This Time Our Beverly Hills Landlady Fought Back!

You may recall our first successful resistance against our hurtful landlady, Vicky Mense. It was outside her restaurant Xian, on Canon Drive. in Beverly Hills. Ms. Mense is our owner and landlord of record, who with the help of Taylor Equities, owned by her son-in-law,  has threatened and bullied so many tenants. In our 36 unit building, 22 are empty now. (And it will go down further next month.)

I don’t know if most landlords, developers, and flippers use this tactic, but the takeover by Taylor Equities has been a regime of fear: we were told by the resident manager early, before escrow even closed, that rents would be raised to $2500 or $3000, and there would be major construction. No one knew when, or what, or who the ax would land on first.

It may sound strange, but when we actually got written notice of our rent raises (for some) and evictions (for others) on May 1, it was almost a relief, not to be in agony about what they would do to us. We were shocked, yes, but at least we finally knew what the punishment was for being a tenant here. That’s pretty sick, right?

This extreme anxiety was an effective form of torture. Most tenants either gave notice or moved out immediately. I sincerely hope the gourmands and foodies who frequent Ms. Mense’s restaurant, Xian, never learn of her side job as a landlord, for it would surely ruin a fine meal.

There are only 5 tenants left here at Waverly Drive, trying to survive: to keep their home at a reasonable rent. Three of us had the rent raised hundreds of dollars (so far, more to come) and two of us have been evicted, and go to court next week.

For our second action at Xian, with the assistance of the LA Tenants Union and the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), we trotted all the way down to Beverly Hills from Silver Lake, and stood in front of the restaurant with our signs and red shirts. We spoke with a megaphone about rent control, greedy landlords, and the like. We also got to see many other restaurants and customers on Canon St., and they saw us, so it was a win-win.

Until that point, we had never said or done anything in public about the egregious actions on this property: destroying spacious apartments, harassment by unlicensed workers, construction for 8 freaking months (9 now), as they corrected their multiple mistakes, and more waste than you’ve seen at a dumpsite. To speak out loud and let the public know what was really going on in the kitchen, was a gift.

So we went back for more this month. 🙂

Vicky Mense, Beverly Hills Roman Soldier, Pars Duorum (Part 2)

This time we were public about our plans, (called “actions” in organizing groups) and had over 30 people marching down the streets of Beverly Hills.

We knew Steven Taylor, Mense’s son-in-law, would learn we were coming to visit this time – we even announced it here on this site. Transparency is good.

If you’ve ever taken Latin, you know how much of the early reading material is on war and battles. I believe Ms. Mense took Latin, because she was armored up this time! She had a HUGE U-haul parked in front of her Beverly Hills restaurant. I didn’t really notice at the time, but afterwards learned her fighting strategy was to hide the union’s protest about her evicting tenants here at 2965 Waverly Drive from the view of traffic on Canon. Of course, foot-soldiers could still see us. And since we have strong legs, we continued  circling the restaurant with our banners and signs on sticks.

All of the restaurants on Canon have outside patios, and although it was a fine Saturday night, she also lowered

those swaying plastic curtains in front of the patrons as shields from our shouts. There were big gaps between the panels, so they didn’t give much protection to the poor people eating on the patio. We were impressed, however, with the restaurant manager she sent out to meet our troops: a fine centurion with steel gray hair as a helmet. She was both loud and frowny!

Who won?

I can’t speak for her, but we were pretty happy about  protest #2. The customers on the patio of  Xi’an looked pretty miserable, however, as we shouted a couple feet away from them. (Do the patrons of Beverly Hills not complain about bad service?)

A couple days later there was a report that Taylor had immediately decided to buy his mother-in-law’s restaurant from her. I don’t know if that’s true or correct, or what the point of that would be — after all, we weren’t targeting a business. a restaurant, or even Vicky Mense. We were just asserting our civil right to peacefully protest, which includes urging actions. It doesn’t matter to us who owns that restaurant: what matters are the grievances the tenants continue to have at 2965 Waverly Drive.. Which is owned by Steven Taylor and Vicky Mense.

An action like our protest is highly recommended to inform the public, speak freely, and to let the landlady know you’re very serious.

U-Hauls are optional.

 

 

Save

Save

Save

Save