The globe lanterns strung over Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood’s Rainbow District may soon be coming to city’s East Side.
City Council will decide Monday evening whether to have city staff start seeking proposals for the project, intended to highlight the eastern gateway into WeHo. The original street-lighting design was installed permanently on the West Side in 2019.
Where exactly the globes will float above Santa Monica Blvd. hasn’t been finalized, but they’re looking at two sections of coverage 1) between N. Vista Street and N. Poinsettia Place and 2) from Formosa Avenue to La Brea Avenue. The cost of lighting both those areas is estimated at $423,000.
The project is Item 5E on tomorrow’s agenda.
After positive community feedback of a temporary street lantern installation on Santa Monica Boulevard for 2019 LA Pride in West Hollywood, the City Council directed staff to design a system of lanterns similar to the temporary ones installed during the event between Robertson Boulevard and Hancock Avenue.
The City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a permanent, commercial-grade system of lanterns that would be compliant with Fire Department regulations and programmable with different light configurations and effects for different events throughout the year.
The permanent colorful globe lanterns were installed in December 2019 and provide a bright atmosphere and welcoming feel to the City’s LGBT “Rainbow District” during nighttime.
This item directs staff to move forward with issuing an RFP to establish a similar system of lanterns on the City’s eastside. The new lighting would highlight the City’s eastside gateway and bring a welcoming feel to this side of the City. It will make the entrance into West Hollywood more obvious along Santa Monica Boulevard. The exact location of the new lanterns is to be determined.
As a preliminary assessment, staff looked at two possible locations along Santa Monica Boulevard from N. Vista Street to N. Poinsettia Place and from Formosa Avenue to La Brea Avenue. More research is needed to AGENDA ITEM 5.E. Page 2 of 3 determine the specific location of the lanterns, taking into consideration the location of streetlight poles, approval by the LA County Fire Department, and proper router placement. Staff will return with the results of the RFP as well as more information on design options and proposed boundaries.
The lanterns currently installed on the westside of Santa Monica Boulevard are programmable either as individual lanterns or entire strands of lights, which will allow the City of West Hollywood to recognize national events or celebrations that traditionally use signature colors. All lanterns have UV protection to prolong the life and ensure clarity of the shield around the light fixtures.
In addition, the lanterns feature easily replaceable fixtures and are custom-made in the United States of commercial-grade construction to withstand the elements for successful permanent exterior installation. The lanterns are engineered to meet the weight and wind-load requirements of existing light poles to which they are attached and are compliant with fire safety regulations.
In addition to the proposed new lanterns, the City is currently in the process of retrofitting and installing LED streetlights on all City-owned streetlight fixtures in the City. This will help the City enhance safety and sustainability as the new LED streetlights are substantially more energy efficient than the existing lights and will be less expensive to operate. The new streetlights will be equipped with a remote monitoring system that will allow City staff to more expediently detect and repair streetlight outages.
The project costs will vary depending on the specific location chosen and final boundaries. The preliminary estimate for the segment from Vista Street to Poinsettia Place is $262,000 and from Formosa Avenue to La Brea Avenue is $161,000. Staff will return to City Council with the results of the RFP and a request for funding. It may be possible to use dedicated General funds provided by the Movietown development project which are set aside for Eastside improvements and public benefits. Approximately $1.1 million of these funds remain.
What a waste of money and a cheesy design project. Who comes up with these ideas? The dearly beloved city council members we just elected or the ones elected before? What neighborhood our City Council members really live in? We have so many issues money should be spent on, including drug addition, mental health, cleaning up dirt and trash that seems to be everywhere these days. I missed out on participating in this meeting – can I still send a note somewhere somehow that I oppose this lighting project? Does anyone know? I see they mention sending a comment to… Read more »
I think this is a great way to help the transient homeless druggies, thieves, and all around criminal element that drift from Hollywood and LA. Better lighting to use crack pipes, break into cars, rob the few locals that are brave enough to venture out at night on foot. I just love the priorities of the priss pot group running this city, ALL of whom live west of Fairfax. Gotta run, can’t type with 5 GAS BLOWERS shaking the place from a block away!
I appreciate the City Council’s good intentions but a real commitment toward cleaning up and insuring the safety of the intersection of La Brea and Santa Monica should be the Council’s first priority.
It starts with “soap & water” or at least steam cleaning sidewalks and having businesses add some elements of beautification even if it amounts to little more than pots of geraniums. People need to care about their corner of the city and engage in it. Over the weekend Nithya Raman LA Council District 4 (CD4) sent out her weekly bulletin inviting responses about tree plantings, cleanups and more. Since I border on CD4 I responded with articulated suggestions of what could be done in that neighborhood that I venture through daily from Fairfax & Sunset to Sunset & Crescent Heights… Read more »
I think the city council needs to pass on this item and really consider spending the money for safety kiosks in various parts of the city instead.The rainbow globes sound fun at first,but there are more important stuff to make decisions on and allocate money to.
