Community | February 12, 2010 | 4 comments

Activists Raise $8M after Hollywood Sign Changed to "Save the Peak" - Update 2/16/10

source: http://laist.com/2010/02/09/good_news_sign.php

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EthicalVegan
There are two choices for the 138 acres of private land sitting to the left of the Hollywood Sign: develop it into a site for luxury living or leave it as open space. What happens next is up to the community, or perhaps, the world at large.

When the LAPD on Monday sent out a mysterious community e-mail alert stating that the sign would be "covered up for an international campaign [...] until further notice," a surprise meant for Thursday began to unravel. The world's most famous sign, which originally read "HOLLYWOODLAND"--and thanks to pranks, "CALTECH," "HOLLYWeeD" and other phrases throughout the years--is expected to read "Save the Peak" on Thursday.

Call it activism, if you will, to save one of the most famous pieces of open space in Los Angeles. When the Cahuenga Peak and surrounding land was sold to a Chicago-based investment firm in 2002 for a cheap $1.675 million and later put on the market for $22 million, it concerned environmentalists (preserve the open space) and preservationists (don't ruin the backdrop of the world's most famous sign) alike. Touted as "the last private, undeveloped promontory ridge in Los Angeles," the property was divvied up in five parcels and marketed to those seeking the ultimate luxury home.

At 1,821 feet, the Peak sits nearly 150-foot above Mount Lee, where the Hollywood Sign rests, and offers a 360-degree view over the city to Catalina Island and across the expansive San Fernando Valley. Hikers and even some city officials assumed the land was part of the city's 4,210-acre Griffith Park, but when it was sold, some local history spilled out.

Billionaire Howard Hughes bought the land in 1940 with the idea to build a romantic hilltop home for his love, actress Ginger Rogers. "We'll live up here by ourselves with the world far below," he told her. The gesture, however, didn't sit too well with Rogers who feared he would lock her up and never let her see anyone. The two broke up and the land was put in Hughes' trust for 62 years until it was sold.

As the market began to crash, so did the new owner's bloated $22-million asking price. Last year, the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land entered into a one-year due diligence period with Fox River Financial Resources for a total of $12.5 million. The goal is to purchase the land and deed it over to the city's Griffith Park, but to date, only $6.3 million has been secured. By April 14th, the rest of the money is due or the property risks being sold to other buyers.

For L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes Griffith Park--he hikes atop Mount Hollywood daily--this issue is close to his heart. "It's absolutely critical that we acquire this piece of land. I've been working for 10 years on this and the moment is now." he said in a statement to LAist.

Now LaBonge, the Trust and other organizations have teamed up to ask for help. "Although donations are coming in, we have a long way to go in a very short time," an appeal reads on the Save Cahuenga Peak website. "Protection of Cahuenga Peak will prevent development from scarring one of Los Angeles' iconic views--the Hollywood Sign backed by the peak's sweeping natural landscape."

Come Thursday, it will be hard for Los Angeles and the rest of the world to not notice that appeal. "Save The Peak" will be seen loud and clear and that's what fundraisers are hoping for.
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4 comments // Activists Raise $8M after Hollywood Sign Changed to "Save the Peak" - Update 2/16/10

  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7281202

      Activists raise $8M to save Hollywood sign
      Tuesday, February 16, 2010

      Rob Hayes

      HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- Over the last week one of Los Angeles' best-known landmarks, the Hollywood sign, has gone from a landmark to a high-profile plea for some serious money.

      The cover on the historic sign the read "Save the Peak" came down on Tuesday. The future of the property around the sign is still up in the air.

      Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge and the trust for public land raised $8 million to stop the sale of land around the sign. While that is a lot of money, $12.5 million was needed to buy a 135-acre piece of land that sits just west of the sign.

      A Chicago real-estate investment firm owns that land and is threatening to build luxury homes there unless the trust buys it first and the deadline is just two months away.

      "That beautiful view that you see, the Hollywood sign, could be harmed," LaBonge said. "Your view could be deteriorated."

      The worry is that the Hollywood sign could soon be sharing the hill with new neighbors.

