A Great Way to See the Hollywood Sign: New Shuttle Vans Start Saturday, May 3rd, from the Greek Theater

Photo by Hope Anderson Productions

In a promising development for tourists and Angelenos alike, the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department will begin running weekend vans to the Hollywood Sign from the Greek Theater this Saturday. The tour, which will take a scenic route through Griffith Park, costs $7 and includes admission to the Observatory. This is a trial that will last through July.

For further information:

Click to access rappress31487129_04162014.pdf

To purchase tickets online:

https://cnp.clickandpark.com/facility/?search%5Bfacility_id%5D=598

My Documentary Feature, “Under the Hollywood Sign,” Is Now Available On Demand

Poster by Nathan Church/ Copyright Hope Anderson Productions

The documentary that inspired this blog is now available as a download, either for purchase ($18) or rent ($5). Under the Hollywood Sign explores the history and present-day life of Beachwood Canyon in historical pictures, new footage and interviews. Here’s the link:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/uths

To purchase a DVD, please go to: http://www.underthehollywoodsign.com

Beachwood Canyon’s Very Sick Mountain Lion: How P-22 was Poisoned

P-22, Sick with Mange/Courtesy latimes.com

P-22 When Healthy/Courtesy Friends of Griffith Park

Readers of Under the Hollywood Sign will recall previous posts about the tree rats that populate the Hollywood Hills and the coyotes that (mercifully) cull them. Sadly, the poison that residents sometimes resort to using when rats invade their homes has moved up the food chain, poisoning coyotes and the mountain lions that feed on them. This point was underscored by the revelation that P22, the mountain lion whose nighttime meanderings through Hollywoodland have lately been captured on camera, has been sickened by raticide-related mange.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Griffith-Park-Mountain-Lion-P22-Found-Sick-Possibly-From-Rat-Poison-255617591.html

Park rangers have treated P-22, so it’s possible that it will recover. But when the story broke, a neighbor reported another source of poison: the fetid water in the pool of a long-vacant house on Hollyridge Drive. P22 was seen drinking from the pool after the City dumped in mosquito-abating chemicals. When I went up to see the house yesterday, its appearance was dire:

Vacant House on Hollyridge Drive/Hope Anderson Productions

The good news is that the house has just been sold. Let’s hope the new owner will drain the pool before tackling what promises to be a lengthy and arduous renovation.

Why We Freak Out When You Smoke in Beachwood Canyon

No Smoking Sign at Lake Hollywood Park

Last night a neighbor of mine went up to the vista above Lake Hollywood to look at the lunar eclipse. So did a number of people from outside the Canyon, some of whom were smoking despite the signs forbidding it. (The photo above is from 2011; since then, Councilman Tom LaBonge’s office has installed even larger signs, including one featuring Smokey the Bear, to little result.) Although all but one of the smokers put out their cigarettes after my neighbor asked them to, one pointedly refused.

Yet one cigarette is all it takes to start a fire in the dry brush. A couple of years ago, a fire caused by a tourist’s flicked cigarette burned an acre at the vista in minutes before firefighters arrived. I wrote about it here:

https://underthehollywoodsign.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/setting-our-house-on-fire-hollywood-sign-tourists-and-their-cigarettes/

This year California’s long drought was declared the worst in its recorded history. With below average rainfall for eleven of the past fifteen years, including almost no rain last year and the year before, conditions are now so dry that any spark could threaten every home in Beachwood Canyon. That’s why we have No Smoking signs, and why we get so upset when smokers ignore them.

Postscript: There was a brush fire in Griffith Park during the early morning hours of April 16th–probably a side effect of someone smoking during the lunar eclipse. http://hollywood.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/firefighters-battle-flames-in-hollywood-hills

At Yesterday’s City Hall Meeting, A Reprieve for Beachwood Drive Residents

About thirty Hollywoodland residents, including many residents of Beachwood Drive, attended yesterday’s Transportation Committee meeting at City Hall. Some of us were able to speak about the City’s proposal to end daytime parking on the east side of Beachwood Drive. Among the consequences of the proposed ban–none of which the Committee seemed to have anticipated–are the following:

1. Every car traveling on Beachwood Drive would have to make a U-turn in order to park on the (legal) west side, since the street is a dead-end accessible only from the south.

2. People whose houses are on the east side would have to cross busy Beachwood Drive in order to get home, a particularly risky exercise for the street’s elderly and disabled residents.

3. Many of the vehicles seeking parking along Beachwood Drive are service vehicles, including large trucks and moving vans. Their U-turns would halt traffic in both directions, increasing congestion.

4. A dearth of parking on Beachwood Drive would create more congestion on Hollywoodland’s already overcrowded side streets.

The Committee granted a 30-day stay for further study and new proposals. Stay tuned for further details.

The City’s Latest Assault on Hollywoodland: A Plan to Eliminate Half Our Street Parking

An Alternative Sign/Courtesy Eugene Gordon

When I’m driving on Beachwood Drive, impeded by stopped tour vans and tourists posing for photos in the middle of the street, I sometimes wonder if Hollywoodland’s many visitors ever think about their impact on those of us who live here. I doubt it: if they did, matters wouldn’t have escalated into the crisis we now find ourselves mired in. A thousand visitors’ cars per day have caused gridlock, trapped us our houses and prevented us from getting home. There have been hostile arguments, car accidents and untended medical emergencies. And at the end of the day, we residents are left to clean up the detritus of our neighborhood’s wild, toll-free tourism: cigarettes and matches in a wildfire area; beer cans and liquor bottles, bottles of urine, bags of excrement and used condoms.

In any other place, a City Council Representative would represent his constituents’ interests, not those of tourists. Unfortunately, our representative is Tom LaBonge, whose determination to be Mr. Hollywood has pitted him against the very people who pay his salary–us. His latest salvo, harebrained even by the standards of his record, is to eliminate street parking on the east side of Beachwood Drive in Hollywoodland during the day, the better to accommodate throngs of tourists who hike to the Hollywood Sign.

Never mind that 100% of polled residents oppose the plan. LaBonge is determined to restrict the mile-long stretch between Beachwood Village and the northern end of Beachwood Drive, making it illegal to park outside our houses from 8am to 6pm, seven days a week. No word on where all the residents’ cars will go, to say nothing of moving trucks and service vehicles. I happen to live on the east side of Beachwood Drive and although I park in my one-car garage, I have friends, family and repair people who need a place to park when they visit. Where are they supposed to go when the west side of the street will be filled with residents’ cars? I guess we’ll find out; there’s a meeting on the matter at City Hall this Wednesday. For those wishing to attend, the details are:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2014
2:00 PM
ROOM 1010 CITY HALL
200 N SPRING STREET

Correction: Originally the article stated that parking on Beachwood would be restricted 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I regret that I was misinformed and have made the necessary corrections.