The fact that 91 percent of Hollywood property owners last week voted to renew and expand the business improvement district in their neighborhood is a testament to how far Hollywood has bounced back and how effective the improvement district has been.

A decade or more ago, Hollywood was populated by miscreants, the homeless and shocked tourists who covered their childrens’ eyes. And while Hollywood Boulevard can be edgy still, its transformation is remarkable. Streets are clean and walkable. Armed guards patrol the area. Lots of construction is going on.

A big part of the transformation is due to the improvement district there called the Hollywood Entertainment District. The district pays for armed guards, tree plantings, extra trash pickup and the like. In the new vote by property owners, the district also will start collecting an extra assessment to clean up alleys in Hollywood in an effort to make them pedestrian friendly and even usable for retail or outdoor dining.

This is not cheap. Owners of 529 parcels in the district will assess themselves $3.4 million a year, or more than $6,400 a year per parcel on average, to pay for it.

While it’s good to see property owners take command of their neighborhood and there are several business improvement districts throughout Los Angeles doing about the same thing it’s disheartening that they feel compelled to do so. After all, many of the services they’re buying are already provided by the city or other government agencies. In other words, they’re paying taxes to have that work done, but 91 percent believe they must pay extra to have it done right.

In that way, the success of business improvement districts is also a testament to the shortcomings of local governments.

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Bank of America’s stock last week was up more than 70 percent since its low point in mid-July, shortly after its much-maligned purchase of the even-more-maligned Countrywide Financial Corp. of Calabasas.

I was tempted to wonder if BofA’s stockholders those who presumably know the company best were feeling better about the Countrywide purchase.

So I got to checking the stock against other bank stocks and against the index of bank stocks over longer periods of time. And now I wonder if BofA’s shareholders were ever very concerned about the Countrywide deal.

For example, over the past 12 months or roughly the duration of the Countrywide courtship, BofA’s stock has dropped a bit less than 37 percent. The average of bank stocks? Down a bit less than 37 percent. Over the last year, BofA’s stock has been in the middle, outperforming Wachovia and Citigroup but not Wells Fargo, for example.

What’s more, BofA’s stock pretty closely mirrored the averages before the Countrywide announcement. And as for BofA’s sharp run-up since mid-July, well, most other bank stocks have bounced up since then, too.

The point is it doesn’t appear by looking at the stock that Countrywide had much of a tug, pro or con, on the price. Despite all the talk about how BofA had swallowed an alien that will eat it from the inside, the stockholders seem unconcerned about taking on Countrywide. It appears they have assessed the numerous risks of the Countrywide deal, weighed them against the possible rewards, and shrugged.

Charles Crumpley is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].