Japanese Garden

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Dig a Deeper Hole?

Byuclafaculty

The plaintiffs in the case against the UCLA Grand Hotel have filed an amended brief.  You can read it at the link below.  There are actually two cases, one involving environmental and other matters and another regarding the tax issue.  The environmental case will be heard in September.  And there is legal skirmishing around the tax case. The tax issue is basically that if the hotel is a commercial operation, it has to pay taxes just as would any other hotel.  There is also an issue of whether the Regents can run a commercial enterprise and, if that’s what they…

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Actually, battleships can turn around but it depends on the captain giving the order

Byuclafaculty

We’ve all heard the expression about how hard it is to turn a battleship around.  Giant ships moving forward have momentum to keep going in a straight line.  But they can be turned around. Yesterday we posted about the Judge Cunningham case.  It is symptomatic of a larger problem in Murphy Hall.  What should have occurred in that case is a prompt apology by the chancellor and appropriate internal action.  If you were reading this blog at the time of the event, you would have found that suggestion.  Instead, what occurred was defensive legalism which is still going on.  So…

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Unsolicited Suggestion for the Traffic Stop

Byuclafaculty

We have been offering unsolicited advice to Murphy Hall about what to do about the traffic stop “problem” that arose a week ago.  Before the lawyers get hold of this matter and make it complicated (think, for example, about the Japanese Garden affair), how about just starting with an apology to Judge Cunningham?  It’s been done before and we offer a modest proposal below:

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LA Conservancy Picks Up Story of UCLA Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

The Los Angeles Conservancy includes a story in its November-December 2013 newsletter on the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden UCLA has been blocked from selling through litigation.  We continue to suggest that UCLA work with conservation groups and the family to find a solution that will preserve the garden.  Litigation is costly for the university and its purpose should not be simply to gratify someone’s ego in Murphy Hall.  How about a focus that is less on “winning” and more on achieving the dual goals of garden preservation and revenue for UCLA? You can read the LA Conservancy’s story at:

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It appears that publish or perish doesn’t characterize the 2nd Appellate District California Court of Appeal

Byuclafaculty

Appellate Court Verdict For Hannah Carter Garden Unique  Beverly Hills Courier, Laura Coleman, 10/14/13* The 2nd Appellate District California Court of Appeal yesterday denied a request to publish the Court’s decision to uphold a preliminary injunction against the University of California, Los Angeles from selling the 1.5-acre Hannah Carter Garden. The traditional Japanese garden, which was bequeathed to the university in 1964 by former UC Regent Edward Carter sparked the ire of garden preservationists and the heirs of Hannah Carter, who subsequently filed suit against UCLA to maintain its promise, when the university undertook efforts to begin the process of selling the…

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Garden Therapy

Byuclafaculty

Blog readers will know that UCLA tried to sell the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and has been blocked so far by litigation since the original agreement specified the university would maintain the garden “in perpetuity.” This blog has urged UCLA to sit down with the family and others who have an interest and work out a deal that would conserve the garden even if it is sold.  Basically, the reason the sale has been blocked to this point is that the university’s attempt to sell it failed the sniff test.  If you haven’t followed the issue, type in “Japanese garden”…

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Japanese Garden: Time for Salvage?

Byuclafaculty

UCLA has now lost two rounds in litigation over its attempt to sell the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden.  A judge has suggested that the attempt just doesn’t pass the legal sniff test.   I’m not sure why, exactly, but the headline on salvaging and righting the ship on today’s LA Times website suggested to yours truly that there might be some alternatives for UCLA beyond just leaving the legal situation as it stands.  Someone in Murphy Hall might think of salvaging the garden sale’s tenuous legal position by talking to the plaintiffs and others involved. No? Anyway, it’s something for…

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Court Rejects UCLA Appeal on Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

As readers of this blog will know, UCLA has been trying to sell its Hannah Carter Japanese Garden since shortly after the death of Hannah Carter, despite its earlier promise to maintain the Garden “in perpetuity.” The sale was not conditioned on the buyer maintaining the Garden. Her family obtained an injunction blocking the sale. Now UCLA’s appeal of that injunction has been rejected and the court case will go to trial unless UCLA reaches some kind of accommodation with the plaintiffs that would protect the Garden. Various garden conservation groups have taken up the cause. It appears that if…

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No clear outcome from court hearing on UCLA Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

This seems to be the season for uncertain outcomes of court proceedings, as our prior post notes.  The Beverly Hills Courier is reporting that a hearing on Aug. 28, apparently about continuing the current injunction barring the sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel Air by UCLA, resulted in claims by opposing attorneys but no outcome. Blog readers will know that the garden, once the property of a former Regent – Edward Carter – was given to UCLA which at a later point said it would maintain it in perpetuity.  An associated residence on the property was occupied…

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Almost Secret Garden

Byuclafaculty

In the past when we have written about UCLA and gardens, it has been about the Japanese Garden that the university has been blocked from selling.  The university would prefer that the less said about the Japanese Garden, the better.  (If you are unfamiliar with the saga of that garden, use the search engine for this blog for past postings.)  But there is another garden on campus which is not intended to be secret but at least was a discovery for yours truly.  On the south side of the Anderson School, you will find the Nix Garden – which according…