Beautification or Blight? : Merchants Say Benches Only Aggravate Problems on Hollywood Boulevard

After 33 years on Hollywood Boulevard, Jack Amber has called it quits. Months of slipping sales and customer complaints about rowdy, panhandling youths in front of his family business have forced him to close up shop and move south to a new location on Robertson Boulevard.

“The street has come down to its lowest level since I’ve been here,” Amber said a few days before he moved out of his men’s clothing store last weekend. “This was the cleanest corner for 30 years. We never had any trouble.”

The last straw, Amber says, was the benches.

He used to be able to deal with the panhandlers and skinheads who wandered the boulevard, but about five months ago, the Community Redevelopment Agency--inviting yet another skirmish with the Hollywood business community--gave them a good reason to hang out in front of his store.

In what officials termed an effort to beautify the famous boulevard and attract more shoppers, the agency installed about 30 benches along a six-block corridor between Mann’s Chinese Theatre and the Pantages Theater.

Beautification programs are increasingly popular ways to spruce up urban business areas. At the beginning of the year, the CRA and local business unveiled a fifth face lift for beleaguered Pershing Square. On Thursday, Mayor Richard Riordan announced a $4-million program to improve blighted thoroughfares with trees, benches and other amenities.

But installing amenities in public places is often a delicate process: Poor site selection can attract unwanted occupants.

At Venice Beach two weeks ago, residents smashed public picnic tables with sledgehammers after protesting that they attracted unruly nighttime crowds. On Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, shoppers complain that homeless people use the benches as a home base for panhandling.

Three years ago in San Diego, benches were removed from a downtown plaza to alleviate rampant drug use and other criminal activity.

And there is precedent for the problems along Hollywood Boulevard. Four years ago, the Hollywood Economic Recovery Effort installed benches there. Complaints from business owners led to their rapid removal. They have since been donated to the Hollywood Bowl, a local senior citizens home and other businesses.

“Just beautifying is not enough,” said Pompea Smith, who oversaw the first bench program as the Hollywood Economic Recovery Effort’s project director. “I’m not opposed to benches, but you have to look at the environment. (The CRA is) fully aware of the problems we had. I guess they have been preoccupied with other problems.”

Feuding with the CRA has become a way of life for Hollywood businesses and other organizations. Lawsuits and bureaucratic disputes caused a five-year delay in the city Planning Commission’s approval of the 30-year, $922-million budget for the Hollywood Boulevard Urban Design Plan.

Other controversies centered on claims that the CRA intentionally was freezing out independent businesses as it dealt secretly with then-Councilman Michael Woo and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. In 1991, a CRA consultant entrusted with organizing the independents was forced to resign after critics said she was failing to make progress.

Of the bench locations along Hollywood Boulevard, Steve Davies of the Hollywood and New York-based Project for Public Spaces said: “I know that area, and that’s where those people have been hanging out for years. That’s a tough area. I would never put a bench there. If you give someone a bench, they can establish turf.”

Amber fought for the turf in front of his store from the day the benches were installed. He watched the street people sitting on the benches and kept a 3 1/2-foot dowel he called a “baseball bat” ready in case of trouble--and frequently there was.

Three weeks ago, a young man with a red Mohawk kicked in one of Amber’s front windows. It remains boarded up, a memorial placard in front of the now-vacant business.

Amber is not alone. Other business owners along the boulevard have similar complaints and are considering moving.

At Venezia Shoes across the street from the old J.C. Amber location, owner Dikran Tcheboukian said a woman he sees on the benches defecated in the doorway of his store during business hours after she was denied access to restrooms in a nearby restaurant.

But the CRA and community officials say they are unaware of significant problems.

“We’ve had a number of meetings on the boulevard about our security program and that issue (the benches) never came up,” said CRA project manager Len Betz.

“But our focus is to help the businesses. If there really is a problem, then we would certainly take a look at it.”

The CRA spent $300 to $500 for each bench, custom made with rails between the seats so that people can’t sleep on them, said Jerry Gross, the CRA’s director of engineering. Another $100,000 per site was spent for six “bump-outs” where sidewalks have been enlarged and trees planted for a park-like atmosphere along the street. Stores such as Amber’s are behind the bump-outs.

A representative of Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said only one letter of complaint has been received by the office, from Larry Edmund’s Bookshop. Although the complaint has been passed on to a security company, there appears to be no clear solution.

“I do know that removal of the benches would not be the immediate reaction,” said spokeswoman Veronica Gutierrez. “We’ll try to improve the security first and then go from there.”

Phil Luboviski of Larry Edmund’s bookstore acknowledged Thursday that security people had contacted him, but he was skeptical about change. “Right now I’m looking out the window, and there are still some guys out there. I can see all kinds of clothes hanging from the bench. They’re always spread out there, taking up all three benches. They’re eating and throwing food on the ground.”

Los Angeles Police Department officers familiar with patrolling the boulevard also express doubts about dealing effectively with people abusing the benches.

“That was the worst idea they ever had,” said Barry Moore, LAPD’s community patrol officer. “All it is is another place for the homeless kids, punk rockers and transients to hang out.”

And, as Sgt. Kim Ward noted: “We have a lot of complaints from merchants, but (the street people) aren’t breaking a law. We can’t tell them to move because they’re scuzzy looking.”

Pam Morado, who heads the private International Services Inc. security team hired by the CRA and Metropolitan Transportation Authority to patrol the boulevard, said her officers would concentrate on problem areas over the next week to alleviate the problem.

But the street youths who frequent the benches in front of the darkened J.C. Amber store say they are harassed by security officers, Guardian Angels and police.

“They go by people’s appearances, and they make derogatory comments about our looks,” said Jamie Plantz, 15. “We do panhandle, but we’re not robbing anybody.”

Although some street youths protest, others admit that their behavior is often unruly.”We are awfully rowdy here,” said one teen-ager to the groans of her compatriots.

Patrick Edery, owner of the Top Western apparel store, said he has come to blows with some aggressive youths. “I got into a fight with a kid on a bench who was screaming at people to give him money. These benches bring a lot of problems and bring my business down because the skinheads hang out and scare people away.”