Beverly Hills' Subway War

 

Rodeo Drive-area merchants are organizing to fight the proposed stop near Wilshire and Beverly Drive--last month, 20 merchants gathered at Spago to discuss their anti-station strategy. Paris Nourafshan, an owner of an office tower at 9454 Wilshire, provided the following rationale for opposition: "The people who shop Rodeo Drive now don't come in by transit bus, so I don't think someone who shops on Rodeo Drive is going to take the subway. The subway riders are not potential shoppers. They cannot afford the kind of products retailers in the Golden Triangle sell." It's limousines--and possibly their own cars--that get the richies to Rodeo Drive, the merchants say.

Another local merchant, Douglas Chrismas, owner and director of Ace Gallery has a valid reason for concern over the subway--his business may have to be bought out to make way for the Golden Triangle station. But he had this to say, "The construction will drive away business and we're concerned that once the subway opens, we will lose our high-end clientele permanently as businesses start catering to the subway passengers."

The Beverly Center would probably be happy to have them too, but also the crime that will happen once the stop opens. Nourafshan worries too--he says he often has to clean up detritus from the local bus bench: "That's just from a single bus stop. I shudder to think what would happen with a subway station here – a station, by the way, that would not have any restrooms."

John Mirisch, the Beverly Hills councilman actually disagrees with the merchants and thinks it'll be a good when the stores' hourly workers can take the train to work. "One of the biggest problems we have in the Golden Triangle is parking, with many spaces being taken by employees," said Mirisch "If just a small portion of the employees could be enticed to take the subway, we could free up many more spaces for shoppers and that would boost business, not hurt it."

Source: Curbed LA

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