Hollywood Boulevard

In what is widely viewed as a significant boost for the redevelopment of Hollywood, the American Cinematheque today unveils its proposal to make its permanent home in one of Hollywood Boulevard's most famous landmarks--the closed and run-down Egyptian Theatre.

Hoping to turn the tide of crime, panhandling and homelessness on Hollywood Boulevard, directors of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency voted Thursday to spend just over $1 million on security guards, social services and cellular phones for Neighborhood Watch groups. The vote came over the objections of CRA board member Thomas Kilgore Jr., who said that city expenditures to bolster security in a time of police personnel shortages should not be limited to one area alone.

Half a block of Hollywood Boulevard collapsed Thursday into a cavernous and muddy sinkhole above subway construction, shutting down tunneling under the famous thoroughfare for at least two months and closing down businesses and a nearby psychiatric hospital. A burst water main had weakened the earth between the street and the tunnel, causing huge chunks of pavement to break.

This is one promise the MTA plans to keep. Barring an unforeseen glitch, the barricades will come down Saturday morning, opening a newly rebuilt four-block stretch of Hollywood Boulevard beginning at its famed intersection with Vine Street.

Engineers concluded Thursday that twin subway tunnels beneath Hollywood Boulevard are "in no danger of collapse"--despite the ground having sunk nine inches in one spot--and that tunneling beneath the famed thoroughfare can resume by the middle of the month. After a two-week review, a panel of tunnel and soil experts reported that the subsidence resulted from loosely packed, sandy earth and soil drenched by ruptured water and fire lines in the area.

An engineer who played a key role in approving the ill-fated plans that led to the Hollywood Boulevard sinkhole disaster four months ago has never been licensed to practice engineering in California and is now being removed from the job, records and interviews show. And at least three other engineers who played active though lesser planning roles on aspects of the trouble-plagued project are not licensed by the state, records show.

A motorist was charged Tuesday with two counts of murder for allegedly striking and killing two pedestrians as police pursued him along busy Hollywood Boulevard, prosecutors said. Sergio Delgado, 29, who sometimes uses the name Delgado Valle, also faces two counts of felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and fleeing the scene after fatally hitting the man and woman. "He was so intoxicated when he was arrested he had to be hospitalized," said Cmdr.

They had me at the view. Forget about the opulence and ambition of the new Highlands nightclub in Hollywood--its French stone floors, private parties and grand openings. Just consider the view: The club looks directly out over the new Hollywood Boulevard, and it's a sight to behold, a Vegas in miniature, with "bright lights, big city" written all over it in sparkly neon.

Suspend disbelief for a moment and envision East Hollywood as Bangkok. Images of the Emerald Buddha festoon storefronts. Thai folk music accompanies classical dancers in gloriously colored gowns. Aromas of soothing mint and fiery chilies fill the nostrils. It is the vision of a determined group of Thai immigrants, and it is slowly taking life in a worn patch of the East Hollywood flats.

Nala will be there, as will Rafiki, flown in from London and New York. A chorus of 50 will sing Elton John's "Circle of Life" on a stage in front of the Pantages Theatre, and the famed corner of Hollywood and Vine will be closed to traffic as Disney opens the box office Wednesday for the Los Angeles theatrical production of "The Lion King." Business as usual, perhaps, for the hyped-up world of movies or the show-biz heart of Broadway. But this is L.A. theater, not known for splash.