“I’m here speaking for the Hollywoodland Homeowners Assoc which represents the almost 600 homes in this almost century old neighborhood—the only one that juts into Griffith Park as a bottleneck and is precariously surrounded on three sides by parkland in this very high severity fire zone.
Our infrastructure of narrow, winding, blind curved, dead end streets with no sidewalks is so substandard that even before our neighborhood was inundated with tourists, a resident died in a house fire because the firetrucks could not navigate our narrow streets. This was one of the impetuses for starting The Red Flag Program.”
“The one at the end of Beachwood was the subject of recent litigation, and in the court findings the City stipulated that this never was an official entrance into the park.
Several years earlier without any proper process a switchback and parking lot had been put in. RAP removed the parking lot, but not the illegal switchback. We are demanding that it be removed.”
“This dubious access point was closed because of safety reasons, but the switchback is still there that acts as a magnet that attracts hundreds of people literally into our streets. ( There is a SAFE access
to this same trail from the official entrance to the park at the end of Canyon Drive. ) Also unlike all of the other real entrances to the park in residential neighborhoods that are locked—usually at sundown–this one, that is not a public access point, remains open as an exit always. It never closes.”