Category Archives: Traffic

Hell on Highland

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An image from Jean-Luc Godard's "Weekend". Frustrated drivers, stuck in an endless traffic jam, start attacking each other.

An image from Jean-Luc Godard’s “Weekend”. Frustrated drivers, stuck in an endless traffic jam,
start attacking each other.

I wish I’d had a camera with me last night. I got off the Red Line in Hollywood around seven, and started walking north on Highland. The northbound traffic was backed up and moving slowly, but that’s not unusual. Then I got to Franklin and saw that westbound traffic was backed up there, too. That’s when I realized something was probably going on at the Bowl. (Later I learned it was a Katy Perry concert.) Again, this is nothing out of the ordinary. As the Bowl continues to schedule more off-season events, the horrible congestion that used to be confined to summer is becoming a year-round phenomenon.

But then I got to Wilcox, and I saw that the westbound traffic on Franklin was backed up all the way to freeway. I’ve seen congestion on Franklin before, but never this bad. This was also affecting the traffic on Wilcox, which was backed up as far south as I could see.

Now, I’m not bringing this up just to whine about traffic. The reason this spectacle freaked me out is because it seems like a vision of things to come. Anyone who lives in Hollywood knows how bad the traffic is already, but the City of LA continues to approve massive projects, often over the vocal objections of Hollywood residents. Just days ago I learned about two new residential complexes that are slated to be built on Highland, in this same area. Right at the corner of Highland and Franklin, a developer plans to build a residential complex with over a hundred units. And at Highland and Selma, just about a half mile away, the plan is to build a residential/retail complex with over three hundred units.

The fact that these two projects will make traffic on Highland even worse is probably obvious to everyone, except the people in the Department of City Planning. They are pushing these two projects forward using Mitigated Negative Declarations (MNDs), which means they have determined that building over four hundred new units within a half mile of each other in an already congested corridor will have no significant negative impacts. Remember, the recently completed Jefferson, at Highland and Yucca, contains two hundred and seventy units. And on La Brea there are a number of projects already under construction which will total over a thousand new units. Much of the traffic generated by these projects will be travelling through the Highland/Cahuenga corridor.

Is the City Council ever going to stop this insanity?! Not unless local residents apply a lot of pressure. If you live in Hollywood, and if you think the traffic is bad enough already, please call your City Council representative. It should be either Tom LaBonge or Mitch O’Farrell, but check the maps to make sure. The boundaries are tricky. Here’s the link….

LA City Council Directory

By the way, last night I stopped to have a cup of coffee at a place on the corner of Franklin and Cahuenga. When I left about a half hour later, the westbound traffic on Franklin was still backed up to the freeway.

Furious

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I can’t describe how angry I am over the LA City Council’s vote to approve the Millennium Hollywood project. After Caltrans contacted the city to ask why none of its concerns over traffic were addressed in the Final EIR. After the California Geological Survey wrote to say they believe an active fault line runs beneath the project area. After months of pleas from angry residents who do not want these towers. The City Council and the Mayor choose to ignore all of that and forge ahead.

It’s obvious they don’t care about the safety of Hollywood’s residents. It’s obvious they don’t care how much time LA’s citizens spend sitting in traffic. And it’s obvious they don’t care that state agencies have expressed serious reservations about this project. But their lack of concern shouldn’t surprise us, since they’ve demonstrated over and over again that their primary concern is representing the interests of developers and unions.

I think it’s time we asked the state to step in. Caltrans has said the project will seriously impact the Hollywood Freeway, making a bad situation even worse. The California Geological Survey has expressed concern about an active fault line. I think we need to contact our representatives on the State Legislature and ask them to get involved. The city has shown a total disregard for the state’s input on this project. We need to ask the State of California to take action.

Rush Hour on Cahuenga

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Let’s talk traffic.

The streets directly adjacent to the proposed Millennium Hollywood project are actually fairly quiet.  Traffic impacts on Vine, Ivar and Argyle will probably not be too severe.  It’s the major corridors that serve this area that will have difficulty accommodating the increased traffic.  Take Cahuenga Blvd. for instance….

Anybody who’s driven north on Cahuenga at rush hour knows the traffic can get pretty heavy.  If you haven’t made the trip yourself, here are a few photos that will give you an idea of what it’s like.

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The photo above was taken on the 1500 block of Cahuenga, east side facing south.

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This photo was taken on the 1700 block of Cahuenga, east side facing south.

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Now we’re on the 1800 block, just above Yucca, again east side facing south.

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The 2100 block, again east side facing south.

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Same location as the last photo, but now facing north.

These pictures may make it seem worse than it actually was on the days I was shooting.  I want to make clear that even though it was stop and go, traffic was moving.  In most cases the line of cars at an intersection were able to make it through on the green.  But as you can see, rush hour on Cahuenga is no picnic.

Keep in mind that these pictures were taken in March.  You should see what it looks like after the Hollywood Bowl season begins in June.  That’s when things really get scary.    On Bowl nights the traffic can start slowing as early as four, and rush hour can last til around seven.  When shows are sold out, Cahuenga, Highland and the freeway tend to look like parking lots.  And don’t forget there are additional performances scheduled outside the regular Bowl season.  Coming up in the next few months we have Fleetwood Mac, Andrea Bocelli and the Playboy Jazz Festival.

Now, in theory, the people who live in the Millennium Hollywood towers would have no reason to be involved in this rush hour morass.  So let’s assume that none of them will ever have any reason to be travelling through the Cahuenga Pass between four and six pm.  Still, the people who work at the complex will need to get home at the end of the day.  And many of them will wind up on Cahuenga at rush hour.

Millennium Hollywood Project

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One of the things that motivated me to start this blog is the proposed Millennium Hollywood Project.  As a resident of Hollywood, I’m really concerned about this for a number of reasons.  While I support responsible, sustainable development, neither one of those adjectives can be applied to the project in its current form.  My main gripe is that two huge, high-rise towers will be erected next to the Capitol Records building.  My objections are based in part on aesthetics, since if the project is built these towers would completely overwhelm this Hollywood icon.  But the biggest problem with this project is that it will make traffic much worse.

The City of LA has been pursuing a policy of building high-density residential projects near transit centers.  In theory this sounds like good planning, and I used to support the idea.  But there have been a number of large residential projects built in Hollywood over the past several years, most of them less than a block away from subway stations, and traffic has only gotten worse.  The concept of having people live next to a subway so they won’t need to use their car sounds good, but the reality is that most Angelenos still take their cars most of the time.  The Millennium Hollywood Project will only make traffic worse, and the proposed mitigations are not sufficient.

I’ll write more later, but if you’re interested in finding out more about the project, here’s a link to an article that includes renderings of the finished development.

http://www.archdaily.com/290508/las-millennium-hollywood-project/