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Access to the Hollywood sign is an ever-present issue. The saga took another turn in March when the city closed a popular entryway on Beachwood Drive in the Hollywood Hills. The entrance—basically a gate—was used by pedestrians to access a path that led to the sign. The gate was closed off to the public after a nearby stable filed a lawsuit saying it had an "exclusive easement road" in that space, and that the city was encouraging hikers to pass through that area to get to the sign, which "impeded their ability to conduct business." While there are other ways to get to the Hollywood sign without having to pass through the Beachwood Drive gate, these options can be considerably more time-consuming.
In a recent interview with ABC 7, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said that he's "looking at some pretty big and bold ideas" when it comes to access to the Hollywood sign. Among the biggest and boldest of them all? Gondolas!
"One of the ideas I'm looking at with councilmember David Ryu is, what can we do to actually bring people to the summit, to where the Hollywood sign is, without going through the neighborhoods to the south," said Garcetti. "Could we come up from this part of town? Could we come up from Universal Studios? Could we even have a gondola that goes up there?" He added that money generated from this ride could be put into mitigating traffic congestion.
We're pretty sure he's talking about the aerial form of the gondola, and not the one you find in the canals of Venice. So the idea is perhaps less absurd than you'd originally thought.
Reporter Adrienne Alpert, who was conducting the interview, later said, "I see another Angels Flight in our future." Let's hope this New Angels Flight/gondola/whatever will be open to the public on a more consistent basis.
The gondola put one question in our mind: really? LAist contacted the mayor's office to find out. "Mayor Garcetti is open to exploring ideas that ease congestion and he encourages creative thinking when looking at ways to give Angelenos and tourists better access to the Hollywood Sign and other iconic landmarks and destinations," George Kivork, press secretary with the office, wrote in an email to LAist.
That's...pretty far from being definitive. But we'll take what we can get.
