Thanks to the watchful eye of a concerned resident, the Silver Platter, Westlake’s oldest gay bar, might not be demolished as the developer had hoped. The Silver Platter, located at the intersection of 7th Street and Rampart Boulevard, was established in 1963, and the building opened in 1923, according to Esotouric, which first broke the story Thursday. The bar has been a safe space for immigrant gay and transgender communities in the Westlake area. Photo: Google
Thanks to the watchful eye of a concerned resident, the Silver Platter, Westlake’s oldest gay bar, might not be demolished as the developer had hoped.
The Silver Platter, located at the intersection of 7th Street and Rampart Boulevard, was established in 1963, and the building opened in 1923, according to Esotouric, which first broke the story Thursday.
The bar has been a safe space for immigrant gay Latino and transgender communities in the Westlake area.
The story of the Silver Plattter is told in the 2012 documentary “Wildness” from director Wu Tsang.
Last month, the developer filed a permit to demolish the bar and adjacent store fronts — which include a travel agency and glass shop — to build a seven-story, 55-unit apartment complex, according to online Building and Safety records.
The demolition permit was posted on the shuttered storefront next to the Silver Platter on 7th Street, and that’s when the resident noticed it and contacted Esotouric, which wants to save the space.
Esotouric reported that the developer claimed no historic resources exist on the property, and that it was not eligible for historic preservation, according to a city planning document.
Silver Platter historic resource
Those statements, however, are not true.
Ex L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge helped demolish Circus Disco
A 2008 Los Angeles survey found that 2700 W. 7th St. “appears eligible for the National Register, California Register, and as an L.A. Historic Cultural Monument because it is one of a limited number of intact commercial buildings constructed during the period of significance and appears to meet the eligibility standards prepared in the Westlake CRA Survey Historic Context Statement.”
Esotouric criticized the planning department when it “proceeded to rubber stamp this enormous and extremely profitable new development, while either not checking if the application was truthful about the presence of recognized historic resources, or not caring.”
Queer history
Also, the Silver Platter is approximately one mile from the former house of Morris Kight, a pioneer in the Los Angeles gay rights movement, which puts it in a larger context of historic significance and indicates that the area was a safe place for the LGBTQ community.
The Los Angeles City Council designated the Kight house a historic landmark last year.
“There are a number of groups that came out of the gay liberation front, all of which sprung up on Wilshire and Alvarado down from here,” preservationist Richard Schave of Esotouric said in a video posted on the site. “So this is a really important neighborhood for the LGBTQ+ community.”
District 1 council member responds
A spokesperson for Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose Fisrt District includes the Silver Platter, told L.A. Taco the councilmember “believes that it’s crucial that we honor the history of the LGBTQIA+ movement, and protect safe spaces for those community members,” when asked her position on the matter.
“This development project was approved prior to our time in office. However, our office is working with the Planning Department to identify what options are available to protect this important location,” said Rhondaya Fishburne, Hernandez’s digital communications deputy.
Since Esotouric posted its article Thursday, apparently the demolition permit has been removed.
If that is the case, the legal process to receive such a permit would have to start all over.
Planning Department misses queer space
The issue with the Silver Platter isn’t the first time the city’s Planning Department has missed an historic LGBTQ+ space.
In 2015, the vulnerable Circus Disco, and its sister club, Arena Cafe, was targeted by Avalon Bay to be demolished and replaced with a multi-million dollar, mega mixed-use development project that would include 695 residential units and 1,391 parking spaces on the almost 6-acre site.
But LGBTQ+ Latino advocates and historic preservationists wanted the project delayed. They were not aware of the project and never given a chance to participate in any public hearings or comment about the project, they said.
Also, they contended the project was flawed. Specifically, they pointed to The Lexington Project’s environmental impact report – a document required by state law that includes a detailed and comprehensive analysis and public disclosure of all potential environmental impacts for development projects as well as all feasible solutions to mitigate those impacts.
Historic landmark
The report also must take into consideration historic and cultural resources, such as buildings, at a proposed site and the impact if those structures are demolished.
“The project site does not contain any historic resources,” despite the fact that Circus Disco was listed by the city’s Office of Historic Resources, which is part of the planning department, in its Survey LA’s LGBT Historic Context Statement, which was prepared by the Office of Historic Resources.
“The fact that Circus Disco is on Survey LA and a potential historic resource means it should have been included in the EIR,” historic preservation attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley told Out in the 562 in 2015. “It sounds like it’s an inadequate EIR. The city council needs to re-open it and supplement it to include this information.”
Circus Disco
Charlie Rausch in the planning department, who oversaw the Lexington Project’s environmental impact report, didn’t return several calls from Out in the 562 seeking comment about why the EIR did not mention anything about Circus Disco being a designated historic and cultural resource by Survey LA.
Ken Bernstein, manager of the Office of Historic Resources, said he was unaware of the proposed plan to demolish Circus Disco until he received a phone call from Out in the 562.
“This is the first time I’ve been made aware that one of our resources was impacted,” Bernstein said. “It’s very surprising. If someone with the planning department or the developer had raised the issue that a site might have historic merit, our office would have been brought in.”
In the end, the city council approved the project and it was never re-opened.
Circus Disco and Arena Cafe closed Jan. 1, 2016. They were demolished shortly thereafter.
