Light Display

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) sponsors this outdoor light exhibit in Griffith Park every year. It's suppose to be this big deal -- at least judging by traffic it creates. Since I live so close, I decided to view it this year. Let me tell you it's a huge disappointment. You stay in your car and drive very slowly through the 2-mile(?) exhibit. It's like being stuck in traffic but having some lights to look at to pass the time. It's not all that different as any other municipal light exhibits -- i.e., the Lincoln Park light display. Most of the light displays were of iconic L.A. locales -- Griffith observatory, the Hollywood sign, the ocean, etc. It might appeal to little kids but in today's world of bright lights, big city culture, I'm not even sure if kids would be impressed.

The saddest thing of the whole display is that as I was driving to the exhibit, I saw signs that informed people that the light display was a 40 minute wait, a 30 minutes wait and so forth until you drove to the beginning of the display. There was no wait when I drove through it but I would imagine that on Christmas Eve, Los Angelenos will wait in traffic that long to view it.

And, there was no snow to help create the ambiance.