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| Picture from Total Traffic LA. |
Los Angeles - President Obama will be dropping in on the westside of Los Angeles for 2012 campaign fund-raisers today. Citizens, especially those that live and commute in or through the Beverly Hills, Hancock Park and Mid-Wilshire neighborhoods, still have fresh and unpleasant memories of his late summer 2010 visit.
On 16 of August 2010, President Obama was in town for a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at a private residence. Major thoroughfares from Beverly Hills to Mid-Wilshire, including Olympic and Wilshire boulevards were shut down. A great chunk of Hancock Park, where the event, which raised $1 million, took place was also closed off. Commuters whose normal travel time was 45 minutes found themselves delayed for up to three hours. Even people on bike and foot were denied access to streets and neighborhoods. That visit left many unhappy and questioning the location of the fundraiser and the planning and scope of the closures.
On President Obama's next visit to Los Angeles, he traveled mostly by helicopter to his destinations of the University of Southern California and Burbank. Only streets around the USC campus were closed for a significant amount of time. This time around, however, the president will once again be traveling via motorcade.
President Obama is scheduled to land at LAX around 2:30 pm and will be attending a rally and fund-raising dinner at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Officials have not released details about the president's route or what streets will be closed but some no parking signs are already posted in the area surrounding Sony Pictures Studios. After the Culver City events, Obama will head north for two more fund-raiser dinners at Tavern in Brentwood at approximately 8pm. CNN has the details about the fund-raising dinners here.
The president will be staying overnight at the Beverly Hilton. President Obama will likely be driven from the Hilton to the VA where a helicopter will shuttle him to LAX for his 8:55 am departure time.
According to LA Observed, city officials say that traffic will be most impacted between 3 and 8pm. If your commute will take you through these westside areas, allow yourself extra time. If you travel via bus, Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus website advises riders to expect delays of 45 minutes to several hours. Metro's blog, The Source, now lists bus lines that will be impacted and encourages passengers to use Nextrip for real time bus arrival information: www.metro.net/nextrip. Metro also will be updating service impacts via its twitter account @metroLAalerts. Culver City Bus' website says nothing about service impacts but be assured that service will most definitely be disrupted there as well.
Total Traffic LA has maps of likely motorcade routes and will be updating any additional information as it comes in. You can follow Total Traffic LA on twitter: @TotalTrafficLA for updates on road closures and traffic delays for the Obama visit and all of LA County.
infoLA writer, Ry N., 01:56 Thu 21 Apr 11 [Updated 16:25 Thu 21 Apr 2011]
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