Dear Councilman Ryu,

I am one of your constituents, who resides in the Hollywood area in the direct vicinity of the Hollywood Bowl.

I use the 101 Freeway, Highland Ave, and Camrose Dr to get home.

Hollywood Bowl congestion combined with rush hour traffic and WAZE has made living in my neighborhood extremely difficult and on some days unbearable. Most especially on the days of these new "Hard Closures" implemented by the Hollywood Bowl.

Last spring, we were told that these hard street closures were a temporary experiment designed to relieve some of the log jam, but now it seems that they are a permanent solution.

These Hard Closures necessitate driving down Highland Ave to Franklin Ave and coming up through Outpost Dr or Orchid Ave where there are soft barricades. The detour means driving 30 minutes in pure chaos. There’s rush hour traffic combined Bowl traffic, tour busses, Ubers dropping off concertgoers, reduced lanes and pedestrians.

A better solution would be for the traffic guards to check for resident placards or identification cards with our valid addresses and allow residents access at Milner Rd and Camrose Dr/Highland Ave. However, Angela Babcock has told us that this is not an option.

Many of us expressed our concerns at meetings attended by Angela Babcock, the liaison for the Hollywood Bowl. We were told our concerns would be addressed, instead they were ignored.

The promoters of the Bowl are making record profits by booking the venue for concerts and large leased events for 6 months, from late April to October.

Why is the city allowing a business, The Hollywood Bowl, to severely reduce our quality of life by creating traffic congestion and limiting access to our homes?

The city has the responsibility to step in and to help solve the problem in a way that benefits the residents and not the promoters of the Hollywood Bowl.

Being blocked from getting to your house because of the occasional leased event is an inconvenience but being blocked from getting home from late April to October is unacceptable and actually shocking.

Sincerely,