I am concerned about other areas of West Hollywood that have had a LGBT history too like The Spike, The Gold Coast, Circus Books, etc. How can we just suddenly make one more current popular area more important today in 2011 when the rich history and fabric of our city still includes the East Side of West Hollywood and businesses east of La Cienega.

I'm sure the patrons, residents and visitors of Fubar, formerly Rafters and The French Market Place would feel slighted and left out completely.

historic gayville might be better...the mecca soon won't exist anyway as the gays are being cycled out due to high rents and over-development, so you best get the signs up before we're forced out!.....anyone care to start a new colony in, oh, let's say van nuys???

No gay ghetto anywhere in the U.S. is really surviving. The gays moved into undesirable neighborhoods, fixrd them up, then jacked up rents or sold to the highest bidder. Add to that, we now have the luxury of living wherever we want with a lot less fear. The need for the ghetto has dwindled because places like West Hollywood succeeded in achieving its goals. That should be commemorated, but it is nothing more than recognizing something that is passing or is past. The life of a "boystown" was really snuffed out when Santa Monica Boulevard was renovated and certain businesses got city help thru the bad business days while others -- the undesirables -- were allowed by the city to fail. That was when the character of the city also began to fade. Vic, the guy who used to own the 7702, accurately predicted the city's near future 15 years ago. His place, of course, is now some sort of velvet rope place that doesnmt cater to anyone living in the neighborhood, but got sweetheart parking deals from city hall.

Something like "The LGBT Historical District" would be much more accurate and inclusive.

but where would the area begin and end then now?

Maybe, say, from La Brea or Formosa west to Doheny? Then it would include the Yukon Mining Co. and Plummer Park on the east, and the former International Male store site on the west...

This comment is aimed at "me" - It isn't just the gays that are being priced out. It is everybody. Gay, straight, young and old. None of us can afford the condos or apartments that are going up.

Aw yes, you are absolutely right of course ceot jus 2 small things...this article is about "boystown" (aka gay men)and also, "me" is one...so let it be known,that my opinion
Is based on "me"...lastly, please don't "aim" at me ;-)

The Boystown area is at risk of being diluted into an urban environment. Honoring Historic Boystown is important to the entire gay community. Boystown is a place in Chicago.. and it is the first officially recognized gay village in the United States. Historic Boystown is a moniker for diversity. You dont see lesbians crowding the bars or restaurants.. not even one... Its Boystown.. and its always been and thats why we honor it. We can declare the corner of San Vicente and Santa Monica LGBT square like Pershing Square, and rename San Vicente north of Melrose Elizabeth Taylor... and create our own gay village.

yes but what area is actually being declared? how is it that just San Vicente north of Melrose is the destination as there have been bars and clubs in the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's and 1990's that have a deeper fuller history than just this section of town, it has to encompass everybody/business/clubs/bars/restaurants that have made our city what it is, what it has been, etc.

if there is an option to rename the designated area it should be all inclusive. for those that have not seen lesbians in the city, you are missing them. i have several lesbian friends that patronize the clubs and restaurants in west hollywood. probably on different nights. also keep in mind the weekend crowds tend to be visitors from other areas. west hollywood is supposed to be a city that includes all. calling it boystown or historic boystown is not inclusive, especially for the older gay and lesbian residents.

I agree with MJMARSHALL17@gmail.com, I was out at the Abbey and there was a lovely birthday party of all lesbians near the fireplace area 2 weeks ago on that Sunday afternoon when it had just stopped raining. And I think it's really trite and small minded to exclude lesbians and anyone else in the LGBT community.

what are we honoring by the way?....what is the legacy?....a bunch of gay bars?....if it includes the protests/pride festivals etc. then it certainly should include ALL of the community, right?....i dunno, we've done without a sign this long, do we REALLY need one?....aren't there more pressing issues?..."me" thinks so! :-)

PS: personally, i'd like to some type of storefront or something (library? covention & vistors bureau?) that displayed weho history (town of sherman, LGBT history, russian community, sunset strip etc)

I know this is off topic, but how about we get rid of half of the Valet Parking Only after 6:00 signs. Just because I decide to come to 'Boystown' after 6:00 I now have to pay someone to park my car? How much is the city getting from the Valet stands? There were 6 parking spots with meters on Larabee that you could park on after 6:00 pm, now there's only 2. And three of them are never used. The city could have made the meters go to 8:00 or 10:00, but now they just sit there, empty after 6:00.
This pisses me off!!

A REALLY STUPID idea and again waste of energy and MONEY !!! If it's such a good idea why Didn't Heilman bring it up..as he says because he didn't want it to be an issue in the election...because he knew it's ridiculous idea and would have cost him votes......rightly so !! It's just that Larry Block wants city advertising for his cheezy store!!! pretty apparent...Really !! it's one thing to have a gay city council, it's another to have a very queeny city council catering to another crapy underwear store. Although they sell other Offshore produced junk, the windows usually feature extreme stipper underwear! Will this city council ever GROW UP?? !!!

