Getting around Beverly Hills could get harder

The Times' Martha Groves reports that the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica in Beverly Hills -- already a Westside traffic bottleneck (and that's saying something) could get worse with new development approved:

If you hate to sit in traffic at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, prepare to discover your inner reserves of patience. To the dismay of residents wary of overdevelopment, the Beverly Hills City Council has approved a high-rise condo and retail project for the eight-acre site of the defunct Robinsons-May department store. What's more, the council is expected Tuesday to approve an ambitious $500-million proposal by the Beverly Hilton to add condos and the West Coast's first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to the mid-century Hilton's fabled site. The two projects would be next-door neighbors at Wilshire and Santa Monica, one of the busiest intersections in the region.

Comments

[Peter in Redneck Klamath Falls, OREGON]

I'm a Bay Area Native, but when I see the stuff happening on the news ... "random" shootings on your endless clogged freeways........and more violence, gangs, drugs..........and extreme wealth and poverty.........it's SCARY !

Los Angeles may be the "Dream Factory", but it's also becoming the "Urban Nightmare Factory", with deadly results

[Dan W.]

"They care only about $, not about the quality of life for its residents and neighbors. Oh, and also their post-council employment prospects with the developers they enriched. Residents should wake up to this whoring."

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Note: There is no divine right to a low-density, automobile-based, atypical suburban-within-urban lifestyle. If it becomes too inconvenient and too expensive in time and money to drive and park your car everywhere and you have to use an alternative and you don't like that, too bad. It's not 1965 anymore. People who want traditional suburban lifestyles will have to move to the actual suburbs to do it.

[John]

re: Beverly Hills and traffic enforcement.

I for one got tired of their overly aggresive parking/ ticketing and just shop elsewhere now. Two minutes late and some jackass has already written the ticket to the second like it's a blood sport.

Seems like Pasadena's trying to pull the same stunt as Beverly Hills now. Maybe their "Old Towne" will be as vacant as the "Miracle Mile" is someday soon by scaring off customers. Takes 20 years to build traffic back up- we don't forget!

I swear some cities are penny wise and pound foolish. See what happens when you piss your customers off!

[Greg]

Same song... BH City Council approves stupidly huge developments to satisfy city's growing thirst for tax revenue. They care only about $, not about the quality of life for its residents and neighbors. Oh, and also their post-council employment prospects with the developers they enriched. Residents should wake up to this whoring.

[Dan W.]

Aww. Life is getting harder for single-occupancy motorists on a major transit corridor. Get over it.

Three million more people are expected in Los Angeles County over the next three decades and since the limits of sprawl have been reached, that responsibly means density and re-centralization along major transit corridors.

People who want a traditional, low-density, suburban, high quality automobile-based lifestyle will have to move to the actual suburbs.