One of the comments I hear the most when holding open houses in the Hollywood Riviera has to do with the utility poles. Often the comment comes in the form of a question, “so when are the utility poles going to be undergrounded?”
My new response is “I used to think they would be undergrounded in “my lifetime”, but now I doubt that.” The Hollywood Riviera has its own Homeowners Associationthat has a link on their website to the City of Torrance Engineering Dept for further information. (I just went there though and the link no longer goes anywhere?) It will be very expensive this proposition. It would take a vote amongst the Riviera homeowners and for those owners that have been here for 50 years – ask me why they would want to pay an enormous amount of money for something they have been living with for a long time. It’s the new homeowners moving in today that seem to notice the poles and the wires that hang off of them. With the cable companies adding their mess of wires to the whole thing, it’s not pretty. For those homeowners with a view – it is those properties that are most affected by the wires/poles actually – they have the most to gain if the utility poles were to be undergrounded.
From what I hear, it would take a large majority of the people to agree to the vote – they usually do it street by street. Then there would be an assessment placed on your property tax bill that would be paid over a certain amount of time. There are other costs involved though – getting the new undergrounded utilities to your house…..if you have any kind of “hardscape” in the affected area this could be very expensive to re-route. Then the electrical box on your house would have to be updated to accept the new undergrounded electrical lines and cable lines coming in. Of course in the end, it sure would look prettier. One other thing to consider, when there is a “power outage” it is harded to fix from what I hear, then the power companies need to “find” the problem – which they can’t see without digging. As it is now, they can at least “see” the problem.
On the upside – if you were to find a positive spin on the utility poles – I have them in my backyard – you get to see all sorts of neat birds and squirrells hanging out on them! I like that part! 
