With Christmas 2024 in the bag, WEHOonline shares a wish list for the coming year.
The French Market
We would love to see the French Market’s long-awaited retour à la vie actually start happening. The Crescent Heights-Laurel-Fairfax stretch on Santa Monica Blvd. is one of the most blighted sections of the city, and the neighborhood needs a shiny new shopping development to elevate it into something like a mini-Beverly Grove.
Bike locks
The bike giveaway was a great but overambitious idea — the city later realized they bit off more than they could chew. So how about a bike lock giveaway? In reality it’s the constant threat of theft — not lack of bike lanes — that keeps ridership in WeHo so low. (I’ve had two bikes stolen in under two years) For less than $1,000, City Hall could give out at least 100 locks.
Minor Medical Care
The city contracts special agencies to provide on-call, on-location medical care and checkups to homeless people living in WeHo. Why can’t they do something similar for uninsured or underinsured residents who aren’t living on the streets, so they don’t have to depend on the price gougers at Urgent Care, who charge $400 to squirt hydrogen peroxide in your ear to remove earwax.
Fountain Ave streets and sidewalks
While we aren’t really feeling the bike lanes the city has planned on Fountain Avenue, we’ve been calling out the city’s shittiest sidewalks since 2022. We literally can’t wait to walk them. And sorry, Bette Davis: Even more urgent is the need to reduce rampant speeding on the street, which Councilmember John Erickson correctly labeled a “death trap.” Bring on the speed bumps and four way stops.
Flashing pedestrian lights
How many near-death experiences have you had on WeHo’s fancy illuminated crosswalks, which force pedestrians to walk directly into oblivious oncoming traffic? Most drivers don’t even notice the twinkling yellow lights embedded in high-traffic crossings along Santa Monica, Fairfax, Fountain, Melrose and San Vicente, and the rest just ignore them. Go back to classic red light crossings if you can’t do better.
Cheap big box stores
Not all of us will be able to shop at Erewhon (and many won’t want to). With prices at Gelson’s and Pavilions climbing ever higher and the extinction of local 99 Cents or Less stores underway, WeHo desperately lacks affordable grocery stores. City Hall should be actively courting Costco, Walmart Express and other popular big box retailers to fill this massive gap and force WeHo’s high-end markets to price more competitively. And how about an IKEA for the newly populist Pacific Design Center to get new customers in the doors of our red, blue and green ivory towers. Behold the (spending) power of the people!
Our local WeHo Target offers a large grocery section.
None of these lower priced stores like Walmart, etc are going to open in WeHo. They cannot afford to operate with the high labor costs and high costs of doing business. There is a reason why groceries, food, drinks, etc., are so expensive and it’s because WeHo will have the highest minimum wage in California and one of the highest in the entire country. It’s almost $3 an hour higher than the California minimum wage. This is great for some workers but it also increases the price of everything we buy or consume.
Great list, Brandon. I’m glad you brought up the whole blinking light/crosswalk debacle. Several years ago, there were a series of pedestrian injuries and there was a lobby to make crosswalks safer. While they did indeed put in blinking red lights between La Cienega and Robertson, they have neglected doing that for the other crosswalks, including those on Fountain. The City Council has always neglected this issue, with deadly consequences and there is zero excuse for it. Drivers respond to red lights. Period. Anything else is Russian Roulette for pedestrians.
A Costco in West Hollywood would be so wonderful for so many people! I don’t think it’ll happen, and I don’t have many fingers, but I’ve got them crossed anyway!
Interesting options in here. But speedbumps on Fountain? The fire department wouldn’t allow that as their trucks don’t go over them well. I’d prefer police just enforce current speeding laws (…like everywhere else, but particularly along Fountain). Some new healthcare options would be amazing but I suspect that is a VERY tall order. Hoping for a good 2025!
There is a solution for this, speed cushions. They are spaced so that emergency vehicles pass right between them but cars can’t because of their differing widths.
More affordable restaurants and bars would be great too (not sure if this is poss once min wage goes up even higher) How about lower commercial rent to attract more businesses as well.
Okay, Brandon Ross Garcia! I agree with EVERYTHING on your list, but Ikea and Costco anchoring the PDC is GENIUS. From your lips to God’s ears. Brandon. Bravo!
Not sure sure where we have space for a Costco Then again we have so much empty space… Ikea’s products are crap.
The reason “big box” stores haven’t made their way to WeHo is the astronomical rents. And rents in the PDC are even much higher. I don’t know how the recent reduction in the PDC’s occupancy & repurposing has/will affect rents, but so far, they’ve always been excessive. That’s why you’ll always see “big box” stores open in further outlying areas. I think the PDC should model after the Beverly Connection, & remodel at least some, into smaller spaces for smaller retailers & food venues. The PDC in its more successful past, was always considered forbidden territory to the public, &… Read more »