A three-mile stretch of Hollywood Boulevard is getting renovated — LA City Council members want to widen sidewalks, remove two traffic lanes, and make the area friendlier to cyclists. The goals: Boost safety and attract more tourists and residents. The project’s price tag is about $8 million.
Right now, many locals would describe Hollywood Boulevard as gritty, says Rachel Uranga, staff writer LA Times. The street outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre is filled with gawking tourists and performers in superhero costumes who want a few bucks in exchange for a photo with them. It’s a far departure from the pizazz and glamour of the red carpet.
The redesign plan is part of a larger effort to move away from a car-centric LA, Uranga says.
However, not everyone is on board with the plan. A chief executive of a touring company wrote to Uranga to say that the city does not need to create more space at Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave., and removing parking will decimate the tour industry.
“History has shown, in Los Angeles, that certain neighborhoods and certain individuals don't want street parking taken away. They don't want their cars to have smaller streets because then it's slower. … You're in a hurry, people don't want to be bothered with this more intimate, walkable space,” Uranga says. “And it's part of the reason that for a long time, even though Los Angeles had plans to implement these kinds of things in other parts of the city, City Council members wound up not moving forward because they don't want the blowback from constituents.”
When can people expect the changes to take place?
“You're gonna see the bike lanes by next year and even some of the restriping. There's some portions of the plan that need to go through an environmental process, but it's very little, it's just some of the structural things. They're going to add more trees and so forth. But a large portion of this will get done by next year.”