Property

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

Stephanie Nordlinger, who lives in a modest Baldwin Hills tract home, has been reading with interest the news stories about computer magnate Michael Dell and his low, low property taxes. Last week, the Times reported that Dell has saved more than a million dollars a year in taxes on a landmark Santa Monica hotel by exploiting a gaping legal loophole in the rules that govern how Proposition 13 is applied. By bringing his wife and two investment advisors into the 2006 deal for the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, my colleagues Jason Felch and Jack Dolan reported, Dell has so far been able to keep his taxes based on the hotel's 1999 assessed value of $86 million, rather than the $200 million he paid.

Actor Nick Nolte has put a Malibu compound up for sale that has seen a galaxy of stars come through its arched entryway. Besides Nolte, other notables to have owned the house include comedian Tommy Chong, Don Felder of the Eagles and music producer David Foster. Priced at $8.25 million and set in the Bonsall Canyon area, the two-acre retreat is covered with sycamore and pine trees. The main house, built in 1963, features 19-foot vaulted ceilings, skylights, six stone-and-carved-wood fireplaces, marble floors and mahogany French doors.

Two prominent defenders of Proposition 13 spoke out on Tuesday against "gimmicks" used by some companies to avoid paying additional property taxes when buying real estate in California. Responding to a Los Angeles Times story that ran Sunday, the presidents of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and the Small Business Action Committee said they would be open to narrow legislation to fix the law, which appears to allow such deals. The statements mark a shift for two organizations that have long led the fight against changes to Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot initiative that transformed property taxes in California and sparked a nationwide tax revolt.

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

On busy Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, some well-kept facades conceal a secret. Behind the Mediterranean with wooden doors, the white stucco two-story with a red tile roof, the long wall obscuring a three-structure compound, hides a singular, massive wealth fueled by obsession. This is Larry Ellison territory, where a Bay Area billionaire with seemingly endless patience and resources is buying up the best spots along Malibu's 21 miles of coast. PHOTOS: Expensive things Ellison has bought The Oracle Corp.

The bank-owned Santa Paula ranch that screen star Steve McQueen and his third wife, Barbara Minty, once owned has sold for $660,000. The property was listed in 2009 at $1.95 million but after multiple price reductions was lost to foreclosure in November at $699,283. The pair moved to the 15.3-acre Ventura County ranch in 1979 and were married in the home's living room in January 1980. The Victorian-style house, built in 1892, contains some of its original Victorian features, antique stained-glass windows and fireplaces in the family room and kitchen.

The 131-character dispatch arrived mournfully within two hours of sunrise May 4, at 7:58 a.m. to be exact. "When u give Give GIVE and they take Take TAKE at wat point do u draw a line in the sand?" Kobe Bryant wrote on his Twitter feed, adding the hashtags "hurt beyond measure," "gave me no warning," and finally, "love?" Bryant's career with the Lakers has often been pushed aside by internal family matters, the recent court battle over his memorabilia the latest in a string of cheerless events.

Where to check To find out if your home is in a 100-year-storm flood plain and subject to the insurance mandate, go to: msc.fema.gov

Architect David Denton spends much of his time on a lush tropical island, where he experiments with cutting-edge building designs and creates spaces for artists to showcase their work. Never mind that the island only exists in the virtual-reality world of Second Life, a popular online venue where people interact via digital avatars. Denton, 62, said he purchased the island for about $700 — real money, not virtual cash — from its former owner, and considers it his property.

Proposed legislation to remove junk food and sugar-loaded drinks from vending machines at California state office buildings and on government property is intensifying debate about when the battle against obesity becomes a gateway to "nanny state" tactics. Backers of the Assembly bill, AB 459, said California shouldn't condone the sale of fatty snacks and sodas in the workplace when taxpayers are already shelling out vast amounts to cover the healthcare costs of overweight government employees.

