Across the street from Hotel, a three-month-old boutique called Blest, which sells adventurous clothes by local designers, was open until midnight. It is the only store in the immediate vicinity that doesn't specialize in wigs, tattoos, stiletto-heeled stripper shoes or cheap souvenirs.
"We knew that it was going to be an up-and-coming area," said Christina Carey, Blest's co-owner, explaining why she and a partner opened in the heart of Hollywood. "Plus, we didn't want to be grouped in with all of the stores on Melrose. We wanted our own identity."
Not everyone, though, has embraced the new-and-improved Hollywood Boulevard. "I'm afraid that they're pulling a Giuliani here, trying to make it all safe and Disneylike," said Ari Palitz, an independent filmmaker who moved to Hollywood from New York a year ago. "I like it edgy and a little dangerous."
Palitz may favor a glamorously seedy atmosphere, but the Hollywood Boulevard business owners do not. According to a study by the Los Angeles Police Department, crime in the neighborhood has dropped 40 percent over the last few years. Much of the decline is attributed to the armed security that business owners in the Entertainment District have hired to patrol their sections of the boulevard.
"People are finally walking down the streets again; I feel like we have a real community here," said Kimberly Herrmann, a former MTV producer who plans to open a supper club and screening room called Cinespace on the boulevard in February. A dance club, the Ivar, will occupy the first floor of the building she and her partners have leased.
By the end of next year, in fact, a dozen other new bars, clubs and restaurants are planning to open on Hollywood Boulevard and its side streets.
A few years ago, Jay Leno made this late-night television offering, "If God doesn't destroy Hollywood Boulevard, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology."
The joke was pretty lame then. Now it's also out of date.
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