Neuman, who lives near the reservoir, shoots down the idea that there's a disconnect between old and young in Silver Lake. And if the younger crowd isn't happy with the older crowd on the area's Neighborhood Council, Neuman says, "They can run for seats and elect themselves."
Anne-Marie Johnson, 53, a Neighborhood Council member who was born in Silver Lake and graduated from UCLA, discounts the disconnect, too. "There's a disagreement," says Johnson, who co-starred in the long-running TV drama In the Heat of the Night and is a forceful presence at neighborhood council meetings, "but not a disconnect."
Now a part-time aide for 4th District L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents parts of Silver Lake, Johnson says the younger attitudes reflect a "lack of experience of people of a certain age." It's "entertaining" when newer Silver Lakers start supplying quick answers to the area's challenges. "They think they know everything," the actress says.
PHOTO BY AMANDA LOPEZ
Alex De Ocampo: When he was a kid in Silver Lake, a home-invasion robber held a gun to his head.
PHOTO BY AMANDA LOPEZ
Amy Clarke serves on the neighborhood council, gardens at the school and takes a bus to Craft Night.
Related Stories
More About
The disconnect, though, was on full, fiery display a few weeks ago when the Micheltorena Street Elementary School auditorium filled up with about 100 people, most of them deeply opposed to the city's plan for a gang injunction.
Neuman, Johnson, Barbara Ringuette, Clarke and Herman-Wurmfeld sat at the front of the room as the advisory motion to oppose the city's injunction idea finally came before the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. City Councilman O'Farrell had already backed the injunction, saying it would "save lives" by restricting the activities of some 300 gang members, mostly from Echo Park. The Echo Park Neighborhood Council had voted to oppose it.
But the Silver Lake board members were stuck in a tie this night. Neuman, Ringuette, Johnson and several others backed the gang injunction, and an equal number of voting members voted against it. Suddenly, a council member arrived late — and voted for the injunction.
The young activists immediately approached the council members chanting "We want freedom!" and "Shut it down!" Amidst the ruckus, the meeting was halted and LAPD was called in. Johnson says the police suggested board members leave for their own safety.
"We're very out of sync with our neighbors right now," Herman-Wurmfeld says.
Johnson, who describes Silver Lake as a "wonderful family community," insists the "majority" of residents support the injunction. She says the Neighborhood Council members hung tough that night. "Fortunately," she says, "we were not intimidated."
It is 6:30 p.m. on a warm Monday night and it's time for "jazz hands," although the members of the Silver Lake Assembly don't call it that. In fact, "jazz hands" have much more historic depth than a whimsical dance move championed by famed Broadway choreographer Bob Fosse.
As Herman-Wurmfeld later explains, the revolutionary Sandinistas silently shimmied their hands to show approval during meetings — so they wouldn't give away their location to the Nicaraguan National Guard.** Occupy L.A., according to Herman-Wurmfeld, borrowed "jazz hands" from the Sandinistas, and the Silver Lake Assembly, a weekly gathering of activists and rebels, which grew out of the Occupy L.A. movement, now uses the gesture. "It's a good way to measure the temperature of a group," he says.
Herman-Wurmfeld sits in a circle with other assembly members at the Polka Dot Plaza, a few yards away from the Mornings Nights Café, a kind of headquarters for skaters, bicyclists and artists. On the table is a discussion to carry out a rolling hunger strike in solidarity with California prison inmates, as well as the fact that El Conquistador, the beloved Mexican restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, is closing, and a posh eatery may replace it.
"Really, what we're talking about is gentrification," Matthew Mooney says. "I'm not against change, and you can't really stop gentrification, but you can mitigate it."
Frances Tran, 30, a community activist who's getting her doctorate in molecular biology at USC, starts worrying about one of her favorite local shops, United Bread & Pastry. "I have a feeling that if it ever leaves," she says, "I will leave."
Herman-Wurmfeld, wearing his trademark faded purple fedora and "toe" shoes, chimes in, positing that change doesn't necessarily mean another sparkling new restaurant or lounge that offers an $18 martini. "Real change is improving a park," he says, adding that gentrification is "imperialism."
That last remark would make many of Herman-Wurmfeld's older colleagues on the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council cringe. But his younger comrades on the Silver Lake Assembly give him "jazz hands."
** Correction: The group known for popularizing jazz hands is actually the Zapatistas of Mexico, and the practice is often traced to the Quakers.
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
Rightbloggers Plan GOP Success 
Eight Types of Dolphins Fans 
Phoenix Goddess Temple's "Sacred Sexuality" Is More Like New Age Prostitution 