      "We making some tremendous progress," Sam Hodder from the Trust for Public Land said. "We've got a long way to go and it's going to a lot of shoulders to the wheel.

      The Trust for Public Land has until April 14 to the additional $4.5 million.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
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      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/it-started-life-as-a-real-estate-a...

      Hollyweed, Jolly Good, Sallywood -- Hollywood signs of the times
      February 12, 2010 | 1:30 pm

      It started life as a real estate ad and became a world-famous landmark.

      It has fallen down and been fixed up. It has been scrawled with hearts that say so-and-so loves so-and-so forever.

      Jolly300 Pranksters have draped it in sheets to read HOLLYWEED (for dope), HOLYWOOD (for the pope), RAFFEYSOD (for the Raffeys, an obscure rock band).

      Now, workers are covering up the sign again. To raise money to purchase a nearby mountain peak, the sign is being slowly covered to read "SAVE THE PEAK."

      The nine giant letters perched on Mt. Lee sit on city property, within the more than 4,000-acre Griffith Park. Built in 1923 for $21,000, the original sign read HOLLYWOODLAND and was owned by the builder of a new subdivision in the hills.

      Jury-rigged out of canvas, plywood and telephone poles, it still caught your eye -- and no wonder. It blazed with 4,000 light bulbs. Soon, the neighborhood filled up.

      Read on for more on the sign's interesting history ...

      There was no more call for the caretaker, who once lived in a shack beside the sign, to clamber up ladders to change bulbs. The lights eventually went out. In the mid-1940s, the developer dumped a 455-acre property, including the sign, on the city to get out from under a mountain of back taxes. The city wanted the property to expand Griffith Park.

      As for the sign, it let it quietly crumble. By the late 1940s, the sign had lost its H and was tilting precariously. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in, restored the missing letter and took off the last four letters.

      "The city didn't really want to take care of it. The sign started falling down the hill. It became sort of an embarrassment," said Leron Gubler, president and CEO of the chamber, told The Times in a 2002 interview.

      "By the mid-1970s, it was in terrible disrepair. The first O's top third was missing. The last O was completely missing," he said. Shards of the original sign littered the hillside. Bits and pieces had been tumbling down for years.

      So began a major effort that restored the sign to its former glory.
      Today’s Hollywood sign, by the way, is constructed out of 194 tons of concrete, sheet metal and steel beams sunk into the earth. The letters are five stories high. The whole thing weighs 480,000 pounds.

      --Nita Lelyveld - Los Angeles Times

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/02/12/2010-02-12_sallywood_saveypo...

      Sallywood? Saveypood? Conservationists give iconic Hollywood sign a confusing makeover

      By Nancy Dillon
      DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF

      Friday, February 12th 2010, 5:56 PM

      LOS ANGELES - Hooray for Saveypood!

      Conservationists raced to cover the nine giant letters of the iconic Hollywood sign with a red mesh sign Friday in a dramatic protest of a nearby development.

      The sign reading "Save the Peak" is part of a campaign to stop construction of four luxury homes in the landmark's shadow.
      By lunchtime, they were halfway there.

      "What's a 'Pood,' and who's trying to save it?" asked Holly Montgomery, a 44-year-old tourist from Bloomington, Minn., who drove high in the hills hoping to get a photo of the sign that should have included her first name.

      "I'm just here one day, and this was something I really wanted to do," she said, deflated. "But I definitely support the cause. This sign is so famous. It represents all the stars and movies we love."

      Organized by the Trust for Public Land, the grassroots effort is hoping to raise millions in the next few weeks so the group can buy the 138-acre plot that acts as the sign's backdrop.

      The group needs to raise another $5.5 million before its option to buy the land for $12.5 million expires in mid-April, a spokesman said.

      "Its allure as an icon is its isolation, how it pops out of the hillside. Ginormous houses above it would subordinate the sign to someone else's desire for a great view," said Hollywood historian and author Leo Brandy.

      "I just framed a photo with a lamppost so it says, 'Save Poo,'" chuckled local resident Don Diers, 51. "I know I'm too old for scatological jokes, but I couldn't resist."

      ndillon@nydailynews.com

      Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/02/12/2010-02-12_sallywood_saveypo...

    • 2 years ago
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