Protesters dragged the charred couch to the middle of the two-lane street and deposited it directly in front of Vice President Kamala Harris' Brentwood residence.
The activists, from the Dawn Movement, were there on September 23 to plead with Harris to stop promoting fossil fuel extraction. The ruined couch came from a home destroyed last month in a wildfire in Riverside County.
“BIG OIL CAUSED THE FIRES,” read signs carried by some protesters as they chanted and marched past the foliage-covered home Harris shares with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
This lasted about 45 minutes with traffic occasionally backing up as drivers navigated the disruption. Finally, a neighbor across the street saw enough and came out of his house to shout, “She's not here, you know! This is stupid! Get out of my driveway.”
Such are the occasional grievances and annoyances that plague the fashionable section of Los Angeles that Harris calls home.
Although his street is lined with signs advocating his candidacy, some residents are frustrated by the attention and security that comes with having the vice president in their midst. And they fear what the future holds if Harris wins the presidency.
Kamala Harris visits her Los Angeles home frequently, prompting security measures that residents fear will be stepped up if she is president.
“Every time he comes, we have to go through security. The street becomes one-way. If she's about to leave or enter, we have to wait outside for 45 minutes,” said a woman who lives on the same block as Harris, adding that she heard neighbors suggest they would put their property up for sale if Harris defeats Donald Trump in November. .
“If she said, 'Merry Christmas, sorry for the inconvenience,' that would be nice. But four years, not a line,” said the resident, who, like a handful of others who were not thrilled about the vice president living nearby, asked that her name not be used for fear that her comments might reveal her political leanings. .
In Harris's neighborhood north of Sundown Boulevard, where only 23% of the vote went to Trump in 2020, some of the disgruntled residents are Republicans. “Do you think she's going to win?” “worried a woman who said she had long supported the Republican Party before issuing a warning over the publication of her name: “If you use it, I will kill you.”
It's unclear how often Harris stays in Brentwood, although neighbors say he visits with some regularity. Emhoff bought the home for $2.7 million in 2012, according to public records, and Harris moved there after marrying him two years later. She visited Los Angeles at least 59 times in 2023, and at least 46 days a year earlier, according to the Wall Road Journal.
Harris' campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Officials who did “advance work” for previous presidents (coordinating travel and logistics) said that if Harris wins the presidency, her visits to Brentwood could be less frequent but would require more security. Take Harris' motorcade, the source of the traffic jams. If she were traveling as president, they could easily exceed 40 vehicles.
“It's hard to hide a motorcade, especially a presidential motorcade,” said Reed Galen, advance director for George W. Bush during his 2004 campaign. Galen, co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, listed the many components of a motorcade, including an ambulance and a vehicle carrying a counterattack team. “It can stretch out until it becomes ridiculously long.”
Residents of Harris's Kenter Canyon neighborhood are accustomed to high-profile homeowners (LeBron James and Travis Scott live nearby) and the security details and paparazzi trail they bring. But protection for Harris goes to another level. That was evident on the morning of September 29, when Harris was home. His block was closed to vehicle traffic except for local traffic and pedestrians passed through a checkpoint. White tents were set up for the plainclothes guards.
While some residents are upset, many more said they take the traffic, parking restrictions and presence of Secret Service personnel in stride. Some, including Jonathan Kimmel, said Harris sleeping nearby is something of an honor and declared, with an eye toward the election, that he was willing to endure even worse trips.
“I would make a two-hour detour each way if it meant Trump wouldn't be president,” said Kimmel, executive producer of Comedy Central's “Crank Yankers,” whose brother, TV host Jimmy Kimmel, has endorsed Harris. “I would be happy to bring the sewer system to the street if necessary.”
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Near Harris' home, a bold lawn sign adorns the front yard of a nearly 8,200-square-foot home.
“ALL JUST / 2024”, it reads.
No one was home the day The Instances knocked on the front door, where a mat invites visitors to “RETURN WITH AN ORDER.” Still, for every resident who complained about traffic, there were more who said they were tickled by Harris' presence and irritated by what they saw as the unneighborly attitudes of others.
Actor Jon Tenney, who lives on the same street as Harris, said that when the Secret Service is there, “it feels like a nice block party,” in a good way. He became exasperated when told about another resident's resentment.
“That's crazy,” said Tenney, who co-starred on the TV show “The Nearer.” “She is the vice president of the United States: there is a security detail. That's part of his job.”
Harris' supporters and detractors agree on one thing: Secret Service staff were courteous and professional, and residents felt safer with them around. That's even a selling point touted by Ben Belack, the listing agent for a home listed for $5.149 million near the Harris property.
Real estate agent Ben Belack in the living room of a house he has listed for sale in Brentwood. It's down the street from Kamala Harris' house.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Instances)
“When people came for [the] At the open house, he wasn't leading with LeBron James… period, 'presidential candidate' and 'Secret Service,'” Belack said, adding that several potential buyers were pleasantly surprised to learn that Harris had a home in the enclave. “I think people value security and the possible improvement of security very highly.”
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Brentwood is a land of canyons from wealthy Mandeville Canyon to Harris's Kenter Canyon. It's no wonder VIPs prefer them: Their chaparral-covered peaks offer stunning views and privacy, and their shady lowlands provide a chic small-town vibe and proximity to shopping streets and other amenities.
Harris isn't even the only canyon-dweller mounting a presidential campaign: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the race in August, reportedly lives in a $6.6 million home in Mandeville Canyon.
Compared to Kennedy's nearly 6,000-square-foot home, the four-bedroom Harris-Emhoff home is modest. The roughly 3,500-square-foot residence was built in 1948, decades before the McMansion trend, not to mention the faux farmhouses that now dot Brentwood.
If Harris defeats Trump in November, could she still find time to visit him? Galen, the former advanced director, said a president's many responsibilities would likely make regular travel difficult. The presidency, he said, is “a little bit like being in a golden cell.”
A real estate sign on the street where Vice President Kamala Harris has a home.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Instances)
One thing is certain, Galen said: If Harris were to visit Brentwood as president, security would be beefed up. Consider the recent climate protest: “If she becomes president, [the Secret Service] I won't let that happen again. Or they will designate a free speech area.”
A political consultant who has done advance work for Democratic presidents said the geography and infrastructure of Harris' neighborhood present basic security challenges. It begins on the street itself, a narrow street where residents park on the side of the road.
“That creates vulnerabilities,” said the consultant, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive topic. “Preferably, you would do a presidential motorcade on a street with no parked cars.”
Properties that house presidents, he noted, also tend to be protected with large physical barriers; Sanitary trucks filled with sand that were placed around the entrance to Trump Tower when its eponymous owner was in town. It's hard to imagine a similar deal working on Harris Street.
In fact, the house in Kenter Canyon seems more difficult to secure than the bases of some previous presidents. Bush, for example, enjoyed trips to his ranch in tiny Crawford, Texas. And California presidents have had residences in more remote destinations: Richard Nixon's Casa Pacifica in San Clemente and Ronald Reagan's Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara County.
Knowing that Brentwood presents safety challenges, Galen said, Harris and Emhoff might ask themselves: “Every time we want to take a couple of days off, do we really want to inconvenience a lot of people?”
Tenney, the actor, said a Harris assistant once gave him a gift bag and an apology “for any inconvenience.” Tenney said he met the vice president recently at a fundraiser and told her they were neighbors.
“She said, 'Oh, I'm so sorry,'” he recalled.
Instances writers Sammy Roth and Jack Flemming contributed to this report.