There is only one official, safe public opening into the Hollywoodland Gifted Park. That opening is off Canyon Drive in Bronson Canyon. This opening offers pedestrian access with sidewalks on each side of the street, the incline is a gentler grade, the street less curving, there are public bathrooms, drinking water sources and two large official gravel parking lots holding 150 cars.
So why does the city continue to encourage people to park, hike and traverse into Hollywoodland proper with all its unsafe infrastructure? Boggles a logical mind!
Think about this: Within a six day period of time three search and rescue operations took place within the Hollywoodland gifted park area:
* May 31, Illegal vista site phase 2, 4 passenger vehicle rolled over the west side of the ravine missing the playground section of the Lake Hollywood Park 
* June 3, rescue near the Girl’s Camp adjacent to the illegal Hollyridge/Beachwood hiking trail.
* June 5, rescue from the illegal entrance at Beachwood Drive passed the Sunset Ranch
Guess who is underwriting the costs of these irresponsible hikers? The property tax payers of the City of Los Angeles
The vista created by Tom LaBonge above Lake Hollywood Park MUST be closed to tourists and restored to its naturally vegetated state. It has created an absolute nightmare for residents in the Hollywood Knolls. For the last few years we have been plagued by an onslaught of loud and highly disrespectful tourists in open-top buses. A recent sting operation on vehicle weight has reduced the number of open-air buses, but they have simply replaced them with 16-passenger vans. These white vans travel up my street at a rate of one every ten minutes on weekends. Sometimes they travel in caravans of three.
We have completely stopped taking our dog up to Lake Hollywood Park (OUR neighborhood park) because it is now impossible to find a parking space. The entire hill is packed with an endless stream of these white vans, mixed in with RVs and tourists in private vehicles. To make matters worse, there are catering trucks that are operating businesses up there. I have seen these trucks come down the hill as late as 9PM, probably because they are also servicing the party crowd that appears at night. This brings me to the second problem, the rather unsavory looking individuals who go to the vista at night. A clerk at the local Chevron station actually told me that he and his friends go up there at night to get high by the Hollywood sign. All of this activity is not only disruptive to our once peaceful neighborhood, but incredibly dangerous. Visitors are smoking cigarettes and parking off-road when street parking is unavailable (which is most of the time). This vista needs to be closed to tourists, re-vegetated, and if necessary, gated at night.
Couldn’t agree with you more! The illegal “vista” must be closed, replanted with native plants and cacti, and be fenced off. Period.
I would love to post some of my “favorite” illegal vista photos. Plenty of clear evidence that this is a non-sustainable and dangerous endeavor.
Great post.