Shooting Stars

I've always wondered about the gaudy lampposts in Hollywood -- you know, the ones with the stars (as seen above). To me, they were depressing reminders of a 1960s makeover that was never fully realized -- and symbolized the neglect that Hollywood Boulevard experienced for decades.

Apparently, I wasn't too far off. The L.A. Times (by way of LA.com, where I also swiped the photo above) notes that, indeed, those lampposts are relics of a 1960s makeover that was never fully realized.

Now, however, they're about to disappear, to be replaced by classier replicas of 1930s-style lighting.

The fine folks at LA.com lamented the change yesterday, but I'm actually glad they're making a switch. The 1960s era lampposts remind me of the ill-fated makeovers at downtown's Alexandria Hotel and mid-Wilshire's Ambassador Hotel -- gaudy attempts at trying to update a slowly deteriorating L.A. landmark. Like those hotels, rather than attempting to recapture the glory of days gone by, the lampposts went modern -- which might have been cool in the 1960s, but got quickly dated.

I lived in Honolulu in the late 1980s/early 1990s when the city did something similar in Waikiki, erecting these monsterous brown stoplights and streetlamps that looked absolutely hideous.

(Photo above via this site and LA.COMfidential.)