We endeavor to balance security and duty with our spending

　　“The old windows were falling apart and were a hazard to the community,” said Hector Cruz, who has co-owned the three-story constructing on 5577 N. Figueroa St. as well as his mother considering that the past five years.
　　“They were quite pricey to replace,” Cruz stated, adding that he got a $12,000 estimate for the repairs and replacement of eight of your original windows that he ended up altering. “And that’s not even giving us a cushion of what’s to come,” he said.
　　In installing significantly less costly windows, Cruz mentioned he took a leaf in the historic windows that had been replaced with fixed-glass ones about a quarter-century ago in the former office of ex-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Also situated inside the Mason Constructing, which has 19,000 square feet of floor space, Goldberg’s one-time office now houses the Excellent Girl Dinette Vietnamese fusion food restaurant.
　　But for all that, said Cruz, he didn’t understand he had committed a blunder by eliminating the old windows. Exactly per week immediately after he put in the eight new panes on June 26, an inspector from the Los Angeles Department of Constructing and Safety served him a “stop work” order, Cruz stated, adding that by then all of the operate on the windows had already been carried out.
　　The inspector told Cruz that since the Highland Park Masonic Developing is around the National Registry of Historic Areas, he's expected to get permission from the Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone ahead of performing any work that modifications the building’s architectural integrity.
　　“The final factor I anticipated is for the community to send an inspector rather than coming and telling me what would be the initial measures I must have taken to replace the windows,” Cruz stated, adding: “I’ve had Autry Museum meetings, Neighborhood Council meetings at the building-I’ve supported everyone.”
　　In line with Cruz, it was Highland Park historian and Highland Park Heritage Trust member Charlie Fisher who allegedly reported him towards the Division of Constructing and Safety. A contact by Patch to Highland Park Heritage Trust requesting an interview with Fisher went unreturned.
　　Cruz said it is not that he is not concerned about conservation troubles surrounding his creating, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984. “We endeavor to balance security and duty with our spending budget,” he stated.
　　His response to critics who accuse him of negligence is the fact that “if you’re so concerned in regards to the windows, why don’t you get a grant or funding to replace them?” Cruz mentioned, adding that property owners such as him can “hardly make it by in these hard [economic] times.”
　　The huge question for Cruz, he mentioned, was “do you preserve the windows simply because they look good or do you change them simply because they’re falling apart and are a safety hazard?”
　　The challenge with the unapproved windows was taken up this past Tuesday by the Highland Park-Garvanza Historical Preservation Overlay Zone at its bimonthly board meeting in Ramona Hall, Cruz mentioned, adding that he was notified about the meeting but didn’t attend.
　　The Mason Constructing could have lost its original windows, but there’s still a window of chance to get them back.
　　“We’ve saved all the tiny pieces of glass,” stated Cruz. “So if something really serious would come about, I’d be most delighted to replace them.”