DON'T let the Hollywood lights blind you: Los Angeles is a city of renters, and without rent control, the workers who keep the city running couldn't afford to live here, tenant advocates insist. Without rent control, the average market-rate rent for an apartment in central Los Angeles is $1,485, as of the third quarter of 2006, said Delores Conway, director of the Casden Real Estate Economic Forecast at USC. In the West L.A. area, which includes Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and the Westside, it is $2,079. In the Hollywood, West Hollywood and North Hollywood grouping, $1,625; and in the San Fernando Valley, $1,398.