On busy Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, some well-kept facades conceal a secret. Behind the Mediterranean with wooden doors, the white stucco two-story with a red tile roof, the long wall obscuring a three-structure compound, hides a singular, massive wealth fueled by obsession. This is Larry Ellison territory, where a Bay Area billionaire with seemingly endless patience and resources is buying up the best spots along Malibu's 21 miles of coast. PHOTOS: Expensive things Ellison has bought The Oracle Corp.

The head of the firm that wants to buy some of downtown Los Angeles' biggest skyscrapers is bullish about its long-stagnant office market. "We like the direction the market is heading and think it will be improving quarter over quarter. " Dennis Friedrich, chief executive of Brookfield Office Properties Inc., told industry analysts Friday. "Around the globe there has been a trend toward growth in urban centers and L.A. is looking at this over time. " "We are being realistic about the downtown market," he added.

Five of the 10 tallest skyscrapers in Los Angeles will soon be controlled by a Manhattan real estate company in one of the biggest shake-ups of the downtown commercial real estate market in decades. Brookfield Office Properties Inc. has agreed to pay about $430 million for four prominent buildings on the urban skyline, including Gas Company Tower and Wells Fargo Tower on Bunker Hill. The pending deal would mark the end of MPG Office Trust Inc., one of Southern California's most celebrated office developers.

An  Orange County Superior Court  judge has prohibited a man accused of gunning down a doctor from transferring his properties to relatives, according to an attorney for the victim's family. Stanwood Elkus, 75, of Lake Elsinore, stands accused of killing Ronald Gilbert, 52, of Huntington Harbour, in the doctor's office in Newport Beach in January. Gilbert's wife of 23 years, Elizabeth Gilbert, and his two sons won a temporary restraining order against Elkus on April 4 after filing a wrongful-death claim and accusing him of defrauding them by attempting to give seven of his eight properties to his sister, according to Edward Susolik, the Gilbert family's attorney.

The corruption investigation into the Los Angeles County assessor's office broadened Tuesday with prosecutors filing dozens of new charges against embattled Assessor John Noguez, one of his former top aides and a tax consultant. The three were originally arrested in October in an alleged scheme to trade bribes for lower property tax bills, costing the county $1.16 million in revenue. The new charges filed Tuesday bring the alleged loss to $9.8 million, prosecutors said. Noguez is Los Angeles County's elected assessor, responsible for determining the taxable value of more than 2.3 million pieces of real estate.

If money and property confiscated from drug dealers were to go into the general fund and not directly to enforcement coffers, perhaps even enforcement agencies would acknowledge the dismal failure of the current "war" on drugs. WILLIAM H. McCORMICK Garden Grove

I wonder why the two candidates for President have not mentioned selling federal government property or services to the public like TVA, Amtrak, etc., which could result in revenue of several billion and reduce the federal deficit? Do we have to wait until we decline like England, New Zealand and other nations who are now selling government-owned enterprises to private business? I hope not. FRED NEWMAN Marina del Rey

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti has amended two years of financial disclosure statements to belatedly report his ownership interest in a Beverly Hills property linked to an oil drilling operation. Garcetti, who has the Sierra Club's backing in his race against Wendy Greuel, signed a 20-year lease in the late 1990s that gave Venoco Inc. the right to drill under the retail property from the company's oil wells at nearby Beverly Hills High School. However, the city councilman from Silver Lake failed to report in his 2010 and 2011 disclosure filings that he co-owned the Wilshire Boulevard property, which houses a hair salon.

The Andaz Maui at Wailea , a LEED-certified hotel, is set to open this summer along Maui 's Mokapu Beach, a 1.2-mile stretch of white sand. The resort occupies the 15-acre site that was previously home to the Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort. It closed in 2007. The hotel will feature 297 rooms and suites, plus seven villas. A series of cascading infinity pools will provide views of the Pacific. Guests will enter the resort's spa through the Apothecary Lounge, where an herbalist will create customizable treatments and products.