Only in L.A. / People and Events

Christmas, 1989, in L.A., and you can almost hear carolers singing:

Deck City Hall with boughs of barbed wire

Fa la la la la , la la la la. . . .

The Recreation and Parks Department on Thursday wrapped most of City Hall in a chain-link fence that is topped by three rows of barbed wire. It’s all part of a four-month, $192,000 landscaping project that will involve uprooting some shrubbery to make room for more palm trees.

The L.A. Wall is necessary, a spokeswoman said, “to keep people from trampling on the plants.”

While no guard dogs will roam behind the fence, Councilman Nate Holden isn’t happy with the new lawn decoration.

“Anything that exclusionary is not in the Christmas spirit at all,” said Holden. “We should have an open environment rather than a closed one. Plus, I don’t remember anyone authorizing $192,000 for this. That fence is not going to stay up.”

Or, to put it another way:

Ich bin ein Angeleno.

Sobering thought from Jim Carroll of Burbank:

“I wonder if it is purely coincidental that going south on I-5, approaching Paramount Boulevard, you pass three booze billboards, closely followed by a billboard for Rose Hills Memorial Park.”