200 Teen-Agers Swarm Over, Clean Up Venice Pavilion

Carrying shovels, brooms, rakes and paint rollers, about 200 teen-agers set out Thursday morning to clean up the Venice Pavilion, an area that has daunted local residents and politicians for years.

It was a difficult task: giving a fresh look to a trash-ridden area on a hot day when many people so close to the ocean could be swimming in it.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district encompasses Venice and who helped organize the project, said: “Some of it is smelly work, some of it is dirty work, and it is not the kind of thing you’d choose to do with your day off.”

But the youths, organized in teams of 10 workers supervised by adults, seemed determined to enjoy themselves.

“It’s a great job,” said Antoine Sherfield, 18, of South-Central Los Angeles after he and his friends repainted a graffiti-covered building. “I figure if there’s more, we’ll be back to clean it up.”

“It’s fun stuff, and you get paid for it,” said Keith Higgins, 14, also from South-Central. “I like it.”

“It was kind of hard, but I had fun,” said Paul Vogler, 14, of Mar Vista after sweeping up part of the Venice Pavilion usually inhabited by homeless men during the day.

The cleanup project was arranged by Galanter’s office and involved more than a dozen community and youth groups from around Los Angeles. The umbrella organization, Venice Community Vision, plans six more cleanup projects around the city this summer.

“It’s a surprise. I never expected to see anybody clean up like this,” said Dawson Gilstrap, an unemployed machinist who lives in Venice. “This is going to look a lot better.”

But as a crew of workers swept the 7,000-square-foot pavilion, Kevin Raleigh of Venice, who visits the concrete structure every day, said, “It’s not going to do any good. It’s just going to get dirty again.”

The youths, including some former gang members, joined the cleanup “to prove that . . . they actually want to be a part of the community, have pride in themselves and can make a contribution to society,” said Frederick Smith, director of the drug abuse prevention program at the Neighborhood Youth Assn. in Mar Vista.

On Thursday morning, about half a dozen homeless people joined in the effort to keep the pavilion clean.

One man, who identified himself only as Ricky, helped out by moving tables and doing other chores. He said he appreciated the cleanup effort but wished the city would allow homeless people like himself to spend the night in the pavilion.

“The underlying question is, are you cleaning it for a day, are you cleaning it for someone to look at, or are you cleaning it to be used by people?” he said.