Cruising Gets Green Light From Oxnard : Traffic: City Council members say the weekly event is well-policed and provides an alternative to gang activity.

With the support of Police Chief Robert Owens, the Oxnard City Council gave its blessing Tuesday to the department’s policy of tolerating cruising along Saviers Road every Sunday night.

The action, which came despite complaints from one resident, puts Oxnard in sharp contrast to cities such as Los Angeles, Newport Beach and Santa Barbara, which have banned cruising because of noise, traffic and gang violence.

While council members acknowledged that some of those problems exist every week on Saviers Road, they said the weekly cruising is well-regulated by police and provides an acceptable alternative to gangs.

“It’s a healthy thing for kids to be doing, and I see no problem with it,” Councilwoman Dorothy Maron said.

Cruising has been a part of the city’s history since the early 1960s. While the location has changed over the years, Oxnard police have always tried to regulate it.

Every Sunday night, 300 to 500 youths, mostly Latino, cruise on Saviers Road between Iris and Yucca streets in everything from pickup trucks to lowrider sedans to convertibles.

Council members decided to address the matter after hearing repeated complaints about cruising from Jean Joneson, a longtime resident who lives on Iris Street about a block from the cruising strip.

Joneson said the noise from the cruisers’ engines and stereos are a constant nuisance, and she fears that loitering youths will spark gang violence. She suggested that the city move the cruising strip to a remote, isolated street near Ormond Beach on the southwest corner of the city.

“They won’t bother anybody out there,” she said.

Although she was the only person to speak out against cruising, she said many of her neighbors have also complained.

Except for traffic congestion, Owens said, cruising on Saviers Road has not been a problem for police. “I wouldn’t drive down there if I wanted to get somewhere fast,” he said.

According to police, most of the citations issued on Saviers Road have been for mechanical violations or stereos that are too loud. To maintain good relations between police and cruisers, officers have been assigned to act as liaisons with the four car clubs that frequent Saviers Road.

Owens told the council that cruising can easily be monitored on Saviers Road because the four-lane street has wide shoulders and alternative traffic routes for emergency vehicles. There are few other areas that would accommodate cruising as well, he said.

Owens said the Police Department conducted a telephone survey last year that indicated that only 30% of the residents who responded had a problem with cruising.

Albert Garcia, 25, a regular on Saviers Road and a member of the Second Look car club, urged the council not to ban cruising, saying it provides a social event for youths in Oxnard that is nearly trouble-free.

“If you eliminate it you will have gang violence because you will have no outlet,” he said.

Ralph Moreno, a regular cruiser who works at a fast-food restaurant on Saviers Road, suggested that the cruising strip be shortened to keep cruisers away from residential areas near Iris and Yucca streets. He said there would be fewer complaints from residents if cruising took place only along a strip of Saviers Road that is mostly lined by businesses.

Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi, who said he remembers when cruising took place on A Street in the 1960s, agreed with Moreno and asked Owens to study ways to implement the suggestion.

“I would prefer to allow this kind of activity to go on with more regulations and try to confine it to the business areas,” he said.