Content area
Full Text
For much of the world, the word "Hollywood" conjures up the stuff of dreams--scenes of magic, glamour and excitement. For others, it creates something more like a nightmare--streets overrun with homeless runaways, prostitutes and decay. Yet, if Hollywood is a state of mind, it is also very much a place. Home to a million Angelenos, it is neither the star-festooned Tinseltown of movie myth nor the torrid red zone of made-for-TV movies. It is, in fact, an urban neighborhood, with many of charms and defects of its less well-known neighbors.
For decades, city leaders wrung their hands about what to do about Hollywood, but no one did much of anything. Then, in the past five years, the area has rebounded. The subway, connecting Hollywood with downtown and the Valley, is nearing completion. A number of impressive office, retail and housing developments have been completed, with more in the planning stages. The economy has solidified, the streets are cleaner and crime is down. In a recent speech, Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan proudly pointed to improvements in Hollywood as an example for the rest of the city.
While the mayor can take some credit, the area's councilwoman, Jackie Goldberg, is considered by many to be the major catalyst of the change. A former student activist, teacher and school-board member, she was elected to the City Council in 1993, and quickly took on a host of issues designed to improve safety, the economy and the quality of life in her district, which also includes Echo Park, Silverlake and Atwater Village. Using techniques of community activism, she helped organize residents and property owners to fight crime, grime and to revitalize an important tourist center for the city. If she is straying from her socialist heritage in the process, she reveals no trace of inner conflict.
Yet, Hollywood and its environs still have vexing, systemic problems. It remains plagued by high unemployment, sub-standard housing and underutilized commercial space. Meanwhile, Goldberg's constituents in the neighborhoods around Dodger Stadium are fearful of changes that may come about should media tycoon Rupert Murdoch or someone like him buy the baseball franchise from the O'Malley family, who brought the team here from New York in the late 1950s.
Rather than being...