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HOLLYWOOD, California - The secluded maze of roads and trails in thehills above Hollywood has become the setting of something of a war, as residents face an influx of tourists in search of the Hollywood sign. An invasion, really: driving, climbing, biking, motorcycling, tour-busing and hiking in an attempt to get close to an American landmark.
The culprit has a three-letter name that has become a dirty word for residents here: GPS.
The Global Positioning System has become a guide for out-of-towners through the harrowing turns and complicated curlicues leading to close-ups of The Sign, an adventure that, in the past, would have required either a savvy local or a paid guide.
All of this has prompted a feud between two community groups and has turned neighbor against neighbor, homeowners against tourists and constituents against city officials who embrace tourism. Yet for all the agony and angst, it also illustrates the continued and intense draw of a sign that was built in 1923 to promote sales in a housing development called Hollywoodland.
In a city where so many historical remnants have been torn down and replaced, that sign is one of the few remaining symbols of a center of glamour and celebrity that, in truth, is not quite as glamorous as it once was.
"L.A. is a place that hasn't saved a lot of old places, so the sign becomes iconographic," said Gregory Paul Williams, a Hollywood historian who lives in Beachwood Canyon, below the sign. "It 's a perfect photo spot. It's like the Eiffel Tower - you know where you are."
The area draws sign-seekers like Helen Hilt and Michael Kari, visiting from Germany. Mr. Kari said they had decided to search out the sign after watching Justin Timberlake perch himself on it in the movie "Friends With Benefits."
"We put it into the GPS," he said, bouncing down off a dusty hill, a "no trespassing" sign at his back. There seems no end to the intrigue. One neighborhood association posted a sign directing tourists to a cleared viewing site, perfect to park and gawk. Those signs disappeared overnight, Tom LaBonge, a Los Angeles councilman, said. They were snatched by a rival neighborhood group that wants to discourage people from coming up the hill.
A recent emergency town hall meeting attracted hundreds of people complaining about clogged streets, litter and, most of all, smoking.
"We love the people - it's not that we don't," said Frederique Schafer, who lives on a dead end road where cars on a recent Sunday morning were backed up down the street and a taxi waited by a gate, its meter at $35 and clicking while its passengers clambered up a hill. "But it can be impossible. There are times we can't drive in our own driveway."
The area is largely upper middle class, and filled with a dazzling variety of architectural styles. City officials note that this is mostly parkland and, while sympathetic to the irritation of homeowners, say there is no way tourists can − or should − be cut off from land that is open to anyone who knows how to get there.
The police can give summonses to people who smoke or litter but, as the authorities concede, there is no way to enforce a penalty on someone about to board a plane. And lessons imparted on tourists usually last one day.
"I don't see it going down," said David Schafer, who has posted videos on YouTube showing congestion on the street. "I see it going up. You go to Hollywood and it's like, what do you do? It's the biggest icon in L.A."
