The Militant's Fi(r)st Annivasary - "Life Is Still Pretty Good in Hollywood"

One of the Militant's first blog adventures happened exactly a year ago today when he blogged about attending a meeting on the proposed Hollywood Freeway Central Park, visiting a popular Huell-approved juice joint on the Boulevard and simply taking in the day (and not long afterward, some curious blog readers posted these things called "Comments" on the Militant Angeleno's then-nascent blog, thus making the Militant realize, "Hey, people actually read this thing...Awe-some").

Well you don't know how far you've gone unless you look back on how far you've been, or something like that, so the Militant will revisit his little Hollywood adventure. Or, mind you, the Blockbuster Hollywood Sequel (Hey, The Militant can have fun with cheeky showbiz media cliches, too).

Earlier this month there were a pair of meetings on the proposed freeway cap park to wrap up community feedback on the project, which the Militant is glad to report is progressing nicely. The duplicate meetings, done on a Saturday morning and a Wednesday night, respectively, were held to accommodate people's schedules. Large-sized concept illustrations (pictured above) and descriptions of the park's design (all recommended and subject to change, of course) were shown to the community -- of which a neighbor of one of the Militant's operatives - mind you, this neighbor is a white male homeowner in his late 50s - said, "Judging by the faces in the room, this doesn't look like it's representative of the community." Hey, his words, not the Militant's!

Anyhu, the design included elements like art features (sculptures and murals), an amphitheater, multipurpose sports fields, a water feature, a viewing place for the Hollywood sign, a restaurant in the park, a dog space and an emphasis on greening the residential streets directly adjacent to the park.

Transportation was important, and some community members voiced their support and the need for an uninterrupted bike path, a DASH-type line and overall pedestrian-friendliness, including access to the Hollywood/Western (M) station - the closest to the park.

Even some Hollywood Hills-billies wanted a piece of dat park action, requesting that some of the park be extended north of its intended Bronson Ave. limit. Not so fast there podner -- the freeway no longer runs below ground level at this point!

The 34-acre park is expected to cost more or less around $1 billion, which is still cheaper than acquiring the equivalent amount of existing land at today's property values, and is expected to be 80% funded by federal moolah, and the remaining 20% by state funds, which includes a possible public-private partnership. And speaking of which, with the Speaker of the House being a Californian and the Speaker of the California State Assembly an Angelena, now's the time to work it (gurl)!

With a projected (optimistic) timeline of around 10 years , two down, eight or so to go...

All The Hollywood Juice

Wow, a sub-headline. The Militant hadn't used one of those in a long-ass time. Anyway, a year ago, the Militant paid a visit to the Juice(s) Fountain (pictured right, and BTW, WTF is up with that "C" in the window?), which he had stumbled upon for the first time since they moved from their old location on Vine Street. Unfortunately, on this recent return visit, as he was ready to come in, a fellow pedestrian said to her walking partners, "Sorry, were closed?"

The Militant went into worried shock mode, up until he read the sign on the door showing the closing time as 5 p.m., which was about an hour and a half ago at this point. Fear not, for he shall soon return to that blended fruit juicy goodness.

Though speaking of fruits...or at least wannabe fruits, or more specifically, fruit-topped chemically-composited fro-yo with a name making a reference to a type of treegrown fruit, which has subsequently spawned thousands of imitators referencing that very same fruit, is coming to the Boulevard. Yes folks...

...Pinkberry is coming to the Boulevard (Full disclosure, though the Militant was admittedly a fan last year, he has since Seen The Light in the form of Red Mango. It's all about the creamy, certified active yogurt-cultured Red Mango, baby). Too little, too late. Insert disappointed, jaded sigh here. Of course, they knew full well that they were trumped by another competitor looong ago as staking a claim to the World's Most Famous Street.

The Militant headed to the general area of his compound, not on two wheels this time, but on 48. But first he had to reach his subway train through a rather busy, scaffolding-inundated environment in the form of the gargantuan Hollywood Dubya Hotel, now very much under construction.

Ah, Hollywood. Pardon our dust. The Militant will retrace his Walk Of Fame steps yet again, for his second anniversary.

You Can Has Freeway Park!

Pssst...readers! Wanna be more Militant? Wanna be more involved in the community? Wanna play an active role in our City's future?

The proponents of the Hollywood Freeway Central Park are having a community-wide meeting on Saturday morning, January 26 at Selma Ave. Elementary School in Hollywood to discuss the proposal with members of the community and initiate community's thoughts and input on the park. Wanna see it happen? Militant Angeleno says, "Be There!"

The Militant may or may not be there, of course. But a number of his operatives definitely will be, as well as councilmen Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge, two local officials who the Militant is known to hang out with.

For those of you just catching up, the Hollywood Freeway Central Park is a proposal to build a structural cap over the below-street level section of the Hollywood Freeway between Bronson Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. and create a 34-acre greenway and recreation space on it (Yeah, it's gonna cost a lot of dough...).

One of the Militant's first posts talked about the park plan as he attended a meeting of involved community members back in June of last year (and wrote about it in the first person, no less). Our City is extremely parkspace-deficient, especially in the Hollywood area, and though it won't even bring the area up to acceptable parkspace-per-resident levels, any addition of parkspace in the Hollywood area will be beneficial.

