Bad news for businesses and residents around Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood: The street needs to be repaved. Again.
I lived on Kings Road, just off of Santa Monica Boulevard, when West Hollywood tore up the street the first time. The city's main thoroughfare was basically a mess from 1999 to when it was finally completed in August 2001.
But apparently the construction was shoddy, and just three years later the street is already showing serious sign of wear and tear, the L.A. Times reports:
West Hollywood officials say they must repave large strips of roadway and replant scores of trees.
The signs are subtle — trees are sinking and the wheel paths of buses and trucks are evident in the roadway. (Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf manager Mike) Gibson and others who lived through the first renovation will probably see more construction, and no one is happy about it.
City officials blame the planning firm that oversaw the original project and have filed a $13-million lawsuit.
I still have a chunk of the original Santa Monica Boulevard -- complete with a stamp that says "1927" -- that I swiped when the street was torn up. It's not quite as valuable as a piece of the Berlin Wall... but it's a souvenir.
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