Michael Jackson and Havenhurst

Most of my clients are in the part of the San Fernando Valley between Studio City and Calabasas.  And many of them live in a part of the valley in the town of Encino and the Encino Hills (between famous Ventura Boulevard, and infamous Mulholland Drive).  One of the most commonly used connectors between Ventura and Mulholland is Havenhurst — where the Jackson family compound is.  For several weeks it has been challenging, to impossible at times, to navigate the area because of the media circus that is often camped out in front of the house — or rather the long driveway that affords no view of the home.  (So media are basically sitting and waiting for someone to go in or out…because it is just a gated driveway.)

In any event, it’s been relatively quiet the past week or so…in fact, when you live in the area you don’t really think about the fact that you are passing the Jackson family home.  You just drive.  The funny thing is that I’ve lived in Encino for 10 years, driven up and down Havenhurst about a thousand times, and until Michael’s death, never knew the family lived there.  It was only when the entire street shut down with about 50 news vans, that I saw exactly where the home was.  Yesterday,  there was some security around the gate — a guard, a police car, and a small group congregated just down the road.  No media circus…for once. 

It’s a sad story and it was actually nice to see that, for the most part, people stayed away and left the Jackson family alone so they could bury their son, brother, father, uncle.