Police Open Youth Center as Gang Alternative : Sepulveda: A vacant supermarket is converted to a wholesome hangout that offers free video games and guidance from officers and Explorer Scouts.

There’s a new gang in Sepulveda--and police are so happy about it they gave members a brand-new clubhouse Thursday.

Unlike the Crips and Bloods, it is hoped the newcomers--called PALS--will do more good than harm.

Devonshire area officers decided to start PALS--which stands for Police Activity League Supporters--to provide bored youths with a place to gather after gangs continued to thrive in two Sepulveda neighborhoods where officers have erected barricades to deter drive-by drug sales, said Officer John Girard of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“We’ve got to get kids involved in the Police Department--give them some other options than what is going on in the streets,” said Police Capt. Mark D. Stevens at ceremonies opening the 800-square-foot Devonshire Community Youth Center.

The center is one of two operated by the department. The other, founded 18 years ago, is run by officers from the Hollenbeck Division in East Los Angeles.

“I’d like to, like, clone this,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, whose office contributed $1,000 to the project. He wished he could “bring you all down to City Hall in a month,” to muster support for more clubhouses.

For Brandy Covington, 11, and her friends, the converted storefront on Sepulveda Boulevard just north of Nordhoff Street is an air-conditioned oasis amid apartments whose only recreational facilities are small, kidney-shaped swimming pools littered with cigarette butts.

“I belong to PALS--I’ve even got a card with my name and picture on it,” said Brandy, taking a brief respite Thursday from jumping rope in the clubhouse.

The two-room clubhouse has two free video game machines, a pool table and a refrigerator stocked with chocolate milk--all donated by supporters. The center’s primary benefactors, the adult branch of PALS, contributed about $700 to open the clubhouse, which will cost about $350 a month to operate, said Judy Evangelisti, the league’s president.

Alpha Beta Stores Inc. donated the storefront, which had been vacant for the past two years. It is flanked by several other vacant stores, a dry-cleaners and a barbershop.

“It’s a great idea--we hope to see the area improve,” said Dave Hansen, vice president of operations in Southern California for the supermarket chain.

“The biggest obstacle they’ll face is keeping funds coming in once the excitement has worn off,” said Officer George Lopez, who runs the Hollenbeck youth center for the Police Department. But he added that his center began with a boxing ring in the police station and this year was able to raise enough money to add two more floors of meeting rooms to its one-story building.

The Sepulveda clubhouse will “keep a lot of undesirables away from the area,” said Gus Sales, a neighboring barber. “Last month, they even had a mattress and a couple of boxes out there, and they were drinking right near the store.”

The center will also provide a much-needed service to the area’s low-income residents, city officials said. Although Los Angeles runs organized activities for youths at about 150 recreation centers, including one in Sepulveda, teen-agers are not generally welcome to simply drop by and hang out, said John Pawleck, a recreation supervisor in the San Fernando Valley for the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks.

“It’s always nice to have another place for kids,” Pawleck said.

Marcia Hall of Sepulveda was one of several local parents who volunteered Thursday to supervise field trips to museums, the zoo and the beach. The center will be staffed Tuesday through Saturday by two Los Angeles police officers and a group of Explorer Scouts.

“My kids don’t have anything to do except play Nintendo and swim in that tiny apartment pool,” said Hall, 34, who has four children. “So, am I glad about this? Boy, am I glad.”