Opinion: Bukowski bungalow saved

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The editorial board doesn’t always get its way, but it, along with local activists, scored a victory yesterday when the City Council declared the former residence of writer Charles Bukowski a historic landmark. The board opined back in September, ‘To pick one place to officially associate with the man would seem to limit his legacy. But it’s still a good way for his hometown to honor him.’ (No such luck for John Fante.)

Check out the report [pdf] from the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission explaining why, of Bukowski’s many residences, the De Longpre place merited saving. Also see columnist Al Martinez’s take on Bukowski’s alleged Nazism (and Opinion L.A.’s), and Book Review editor David L. Ulin’s not-so-kind critique of the latest Bukowski poetry collection.

And there’s at least one other unofficial Bukowski memorial in town (even if the bedrock of that square, Craby Joe’s, is gone).