Capistrano Beach Rises Up : Government: Residents of the aging community blame the area’s decline on an insensitive Dana Point City Council. They are fighting for some clout.

Reuben Bartlett walked into the living room of his cramped, second-floor apartment in Capistrano Beach one morning and discovered that a radio, a purse and glassware were missing.

“They just pulled the screen off and, quiet as you please, they came in and robbed us,” said Bartlett, owner of a local metal shop and crane service. “We were asleep and didn’t hear a thing.”

The burglary three weeks ago, although frightening, came as no surprise to Bartlett or other longtime Capistrano Beach residents and merchants, who say they have watched their aging neighborhood decline in recent years while other sections of Dana Point have improved.

Although they acknowledge that conditions may not be as bad as in some other communities in Orange County, Capistrano Beach residents are preparing to make this issue central to the June 5 municipal election. Residents say they want more political clout and solutions to the traffic jams and crime in the area.

While its name seems to associate the community with San Juan Capistrano, Capistrano Beach actually lies within the city limits of Dana Point, which was incorporated 15 months ago. The neighborhood of Capistrano Beach--with its 100-year-old business district at the center--is bordered by San Clemente, Dana Point proper and San Juan Capistrano.

Four challengers are facing three incumbents in Dana Point’s first council race. Only one candidate--Karen Lloreda, president of the Capistrano Beach Community Assn.--hails from that section of the city.

If elected, she would be the only Capistrano Beach resident to serve on either the council or the various committees and commissions that were formed after incorporation.

“We need to be a part of that decision-making process,” said Lloreda.

Acommunity forum is planned at a local church on Wednesday, and Capistrano Beach community leaders said they are hoping to take their frustrations to the City Council one week later.

But City Council members dispute the claim that Capistrano Beach has not been well-represented and that the area has been neglected.

“Anyone who says that Dana Point is not paying attention to the Capistrano Beach area is either incredibly naive or simply doesn’t understand the facts,” said Councilman Michael Eggers, who is running for reelection.

“We don’t have walls and moats in this city,” he said. “We have worked very hard to create a solid city.”

Added Mayor Eileen Krause, who is also seeking to retain her seat: “I would love to have somebody from Capistrano Beach on the council. But it’s not that Capo Beach is not represented. (Council members) represent everyone.”

Krause, Eggers and Councilwoman Ingrid McGuire, the third incumbent running for a second term, said that the City Council has worked to solve a variety of problems that Capistrano Beach residents say plague their community.

But many Capistrano Beach residents and merchants disagree.

“You get the feeling that we are really the dumping ground for everything,” said resident Vaughn Curtis.

For instance, residents point out, the Capistrano Beach business district--already home to the Capistrano Unified School District bus yard and a huge Price Club warehouse--may soon be clogged with trucks if the Solag Disposal Co. relocates nearby from its current location near Mission San Juan Capistrano.

A conglomeration of small storefronts, restaurants, lumberyards and modest wood-frame houses, Capistrano Beach has also been targeted by the city’s new Community Redevelopment Agency.

Redevelopment agencies are often controversial because of their sweeping condemnation powers. Although such agencies generally improve the economy of an area, critics say they often displace local residents and small retail merchants in the process.

“There are a lot of problems that have to be solved,” said Capistrano Beach Chamber of Commerce President Terry Lucarelli, who hosted the community’s first “brainstorming” session last week. Capistrano Beach residents “need to stand up and speak their minds.”

She said that despite police crackdowns and a dayworker hot line to help immigrants find work, there are still problems in the business district.

By day, dozens of laborers stand along a three-block section of Doheny Park Road, hoping to find potential employers among the steady stream of trucks, buses and cars that pass through the only major entrance to the city from the south.

“It’s a nightmare,” complained property owner Tom Storey at last week’s community meeting. “It’s not a healthy situation for landlords, residents, merchants or customers.”

And by night, local drug dealers approach carloads of customers who pull into the dark alleys looking for a quick score, residents and merchants say.

“It’s like dope alley down there,” Bartlett said in reference to the alleged illegal activities, which he says he witnesses each night from his kitchen window.

Residents’ charges were confirmed in a recently released report prepared by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The report, studying overall crime in the city between July 1 and Dec. 31, 1989, shows a 28% increase in crime compared to the same six months the previous year.

According to the report, drug dealing and other drug-related crimes have been concentrated in the Capistrano Beach business district. As drug dealing has increased over the years, Capistrano Beach has also experienced a rise in commercial burglaries and petty and grand thefts, the report states.

Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini said that areas of high drug activity often become targets for property crimes as drug users steal merchandise to support their habits.

“Incidents . . . have been rapidly increasing, primarily in the Capistrano Beach business district area,” concludes the report, which was presented to the City Council on Feb. 13 by Martini.

“We know what the problems are,” Martini said. The Sheriff’s Department has boosted undercover narcotics patrols in the area and asked the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to investigate suspicions that illegal aliens are among the laborers seeking work, he said.

Although a new anti-loitering ordinance has given sheriff’s deputies a tool with which to cut down the number of dayworkers on Doheny Park Road, between 30 and 75 laborers still use the street each morning to find jobs, Martini said.

But, he said, despite some residents’ claims, there is no evidence that the presence of illegal aliens is related to the increase in crime.

“We find no correlation at all,” said Martini, who assured merchants that although crime is up, their neighborhood is far from being crime-ridden. He also pointed out that there are fewer illegal aliens in Dana Point than in other cities, such as Orange or Santa Ana.

“The (individuals) committing crimes are, for the most part, not (immigrants),” Martini said. He said that there appears to be a “network of locals” who are involved in small-time drug dealing.

Chamber President Lucarelli said that at the community meeting on Wednesday, a variety of issues will be discussed, including whether or not redevelopment will improve the area to the detriment of longtime local merchants.

She said that she hopes the group will draft a list of concerns that will be presented to the City Council on March 27.