Anti-Drug Drive Puts the Play Back in Lanark Park

Not so long ago, Lanark Park was no place to play around.

Kids were scared of stepping on discarded syringes in the grass, or of being accosted by drug dealers. The park was regarded by police as the largest open-air drug market in the west San Fernando Valley.

But those fears were absent Saturday when about 50 young boys in bright new uniforms played league soccer for the first time as part of a Los Angeles city-sponsored celebration marking the elimination of blatant drug-related activity from the park.

City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the area, credited a neighborhood improvement program involving city officials, West Valley police, merchants, residents and property owners with cleaning up the park in Canoga Park.

“This is a real feel-good day,” Picus said during a short assembly at the park. “We’ve really taken back the park so that it belongs to the people who live here. We’re telling the drug dealers and people not up to positive things that there’s no place for them in this park.”

More than 504 people had been arrested at the park on narcotics-related charges since 1988. Police have said most transactions around the park involved small-time dealers selling narcotics to support their own rock-cocaine habit and casual drug users from outside the neighborhood. Drive-by drug deals, with some customers coming from affluent communities such as Encino and Agoura Hills, were an everyday occurrence.

As part of the yearlong effort to clean up the park, police continually patrolled the area. Also, residents were asked to write down and report license plate numbers of passing cars they suspected of being involved with drugs. Police would then send letters to car owners, saying their cars had been spotted in a neighborhood known for drug dealing.

City agencies also worked with property owners to improve apartment buildings, most of which were deteriorating or had been painted with graffiti. Area merchants donated equipment and uniforms to youths to encourage them to join the soccer league as an alternative to gangs.

“There used to be an unfavorable element around here,” said Bill Dusenbery, the park’s senior recreation director. “But they know not to come around here anymore.”