ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Building Up Instead of Tearing Down

Reacting to a triple murder this week at the 562-unit Fairview Villa apartment complex, Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young proposed a drastic solution: Tear it down. Young said the city keeps “pouring manpower and energy into this place to clean it up and we get nowhere.”

Young’s frustration is understandable, but he’s not giving law enforcement enough credit. In the past year, police have made progress in controlling crime within the complex, which is home to an estimated 5,000 people--mostly Latino immigrants trying to get a foothold in the Orange County work force. As a result, crime, including incidents involving narcotics, was way below previous years.

Fairview Villa owner Allen L. Boerner is concerned about security at the complex. He spent $500,000 in the past year to install gates, fences and walls and hire guards to keep out the riffraff. He’s to meet with Young and Police Chief Paul Walters to see what more he can do.

Boerner might take his cue from another apartment owner who, faced with similar problems, moved phones into a secure area to discourage drug activity and had his managers check police blotters to detect trouble spots in the complex. But the city must keep police and other enforcement in the area. What’s called for now isn’t tearing down the complex, but building up its resources.