Oh, Westwood….90024!
Posted by Dr. Vollmer on June 18, 2013
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-westwood-village-20130618,0,6690518.story
Westwood Village, where I practice, is in a slump, making parking easy, and my patients, happy, I think. Today’s LA Times notes that the powers that be want to bring traffic back to Westwood. I return to parking. Having practiced in the same office for 23 years, I have seen the ups and downs of parking problems. When I began, the first ten minutes of almost every session seemed to focus on how hard it was to park. Now, those ten minutes, are spent on traffic nightmares encountered while getting to my office. Now, with the ghost town of the village, parking is easy, and relatively inexpensive. I love the location, close to UCLA, central in WLA and now, close to Target and Trader Joe’s. With the hope of returning the Village to its popularity, comes my concern that access to my office will cause frustration and irritation. Luckily, for me, at least, every attempt to bring “back” Westwood has failed. The 1998 shooting, changed Westwood boom into a bust. The competition from Santa Monica and West Hollywood has pulled away the throngs of folks coming to Westwood for a good time, allowing me to enjoy the relative quiet and peace of being close to a University without the chaos of parking or waiting to sit at a restaurant. Adapt or die, as I often say in these posts, yet that does not mean I have to welcome the tides turning, yet again.
Shirah Vollmer MD 
Jon said
There are many changes that have happened to Westwood over the decades. While parking is one of the issues, another large issue is rent. Times have indeed changed. Bookstores and movie theaters were abound. Now they are either wonderfully antediluvian or come in six, twelve, or eighteen packs. I miss the old charm, but this a brave new world. Indeed the sad accidental killing of Ms. Toshima in 1998 marked a dramatic change, but that change was coming. Greed became uncontrollable – either bringing in unruly elements onto the street scene, or unsustainable rents upon the business. The intentional firing of a weapon that killed an unintentional victim brought an end to an era that the Janus Investment Corporation had started seventy years before. Let us hope that there can be a good revitalization to a once charming area.
Dr. Vollmer said
Thanks, Jon, both for your perspective and for adding some interesting details.
Shelly said
Increased traffic is good for you. It brings in patients to UCLA and can bring you more business. I do understand the traffic issue–that is a concern. In the meantime, enjoy the calm before the storm.
Dr. Vollmer said
I think it is an inverted U, where too little traffic makes Westwood a ghost town that no one wants to go to, and too much traffic makes people irritable and want to stay away. Thanks.