Fear of Gang Activity Drives Advisory Panel From Meeting Site

The Normandale Advisory Council, a residents’ group that has met at the Normandale Recreation Center for the past decade, has disassociated itself from its namesake because residents are afraid to attend meetings there.

The group, the only residents’ organization serving the southern half of the Harbor Gateway community has changed its name to the Harbor Gateway/Torrance Community Council and has moved its meetings away from the park.

Leaders of the group say the changes are intended to attract new members by giving the organization an identity independent of the recreation center, which is blanketed in graffiti and is a popular hangout for a local gang. They said, however, the group has not given up on “winning back” the park, pledging to tackle problems there once the council has regained its base in the community.

The council’s membership has dwindled over the years from several dozen active people to six or eight die-hards, leaders said. Attendance has dropped in large part because residents consider the park too dangerous for night meetings, they said.

“People just don’t feel safe meeting there or having their cars parked there,” said Dale Friedly, the council’s president. “It got kind of scary with the gangs there. We are hoping the move will stimulate attendance.”

Lorraine Ornelas, director of the park, said in an interview last week that she is sorry to see the group leave. But Ornelas, who has worked at the park for a year and a half, acknowledged that the park has problems at night.

“It is like anything else,” she said. “You cannot undo years of problems in a year and a half. . . . I don’t know if (the council) gave us a fair chance. When something gets run down in an area, it takes a while for it be built up.”

The group this summer temporarily moved its meetings to a nearby field office of Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the area, and this month moved its meeting site permanently to the Halldale Elementary School auditorium, several blocks north of the recreational center.

Large Turnout

Although attendance did not increase over the summer, a heavily promoted meeting two weeks ago--which featured officers from the Los Angeles Police Department as speakers--drew nearly 100 residents, members said.

“That is one of the largest turnouts we have ever had,” said Lois Lewis, secretary of the group. “I felt much safer. We could stand around outside, chew the fat and discuss things. At Normandale, we had to just jump in our cars and get out of there.”

Residents said youths from a local gang hang out at the park, sometimes having violent run-ins with a rival gang from Harbor City to the south. Although leaders of the community council said their members have not been attacked, members have found their tires slashed, their cars broken into, and personal items stolen, they said.

“The park has a stigma,” said Doris Tolone, the group’s treasurer. “Three-quarters of the time the outside lights were broken. Every time they would fix them, the kids would break them again. . . . I don’t like to walk there at 7 or 8 at night with eight or 10 kids hanging around.”

Added Lewis: “It is terrible. I am scared to death there. I am a smoker, so I have to step outside to smoke, but there are always those unsavory looking characters there. It is frightening to me.”

Regular Arrests

Police said they make regular arrests at the park for drug- and alcohol-related crimes, and occasionally pick up a gang member for possession of a deadly weapon. Most of the problems, police said, occur late at night after the recreation center closes. Two weekends ago, for example, three young men were injured during an early-morning shoot-out at the park, police said.

“It (crime) comes and goes, and it seems to be going back into the upswing,” said Officer Ray Terrones, who patrols the area for the South Bureau CRASH Unit (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums). “The fear factor is definitely there.”

Michael Davidson, who is on the staff at Normandale, said various community groups use the recreation center during the day, and several youth sports teams use the gymnasium at night. He said employees of the center are on duty until closing time at 9:30 p.m.

“I have never seen them attack or (threaten) any patron who comes to the park,” Davidson said of the gang members. “The problem is drugs and alcohol. When they start drinking, or start smoking PCP, marijuana or cocaine, that is when the problems arise. That is when I can understand why people would say it is unsafe here. But that is not just the gang guys, it is other people who come here, too.”

Ornelas, the park director, said she has been trying to cut down on problems at the park by getting the cooperation of the local gang. One of the key issues, she said, has been outside lights.

Since the city replaced the broken outside lights several months ago, Ornelas has agreed to turn off those near the recreation building about 9:45 p.m., she said. Previously, they were on all night--which annoyed gang members who hang out there at night. In turn, she said, the gang members have agreed not to smash or shoot the lights.

“We are trying to get them to leave the rest of the community alone while we are here at least,” she said. “By quarter to 10, everybody is supposed to be gone anyway.”

Now that she has outdoor lights, Ornelas said she feels better about recruiting volunteers and offering more evening programs at the recreation center. With time and greater community involvement, she said, the park could be as good as it was when the $1.5-million recreation center opened in 1980.

“I did not want to go out there and recruit people while it was an unsafe environment,” she said. “When the lights were broken, I did not feel it was safe.”

Worried by Appearances

Although the group was united in its decision to move from Normandale to Halldale school, some members said they worried that the relocation would give residents the impression that the group has given up on the park. Susan Prichard, a Flores deputy, said the councilwoman has taken no stand on the move, but Prichard, who attends the group’s meetings, said she favored staying at Normandale.

“Kids have to hang out somewhere,” Prichard said. “If you don’t want them in the park, then they will be on the street corner.”

Rochelle Bullock, a longtime community activist who attends numerous meetings and functions at the recreation center, said she supported the move to Halldale even though she said she is not intimidated by youths at Normandale. She said the park suffers from an image problem and that the only way the image will change is if the community gets together and decides what it wants.

“If we can get organized, we can get our park back,” Bullock said. “We couldn’t get the community together when we were meeting at the park. Now the people who really care will have a chance to voice their opinions.”

Lewis, the group’s secretary, agreed.

“We haven’t given up on taking care of the problem, but there is just no way at the moment that we can control it,” she said. “We have lost many of the people who used to come to the meetings. We have to get them back first.”