Dozens of tenants at an affordable housing complex for arts and entertainment workers are in rebellion amid a dispute over a rent increase and other alleged issues at the Hollywood property.

A group of residents at the Hollywood Arts Collective released a statement Thursday accusing Thomas Safran & Associates, the property management company, and the Entertainment Community Fund, which helped develop the project, of luring them into signing leases under false pretenses.

“After just one year of existence, tenants have been advised by property management, Thomas Safran & Associates (TSA), that their rent WILL BE increased every year,” the resident group said in a press release.

“This is in spite of multiple false verbal promises made to prospective tenants during the application process that rent would not be raised, or if it were to be, that the raises would be minimal, at 2-3%. … The struggle to pursue a dream in Hollywood led many of the tenants to a living nightmare.”

The management company denies misleading tenants and contends that the terms of residency, including potential rent increases, were clearly outlined in the contracts that they signed. Jordan Pynes, president of TSA, called the tenant uprising “very disheartening” in a statement.

“We are saddened and disappointed that some residents of the Hollywood Arts Collective are unhappy with the property,” Pynes said.

“TSA is committed to providing exceptional affordable housing to residents in Hollywood and around Southern California, and the assertion that we did not properly disclose how the affordable Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program works for this project is simply not true.”

Keith McNutt, executive director of the Entertainment Community Fund’s Western Region, said in a statement that the nonprofit organization “remains dedicated to supporting the performing arts and entertainment community at The Cicely Tyson Residential Building (part of The Hollywood Arts Collective)” in collaboration with the property manager.

This type of quarrel is common at Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties, according to Anya Lawler, a legislative advocate for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

“The way that rents are set in LIHTC properties does not guarantee that tenants’ rent will stay affordable over time, and tenants are often unaware of that,” Lawler said.

“It can be really jarring to find out that they’re living in an affordable property, and their rent … can continue to go up in ways that they can’t afford. And it’s a real problem. The whole system is in need of rethinking and reform.”

Billed as a haven for struggling artists, the complex began housing residents in April 2023. The 10-story building on Schrader Boulevard boasts 151 units.

Applicants had to prove they work in a creative field and make 80% or less of the area median income. Rent prices were set between 30% and 50% of tenants’ monthly income at move-in.

After TSA notified residents in August of an impending 7% rent increase, nearly 40 tenants emailed letters protesting the rent spike and airing grievances, including malfunctioning fire alarms and elevator breakdowns.

“As a working low-income artist, this news is financially devastating, and represents a break of confidence in the mission that the Hollywood Arts Collective claims to represent,” the letters read.

Elena Theisner, vice president of property management at TSA, responded to residents’ concerns by scheduling a community meeting. She cited rising operational costs as the primary reason for the rent increase in an email to tenants.

Following the meeting, Theisner told The Times on Sept. 25 that TSA had reached a compromise with residents by agreeing to lower the rent increase to 4%, schedule an informational session and hold quarterly meetings with tenants.

Some residents, however, were not satisfied.

On Oct. 30, the newly formed Hollywood Arts Collective Tenants Assn. emailed TSA and the Entertainment Community Fund a list of demands, including providing new accommodations for residents with disabilities, covering the cost of utilities, enhancing building security and abolishing the rent increase altogether.

Julia Mata, a resident and organizer at the Hollywood Arts Collective Tenants Assn., told The Times that 39 residents signed the demand letter.

On Nov. 5, the building managers provided written responses to each of the association’s demands. They stuck to the 4% rent increase, explaining that the collective is not rent controlled or project-based Section 8 housing, which keeps tenants’ rent payments capped at roughly 30% of their income.

“This is not unique to this building — annual rent increases are normal and to be expected at Low-Income Housing Tax Credit projects,” the response from management read.

The building managers also declined to cover residents’ utility costs beyond existing discounts or provide additional security measures. They were more amenable when it came to disability accommodations and community amenities — granting some and agreeing to consider others.

Central to the conflict are various artist-friendly facilities — such as a recording studio, galleries and a theater — that residents say were never provided or were falsely advertised as perks.

McNutt said in a statement that a number of services will be available to Hollywood Arts Collective residents starting in 2025. Those services will include career and financial wellness workshops.

McNutt added that the fund is working with the city to begin construction on the Rita Moreno Arts Building — a structure next to the apartment complex with a 71-seat theater to be rented for rehearsals, performances, film screenings and other purposes.

Targeted for completion in 2026, the arts building is not intended to be “a direct amenity solely for residential tenants” — though residents may be permitted to use the theater when it isn’t being loaned out, according to a document provided to The Times.

“This has been a much more lengthy process than anticipated,” McNutt said in a statement, “but will deliver more wonderful amenities for the local community in Hollywood, including a beautiful new theater, two gallery spaces for non-profit arts partners and our new training center.”

The building management team is scheduled to meet with disabled tenants Tuesday evening to review their requests, which included accommodations for individual units and more accessible parking spots. The Hollywood Arts Collective Tenants Assn. is expected to hold a news conference Wednesday.

