Mayor Villaraigosa gets his wall *

City zoning rules in Los Angeles allow front fences and walls to be 42 inches high. Getty House, the mayor's official residence, has gone all these years without even that. But now a zoning variance has quietly gone through to allow a six-foot wall at the corner house in Windsor Square. The Hancock Park Garden Club, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, the Windsor Square HPOZ Board and the publisher of the Larchmont Chronicle all opposed the request along the way. Well, they lost. We'll see if Mayor Villaraigosa retains enough neighborhood goodwill to be invited to the big bash for William and Kate next month at the British Consul's residence on June Street.

Update: The "wall" is more like a wrought-iron fence and will be built on two sides, not the front, at the urging of the LAPD, says the L.A. Times.