Hollywood

"Bicycle Friendly Street."

Friends of the Hollywood Central Park (FHCP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a 44-acre street-level park over the Hollywood Freeway in a densely populated and park-poor area of the city, accepted a $1.2 million gift today from the Aileen Getty Foundation. The donation, combined $825,000  from the city fully funds the park's environmental study, a study needed before fundraising can truly begin for design and construction.

Hollywood is changing.

Advocates for more open space for the park-starved community of Hollywood had a moment to shine yesterday.  Congressman Adam Schiff, members of the Hollywood Central Park Committee and other neighborhood advocates had a meeting with USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood to discuss their proposal to place a 44-acre street level park "on top" of the 101 Hollywood Freeway.

Its no secret that outside of Griffith Park, Los Angeles is a city starving for open space.  There is nowhere this is more true than Hollywood, where even a weekly farmer's market is under attack because it blocks access to a parking lot.  Thus, while Hollywood waits for projects such as the Hollywood Freeway Central Park, it's important to try and create pockets of places where people can be outside in a safe and welcoming environment.

The uncertain future of the Hollywood Farmers Market has inspired much energy and advocacy that food and street advocates in Los Angeles can be proud of. Market operator See-LA rallied allies and supporters. Farmers’ market patrons flooded City Councilperson Eric Garcetti with messages of support for the market. Garcetti in turn helped extend the permit and is trying to negotiate a solution that preserves most of the markets’ existing footprint and access. But the controversy also raises a question that in turn suggests a way to save the market and others like it.

Here's a quick rundown of the major votes by today's Metro Board. Each of these five motions were discussed at Streetsblog over the last couple of weeks, and links to those stories can be found at the end of each summary.  Streetsblog will have links to all news reports on today's meeting tomorrow.

A 3D Rendering of a Future Bike Room in the Hollywood and Vine Development

At the Huffington Post, Joel Epstein, who has done a heck of a job pushing 30/10, wrote a piece pondering the absolute lack of Hollywood star power in promoting transit as opposed to promoting things like electric-powered cars. Of course, that Hollywood movies present heroes driving muscle cars, saving the universe with cars that turn into robots, and motorcycles as the key to freedom doesn't help.  And when a comet is about to crash into the earth, who is going to save us?  Oil drillers.  Jeesh.