Who would have guessed that Devin Nunes, who left Congress to run former President Trump’s media company, would be accused of mismanagement and cronyism?

Well, me, for one.

It’s not that I am any kind of oracle. It’s just that I’ve followed Nunes’ career as an ultra-litigious Trump defender who is afflicted by a world-class intolerance for perceived slights.

Before taking the helm of Trump Media in 2022, Nunes had a master’s degree in agriculture but little hands-on business experience. He was involved in his family’s San Joaquin Valley dairy farm decades ago; when he was 14, he has recounted, he bought seven head of young cattle to raise and sell. I guess this explains his tolerance for the, ah, stench of MAGA bull.

Given his disdain for media in general and free speech in particular, as evidenced by a series of lawsuits against news organizations and other critics, putting Nunes in charge of a fledgling media empire was a bizarre move — unless the company is all about cozying up to the deep-pocketed sort of people who would benefit from a second Trump administration.

According to documents obtained by ProPublica, an unnamed Trump Media whistleblower recently asked the company’s board of directors to fire Nunes. One person with knowledge of the situation told ProPublica that the complaint alleged “misuse of funds, hiring of foreign contractors and interfering with product development.” (A Trump Media spokesperson denied the charges and accused the nonprofit journalism organization of a campaign to damage the company.)

Turmoil ensued: The company’s chief operating officer and chief product officer resigned. In any case, with almost no revenue to speak of and no indication that its Truth Social is competitive with major social media platforms, analysts consider Trump Media & Technology Group a meme stock. Its value is based entirely on the value Trump’s supporters place on him.

In recent weeks, with polls tight and the prospect of a second Trump term looming, shares of Trump Media have massively rebounded from a precipitous fall. Incredibly, the company is worth around $6 billion, putting Trump’s 59% stake at more than $3 billion. But if Trump loses in November, bye-bye, inflated valuation.

“It’s really simple,” Matthew Tuttle, the chief executive of Tuttle Capital Management, told CNN. “People realize that if Trump gets elected, this stock has the potential to do something. And if he doesn’t get elected, it probably goes to zero.”

In any case, one enterprise Nunes has mastered is filing doomed lawsuits. Between 2019 and 2023, he filed at least 11 of them, including defamation suits against Twitter parody accounts that posed as his cow and his mother. He tried to sue Twitter too, but a judge ruled that the social media company was protected by the Communications Decency Act, which gives such online platforms immunity from civil liability.

Nunes also sued McClatchy, the company that owns his hometown newspaper, the Fresno Bee, for defamation. He asked for $150 million in damages but ultimately dropped the lawsuit.

In 2019, he sued Fresno-area activists who had mounted a campaign to get Nunes to stop calling himself a “farmer” on the ballot. Nunes later quietly withdrew that lawsuit.

It was a very busy year for Nunes’ attorneys. He also sued Hearst and the journalist Ryan Lizza over an Esquire story that alleged — in a lighthearted, faux-investigative manner — that Nunes’ family had secretly moved its dairy operations to Iowa and implied that they employed illegal immigrants. After several court go-rounds, the case was dismissed last year.

Let’s see. Who else did the co-sponsor of the Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act frivolously sue that year?

He took aim at the liberal nonprofit Campaign for Accountability and the research firm Fusion GPS, the source of the infamous Steele dossier, which contained unverified gossip about Trump. Nunes, then the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, claimed the organizations conspired to hinder his investigation of the Steele dossier. That lawsuit was dismissed in 2020.

The lawsuit-happy former dairy farmer sued CNN for defamation after the network reported that he had traveled to Vienna to get dirt on Joe Biden. That lawsuit, which asked for $435 million, was dismissed in 2021.

In 2022, Nunes again sued CNN, and its host Jake Tapper, who reported that Nunes had reposted a disgusting MAGA meme about Paul Pelosi on Truth Social. Pelosi, the husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had been attacked by a stranger in their San Francisco home. Nunes’ attorneys claimed that Tapper insinuated that Nunes “has a depraved mind and that he acted immorally, fraudulently, unprofessionally, spread lies about Paul Pelosi, and disparaged and defamed Paul Pelosi.” (I couldn’t have put it better myself.) That lawsuit was dismissed in 2023.

I can find only one instance in which Nunes was not essentially laughed out of court. In 2021, he sued NBCUniversal, the parent company of MSNBC, alleging that Rachel Maddow had libeled him when she said he failed to turn over to the FBI a package that he had received from a Russian agent. In 2022, a judge ruled that it was plausible that Maddow knew the claim was untrue and has allowed the case to proceed.

My favorite empty Nunes legal threat is the one he once made against a fellow Californian, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of Torrance. Lieu said Nunes had conspired with Lev Parnas, the Russian-born Rudy Giuliani associate, to undermine the U.S. government. (In 2021, Parnas was sentenced to prison for making illegal donations to Trump’s 2020 campaign, and just last month, he tearfully apologized to Hunter Biden for pushing the Trump/Giuliani/Nunes-endorsed lie that as vice president, Joe Biden took actions in Ukraine to benefit his son.)

