Riots, gang violence, break-ins, shoot-outs, undercover police sting, car theft, you name it, we experienced it in what we now affectionately call that time of our lives- Hollywood-hell. This was back in the 80’s before Hollywood was “Disneyfied”. My husband worked at Paramount Pictures blocks from where we lived and I was a cartoon ink and paint artist in the Valley. So, we decided to live in Hollywood instead of commuting, as shuttling to Hollywood from the greater Los Angeles area could take up most of your life. We thought we were being efficient. Unfortunately, we just didn’t know any better.
In Hollywood the crime was terrifying, the homeless, runaway and prostitute situation depressing, and these social problems were exacerbated by the lack of community cohesiveness. For the individual, the community is integral to sustain an enhanced quality of life. It is where we come together as individuals, as diverse as we are, with shared values and goals. I grew up in a large city with an enormous heart and a strong sense of belonging, harmony and fellowship. I never realized how important community was until I left and was without a support system. There were benefits of living in Hollywood such as our careers and experiencing the diverse cultures were an invaluable the growing experience we savored. So why were we feeling so disconnected? In community psychology, there is a recognition that the difficulties that arise from where one lives need to be addressed at the community level. This is where positive change can be effected (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).
There are particular values and approaches defined by community psychologists that address the central points of community living. The first approach state there needs to be a sense of community, referring to fostering a feeling of belonging (Schneider et al., 2012). Rarely did I witness community interdependence as in order to survive people had to be independent. The competition for jobs and a place to live turned Hollywood into a competitive, ruthless and cutthroat community. It reminded me of playing that early computer game Oregon Trail where the object of the game is to not die of starvation, cold or disease. There was definitely a pioneer feeling in Hollywood, as to survive and thrive was the goal but most failed and ended up going back where they came from.
Another recognized value a community needs to nurture is the ecological perspective (Schneider et al., 2012). Ecological refers to the societal configurations people belong to such as families, work or politics. Of all the structures in Hollywood, the family suffers the greatest. Most people I met were from somewhere else, leaving loved ones behind in pursuit of their dreams. This left them afloat in a world that did not care for them as individuals and evoked an enormous sense of isolation. My best friend was from Poland and I often saw tears in her eyes as she spoke of her grandmother knowing she would never see her again. Los Angeles is cruel to immigrants, my friend was a concert violinist who played concert halls all across Europe but in Los Angeles she worked a minimum wage job. Her husband was a famous director of photography in Poland but now worked the night shift as a janitor. They were isolated with no support; no family to help or rely on and this exacted an enormous toll on their lives. Worse was they had come from a place where the sense of community was warm and protective, but the economic situation was dire so they gave up one for the other but in the end failed at both.
Another community value is wellness and prevention which refers to physical, as well as mental health (Schneider et al., 2012). Lack of mental health care in Hollywood was ubiquitous and would take a book to write about not a blog. The homeless condition is one of the saddest situations I have ever encountered in my life. The lack of care for the mentally ill and young runaways was never more apparent than in Hollywood. Every time I needed money out of my neighborhood ATM there was a man standing by the machine one foot from me screaming obscenities. The whole time. Every time. While he shouted, I wondered what could have happened in this man’s life so he ended up near the corner of Hollywood and Vine yelling at people, day in, day out, year after year. The wretchedness of the situation sometimes is so pervasive it threatens to swallow you whole leaving nothing behind.
The need to respect diversity is another value or approach that psychologist have addressed as important in fostering community (Schneider et al., 2012). I absolutely loved this aspect of living in Los Angeles because I could shift between cultures and learn about them all. Being an American, I felt this was easier for me than the immigrants because I grew up with diverse cultures and ethnicities. Though, in Los Angeles all the various ethnic or sexual orientation groups stayed separate and isolated. There was no unity and the different groups had trouble mixing because they did not understand each other.
Social justice was probably the hardest of all to deal with as the division of the wealthy and the poor was stark. How do you foster a sense of community that is so economically diverse? On one street, sit million dollar homes and the next street over there are 100’s of homeless gathered desperately trying to stay warm on the cold California nights. This was another factor in living there in which I never found peace (Schneider et al., 2012).
Community psychologists rely on input from the community leaders on planning programs and interventions (Schneider et al., 2012). Where I live now, it is very apparent who the community leaders are from our mayor to our local food bank coordinator. When I lived in Hollywood, I was never aware of any leader of any sort; I am sure they existed but were outside the peripheral of most people’s awareness.
Citizen participation and empowerment were values that were invisible in Hollywood (Schneider et al., 2012). The only type of citizen empowerment I was aware of were unions that the people in the motion picture industry joined. Though, these unions served the industry favorably but the people poorly.
