The battle between the residents of Beachwood Canyon and the tourists they say are clogging their streets and taking up all the parking on the way to the Hollywodo Sign rages on and the mean old homeowners are still winning. The LA City Council voted yesterday to ban all non-resident parking around the Sign. The area has five permit-parking-only zones (numbers 180, 189, 190, 192, and 195) that only apply on weekends and holidays, but under the new proposal all five would go to seven days a week, KPCC reports. The motion was unanimously approved by the City Council but residents will still have to put it to a vote (they'll need a two-thirds majority).
A small group of residents has been campaigning for years to turn people away from their neighborhood, which sits just below the Sign; they are now led by a professional PR strategist who has helped shape their message (more safety, less NIMBYism) and who works with them as they lobby city officials (they've even made a 30-minute propaganda film). They've already gotten many mapping apps to change the directions to the popular destination, closed a popular trailhead leading to the Sign for nearly a year, and—ironically—convinced the city to open up a biking/pedestrian street in public Griffith Park to cars and parking.
Councilmember Tom LaBonge, who reps the area and introduced the motion (but will be termed out next month), blames the "overwhelming attention" on GPS services, but it's not actually difficult to find the Sign—it's right there on the side of a mountain, you just follow the road up. LaBonge believes the solution is a shuttle (which riders would pay for) running from the Red Line at Hollywood and Vine up to "the park up Beachwood Drive" (presumably he means Lake Hollywood Park). The city launched a shuttle with a route up to an oblique viewing spot in Griffith Park last year, but it was shut down earlier this year. Residents have opposed a shuttle into Beachwood Canyon.
· City Council unanimously passes vote on expanding parking restrictions near Hollywood sign [SCPR]
· Hollywood Sign NIMBY Battle Has Spilled Over Into Griffith Park [Curbed LA]
· LA Finally Providing Official Viewing For the Hollywood Sign [Curbed LA]
· How a Small Group of Neighborhood Activists Have Taken the Hollywood Sign Hostage [Curbed LA]
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