A glossy photoshopped Scientology PR photo of PAC Base offers the view shown above. But what does the neighborhood actually look like when one walks to the east from Pac Base one block to Vermont Avenue? We did that during our recent photo essay on Pac Base being locked down and boarded up due to the civil unrest in Los Angeles. While many people have seen Pac Base, and some too many times, we offer this photo essay for those who’ve never been to Los Angeles and perhaps have no desire to ever visit the City of Angels.
The street immediately east of L. Ron Hubbard Way is N. New Hampshire Way. This is where the International Association of Scientology Administrations (IASA) office is located. The neighborhood is a working class one similar to Lynwood, California where your humble correspondent was born and lived for many years as a child.
Below are some photos we took from N. New Hampshire Way. These photos give a sense of place to Pac Base. These first three photos were taken from the parking lot of Wendy’s, a fast food dining establishment frequented by locals and Sea Org alike. Here we see the IASA building, the doorway of which is presently boarded up:
The large window in this Scientology facility is likewise boarded up at present:
This next photo gives us a sense of the infrastructure and neighborhood of the area. Pac Base in the afternoon haze betrays its 1920’s institutional “Old L.A.” look and feel: 
ASHO as seen from N. New Hampshire in the same hazy late afternoon. The roof of the private home shown in the foreground is covered by a tarp as it is not in good repair.
This is what it really looks like on the next block over from PAC Base. Scientology is not helping its neighbors in any way.
This next photo from N. New Hampshire shows the size and density of Pac Base:
Another shot from N. New Hampshire shows how Pac Base blends into the fabric of its neighborhood in East Hollywood:
The fire escape stairs offer an interesting play of light and shadow in the late afternoon:
After N. New Hampshire Way, we head east a very short distance and reach the corner of Vermont Avenue and Fountain Avenue. Here we see the homeless living on the street only one block from Pac Base. Scientology’s glossy photoshopping ignores the stark and brutal reality one block away:
The Church of Scientology claims to be an humanitarian organization. However, Scientology does nothing to help the local community in East Hollywood that has been home to Pac Base for decades. Scientology’s only community concerns are Scientology-related and are focused on safepointing the Church with the LAPD.
What does the future hold for Big Blue? Will it be sold off as David Miscavige contracts his Church-like corporation down to Monastery Scientology in Clearwater and the Freewinds?
All photos by Jeffrey Augustine & Karen de la Carriere/The Scientology Money Project. Copyright 2020.
Categories: The Scientology Money Project
When we first moved to LA in late ’81 we lived in an apartment on N. New Hampshire, a short walk from Big Blue as seen in the photos. Once when I went to the apartment building’s parking garage, there was a downtrodden drunk passed out on the hood of our car. We regularly heard nearby gun shots. For an organization with the promotional slogan “something can be done about it” for a variety of societal ills, it doesn’t seem that the cult has made significant progress toward implementing their “solutions for a dangerous environment.” Sure would be interesting to see the list of their neighborhood groups and/or people who have actually risen from the scourge of drugs and homelessness, etc. as a result of the “charitable contributions” squeezed out of the cult members and donated to the International Assoc. of Scientologists (its predecessor ironically named “The Safe Environment Fund”).
What would really be neat, if the doors on all of the cult was forever locked off. Most of the time nobody goes to these places anyhow.
i NEVER heard about miscaviages: Monastery Dynasty!
Sorry: Monastery Scientology?
What about St Hill? I thought Clearwater and St Hill were the consolidation spots. But then again, I guess miscavige can’t let go of the Freewinds even though it’s a money sucker.