Yucca Corridor, Los Angeles

Yucca Corridor
Neighborhood of Los Angeles
Cherokee Ave
Country	United States
State	California
County	Los Angeles
City	Los Angeles
Time zone	UTC-8 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)

The Yucca Corridor is a small, diverse, and densely populated neighborhood in Hollywood, California; it exists along most of the length of Yucca Street. The neighborhood is bounded to the North by Franklin Avenue, to the East by Vine Street, to the South by Hollywood Boulevard, and to the West by Highland Avenue. It is about a half-mile long and a quarter-mile wide.

The Yucca Corridor lies along the northern side of the busiest section of Hollywood Boulevard. In addition to a heavy concentration of tourism-oriented shops and eateries, there are many bars and nightclubs in the area. As this part of Hollywood Boulevard is a major focus of the MTA bus system and is bracketed by two Red Line subway stations (at Vine and Highland), not only is public transit essential, it is highly accessible. Yucca Street is also Los Angeles's first Bicycle Friendly Street (BFS) facility. The street has shared lane markings (SLMs), bicycle pass-through diverters, and unique street signs. The buildings vary widely in 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 Contently and Montevideo buildings. 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 received its name at the first general meeting of the Ivar Hill Community Association 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 Street 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 Palms Lions, Wilcox Werewolves, Whitley Rangers, Saving Grace, and Hudson Howlers—began working in unison as the United Streets of Hollywood in 1989.

That umbrella group brought surveillance cameras to the most troubling 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 that more than 23 people had been shot on Yucca just between Cahuenga Boulevard and Iva Avenue, a 200-yard stretch of the Yucca Corridor that often figured in news reports and documentaries about Hollywood's crime problem during the 1990s. The closing of La Iguerita, a dangerous bar near Iva and Yucca, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake gave a foothold from which to begin a redevelopment cycle, after which the community emerged safer and more tourist-friendly. The turnaround was so drastic that by the mid-2000s many of those who fought to save this historic part of Hollywood could no longer afford to live there.

Whitley Ave

Demographics

As of the 2000 Census, 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. The neighborhood is considered one of the most diverse in Southern California, with a population that is 44% white, 35% Latino, 10% black, and 7% Asian. It has a population density of roughly 37,000 persons per square mile, the densest block having over 80,000 per square mile.