Yucca Corridor, Los Angeles

Coordinates: 34°06′15″N 118°19′41″W / 34.104065°N 118.328071°W / 34.104065; -118.328071
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Yucca Corridor
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The Yucca Corridor is a '"formerly notorious"

Mann's Chinese Theater.[3] In 2007 it was said to be "a hub for young professionals, artists, musicians and actors."[4]

Geography

The Yucca Corridor Coalition of Property Owners and Managers delineates Yucca Corridor as bounded on the west by North

nightclubs were said to "bolster the Yucca Corridor's thriving night life."[4]

History

By 1993 the Corridor had been dominated for several years by the

18th Street Gang, according to Sharon Romero, leader of the Hollywood Beautification Team, which was formed to paint over graffiti, among other projects. She said gang members had "harassed us on the streets, pulled guns on us and kicked our paint cans over." Between May and July of that year the Los Angeles Police Department engaged in a concerted effort to rid the area of gang activity, including the use of additional police and Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms officers.[6] A 1994 survey by the city's Falcon narcotics program said that the Corridor was one of L.A.'s most drug-infested neighborhoods. The Falcon narcotics abatement unit was a multi-agency narcotics abatement effort comprised by prosecutors from the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, including a community organizer, LAPD officers and an inspector from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. They worked pro-actively to address narcotics and nuisance activity. The community organizer helped start community groups in the area taught property owners about concepts like crime prevention through environmental design and encouraged property managers to meet and coordinate efforts to improve their neighborhood. In 1995 the police were calling the area a "dope supermarket, ... where cocaine dealers ruled the streets and residents hid behind their doors from gunfire after dark."[3]

We spent about three years organizing tenants and property owners, not against each other, but to work together to change the housing picture in places like the Yucca corridor. We ran out the drug dealers and the slum lords.

—City Council member Jackie Goldberg in 1997[7]

in 1994, however, landowners, impressed by the use of a

license-plate numbers.[3][4][8]

In another crime-fighting move, the city's Neighborhood Recovery Program sponsored

Northridge earthquake, were demolished and plans were made to build a community center in their stead.[10] The damage done by the earthquake resulted in the destruction of many old buildings and, it was reported, and eventually led to its transition into a "safer, tourist-friendly place."[4]

Whitley Avenue, 2005

By 1999, neighborhood activists were turning their attention to a perceived glut of liquor stores and nightclubs all over Hollywood occasioned by an uptick in applications for liquor licenses. Particularly opposed was an application by a 16,800-square-foot

Sav-on drugstore at Yucca and North Cahuenga Boulevard. A neighborhood group also claimed that clubs in the Yucca-Ivar Avenue area had been the sites of large fights, and it was noted that the Corridor still suffered 20 percent more reported crime than the city average.[1]

In 2007, a Los Angeles Times survey of the area found that "Homicides are down but the neighborhood still has a relatively high rate of robberies, burglaries, thefts and assaults. Residents and community activists say they walk freely through the Yucca Corridor during the day but do so with more caution after nightfall."[4]

Gateway to Hollywood

In 2002, a 30-foot-high triangular glass tower, lighted from within, was installed in a traffic median at the intersection of Cahuenga Boulevard, Wilcox Avenue and Franklin Avenue. The $658,000 structure features the word "HOLLYWOOD" running vertically down its three sides and was designed to greet visitors who enter Hollywood from the Cahuenga offramp of the Hollywood Freeway.[11][12]

Bicycle route

As part of a $200,000 traffic improvement project, eight-tenths of a mile of Yucca Street, between Cahuenga Boulevard and Highland Avenue, became Los Angeles's first "bike-friendly street" in 2012. At some intersections concrete

curbings at each automobile diverter were cut into paths wide enough for bikes and pedestrians, with the outline of a bicycle painted on the sidewalk as a sharrow, or shared-lane marking.[13][14][15][16][17]

Education

Public schools serving Yucca Corridor are Selma Avenue Elementary School, Joseph LeConte Middle School and Hollywood High School.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Monte Morin, "A Look Ahead: Activists Are Stepping Up Efforts on Their New Cause and Meeting Strong Business Opposition," Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1999, page 1
  2. ^ Tina Daunt, "Candidates Focus Attention on Histories of Activism," Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2001, page B-1
  3. ^ a b c Duke Helfand, "Vigilant Street Cameras Drive Drug Dealers Away," Los Angeles Times, February 20, 1996, page 1
  4. ^ a b c d e f Jessica C. Lee, "Neighborly Advice: Being Discovered in Tinseltown," Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2007
  5. ^ [1] Yucca Corridor Coalition website
  6. ^ Helene Webb, "Violence in L.A.: The LAPD Reports," Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1994, page 2
  7. ^ Steve Proffitt, "Bringing Hollywood–the Place—Back Into the Limelight," June 1, 1997, page M-1
  8. ^ Robert J. Lopez and Rich Connell, "Gang Turns Hope to Fear, Lives to Ashes," Los Angeles Times, November 18, 1996, page 1
  9. ^ Tracy Johnson, "South Bay: 5 Harbor-Area Neighborhoods Added to Recovery Project," Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1996, page 5
  10. ^ "Westside: Slum Makes Way for Recreation Center," Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1996, page 4
  11. ^ "Ground Is Broken for Tower, Fountain Project," Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2002, page B-4
  12. ^ "Gateway to Hollywood to Serve as Beacon and Beautification Project," Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2001, page B-3
  13. ^ Alissa Walker, "L.A.'s First Official Bike-Friendly Street: Our Review," LA Weekly, September 21, 2012
  14. ^ Bike blog, Los Angeles Department of Transportation, April 2, 2012
  15. ^ Aaron Blevins, "After Improvements, Yucca Is Bicycle-Friendly," Beverly Press, October 3, 2013
  16. ^ Neal Broverman, "Yucca St. to Become a Bike-Friendly Alternative to Hollywood," Curbed Los Angeles, April 4, 2012
  17. ^ Aaron Blevins, "After Improvements, Yucca Is Bicycle-Friendly," ParkLaBrea News Beverly Press, October 3, 2013


34°06′15″N 118°19′41″W / 34.104065°N 118.328071°W / 34.104065; -118.328071

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