Bridge Unites, Divides Neighbors : Burbank: Animosity between a mostly white community and a low-income, predominantly Latino area flares when officials propose tearing down the link.

Miguel Perez and Patty Bush are neighbors. However, don’t expect to see them at the same block party any time soon.

Perez, 21, and Bush, 32, represent two factions of a two-block stretch of Elmwood Avenue in Burbank that has become bitterly divided over a footbridge that links a middle-class, mostly white community with a low-income, predominantly Latino area.

For the past few weeks, city officials have been determinedly trying to quell the racially tinged animosity between residents on the two sides of the bridge--animosity that recently escalated when demolition of the bridge was proposed.

For now, city officials have postponed plans to tear down the bridge, hoping that a gate erected to restrict passage will serve as an interim compromise to soothe hostilities.

Residents on the western side of the bridge, where Bush lives, claim that gang members from the other side use the bridge to get to the western-side neighborhood and then terrorize older residents and commit crimes. They want the city to tear down the bridge.

But the residents on Perez’s side of the bridge call it an essential and safe link for children and elderly people to travel to schools and markets. They say the residents on the western side are afraid of “Mexicans” coming into their neighborhood.

In sharply contrasting ways, each faction in the Battle of the Bridge is seeking the same thing from the other side: respect and protection.

“They think everyone on this side is a criminal,” said Perez, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment with his wife and four children. “They’ve got everything on their side--schools, businesses--and all we have on our side is a liquor store and a gas station. I’m very mad. “

Mark Marquez, 20, who has lived on the block all his life, added: “It’s like a brown neighborhood versus a white neighborhood. They can afford nice homes over there, and we’re welfare recipients, low income. They’re white and pay more taxes, but we stand for what we want.”

But Bush, who manages an apartment building on Elmwood, put the conflict in another light.

“We may drive nicer cars over here, and there may be a difference in the socioeconomic status of the residents here,” said Bush, who is Latino. “But that has nothing to do with anything. It’s a crime issue, pure and simple. All this talk about racism is just clouding the issue.”

Another longtime resident who requested anonymity added: “I don’t feel we’re being bad. . . . It sounds like we’re being like the Gestapo, but we just want to clean up the neighborhood.”

The physical appearance of the two neighborhoods reflects the differing viewpoints:

The bridge, which is over a flood control wash, divides the 200 block of Elmwood, which is mostly single-family homes. Residents hose down manicured lawns and converse around fences. Litter is sparse. A few modern security apartment buildings with underground parking are also on the block.

But on the other end of Elmwood, east of the bridge and Lake Street, the 100 block is dominated by deteriorating apartment complexes with peeling paint. Lawns are almost nonexistent. Bottles, broken toys and paper litter the streets.

It is not, Perez admitted, the cleanest of neighborhoods. But it is home to families who have lived there for years, some more than 10 years. Some of the “homeboys” in their teens and early 20s say they’ve spent their whole lives on the block.

Esther Mendoza, 60, a resident on the block for three years, said: “It’s like a family over here. Everyone is close and everyone gets along. The boys don’t bother anyone.”

Janet Milke, 37, one of the few non-Latinos living on the 100 block, said she had some initial apprehension when she moved to the street two years ago.

“The first year, there was a lot of beer bottles and loud music. But now I’m not worried at all. It’s as quiet as can be.

“These guys are great,” she said, referring to gang members living near her. “When my husband was injured in a motorcycle accident a few months ago, they couldn’t do enough for me. Knowing what’s at stake with the bridge, they’ve really cooled it.”

Marquez, an admitted gang member, denied that the gang was causing trouble on the other side of the bridge: “We’re not doing anything over there. We may walk in a group, but we’re not bothering anyone.”

Burbank Police Chief David Newsham had a different assessment. He called the gang “a significant nuisance that has been responsible for a disproportionate number of our calls for service.”

He said gang members have held loud parties around the bridge and threatened residents who told them to quiet down.

“Shots being fired, unfortunately, is almost a weekly event over there,” he said.

Newsham added that violence has broken out when rival gangs would park on the western side of the bridge, walk across and fire shots down Elmwood.

Residents on the western side of the bridge have also complained to police that gang members have stolen radios out of security garages, painted graffiti on houses and walked down the street displaying weapons.

A nine-foot-high gate erected Sept. 18 on the bridge has had a dramatic effect on gang activity, Newsham said. The gate is locked in the late afternoon and is not opened again until the morning when children on the eastern side start going to school.

“There have been substantially less problems,” Newsham said. “If the bridge is taken out, we believe there will be substantially less incidents.”

Residents on the western side still fear that gang members or children can climb over the gate, prompting their insistence that the bridge be torn down.

City officials are concerned that young children may try to climb over the gate and fall into the wash. Tearing down the bridge is the only real solution, they said.

But those on the eastern side said children and elderly people will be inconvenienced by walking several more blocks to get to schools and markets.

Marquez said it would also be unsafe for gang members to walk on the main streets if the bridge were taken down. He said gang members would be more vulnerable to drive-by shootings, “and some kids or innocent bystanders might be hurt.”

Marquez’s statement angered Bush.

“If they’re afraid of getting shot, maybe they should reconsider their choice in what they’ve decided to do,” she said. “They live like that because they want to. Instead of being a gang, they should be individuals.”

Other residents on the western side of the bridge, many of whom said they did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, said it was untrue that they were affluent.

“I have to baby-sit to make ends meet,” said Melanie Low, who has lived on the block for 10 years. “I have to work round the clock to pay my bills.”

Bush said: “Everybody’s working and everybody’s struggling. We care about how our environment looks. We take care of it.”

Her neighbors said they had nothing against the residents on the other block. They pointed out that most of the residents living in a security apartment on their block were Latino and that other ethnic groups lived on the western side of the bridge.

“I’m just sorry they see it as a racial issue,” Bush said. “It isn’t. Not at all.”

“This whole thing really caught us by surprise,” City Manager Bud Ovrom said. “There are lots of people and lots of races on both sides of the bridge. But unfortunately, this has taken on the appearance of a racial issue. I think that’s very unfortunate.”