Tiny Park Source of Sizable Gang Problem : Crime: City debates solutions, which are to close it or increase security, install lights and keep park open for neighborhood children.

Some of the residents of the small stucco homes near Pequeno Park are fed up with loitering, drinking, drug use and fighting in their neighborhood. They want the park closed.

“A lot of times, they start fighting right there,” said Marcelina Olague, 66, who lives down the street. “You’re just afraid to go up there.”

Then there are residents like Lupe Marquez, whose young children use Pequeno Park several times a week. Marquez lives across from the tidy park, which does not look like a gang haven with its manicured lawn and graffiti-free equipment. She takes her children there to play in the morning or early afternoon, before the gang members begin to congregate.

Post a guard, take care of the problem one way or another, but please keep the park open for the children, she pleaded. “They like to go to the park a lot,” said Marquez, 28.

The complaints have caught the attention of the Paramount City Council, which is trying to come up with a solution.

The city recently sent questionnaires to 400 residences to gauge community sentiment toward the tiny park, a 30-by-180-foot strip on the northwest corner of Downey Avenue and Ackley Street.

The results of the survey, which 47 residents answered, were clear in one regard: 90% of the respondents said the park was plagued by gang members.

But the respondents were not overwhelmingly in favor of closing the park. Fifty-three percent said Pequeno Park was not a benefit to the community, but 45% said it was.

Because of the mixed response, the City Council decided to look into the cost of installing lights to make the park safer at night. It is scheduled to discuss the issue at its April 6 meeting. In the meantime, sheriff’s deputies have been patrolling the park more frequently, a city official said.

“During the patrols we’ve not noticed any activity,” said Patrick West, deputy city manager.

And deputies say arrests are rare because the troublemakers leave when they catch sight of a patrol car. “It’s a small, little park and they can see us coming,” sheriff’s Lt. Bob Briggs said.

Councilman Manuel E. Guillen, who was approached by fearful residents several months ago, said he believes the park should be closed.

“We just don’t have the resources to put policemen in every corner,” Guillen said. “If I could close it down, yes, I would close it down.”

Pequeno Park was surplus county land that was deeded to the city in the late 1960s, West said. The city planted grass and installed some swings and a sandbox.

In 1983, Paramount spent about $20,000 to spruce up the park. It installed a low chain-link fence and put in new playground equipment, a barbecue, picnic table and shelter.

But the park, located in a gang-plagued area, quickly became a youth hangout.

Neighboring residents reported serious problems at the park in 1989. A city review of Sheriff’s Department records during a two-month period showed 10 calls for service in the area, according to a city report. The calls included reports of shootings, fights, graffiti painting and loitering. But there was only one arrest--for possession of the hallucinogenic drug PCP.

The city directed sheriff’s deputies to patrol the park more frequently for several months. The city’s civilian community service officers also frequented the park, West said.

“The activity kind of went away,” West said.

But the respite did not last long. About four months ago, residents started complaining of increasing gang activity.

City and sheriff’s officials said they have not compiled statistics for recent crime activity in the Pequeno Park area. They are relying on the accounts from residents, who attest to loitering, drinking, drug use, fighting and drive-by shootings, West said.

“It’s really been bad,” said a 57-year-old resident who asked not to be identified. “I don’t get any use out of it. I have a 14-year-old granddaughter who’s afraid to come down here.” She wants the park closed.

Olivia Arellano, 39, lives across the street from Pequeno Park. She has a bullet hole in her screen door, and says the round nearly hit one of her teen-age children. She figures the shooting was related to the youths who congregate in the park.

But Arellano said the open space is a neighborhood resource and closing it is not the answer.

“There are (gang members) there, but it’s not our fault,” Arellano said.

City officials say they do not know if they will be able to find a solution short of closing the park. The lights may work. But if they don’t, the park may have to be landscaped with so many trees and shrubs that youths are not able to congregate, officials said.

“It’s tough enough for children, for kids, to find a place to play,” Councilman Henry Harkema said. “At the same time, we have to give them a safe place to play. If we can’t solve it, we’ll shut it down.”