“I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes,” Lieu responded. “Or, you can take your letter and shove it.”

I guess they shoved it: Miraculously, no lawsuit was ever filed.

Threads: @rabcarian

The World Series betting odds might be in the Dodgers’ favor, but when it comes to the battle of the brands, the Yankees have a leg up (sorry, Angelenos).

The Yankees are the highest-valued team in Major League Baseball, with a valuation of $7.6 billion, and its brand is valued at an estimated $1.2 billion, according to an analysis this year from Forbes. The Dodgers are the runner-up, with a $5.5-billion valuation and $1.1-billion brand.

Underscoring and helping to drive the Yankees’ domination on retail shelves and airwaves has been the proliferation of the team’s iconic logo in the cultural zeitgeist, including Jay-Z’s ball cap and a partnership with Gucci. Hollywood frequently gives the franchise free product placement, putting the white-on-navy insignia on characters in movies and television shows, furthering its cultural reach. (The Yankees’ logo was inspired by an interlocking “N” and “Y” design from Tiffany’s in 1877.)

“The Yankees have this status where they’ve transcended baseball,” said Jim Andrews, a Northwestern University sports marketing professor who founded the sports marketing consulting firm A-Mark Partnership Strategies. “You see people wearing that logo all around the world.”

But don’t count out the Dodgers just yet. The signing of Japanese baseball phenom Shohei Ohtani last year to a 10-year, $700-million contract ignited fan interest around the world, particularly in the baseball-obsessed market of Japan.

That energized fan base has translated into tourism dollars for Los Angeles, as Japanese tourists have descended upon the city — and on Little Tokyo — to watch the Dodgers and Ohtani throughout the season.

Small businesses in Little Tokyo have displayed Dodgers decorations in their windows, and blue-clad visitors, often wearing Ohtani shirts or jerseys, frequently wander the streets. A massive mural of Ohtani, painted by artist Robert Vargas, looms over 1st Street on the side of the Miyako Hotel.

“In terms of the internationalization … they are beating the Yankees right now in the Japanese market through Shohei Ohtani,” said Thilo Kunkel, a professor at Temple University’s school of sport, tourism and hospitality management. The Dodgers are “using international superstars to build their team brand, and they’ve certainly done really well.”

Though the Dodgers are bested by the Yankees in total number of social media followers (12.9 million to 17.6 million), L.A.’s fans engage with the team more on social media, with the Dodgers racking up the most likes, shares, reposts, comments and video views of any team in MLB, according to data from business intelligence firm Kore, which was recently acquired by global marketing agency Two Circles. The 2.3 million new social media followers the Dodgers added this season was tops in the league as well, Kore figures show.

“The Dodgers really are a story of growth,” said Daniel Foltz, corporate partnerships strategy and data analyst at Kore. “It would have been very easy for them to sign Shohei, get the gift of having the most unique player in baseball, and then just cruise. They have instead done a great job this year of building on it, not letting any of the momentum go to waste.”

There’s history between these two teams. The Dodgers and Yankees have previously met 11 times in the World Series, most recently in 1981, when the Dodgers emerged as champions.

This year’s matchup presents a huge opportunity not only for the teams to boost their brands, but also for Major League Baseball to build on the increased ratings and fan interest it has won in recent years, said Andrews, of Northwestern.

The league’s gains have been helped by the star power of players such as Ohtani and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, as well as additions such as the introduction of the pitch clock, which has quickened the pace of games.

Though media rights have already been settled for these games, viewership numbers for a matchup like this could give either team more negotiating power for future media rights deals, Kunkel said.

The Yankees broadcast their regular season games through their team-owned Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network, which is the most-watched regional sports network in the U.S. as of last year. (Amazon and Sinclair Broadcast Group have minority stakes in the network.)

The Dodgers own SportsNetLA, which is distributed by Charter Communications (which operates the Spectrum brand), as part of an $8.35-billion deal struck more than a decade ago. Though nonsubscribers were shut out from Dodgers games for years, Spectrum reached a deal in 2020 to broadcast games on DirecTV and U-Verse. (Other pay-TV operators, such as Cox, are still excluded.)

Having a recognizable and valuable brand is a huge advantage in the sports world, Andrews said.

“The bigger the brand, the more merchandise you’re selling and the more money you’re making,” he said. “If you can do that, it gives you that baseline revenue to build your business off of.”

The Yankees generated $679 million in revenue in 2023, while the Dodgers raked in $549 million, according to Forbes’ calculations.

This World Series not only represents a battle between two of the league’s storied and successful franchises, but also the nation’s two top media markets — L.A. and New York — which adds to the brand strength of those franchises, said Bryan Harris, founder and chief executive of 25 Hits, a marketing communications firm with sports expertise.

It’s part of how these two brands have transcended the sports sphere and made their way into fashion, lifestyle and pop culture, particularly internationally.

“The baseball cap is, if anything, the American uniform,” said John Thorn, the official MLB historian since 2011. “New York and L.A. have come to symbolize America in distant lands. To be a media capital or a cultural capital is to become a fashion capital.”