Hollywood: For Sale

Photo: Sten Rudrich / Wikimedia Commons

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Just think of the marketing opportunities.

"I (Heart) HOLLYWOOD." "Brangelina Owns HOLLYWOOD." "Brought to you by Applebee's: HOLLYWOOD."

Yes, the land that sits just to the left of the famous letters perched on the hills above Hollywood is for sale. For $22 million, you could presumably put anything you want there, though of course the most likely choice would be one or more multimillion-dollar homes for the super-rich.

A Chicago investment firm, Fox River Financial Resources, has put 138 acres of Cahuenga Peak, just to the west of the HOLLYWOOD sign, on the market, according to the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles wants to buy the land and make it a park, but with just $5 million raised, it won't be able to seal the deal at the current price.

This type of scenario is playing out in towns around the country. While all of America, indeed the world, recognizes this hill, in other localities the landmarks are less widely known, but no less more important to the psyche of a place. There are a lot of reasons communities gel, but one of them is a sense of place in the landscape, and the simmering fight between who can do what with enough money reaches a boil when the few seek to profit on land in which the public feels that it has an ownership stake.

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