Barricades, Police Visits Give Hope to Crime-Plagued Neighborhood : Violence: Residents and officials say extra law enforcement attention is starting to turn around South-Central community. Drive-by shootings are down by 67%.

It wasn’t so long ago that Yvonne Soublet would wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of gunfire or the screeching wheels of a speeding car.

One night she watched in horror as two rival gangs battled in an intersection near her South-Central Los Angeles home.

“They were dragging their buddy into the car, and they raced off with him,” Soublet recalled Friday. “There was blood everywhere.”

Times have changed on 40th Place, where Soublet lives, and some of the other streets near Jefferson High School. For nearly 18 months, the crime-ridden neighborhood--identified by police as one of the most violent in the city--has been undergoing a transformation.

Police erected a series of makeshift barricades, saturated the area with officers on bicycles and went door to door promoting academic, athletic and other programs for neighborhood youths.

Since the start of Operation Cul-de-Sac, police report a 67% drop in gang-related drive-by shootings, a 10% reduction in street crimes, and a 14% drop in school truancy.

“It is safer, and I sleep better,” said Soublet, captain of her neighborhood block club. “I still hear gunshots, but they are two or three blocks away, not next door. We are finally coming together and trying to solve our problems.”

The one-square-mile swath of South-Central Los Angeles has by no means evolved into a model community, but police and many residents say that for the first time in years there is a feeling that things are getting better rather than worse.

“It is the way the neighborhood was when I grew up on this street,” where one of the barricades was erected, said a 39-year-old resident of 34th Street who did not want to be identified. “It is like what you would see in the movies: a cop walking up and down the street, getting to know the neighbors, and listening to your problems. I enjoy it. I really do.”

City officials, police and community leaders gathered Friday afternoon at one of the barricades to congratulate each other on the program’s early success and to dedicate the installation of nine permanent barricades.

The wrought-iron gates are dispersed in the neighborhood bounded by 32nd Street on the north, Vernon Avenue on the south, Central Avenue on the west, and Compton Avenue on the east.

Police, fire and emergency agencies have keys to the gates, but otherwise they will remain closed. The barriers, which include small concrete planters, are intended to reduce traffic and foster a sense of community near the high school.

“This identifies a community, and a lot of magical things happen when a community is identified,” said Assistant Police Chief Robert L. Vernon. “A great deal of pride begins to form. The graffiti begins to go away. . . . What we are seeing here is a jelling, a bringing together of the people that live here with the police officers that serve this area.”

For many residents, the changes have been simple but gratifying. One man standing proudly outside his freshly painted home about a block from one of the new gates said the changed traffic pattern has meant fewer drug dealers cruising past his house. An elderly man down the street said he now feels comfortable leaving his front porch for a quick stroll down the block.

But not everyone in the Jefferson High School neighborhood has been happy with the program.

On 41st Place, Duane and Valerie Golden, who live three houses from a gate on Hooper Avenue, complained that the barricades have “caged in” their neighborhood and made them feel like prisoners. Valerie Golden said her closed-off street has increased traffic in an alley that passes near her bedroom window.

“We are not living over there in South Africa, so why close us in?” she said. “We don’t want them here.”

Stefan McClelland, a security guard who lives around the corner on Hooper, said the gates create an impression that the neighborhood is under siege.

“We have visitors come by, and that is the first thing they ask: Is this a really, really bad area?” McClelland said. “It makes us look bad. We have some good people who came out of this neighborhood. My brother plays professional football for the Atlanta Falcons, and another guy down the street, born and raised here, plays for the Jets.”