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When the city threatened to sully Hancock Park's elegant ambience by proposing to install concrete light fixtures, residents sprung into action to keep the homely posts from being planted on their tree-lined streets.
To better accent their 1920s mansions and homes, residents wanted decorative light fixtures and told the city they were willing to pay the extra cost.
The homeowners prevailed. By the end of next year, new "ornamental, residential-style" street lamps will shine on every street in Hancock Park, while most other Los Angeles neighborhoods will have to settle for the standard steel or concrete poles.
The campaign for new street lamps is one of the many battles that Hancock Park residents have waged and won due to their persistence and unabashed clout. But as the city continues to change and urban problems threaten to spill into even the most exclusive areas, jittery residents of Greater Hancock Park are determined to fight even harder to maintain the status quo.
"Over the years, the community has changed, but some things haven't," said Jim Wolf, president of the Hancock Park Homeowners Assn. "There still is a strong desire to preserve the neighborhood and maintain a certain character."
Bounded by La Brea Avenue to the west, Wilton Place to the east, Melrose Avenue to the north and Olympic Boulevard to the south, Hancock Park and its adjacent neighborhoods have long been an exclusive enclave for some of Los Angeles' most influential and well-to-do families.
Radical change had not swept Greater Hancock Park since the neighborhoods were developed in the 1920s. But once a predominantly white haven, the area is now home to thousands of new Asian residents, particularly Korean Americans, who have been lured to the area by its luxurious homes, reputable schools and proximity to Koreatown and Downtown.
The influx of Asians, as well as some Latinos and African Americans, has not led to blatant racial tensions in this tony Central Los Angeles community. But longtime residents are greeting the newcomers cautiously, wondering whether they will make good neighbors and maintain that "certain character."
"By being in the neighborhood, you have a responsibility to be a good neighbor," said Sidney Adair, an attorney who founded the Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society. "There is a...