Yucca Corridor, Los Angeles, California

The Yucca Corridor is a small, diverse, and densely populated neighborhood of Hollywood centered along most of the length of Yucca Street. The neighborhood lies north of Hollywood Boulevard and south of Franklin Avenue between Highland Avenue and Vine Street. It is about half a mile long and a quarter mile tall.

The Yucca Corridor lies along the north side of the busiest part of Hollywood Boulevard. In addition to a heavy concentration of tourism-oriented shops and eateries there are many bars and nightclubs in the area. Transit access is excellent as this part of Hollywood Boulevard serves as a major focus of the MTA bus system and is bracketed by two Red Line subway stations (at Vine and Highland). The building stock consists of a healthy, wide mix of age and condition, with mostly two-level retail buildings along Hollywood Boulevard and two- to six-level apartment buildings on the interior. There are also a few apartment towers, including the historic Fontenoy and Montecito buildings. Major Landmarks in the Yucca Corridor include the First National Bank of Hollywood building, the Pacific Theater, the Hollywood Greyhound station, and a portion of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Major landmarks immediately adjacent to the corridor include the Capitol Records Building, Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater, and the Frederick's of Hollywood building.

History

The Yucca Corridor got its name at the first general meeting of the Ivar Hill Community Assn. in April, 1991, where President Joe Shea proposed the name to help city officials become accustomed to thinking of it as one issue. Until then, individual streets that crossed Yucca St. were the focus of crime eradication efforts. The use of a single term caught on as separate Neighborhood Watch groups - the Ivar Hawks, Cherokee Condors, Las Palmas Lions, Wilcox Werewolves, Whitley Rangers and Hudson Howlers - began working in unison as the United Streets of Hollywood. That umbrella group brought surveillance cameras to the worst corner - Wilcox at Yucca - and through group efforts got foot patrols and other attention from police that began to slowly turn around the troubled, dangerous community. Shea said many times that more than 23 people had been shot on Yucca just between Cahuenga Blvd. and Ivar Ave, a 200-yard stretch of the Yucca Corridor that often figured in news reports and documentaries about Hollywood's crime problem during the 1990s. In the end, however, closing a dangerous bar called La Iguerita near Ivar and Yucca and the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, which emptied several of the most dangerous buildings along Yucca Street on Cahuenga and Cherokee Ave. gave City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg a foothold from which to begin a redevelopment cycle from which the community emerged far safer and tourist-friendly. In another community-building effort, Shea's group organized a Christmas party for hundreds of kids along the Yucca Corridor that provided wrapped gifts and hot food for some 7,000 people between 1991 and 2003. The Las Palmas Lions also organized block parties. By 2003, when an anchor property at Yucca St. and Vine was sold by the DePietro Family to a New York performing arts school, gentrification had begun in earnest. Residents like John Jay, who founded United Streets of Hollywood, and Joe Shea were forced out by property sales and higher rents. Ironically, many of those who fought to save this historic part of Hollywood could no longer afford to live there.

Demographics

As of the 2000 Census [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=14000US06037190200&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF4_U_DP1&-ds_name=D&-_lang=en] the Yucca Corridor has 6,177 people living in 3,578 households. Of these households, 75% are non-family, 99% rent their dwellings, and about 40% have no vehicles [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=14000US06037190200&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTH11&-ds_name=D&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false] . The neighborhood is one of the most diverse in Southern California [http://www.csun.edu/~hfgeg005/eturner/gallery/ChangingFaces.html] , with a population that is 44% white, 35% latino, 10% black, and 7% asian [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=14000US06037190200&-qr_name=DEC_2000_PL_U_QTPL&-ds_name=D&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false] . It has a population density of roughly 37,000 persons per square mile, the densest block having over 80,000 per square mile [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/AGSGeoAddressServlet?_MapEvent=showResult&_category=&_subcategory=&_stateSelectedFromDropDown=null&context=ags&programYear=50:420&street=1737+n+las+palmas+ave&city=&states=null&zip=90028&_geo_id=14000US06037190200:Y:50:14000US06037190200&geo_id=14000US06037190200&_programYear=50&_treeId=420&_lang=en&tree_id=420&bucket_id=50] .