Warner Bros. wants to build a $100M aerial tramway to the Hollywood sign
latimes.com
latimes.com
The whole point of the sign is you can see it from far away. If you look at it from the street in downtown Hollywood or whatever, you are experiencing the sign as it was meant to be experienced.
For people who... for some reason... want to go RIGHT UP to the sign... or behind it... sigh — This is an interesting compulsion which I normally would not judge. But we're now talking one hundred million dollars and untold materials and effort... to help visit... a SIGN. Literally just a sign that says, "Hollywood." Up in some otherwise beautiful nature.
To enable this dysfunctional behavior with this kind of money and technology is nuts. Go to the beach. Go for a hike. Come up with some other utterly unimaginative scheme to visit an object you saw on a screen.
Sometimes it is better NOT to apply technology to a problem. Let's NOT make this easier to accomplish. It's pointless, thoughtless behavior with no worthwhile reward.
To quote an actor named Will Ferrel dressed up as an imaginary fashion star named Mugatu, "Doesn't anyone else notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"
("I invented the piano key necktie! I invented it!!")
People enjoy visiting the sign. Just because it's pointless to you doesn't mean it is so to everyone else. These are private dollars being used to fund a development with community input. It's not my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean we must be antagonistic towards it.
I am happy that most people don't think this way.
JPL and Kennedy Space Center are just hangars and launchpads where we send rockets into space.
Yellowstone is just a spot on the earth where a bunch of water comes out.
Different things appeal to different people. For some people, getting to visit the Hollywood sign up close is a big deal, especially given the importance that Hollywood films have played in influencing American and international culture. (Hollywood is huge overseas. The sign is literally what billions of people first think of when they think of America. New York and the Statute of Liberty are a close second.)
EDIT: The view of LA from the area below the sign is also pretty great. That view is likely to be just as much part of the attraction as getting up close to the sign. There is only one other easily accessible spot where you can get a view of LA like that (and currently the only spot where you don't need to hike): the Griffith Observatory.
EDIT: The other great view of the LA basin is Inspiration Point in Alta Dena (north of Pasadena), which is a 2-12 hour hike round-trip depending on your fitness level. On a clear day, you can see out to the Channel Islands to the West, and Orange County to the South, and Malibu to the North.
and if you don't mind hiking 30-45 minutes, take the trail up to the peak behind the observatory to get an even better view of both the LA basin and the san fernando valley on the other side.
In the meantime, you see wasting $100 million on drug addicts who are voluntarily homeless because they refuse to stop using drugs as a more valuable way to spend money. (See what I did there?) LA already has $2.1 billion to spend on addressing homelessness and it hasn't spent it yet. It doesn't need another $0.1 billion from WB.
1. It gives access to an area a lot of people wouldn't / couldn't adventure to due to location and/or heat during the summer. 2. It's the journey not the destination. The view along the way would be pretty cool. 3. The observatory has very limited parking.
Which goes to show the absurdity at play here. There are plenty of ski lifts and gondolas that run around a mile, in MUCH more adverse conditions, with a MUCH higher elevation gain (which is really all that matters) that cost less than an order of magnitude less.
A fancy, Hollywood-worthy gondola justifying a $25-$30 ticket is what they're going for. Large, spacious, gorgeous views, smooth ride...basically, a premium experience. Not just functional containers but highly stylized/decorated, so that they're immediately recognizable in future pictures of LA. The goal is to create an tramway that is an attraction in its own right, much like the SF streetcars.
Also, there's the matter of minimizing the environmental impact to Griffith Park and routing the tramway to minimize the impact to existing views of the sign.
or any other modern gondola?
I'll bet my bottom dollar it's a high speed detachable using doppelmayer bits
> there are two visitor centers
No, in re-reading the article, I didn't find any reference in the article to a second visitors center - only one near the sign. I think it would be better to only have one at the start of the tramway.
...tramway to transport visitors to and from the Hollywood sign, starting from a parking structure next to its Burbank lot.
...to a new visitors center near the sign
...The visitors center near the sign would educate visitorsWB will be building a visitor center in the lot where the tramway will start, as part of the upgrades to their public facilities where they currently have studio audiences wait. They're trying to do what Universal Studios did: make their studios a tourist attraction. As part of those plans, they'll be adding exhibits and other attractions/stores/restaurants, like a minature Universal Citywalk.
"Residents of the hilly neighborhoods surrounding the famed Hollywood sign — the symbol of Los Angeles’ signature industry — have long blamed the attraction for worsening traffic, parking nightmares and disruptive tourists.
