At Home in Hollywood

In her Oct. 25 Club Buzz column, Heidi Siegmund Cuda talks about the neighbors around the 7969 club (formerly Peanuts) trying to shut the club down because of noise issues. She ends her column by saying, “And finally, to the small group of residents who constantly complain about bars, crowds and music in Hollywood: Move to Chatsworth.”

What Cuda overlooks is the fact that thousands of our residents have lived in the area for 20 and 30 years--long before the “hot” or “cool” clubs arrived on the scene--and have worked very hard to buy or rent homes and apartments here and have established their base of operations here, i.e., their churches, doctors, friends, merchants, sports activities, etc. And she suggests that we give this up so that people can come into our neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday nights to get drunk, do drugs, litter our streets and lawns with their beer cans and liquor bottles, blast us out of our beds at 2, 3 and 4 a.m. with their boomboxes and urinate on our lawns, driveways and even front doors. And why? So that they can go back to their quiet suburbs (maybe even Chatsworth) and leave our residents to clean up the mess they’ve left behind until they come back the following weekend.

The people who are arrested each weekend for drunkenness, burglary, traffic violations and vandalism don’t live in West Hollywood or Hollywood; they live outside this area. We’re not moving anywhere, Ms. Cuda: We’re staying right here and fighting to protect our neighborhood. Thank goodness writing a column doesn’t require a brain--or a heart--or you’d be out of a job.

KATHERINE THULIN

West Hollywood