Trying to Tame a Rowdy Road : Gate Proposed for Dusty Strip of Mulholland, a Favorite Spot for Dirty Deeds

At the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains, high above the floor of the San Fernando Valley, is a six-mile stretch of Mulholland Drive where the smooth pavement of modern city streets ends and a dusty, winding dirt road begins.

This also is where the trouble begins.

After sunset, the road becomes a haunt for rowdy teen-agers, displaced lovers, car thieves, murderers and just about anybody else looking for a remote spot in which to do their dirty deeds away from the gaze of street lights.

“It’s just a natural attraction for them,” said Capt. Val Paniccia of the Los Angeles Police Department, commanding officer of the West Valley Bureau, which shares patrol duties there with mountain rangers.

The road also has gained popularity as an illegal dumping site for construction materials, furniture, trash, stolen cars and, on one occasion, the body of a man executed after a dispute with two fellow burglars.

Such problems have prompted Paniccia, city officials, neighbors and environmentalists to back a plan to install gates on the unimproved section of road to keep out vehicles at night and during brush-fire season and heavy rains.

The section of road that would be gated is adjacent to property owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the Department of Water and Power and the state Department of Parks and Recreation. No private homes would be included in the blocked-off area.

The gate plan was considered by a committee of the City Council last month, but a decision was delayed to give city officials time to adopt a formal policy for street closures citywide. The committee discussion has been rescheduled for June 22.

While no one believes that the gates will put a complete end to the late-night mischief, police and others hope the gates will dissuade those who may be reluctant to enter the secluded road on foot.

For police, Mulholland Drive does not constitute the biggest crime problem in the San Fernando Valley. They estimate that they respond to calls there an average of twice a week.

“Probably a majority of the people that go up there are law-abiding citizens,” said LAPD Officer Steve Kegley, whose beat includes the mountain road. “But the problem is those few teen-agers who go up there to smoke and party at night.”

Nonetheless, to neighbors and conservancy officials, the problem is serious.

Avi Handelman, who lives off Mulholland Drive near Saltillo Street, where the unimproved section starts, called the gate plan a good idea.

As he sat on his porch looking over the road, he said there have been many weekend nights that he has heard the squeal of wheels in front of his home and found empty beer bottles and cans strewn along the road.

But his biggest worry is that someone will accidentally start a brush fire that could threaten his home. “Somebody throws a lit cigarette and that is the end of the story,” he said.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy shares that concern.

“The conservancy believes that the temporary closure will greatly curtail inappropriate and undesirable use of the parks in the Mulholland Corridor,” Belinda Faustinos, the conservancy’s deputy director, said in a letter to the city.

Although no serious fire has been started from the road, Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. John Gregory said he would rather not push his luck by leaving the road open at night and during brush-fire season.

“I’d love to see it closed,” he said.

The dirt section is a far departure from the paved portion of Mulholland Drive known for its expensive homes and manicured gardens. On the unimproved stretch, nature dictates all the improvements.

Although it is part of the city’s street system, the unpaved portion has no lights and is lined only by huge crevices and jutting rocks, giving it the appearance of a back road in Baja California.

During the day, the brush-lined road is a scenic byway for joggers, bicyclists and hikers looking for a cardiovascular workout and an escape from the tense, traffic-choked life in the Valley below.

On any day, a visitor is likely to come upon a cottontailed rabbit scurrying across the road or a stringy lizard doing a herky-jerky dance over the dusty ground. Hawks circle above, searching for prey in the tall, dry grass and sagebrush below.

But the tranquillity fades with the sunlight.

Residents complain that at night, the canyons often echo with the sound of gunfire and what they believe to be cries for help. Street maintenance crews are called almost monthly to clean up illegally dumped trash, scrap lumber, chairs and other debris.

The most serious crime recently reported in the area was the murder of a man whose body was left on a fire road near Mulholland Drive. Investigators said the man was executed by two partners in a burglary who were angry with him after a dispute over the division of profits.

The two burglars were convicted of the murder and are currently serving life terms in prison, detectives said.

Still, not everyone is thrilled with the idea of blocking off the road. Two gray-haired men in shorts and sun hats began to debate the idea as they finished their daily stroll on the road on a recent weekday morning.

One argued that the gates are a good idea because they would keep out teen-age lovers and the “cowboys in their four-wheel-drive trucks.”

His walking partner pooh-poohed the idea, saying that what was really needed was increased police patrols. “What is going to stop a kid?” he asked rhetorically. “If kids want to do something, they’ll do it.”

Up the dirt road a stretch, Jean Finley of Woodland Hills walked her two terriers, Daisy and Ernest. She said the gates might reduce the quantity of trash and car parts that is dumped on her favorite walk.

“It’s sad because you walk along and see a pile of rubbish on the road,” she said as she struggled to keep the dogs from pulling their leashes out of her hand.

But Finley understands why the road attracts so many visitors. “Hey, it’s Mulholland Drive,” she said. “It’s the view.”

Farther up the road, driving down a hill in a cloud of dust, was perhaps the most knowledgeable source about Mulholland Drive, Kenn Hughes, a Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy ranger assigned to the unimproved roadway.

Hughes said he has seen it all--stolen vehicles, late-night bonfires and illegal trash dumping.

Not long ago, he saw a combination of the three when someone dumped a stolen car over the edge of the road and set it on fire.

“I just came around the corner and the whole side of the hill was on fire,” Hughes said. The blaze was doused by fire officials before it threatened nearby homes, he said.

The problem that really irks Hughes is the illegal dumping of rubbish because part of his job is to cruise Mulholland Drive, shovel all the trash into the back of his truck and haul it out.

“I just take off my shirt, grab a shovel and get to it,” he said.

Hughes estimates that he spends at least one day a week cleaning up the dumped trash.

Near a trailer where Hughes and other rangers are stationed, alongside the road was a faded mattress, a cabinet, a tattered love seat and piles of shredded roof tiles, gravel and branches--the latest accumulation of illegally dumped junk. A city crew was expected to haul the stuff away.

“Dumping is the big thing right now,” Hughes said, driving off in a cloud of dust.