Now one of the movie and television business’ biggest players, Warner Bros., says it has a bold solution."
Investing 100 million dollars, likely displacing some home owners and businesses, inconveniencing those residence and business owners for probably years to actually construct the thing and then actually getting people to use it after spending what will probably cost more like 150-200 million dollars after budget overruns from delays just sounds like an epic waste of time and money. All of this so people can go visit an advertisement that's now missing 31% of its letters for a retail development project...
If they’re actually going to pay for the entire project it’s nowhere near as bad as the city building it.
I bet the root of this is a Warner Bros exec that lives at the top of one of the Hollywood hills and wants to eliminate traffic from his own house.
That I'd believe.
> Under the proposal, the studio would share ticketing revenue with the city to support park activities, the company said in a letter to Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department General Manager Michael Shull and Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso. Warner Bros. did not say how much it might charge for the tram ride.
They believe the tourists are causing a problem and that they have a solution:
> Several months ago, Gilbert said, he and a group of Warner Bros. executives drove to Hollywood Lake Park to observe the heavy traffic near the popular landmark. He saw one driver wave a selfie stick while trying to steer a red convertible, he said.
> “We know the problem is getting worse, and the city is looking for a solution,” he said. “We believe we're uniquely qualified. We've been around a long time, we’re local, and we believe we have a good answer.”
Additionally, the tramway is a private project that would be built and run by Warner Brothers. No council members would get their names on the tram.
There are many laws against political corruption and everything you've suggested would fall squarely without that category. No politician is going to risk jail and the loss of their pension so they can get their name on a tram. Additionally, what you've suggested is not an allowable part of the permitting process, so WB could simply go to court and get any such naming requirement removed.
And some increased patrolling would serve the same interests you mention, in a more direct and more immediate way
Good luck getting foreign tourists to pay...The increased patrolling would just draw cops away from other locations where there's more serious crime to deter without a meaningful decrease in the amount of tourists. (They've actually tried increasing patrolling before. It didn't work then and it won't work now that selfies are even more of a thing.)
One can make the very valid argument that these wealthy homeowners knew exactly what they were getting into when they bought property near one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world. Having gone there once, I can understand why they get annoyed however. Parking is already difficult, not everyone has a driveway or garage due to the terrain and to make it worse, bad behavior by visitors (throwing trash on the ground, defecating/urinating in bushes [no public toilets], etc) makes a tony area look pretty crappy.
A quick look at Google Maps shows literally nothing but vegetation and hiking trails between Warner Brothers and the Hollywood sign: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hollywood+Sign/@34.1417236...
The only truly wild wildlife in the park are the mountain lions...
The park has been the site of thousands of mass events, hundreds of filmings for TV and movies, and is used daily by thousands of hikers, runners, families, cars, tourists, etc.
Most of the neighborhood supports the tram project to reduce traffic, parking, and garbage issues from the hordes of tourists. Most tourists support the tram because it would be an easier, more scenic--and likely more iconic way to get to the sign than the horse-crap covered trails that are currently the only way to get up to the sign.
Warner Brothers is the primary business that would be affected by the sign, and that's because they're the ones building it, on their property.
all of this so people can go visit an advertisement that's now missing 31% of its letters for a retail development project...
It also happens to be the name of the town literally just below it...
"Residents of the hilly neighborhoods surrounding the famed Hollywood sign — the symbol of Los Angeles’ signature industry — have long blamed the attraction for worsening traffic, parking nightmares and disruptive tourists."
This has actually been a very heated local political issue, with residents trying to get the sign removed from Google Maps to make it harder for visitors to find the routes.
I went to see it. Didn't do the hike, took a pic from shopping center.
I get people go to see signs, but it doesn't need to be on a hill. The Amsterdam sign is right outside a museum/park. Still swarmed with tourist.
It's a nice hilly neighborhood and the sign is best seen from down below not up close. An aerial tramway would be better to some non residential location nearby where they can see the sign and views of LA IMO
(this is a thing that has actually happened, along with residents trying to hire private "security" to prevent people entering public roads in the area, and other tactics)
Where in that area do they live? Most of the complaints I've heard about are from Beachwood Canyon residents (right next to that access gate in particular).
Oddly dismissive. It's iconic, and no less so because it was originally a real estate advertisement.
It's also kind of sad that Hollywood has so little in the way of interesting landmarks that a billboard is how it's represented.