W. Hollywood Residents March on Street Crime

Now that a hot dog stand that once served as a hangout for drug users has been closed and the city is clamping down on vagrants in Plummer Park, residents on West Hollywood’s east end have set their sights on a new target--driving prostitutes and hustlers off Santa Monica Boulevard.

The campaign to “reclaim the neighborhood” was launched Saturday night when about 60 people, including city officials and members of four community groups, held a candlelight march to draw attention to the problem of crime on Santa Monica Boulevard.

“We want people to understand and believe that they can do something about the drug dealers and hustlers infesting our community,” said Tad Bright, a spokesman for Eastend Community Action, one of the groups that organized the march. Other groups included the West Hollywood Community Alliance and the Gardner and Vista Neighborhood Watch groups.

Bright, using a bullhorn to communicate with the group, led the sign-carrying marchers along the boulevard from La Brea to Fairfax avenues, passing a collection of adult bookstores, nightclubs and X-rated movie theaters.

“The cruising along the boulevard has to stop,” said Robin Lawrence, the mother of a 3-year-old boy. “Many of our friends have moved out of the neighborhood, but we want to stay and try to make things better.”

In response to earlier neighborhood complaints, the City Council in January revoked the license of Oki Dog, a fast-food eatery on Santa Monica Boulevard that city officials and neighbors said had been a gathering place for drug users, prostitutes and undesirables.

A nightly feeding program for the homeless was forced to move from Plummer Park, and an anti-camping ordinance, which makes it a misdemeanor to sleep or spend long periods of time in the park, was enacted. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department also has increased its policing of the area, assigning some deputies to patrol the parks and boulevard by foot.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, there has been a decrease in crime in the east end since the closing of Oki Dog and the passage of the anti-camping ordinance.

But on Santa Monica Boulevard, male prostitution, a problem for years, has continued.

“We are damn tired of it; the party is over,” said Ed Riney, an east-side activist. “We’ve been putting up with it for five years. Half the stores are gone, and you wouldn’t bring a decent friend to walk on the street because it’s too much.”

Richard Settles, who owns a photography business and is a member of the city’s Public Facilities Board, said the presence of prostitutes on the boulevard often makes it difficult for him to do business.

“I’m sick and tired of having to make excuses for prostitutes hanging outside my door,” he said. “I don’t care what people do in the privacy of their bedroom, but when it’s on the street and it affects my livelihood then that’s another thing.”

The problem, according to Deputy Mike LaPerruque, is not confined to the boulevard.

“It spills into the neighborhood,” he said. “People complain all the time that the prostitutes are taking their customers to the back yards, garages or sometimes in cars in front of their homes.”

Residents also complain that they have found needles, syringes and other drug paraphernalia discarded on their lawns.

City officials, who took part in Saturday’s march on Santa Monica Boulevard, praised the effort to fight crime on the east side.

“This is an example of the city and the community working together,” Mayor Abbe Land said.

But Riney and others said it was an example of the city acting after political pressure was applied.