Bowl Advisory Meeting
On Monday evening, November 5th, I substituted for John Gittelsohn at the advisory committee meeting. I scribbled notes and kept my mouth shut. The interaction was lively yet civil. Here are the highlights. I’ve thrown in an opinion or two.
Sound Study:
The Bowl updated their sound policies and now require all productions to follow a standard. Sound equipment was also modified. Data showed low frequency was reduced. Feedback from the communities was analyzed and adjustments followed. Just over 100 individuals filled out Google forms on concert nights to provide feedback. 113 entries were recorded during the October 30th sound test. In October Santa Ana winds are worse for sound, particularly on the night of Arctic Monkeys, which saw an uptick in log entries. Traffic Study: Gibson Traffic Consultants gave their report. One goal for the street closure at Milner was to take the shortcuts through Whitley Heights off the app maps. Hoses were laid across 11 streets to count cars. Hard street closure streets were Camrose and Milner. Comparing cars on non-show nights and a show night with the hard closures, car numbers were reduced in the Hollywood Heights neighborhood on show nights. Whitley Terrace traffic was about level during closures and on non-show, non-closure nights. That means the closures helped maintain normal, non-show traffic levels even when there was a show at the Hollywood Bowl. GPS apps are new to our traffic way of life. Listening to the traffic presentation and discussion afterwards I felt like we were trying to contain liquid mercury. It’s human to want problems easily understood and fixed quickly. I hate to break it to the community traffic isn’t one of them. Outpost Drive has 10,000 cars going up and down daily. It’s a thoroughfare from Franklin to Mulholland. Whitley Heights has maze-like streets streets. They meander. We’re lucky. The Bowl is committed to trying other measures on their property to promote smoother entry and less congestion on Highland including faster payments for parking and better configurations for busses. They wish to expand the region of study to Cahuenga, Hollywood Dell and Beachwood Canyon. The Bowl listens to our community regarding sound, traffic, and safety. Something they didn’t do very well before. Their actions prove they are invested in our quality of life. CD4 is working with Waze but ultimately restrictions require state legislation. Please send Angela Babcock your contact info so she can field your concerns and keep you informed. Angela@stratiscope.com
We need to be able to exit WH via Milner on Bowl nights and always. Whitley Heights and Hollywood Heights do not have the same traffic problems, but Angela and the Bowl are treating this like they are the same. Hollywood Heights has a history of blocks long traffic jams on Canmrose from people cutting through. They very well may need that intersection closed. Whitley Heights at Milner has had no such issue. Instead we have had speeders using the little winding streets as a short cut. That started when the city took 6 months to fix the water main and road at Franklin and Wilcox, about a year ago. For who knows how many years, if you are southbound on Highland on a Bowl night, there has been no left turn allowed onto Milner. So the speeders are not coming from Milner. They come from Franklin, using Whitley or Grace. When there were teenage police cadets standing there, they didn't control anything., The DOT officers did a much better job. When the DOT officers showed up it cut down on speeders cutting through. Not being able to exit the area via Milner forces all of us out via Whitley or Grace onto blocks long gridlocked Franklin, with no other choice. That not only makes traffic worse, it is a definite reduction in quality of life. The bowl is now putting on shows close to 1/3 of the nights of the year. Closing Milner/Highland from exiting onto Highland is unnecessary, and only serves the Bowl management as a quick, cheap and easy way to get you all to be quiet. But its throwing the baby out with the bathwater and saying it's all fixed. We need to be able to exit WH via Milner. Currently there is ONE PERSON who DOES NOT LIVE HERE, unnecessarily closing off the only non-Franklin exit that you have, and telling you it's good.
I also have to wonder why the person who is on the Bowl Advisory committee is not actually finding out what Whitley Heights residents needs and concerns are, and telling that to the Bowl?