Local News in Brief : Program to Upgrade Neighborhood Starts
A $55,000 model neighborhood program aimed at fighting street gangs, crime, graffiti and ugliness in a deteriorating neighborhood near the Santa Monica Freeway in West Los Angeles was launched by Mayor Tom Bradley and officials of Kaiser Permanente’s West Los Angeles Medical Center.
Bradley told residents and reporters gathered at the mouth of a debris-littered alley across from the hospital that after a yearlong trial the public-private partnership approach might be extended to other communities.
Under the effort, funded with $30,000 from Kaiser and $25,000 from the city, program organizers will assist residents of the neighborhood west of the hospital in forming crime-watch groups, combating drug and gang activities, cleaning up the area and eradicating graffiti.
Free classes will be offered on teen-age pregnancy, prenatal care, nutrition education and drug abuse, hospital Administrator Ophelia Long said.
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