Post #288428 by Son-of-Kelbo on Tue, Feb 27, 2007 12:45 AM

"Fourth busisest intersection in the United States," according to the Auto Club, as told to me by an associate of the former two-term mayor of Beverly Hills.

Nobody in "their" office appears to want to dovetail with our gathering protest (could it be "that tiki-thing" we're mixed up with?), but they (I can't say which "they", 'cause "they" won't allow themselves to be quoted publicly in our posts -- (I am presuming it to be alright to quote the quote from the Auto Club which they quoted to me...) -- er, they, that is the them that answer the phones at the number given out by the Beverly Hills Homeowners Association, are very concerned about the mind-boggling tonnage of dirt that four-stories-down of excavation on multiple sites would load into an interminable number of big giant trucks, for what would surely seem like an endless procession, into said intersection's traffic flow (if flow you can call it).

Follow that, months later and for months-on-end, with a convoy of construction equipment that would be needed to build the monstrosity the developers have in mind, and Wilshire & Santa Monica makes The Big Dig look like a modest beautification project. After it's all over, add a permanant order-of-magnitude increase in traffic and parking hassles, supersized to match the volume of the vacuum of multiple gigantic towers. Wow. I wonder if the developers will live there with the rest of the suckers they're planning to shakedown to build their nightmare. Maybe they'll live someplace else. Some vastly-less-crowded someplace else. Wouldn't you, if you made a pile off the deal? Used to be a nice place, Beverly Hills...

I wouldn't want to live there, even if my residual checks were fat enough. And even if they ever get fat enough, I wouldn't want to live in a "Manhattenized" version of Beverly Hills, period.

But our mission is to Save Trader Vic's BH, not join the BH Homeowners, unless somebody from their camp wants to let someone in our camp know that our efforts can be useful to them. If we can help them save the shoreline of their town from irreversible condo-esque blight, and in doing so preserve our treasured bit of cultural heritage, then great, but if they want us to chase after them with our support, they'll have to show a little bit more "come-hither" than they're doing so far.

If all we can do is raise enough noise and ire to fold Trader Vic's into the same kind of preservation arrangement that so perfectly and urbanely saved the Cinerama Dome at Arclight, then that may do well enough for the "tiki crowd". But can the tiki-crowd do it without the voting block from the BH Homeowners? Call 'em, mail 'em, let 'em know were there for them (I have), and let's hope they're not too proud to get help from sincere, if unorthodox, sources...

Er, I guess that rant-thing is contageous, Swamp. Ah well, I'm with the TVsPAC in whatever capacity I can be, and am way-stoked to hear SwampTiki has got his paddle digging waves with the Atlanta (LA's Sister City, yes?) TV's for the upcoming 17th. VampRN says she's going to fan the coals at the Emeryville TV's, and TV's Beverly Hills has been contacted as well this afternoon -- reservations have been formally set for a TC gathering on the same date, as has been intended.

Now, Who's going to RSVP for Trader Vic's 90210 on Sat. 3-17, and who's going to be the next to post they've contacted their own local Trader Vic's for the St. Patty's Day link-up. Watch or do, 'sup to you...

Cheers and aloha,
SOK