At CRA Hearing on Project : Critics of Hollywood Renewal Vent Their Anger

Critics of redevelopment in Hollywood vented their frustration with the Community Redevelopment Agency last week by turning a public hearing on the 2 1/2-year-old renewal effort into an angry protest against the agency.

More than 300 people, some of whom are locked in a lawsuit against the CRA over the Hollywood Redevelopment Project, showed up at Hollywood High School on Wednesday night for a meeting of the CRA Board of Commissioners. It was the board’s first meeting in Hollywood since the Los Angeles City Council approved the project in May, 1986.

About 45 people spoke during a 3-hour hearing, held to review progress on the 1,100-acre project. Most of them complained about the agency’s management of the project. They accused the commissioners and agency staff of lying about specific developments, catering to real-estate interests, slighting preservation needs and forcing redevelopment on unwilling Hollywood residents.

Several of the evening’s harshest critics received rousing applause. And, as has become a custom at meetings on Hollywood redevelopment, several speakers also concentrated on agitating the audience, calling the commissioners everything from drug dealers to fascists.

No CRA Response

Commission members and CRA staff members did not respond to the accusations, but several speakers who support the agency’s efforts in Hollywood did. “Let’s not insult each other,” one man said.

Several speakers praised the agency for addressing social needs of the community and for including housing for the elderly in the plan.

Some speakers, however, were shouted down by opponents of the CRA. One Hollywood businessman was greeted with cries of “Sit down!” when he said Hollywood is better off because of CRA involvement.

“You have to understand that the people are frustrated and they don’t know what else to do,” Norton Halper, a member of the Hollywood Project Area Committee, a citizens panel that advises the CRA, said after the hearing.

Outside Critics

A small group of picketers, chanting “CRA go away!” and carrying placards bearing similar slogans, marched outside the high school auditorium before the hearing began. The meeting attracted critics of the CRA from outside Hollywood as well as local residents.

CRA Board Chairman James M. Wood, who listened quietly with his fellow commissioners to most of the testimony, was jeered and heckled when he threatened twice to adjourn the hearing because speakers refused to adhere to a 3-minute time limit. Wood also came under attack when he announced at 9:25 p.m. that the meeting would end at 10:15 p.m. regardless of how many people still had not spoken.

Brian Moore, chairman of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns. and a former member of the Project Area Committee, was one of many speakers who criticized the CRA. Moore, however, also pointed an accusing finger at members of the audience, saying they would have a better redevelopment project if they had shown interest five years ago when the project was conceived.

The Hollywood project is bordered by La Brea Avenue on the west, Serrano Avenue on the east, Franklin Avenue on the north and Santa Monica Boulevard and Fountain Avenue on the south. The plan calls for investing $922 million in public funds in the area over the next 30 years. The Board of Commissioners is required by law to hold a meeting in the project area every two yeas.