Like many downtown Los Angeles residents, Ricardo Sebastián doesn’t own a car and prefers it that way. “I do not want the responsibility of owning a vehicle.

Residents in an opulent Los Angeles neighborhoods are beginning to fear for their safety as increasingly violent squatters wreak havoc, setting fires and attacking their property workers.

Like the simple architecture of Sea Ranch in Northern California, which connects to the landscape, Los Angeles architect Lindsay Sheron designed a two-story house that "blends into the hill." ...