Sounds like a crazy idea? Other freeway cap parks exist in the country in places like Boston and Seattle. More closer to home, the half-mile long Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix, AZ sits over the 10 Freeway and is home to that city's Central Library and a Japanese Garden. Even closer, there are short freeway cap parks in San Diego (over the 15) and Memorial Park in La Cañada Flintridge (over the 210).

Though already some have come out in opposition. Aside from those who naturally have issues with the possible structural integrity (see Boston's Big Dig), terrorism or those asshats who would rather see the freeway widened and double-decked, there are some ultra-paranoid tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist freakos in the community who believe the City is supporting a park that will "never get built" and is just fronting it as a ploy to re-zone the area for superdensity and use eminent domain to kick out all the existing residents (Um, if the park never gets built, what incentive is there for developers to build a large parkside condo if there's no park in the first place?).

Of course, if you like to believe that stuff, kindly go to the nearest gun store, purchase a pistol, load it with bullets, point it to your own head, and pull the trigger, since anyone who's that cynical might as well not continue living anyway.

The proposed park over the Hollywood Freeway would be another jewel in Hollywood to benefit locals and tourists alike. Most of all it would provide a means for people, especially children, in the community to have somewhere to play (as opposed to the streets or private parking lots, like they do now), and it would ultimately re-unite neighborhoods that were divided when the freeway was built.

"Life is Good in Hollywood"

I was going to inaugurate this blog with some grandiose, and equally verbose prologue explaining this blog and how it's written not just from a Los Angeles native's viewpoint, but from the perspective of someone who participates in the community, etc. etc. Of course I thought of that months ago when I decided to create this blog, and thus time spent thinking equated into no time actually doing.

So I'm gonna jump into this feet first, cold turkey and countless other euphemisms.

Sitting In The Park

But yeah, life was good in Hollywood today. Being just 2 miles from home and within my 5-mile bicycling radius in my personal gas/traffic-saving program, I biked to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce building on The Boulevard next to the Roosevelt to attend a stakeholder workshop for the proposed Hollywood Freeway Central Park, the plan to cap the 101 with a 34-acre greenway and recreation area, filling just part of the dearth of park space in the Hollywood area, which currently has less than 3% of the City standard for park space (Even with the park,only 1/3 of our park space deficit would be fulfilled).

The meeting was put together by Don Scott, chair of the Hollywood Central Park coalition, and coordinated in conjunction with Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and the Portland, OR (hey, I dig em already)-based Fregonese Associates, the planning consultant for the project.

Fregonese's presentation was a slick PowerPoint, showing before-and-after CGI renderings of what could be and seemed highly inspirational, save for some of the towering developments and depictions of rather Aryan-looking folk in the pictures (the consultant recognized this, and attributed it to the Swedish-based firm that made the software).

The presentation also brought up some interesting facts that piqued my militant interest:

- There are 80,639 people who live in the above-mapped area.
- 80% of those people live within one mile of the park (That's Euro-type density right there).
- There are 30,323 households in the mapped area.
- 26% of the residents are children.
- 56% of the area is renter-occupied.

The rest of the meeting had us split into three groups and analyze the map to come up with some suggestions to shape the community's vision. Ideas ranged from parking facilities, a bike/pedestrian path between the park and the Hollywood/Western (M) station, an overlay zone (pioneered in NYC) to mitigate the effects of gentrification and allow longtime residents the ability to buy property in the area, banning commercial structures along the park, a sloping topography to allow for pedestrian/bike path bridges to cross over major thoroughfares, an Armenian Genocide Memorial (especially if portions of the project are ready by 2015) and more. Just when the ball was rolling, they called time. The next meeting would be sometime in July with a larger community meeting in September.

Of course this Militant Angeleno who lives in the park-deficient confines of the Hollywood area supports the park, and if done right can really transform the community, especially re-claiming the neighborhood fabric that was destroyed when the freeway cut through over 50 years ago.

Got My Juices Flowin'

While biking home I passed by some happy tourists on the perfect Los Angeles sunshiny day, snapping their cameras on the Walk of Fame, the El Cap and Ho-Hi. Then just before Vine, I came across a familiar sight:


To my delight, the wonderful Hollywood institution, The Juice Fountain, had survived its relocation (to make way for the gargantuan W Hotel Hollywood project) and is now located on The Boulevard (6332 Hollywood Blvd to be exact). It's not the shack anymore but the place is filled with the aroma of fresh fruit, and most notably, the blended fruit shakes are still there. Surely in this age of Jamba/Robeks I could have biked a few more blocks to get a smoothie fix, but this is a true Hollywood institution, anointed by Sir Huell of Howser (a photo of the filming day adorns the walls) and is still serving the community, so I felt they were more than worthy of earning my money today. I got the #1 shake with strawberries, and a bag of veggie chips.I told them I was glad they were still in business.

As I pedaled my bike ride home along The Boulevard, I felt hope in a greener future and the present smiling on me like the sun on this clear day, I had an Ice Cube-esque epiphany: "Life is good in Hollywood."

Some other pics along the way:

OMG, I ARE A T00RIST!

Channel 2/9's "Miss Saigon" Billboard.