Fitness Members Protest Change In Hollywood Bowl Workout Hours

WEST HOLLYWOOD—According to WeHoville.com, West Hollywood residents, part of fitness group, are upset over being booted out from their regular Wednesday morning workouts at the Hollywood Bowl.

Close to 300 members of the group, part of the November project, have been running up and down the Hollywood Bowl from 5:27 a.m. to 6:27 a.m. for the last three years devoid of any incidents. Now the residents are being asked to change their workout time to sunset hours citing security concerns.

The November Project now stages its Wednesday morning runs, again at 5:27 and 6:27 a.m. and every Friday at 6:27 a.m. at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, with rotating destinations around the city. Other locations for workouts are the Griffith Observatory and Drake Stadium.

Jeff Palkevich, who is a regular at Hollywood Bowl in the mornings, suffers from congenital heart block and has got a pacemaker designed to regulate his heart beat, which emboldened him to try harder.

“Sure, I’d visit the gym and go through the motions, but I never enjoyed it,” said Jeff Palkevich, who is a regular at Hollywood Bowl in the mornings, to WEHOville. “I’d put on my headphones and avoid everyone as I attempted to workout. But slowly the pounds packed on.”

Leni Boorstin, director of community and government affairs for the L.A. Philharmonic, is defending the new operating hours by stating that they have been implemented citing security reasons.

When Palkevich contacted Boorstin, Boorstin said that it was up to L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl to decide if the November Group could resume its early morning runs. Palkevich didn’t give up and reached out to West Hollywood Council members and the office of L.A. county councilmember David Ryu.

Palkevich said to WEHoville that the council members, John Heilman and Lindsey Horvath, and a representative from Ryu’s office contacted Kuehl’s office with some alternatives such as banning backpacks while coming for workout at Hollywood Bowl.

“The opening hours are 8 a.m. till Sunset unless there is a concert or a rehearsal for which the park may be closed,” said Sophie Jeffries, spokesperson for the L.A Phil, to Canyon News. “It (park hours) used to be sunrise to sunset but over a year ago it had been changed from 8 a.m. to sunset.” Jeffries further said to Canyon News that the public is being misled by this news.