Around the end of August, Fishbar Manager Liane Bell noticed flyers around El Porto announcing the Sept. 1 to 2 closure of Vista del Mar Boulevard due to filming.
But it wasn’t until the night before the closure, when Kelly Stroman, the executive director of the Downtown Business and Professional Association, sent an email advising businesses to tell their employees to make alternate transportation plans, that Bell realized the potential impact.
“The next day, our business was vastly affected,” said Bell. “It didn’t register until we had nobody two days in a row.”
Warner Brothers paid the city of El Segundo about $12,500, plus a deposit of the same amount which appears to have been refunded, to film driving scenes for the pilot episode of a new television show, “Animal Kingdom,” on the stretch of Vista del Mar in between 45th Street and Grand Avenue, according to documents released in response to a public records request by Easy Reader.
The road was only closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Bell estimated that her restaurant on Highland Avenue, which Vista del Mar turns into at 45th Street, lost about $10,000 over the two days.
“I just don’t know why we incur the cost when El Segundo is benefitting,” said Bell, who took her complaint to the Manhattan Beach City Council.
The Chevron gas station on Vista del Mar and 45th Street was also affected by the closure, according to a manager there.
The strip of road in question belongs to El Segundo. But it leads into the cities of Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles, whose police forces were on duty for the closure, in addition to the El Segundo Police Department.
Per its policy, El Segundo notified businesses and residents within 275 feet of the filming area.
“Unless there are complaints, it’s pretty straight forward issuing a permit,” said James Amezcua, a revenue inspector in the city’s business license division.
Bell was surprised that the closure didn’t cause more of a stir.
“Vista del Mar being shut down is a big deal,” she said. “I don’t know why it wasn’t a bigger issue.”
She suspected people had become immune to the constant construction in the area.
“I think sometimes these things get glanced over,” she said. ER
