| West Hollywood (abbreviated WeHo), a city in Los Angeles County, California, was founded on 29 November 1984. The city, along with Beverly Hills, forms an enclave within the city of Los Angeles.
West Hollywood is bordered on the north by the Santa Monica Mountains, on the north and east by the Hollywood District of Los Angeles, on the west by the city of Beverly Hills and on south by the Fairfax District of Los Angeles.
While West Hollywood is technically a distinct city, it is culturally very much a part of Hollywood and the rest of Los Angeles.
For many years, the area that is now the City of West Hollywood was an unincorporated area in the midst of the City of Los Angeles, but was under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County. Because gambling was illegal in the city of Los Angeles, but legal in the county, the 1920s saw the proliferation of many nightclubs and casinos along the section of the Sunset Strip that did not fall within the Los Angeles city limits. As a result, these businesses were immune from the heavy-handed treatment by the LAPD. (The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was and still is in charge of policing the area)
Movie people were attracted to this less restricted county area and a number of architecturally fine apartment houses and apartment hotels were built. Movie fans throughout the world knew that Ciro's, the Mocambo, the Trocadero, the Garden of Allah, the Chateau Marmont and the Formosa Cafe on Santa Monica Boulevard were places that movie stars could be seen.
Eventually, the area and its extravagant night spots lost favor with movie people. But the Strip and its restaurants, bars and clubs continued to be an attraction for locals and out-of-town tourists. In the late 1960s, the Strip was transformed again during the hippie movement. Young people from all over the country flocked to West Hollywood clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go and the Troubadour.
In the 1960s, a club called Ciro's held the first gay dance nights on Sundays, known as "Tea Dances" [or "T-Dances"]. Men dancing together was illegal in those days, but as with the casinos and speakeasies that had gone before, the laws were not strictly enforced. This tolerance led to more gay clubs after Ciro's closed, as well as the end of the anti-gay laws that prohibited dancing between two persons of the same gender in Los Angeles County. The building that Ciro's occupied is now the home of The Comedy Store.
In the early 1970s, there was a large influx of Russian Jews from the Fairfax District as well as gay people.
In November 1984, voters passed a proposal on the ballot to incorporate into a city. The uniting factor of this proposal was rent control; the county was in the process of abolishing rent control in all unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. This galvanized the residents of the area into banding together, forming the city, and imposing rent control on all rental units built before 1979.
West Hollywood is the first city in the USA to enact a law banning cat declawing. Also, the city is one of 19 in California that has banned the use of gas-powered leaf-blowers.
Council member John Heilman is the city's longest-serving council member (having served continuously since 1984) and is currently serving his sixth term as mayor. This position is mostly a ceremonial post that rotates on an annual basis among the council members.
|
