Hotels near whiskey a go go hollywood12/15/2023 ![]() ![]() I don’t know what the goal is when the rich get what they want and the rest of us are left foraging outside the city walls.” ![]() “There’s this big gentrification thing where all the old places are gone and they’re trying to make it all nice for the wealthy. “The law enforcement ran the streetwalkers out to make way for the bulldozers,” he says. Some of that authenticity came at a price - the area near Purple Panther was known colloquially as “prostitute central” – but Ford rather misses it. When Ford first started here in 1994, the place “felt more human”. “Big money rules,” says Ace Ford, a dreadlocked 58-year-old tattoo artist who works at Purple Panther Tattoos on Sunset, “and it’s got no regard for history.” And that in turn will spawn more destination venues like restaurants and bars.” “Today, all the new hotels will help attract a higher-profile entertainment crowd and people from around the world. “The Strip has always been an entertainment area,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg last year. John Keho, the assistant director at West Hollywood’s Community Development Department, insists these plans are simply part of the Strip’s modern evolution. New projects approved for construction, including a flagship Ian Schrager hotel, are set to increase the 2,058 hotel rooms in the city by almost half in the next few years. In July and August last year, most hotel occupancy rates in the area were at 95%. Tourism is a major source of income for West Hollywood, which derives 24% of its annual revenues from hotel taxes. In total, 762 hotel rooms and 250 apartments have either been approved or are already under construction. There is a near-constant hum of bulldozers and cranes. Much of Sunset Strip is now bordered by vast, skeletal scaffolding. The Tiffany theatre, which once hosted a live improvisation show featuring a then unknown Rob Reiner, is also to be demolished, as is Larry Flynt’s Hustler erotica store. A couple of doors up from the Whisky, there is an empty restaurant with a “liquidation” notice stuck to its window. Taking its place will be a giant building incorporating 149 hotel rooms, 40 rental apartments and 35,000 sq ft of retail space. The House of Blues, one of the Strip’s longest standing music venues, closed its doors earlier this month after 21 years. Over recent years, many of the Strip’s independent businesses have fallen prey to the onward march of luxury hotel developers, and locals are worried its unique atmosphere is under threat. “But my business won’t change until I die.”ĭespite Maglieri’s fatalistic optimism, this part of town is undergoing something of an identity crisis. “Things have changed on Sunset over the years, of course they have,” says Maglieri. It has been going since 1972 and in its heyday counted Keith Moon, John Lennon and Alice Cooper among its regulars. The Rainbow is another of his businesses. “Yeah, I’ve seen a lot,” Maglieri says as he sits in a padded leather chair, eating lunch with his wife, Scarlett, at a back table in the Rainbow Bar and Grill. ![]()
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