Villaraigosa plans to eliminate L.A. Bridges gang program

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to eliminate one of the city’s most established anti-gang programs, shifting the money into 12 “Gang Reduction Zones” that would target sections of the city where children are at greatest risk, a high-level aide said today.

Deputy Mayor Jeff Carr said the L.A. Bridges program – L.A. Bridges I, which works to keep kids from joining gangs, and L.A. Bridges II, which tries to get youths out of gangs – would be phased out by Dec. 31.

The mayor’s strategy will be mapped in detail late this afternoon, when he gives his annual state of the city address.

Villaraigosa’s proposal caps a decade of debate over the initiative, which was created after the killing of a 3-year-old girl in Cypress Park in 1995. The scrutiny of L.A. Bridges intensified last year, after the head of one anti-gang program was arrested on charges of selling illegal assault weapons to undercover agents.

Carr, who serves as the mayor’s “gang czar,” said the new approach would allow the city to send resources to the children who need them most. But he also argued that the change in strategy should not be seen as an indictment of successful existing programs.

Community groups that have administered the L.A. Bridges program until now would have a chance to compete for city money as part of the reworked initiative, Carr said.

Villaraigosa’s proposal comes more than a year after the city received a report from the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization, calling for an ambitious, expensive “Marshall Plan” to combat gang violence.

The mayor’s initiative would increase the yearly funding for the city’s anti-gang programs to $24 million from $19 million, Villaraigosa aides said.

“Maybe this is the down payment on the Marshall Plan,” Carr said.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she had not yet seen the mayor’s proposal. But she voiced concern about the future of high-crime neighborhoods that fall outside the boundaries of the mayor’s gang reduction zones.

“If you pull a safety net out from under a community, you better have something just as strong to replace it,” said Perry, whose district includes South Los Angeles neighborhoods that suffer from high rates of youth violence.

L.A. Bridges, which receives roughly $13 million from the city each year, came under fire in 2000 from then-City Controller Rick Tuttle, who issued a scathing audit of the program and called for it to be shut down.

Then-Mayor Richard Riordan attempted to cut off the programs but was rebuffed by the City Council.

In January, Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin, whose group No Guns had received $1.5 million in city money over a three-year period, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to weapons charges.

Weeks later, City Controller Laura Chick released a report saying the city’s various gang initiatives are scattered across too many city departments. Chick said the programs should be placed in the mayor’s office.

david.zahniser@latimes.com