LA’s Iconic Hollywood Boulevard Major Makeover Under Consideration

Plans Presented To Update This Landmark Street That Includes The Walk Of Fame 

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Hollywood Blogger

The most famous street in Los Angeles – the one with the sidewalk Walk Of Fame, where the Oscars red carpet takes place and where tourists flock to see Tinseltown landmarks – may be undergoing a major makeover.

Hollywood Boulevard is being considered for a remake like a Hollywood classic movie. LA City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell has created a 90-page proposal that would create more space for pedestrians, add bike lanes and frustrate motorists and tour operators.

Call it Hollywood Blvd., Impossible.

The proposal calls for widening the famous sidewalks that contain the stars, adding bike lanes and taking away street parking and a lane of traffic on each side the two-lane street. Instead, there would be one lane of traffic in each direction and a middle turning lane between La Brea Avenue and Vine Street.

It’s that last part that is going to raise the most objection from locals. Already clogged with traffic from tourists, tour buses and regular traffic, it’s hard to imagine what it would be like with half the lanes. LA has tried this before in some areas and it has been met with disastrous results from a traffic and public feedback standpoint.

A positive outcome would be in modernizing and cleaning up a dated and rundown – some might even say gritty – street that instead should be glittery.

“The boulevard hasn’t reached its full potential — not by a long shot,”  O’Farrell said. “We’re very optimistic that we can see real change on this historic boulevard within a number of years.” O’Farrell’s district includes Hollywood.

That “number of years” will take a while, if any changes are to take place here. The city council has to review the plan, there are no doubt several revisions to be made, public hearings and – because this is LA, of course – lawsuits to be filed and settled.

Still, it’s good to see someone is taking the lead in proposing a long-needed makeover to LA’s most famous and most visited street.