The man stood in the middle of the road in decadent Beverly Hills, gawking at one of those only-in-L.A. streetscapes.
He was looking at a row of palm trees in linear formation, like soldiers awaiting inspection, lining the road as far as the eye could see. Alongside the Spanish colonial homes, the scene is a picturesque look into wealth, opulence and superfluity that only a select few Angelenos can afford.
For minutes, the man remained in the street, attempting to snap a selfie and document the view. Then suddenly, a blaring car horn yanked him back to reality — without having known, or cared, he stood directly behind a reversing car, in front of a fully occupied home.
Near-accidents like these are a daily occurrence on this stretch of North Hillcrest Road, where the perfect row of Canary Island date palm trees have made it the TikTok and Instagram geolocation of choice for locals, film crews and tourists.
“We just saw it on TikTok and wanted to take some fun pictures,” said Brandon Lopez, who was visiting from Peru and shooting photos of his girlfriend on film. “It’s a good destination for pictures like this.”
Forget the backlash against palm trees from critics, who say they are not native to L.A., suck up too much water, attract invasive species and fail to even provide much shade.
In the world of social media, the palm is still king, and this is creating problems on Hillcrest Drive.
Neighbors have complained that these tourists following in others’ digital footsteps are disregarding basic traffic laws and stepping into the street where cars like G-Wagons, Porsches and Lamborghinis are supposed to have the right of way.
“I’ve seen professional photo shoots set up in the middle of the road,” said Martin, a neighborhood resident of Hillcrest Road and Carmelita Avenue, who declined to provide his last name out of privacy concerns. “I’ve definitely noticed a ramp-up in activity here.”
Bobbi Chinlund, a location scout, said she frequently visits the luxurious neighborhood on Hillcrest Drive, where her doctor resides. She too said she has noticed an uptick in tourists trying to get the perfect shot as cars pass by.
“I see it a lot, and it’s been happening a lot more recently,” Chinlund said. “They’ll just take it in the middle of the street, but I guess it’s good for the camera.”
Just down the road, a German tourist couple hopped out of their white Mini Cooper with a camera in tow. Instead of having found out about the spot on social media, Andres Lell stumbled upon it during a cross-country road trip.
“We just drove this way, and this is the greatest one for pictures,” Lell said.
Lell turned to watch his wife run away from the camera and down the seemingly endless road. He took the camera from around his neck, smiled and snapped a shot.
Martin said most neighbors do not mind a quick snapshot, but high-production shoots have caused some traffic interruptions and safety issues in the usually tranquil neighborhood. He said he hoped the city could enforce regulations on more organized groups of photographers.
“If it’s organized groups, they should be told, you know, not to stand in the middle of the street,” Martin said. “It’s OK to just jump in and take a few pictures.”
Not all neighbors are so warm to the idea of their neighborhood becoming a set, however. “I just think it’s so stupid,” one resident told a Times reporter as they navigated past a small group taking photos.
Sgt. Audra Alatorre with the Beverly Hills police said the department has received several calls about tourists obstructing the streets, but added that they’re usually gone by the time officers arrive. Alatorre said she was not aware of any reported accidents, but stressed the need for safe conduct during photo shoots.
Keith Sterling, deputy city manager of Beverly Hills, said the growing social media trend has led the city to issue warnings to visitors and recently prompted police to step up patrols in the affected areas.
“We’re pleased to have folks that want to visit and experience our city, but not at the expense of public safety,” Sterling said. “Education is always our first approach, but we have the ability to issue citations and will take those steps as necessary.”
Long before this area was called Beverly Hills or even California, there were palm trees. Franciscan missionaries planted them as far back as the 18th century.
In the early 20th century, after the new leisure class successfully peddled the myth of Los Angeles as a Mediterranean paradise on the West Coast, the tree became a cultural mainstay and unofficial tree of L.A. (the actual official one is the coral tree).
But in the last decade, environmentalists and others have pushed for less palm plantings and more native trees. There has been controversy over the planting of new palms around the remodeled Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In addition to becoming a social media phenomenon, film crews also have an affinity for the city’s barely shaded streets.
On a Tuesday afternoon on Beverly Drive, in the middle of unrelenting two-lane traffic, Israeli tourists Evyatar and Raz Halevi ran back and forth from the center line to capture the perfect shot for social media. Evyatar has a popular TikTok account, and said he was unafraid of the cars that whizzed by just feet away from them if it meant he’d have his post.
After a few laps, they settled on the center line and smiled at the product of their work. They stood blissfully in place in the middle of the road, planted like the palm trees above them.
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