Weekend Car Barriers Go Up in Edgy Westwood

Several Westwood Village business operators said Thursday they are outraged by city plans to block cars from entering the shopping and entertainment district on Friday and Saturday nights. Others are cautiously optimistic that the restrictions will actually help their businesses in the long run.

Many merchants said they believe the plan will cause them financial hardship but will help curtail the sometimes unruly and rambunctious crowds that gather on weekend evenings.

“In part, we’re the victims of our own popularity,” said Don Gimpel, who for 14 years has owned the Bon Appetit restaurant and jazz club in the heart of the village.

“When crowds get too large and unruly--and they have been--people felt apprehensive and threatened,” Gimpel said. “I want people to feel safe when they come into the village, like it used to be.”

Starting tonight, all streets into Westwood Village, including the main artery, Westwood Boulevard, will be closed to traffic from 7 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said, however, that the actual closure of Westwood just north of Wilshire Boulevard may occur a little later because street crews will concentrate on shutting off other intersections first.

Those who spoke out against the plan in interviews Thursday said they fear it will strangle commerce in the village and lead to a decline from a once-quaint enclave into a playground for youngsters--and sometimes even gang members--that officials said have been showing up in increasing numbers.

“This is bureaucratic overreaction at its worst,” said Shel Starkman, owner of the Old World restaurant. “It’s going to be a ghost town. It will be bereft of adult clientele.”

Most merchants said they were taken by surprise by the city’s announcement shutting the village to vehicle traffic.

Gimpel said he hopes the restrictions will help the village become a place for people to stroll and shop in an atmosphere akin to that of a European village. “There is no question it is going to hurt my business--in the short run we’ll be hurt badly,” he said. “In the long run, it’ll help.”

Starkman disagreed, saying the barricades that currently block weekend traffic into the area from 9:30 p.m. to midnight are bad enough. He said the new restrictions will keep out the very people that village merchants hope to attract.

Fred Clary, area supervisor for Allied/Royal Parking, said that at least one of the three lots his company operates in the village will be affected, and that he is dreading the restrictions.

“We can’t be happy with not being able to sell the only thing we sell,” Clary said. “This is supposed to be a free country and people are supposed to be able to go where they want to go if they behave themselves.”

Clary, like many other area merchants, expressed frustration at the extent of the restrictions. “I certainly do agree there are crime problems in the area and something sure as dickens should be done. But I don’t know if blocking the streets so decent people who want to come can’t get in is the answer.”

Yaroslavsky, who outlined the plan Thursday at a press conference in the village, said he is hoping that Westwood will become less congested, with fewer rowdy crowds, as a result of the ban on vehicles.

Yaroslavsky also stressed that every public parking lot on the perimeter of the village--along Glendon, Gayley and Le Conte avenues--will be accessible.

Visitors to Westwood Village can also park their cars in the lot at the Federal Building at 11000 Wilshire Blvd., and use the DASH shuttle system that runs until at least 1 a.m. at a fee of 25 cents per passenger.

The new restrictions come three weeks after a Friday night melee in which dozens of youths began fighting among themselves, also punching and robbing some bystanders. Police finally had to declare an “unlawful assembly” and clear the area, the fourth time they have had to do so in the last year. Nine people were arrested and three were injured.

The near-riot, as some authorities described it, might have been avoided had the new restrictions been in place, according to Yaroslavsky and Los Angeles Police Capt. Michael Bagdonas. Both said that the new restrictions had been under consideration even before that incident.

“This will help us to better police Westwood,” Bagdonas said. “It will cause criminals to have second thoughts before coming in here.”

Bagdonas said the village, and all of Westwood, actually enjoys a low crime rate, “and we want to make sure it stays that way.”

WESTWOOD STREET CLOSURES

Beginning Friday night, street closures will take place at the following intersections (as shown above) in Westwood Village: Westwood northbound at Wilshire; Kinross eastbound at Gayley; Broxton southbound at LeCont; Kinross westbound at Glendon; Weyburn westbound at Glendon; and Westwood southbound at LeCont. Village patrons may leave their cars in the Federal Building parking lot at no charge. A shuttle, which charges 25 cents per passenger, will travel from the Federal Building into Westwood Village on Fridays between 6:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. 1:30 a.m.