Homeless Youth and the Politics of Redevelopment
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Description:
It was a Sunday afternoon at the local needle exchange program in Hollywood when one of the young homeless women whom I had known for a couple of months walked in the door with her dog. She was visibly upset and threw her backpack with all her belongings down on the floor. I asked her what had happened. She replied, "fuck those 'wanna be' cops in the green shirts." She explained that she had been walking east along Hollywood Boulevard towards the needle exchange where she usually comes on Sundays to hang out and get off the streets. On her way she was stopped by two of the new private security guards hired by the Hollywood Entertainment District Property Owners Association, an economically and politically powerful business group in Hollywood. They stopped her and asked where she was going. Not wanting to disclose that she was on her way to the needle exchange, she told them that she had just gotten something to eat and was on her way to meet some friends. They warned her that "people like her" were not welcome in Hollywood and that she should stay off the Boulevard. Their interaction concluded with a threat that they would shoot her dog if they saw her on the Boulevard again. "Why should I have to get off the Boulevard?" she asked me. "Just because I don't look like some middle-class tourist doesn't mean that I don't have as much right to walk around as anyone else. It's public space, isn't it?" (excerpt from the article)
Type of Resource:
Journal
Publication Date:
2000
Volume:
23
Issue:
1
Pages:
73-85
Location:
Los Angeles