You can groan. Or you can laugh.
Yes, La Cienega Boulevard is going to be fully closed between Sunset Boulevard and Fountain Avenue from Monday through mid-September. The closing is necessary for major utility construction work associated with the Sunset La Cienega Project at the intersection of Sunset and La Cienega.
There are signs with blinking lights warning of the closing. But hey, it’s West Hollywood, the Creative City, which has decided to take a creative approach to getting the word out. That comes in the form of a humorous series of YouTube videos called “The WeHoans” to alert the public about the upcoming closure. The WeHoans, which features drag sensations Willam Belli and Bianca Del Rio and other local West Hollywood performers, is a parody of the popular Saturday Night Live skit “The Californians” in which soap opera-like characters in platinum blonde wigs hilariously describe in hyper-detail how to navigate the freeways and streets of California
Episode One is posted above. Stay tuned for more two more episodes to follow on Aug. 19 and 26. Each new episode can be seen on Willam Belli’s YouTube Channel.
The La Cienega Boulevard utility construction work will take place in one phase from Monday to mid-September. Due to La Cienega Boulevard’s proximity to hotels and residences, construction work will only be done during daytime hours. Continuous local access will be provided for the Sunset Marquis hotel and for residential buildings located on La Cienega Boulevard. La Cienega Boulevard will remain open south of Fountain Avenue.
Throughout the utility construction work, businesses on the Sunset Strip will be open as usual. Updates on the project will be posted regularly on its website.
I don’t know who where came up with this idea to publicize the La Cienega street closure, but he or she deserves a big “Congratulations! Job well done!” Over this last weekend, I saw the story and vid clip on Channel 2 and Channel 4 local news broadcasts, and it wouldn’t surprise me if other stations carried it, too. That some might think it is a weak imitation of a bad SNL skit is irrelevant. It got the word out.
Would it be possible for wehoville to contact the City to find out what they are doing to actually mitigate the impacts of this closure? La Cienega is fully blocked off, yet it looks like the traffic signal is still programmed for traffic coming North on La Cienega to turn onto Sunset. Is it too hard for them to reprogram the traffic signal so that the east/west traffic does not have to stop for no reason at all? I understand that there may be an occasional car coming South on Miller but that could easily be handled with proper programming.
Laugh! I think it’s great the City put some thought and care into creating something people will actually watch to get the word out.
CurbedLA gives the video a rave review.
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/08/la_cienega_street_closure_wehoans.php
Love it.
I think the traffic on Sunset is less painful than watching that video. 🙂 Just sayin’
It’s was supposed to have started on Monday but instead was closed much of last week.
Instead of preparing stupid videos, the City should be taking action to reduce the impact of this closure. One suggestion would be to open up Alta Loma during the period of the closure. Indeed, the reason why Alta Loma is closed in the first place is that it was a concession offered to the residents on that street to get them to support the Millennium project when it was first approved in the 1990s. The least they could do is endure 6 weeks of additional traffic as they are largely responsible for this terrible project.
Groan is right. They took the worst sketch from SNL to parody. The one that makes Californians look like complete idiots (which is how many in this country see us anyhow). Oh well, they got the point across. But doesn’t the powers that be realize that women live in this city also?