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Homicide Isn’t in This Picture

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Times Staff Writer

When Zonia Cavazos moved to Hollywood 20 years ago, her neighborhood of low-rise apartment buildings north of Hollywood Boulevard didn’t much resemble the Tinseltown of old.

Walls were covered with graffiti, prostitutes and drug dealers lined the streets at night and gang violence was a part of daily life. She was so fed up that she joined the Selma Light Brigade, a community group that patrolled the streets at night.

But today, Cavazos, 56, is pleased by what she sees.

“It has gotten better,” said the single mother of three who works as a recreational assistant. “People used to stop you to sell you drugs like it was candy.”

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Hollywood is in the midst of a major drop in crime. Reports of violent crime are down 32% so far this year.

And most startling to residents and police, not a single homicide has been reported. By contrast, the district recorded nine killings in the first four months of 2004.

“We haven’t had one -- knock on wood,” said Los Angeles Police Capt. Michael Moriarty as he tapped his desk.

The crime drop on some levels reflects the gentrification of portions of Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, where new bars, restaurants, shopping centers and nightspots are drawing young people as well as the traditional tourists.

Police have focused considerable resources on trying to clean up parts of Hollywood. Officers have targeted areas where they see an increase in crime, making their presence known. Moriarty said officers are also trying to find potential criminals before they can commit offenses.

The results have been dramatic in some areas, but residents and merchants say that crime remains a problem in others.

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Earlier this year, video surveillance cameras were installed along Hollywood Boulevard at the corners of Vine Street, Cahuenga Boulevard and Whitley, Highland and Sycamore avenues. The cameras, which were paid for by the Hollywood Entertainment District Property Owners Assn., are wired into the Hollywood police station. The cameras, which are controlled by a joystick, allow an officer to zoom in and view details as small as the names on the stars on the Walk of Fame.

Since the cameras went online March 17, Moriarty said, police have been averaging one arrest per day.

Last month, a camera on Highland Avenue recorded a transient stabbing a man in the neck with a large knife at a fast-food restaurant. An arrest was made the following day after an officer created a flier with the suspect’s picture and passed it out to other officers.

“With these cameras, it’s like having one cop on each corner,” Moriarty said. “But it’s actually one cop on five corners.”

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Tony Zadeh, 47, has owned three clothing and accessory businesses on Hollywood Boulevard across from the Egyptian Theatre for 17 years.

In the 1990s, his businesses endured rising crime and disruptions by the construction of the Metro Rail subway system. To many, this period was a low point for the storied boulevard, which was developed decades ago as a Main Street for the entertainment industry but had fallen on hard times.

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But Zadeh said it’s clear now that things are improving.

The Egyptian Theatre, long closed, is now showing movies again. The Hollywood & Highland shopping and entertainment complex is also helping.

Zadeh said that Hollywood still has a long way to go -- and now needs to tackle the homeless problem. “Tourists complain to me about how often they’re approached,” he said. “In most European countries where you go, you don’t see that.”

City Councilman Eric Garcetti, who represents Hollywood, said one reason for the drop in crime is the aggressive effort to remake a stretch of Yucca Street just north of the boulevard. A decade ago, the street was considered a magnet for crime, in part because of the density of apartment dwellings. “It was like a drug bazaar for years,” Garcetti said.

Since then, the city has removed some of the apartments and added a community center and a park. Barricades now keep vehicles from entering either side of the street; people walk their dogs to the dog park and kids can be seen practicing their musical instruments outside the Yucca Park Community Center.

Jaime Medrano, a volunteer at the center, said Hollywood has become safer, but he still doesn’t feel secure even though he lives one block from the Hollywood police station. “There’s still a lot of crime, but it’s hard to see it in the daytime,” he said. “At night, I don’t even walk to the nearest store. If I need something, I drive to a grocery store, not a convenience store.”

Medrano, 36, a married father of three, said he doesn’t take his young sons to the park down the street from their apartment because he often sees people drinking, smoking and selling drugs there. “It’s incredible to think that people sell drugs down the street from the police station,” Medrano said. “People don’t go there anymore because they’re scared.”

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Cavazos and Medrano said police need to focus more on eliminating prostitution, especially on Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. “My children shouldn’t be exposed to that,” Medrano said.

“I shouldn’t have to explain to my sons why that man, who is dressed like a woman, is showing his body.”

The LAPD acknowledges that Hollywood still has a ways to go. “What can be viewed as a success today, next week could be a flare-up,” Moriarty said.

In response to the prostitution problem, Moriarty said that the department has put together a transgender prostitution task force. Another task force is dealing with the prostitution problem on Sunset Boulevard.

He said that a portion of Sunset Boulevard is dramatically different than it was six years ago but that there is still a problem on another section of the street.

Last week, officers made 18 arrests and seized 14 vehicles from johns who were soliciting prostitutes. Moriarty hopes that taking such action will put prostitutes and their pimps out of business.

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Garcetti said that although Hollywood has seen economic improvements, it remains a distinctively diverse area where housing is still affordable. The councilman said that it’s important for the district to maintain this feel even as more upscale businesses come to Hollywood.

Still, more than 3,000 people lined up in February for a chance to rent 56 low-market units in Hollywood, with many applicants expressing fears that they were priced out of the district.

Garcetti said it would be a shame if those Hollywood residents who fought for years to combat crime were eventually priced out of the neighborhood.

“There’s no doubt that it’s overall part of the economic revitalization,” he said. “But it’s managed to be economic development with a conscience.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Hollywood homicides

The Hollywood Division of the LAPD has not had a single homicide so far this year. Violent crime is down 32% compared with the same period last year.

Crime year-to-date* versus same period in 2004:

Homicide: -100%

Rape: -41%

Robbery: -15%

Aggravated assault: -43%

All violent crimes: -32%

Property crimes: -12%

* Through April 30

Source: LAPD

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