The community of North Hollywood has been working toward developing throughout its troubled years into becoming fitter to people’s lifestyles

The community of North Hollywood has been working toward developing throughout its troubled years into becoming fitter to people’s lifestyles

Introduction

The neighborhood of North Hollywood in Los Angeles is home to approximately 85000 people. Living in the community gives its residents an urban feel where its residents rent their homes. It hosts a lot of restaurants, bars, parks, and coffee shops. Many of the people who live in the neighborhood are young professionals who are seen to be more liberal. The people of North Hollywood are very welcoming to visitors, where the residents of the district are humble and kind to everyone that comes their way. Luza (2016), in his research, nicknamed the city of North Hollywood as Mecca because he believed that people in it were very welcoming, just the way people in the famous city of Mecca are. Luza when ahead to describe the city as Eros of Angels, and thus he gave a good picture of the neighborhood in the Los Angelis.

Diverse Neighborhoods

North Hollywood offers a diverse neighborhood that combines art, history, entertainment, and culture. North Hollywood is a thriving suburb in Los Angeles that is located in the San Fernando Valley that transforms every day with new opportunities to play, work and live. The Hollywood Hills separates the neighborhood from Los Angeles and the rest of Hollywood and thus providing a very good environment for both bustling and living. Kipen (2018), in his diaries, praised the city for its greatness and the beautiful landscapes in it. The North Hollywood neighborhood could be the best neighborhood in Los Angeles because of its location and geographical features that make it unique among other neighborhoods in the whole of Los Angeles, but the beauty of this ever-growing neighborhood has been hidden, or many people have underrated.

North Hollywood neighborhood is a diverse neighborhood that combines history, arts, community, and entertainment. The neighborhood is a suburb in Los Angeles that thrives in the San Fernando Valley. The community in North Hollywood is diverse, consisting of more than 50% and a big number of residence that are foreign-born. (Frazier, 2019) studied the culture of the people of North Hollywood through the analysis of the dance that the youth in the neighborhood attended the dancing sessions; this shows the culture of the people of the neighborhood.

Crime rate

The North Hollywood neighborhood, however, has registered a higher crime rate more than the national average, the current crime rate in the neighborhood is 1 in35 that translates to 6% rate, the data available from the Los Angeles Police show that the for every one hundred thousand people, 8.02 crimes are recorded everyday occurring in  north Hollywood. The neighborhood, however, is safer than more than 40% of all the Californian cities. This makes it a better place to live in the state of California because one has less chances of being a victim of crime than in the other cities in the state. The North Hollywood shootout in 1997 is considered one the worst criminal case in the neighborhood where heavily armed robbers exchanged fire with the Los Angeles police, where many people were injured in the incident, the police managed to kill the robbers after a long struggle with them.

Homelessness

The number of homeless people in San Fernando Valley rose to 7627 while that of the county of Los Angeles went up to 57794, this is according to 2017 statistics. The majority of those who turned homeless in the neighborhood was due to the change they experienced in their income and also the changes in housing in North Hollywood that has been taken place over the past two decades. Homelessness in North Hollywood has risen by four percent for the past year but not as much as the county that was twenty-three percent. More than half of those who become homeless in the statistics cited their financial strain and loss of employment as the leading cause of being homeless in the neighborhood. The cops, however, have linked the rise in homelessness in the neighborhood and the county to the increase of crime in the North Hollywood and Los Angeles in general, they have embarked on various operations that are aimed at cleaning the city because they believe that the homeless community is the reason for the rising hostility in the neighborhood and in the county.

Proposed Solutions

Increase police

The make North Hollywood safer place to live in, measures should be taken to ensure that the level of crime goes down where people will be free to perform their various tasks in peace without fearing falling victim to the crime in the neighborhood. The Los Angeles police department should ensure that there is enough police in the neighborhood to act against any form of crime that may happen in the city. The population of the neighborhood increases every day, but the number of police officers posted to the area does not increase, and thus, the ratio of police to civilians decreases every day and hence the reason why the number of criminals increases. Increasing the number of police will mean that criminals will feel that they are being watched when they plan to commit a crime; the fear of the reaction of the police to the crime will also tame the criminals within the vicinity of the neighborhood. The police department should work on proper ways of collecting intelligence from the public so that they can know who the culprits are and bringing them to justice. The police should also be keen while they are on duty in the neighborhoods because if they fail to do so, criminals will be conducting their activities even in the presence of the police.

Police should closely monitor the homeless community in the city

The police and all the other relevant authorities should closely monitor the homeless communities to ensure that they do not engage themselves in abusing drugs that can lead them into joining gangs. Those who have been found to have been addicted to any harmful drug such as cocaine and bhang should be put into rehabilitation centers where they can recover, and they can be free to perform tasks that can enable them to earn a living without having to steal or rob from someone else. The police should also work on fighting drug trafficking in the city to ensure that the use of any drug that may increase the hostility of its users is limited and thus reducing the menace of drug abuse especially among the youth who are the majority of those who engage in crimes in the neighborhoods. Another way to reduce crime is by ensuring that most of the people, if not all, have various ways that they can make money with; the state should ensure that it creates more jobs for the youth in Los Angeles.  If the state does this, many people, especially the youth, will find employment, and thus they will not have any reason for them to join criminal activities in North Hollywood and in Los Angeles.

Ensuring that there is an availability of affordable houses to all and empowering the youth

The major cause of the rise in the rate of crime in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, and the whole of the United States is the poor financial status and abuse of drugs by the criminals. Addressing this issue, therefore, needs to be done directly from the root cause of the problem, jailing and shooting of robbers will not stop or reduce the vice from taking place. The empowering of the youth, which makes up the largest number of those who engage in criminal activities in the neighborhood will help to provide a long-lasting solution to the problems that the youth face, and thus they will not be tempted to engage in criminal activities. Masters (2014) cited several challenges, such as the homelessness that mostly touches on the youth in his exploration of the city. Masters analyses how the city is transforming and the possible solutions to the challenges that people this great city faces. The government should also come up with policies that will make North Hollywood a better place to live in, such policies include building cheaper houses that people who earn the lowest income can afford, this will help in reducing the number homeless people in North Hollywood, this project will aim at housing everybody if implemented and thus the number of homeless people will reduce and so does the rate of crime in the neighborhood and in the nearby cities (Loftus-Farren, 2011). The state should also ensure that those who earn the least and those who do not earn are provided with homes that they can share, this housing project will be aimed at the street children and those who may have been kicked out of their homes because of failing to pay rent.

Conclusion

The city of North Hollywood is a nice place to live, and to visit if the cases of crime and homelessness in the city are addressed, the city will be amongst the most peaceful places in California and in the United States of America. The state of California and the federal government to work together to ensure that the situation in North Hollywood is contained. This can only be done by ensuring that North Hollywood is safe for everybody to live and to visit. Addressing this issue as addressed above, can only be achieved through the empowerment of the youth and making sure that there are affordable houses for all to live in. If this is ignored, the state of North Hollywood will become so worse in the future, and it will become one of the most dangerous places to live in the world.  The agencies that are responsible for the fight against illegal drug abuse and traffic should also improve how they do their job so that North Hollywood may become a drug-free zone where people will be making decisions while they are sober and not under the influence of a drug such as bhang. This will reduce the cases of crimes in the city as well as ensure that people live together in peace and therefore creating a safe environment for all.