Hollywood Portrait: Unemployed and Looking for Work

Name: Andrea Miller

Age: 47

Original Hometown: Los Angeles. “Right in that Los Feliz/Silver Lake area.”

Do you live here now? Yes, near Santa Monica and Vine.

What do you do? I’m looking for work. Times are tough. I’ve had a lot of jobs. I used to teach nursery school for many years, but it’s very underpaid work, and it’s hard to enjoy what you’re doing when you work so hard and make so little. I’ve had lots of others jobs too. Used to be in sales for a chiropractor.

What kind of job do you want? I’d like to work at Goodwill. I’m hoping I can get hired there. I could walk to work, it’s a good job, and they’re doing good work. If I’m gonna work on something all day every day, I want it to be a good cause, at least.

... I’m worried about getting a job because I’m losing my hearing. I’m going deaf, but if I get a hearing aid, then I should be OK. I don’t even need one of those tiny ones. I am OK with wearing one people can see, because then they’d know I am hard of hearing.  

Do you like Hollywood? I do. I love it. My brother is the opposite. He hates Hollywood. He thinks it’s dirty and run-down and there’s a lot of crime, a lot of danger, but I’ve lived here a long time. I walk around Hollywood all the time alone. Nothing’s ever happened to me. It’s OK.

What do you like best about it? Well, for me, a lot of it is nostalgia, which I know is silly. When we were kids, my dad would take my brother and me for walks down the boulevard. We’d have lunch and ice cream at C.C. Brown’s and we’d go to fun places that I loved, like the , which is still there. A lot of the places are gone, now.

But I don’t wanna just lament about times gone by. I like Hollywood now. It’s changed a lot, with Hollywood & Highland and all. Way way more tourists than ever, but that is good for Hollywood. I love walking around, like I am today. It’s how I met you! There are always such interesting people, people from everywhere.

One problem is that rents here are so high now, and mortgages too. My brother bought a house in Indiana for $85,000. That wouldn’t get you a house here, that’s for sure.

Hollywood also makes me sad, because of all the homeless people here. I think a lot of people who are mentally ill find their way to Hollywood, and they need help. And there are so many teens—runaways who come to Hollywood thinking they will have careers or become stars, and they’re on the street doing drugs, smoking crack and turning into addicts. That makes me sad, because I see it every day. Many of them came from bad situations, probably, that they had to escape from, so they escape to Hollywood. But they need help, and it just breaks my heart to see it.

So Hollywood for me is happy and sad. There's both here, but I think it's that way for everyone.