The city’s much-hyped project — the closing of Robertson Blvd from Saturday afternoon through early Monday morning — had a quiet Mother’s Day open. The project, created to fill cafe patios and bar seats by closing off Robertson Blvd. all day Sunday, showed little signs of life during the brunch hour.
More than two-thirds of the listed headliners at the “Mother’s Day” event did not show up to perform. The city website also had the wrong date, May 2nd, to describe the weekend festivities. Tables were available inside the Abbey and the outside tables were unoccupied at the 12:30 pm hour.
The list of headliners for the day were: The Abbey, Birch and Bone, Black Women Lead, The Holistic Homie, Hype Wax LA, Joanne Chew, Mark Mattes, Project Angel Food, Virginia St. Boutiue.
Black Women Lead had a table and canopy and the Holistic Hommie was also in attendance. The Holistic Hommie appears to be an instagram page. Project Angel Food had an empty tent at the time. No other West Hollywood businesses participated in this 4th weekend of the pilot program.
Toward the closing of the Monday night’s Public Safety meeting; Commissioner Balbone asked the Director of Public Safety Kristin Cook a question regarding National Night Out. She said “I understand that we may not be prepared to do things in person but when we think about Public Safety and our community, something is in order, so just wanted to ask whats coming up in August if there is any plan or what that might look like?
To which Kristin Cook replied “Right now is a No, for in-person, unless smaller vaccinated folks want to follow the health order according to the I’ve been vaccinated mask-off rules. We’re not out of this pandemic. And we are not going to be out of this pandemic in August. And it’s dangerous to promote partying because people have already forgotten. I mean I saw it myself at Out on Robertson Saturday night and Sunday, everyone is running around without masks.
The Out on Robertson pilot program has been controversial since the start.
A pet project of Councilmember John D’Amico, Out on Robertson was brought forward with Councilmember John Erickson and was quickly approved without any outreach to the local residents and businesses.
Throughout the process of planning, the City Staff was met with robust objections by many of the businesses and residents.
Three residents — Manny Rodriguez, Carleton Cronin, and JB Miller — spoke up about the project in op/eds here on WEHOville.
Funny, I consider myself “in the know” what is happening in WeHo and never heard of “Out on Robertson”. Sounds like yet ANOTHER failed plan because of lack of inclusion. PLUS way too early to be promoting maskless events. Folks need to understand PANDEMIC is not OVER because someone wants to promote a event. JUNE Pride may too be “too early”. Are folks willing to take a chance to dance with Death for the sake of a poorly planned event? Apparently NOT! IF venues want to get more business, they need to reduce prices for the next 90 days to… Read more »
A failed effort, a stupid idea, a major inconvenience. Time for Council to call it quits and reopen Robertson Boulevard.
While the pilot seemed to have limited endorsement, it was conducted and the community cooperated. With that being said, there does not appear to be any empirical results showing a net benefit for the surrounding businesses nor community engagement. I’d argue we pushed the pedestrian safety issues from Robertson to Melrose from my observations. Perhaps we can consider it when the pending development projects are completed (assuming the community is properly addressed prior to “a pilot”). Let’s open our street again, fix the potholes and get the park completed where we can host a myriad of community engagement functions in… Read more »
As a long-time resident of the area (and a supporter of local businesses), I do not see who this program benefits, apart from boosting late-night business at the Abbey. This particular stretch of road does not lend itself to the ‘wandering promenade’ imagery conjured by city leadership – and long time residents of the area who have been mostly confined to their homes are now subjected to loud music, parking chaos, and trash everywhere – just when our neighborhood is beginning to come back to life. I have not spoken to a single resident or business owner in our neighborhood… Read more »
Tragically, Lindsey doesn’t agree with us.
I agree they had a surplus because businesses didn’t want to deal with municipal grants. Put those grants not for businesses double dipping or have reserves of money like hotels in West Hollywood and commercial properties where owners have very expensive land valuations but to the hard hit residents or pets or address the uptick in crime all over the city. What about helping residents who are fixed income of any age who live in the city who could use or need assistance with public services, disability services whole offices are closed. How about reducing crime by increasing patrols, use… Read more »
MANY venues have priced themselves right out of business. NONE of the restaurants on Robertson are “Five Star” but charge those prices. Better to sell more for less than none at all.
The governor has announced that there will be no more pandemic related restrictions as of June 15, so what is this woman talking about with this still going on in August? It would be great if government representatives could get on the same page.
Unfortunately “Pandemic” does not pay attention to ANY Government official. Covid will continue taking lives as long as foolish people do foolish things and do not take care of their Healthy properly.
Commissioners, eat humble pie. It’s over.
I agree. The “Out on Robertson” project was a bad idea to begin with and it has proven to be so. They only activity happening is at The Abbey. They are the only ones benefiting from this. No one in the neighbohood (or businesses that I have spoken with) has been in support of this. I was in a retail store on La Cienega yesterday and the woman who worked there thought that there was some police activity going on on Robertson over the weekend because of all the police cars and orange cones blocking the street. She had no… Read more »
Poor Planning. Poor Execution. Want to shut down Robertson, fine, just get some water barricades, ONE LASD vehicle on either end of the block. NOT “overkill”. IF and when the crowds materialize, add more LASD walking in pairs on opposite side of the street.
It’s time to shut this folly down. Not only is there a lack of interest and support from businesses and the community, council seems to have forgotten there’s still a pandemic and 3/4 of the street is under construction. Put the money and resources toward more pressing issues, of which there are many.
Shut this program down. Only the Abbey is benefitting from it; even the street looks un-inviting and dirty. It’s a waste of City and Sheriff resources and with all the maskless people, its an incubator for COVID.
So it’s gone from the answer to the question nobody was asking to the project not even a mother could love? Cancel it.
#ReOpen Robertson