Get the city to more be safer and I will welcome the globes.
Yup!
Why are these kinds of arguments typically reduced to either “this” or “that”. We can do multiple things at once. This small city has a huge tax base particularly with all the new hotels and restaurants. I think we can hang some decorative lights AND do other safety and maintenance projects. Now that the lights are going up on the East Side, they are going to bring a positive vibe. Negative Nancys.
The exciting future of LED (light emitting diodes) lighting ❗ LEDs are highly durable, environmentally friendly and, are 2,000% more efficient than conventional light bulbs and 500% more efficient than compact fluorescent bulbs. This is why we can’t afford not to move to full scale LED lighting. Solid State LED drivers enable an increase or decrease in illumination or even a color change we desire. I cast my place in a pink light. Semiconductor Lasers working on many of the same principals use even less energy, with the potential of Holographic Projection that could really light up the place.⚡
The eastside is an embarrassment to Weho. Have to get the mentally unstable transients and drug addicts off the street.
More like beverly hells is a westside embarrassment with their mentally unstable homeowners and their entitled drug addicts who endanger the public with their overpriced vehicles that they don’t know how to drive even when NOT under the influence. Let’s get them off our streets first❗
This article isn’t about Beverly Hills.
YES but, YOUR comment was about “the mentally unstable” and “drug addicts” and beverly hells better fits that description!🤣
Wow. Do you know how many drug addicts are in the West side’s bars every night. Guess if they’re well-dressed and drive a nice car it’s not a problem.
This is a great idea! The east side of Weho is too often neglected.
To the other commenters: you can’t just throw $$$ at the homeless problem. Money does not equal less homeless. I thought people understood that by now…
YES but, the $423,000 spent on WeHo LED lighting wouldn’t pay for even part of the cheapest bomb routinely dropped by western imperialists on oppressed people. The drug problem needs to be treated as a Medical issue as opposed as a criminal one with Single Payer Universal Healthcare, we need more public housing & section 8 programs to end homelessness and, we need FREE Public Higher Education to replace a lifetime of incarceration.☮
More wasteful spending. The Eastside does NOT need rainbow lighting. This City is NOT all LGBTQI and the City should respect all the non-LGBTQI citizens of this City. We have the rainbow flag incorporated into our City flag, we have rainbow crosswalks, etc. Enough!
lol is this satire? How does rainbow colors disrespect any “non-LGBTQI” people?
Where is the logic?
Rainbow lighting looks like the carnival that left town and forgot to collect their lights. Please ring back the old fashioned refitted street lamps from wherever they wound up.
Wasteful spending is better exemplified by the military industrial complex, imperialist war crimes and, civil rights abuse by domestic law enforcement. Currently we are experiencing a reactionary republican party inspired war on Trans Rights, so yes the Rainbow Flag🏳🌈 and the Trans Flag are still needed. Note the dire implications of refusing to fly the Rainbow Colors as in the case with many republican districts or even the Burj Kahlifa LED display in Dubi.🌈
On one hand, I agree that this price tag is excessive but have no issue with rainbow colored lights. Even though little Italy neighborhoods in cities like New York and Boston are now only 20 percent Italian American residents, the colors of the Italian flag are very
Prominent. They made the neighborhood what it is – same in West Hollywood. The gay community made it what it is and gay people and their allies pour millions of dollars into the area
Does this mean that multi-colored Christmas Lights are now GAY Xmas Lights?
The Boystown lights are enough. This is just more light pollution and cheesy.
More money wasted to try to put lipstick on a pig. Put this money towards getting help for the many drug addicts, alcoholics and people with mental illness that wander our streets, living in their own filth. That’s where any extra money should be put towards-not towards this frivolous wasteful crap. People can see through the pretty bright lights to the real, heartbreaking and disturbing issues that really need attention and are growing out of control.
Could you imaging these in London, Beverly Hills, Brentwood or even Culver City? Decoration during an event or parade is one thing, contributing to the exponential tackiness of a city that was once respectable is another. The pig mentioned above would likely reject the idea as well.
Beverly Hills has light installations similar to these already lol
I don’t have to imagine when it comes to the world’s largest LED display on the Burj Khalifa in Dubi an epic Engineering and Architectural Wonder achieved by the UAE Steel Workers Union also representing Engineers, Architects, Designers including CAD Designers and many others. Some of us were deported as political subversives😔, well time to work on the Great City of West Hollywood ❗ 😃