Calls to take away Trump’s Stroll of Fame star stump Metropolis Council

Hollywood Hills resident Andrew Rudick is on a mission.

During the last three years, he’s submitted public data requests, retrieved case paperwork from the Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom, spoken at Metropolis Council conferences and corresponded with authorities officers.

He’s decided to get Donald Trump’s star eliminated from the Hollywood Stroll of Fame. It’s not a simple activity.

“The fairly conveyed message to the hundreds of thousands who’ve walked previous that plaque since 2021 is town’s endorsement of a person who tried a coup towards the US,” Rudick stated at a Los Angeles Metropolis Council assembly earlier this month.

Though a number of Metropolis Council members stated they don’t assist the previous president and want to see his star eliminated, no person is aware of precisely methods to make that occur. A number of teams with various ranges of jurisdiction have a hand in working the Stroll of Fame, together with the Metropolis Council, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Hollywood Historic Belief.

The elimination of a star is unprecedented, and a course of for doing so has by no means been established. Rudick’s activism, nonetheless, is forcing metropolis officers to confront the unknown.

The star itself attracts all types of consideration.

Elodie Toutain, a 21-year-old initially from France, stated she stomped on Trump’s star whereas visiting the Stroll of Fame this month. “There are such a lot of individuals who have higher intentions than him,” she stated.

The star has been vandalized and smashed a number of instances, costing greater than $20,000 in repairs since 2016, in response to the Hollywood Historic Belief. One road artist positioned jail bars on the star in 2021 and introduced a bathroom, bathtub and stacks of faux paperwork to the web site of the star in 2023 in a reference to the Mar-a-Lago labeled paperwork case.

Stuart G, who declined to share his final identify for privateness causes, has been promoting Trump merchandise beside the star since August.

“Trump offends individuals, and people individuals need to have his star eliminated,” Stuart stated. “However I don’t assume he’s half as dangerous as among the different individuals on right here.”

Spade Cooley, a swing musician who earned his star in 1960, was convicted of murdering his spouse one 12 months later.

In 2015, Leron Gubler, then president and chief govt of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, instructed The Instances that stars couldn’t be eliminated. There have been calls that 12 months to take away the star belonging to Invoice Cosby, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by greater than 45 ladies and was discovered responsible of aggravated indecent assault in 2018. His conviction was later overturned.

“As soon as a star has been added to the Stroll, it’s thought-about part of the historic cloth of the Hollywood Stroll of Fame,” Gubler instructed The Instances in 2015 in an emailed assertion. “Due to this, we’ve by no means eliminated a star from the Stroll.”

However the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has since modified its tune. In response to Ana Martinez, the chamber’s vp of media and expertise relations, the chamber doesn’t have the ability to take away a star.

“The Chamber is allowed by the Metropolis to manage Stroll of Fame ceremonies, choose and honor the recipient, order the fabrication of the star and place the star within the sidewalk,” Martinez stated in an e mail, “however the Chamber doesn’t have the authority from any jurisdiction to completely take away a star. … We don’t perceive why individuals assume we do have that authority.”

A felony grievance filed towards James Lambert Otis, who destroyed the Trump star with a pickax and sledgehammer in 2020, says the star is owned by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. However a spokesperson for the chamber instructed The Instances town owns all the celebrities and the sidewalks they’re embedded in.

Rudick stated he believes the authority to take away a star lies with the Metropolis Council, which has the ultimate say in approving new stars, however Metropolis Council members couldn’t affirm this was the case.

“I don’t know whose duty it’s,” Councilmember Bob Blumenfield stated in an interview. “There are a variety of oldsters, together with each Cosby and Trump, who actually don’t deserve a star given what we now learn about them.”

Trump was awarded his star in 2007 for his function on “The Apprentice” and his work as a producer of the Miss Universe pageant. His star ceremony was held in January 2007, when the star was unveiled at 6801 Hollywood Blvd., close to Highland Avenue.

Blumenfield stated he would assist the elimination of Trump’s star if the problem got here earlier than the Metropolis Council, however he’s giving precedence to different points. “I can’t be main the cost on this,” he stated.

The Metropolis Council unanimously handed a decision in 2021 calling for Trump’s impeachment for his involvement within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who was considered one of 4 members to introduce the decision, declined to touch upon calls to take away Trump’s star.

Mayor Karen Bass’ press secretary, Clara Karger, stated the mayor doesn’t assist Trump, however didn’t remark additional.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, who represents the district containing the Stroll of Fame, could also be extra prone to take motion.

“Donald Trump is a racist, fascist, and a risk to our democracy,” Soto-Martínez stated in an announcement. “Since there’s no identified precedent for eradicating a star from the Hollywood Stroll of Fame, we’re wanting into the place the authority lies, what the authorized points could also be, and what a course of for it would appear like.”

Trump’s representatives didn’t reply to a request for remark. The Republican Get together of Los Angeles County stated any efforts to take away Trump’s star can be a waste of time.

“Los Angeles authorities fails on each degree,” a spokesperson for the celebration stated in an e mail. “They need to give attention to their job — getting all our sidewalks clear and secure.”

The Los Angeles Metropolis Council has to date averted partaking within the technique of eradicating a star. In 2018, the West Hollywood Metropolis Council unanimously handed a decision requesting that L.A. take away Trump’s star from the Stroll of Fame. The decision was by no means acted on.

As a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, the Stroll of Fame receives some protections dictated by town’s Cultural Heritage Ordinance. However altering or eradicating one star wouldn’t violate these protections, in response to town Planning Division.

“Altering lettering on one or a handful of star panels out of over 2,700 wouldn’t represent a considerable alteration to the Monument,” a metropolis planning consultant stated in an e mail. “The elimination of any particular person’s identify and recognition emblem would go away intact the historic supplies that make up the rest of the Stroll of Fame.”

The Stroll of Fame will not be a California Historic Landmark, stated Jay Correia of the California Workplace of Historic Preservation, though it’s generally mistaken as one. There’s plenty of confusion surrounding the landmark standing of the Stroll of Fame, Correia stated.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce itself incorrectly claimed that the Stroll of Fame was included within the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. It’s included solely within the California Register of Historic Sources.

“Regardless that the property is listed within the California Register, all land use authority resides with the Metropolis of Los Angeles,” Correia stated. “None of what we do overrides native land use coverage.”

In different phrases, it’s theoretically as much as the Los Angeles Metropolis Council to resolve to take away a star. In response to Rudick, step one is straightforward: Metropolis Council ought to ask town lawyer to draft a report on a star elimination course of.

Rudick has tried to hurry up the method himself. In June, he submitted a proposal to Soto-Martínez to switch the Trump star with a star for “the Leisure Staff of Los Angeles.”

Changing a star may include much less pink tape than eradicating one, Rudick stated, however he has not but obtained a response to his proposal.

Rudick, a former casting affiliate, stated he can’t permit his metropolis to proceed to endorse a determine who represents hate and exclusion. He began a petition in June to take away Trump’s star, which now has greater than 3,800 signatures.

“I’ve been on this as a result of it’s the fitting factor to do,” Rudick stated.