LAND to the number 50555 to give $5. When prompted, reply with YES to confirm the gift. Standard messaging and data rates may apply.
Save this:
From this:
Howard Hughes originally bought Cahuenga Peak, the land on which the Hollywood sign sits, to build a mansion for Ginger Rogers, but when they broke up, he let the land sit there, as he did so many of his plots of land around L.A. That's why a number of them, like Ballona Wetlands and the Cahuenga Peak, have been saved from the rapaciousness of developers. In 2002, the Hughes estate decided to sell off the Peak. The city of Los Angeles and the Trust for Public Land wanted to buy it and save the land in its wilderness state, making it a part of Griffith Park, the large wilderness area inside the city. But the Hughes estate was asking a whopping $22 million dollars. L.A. and the Trust tried to raise that much, but were unable to, and a group of Chicago vultures swooped in with a plan to build butt-ugly McMansions on the site. The bottom fell out of the real estate market, as you may know, and the Chicago syndicate couldn't march forward with their plans. Another chance arose to save the site, at the now "reasonable" price of $12.5 million dollars. The Trust for Public Land, some big donors inside and outside of Hollywood, plus a lot of little Jo/Joe Average donors have managed to raise $11, but the deadline for raising that other $1.5 million is April 30. One of the big donors has put up another $500k as a matching fund, so every donation from the public is worth that much extra.
From the Trust for Public Land site:
Individuals may donate online at www.savehollywoodland.org, or with their cell phones by texting the word LAND to the number 50555 to give $5. When prompted, reply with YES to confirm the gift. Standard messaging and data rates may apply.
Save this:
From this:
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Date: 2010-04-15 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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