JULIE WALMSLEY

Weeks after his press deputy insisted that plans to permanently close the Micheltorena Pedestrian Tunnel amounted to an unfounded rumor, Councilman Mitch O'Farrell filed a motion in city council to request a cost report on closure. That is, he needs to know how much money to come up with to close a tunnel he said he has no plans for, though I first learned about those plans from another one of his deputies in April. Art supporters in Silver Lake hope to make an outdoor gallery out of the tunnel that extends under Sunset Boulevard, what used to be a pedestrian passageway designed to get kids on foot to school safely. They hold the Cypress Village Art  Tunnel as their model, and hope to stop the cementing before the city finds the money to get it done.

Silver Lake art enthusiasts want their own version of the Cypress Village pedestrian tunnel-turned-outdoor-gallery, as I wrote for the Los Feliz Ledger . The article is short and I was limited to one photo. Unfortunate, as the photos tell the story of how the Sunset tunnel in Silver Lake now sits, and what Yancey Quiñones created in Cypress Park. Another untold element of the story is why people believe that it will be closed permanently. I first heard it from Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell's deputy in a Silver Lake Neighborhood Council meeting. But on follow up with that office, O'Farrell's press rep Tony Arranaga told me he didn't know where that came from. A rep for public works also said no projects were in queue. The view into the tunnel on the south side of Sunset Boulevard at Golden Gate Avenue, across the street from Micheltorena Elementary School.  Photo courtesy: Matthew Mooney The view into the tunnel on the north side of Sunset Boulevard jus...