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Betty Pleasant, the Wave's Soulvine columnist, digs out that congresswoman Maxine Waters has bought a home in Hancock Park—quite a distance from her district covering Inglewood, Gardena and a swath of South Los Angeles.
The rumors are true. We looked it up: According to the county’s property records, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Williams (Rep. Maxine Waters) purchased a house in Hancock Park, miles and miles away from her 35th Congressional District constituency, on Nov. 6, 2004, for $2.05 million and the tax bill is being sent to the couple’s Vermont Knolls home. Their new house is near The Wave’s office and is a couple of blocks away from the Getty House, the city’s official mayoral residence, so we went around to give it a good look. It’s a large, white, two-story structure in a style we are unable to identify (as we are not that hip to architecture), set back on a sloping lot, whose vast lawn is in serious need of re-sodding. But hey, it’s Hancock Park, and we’re sure Rep. Diane Watson — in whose district Waters’ new home is located — and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa join the Soulvine in welcoming Maxine to our neighborhood. Oh, and by the way, members of Congress are not required to live in the district they represent, just somewhere in the county in which their district is located. We looked it up.
Pleasant also sends off the late Billy Preston: "The best thing he ever did for me was to introduce me to his four friends from England — the Beatles — when they came to Los Angeles a hundred years ago, thus providing me a lifetime of memories of hanging with Billy and his pals, John, Paul, George and Ringo. Rest in peace, my friend."