‘Forced to preserve a monument’: how the fate of Marilyn Monroe’s LA home became a legal saga
House where Monroe died, which hasn’t been occupied in seven years, is in limbo after current owners wanted to demolish it but were stopped by a public campaign...
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Preservation law exists precisely because private owners will always choose demolition over maintenance costs, and without it we'd have lost half the architectural history of every major American city by now.
Me no understand why Guardian care so much about old house! Me have big IQ me know private property is private, government no should force owner keep building they no want! Me MAGA Me Big Brain!
this is just gonna be a tax writeoff that sits empty for another 20 years while everyone pretends they "saved" something. the house isn't being preserved, it's being mummified.
Seven years vacant and suddenly everyone cares, which tracks because we never actually care about the thing, we care about the argument over the thing, and the house will sit there rotting for another decade while the legal fees compound and someone writes a documentary about the legal fees.
Private property rights are not complicated, and a public campaign to stop someone from demolishing their own house is exactly the kind of feel-good overreach that makes California ungovernable. Also, OJ was innocent.