Pasquale Vericella decided to take control of his situation.

For weeks, the owner of the exclusive Il Cielo restaurant in Beverly Hills had been watching the weeds grow higher and higher in the street median in front of his Burton Way restaurant. Because the median is outside Beverly Hills city limits, it’s L.A.’s responsibility to maintain it.

But it had been months since crews had shown up. By mid-September, the weeds had grown waist high and turned brown. Vericella’s customers were asking him why the median hadn’t been mowed.

“It was becoming a real embarrassment,” he said. “I’ve got customers who routinely pull up in Rolls-Royces and when they get out of their cars, it looks like they’re in a Third World country. They regarded it as an absolute joke.”

Vericella said he was growing increasingly frustrated having to explain to his patrons that even though his restaurant is in Beverly Hills, the median is in the city of Los Angeles and that budget cuts had curtailed work crews. He called L.A. officials numerous times, but all he got was recorded messages.

Finally, late last month, Vericella and his landlord, Jerry Sweet, hired a gardening crew to mow the grass in the median.

“The grass had grown so high that it took them three days,” Vericella said. It cost them about $500.

The story was published in the Beverly Hills Courier. Soon after it appeared, an L.A. city crew finally showed up.

“There wasn’t much left for them to do,” Vericella said.