Hollywood Can’t Do It All

Although the front-page headline (“Hollywood Drops Ball in Post-Riot L.A.,” May 4) suggests a lack of significant involvement by the entertainment industry, the article undercuts this criticism by citing many laudable projects, big and small, driven by one person’s energy or reflecting board-level decision-making. It’s not fair to say that Hollywood’s response to the riots has been a mile wide but only an inch deep.

One major effort that was not mentioned was a partnership between Comic Relief and the Liberty Hill Foundation. Comic Relief donated $185,000 to help Liberty Hill form “Fund for a New L.A.” (reported in the Metro section on Nov. 3). While Liberty Hill has been around for 16 years making “seed” grants to community organizing projects and is funded to a great extent by individual donations from the entertainment community, the Comic Relief money was carefully earmarked for projects in riot-affected areas.

But why would the elite and decision makers of one industry be held any more accountable or to a different standard than the leadership in banking, real estate or a dozen other important L.A. industries? The truth is that we’re all accountable, and to focus on one industry because it has a higher profile in the media is just begging the question.

The problems of the inner city are systemic, increase with each generation, and have been exacerbated by the shortsightedness of Prop. 13 and the lack of an effective urban policy. These chronic conditions cannot be adequately addressed by special pleading to the private sector alone, however widespread one might hope response from the private sector might be.

Whether writing a check or taking up a broom, industry activists and philanthropists alike have to work together with the federal government to ensure that money is redirected--for housing, job training and schools. Effective channeling of these funds into communities where powerlessness and despair are pandemic will inspire more people in the private sector. That’s why many of us bit the electoral bullet and put significant resources into the campaigns of Bill Clinton, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. That’s why many of us are weighing in on the race for mayor of Los Angeles.

I think a growing number of individuals and companies in the entertainment industry--through Liberty Hill and other groups--are ready to help; but they will respond with more cohesion and vigor when they see leadership from a new mayor, our new President and the Congress. Defeating the jobs bill was a disappointing start. Torpedoing the President’s urban policy will be another setback. (I note the May 5 L.A. Times relegated its reporting of Clinton’s Urban Policy to Page 26.)

The top-down leadership in Washington and City Hall has to meet the entertainment industry philanthropists and activists half way. For those of us in L.A., that might just be the corners of Florence and Normandie avenues.