Our goal at WEHOville is to keep our community informed with original reporting and also to alert our readers to stories published elsewhere that are relevant to West Hollywood. What could be more relevant than Curbed’s recently published list of “101 small ways you can improve your city”? “We’ve scoured cities all around the world for small ideas with huge potential, and asked some of our favorite urban thinkers for tiny ways to make outsized transformations,” Curbed writes.
The suggestions include lighting a dark block, picking up more poop, designing fake signs, networking an alley, riding a bike, organizing a neighborhood bar crawl, providing mobile showers for the homeless, starting a YIMBY group, smiling at strangers, throwing a block party — and there’s 91 more.
Read the Curbed story here and then please offer your comments on WEHOville about the suggestions you like from the Curbed list. Add others you’d recommend, or mention things you’ve done here or elsewhere. No criticism or negative responses to the comments please. (Yes, we know some would violate city ordinances). This is about brainstorming new ways for us to enjoy ourselves and one another in a city that is remarkable for its small size (only 1.89 square miles) and creative population — Southern California’s cosmopolitan Mayberry.
More street lights. I live on N Kings and it’s VERY dark walking after the sun goes down.
Modify the bars and restaurants surrounding the park (along SMB and Robertson) so that they have windows and seating facing the park. Why waste that view?
And our City can certainly do a better job of planting more trees. In my neighborhood there are plenty of half dead trees that have never thrived. There are also plenty of spots where trees were removed and never replaced with new trees. Shouldn’t our landscaping department be out surveying all the time looking for new opportunities to plant more trees. (and please don’t plant the new ones with two skinny poles..they always get snapped and the tree either gets snapped next or it grows bent over. In Tokyo they use three poles to form a triangle and it forms… Read more »
And please, someone send somebody to clean the sidewalks on the west end of Santa Monica Blvd. They are filthy and stink to high heaven!
Since everyone is fully aware that there is drought (and things won’t likely improve any time soon)…can we start to think of alternative landscaping for our medians…? Faux grass? Leaving the dead grass or more accurately…dirt…sends a message on how well West Hollywood is trying to conserve water..but that message has been sent and has been out there for over a year. Time to make the medians look beautiful again while keeping in mind the goal of trying to conserve water.
How about some kind of City sponsored content (cash prizes awarded and some free publicity in some local publication/website) on which business can create the most improved facade….? New paint, new outdoor furniture, some potted plants/trees?
We have several intersections with boarded up/empty buildings. These structures have billboards either on the building or adjacent to it on the building’s property. The building’s owners obviously don’t care if the space is leased out, they are making too much money off the billboard alone. These building sit empty for years (northeast corner of Doheny & Santa Monica has been empty for about 15 years and the southwest corner of La Cienega & Holloway has been empty for at least 5 years – to name two). Perhaps the City could approach these land owners & say hey, we know… Read more »
Increase law enforcement presence to deter the transients moving in who are drugged, drunk and/or mentally ill who smoke crack/meth in public and aggressively rant at passers by. This is becoming a genuine safety concern recently. Expand the trolley service to week nights. We can’t make the Ellis Act go away, but there have to be things we can do to make it less attractive, especially for those slimy landlords who harass their elderly and disabled long- term tenants to try and make them leave quicker. Make it a mandatory 12 month minimum noticing period for every Ellis-related eviction. Raise… Read more »
Google Fiber… City-wide public Wi-Fi….
Remove utility poles and put wires underground!
Put me on the list for that being a needed improvement. But c+ you live with NOT another giant parking structure for weho park to pay for it? I SURE AS HECK WOULD. I THINK THE WHOE “NEW WEHO PARK PLANS” somehow … contradict the completion of a massivleltly pverpriced “NEW WEHO PARK FOR THE FUTURE AFTER 25 years with the “old” Park. I followed a noring circular dog and piony show the City put on … ALL BASED ON A FALSE FORGED 25 yeat plan for the future. Though the answers to the same questions and concers that came… Read more »
Clean streets and sidewalks the smell is really bad also homeless drugged and drunk on sidewalks not a good image for the city
I think there is an opportunity to improve the wayfinding signage in our city. The current blue and yellow signs dont reflect our city’s brand.
Senior housing is also critical to make sure Weho residents can always stay in the community as they age.