Every big city around the world has its landmark. Paris has it’s Eiffel Tower, New York has the Empire State Building, San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge. For Los Angeles, and Hollywood more specifically, it’s the Hollywood sign on Mt. Lee.
Everyday, tourists and even Southern California residents can be found hiking up — or sometimes driving up — to capture close up pictures with the sign. For Hollywood sign-goers, this is a thrill. For Hollywood sign neighbors, it’s an annoyance.
On one side, it makes sense how seeing a constant flow of tourist traffic in your front yard can be bothersome. A house on the Hollywood hills with a gorgeous view of LA deserves a quiet, pacifying environment to complete its perfect picture.
Also, a Los Angeles Times article stated that some 100 cigarette butts were picked up among other litter by the Hollywood sign. It’s important that we keep the area clean, as well as avoid any possible fire in that area.
On the other hand, like I stated earlier, the Hollywood sign is a huge landmark for Los Angles all over the world. It’s celebrity central. Tourists from around the world who look forward to visiting Los Angeles and hiking up Mt. Lee to take a picture with the ever-famous sign deserve to do exactly that, just as we are able to get up close and personal with the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building.
Moreover, residents of California, and especially Southern California, should be able to visit the Hollywood sign to further appreciate the landmark that we are most identified with.
Every year, and endless thread of new movies are premiered in theaters worldwide. Movies like “The Dark Knight” that people absolutely rave about. These same movies are translated either verbally or through closed captions and presented in countries all over the world. The Grammy’s, the Oscar’s and other award ceremonies are held in Hollywood. The famous red carpet is always thought about in association with Hollywood. The point is that because of popular culture, Hollywood is very largely famous.
Although it’s understandable that the clogging of tourism around the Hollywood sign can be a buzz-kill for those that are so lucky to live right by it. They want to be able to feel grateful about living exactly where they do without a constant flow of people in their front yards.
However, I do believe it’s more important that we make the billion other people around the world happy that they too have the opportunity to get as close to Hollywood as possible.
It is important that while tourists are able to hike up to the sign, the area is kept litter-free as well. Maybe establishing a few more rules and regulations for visiting the sign should be considered.
Just because we are seeing more and more people visit the sign doesn’t mean we have to close it off. It only means a bit more enforcement is needed in order to establish an organized flow of people visiting.
We should be flattered that our Hollywood sign has become such an increasingly popular monument.