While board members Mann and Hill presented the homeowners association as a unified front against the museum, one current board member told The Standard that there was no such unanimity among board members. Many people in the association were supportive of the museum, the person said, noting that the Gregangelenos had previously provided entertainment for association events.
The museum isn’t the only Balboa Terrace neighbor to run afoul of the association. To eight-year resident Nathan Ng, the complaints and targeting of Gregangelo sounded eerily familiar. In 2016, the homeowners association used a city-sanctioned process known as discretionary review to stall Ng’s home renovation.
Ng said the board’s efforts to thwart the Gregangelo Museum fit a pattern. When Ng submitted plans to renovate his home, he claimed that one neighbor joined the homeowners association in part to stop the project.
“She said we weren’t buying a house because we wanted to start a family, but … because we were flipping it,” Ng said, who had two children in the ensuing years. The claim incited anger toward Ng among other board members and residents, Ng said, even as it mischaracterized reality.
Ng recalled bumping into Mann at a homeowners association barbeque event previous to when he filed his plans.
“When I confirmed I was the one trying to remodel my house, he said, ‘We’re gonna stop you,’” Ng said. “He was the main person orchestrating all these attacks, and it feels very similar to what he’s doing to Gregangelo.”
Board member Hill pointed to his reelection to the board in March—and Herrera’s loss of a position on it—as evidence that the neighborhood is with him and against the museum. “It was a fabulous demonstration of democracy,” Hill said of the election.
As far as Ng’s situation, Hill sees it differently. “Nathan and his wife don’t think the homeowners association should have any say over their house,” he said, “even though we have a bunch of historic homes, and the goal is to maintain the look of the neighborhood.”
For his part, Herrera is hoping all of the negative vibrations are temporary. The artist plans to invite the entire board over to his home this week. “I don’t want to just extend an olive branch,” he said. “I want to give an olive orchard.”