Cityhood Is the Talk of Hollywood

These days, there’s a new buzz on the streets of Hollywood, and it has nothing to do with who might walk away with an Oscar come March 24.

It’s about the possibility of a November ballot measure by which, if successful, Hollywood could secede from Los Angeles and become its own city once again.

“The L.A. City Council is not concerned about Hollywood,” construction worker Glenn Davis said as he puffed on a cigarette at Wilcox and Selma avenues the other day. “We’ve been under the L.A. City Council’s thumb for far too long. I’ve known about this [secession] for a couple of years. I thought it was just pie in the sky, but now that it’s economically feasible, let’s go.

“Like our president likes to say, ‘Let’s roll.’”

Like the 40-year-old Davis, a lot of Hollywood residents and workers were full of opinions in the wake of a government report last week that concluded that Hollywood would be financially viable as a city separate from Los Angeles, which it has been part of since 1910. A final decision is expected shortly on whether the measure on Hollywood will appear on the November ballot.

“It makes sense,” Adam Rose said while visiting the Hollywood regional library. “It’s a big enough town that it doesn’t need to rely on L.A.”

Graphic designer Ricardo Marenco, who works in Hollywood, added, “They really should be separate from Los Angeles. That’ll clean up the neighborhood, that’s for sure.”

Others were just as vocal about keeping Los Angeles whole.

Julio Hernandez, the manager of a clothing store on Vermont Avenue, said if Hollywood becomes a city, it might set off a chain reaction of other communities attempting the same thing.

“We have always been Los Angeles,” said Hernandez, 35. “We should always be Los Angeles. There is no need to change that.”

Mher Tavidian, owner of the Dziner Sign Co. on Sunset Boulevard, said he would “definitely be against” secession if it came to a vote. The Glendale resident’s business has been in Hollywood since 1988.

“I think it’s better if we stay a part of a greater entity that is L.A.,” Tavidian said. “Economically, in every way I can think of, it benefits from being a part of the city.”

Some residents didn’t feel Hollywood could survive as an independent city.

“If they [Los Angeles] take their own power and water, they can go on,” said James Hall, 49. But would Hollywood survive?

Hall also worried that the powerful movie industry might end up having too much say in the new Hollywood.

“The big interest groups, the movie industry, they would be roaming all over this place, romping and stomping like they own it,” Hall said.

Still others didn’t know anything about the secession.

One resident of the Fairfax district--a portion of which lies in the proposed new Hollywood--said he has heard little about it. But he wanted to know more.

“It’s easy to be misled,” said 33-year-old Gregory Beylerian, an artist. “There are issues about running a city. It’s not easy. You have to know what the benefits would be to be your own city versus not.”

The recent findings about Hollywood in the study by the Local Agency Formation Commission remind some that Hollywood was once a separate city.

Founded in 1883 by Kansas transplants Horace H. Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, the area was to be a haven for temperance advocates. They wanted no saloons. They offered free lots to anyone who would build churches there.

When it was incorporated in 1903, one year after Horace Wilcox died, Hollywood had a population of about 700.

The city of small wooden bungalows, open fields and citrus groves was consolidated with Los Angeles in 1910 to ensure a larger supply of water. At that time, Hollywood’s population had swelled to about 4,000.

The 1920s heralded a new era for Hollywood as film studios began to line Sunset Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, while Hollywood Boulevard became its major thoroughfare. New housing tracts, hotels, restaurants and studio facilities opened.

By the end of that decade, Hollywood’s population stood at 50,000.

Over the years, some chafed that Hollywood--the world’s film capital--was lost in the shuffle of a sprawling megalopolis that L.A. had become.

They said that downtown officials were slow or unable to respond in a timely manner when Tinseltown’s fortunes soured in the late 1960s as runaways flocked to its increasingly seedy streets. Drugs and prostitution were chronic problems. And businesses started to close.

When Hollywood’s biggest booster, Johnny Grant, persuaded U.S. postal officials to officially change the “Los Angeles” postmark on letters to “Los Angeles/Hollywood” two years ago, it made sense to old-timers like Larry Benson.

“It’s about time,” Benson, a longtime studio soundman, said the other day. “We’re due a little respect for helping out Los Angeles the way we do. Maybe we’ll get more respect if we become our own city.”

However, some Hollywood boosters are, for now, steering clear of stating opinions on the area’s future.

They are the officials of groups such as the Hollywood Business Improvement District, a merchants and business group that voluntarily taxes its members to promote Hollywood Boulevard and provide other services.

Since the group was allowed to be formed by a Los Angeles city ordinance, Kerry Morrison, the district’s executive director, said the group would have to research whether it could remain in existence if Hollywood becomes its own city.

“Now that we’ve read that there’s a good chance it’ll appear on the November ballot, it behooves us as a business district to aggressively evaluate what it means for us,” Morrison said.

Leron Gubler, president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, took a similar line, but added that he expected the organization to take a position on the proposed secession.

Two years ago, a survey indicated that most chamber members either opposed or had no opinion about Hollywood cityhood, Gubler said, noting, “A lot of people didn’t take it as a credible effort.”

Now, however, the chamber will study the pros and cons. To succeed, a secession measure would have to be approved by a majority of Hollywood voters and a majority of voters citywide.

One secession supporter says the cityhood campaign will be difficult if the measure, as expected, is put on the November ballot along with similar proposals for the San Fernando Valley and the harbor area.

“The question is time,” said Joe Shea, president of the Ivar Hill Community Assn. “It’s March right now. You can’t mount a major campaign like that in six months. It’s no small thing to persuade the voters in Hollywood and the voters in Los Angeles that Hollywood ought to go its own way. I think we need more time to examine the issues.”

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Times staff writers Manuel Gamiz Jr., Liz F. Kay and Sandra Murillo contributed to this report.