Disgruntled Hollywood Merchants Form Organization

Hollywood merchants have formed their own business watch organization, in part to counter efforts by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to start a management program headed by a former deputy to City Councilman Michael Woo.

At its first meeting recently, the Hollywood Boulevard District Improvement Assn. voted unanimously to oppose the chamber’s efforts to organize merchants through a contract it awarded to former Woo aide Nina Greenberg.

The chamber awarded the $56,000 contract to Greenberg without competitive bidding and with little notice or publicity. Besides organizing area businesses, Greenberg’s job description includes organizing merchants to form an assessment district in which merchants would be charged for improved city services.

The idea of such an assessment district outraged many local merchants at the meeting, who said they already pay for services through an existing Hollywood Boulevard District.

The association issued a statement condemning the contract and the chamber-sponsored business watch group. It read, in part, that: “The gross neglect and deterioration of the (existing) Hollywood Boulevard District over so many years is so outrageously scandalous and economically threatening that immediate attention and cooperation is demanded from City Councilman (Woo’s) office, the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to address and act upon these issues.”

The grass-roots improvement association, which claims dozens of members, met again Thursday night to determine specific program objectives. The group said it wants to improve an area from La Brea Avenue to Gower Street, and from Yucca Street to Selma Avenue, encompassing the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Several of the organizers are members of the Project Area Committee, an elected citizens panel that Woo replaced as the advisory body to the city Community Redevelopment Agency’s $922-million Hollywood redevelopment project.

Meanwhile, the group appointed as the new CRA advisory body, the Hollywood Community Advisory Council, has changed the meeting times of its executive committee to increase community input. The meetings have been moved to the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Hollywood Senior Multi-Purpose Center, 6501 Fountain Ave.