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www.ushollywood.net A Coalition of
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Summer & Fall 2007 NewsletterWhat's happened,
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Observations and Opinions |
Hollywood Blvd. decline:The PANTAGES Scandal:Whilst CLARETT’S major project finally escaped Garcetti’s dungeon after 2 years of incarceration by the Neighborhood Councils and local Luminaries of all stripe successfully storming his bastille., it was clear that the imprisoned Project came out gaunt, and shriveled by the ordeal and today’s marketplace prospects.. Above and beyond all calamities, however, was the absence of any recognition of, accommodation to, or encouragement of the venues which made ‘Hollywood & Vine’ world renowned, or even regionally attractive, but rather a weird hostility from the 13th Council. i.e., As the sole survivor of regional live entertainment hereabouts, the sole resource of that which made the famed intersection differ from say: PIco Blvd & Western Ave., namely The Pantages Theater, it saw public parking drastically reduced, via the expectation, if you can believe it, that patrons from San Diego to Santa Barbara will use the subway or public transit to come. That the Pantages is the sole provender of popular live theater herebouts and whether it is a virtue or a blight needs perspective., which we share: The Doolittle Theater was removed and given to revolutionary elements as was the Ivar Theater by 13th Council device. Recent venues @ the latter heralded:”Wetbacks, Wops & Kikes” & at the Doolittle: “Zorro in Hell”, sub titled: Cultural Clashes, (‘Cultural Learnings of Early California for Make Benefit Glorious Gringo Nation in Aztlan! ) All in all, kids, not Mid America, nor sufficient to keep alive local restaurants wishing to serve such. They keep withering away. Re: that Intersection: the common plaint: “ theres no There” One marvels, clinically, at the mindset of of our successive Council ideologues, over the past several decades. All from academia or ‘public service’, all lacking any marketplace skills, but all asserting their perverse wills which have placed impossible burdens on the commonweal. i.e., Hollywood, starving for parking for residents and commerce, but the public coffers drained by bond payments supporting empty major parking structures precluding construction of direly needed resources. So bad that parking meters charge 8 times that of adjacent communities i.e. $1.00 per hour compared to $.25 for 2 hours.( Parking structures placed there, believe it or not, a young council aide from England whose expertise was ‘social work’.) So, the once famed Blvd still languishes after 25 years of “Redevelopment” with major buildings vacant, street front vacancies and pathetic uses such as tattoo parlors, racy panty purveyors. and pathetic homeless & beggars as ever. The sad prospect is: that the Downtown Project will succeed in creating a major Theater District. They have what’s needed: Owner & Council participation in a common goal. We, lack both and worse, are burdened by paper entities such as Neighborhood Councils corrupted by liquor money , A Chamber of Commerce obesiant to a competitor at best ( Universal City ) and have become host to wall to wall liquor licensees and exported ‘homeless’. History now:Jerry’s garage on Gower Street is no more. That Southwest corner @ Hollywood Blvd. has been cleared and sold recently...should put a memorial tablet on the sidewalk. With CNN staying @ it’s Sunset & Cahuenga Blvd site, arrangements have been made to name the vicinity “ Larry King Square” after it’s celebrated interviewer. Columbia Square’s future office and retail development was celebrated by our notorious ‘leaders’ No thought of the loss of the Hollywood identity with the relocation of the broadcasters to Studio City. The burgeoning activity on Sunset Blvd. and the comparative somlescence of Hollywood Blvd. was perceived by our famed Councilman/planner as a mysterious situation. Having failed the elements of such, by lack of study ( outside of office) of the obvious factors. We have another Rite Aid drug store on Sunset Blvd.! Is the location @ Gower & Sunset soon to pass? HousingThe great:Competition for tenants is blossoming due to the heavy stream of product coming on the market and this bodes well for would be renters as they are increasingly being courted...i.e., that ‘weird’ free market notion is ‘in place’ and working, despite all assaults by the ‘nut hatch’ extremists in ‘office’ and their ideologic dedication to their control of housing, to favor followers and further embed political control. The Latecomers:With the ongoing mortgage meltdown,the fate of the many Condo’s being readied for market is the subject of sleepless nights for ‘speculative’ investors.A major rethinking for many announced residential projects is underway. The chilling effect is, typically as nightmarish as are the financial consequences to enthusiasts. That the ‘market’ rewards the early and penalizes the late, is to say that fortune always lures the adventurous and abhors the ‘weak’, in that their success arouses others to emulate, and that, the ‘last’ are penalized appropriately for their incompetent pursuit of a past opportunity, by being shorn. The wisdom:Embrace the “market”. The alternative is Orwellian, worst case.Well, it’s been interesting....... And, a new year is acoming.... Happier times. Yours, for a nicer Hollywood, John
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