SOCIAL NETWORKS

The city of West Hollywood is comprised of a number of social networks. In our walks around the city and meetings with city officials and community leaders, we found there to be three major groups that stood out as representative of West Hollywood: The LGBT community, the elderly Russian immigrant community, and the homeless population. These networks are somewhat interwoven yet also segregated in some ways. We noticed an obvious divide between stores and restaurants that seemed to be owned and frequented by the LGBT community and those associated with the Russian community as we rode the bus along Sunset Boulevard. However, we also noticed homeless people sharing space in a local park with a number of older Russian men who were engaged in games of cards and dominoes. These groups are interwoven into the identity of West Hollywood in more complex ways as well. Several local residents mentioned that the city's population more than doubles on weekend nights because of the large number of people who are drawn there by the nightlife, a good percentage of which caters to the LGBT community. The nightlife has also helped West Hollywood to become a desirable place to live, and property values have increased accordingly. This increase has affected the homeless population because of the increased pressure on law enforcement to regulate the presence of homeless people in an affluent community. The Russian population is also shifting, as the original immigrants are aging and their children have grown and left the community for the most part. West Hollywood seems to be a complex and interesting place and it will be interesting to see how the social networks that form the community mature, develop, and interact, and how these factors shape the future identity of West Hollywood.