How Many Hotels Do You Need?

Posted on August 16, 2016 by cmaddren

Hotel construction is booming in Hollywood. Obviously, tourism is big business and brings a lot of money into the area, so it makes sense to build accommodations for visitors. But there are also tens of thousands of people who actually live in the community, and they need to be considered, too. Is City Hall thinking about them? Why don’t we ponder that question as we do a quick rundown of the hotels that are coming to Hollywood. It’s quite a list. We’ll start with the ones that are currently under construction.

The Camden
There’s the nearly completed Camden at the corner of Vine and Selma. In addition to the beautifully appointed rooms, the Camden also offers a heated saltwater pool, a movie lounge, a dog den, and the “The Garden”, a “quiet zen filled space to meditate and reflect.”

Dream Hollywood
According to the web site, “Dream Hollywood is an ultra-luxury merger of familiar and fantasy, where the line between entrée and exclusivity is refreshingly blurred.” Geared toward the “creative class”, it offers 179 “hyper-chic, yet comfortable” rooms and suites, along with a rooftop pool, restaurant and lounge “destined to become a player in the Hollywood skyline scene.”

Argyle Hotel
Currently under construction, the Argyle Hotel will rise 16 stories above the intersection of Yucca and Argyle. It will feature 225 rooms, 6,000 square feet of meeting space and 3,000 square feet of restaurant space. There are also two residential high-rises planned for this same intersection, one already under construction. Afternoon rush hour traffic on Argyle is already pretty bad. Expect it to get way worse.

1850 Cherokee
The owner of this formerly rent-controlled apartment building realized he could make more money by evicting the tenants and turning it into something else. He used the Ellis Act to get rid of the residents a few years ago, saying that he was going to build condos on the site. When that project fell through, he decided to turn the building into a boutique hotel. The owner asked the City for a zone change to make it happen, and no surprise, the City let him have it.

A similar scenario has also played out at the historic Villa Carlotta on Franklin. The owners evicted the tenants from their rent-controlled units with the aim of turning it into a boutique hotel. It was only through the efforts of dedicated activists that the change of use was thwarted. But the evictions have already taken place, and 50 rent-controlled units were taken off the market.

Crossraods Hollywood
This massive project would be situated near the intersection of Sunset and Highland. Three skyscrapers are planned, including a 32-story hotel tower featuring 308 guest rooms and 10,500 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space. The developers are also asking for a Master Conditional Use Permit for “the sale of alcoholic beverages and for live entertainment in connection with a total of 22 alcohol-related uses”. You read that right. Twenty two new places for folks to buy alcohol in this one project. In addition, approximately 80 rent-controlled units will be demolished to build this behemoth, which the developer says will be replaced by approximately 80 affordable units. Even if the current tenants are granted right-of-return, where they’re supposed to live during the construction phase isn’t clear.

Ivar Gardens
The Department of City Planning(DCP) decided this 21-story hotel at the extremely congested intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga didn’t need a full Environmental Impact Report. Instead, planners have been trying to rush this through with a Mitigated Negative Declaration, a much lower level of environmental review. The traffic study claims that PM rush hour traffic northbound on Cahuenga flows freely with no significant delays. Anyone who’s made that trip at rush hour knows how ridiculous that claim is. But that didn’t stop the LA Department of Transportation from approving the report. Just further proof that when a developer with deep pockets wants something to happen, the City of LA is only too happy to oblige.

1919 Wilcox
One more example of how Hollywood area developers are pushing hotels into residential neighborhoods. While a small hotel does exist on Franklin just to the south, apartment buildings are directly adjacent to this proposed project on the north and west boundaries of the site. Residents were not happy to learn that they might have a 6-story, 150 room hotel next door. It didn’t help matters that the developer is seeking a liquor permit for a 1,200 sq. ft. bar/lounge in the lobby and a 3,500 sq. ft. restaurant/lounge on the north side of the site. Who cares if Chief Beck has written to the DCP warning about the oversaturation of locations that serve alcohol in Hollywood and the resulting problems with violent crime? Certainly nobody at the DCP. They keep handing out liquor permits like there’s no tomorrow.

1717 Wilcox
Also on Wilcox, but closer to Hollywood Blvd., is this planned 134-room hotel with a 2,500 sq. ft. ground floor restaurant and a rooftop bar. You can never have too many rooftop bars, right? Who cares if the people in the apartment building next door don’t like it? And as traffic on Cahuenga continues to spill onto neighboring streets, you can bet these two projects will help turn Wilcox into a parking lot at rush hour.

