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Comment by ryanmercer | Hacker News Reader

That's not a valid reason, again I ask why?

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...

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> The 95-year-old studio on Monday told city officials it would foot the bill for an aerial tramway to transport visitors to and from the Hollywood sign, starting from a parking structure next to its Burbank lot.

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.

>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.

Because traffic in the neighborhood is nutso for residents and tourists alike.

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...

> likely displacing some home owners and businesses

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...

Oh even better, disrupt wildlife so people can go take pictures of a 95 year old billboard.

The aerial trams I've been on had very low footprints (a few poles in the ground per mile). I'm not convinced that this would be much more disruptive to wildlife than the existing footpaths

You have to think about all the construction equipment and crews that will flood in to erect them added with the affects of the noise pollution on local wildlife (see http://www.naturesounds.org/conservENW.html )

Griffith Park is an urban park with existing structures and roadway...it is surrounded on all sides by development...

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.

They want to make money selling tickets for the tramway:

> 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.”

$100M buys a lot of cop hours. And the cops will probably recoup their salary by writing tickets to people attempting to visit the sign. An act that is currently illegal. No special interests would be served by that. And it would not feed our city council members’ obsession with literally printing their names on everything they can.

Ticketing the tourists would serve the special interests of the rich idiots who bought properties in the neighborhood despite knowing it was part of the route to the sign.

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.

They would for the simple fact of approving a lease arrangement for the city property surrounding the sign. And some increased patrolling would serve the same interests you mention, in a more direct and more immediate way.

They would for the simple fact of approving a lease arrangement for the city property surrounding the sign.

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.)

Again I quote:

"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.

You need to understand the dynamics of LA residential politics. Neighborhoods like Beechwood Canyon are fantastically expensive and are filled with industry elites. They are also extremely inconvenient to build on and travel through, with tiny, twisty single lane streets that clog up with traffic very easily. I am not at all surprised to see that some of the residents are using their influence in the entertainment industry to get a big studio to pay to get tourists out. At least it's not taxpayer money.

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.

If you had read the article you would have learned that WB suggested this tram as part of an investment in their on-site tourism facilities, essentially as another attraction to bring people to the public portions of their studio lot.

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