Studio City Intersection May Be Named for Rabin

Studio City would have its own memorial to slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin under a proposal introduced Tuesday by Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs.

Wachs, who represents parts of Studio City, made a motion to designate the intersection of Lankershim and Ventura boulevards as Yitzhak Rabin Square.

This was not Wachs’ first proposal to honor a Nobel Peace prize winner. In 1990, Wachs proposed renaming Ventura Place in Studio City to Andrei Sakharov Street, in honor of the late Soviet dissident.

But the owners of small businesses on the street protested, saying the change would hurt business and force them to change advertising and telephone books.

“To give it a name that people can’t pronounce, can’t spell, it’s just going to make things a lot more complicated,” one pet store owner said at the time.

Ultimately, Wachs backed down and simply had the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Ventura boulevards designated Andrei Sakharov Square.

Wachs conceded that when he proposed dedicating the square to Rabin he sought to avoid the problems he ran into when he proposed renaming Ventura Place.

“This is a lot cheaper and causes no disruptions,” Wachs said.

A sign at the intersection would mark the designation of Yitzhak Rabin Square.

Wachs noted that the intersection is a prominent location for the square because it is adjacent to the San Fernando Valley’s first stop on the Metro Redline subway and within walking distance of Universal Studios, one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions.

Rabin was assassinated Nov. 4 by an Israeli law student following a massive peace rally. Rabin shared the Nobel Peace Price last year with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat for their efforts at ending the decades-long strife in the Middle East.

Wachs described Rabin as “beloved not just by the great majority of his nation’s people but by people around the world who desire peace and oppose ceaseless warfare, racial and religious hatred and terrorism.”