Proposed Walgreens project in WeHo

Update, Tuesday, May 8: West Hollywood City Council approved the Walgreens project on Monday night. Read reaction from those who opposed it after the jump.

For years, West Hollywood community activists were united in their fight to stop the construction of a proposed Walgreens at Santa Monica and Crescent Heights boulevards.

The mixed-use project had been stalled for years as a result, but plans have since been reconfigured and it may finally get approval from the West Hollywood City Council tonight. This time around, though, community activists are split in their opposition.

"It's a beautiful piece of architecture," says longtime activist Allegra Allison, "and it'll upgrade the neighborhood." Other folks aren't so sure.

More >>

WeHo News editor Ryan Gierach, right, with WeHo Councilman John Duran

For years, WeHo News, a spunky online community newspaper, has been a must read for anyone interested in all things West Hollywood, with major news outlets often picking up its breaking stories. Recently, the operation shut down for several weeks, but started up again this week.

Readers have wondered what caused the hiatus, so founder and editor Ryan Gierach sets the record straight in this exclusive interview with L.A. Weekly about his recent struggles with alcohol, and his recovery.

L.A. Weekly: You took a sabbatical. Where were you? And why did you make the decision to take a leave?

Ryan Gierach: I went into a residential rehab to quit drinking and learn the skill set needed to remain sober.

More >>

Ted Soqui

WeHo City Council member John D'Amico

We're all for protecting bicyclists, the humane treatment of puppies, reasonably guarding the health of restaurant and bar workers against second-hand smoke, and many of the other feel-good, headline-grabbing ordinances the five members of the West Hollywood City Council consider on a regular basis, but how about undertaking legislation that actually matters?

It's been nine months since West Hollywood voters unseated incumbent Lindsey Horvath, moving power away from council members Abbe Land and John Heilman and into the hands of John Duran and John D'Amico, with Jeff Prang acting as a sympathetic swing vote for the latter two.

West Hollywood voters, as a result, have expected big changes at City Hall, but there's a vibe among community activists that Duran and D'Amico have not fully utilized their new power to make the city a better, more citizen-friendly place. In 2012, we hope things will be different, and we have a few suggestions for where they can start.

More >>

WeHo News

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows in West Hollywood last week.

Updated after the jump: West Hollywood Mayor John Duran pretends nothing is wrong.

Originally posted October 26 at 11 a.m.

A recent string of violent attacks on gay men in West Hollywood has L.A.'s Boystown whispering "hate crime."

More >>

vokoban via Flickr

Poor library. If only Fickett could see you now.

West Hollywood City Councilmembers and their right-hand planning staff have a history of imposing their own architectural desires on the LGBT townspeople.

You'd think, in a town of gays, you could find someone with a little taste (and we mean that in the best way possible). But no: In this rapidly expanding Boystown, tucked between pleasant Beverly Hills and ghetto-ass Hollywood, the bigger and shinier -- and more lucrative -- the better.

So when it came time to design their own digs, councilmembers went a little nuts. So in lust are they with the $64 million library complex that they've commissioned to house council chambers...

More >>

Reilly T. Bates

In West Hollywood, a celebration of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" took place on Tuesday night, in which some 100 people cheered the start of gays and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military.

"I never thought I'd see this day," Tom Carpenter, board member of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and retired U.S. Marine captain, told the crowd. "It's a watershed day for the military."

More >>

El Mirador in West Hollywood

It all started over the inability to replace windows, and now West Hollywood's historic El Mirador apartment building may be demolished.

"If they don't allow any use for this building," says El Mirador owner Jerome Nash, "and I can't rehab it, it will have to be torn down."

Built in 1929, the city-designated landmark stands on Fountain and Sweetzer avenues. If flattened by a demolition crew for, say, another run-of-the-mill condominium project, it would be downright scandalous.

More >>

Gensler

The Sunset Strip apocalypse, on steroids.

How to describe Centrum Sunset, the 51,000-square-foot project proposed for the mostly vacant, borderline-blighted lot at 8801 Sunset Boulevard, former site of the historic Tower Records building?

West Hollywood planning commissioners gave it their best shot at public hearings on July 7 and August 4:

More >>

Madonna can now "vogue" at The Abbey

West Hollywood still ain't quite Calabasas yet, at least not after last night's decision by the city's planning commission to allow dancing at the world's best gay bar, The Abbey.

After the West Hollywood Planning Commission failed to act in May to grant a change in The Abbey's conditional use permit from restaurant to nightclub, a mighty sh@!storm blew through the small, 1.9-square-mile city, with owner David Cooley, Abbey regulars, and others expecting the worse.

More >>

Car, meet Robot.

The suave, sophisticated WeHo aesthetic is about to get even sillier -- with a $2.6 million Unitronics parking garage. According to City News Service, it uses "computer-controlled lifts and conveyors to move vehicles into parking spaces."

Yay for robots! Mayor John Duran is already hopelessly in love with his new toy, beaming in a city statement today:

More >>

Ted Soqui

WeHo City Councilman John Heilman

Update: NBCLosAngeles.com runs with WeHo Patch billboard story with no hard facts. More after jump.

