Whatever Happened to ... 1993 : Revisiting some of View’s most talked-about stories, we find progress for anxious parents and neon signs, second thoughts about a controversial sect - and pregnant women still craving “magic” salad. : Setbacks Fail to Dim Hopes for Neon Signs

As the easterly stretches of Wilshire Boulevard take yet another blow, (R.H. Macy farming out bits and pieces of L.A. history in the form of Bullocks Wilshire’s opulent fixtures) the city’s Cultural Affairs Department is still determined to carry out its own elaborate campaign not to let bright lights fade (“Luring Lights Back to Wilshire,” View, June 6, 1993).

CAD embarked on its project to relight the “historic neon corridor”--a snaking stretch of hotel, apartment building and theater signs, many of which have been dark since Mayor Fletcher Bowron called for a blackout in 1942. The relighting was originally estimated to cost approximately $250,000. The signs, which fan out along and adjacent to Wilshire Boulevard from Bixel Street to Lucerne Boulevard are part of a larger neighborhood rebuilding effort.

The neon refurbishing project, which was to be completed by year’s end, has hit a few snags: the cost a little higher, the city’s pockets not so deep, the market fiercely competitive. Now, a scheduled New Year’s Eve unveiling looks to be more like a Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day affair. The celebration: a festival to be held near the Bullocks Wilshire site, which will provide a vista of the revitalization of the corridor and a formal relighting of the elaborate signs.

Robinsons-May department stores and Signs of the Times magazine were major underwriters and the project received other gifts from businesses and individuals. CAD general manager Adolfo V. Nodal and staff are still negotiating with two unnamed corporations, which would put the project in fast-forward. The joint gifts could total $400,000, according to Catherine Rice, the department’s development director.

“It’s very, very difficult now,” says Rice of fund-raising efforts. “It touches on so many other issues. What we are trying to do is historic restoration, beautification of an area damaged in the civil strife.”

But in these tough economic times, many restoration efforts have been hampered, especially those that appear cosmetic.

Along with the California Conservation Corps’ effort to plant trees, and other restoration projects stretching from the western tip of the Miracle Mile to MacArthur Park, the neon project is only one of many efforts to revitalize and repopulate the central city.

“We do have great hope for the project,” says Rice. “Los Angeles is the historic home of neon.”

While the history set against the sky is still the top priority, Rice concedes, “It’s hard to put money into neon when people are homeless or dying of AIDS. It’s just a question of the priorities of giving.”