THE BIZ

Stretched out along Alameda Avenue east of downtown, L.A.’s loft district has become a symbol of the eternal clash between art and fame. The classic artists’ enclave, its gritty, urban panoramas of warehouses and empty streets seamed with trolley tracks prove irresistible to Hollywood producers.

“It’s easy for them to close down a street,” says Norma Squires, a painter who works in the area, “because there aren’t so many people here. They can blow things up.”

But exploding cars are not conducive to a creative environment, and artists complain that production companies, which film in the area almost every week, are not the best neighbors. The high-wattage lights and noise keep residents awake, and the trailers take up a lot of room, so artists have to park blocks away from their studios. “They don’t really respect the fact that people are living down here,” Squires adds. “You can be sleeping in the morning, and outside your window there’s this crazy car chase taking place over and over again.”

So the artists are striking back, using the power of the paintbrush. “No filming” signs--featuring a side view of a camera on a tripod inside a red circle with a red slash across it--have begun to appear on the picturesque buildings. Artists hope the prospect of the signs appearing in a scene will encourage filmmakers to go elsewhere.

Of course, Hollywood is not so easily discouraged. On a recent afternoon, near the corner of Mateo and Jesse streets, amid the anti-film signs, another sign appeared: A handwritten note attached to a power pole directed crew members to the site of a Lorimar shoot.