Santa on Hollywood Boulevard

Thanks to everyone who came out to a super parade on Sunday! We had a wonderful crowd--police estimated that at least 120,000 parade-goers lined Hollywood Blvd., Vine St., and Sunset Blvd. to watch the parade and to continue the tradition. The celebrities who were so generous with their time, the bands who performed beautifully, and the city staff (especially my Deputy Chief of Staff Ana Guerrero) and Santa Parade, LLC folks that helped pull this off with only three months all deserve many thanks. Special thanks, too, to Greg Durfee, who visited City Council as Santa many months ago and asked us to save the parade. He was a great help and it was very nice to see him at the parade (pictured left).

The Daily News wrote an editorial this morning about the parade that captured the civic spirit of this parade, which I call the people's parade. You could see the holiday excitement it in the eyes of the kids along the route when Santa finally appeared. We will certainly build on this year's experience to continue to keep the tradition alive and improve the parade each year, but congratulations to the community and thanks to everyone for stepping up to keep the parade alive!