Doing the Little Things That Matter : Making Los Angeles more livable demands the creativity and involvement of citizens. Today, Next L.A. looks at two programs that started small and do make a difference. : NEXT L.A. / A look at issues, people and ideas helping to shape the emerging metropolis

When Sharyn Romano visited Hollywood High School a few years ago, the blighted appearance of her alma mater brought tears to her eyes.

Graffiti marred the corridors and bathrooms in the school much as it did many other parts of Hollywood. “It made me sick,” she said.

That was in March, 1992, soon after Romano started the Hollywood Beautification Team, a volunteer group dedicated to removing graffiti and cleaning up and improving Hollywood.

Since then, the grass-roots campaign has grown into a nonprofit organization that is helping change Hollywood’s image. The group manages more than $1 million in grants and contracts, hundreds of volunteers and paid workers, seven paint trucks and thousands of gallons of paint.

With Romano at the helm and a paid staff of nine others, the Hollywood Beautification Team runs several programs working with 27 schools and neighborhoods.

“It’s still bad,” Romano said of Hollywood’s seedier streets. “But it’s a huge improvement.”

At Hollywood High, Principal Jeanne Hon points to the trees and plants that surround the campus. Before the team’s cleanup, students saw dirt, garbage and makeshift homeless shelters on the school’s perimeter.

Inside, walls once smeared with graffiti now show off murals of Hollywood history and paintings of celebrities.

The Hollywood Beautification Team’s efforts have even helped expand the curriculum. Volunteers from Viacom transformed an old storage shed into a nursery, where students can grow plants for the campus as well as other places in Hollywood.

“We couldn’t have a landscaping class without plants,” Hon said.

Nearby at Le Conte Middle School, homeless youths working for the team through the Los Angeles Free Clinic have planted bamboo along a schoolyard wall to hinder tagging.

Principal Gloria Mercado said she could barely make out the entrance when she arrived at the school three years ago. “It had fallen into decay,” she said, describing a mess of weeds and dirt.

“If I could just get them through the front doors,” Mercado recalled thinking, “I know we can provide them with a good education.”

The team transformed the school’s front yard into a garden with a new lawn, flowers and working sprinklers. Those improvements helped turn around a decline in Le Conte’s enrollment. Students don’t tag their freshly painted school anymore, Mercado said.

Eighth-grader Candice Ogarro remembers when graffiti overwhelmed the stairwell, cafeteria and bathroom walls and trash littered the field. Now, she said, “it’s brighter, it’s more cheery.”

Mercado said she has noticed residents taking the cue and painting their homes. “That’s great,” Mercado said, “because it’s spilling over into the community. They, too, want to be a part of this beautification.”

The Hollywood Beautification Team doesn’t stop at covering the graffiti with paint, after documenting the vandalism in photos. The group tries to prevent it by claiming wall space with trees, shrubs, vines and murals.

In addition to beautifying Hollywood’s surface, the organization attempts to get at some of the roots of urban problems.

One way to teach future generations how to care for their environment is to make schools a welcoming place, Romano said.

The organization also provides work for the homeless and those assigned to community service sentences through the court system.

Because the Hollywood Beautification Team needs workers and the Los Angeles Free Clinic needs jobs for the many homeless people it serves, the two programs help each other.

The clinic’s program offers homeless youngsters job training and a chance to work for a paycheck.

“The same kids being problems are part of taking care of the community,” said Mary Rainwater, executive director of the clinic. “A secondary gain is a sense of pride in their own community.”

One worker who gave his name as Barnabas agreed, saying the program is helping him stay off the streets.

Homeless adults from Chrysalis, an agency that helps the homeless find jobs, clean Hollywood Boulevard between Gower and La Brea every night, taking care of landscaping, lighting and sidewalks.

The Hollywood Beautification Team stepped up its work in the aftermath of the 1992 riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The immediacy of the team’s response--boarding up store windows and helping displaced residents--excited the staff and volunteers.

“We could take care of ourselves,” Romano said. “Everybody was so energized.”

Seizing the moment, the organization began to seek additional grants and pursue new projects. The group has become much larger than she ever expected.

“In a permanent way, we’ve changed the appearance of Hollywood,” she said. “We’ve planted hundreds of trees, we’ve touched people’s lives.”

Cleanup crew proves that beauty is more than skin deep in Hollywood. The team is not only wiping away surface blight but also getting at the root of urban problems.