URBAN ART

Three years ago, when they moved to Hollywood from Sherman Oaks, Pamela Payne and Mark Werndorf didn’t think they’d be able to hack it. “At first, my wife and I wanted to leave because it was oppressive and lacked a sense of neighborhood,” says Werndorf, 31. “But it seemed a nice enough place. If people cared, it seemed it would work.”

So they decided to try to create their own community, spending $50,000 to turn the former Radion Burger on Franklin Avenue into a refuge for the politically correct. The Daily Planet, their 2-year-old bookstore, complete with alternative political, social and environmental

publications and a signature series of politically charged window displays, has since become a Hollywood cornerstone. Local artists and activists design the window displays, which premiered with weekly satirical spins on the Persian Gulf War. “It got everyone arguing,” says Werndorf, who also works as a water and power lineman. “That’s the design requirement--it’s got to evoke a passionate response.”

Since then, the window has showcased a range of political symbols. A Zen Buddhist created a huge mandala that “focused on the values of people living in Hollywood,” says Payne; the blood-red mandala--a circular, geometric design symbolizing the universe--hung in front of photocopied sheets of $20, $50 and $100 bills. ACT UP activists erected a wall-sized photograph of the AIDS virus. “Oddly,” says Payne, “it was really beautiful--like a mass of coral.”

Customers, many in black coffeehouse attire, often stop by to search for a cause or to champion their causes. But triggering the ire of Hollywood residents is not easy. “There’s a lot of out-of-work entertainment people and renters in this neighborhood,” explains Payne. “A huge ceiling of temporariness hangs over everything. No one bothers because they’ll all be moving on. But unless we take care of the places we have,” she says, “there’s not going to be any place left to go to that’s better.”