Honoring the Real Stars of Hollywood, the Sequel Friends of the Hollywood Central Park Pay Tribute to Community Leaders at Second Annual Awards Ceremony

December 29, 2010

HOLLYWOOD—The Friends of the Hollywood Central Park will once again pay tribute to the real stars of Hollywood by honoring community leaders at the second annual For the Love of Hollywood celebration on Jan. 6, 2011.

A nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a 44-acre street-level park over the Hollywood Freeway in a densely populated and park-poor area of the city, Friends of the Hollywood Central Park (FHCP) will hold the event to celebrate its anniversary and thank the Hollywood community for their support of this noble, worthy, and socially significant cause.

“For the second year in a row, we are gathering to celebrate the accomplishments of outstanding leaders whose dedication to the Hollywood Central Park is helping to transform this dream into a reality,” said FHCP Chairman Philip E. Aarons of Millennium Partners/Argent Ventures, who was the founding member and chairman of Friends of the High Line in New York City. “We salute those who have the vision to literally change the landscape of an entire region for the better.”

Recipients of this year’s Real Stars of Hollywood awards are: Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA 31), the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, USC Professor of Landscape Architecture Gerdo Aquino, and Bancroft Middle School Principal Maria Elena Rico.

“The creation of a Hollywood Central Park over the 101 Freeway is truly a noble undertaking that will one day transform the Hollywood community by creating sorely needed open space in one of L.A.’s densest neighborhoods,” said Becerra. “It is a testament to the hard work of Friends of the Hollywood Central Park that they are moving closer to making this vision a reality.”

Friends of the Hollywood Central Park was created in December 2008 to raise funds to create a park above the Hollywood Freeway between Santa Monica Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard. By adopting efficient alternative and innovative land-use plans and integrating strategies in order to transform the community and create long-term prosperity, the park will produce more than 45,000 direct and indirect jobs in addition to creating a sustainable community that promotes equity, strengthens the economy, protects the environment, promotes a healthy and safe community, and serves as a national model for the creation of new greenspace in a dense urban environment.

The park began as an idea more than 27 years ago. And in 2006 it progressed from a Hollywood Chamber of Commerce initiative to a Hollywood community coalition, with unwavering support from LA City Council President Eric Garcetti and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, and finally to creation of the nonprofit organization, Friends of the Hollywood Central Park, dedicated to creating the Hollywood Central Park.

Further steps were taken over the past year to make Hollywood Central Park a reality, including a productive advocacy trip to Washington, D.C., and recognition and honors from the American Planning Association-Los Angeles Chapter, Westside Urban Forum, Urban Land Institute, and American Society of Landscape Architects.

In the coming year, FHCP plans to continue advocacy work to further its mission to make the dream of creating a grand urban park above the Hollywood Freeway a reality, and the funds raised from the second of what promises to be many For the Love of Hollywood events will go toward that goal.

This year’s event held at Taglyan Complex is made possible through the support of Gold Sponsors: Millennium Partners/Argent Ventures and Sunset Gower/Sunset Bronson Studios; Silver Sponsors: Author Services, CIM Group, CRA/LA, Kaiser Permanente, Sheppard Mullin, and W Hollywood; and Bronze Sponsors: Cheryl Gaskill Graphics, Coast Parking, Diamante Estate Wines, Five Chairs, Galpin Motors, GO! Goldman Organization, Hennigan, Bennett and Dorman, Hyun Family Foundation, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Paladin Realty Partners, Paramount Contractors, Playhouse, Psomas, Elie Samaha/Donald Kushner, Taglyan Complex, The Clarett Group, and Urban Strategy Group.

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