Hollywood Battles Over Liquor Permits

Hollywood may be preparing a toast to its revival as a star-studded tourist draw--but not everybody wants to drink to the occasion.

After years of battling neighborhood crime and alcohol-related high jinks, some residents say they’ve simply lost their taste for booze. They are appealing to state and local officials to swear off the granting of new alcohol permits to liquor stores and nightclubs all over Hollywood.

“We’re running the risk of turning into the New Orleans French Quarter, where drinking goes on all day and crime goes sky-high,” said Joe Shea, a member of United Streets of Hollywood and the Ivar Hill Community Assn. Shea and others say that although crime has dropped significantly throughout Hollywood in the last several years, they fear that the ready availability of alcohol might fuel a comeback.

These people have taken a particularly dim view of a spate of liquor permit applications filed since January but not yet acted on by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Hollywood business leaders and officials concede that liquor stores have been trouble spots. But they say that a broad alcohol ban could throw a wet blanket over Hollywood’s improving economy. Clubs and restaurants that serve alcohol are crucial to the area’s redevelopment, they say.

“What we would be concerned about would be a proliferation of scuzzy little clubs on corners that bring in addicts and abusers,” said Merle Singer of the Yucca Corridor Coalition of Property Owners and Managers. “But if we have high-class developments where I can have a glass of wine with my husband, that’s all right.”

Most recently, Shea and others have asked the state liquor agency to reverse its granting of a license to a proposed Sav-on drugstore.

The chain plans by January to build a 16,800-square-foot outlet on a vacant lot at Yucca Street and North Cahuenga Boulevard, in an area of Shea’s neighborhood with mid-rise apartment buildings, nightclubs and storefront offices.

Slated for construction just a block north of Hollywood Boulevard, the Sav-on would occupy a corner of the formerly notorious Yucca Corridor.

Until several years ago, the neighborhood was a gathering spot for drug dealers, prostitutes and gang members. It improved only after residents and police cracked down, blocking access roads and mounting video cameras on buildings. The cameras are gone now, a symbol of the area’s improvement.

‘Saturation’ Point

“It used to be crazy,” said Sgt. Bill Duke of the LAPD’s Hollywood Division. “On a Friday or Saturday night we’d be jumping from one call to the next. Now it’s cut in half--if that even.”

Hollywood residents such as Shea and fellow activist Joe Ehretz say they’re grateful for the change but that the neighborhood still suffers 20% more reported crime than the city average. And, according to an initial review by state liquor officials, the neighborhood is at its “saturation” point for liquor outlets and still has problems with vagrancy, gang activity and public consumption of alcohol.

“Crime is down, but we still have to live with things that ordinary people wouldn’t live with,” Ehretz said. Problems include shouting and fights at nightclubs and couples romancing in parked cars.

Nevertheless, state alcohol officials approved the Sav-on permit in May, saying the store would meet a community need by selling many nonalcoholic items that were not available elsewhere in the area.

Sav-on officials say they will work hard to be a good neighbor. In addition to prohibiting the sale of single cans or bottles of beer, the store will employ security guards to patrol the parking lot daily from 6 p.m. to closing, they say.

“We think we’re a very responsible retailer of alcohol, and we treat the sale of alcohol very seriously,” said the chain’s spokeswoman, Judy Decker.

Even City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who represents the area and has blocked proposed liquor stores, decided not to fight the Sav-on project.

“Our policy has always been that Hollywood has enough [liquor] stores to last a lifetime,” she said. But she was compelled to support the Sav-on, or at least not to fight it, when some Hollywood residents spoke in favor of the project, she said. Among other things, residents said they were eager to have Sav-on because the business promised to hire employees from Hollywood and pay them a living wage.

“Sav-on was smart,” Goldberg said. “They got the community behind them.”

Shea protests that officials are missing the big picture. He said that stretch of Cahuenga already includes two check-cashing businesses, two clubs and a methadone clinic, and plans are in the works to locate a Greyhound Bus Lines station there as well--far from an ideal neighborhood in his view.

“It’s a planning disaster, and it’s a recipe for very big trouble,” Shea said.

Fewer Liquor Licenses

In contrast, officials at the state liquor agency report that the number of active liquor licenses in Hollywood dropped from 237 in 1995 to 197 in 1998. They say that, besides the Sav-on permit, they have issued just 11 licenses in Hollywood since Jan. 1.

Manuel Espinoza, the agency’s chief deputy director, said there is no cause for a districtwide ban because each application is carefully checked, and such factors as crime rates and the number of existing alcohol licenses in the area are considered.

“Each application is reviewed on its own merits,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re not making things worse.”

In addition to protesting liquor stores, Shea’s group has asked the liquor agency and city officials to pay close attention to nightclub applications. Clubs in the Yucca-Ivar area have occasionally been the sites of large fights, Shea said.

Development boosters in Hollywood say restaurants and nightclubs that serve alcohol are critical draws for a redevelopment area. Leron Gubler, president and chief executive officer of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said the fears about an explosion of liquor outlets are unwarranted.

Although a few developers have filed applications for liquor permits, not all of them will be approved or even used, Gubler said.

“Usually what happens in these cases is the plans get scaled back a bit,” Gubler said. “What you don’t see is a proliferation of alcohol outlets.”

Developers of the Hollywood and Highland project--the proposed site of future Academy Awards presentations--have requested permits for three bars that would operate only during the Oscar ceremony.

“I don’t think that’s going to denigrate the neighborhood,” Gubler said.

Espinoza said his agency will listen to both sides in coming months as it reviews a recent spate of requests for liquor permits.