No Bash in the Boulevard for 2003 Revelers

While tens of thousands of revelers will ring in 2003 in grand style in New York’s Times Square and on the Las Vegas Strip, that won’t be the case in Hollywood.

After staging celebrations the past two years on Hollywood Boulevard, which organizers say raised nearly $590,000 for local youth charities, their hopes of staging another New Year’s Eve bash on the boulevard ended when the city refused to grant them permits.

Instead, a parade with an anti-drug theme will be staged through a six-block stretch of the boulevard by some area bar and restaurant owners.

It’s seen as a way for them to drum up business on their busiest night of the year.

The sidewalk procession, which won’t require street closures, will begin at 11:30 p.m. at Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue.

The absence of the New Year’s Eve bash has led to angry barbs between some movers and shakers in Hollywood over the value of a New Year’s Eve celebration.

Gene La Pietra, the driving force behind the last two New Year’s events, has lashed out at opponents who he said torpedoed the event.

La Pietra singled out Kerry Morrison, the executive director of Hollywood Boulevard’s business improvement district, for criticism.

“The whole world saw Hollywood in a positive light,� La Pietra said. “To have these shenanigans going on, Kerry Morrison should be ashamed of herself for fighting the one event that delivered for Hollywood.�

He also accused Morrison and others of opposing the event to retaliate against him for his stewardship of the failed Hollywood secession effort.

Told of his remarks, Morrison -- who wants an independent audit to find out how much money has gone to charity from the previous events -- retorted:

“No one on Hollywood Boulevard has any desire to emulate [New York’s] New Year’s Eve. Most of America is in bed by the time we celebrate New Year’s Eve in California.

“There is no special media attention that will come our way,� Morrison said. “Instead, it merely clogged the streets and frustrated the ability of legitimate businesses to celebrate what is arguably their biggest night of the year.�

The decision against an outdoor New Year’s Eve party on the boulevard comes at a time when, for the present, no more events will be staged requiring prolonged closure of Hollywood Boulevard.

For example, Morrison and others acknowledged that the Hollywood Halloween event on Oct. 31, which required a two-day shutdown of the street to set up a gated family-oriented festival of rides, stages and booths, lost money and clogged traffic.

Many merchants along Hollywood Boulevard complained that the prolonged closure hurt their businesses.

Hollywood business owners and residents are meeting with city officials to figure out how best to stage organized celebrations in Hollywood without creating further problems for merchants, who have to put up with periodic street closures for the filming of movies and related industry events.

Outside Hollywood, the decision against the New Year’s Eve event on the boulevard has attracted little attention. But it has been a source of unusual buzz in and around Tinseltown.

Earlier this year, La Pietra, who owns two nightclubs in Hollywood, gathered signatures for the third annual bash, figuring there would be little problem in obtaining approval since City Hall had helped out before.

But a group of bar and restaurant owners, including Joel Fisher of the Palace nightclub, complained that the event, staged in front of many of the area’s eateries, charged admission and directly competed with them by serving food and alcohol. They gathered their own signatures for a sidewalk march.

They also did it to demonstrate, in part, their consternation that La Pietra did not obtain official city approval for last year’s event until Jan. 11.

The business improvement district’s Morrison said signatures from 59% of the business owners and more than half of others who owned property in the area were collected for the sidewalk march.

Officials at the Bureau of Street Services determined that many of the signatures La Pietra turned in to support his application for a street closure also appeared on the competing application. To sort things out, city officials canvassed the area and concluded that a majority of the property owners and business owners were indeed opposed to La Pietra’s event.

Subsequently, the Board of Public Works rejected the permit for La Pietra’s New Year’s Eve celebration, spokesman Mike Qualls said.

La Pietra appealed to Mayor James K. Hahn to reverse the decision, but Hahn took no action.

The Police Commission then approved the permit for the sidewalk march.

La Pietra, still smarting over the defeat of the Hollywood secession measure, said his opponents “gathered their signatures through intimidation and threats.

“[City Councilman] Eric Garcetti’s position is that we should move our event off Hollywood Boulevard,� La Pietra said. “That’s like moving New Year’s Eve in New York off of Times Square.�

“I’m not opposed to it,� Morrison replied. “It should be moved to maybe Santa Monica Boulevard, which is less affected by parking and traffic issues.