Amazing that you would rip this off from Chicago, which has had "Boystown" forever. Be more original. Really

Hi.. my name is Larry Block.. I'm the one working to help get Boystown designated. As you can see from the article its about how the City Council members agree to honor the historic nature of the Boystown part of our city. Lets face it.. its possible that with increased development the gay village will be wiped out.

Unfortunately some people choose to attack me personally. Let me just say.. that I'm legally blind. Cannot drive a car, lost my vision 2 years ago. During multiple surgeries it became apparent that Id probably be spending the rest of my life walking in West Hollywood. When I saw a sign on the Different Light bookstore, .. I called the agent.. who replied,.. 'the lease is out' Anyway. the agent said the lease was out and American Apparel was going to open a second location on the street.

My heart dropped.. oh my god.. the gay hood would not be a gay hood anymore.. I called the agent asking for a meeting with the landlord .. who replied.. American Apparel is dragging their feet, and I begged for the spot, asked for a lease and locked it up the next morning. I don't need money thank god.. I work for love, My company YMLA did a few hundred million bucks in the 90's... .. so attacking my store is sad.. we bring value to the street of ripoff prices....

I was President of Labor Day LA and raised over 100,000 $ for local charities, .. on Thanksgiving's and Christmas instead Id drive meals to homes for Project Angel Food. Attacking me or my store, or my character is below the belt for an intelligent conversation on the merits of "Historic Boystown" and John Heilman, John Duran agreed with it.. and thats the subject of this article. If anybody would like to talk to me face to face Im always available. In the meantime, log on.. to www. HistoricBoystown.com and see how our community can join hands on a common goal.

The site was the idea in cooperation w Eleven, Mickys, and has the support of girls form Yogurt Stop and many local businesses. We have all been gathered in meetings with the chamber of commerce to create a Business Improvement District. We hope to create better gay village.

The place has always been Boystown.... its really not a secret. There is nothing new about the idea. I'm all for it. Why cant we have a place that represents 'gay' like Koreatown, or Chinatown.

I have nothing against an all inclusive LBGT area designation. I DO have a problem with an OFFICIAL exclusive, divisive, discrimanatory name like 'boystown". As you mentioned, we have Koreatown, et al. We don't have "MEN's only Koreatown" or "Boys China Town".

Why can't this city move forward instead of backward on this and if they must name it, name it something that does not imply or promote segregation, discrimination, exclusivity, etc. All the things we have stood against!
I'm not even sure why they need to name ANYTHING here. All of Weho is already synonymous with ALL queer people anyway.

NO boystown and NO "historic boystown"!

i vote for: City of Sherman Train Stop which it was long before the gays moved in with their T-dances :-)

I like the idea of a Boystown designation but I also like the idea of more nieghborhood designations in West Hollywood. We have a lot of unique pockets in WeHo that derserve more fanfare. The Sunset Strip and the "Avenues" have certainly recieved some attention. Now lets move on to Boystown, Central West Hollywood (Hamburger Mary's area) and Weho East hoods and gussy them up with civic pride.

Hyper local is the future.

West Hollywood is such a small area. Why do we need neighborhood designations?

My neighborhood should be called "EOCHNOSM" (east of crescent hts, north of santa monica).....haha.....dear city council, please order 4 signs for the borders

One reason for specifically designating neighborhoods that have a distinct historical or cultural flavor: it enables visitors/tourists (from which the city derives so much of its tax income to fund city services), to tour and sightsee in the city, finding areas of particular interest or discovering new ones, not unlike Times Square, the West and East Villages, Little Italy, and Chinatown in NYC. Ditto San Francisco and pretty much every other great city. West Hollywood is small in size, 1.9 square miles, but is replete with colorful history and architecture, from one end to the other. I'm personally not thrilled with the Boystown term, because to me it harkens back to the days of the gay ghetto, and will suggest to some that those of us who live here are obsessed with youth or, worse, all boy lovers, or men who have never grown up. But there is a good reason, I think, for neighborhood designations in general, marking places of special interest and good walking areas, so different from the blander, homogenized suburbs.

I agree with John. Well said. But I do think that it also help engender more community solidarity. West Hollywood is small but we do have even smaller unique neighboorhoods within. I think it is good that neighbors realize they are part of an even more closely connected group and perhaps we can see more civic pride and less "flip my house" and that sort of thing that makes neighborhoods cold and unwelcoming. Just my opinion but I realize I'm one of the few people that says I'm FROM West Hollywood, and not Los Angeles... because I am FROM West Hollywood (Norma Triangle neighborhood).