A new siren song

By Gayle Pollard-Terry

Dec. 1, 2002 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Southern California’s newest celebrity couple, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton and his power-wife, Court TV anchor Rikki Klieman, dazzled another glitzy crowd recently in a multimillion-dollar landmark house that is a star in its own right.

The majestic Maya-themed Sowden House, designed in 1926 by Lloyd Wright and featured in the December issue of Architectural Digest, provided the perfect dramatic backdrop for yet another of the chief’s pronouncements. He motioned toward the hills above the Franklin Avenue home and told the crowd that he and the missus would live in Los Feliz.

Bratton, understandably, didn’t discuss any details. No move-in date has been scheduled, however, because the couple is still in negotiations.

Wherever they settle in the 90027 ZIP Code, their move will throw a klieg light on Los Feliz, where the median price of a home is $584,000. Houses in the choicest sections, such as the gated Laughlin Park, the Los Feliz Estates and the streets north of Los Feliz Boulevard, command millions of dollars.

If Bratton becomes a neighbor, you can almost hear the new sales pitch: “If it’s safe enough for the police chief....”

“The increased police presence would be great anywhere,” said Francis Gibbons, an agent who specializes in homes going for $1 million and up. He stood on highly polished hardwood floors of the house he was showing, admiring the panoramic view from the spacious Spanish villa that also features floors of marble and granite in an exclusive hillside area north of Los Feliz Boulevard. “He’ll be great here,” Gibbons said of the chief. “We’re the intersection of all cultures. Everybody comes here.”

Outsiders know Los Feliz by such landmarks as the domed Griffith Park Observatory, currently under renovation; the Greek Theatre; the romantic Shakespeare Bridge in Gothic splendor at Franklin Avenue and St. George Street; and the trendy restaurants, clubs and shops along Vermont and Hillhurst avenues in Los Feliz Village.

In the neighborhood bordering Hollywood and Silver Lake, broad boulevards and narrow streets twist, turn and curve high into rolling foothills south of Griffith Park in this leafy, urban and sometimes suburban area.

Several years after Col. Griffith J. Griffith donated thousands of acres of his property to the city of Los Angeles in 1896, developers attracted the city’s elite and movie royalty, including Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin and W. C. Fields. Decades later, Lily Tomlin owned the Fields estate for years. Madonna, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman have also lived in Los Feliz.

Many celebrities have been drawn to homes designed by some of American’s best-known architects -- Frank Lloyd Wright, his son Lloyd, Richard J. Neutra, R. M. Schindler, Wallace Neff and Paul Williams. Others have come for the views: sparkling city lights at night; the ocean by day. The area has always attracted a diverse crowd of developers, physicians, educators, entrepreneurs and lawyers, including star defense attorney Johnnie Cochran.

The lesson of location, location, location has not been lost on the chief’s wife, a big-time Boston defense attorney before her TV career and marriage to Bratton. Unlike some newcomers, Klieman knew quite a bit about the social and political geography of L.A. because she covered the O.J. Simpson trial in the downtown criminal courts building for Court TV. She was familiar with traffic that can turn a six-mile commute into a 60-minute crawl. After a brief foray of house hunting in Brentwood, West L.A. and by the beach, she decided to focus much closer to her husband’s downtown office in Parker Center, Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.

Since the October announcement that Bratton would head the LAPD, his wife has spent as much time as she can take away from her job in New York house-hunting, largely in Silver Lake, the Hollywood Hills and Los Feliz.

In Manhattan, where Bratton once headed the New York Police Department, the couple is selling a co-op in the historic Murray Hills area, where a two-bedroom apartment can easily start at a half-a-million and top $1 million.

They have also put their sanctuary on Long Island, N.Y., on the market. Their house sits on an acre of lush land, surrounded by the solitude of a nature preserve, five minutes from the Atlantic Ocean and almost as close to the scene in Southampton. Similar vacation homes go for $2 million and up.

The chief earns $230,039 annually. He also will get a $2,900 monthly housing allowance for half a year. Television anchors of Klieman’s stature earn much more. When she moves full-time to L.A. next year, her paycheck could grow if she resumes the acting career she quit to attend law school.

In the current hot housing market, sales agents maintain that in Los Feliz a million dollars can buy much more house than in Brentwood, Beverly Hills or near the beach. Realtors boast of selling homes to many who have abandoned other prestigious addresses that required daily negotiation of the 405.

“We’re almost still reasonable,” said Karen Weiss, an agent who lives in Los Feliz and has been selling homes in the area for 23 years. That depends, of course, on what a home buyer thinks is reasonable.

A spectacular three-story Spanish home, built in 1929, that offers seven bedrooms, 10.5 bathrooms, formal dining room, breakfast area, study and maid’s quarters in more than 8,000 square feet, went on the market for $4.5 million. The asking price recently was reduced to $3.9 million.

Central planning

For LAPD’s first couple, their commitment to the central city is as much symbolic as it is about investment and lifestyle. They like to eat out, jog and go to the movies, activities easily accessible in their new neighborhood.

Los Feliz “is in the heart of the city,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge. “Some of my colleagues who represent other areas will disagree, but to me, the heart of the city is Griffith Park. If you go to the top of Mt. Hollywood, which is 1,625 feet above sea level, on days like today, you can actually see the great basin of Los Angeles from the Pacific Ocean, all the way to San Pedro and the Vincent Thomas Bridge, out to the great San Fernando Valley, and the mighty Angeles Forest sits as a backdrop to Los Angeles.”

LaBonge tried to lure the new chief to Silver Lake, the neighborhood where he grew up and still lives, with a personal tour. It almost worked. The couple checked out a house there twice before zeroing in on Los Feliz.

“Not only is it 10 minutes to Parker Center,” LaBonge said, “it’s about 25 minutes, Code 3 [lights flashing, sirens blaring], to San Pedro or Chatsworth.”

The chief won’t need a fleet of black-and-white squad cars where he has chosen to live. Los Feliz is relatively safe, according to LAPD records, with most calls reporting car thefts and break-ins. Murders are rare, unlike other parts of the city where the homicide rate keeps spiraling.

Bratton has taken on the job to make every neighborhood safe.

“L.A. is a great city,” he said at the party at Sowden House. “It’s going to be the safest city.”

Times staff writer Gina Piccalo contributed to this report.