Living near Hollywood sign means cars, diapers, bottles of urine. Neighbors say they've had it

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred Neighbors of the Hollywood sign say crowds have made life a misery and a danger — and it’s the city’s fault in part because, some 15 years ago, a councilman decided to clear some brush to create a viewing spot.Cynthia Cobb is one of those neighbors.She said when she and her husband moved to Lake Hollywood in 2017, they were looking for a home with a view.The house they bought on Arrowhead Drive, several feet from Lake Hollywood Park, fit the bill perfectly, with direct views of the Hollywood sign.Sure, a few tourists would sometimes stop by the park to snap pictures of the iconic sign, but she didn’t mind.

Traffic jams weren’t a major concern, since most park visitors were locals taking their dogs out for walks.But after the pandemic, the park got busier and busier, said the Hollywood High School counselor.Hordes of tourists started blocking her driveway and ignoring parking signs along her street.

Worse, visitors would smoke and discard cigarette butts on the ground, even on high-fire-risk days, she said.The crowd problems only get worse around the holidays, she said.Over Fourth of July weekend, a drive to a grocery store that normally takes roughly eight minutes can take more than 45 minutes.Cobb worries about the possibility of a wildfire disaster akin to the Palisades and Eaton fires, given the narrow, winding roads in her neighborhood.

Would motorists abandon their cars and flee on foot because they were stuck in traffic, as they had in the Palisades? Would the vehicles block firefighters from reaching her neighborhood? Cobb fears the answers to those questions.On Monday, the group of Hollywood sign neighbors filed a legal complaint against the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose district includes the neighborhood.They argue the city is responsible for nuisance conditions on public property because it promoted the area as a viewing des...