I am not sure what can be done now as we may be stuck with the Sunset Spectacular blaring lights into our homes forever. Residents from the Park Wellington condos complained to the city council, and billboard company agreed to turn it off each night at a certain time. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, when elected to office in 2010, made it a major priority of his administration to address the issue of abandoned and vacated. In the late 1990s there was a bright purple neon Yahoo sign that was on Sunset Plaza facing east. New Orleans uses data-driven tools for blight remediation In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans was faced with a an abundance of vacant and abandoned properties across the city. Just like when you stay at a hotel on Times Square you know what you are in for and your hotel room is just a place you are staying at for a few days or maybe even a week.Īs residents in West Hollywood we are now trapped by this unnecessary blight. You know you may have a hotel room that faces the Las Vegas strip so there could be huge digital billboard lights shining at your room’s window or not. When you go to Vegas and stay a few days at a hotel, most of your time is spent at shows, in the casino or shopping. In the late 1990s there was a bright purple neon Yahoo sign that was on Sunset Plaza facing east. This is not the Las Vegas strip and it’s not Times Square. As residents in West Hollywood we are now trapped by this unnecessary blight. How could we as residents be so led astray by the planning commissioners and our city councilmembers voting in favor of this huge mess? Every night endless lights greet me onto my walls that move as each digital lighted display ad flashes and moves up and down continuously.īecause of this, my lifetime favorite color - red - has lost its place in my heart because red now bleeds and invades my life in the evenings. You know how in a film or TV show when they want to tell the audience how bad a neighborhood is they show the character who is either a prostitute or criminal living in some flop house apartment where just outside the second floor window there is a tacky blaring red neon sign that says “Motel” or “Liquor Store” that comes right into the living space? Well that’s now my apartment. Though I am impacted significantly, the real victims of our city’s betrayal are the residents of the condo building Shoreham Villas, the apartment building Shoreham Pines and the other residences that surround the parking lot from where the lights project. Bright yellows, blues, oranges and red now roost on my living room and dining room walls as the light pollution displays an endless colored slide show.