new hotel-conference center

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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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‘Tis a Pit

Byuclafaculty

As can be seen above, in the “cloud” on Google Earth the old parking structure #6 and the bus turnaround still are smack dab in the center of the UCLA campus.  But in fact the great pit for the Grand Hotel is underway, as seen in the recent photos below: Unfortunately, if we want to be “on the level” about the great pit, it is difficult to see due to the wall around it.  Apparently, someone has decided that its vast size is something of a secret.  But there is a little hole in the wall to peep through: Of…

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Grand Hole

Byuclafaculty

Visited the Grand Hotel site after an intersession hiatus.  So far, the Grand Hotel seems to be mainly a Grand Hole where some remnants of parking structure #6 remain.  It is a big Hole, however, and you could pour a lot of money into it.  Not to worry, though.  Even though the Grand Hotel will cost over three times the donation that is paying for it, the business plan, we are assured by the powers-that-be, will eventually make us – well – wHole.

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Location, Location, Location

Byuclafaculty

We earlier blogged about the content of the UCLA Anderson Forecast that took place last week.  But we also like to remind readers from time to time of the location.  Sometimes the Forecast is in Ackerman.  Sometimes it is in Korn Hall at Anderson.  This time, it was at Covell.  Note that these are all venues that can accommodate large conferences and can do so without the creation of the UCLA Grand Hotel.  You can even have food service at any one of them, as the picture at the top shows.  If, when the Grand Hotel becomes available, the Forecast…

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Lessons from Berkeley’s White Elephant Stadium for UCLA, the Regents, and UC?

Byuclafaculty

People keep noticing Berkeley’s White Elephant money-draining stadium – one of the grand capital projects that the Regents routinely approve based on pretty slides and business plans offered by the campuses.  Peter Schrag in the San Francisco Chronicle today ties the low graduation rates of Berkeley athletes with the stadium: …Fueling the… issue is the chronic matter of cost – what the university kicks in to the sports program – and what someone called “its gold plated” spending. Brian Barsky, a Berkeley computer science professor and vocal critic of the athletics program, says between 2003 and 2011, athletics “drained campus…

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Eviction

Byuclafaculty

There have been worse landlord-tenant disputes From the Daily Bruin:A former UCLA employee reached an undisclosed settlement agreement with the UCLA Foundation Monday morning, the culmination of an eviction lawsuit brought forward by the university. In late October, the UCLA Foundation served Roselle Kipp with a lawsuit asking the court to evict Kipp from the boarding house that the UCLA Foundation owned, said Magda Madrigal, Kipp’s attorney. The UCLA Foundation assumed control over the property after the owner, Jorge Estrada, died in December of last year and bequeathed it to the foundation in a trust deed, Madrigal said.Estrada operated the…

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Broken Links to UCLA Grand Hotel project

Byuclafaculty

It has been brought to the attention of yours truly that some of the links and embedding to earlier blog posts about the UCLA Grand Hotel (and other topics) no longer operate.  Facebook has been used for such broken links, particularly as we go back in time, and Facebook seems to be not-so-good at maintaining embedding on blog posts.  Rather than go back and try to repair each broken link, we provide a listing below of all Facebook links that relate to the Grand Hotel project.  [In the future, as time permits, we may do the same for other topics.] …