Cruising Ban Backfire

The crackdown on cruising along the famed Sunset Strip has hit a roadblock.

But this time those stopping traffic are West Hollywood residents--not sheriff’s deputies.

Residents are complaining that the four-month-old ban on weekend joy-riding is funneling rowdy motorists through nearby neighborhoods. As a result, West Hollywood officials are reevaluating the anti-cruising policy.

City Council members enacted the cruising ban in June to combat increasing noise and congestion along the 1.6-mile Strip of rock clubs, restaurants and discos. In mid-July, they began deploying sheriff’s deputies on Friday and Saturday nights to enforce it.

Deputies single out cruisers by stopping cars at checkpoints and entering license plate numbers into a computer. Drivers caught passing more than twice through checkpoints between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. are issued citations that can lead to fines of up to $500.

Sheriff’s officials say the roadblock system has restored peace and quiet to the stretch of Sunset Boulevard between Doheny Drive and Laurel Canyon Boulevard. And many business operators agree, saying it is now easier for customers to get to the Strip.

Angry residents say that success has come at their expense, however.

They grumble that side streets are now clogged with horn-honking motorists who detour to avoid the checkpoints and the traffic tie-ups they create.

City leaders have reacted by quietly easing back on the frequency of the checkpoints. They will soon attempt to hammer out what they call “an entertainment management strategy” that they hope will satisfy residents as well as business owners on the Strip.

Council members plan to meet Dec. 18 to discuss their options. In January, they intend to stage an unusual daylong Saturday summit conference with residents and business leaders to smooth things over.

“We’ve certainly curtailed the checkpoints. I think the city manager doesn’t want to say we’re going to eliminate them because we want to have that tool in our arsenal,” said Councilman Steve Martin.

“The cruising checkpoints have a lot of value: They create a law enforcement presence on the Strip, noise goes down, instances of people drinking in public out of containers goes down. But people were finding ways to avoid the checkpoints by coming through our neighborhoods.”

Residents say detouring drivers jam Fountain and Sweetzer avenues, Cynthia Street and other hillside residential streets south of the Strip. There are no usable east-west alternates north of Sunset Boulevard.

“We had tremendous traffic before, but now it’s gotten out of hand,” said resident Giuseppi Mirelli, an actor who has lived for 16 years next to Fountain Avenue and is now thinking about moving because of the congestion.

“We are enslaved in our homes and apartments. We can’t go out; we can’t invite people over because there’s no parking. We can’t sleep.

“The noise rattles our windows. We call the sheriff, and they come out but don’t pull people over or cite anybody. How can you pull anybody over when it’s gridlocked? We want our city back. It’s just not fair.”

De Longpre Avenue resident Bill Watson said he spent $2,000 on soundproof drapes to muffle the weekend noise. “The curtains are literally saving my life,” he said.

Watson said traffic is caused by club-goers trying to get past the roadblocks to Sunset Strip nightspots--not by aimless cruisers.

“The people who cause problems are not from West Hollywood or Beverly Hills. They’ve come a long way to get here and when they get here they can’t find a place to park,” he said, adding that some even urinate on front lawns.

Backers of the cruising crackdown claim it is a success.

City Councilman Sal Guarriello is the primary architect of the cruising ban. “Every business on the Strip has called me and sent letters saying they love it. The citizens say the same thing,” said Guarriello.

Nightclub and eatery operator Larry Pollack agreed that club and restaurant owners are pleased with the cruising ban.

Pollack and several employees showed up with trays of sushi and shrimp tempura from his Miyagi’s restaurant for sheriff’s deputies manning the most recent cruising checkpoint: a single roadblock set up Nov. 10 at the eastern edge of West Hollywood.

“I’m very supportive of this,” Pollack said. “I’ve definitely seen an improvement. It’s a slow process--it will take a while. But it makes for a safer environment. It makes the whole community safer.”

West Hollywood’s former sheriff’s commander, Richard Odenthal, concurred. He now works as the city’s civilian public safety manager.

“The noise level has gone down. The cruising has been eliminated. But there’s still a traffic problem,” Odenthal said.

Before the cruising ban, Odenthal said, motorists added to the congestion by “making circuits up and down the boulevard. They were just cruising to be seen. They weren’t going to the clubs or hotels.”

Watching the roadblock along with Odenthal was newly appointed West Hollywood sheriff’s commander Capt. Lynda Castro. On Nov. 10, she had 13 deputies assigned to the checkpoint, taking turns yelling out license plate numbers and typing them into a laptop computer perched on the rear of a sheriff’s patrol car parked in the boulevard’s center median.

Seven other deputies were scattered around nearby intersections and side streets. Several of them were blocking north-south thoroughfares to prevent cars from entering the Strip from the south.

Castro and Odenthal watched as a long line of cars snaked west along the boulevard from Fairfax Avenue toward the checkpoint.

At the end of the six-hour enforcement period, 1,540 cars had passed through the checkpoint and only one cruising citation had been issued.

Previous anti-cruising roadblocks, according to Sheriff’s Department statistics, netted five cruising citations among 6,322 motorists stopped Aug. 5 and 6 and two citations among 6,326 drivers on Aug. 25 and 26.

When enforcement began in July, roadblocks were set up at both ends of the Strip. Now, only one roadblock is operated.

“We don’t do them every weekend, just when there’s a need for

them,” West Hollywood City Manager Paul Arevalo said. “We’ve toned down the checkpoints. They’re not as severe as early in the program.”

No additional checkpoints are planned before the Dec. 18 council meeting, according to council member Martin, who is skeptical about the value of the roadblocks.

“We shouldn’t be penalizing people, making it more difficult for patrons to get to the Strip. People with tickets to concerts and dinner reservations shouldn’t have to spend an extra hour and a half to get to the Strip,” he said.

Martin said he has been told that the city spends $50,000 per night to run the checkpoints. City Manager Arevalo could not confirm that figure, although Sheriff’s Lt. Ken Leffler, who organizes the checkpoints, disputed that number, explaining that deputies are merely redeployed from other assignments to roadblock duty.

“The cost might be $50,000 for all of the checkpoints so far,” said Leffler--who said the only major expense has been the rental of an electronic sign that advises motorists that the anti-cruising checkpoint is ahead of them.

Visitors to the Strip, meanwhile, said they are learning to take the bad along with the good when it comes to slow traffic.

“I want to go to Mel’s Diner,” shrugged Glendale resident Aren Karamian, 19, as he sat in the checkpoint line at the wheel of his 1993 Acura Integra. “What am I gonna do?”