The point of all this is not to say that we shouldn’t have hotels in Hollywood. The point is that these 8 hotels are just a few of the over 60 projects currently proposed for the Hollywood area. All of these projects will have impacts on infrastructure, air quality, traffic, and LAPD response times, but the City of LA isn’t making any serious effort to assess the cumulative effects of all this development. Whenever possible the DCP tries to approve these projects with a quick MND, and even when they do an EIR there’s no credible attempt made to calculate the collective impacts caused by this massive building binge. The Hollywood Community Plan Update was thrown out by a judge, in large part because the City inflated its population figures, but that hasn’t stopped the City from going full speed ahead. With no community plan in place, the DCP continues to approve thousands of new residential units, hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial, and who knows how many new hotels.

No doubt all these classy new hotels will make Hollywood a great place for tourists. Just not so great for the people who actually live in the community.

A New Vision or Another Con?

Posted on August 29, 2015 by cmaddren

A view of the Hollywood Freeway from Franklin

A while ago I was walking down Franklin around rush hour, and I came across a sight that’s becoming way too familiar. Looking down Vine, I saw a line of cars that extended all the way down the block.

Looking down Vine at rush hour

I pulled out my camera, because I’ve kind of gotten obsessed with documenting traffic in LA. You probably think this is a pretty weird pasttime, but it keeps me off the streets. Oh, wait. No, actually it doesn’t….

Intersection of Vine and Yucca

Anyway, I walked down Vine taking pictures, and guess what I saw when I got to Yucca?

Cars lining up in the left turn lane on Yucca

If you guessed another long line of cars, you were right. If you don’t live in the area, this may not seem like anything remarkable. But having lived in Hollywood for a while, I can tell you that this is a pretty recent phenomenon. Yucca used to be very quiet. I’d say up to three or four years ago Yucca was empty even at rush hour. Obviously that’s changed.

I kept on walking, and you’ve probably already guessed that when I got to Argyle, I saw yet another line of cars crawling along.

More cars backed up on Argyle

But the thing that surprised me was, traffic on Argyle was backed up all the way to Hollywood Blvd..

Still more cars backed up on Argyle

I walked up Argyle, shooting more photos as I passed underneath the bridge.

Traffic crawling north on Argyle

Then I was back at Franklin, and by now everybody knows what I found when I got there.

Westbound traffic on Franklin

You may be asking, where were all these cars heading? Well, they were all trying to get on the northbound Hollywood Freeway. And traffic on the freeway was moving pretty damn slow.

Northbound onramp for the Hollywood Freeway

I think we’d all agree that LA’s streets are way too congested, and we’ve got to start thinking about transportation in new ways. Cars are a dead end. We’ve got to stop building to accomodate them. The recent expansion of the San Diego Freeway showed what a waste of time that is. We can add as many lanes as we want, and they’ll all end up choked with traffic.

So some people see the City Council’s adoption of the Mobility Plan 2035 as a major step in the right direction. It sure sounds swell. With chapters titled “Safety First”, “World Class Infrastructure” and “Access for All Angelenos”, the MP 2035 paints a picture of a utopian LA, where everybody can get everywhere they want without ever needing a car.

But a lot of people are skeptical about the benefits the plan will actually provide, and I’m one of them. I totally support increased access to all modes of transportation, and if you take the MP 2035 at face value, it sounds great. The question is, will the plan deliver what it promises, and to answer that question you have to look at what our elected officials have actually been doing for the last several years.

Under the heading Key Policy Initiatives, the plan includes the following goal….

Consider the strong link between land use and transportation

No doubt about it, land use and transportation have to be considered together. For years now the Mayor and the City Council have been pushing transit oriented density (TOD). In theory, planning for higher density near transit centers will create a new dynamic where people will find using public transit preferable to driving a car. Now, if we were building affordable housing near transit centers that allowed easy access to the areas where jobs were concentrated, this might actually work. But that’s not what the Mayor and the City Council have actually been doing. Instead, they’ve been pushing relentlessly for high-end, high-rise housing that caters to people with six figure incomes. Check out the proposed 8150 Sunset, Horizon Hollywood and Shenzhen Hazens project in South Park for three examples. There are many more in the planning stages. Do the rich ride the subway? I’m sure some of them do, but let’s be honest. In LA, this is the demographic that is least likely to use public transit, while people at the lower end of the economic spectrum often have no other choice.

