Hollywood Gets Its Own Alexanderplatz As Neighborhood Celebrates Road Safety Fix

HOLLYWOOD, CA — Alexanderplatz in Berlin is one of the city's major public squares and shopping destinations. In Hollywood, Alexanderplatz is a small traffic circle in the residential Bronson Canyon area.

The City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to dedicate the intersection of Bronson Avenue and Canyon Drive as Alexanderplatz. There might not seem like much of a connection between a sleepy SoCal residential traffic circle and a bustling German square, but the name is a nod to the vision of a German-born Angeleno who had dreams of making his neighborhood safer.

Alexander von Wechmar, a longtime Canyon Drive resident, had pushed for the city for over a decade to install a traffic circle at Bronson and Canyon. The Los Angeles Times in 2017 reported that the intersection attracted a lot of trouble: One motorist plowed through a barricade in the intersection, hit von Wechmar's retaining wall and died.

Von Wechmar spearheaded an effort to raise money for the fix, which finally came to fruition last year when the city converted the intersection into a traffic circle "which significantly reduced the risk of accidents and added safe routes for pedestrians to cross," reads a motion from Councilmember Nithya Raman.

As for the name Alexanderplatz, Raman says it's fitting: Berlin and Los Angeles are sister cities, there's a Berlin Bear statue at Fern Dell Park and the Berlin Forest in Griffith Park. Plus, the German capital's Alexanderplatz used to have a large traffic circle at its center.