Spring Cleaning
City Hall has been busily scouring the triangle neighborhood of Exposition/Washington/National boulevards. To the distress of numerous complaining entrepreneurs, the city has been buying up the small-business properties to make way for a planned light rail terminal and likely commercial-residential complex.
Fat Lady Trots to the Bullpen
The score in the Vorceak matter is not final yet, but the 8=month will-he-or-won’t-he-move battle seems to be nearly over. The fat lady isn’t singing. But in the wings she was seen gargling mouthwash.
It is a relief, of course, to the often stoic and soft-spoken Mr. Vorceak that tomorrow no longer will be Enforced Getaway Day for the wrought-iron furniture store Metal Art at 8829 Exposition.
How Can You Tell?
Not that he is the kind of person to exult, whether high or low. His business, which he has operated for nearly half of his life, still is going away, and he says his plans for the future remain uncertain.
Not yet 60 years old, he feels he is too young to retire. Besides, it may not be economically feasible.
Only Winners
The congenial session yesterday apparently was one of those hackneyed win-win moments diplomats like to boast about,
The entire Vorceak family — the business owner’s wife and son — sat in on the dinner-hour negotiations.
“This was entirely appropriate,” Mr. Gridley said. “It is a family business, and they should have been there.”
An Upbeat Milieu
This was one of several laudatory observations by Mr. Gridley, a routine practitioner of collegiality himself.
In a generous gesture, he commended Mr. Vorceak for his shrewdness in hiring the renowned Mr. Silverstein as his legal representative. In recent times, Mr. Silverstein has won a consistently swelling image as a champion fighter for embattled business owners facing loss of their livelihoods through eminent domain.
A Crowning Victory
Last September, the Pasadena lawyer captured one of his highest-profile successes. He represented the venerable Bernard Luggage business in the Sunset/Vine neighborhood of Hollywood. Family-owned and operated, Bernard Luggage was launched in the wake of World War II, and the Vine Street fixture turns 60 years old this year.
He Did Not Fear City Hall
Owner Bob Blue grew into a worthy, fearless adversary of the city of Los Angeles — in part because he promptly identified the right go-to guy, Mr. Silverstein.
In a glamourous, costly and steel-tough eminent domain case, the wily Mr. Silverstein defeated the city of Los Angeles, hammering out an extraordinary settlement that allowed the luggage business to survive in place and stand alone, as a symbolic beacon of the little man, in the midst of a gigantic commercial redevelopment project.
Concluding Details
In the words of Mr. Gridley, Mr. Vorceak’s latest counter-offer to the city for buying him out was “just a smidgen” above the amount he was authorized earlier this week to reimburse the Frenchman. “The difference is not so large that I am discouraged,” Mr. Gridley said.
Here Is a Twist
The second detail looks a little stickier, but is not unconquerable, Mr. Gridley said.
Mr. Vorceak’s business is housed in a 1500-square foot building. “He does not have permits for a building larger than 600 feet,” said Mr. Gridley. “One question is, what does an appraiser do with a building that is ‘illegal’?”
Not So Unusual
Continuing to speak in a convivial groove, Mr. Gridley, sounding forgiving, asserted that “most people have something they have done without all of the permits they are supposed to have.”
Accord En Route?
Still, it will be at least awkward when the city’s appraiser evaluates the worth of the one-story structure that is fractionally illegal. “I will be working on this in the next few days,” Mr. Gridley said.
