The Hollywood sign in Griffith Park is one of the most iconic destinations in Los Angeles, with 10 million foreign and domestic tourists visiting the site each year. However, people who live near the hills aren't too happy with the increasing number of guests, so they have decided to close to close Beachwood Drive, which is used to access the trail to the sign.
Access from Beachwood Drive would only have travelers take a 1.2-mile hike, but the new route from Canyon Drive would take people about two miles further away. The announcement came after a court battle of Griffith Park's horseback riding facility against certain individuals who were hiking near the Beachwood Drive ranch.
Author Casey Schreiner told the LA Times: "This was one of the easiest and shortest routes to good views of the Hollywood sign." But Beachwood Canyon residents do not want anyone to crowd their residential street just to get to Griffith Park.
Meanwhile, other residents wanted to the road off-limits to travelers to avoid traffic ingestion and accidents and of safety concerns of the overcrowding travelers. The possibility of having people getting hit by a car is high likely due to the influx of visitors.
The Griffith Park ranch has issues of people using it as a trail to the Hollywood sign because it blocks access to users there and visitors sometimes interfere with its daily activities. The court ruled that the rerouting might happen a few weeks from now so that residents and tourists can adjust to the new law.
The verdict to the court trial has divided the nation and has received mixed criticism from the public. Other people explained that the rerouting would only give travelers headaches and problems due to the longer trail, eventually; it might curb the Hollywood sign's tourism.
At the same time, some people praise the judgment of the court, saying that it has always been dangerous to walk on the streets of Beachwood roads. The new rule is what they say "a very reasonable solution."