We keep hearing how West Hollywood needs to be more "family-friendly" -- from WeHo's Arts and Cultural Affairs commissioners to West Hollywood City Council members to a recent post on West Hollywood Patch that suggests Sunset Boulevard billboards are too "risque" for kids.

In a kind of logic often cited by family-friendly forces, WeHo Patch writes: "Given that West Hollywood's demographic has changed dramatically in recent years and now includes increasing numbers of families with young children, perhaps it is time to open up a debate on whether these [billboard] images should be so readily visible to all."

2010 U.S. Census numbers, though, show West Hollywood has not transformed itself into a metropolis filled with young people. Quite the contrary.

More >>

Ted Soqui

West Hollywood Mayor John Duran

Will John Duran, who was installed last night as the new mayor of West Hollywood, shake up the status quo with the help of recently elected City Councilman John D'Amico?

That's the big question in West Hollywood political circles these days -- in 2010 and early 2011, Duran clashed with longtime City Council members John Heilman and Abbe Land over the direction of the small, world famous city.

A kind of cultural war, as a result, has been brewing in West Hollywood for many months.

More >>

Movie star and AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor

West Hollywood City Hall appears unconvinced that the gay mecca should name a street after movie star and AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor, according to WeHo News.

The online newspaper reports that none of the City Council offices "reported the 'call' from residents to change a street name. Instead, one council office suggested the chances of renaming a street stood somewhere between nil and none."

Michelle Rex, the interim deputy for City Councilman John D'Amico, also appears to back off comments she made to L.A. Weekly earlier in the week.

More >>

HIV/AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor

West Hollywood City Council members are known for their dedications, proclaiming such things as "Ozzy Osbourne Day," "Slash Day," and the list goes on.

Those rock legends are great (both of them happen to be gay-friendly, by the way), but WeHo council members may want to consider a tribute with a bit more heft...

Naming a West Hollywood street after movie star and AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away last week.

More >>

Issues of "Physique Pictorial" were sold at WeHo-LA Erotic Art Fair

The 16th Annual West Hollywood - Los Angeles Erotic Art Fair went off without a hitch this past weekend, and the kids, as far as we know, are perfectly alright.

Earlier in the year, members of the West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission refused to put their seal of approval on the event, saying that children could somehow be harmed.

The commission's decision stunned the gay community in Los Angeles and caused an uproar.

More >>

Ted Soqui

West Hollywood City Councilman John D'Amico

John D'Amico, the challenging candidate who placed first in the hotly contested West Hollywood City Council election two weeks ago and ousted incumbent Lindsey Horvath, was sworn into office on Monday night at West Hollywood Park Auditorium.

During his first remarks as a new council member, D'Amico, who pulled off something of an underdog victory in a city where voters almost never throw out incumbents, declared, "Ours is a city ready for this new spring, full of the greatest men and greatest women."

More >>

PHOTO BY JENNIE WARREN

John D'Amico: The WeHovians' choice.

BREAKING NEWS: West Hollywood City Council frontrunner John D'Amico made history today, when -- after a final count of 757 provisional and absentee ballots -- he surpassed two decades-old incumbents and pushed out their pet appointee for first place in the city election.

This is the first time since fabulous, gay-friendly West Hollywood's inception that a non-incumbent has earned the No. 1 spot.

D'Amico was in second place when polls closed last Tuesday, but netted a disproportionately high number of the remaining votes today for a triumphant win.

Here are the final candidate tallies, with incumbents in bold:

More >>

California Progress Report

Shady democracy in L.A.'s land of the gays

The polls may be closed, but West Hollywood City Hall is once again shielding a rain of rage from angry activists and City Council candidates who want to know why the City Clerk's office announced that approximately 930 provisional ballots remained on Tuesday night, then changed that number to 800 on Wednesday afternoon.

It's a longshot to guess someone's trying to tamper with ballots, but after what seems to have been such a haphazard voting and counting process, there's really no way to know for sure.

"We weren't really counting [the provisional ballots]," says City Clerk Tom West. "We hadn't added them up. We hadn't really sat there counting them with a calculator."

More >>

Jennie Warren

WeHo City Council candidate John D'Amico

Even with some 930 provisional ballots that still need to be counted, West Hollywood City Council challenging candidate John D'Amico has ousted appointed council member Lindsey Horvath, according to political consultants who talked with L.A. Weekly.

Longtime incumbents Abbe Land and John Heilman have likely won re-election.

"Anything is possible," says Republican political strategist Reed Galen, but adds that it will be extremely difficult for fourth place candidate Steve Martin to make up more than 300 votes to take over Heilman. Horvath is currently in fifth place and out of the running.

More >>

Update: New figures and analysis on WeHo City Council race.

Since approximately 930 provisional ballots still need to be verified and counted, the hotly contested West Hollywood City Council race cannot be called tonight.

So far, 522 votes separate first place Councilwoman Abbe Land from fourth place challenger Steve Martin in a very tight election -- possibly one of the closest elections in the history of West Hollywood.

West Hollywood Assistant City Clerk Corey Schaffer says the provisional ballots will not be counted until Thursday at the earliest.

More >>