HOLLYWOOD REVOLUTION UNLIKELY SEPARATISTS BATTLE L.A.

Byline: Kimit Muston

I found two revolutionaries up in the Hollywood hills last week.

Lenin might not have recognized them but these guys were selling democracy with the husk off and you can't get much more revolutionary than that.

The 10 or 15 proletariats who showed up were causally dressed. The lovely hostess served wine and cheese and, this being Hollywood, bottled water.

It would have been easy to misjudge the nature of the evening. But these revolutionaries, with little media attention (most of that unfavorable) and with almost no money behind them, are intent upon bringing Los Angeles City Hall - one of the richest and largest municipal bureaucracies in the world - to its knees.

The first speaker, Garry Sinanian, is an unlikely Trotskyite, an unvarnished bourgeois. He owns a catering service and a flower shop on Sunset. He is running for an as-yet-nonexistent office in the as-yet-nonexistent city of Hollywood, but when this shy young man speaks with quiet passion about what made him a revolutionary, it is clear he must be reckoned with.

Each day at 3 a.m. when he arrives at his shop with fresh flowers Garry must run a gantlet of prostitutes and drug dealers just to reach the front door.

Once, at about closing time, he heard gunshots out on Sunset and dialed 911. Before the operator would dispatch a police car she asked Garry if he would go outside to see if anyone was lying in the street.

Garry is active in athletic programs for Armenia youth groups and you can hear the frustration in his voice when he describes how ``his'' kids struggle to raise money for equipment and uniforms and are then denied access to even the limited recreation facilities in Hollywood.

His fellow revolutionary, Ed Dilkes, also running for office in the someday city, points out that Hollywood has just as much recreational space as Kabul and Kandahar. Ed is a lifelong Hollywood resident, Latino and Irish by blood and a lawyer by profession, with 30-plus years of government experience in small towns all across the San Gabriel Valley.

Being a lawyer, Ed talks logic. He explains that the world-famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine attracts about 20 million visitors a year. But 30 years of neglect from L.A. City Hall has left the landscape so unappealing that the average tourist stays only 12 minutes and spends only one dollar.

Ed explains that the new $650 million commercial development City Hall promised was going to reverse those numbers has been a financial disaster for both the developer and the boulevard. There are now 41 vacant storefronts on Hollywood between Vine and Highland, and the development is now for sale at well below half its construction costs, with no takers as yet.

Now the nervous questions begin to come, spurred on by half-truths from City Hall.

No, the revolutionaries explain, property taxes will not be raised in an independent Hollywood. In fact, they cannot be raised. Property tax rates are set by the state and any increase in Hollywood (or a new Valley city) would require a two-thirds majority vote by residents.

When someone asks about the $20 million Hollywood will have to pay in alimony the two men quickly explain that the money is already being paid, year in and year out to downtown, with no end in sight. Whereas, after independence, Hollywood's payments will drop $1 million each year for 20 years.

Besides, Ed points out, the new city can't help but be more efficient. City Hall is currently charging Hollywood $39 million a year for 398 police officers - but actually there are only 313 on duty on the average weekday, and only about 215 on Sundays. The Sheriff's Department has promised better service, says Ed, at $32 million.

There are questions about fire service and support for the working poor until, finally, somebody broaches the fundamental question. ``But can we really make it on our own?''

Revolutions, it seems, are always at heart questions about your faith in the future.

``In the old L.A.,'' said Ed, ``I would have never met Garry. We live in different worlds. Secession brought us together, and now he's a good friend.''

Garry said, ``I would never be able to raise the $3 (million) or $4 million required to run for mayor of L.A. But we've all put money into this, $3,000 or $4,000 each. And we are going to make a difference. We're going to be heard.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Secessionists want to turn Hollywood into an independent city, claiming Los Angeles has done little to halt a decades-long decline that began with the departure of major movie studios and left Hollywood dirty, crime-ridden and decayed.

Ric Francis/Associated Press

(2 -- color) Tourists look at the Footprints of Legends outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Most polls and analysts say it is unlikely the Hollywood secession measure will pass, but voters will have their say during the Nov. 5 election.