Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/28/beverly-hills-rodeo-drive-will-be-shut-down-during-election.html
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It’s almost as if the Beverly Hills Police Department is primarily concerned with the safety and property of rich white people.
Only a small bother. Just have your helicopter pilot whisk you to Scottsdale AZ.
Did they just get evil empire in beverly hills?
Pedestrian traffic too? What if you need to send one of the kitchen staff to borrow a cup of caviar from your neighbour?
How the hell is that legal?
The police are there to protect private property… rich man’s militia and all that.
And here I was worried about post-election America. But knowing Rodeo Drive will be safe has eliminated all my fears and my jaw will unclench now.
“ …if you need to stock up on Lladro figurines…”
In times like these, the mention of Lladro can make a smile come out of the dark at the end of a tunnel.
The statement seems to presume that demonstrations and protests are something that people need to be protected from. What about protecting the people’s right to demonstrate and protest?
There are a lot of people who equate “protest” with “riot” forgetting that the former is a right protected by the Constitution, not a crime that endangers people and property.
Pity the poor shopkeepers who’ll lose two days’ sales. Think of the reduced profits! It’s anti-capitalist!
An example of why this is happening…
Is there some concrete reason why he expects protests (let alone violent protests)? Or is this a briar patch type of move where he’s trying to precipitate his fantasy of a race war, you know, like Charles Manson?
It was weird hearing last weekend an emergancy order come over the phone, warning us that Bellevue (our swanky district) was under lockdown from anyone carrying a weapon (apparently firearms were exempt??).
Turns out it was a BLM protest. There was “credible reports” that rocks and sticks would be at play.
Rodeo Drive is still a thing? And why do any protesters have to be on that particular street? Heck, it would be much funnier if everyone who wanted to march on stupid rich-folks street just march at both egresses so no in or out. Ha!
So we’ve got the setting for The Vault in the next Fallout sequel.
What the hell?!?
Completely bonkers
Yes, but probably not the thing you’re thinking.
These days, it’s a tourist attraction. Merchants place improbably-priced luxe baubles in showroom windows for the tourists to “ooh” and “ah” and exclaim over. The shop itself will carry some few ridiculously-overpriced tchotchkes for the more adventurous tourists who want to brag that they bought the item at [LuxeRetailer] on Rodeo Drive. For less adventurous tourists, there’s also a Gap, with lots of “Rodeo Drive” and “Beverly Hills” themed merch.
The street is often festooned with supercars and conspicuous-consumption luxe autos. Most all of these are rented by the merchants, and parked in front of the stores to give the illusion that they are patronized by the ultra-wealthy.
They are not. The ultra-wealthy (and their decorators and stylists) shop elsewhere, where they are not plagued by the tourist hordes on the HopOn-HopOff buses.
The idea that Rodeo Drive is frequented by the stupidly wealthy is an illusion promoted by the city, the merchant’s associations, and the merchants themselves.
Like Hollywood Blvd., Rodeo Drive is a hype-generated tourist trap living on its former reputation from the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. In a town full of terrible tourist attractions, it’s easily the most pointless.