The last two values of social action/activism and empirical grounding are two areas that a community psychologist uses as tools to evaluate, guide and change social circumstances. Their activities are informed by the research which in turns informs policy (Schneider et al., 2012). Hollywood was a microcosm of the world and I do not blame the leaders in the community for its lack of cohesiveness. The people needed to find a unifying factor to bring them together. It is in need of a specialized intervention on such a complex scale that to me is unfathomable.
In my Hollywood, there were no happy endings. Though, I remember one event that brought us together as a community. Early one morning we were awakened by the deafening roar of a freight train rumbling through our bedroom. We were thrown out of bed not awake enough to understand what was happening. We tried to maintain our balance running down the stairs which were undulating up and down like a fun park ride as we heard windows shattering, the building groaning and people screaming. We made it outside just as our massive concrete porch split and separated from the building it had been attached to for over a century. It was hard to know where to go for safety. We had heard door posts were safe but ours was collapsing around us while out in the street was sheer panic, car alarms, the trees bouncing, the ground swelling and dipping and babies crying. Then as quickly as it started it all stopped. The deafening roar that had awakened us was now silenced and people began to look around noticing everyone’s various state of undress. Those of us that had an extra shirt or piece of clothing were handing them out to those that had nothing on. Then it began all over again with the Earth rumbling and groaning and the deafening roar. Throughout the next few weeks, the earthquakes, now mere aftershocks and tremors would start and stop as the Earth eased back into a comfortable position. This was the only time I ever witnessed Hollywood coming together as a community. Food and clothing donation tents popped up out of nowhere. As ridiculous and out of touch as only Hollywood can be I saw one homeless guy wearing a mink. People became a bit friendlier, talking instead of ignoring each other as we came together for a short time and behaved like a real community. Though as most things in Hollywood it was simply an illusion and disappeared. It did show me that there could be change, the people simply needed a reason to unite and to feel they are a part of something larger than themselves. This is what a community is an extension of your family that you can turn to any time not just in a crisis.
Resources:
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.
Wow, do I remember the Northridge earthquake! I was living in the middle of Hollywood on Sycamore, just one block down from the Mann’s Chinese theater (that’s what it was called then). I remember being the first person standing in the middle of my street, barefoot in my pajama boxers and a baby doll t-shirt. As I stood alone in the dark silence, I thought, “Oh my God! Do they know to come out of the buildings?!!!” I was thinking about my neighbors, many of who were my friends, which consisted mostly of aspiring musicians from around the world and out of state. I was one of the few native Californians in this community, but we all had one thing in common, we were students of the music school, Musician’s Institute (MI), with aspirations of becoming professional singers and musicians.
Yes, Hollywood is a tough place where people come and hope to survive and if they are lucky enough thrive as a singer, musician, actor, model, screenwriter, etc… It is difficult to define it as a community because people are constantly coming and going, very few staying for the long hall as a resident of Hollywood. I actually think that is why it lacks much of the qualities found in other communities. It is not the city you plan to settle down in, it is a stepping stone to where you are going. However, it is a community made up of subcultures, with a membership turnover like that of students in a high school or college. But it is in these subcultures that one can find a positive sense of community.
Lafreniere, Page and Senn (2012) state “different environments and situations can influence whether either a positive or negative ‘sense of community’ is experienced by its members”. I believe the different experiences you and I had in Hollywood are a perfect example of this. You say you rarely witnessed community interdependence, but I witnessed plenty of it.
It is difficult to find amidst the plethora of tourists on Hollywood Blvd, but if one looks closely he would find MI students walking to school together, playing gigs together, writing songs together, hanging out together, eating and breathing music together. When I was part of this community we shared a passion for music. Of course there were the few that did not get along or were more competitive than they needed to be, but in general we respected each other and each other’s talents.
When I graduated from MI, I became part of the Los Angeles working musician community. We were a tight nit community that played all the clubs around town, supported each other’s events and often hung out at the popular Canter’s Deli afterward. We shared gigs by opening for one another, filled in when a musician or back-up singer was sick, took care of each other during the hard times and celebrated the good times. In that community, I experienced the four elements of a positive sense of community: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs and shared emotional connection (Lafreniere, Page and Senn, 2012). We knew several of the homeless people you mentioned by name, sometimes ate lunch with them and often gave them some of our spare change. We had friends who struggled with addictions and took turns taking them to rehab or letting them stay in our apartments. We did what we could to help where and when we could, because we knew our stay was temporary and the goal was to survive the hardships of Hollywood and see each other on the other side. As the years past, many of my friends from that community went on to have lucrative careers in the music industry all around the world, some went home and started a new path, a few stayed and still perform in Los Angeles today, and all the while new members have continued to flow in and out of this community of Hollywood musicians.