This is not transit oriented density. It’s profit oriented density. The Mayor and the City Council can tell us they’re linking land use to transportation to make transit more accessible, but recent history shows that this is mostly a con used to push through projects that only benefit developers who are looking to make a pile of money. Not only have our elected officials’ efforts to create affordable housing been pathetic, but by pushing gentrification in areas that used to be affordable, they’re actually forcing low-income workers farther away from job centers.

So if you ask me whether the MP 2035 will deliver what it promises, I can’t say I’m optimistic. Even before Garcetti became the Mayor, when his council district covered much of central Hollywood, he pushed through a number of “TOD” projects, telling residents that this would solve our transportation problems. Take a look at the video below and let me know if you think it’s working.

The Changing Face of Hollywood

Posted on July 16, 2014 by cmaddren

Rendering of the proposed Kilroy project at Vine and De Longpre

Hollywood is hot. Developers are jumping in with both feet. A number of projects have gone up in the last few years, and many more are in the works. My feelings about the building boom vary greatly, mostly depending on the quality of the individual projects. Some of them will definitely benefit the community, some I can tolerate, and others should never have gotten off the drawing board.

Just recently Kilroy Realty unveiled their plans for a project on Vine, south of Sunset. Over all, I’m inclined to support it. As many people have pointed out, almost anything would be better than what occupies the site now. It’s an underutilized parcel, and Kilroy’s idea of turning it into a media campus makes perfect sense for the area.

A recent shot of the site from the corner of Vine and De Longpre

But I do have a couple of reservations….

First, traffic.

Anyone who’s lived in Hollywood for a while can tell you that traffic is steadily getting worse. This is especially interesting when you consider that the Hollywood area lost over 10,000 residents between 2000 and 2010. So even though there are fewer people living in the community, more of them are driving. It seems probable that this is because the low-income residents who were forced out by rising rents have been replaced by more affluent residents who are more likely to own cars. The Kilroy project will be continuing this trend, since the residential units are geared toward people who have money to spend.

For those of you who don’t live in the area, here are a few photos of the northbound traffic on Vine on a Wednesday evening around 7:00 pm. These were taken at the corner of Vine and De Longpre, right across from the project site.

Traffic on Vine, heading toward Sunset.

Traffic on Vine, coming from Fountain.

Same perspective as previous shot. Note that cars are not entering the intersection even though the light is green.

This project will definitely be putting more cars on the road. What really concerns me is that it’s just one of many projects being considered for the Hollywood area. My point is that the City of LA needs to do a cumulative traffic study to plan for all this growth. The City argues they don’t have the money, which is ridiculous. They don’t have a problem throwing away millions of dollars on legal fees to defend projects that never should have seen the light of day, but they won’t spend a relatively modest sum to plan for a sustainable future. If Garcetti wants to push for big growth in Hollywood, he needs to start by springing for a cumulative traffic study that will help to lay the groundwork.

Second, the residential component of the Kilroy project is definitely catering to the crowd that makes six figure salaries. Again, it’s not so much that I have a problem with this specific project, but the vast majority of the residential units that have been built in the area over the past ten years are geared towards the rich. You can’t move into places like the W, Blvd. 6200 or the Avenue unless you have money to burn. This push to make Hollywood a playground for the wealthy is driving rents up throughout the community. It’s not just the low-income working class families that are being forced out. The artists, musicians and writers who used to live in Hollywood are having to look for less expensive places. The desperate drive for gentrification is great for bringing in the trust fund kids who want to party, but it’s pushing out a lot of the people who really enriched the local culture.

Over all, Kilroy seems to be making an effort to respect the community. This project is planned more or less within the current zoning laws, though the residential tower does go a little high. They’re including a fair amount of open space. It makes sense that they’re catering to media/entertainment companies, and, according to the LA Times story, there is a demand for office space in Hollywood.

So my problem isn’t with this project itself, but the trend that it’s a part of. Hollywood is becoming more expensive and more congested. The mayor doesn’t care. He’s got a mansion in Hancock Park and a driver that takes him wherever he wants to go, both of which are paid for by the taxpayers. So naturally Garcetti wouldn’t be concerned about housing prices and traffic, since he doesn’t have to deal with those problems.

Unfortunately, the rest of us do.

If you want to take a look at the LA Times article on the Kilroy project, the link is below.

