Beginning Friday, the City of West Hollywood will be taking suggestions online about plans for improvements to its Eastside neighborhood.
“Starting August 1, please visit neighborland.com/wehoeastside to share your ideas and insights, support your neighbors’ ideas, and connect with people who share your interests,” the city said in its August news briefs. Ideas can also be shared via Twitter (hashtag #wehoeastside) or by sending texts to (323) 736-4555.
Suggestions posted on Neighborland.com will be used to inform development of the Eastside Community Plan, a collaborative effort of the City of West Hollywood and the Eastside Working Group.
WeHo’s Eastside was highlighted in June at the State of the City luncheon, where Mayor John D’Amico called out the area as a potential center for digital media entrepreneurs and a home for young people in creative businesses.City Manager Paul Arevalo told the audience at the luncheon about the significant investments made and planned on the Eastside, which he said have totaled over half a billion dollars. Arevalo said the city has focused on rehabilitating buildings on the Eastside, once known for its poor housing quality, and for encouraging the development of what he called “catalytic projects.” As an example, he cited the Gateway shopping plaza on the southwest corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.
For more information about the Eastside Community Plan, visit www.wehoeastside.com.
One very small thing that can improve that part of town considerably is to prioritize pedestrians on the stoplights on La Brea and SMB, SMB and Formosa instead of left turning cars like any civilized city. That area is bustling with pedestrian activity and the fact that cars making a left turn is a signal priority instead of pedestrians is mind boggling.
I could definitely see Oprah wanting to move in next door to that! Not some multi-million dollar shopping mall.
Riley, I agree, the gateway is just awful. Who cares about Target, Mendo, Starbucks uuuughh. I’d rather have that charming auto body junk yard and carls jr back! That would really help the eastside! You should think of running for office or getting on the planning commission. We need bold ideas like yours. Less digital advertising, more junk yards and crack addicts. You’ve got my support.
Thanks for supporting this project. Can you double check that the link to Neighborland in the article is correct – https://neighborland.com/wehoeastside
The link was a bit off. It’s now been corrected. Thanks for alerting us!
Does anyone know which specific buildings is Paul Arevalo speaking about that have been rehabilitated? Most seem to be demolished and gigantic over priced apartment units are springing up. I am curious why the city keeps singling out the gateway for praise, which is a bland concrete building with a distracting flashing billboard on it. The “plaza” area is overrun with homeless and we hear from the Sheriff’s Dept. it is riff with crime. I hope the eastside community will demand more crime prevention.
Suggestion 1: Engage a consultant to determine the level of “pedestrian orientation” and reduce parking requirements for cafe’s and related uses by an equivalent percentage.
This will be an exciting component that has been added and will contribute to our work of developing a plan for the future of our Eastside. Working with RSG and to be determined Consulting Group, we look forward to the eastside community’s’ contribution going into this phase of the plan. You can start today at https://neighborland.com/cities/west-hollywood.