Paved Paradise

I am constantly flummoxed by the extent of misinformation on the internet and the mythologies perpetuated. But while Joni Mitchell wrote “Big Yellow Taxi” looking out over a parking lot in Hawaii, the legend that she wrote the lyrics about the demolition of the Garden of Allah on Sunset Blvd. in 1959 does, indeed, help to make a point. Los Angeles, step by step, is bulldozing its landmarks in favor of nondescript glass boxes. While the feedback I’ve received to my letter-writing campaign to the city council has reassured me that buildings like “Graumann’s” Chinese Theater (L.A. Historical Monument No. 55) and the Egyptian are “safe,” it is the people’s responsibility to consistently remind our representatives in government that we will not allow Los Angeles to lose its character, its history or its importance as a world-class destination. 

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