Kilroy Unveil Plans for Complex in Hollywood

Brake Lights at Midnight

Posted on November 8, 2013 by cmaddren

I wanted to follow up on my earlier post about two proposed projects, one at Highland and Selma and the other at Highland and Franklin. Together these developments will bring over four hundred new residential units to an already crowded corridor. But the problem isn’t just on Highland. As anybody who lives in the area knows, traffic on Franklin is also pretty damn bad. Highland is a major thoroughfare that is primarily commercial north of Melrose. From Highland to Cahuenga, Franklin is completely residential, and has only one lane running in each direction.

Twenty years ago, this was not a problem. These days, though, Franklin is carrying much more traffic than it was designed for. In an earlier post (Hell on Highland, October 25), I talked about the night Katy Perry played the Hollywood Bowl, and traffic was backed up all the way to the freeway. That’s by far the worst I’ve even seen on Franklin. But check out these photos of a couple other traffic jams I witnessed lately. These were both taken at the intersection of Franklin and Whitley….

The photo above shows traffic heading toward Cahuenga. And this next one…

…shows traffic coming from the direction of Highland. Locals looking at these pictures are probably saying, Big deal. It’s always like that at rush hour. But these weren’t taken at rush hour. These were taken around twelve thirty am. A car had stalled near Grace, and a steady flow of westbound traffic kept drivers from getting around it.

Now check these out.

This was taken just before eight o’ clock on a Saturday morning as I was coming up on Whitley. And this next one…

…was taken as I was approaching Las Palmas. Pretty nasty for a Saturday morning. Now in this case, one of the left turn lanes at Highland was closed. Not sure why, but it may have had something to do with the fact that Hollywood was closed at Highland that morning.

Now in all three cases I’ve mentioned, there are unusual circumstances that caused the back-up. A concert at the Bowl, a stalled car, a closed lane. But it shows that it doesn’t take much to turn this residential street into a sea of brake lights. Franklin is already carrying way beyond the capacity it was designed for. It amazes me not only that the city wants to add to the congestion, but that they have determined that the two new complexes mentioned above will have no significant negative impacts.

Again, if you disagree with the city’s finding, if you think Franklin is maxed out as it is, please let the City Council know how you feel.

LA City Council

Trading Trees for Astroturf

Posted on November 4, 2013 by cmaddren

The hillside opposite Harvard Westlake school that will be removed if their planned project goes forward.

Isn’t traffic on Coldwater Canyon bad enough already? Because of LA’s unusual geography, there are only a few corridors that drivers can use to go from the city to the valley and vice-versa. Coldwater is one of those roads. Originally a quiet ride through a scenic canyon, in the last few decades Coldwater has become a major route for commuters going to and from work. Under ordinary circumstances, congestion is a problem during the work week. But for several months now the back-ups have been worse than usual because the DWP has been replacing an aging pipeline. Residents of Sherman Oaks and Studio City are understandably frustrated.

Now the Harvard Westlake School, which is located on Coldwater just a few hundred yards from Ventura Blvd., has decided it wants to expand. They have let the community know that they plan to build a three level parking structure on the hillside directly opposite the school. On top of the parking structure will be a playing field, illuminated by powerful lights during night games, and a pedestrian bridge to connect that structure to the school’s main campus.

As you might imagine, local residents are freaking out. Traffic is one concern, but just as important is the damage this project will do to the environment. In order to build the parking structure, the school will have to remove a large chunk of the hillside, including scores of trees. If you want more detailed information, follow the link below.

Save Coldwater Canyon

At this point the Draft Environmental Impact Report is being circulated. The City of LA will be accepting comments on the DEIR until Nomember twenty fifth. Also, the Studio City Neighborhood Council will be meeting on November seventh, and they will hear comments from the public at that time. But I would imagine that there are a number of people who live outside of the immediate area that might be concerned about the traffic and environmental impacts. If you think this plan is unacceptable, please contact your city council rep and tell them so. Click on the link to access the city council directory.

LA City Council

Traffic on Coldwater Canyon heading towards Ventura Blvd., just after six pm on a Wednesday evening.

Hell on Highland

Posted on October 25, 2013 by cmaddren

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.

Rush Hour on Cahuenga

Posted on March 25, 2013 by cmaddren

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.

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

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

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

The 2100 block, again east side facing south.

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

Posted on March 12, 2013 by cmaddren

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/

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The Horizon and the Skyline

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