Changing Tunes : Orcas Park: Lively music brought a crush of visitors, and a spate of fights. Officials, residents and park users join forces to solve problems.

Fast-paced music isn’t the only cause of a recent spate of fights and drunkenness at Orcas Park in Lake View Terrace, but it certainly doesn’t help things, authorities and residents agree. But a cooperative effort by police, neighbors and park visitors seems to be bringing the situation under control.

Live bands began playing banda music around four months ago, a change from the mariachi music that previously filled the air on Sundays in the park. And the dance music began drawing crowds of more than 1,000 people from East Los Angeles and elsewhere.

“The music is nice, but it’s just that the people get too excited,” said Carmen Perez, 21, of Sun Valley. “It’s a total change.”

The changes have translated into headaches for some residents, who charge that on Sundays park patrons jam nearby neighborhoods with their cars and hang out on equestrian trails in the nearby Hansen Dam Equestrian Center. Some cars are parked on the riding trails, the residents say.

The problems climaxed with a melee that broke out July 5 when police tried to stop a man from drinking alcohol in public. One officer was hit with a rock during the disruption and four men were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

Since then, authorities, residents and park users have joined forces to reduce the tensions at the popular weekend gathering spot by discouraging drinking and reducing overcrowding.

Irene Tovar, a Mission Hills resident and Latina activist, said the park gatherings are a positive alternative to gangs for young Latinos in the area and should not be halted, as some residents have urged, because of a few problems.

“Traditionally, in Latin American countries, going to the park is a very important Sunday event,” Tovar said. “Where else are low-income people going to go with their families?”

Live music is integral to a traditional Sunday at the park and, of late, the music at Orcas has been upbeat. Banda means band in Spanish, but it is used to describe various types of dance music that are played live, including salsa and a sort of Mexican polka.

“Banda is coming on strong, and it’s getting very popular again in Los Angeles,” said Carlos Higgins, owner of Club Bahia in Los Angeles. “It’s a Mexican polka that’s very happy, very fast and very easy to dance to.”

Fans of Mexican strains of banda music outfit themselves like cowboys in jeans, hats and boots, he said.

Although banda music and the dance it inspires is popular among fans of all ages, its most enthusiastic fans tend to be younger, said Tony Cruiz, a salsa music promoter in Los Angeles. But the emergence of the rhythmic music at Orcas Park has brought a change in crowds, with music lovers now coming to the small park on Sundays from farther away.

“There are a lot of different people coming here,” said Edward Gonzalez, 24, of North Hills. “They don’t always get along with the regulars here,” and fights are frequent, he said.

Whatever the causes, frustrated residents say they want peace restored to their neighborhood.

“Orcas Park has been a problem for a number of years, but in the last six months it has really gotten bad,” said Lew Snow, secretary of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. “We have a number of people in the community who would like to see a small thermonuclear device dropped on the park.”

To address the problems, six bilingual police officers have been posted for the past month at the park’s entrance on weekends to confiscate alcohol and distribute flyers listing the park’s rules in Spanish. Police Sgt. Leonard Cross said the additional police, who are working overtime shifts, would remain on duty on Sundays through the summer.

On Sunday afternoons, two mounted rangers also patrol the park.

“Once we explained the rules to the people in the language they understand, they . . . wanted to cooperate,” said Tovar, who spent several weekends passing out the flyers.

Park officials have also opened a 300-space parking lot to reduce the overflow of cars into the neighborhood, added some portable restrooms and created a new picnic area with 40 tables at the Hansen Dam Sports Center, a quarter-mile west of Orcas Park, said Martin Castille, a senior park maintenance supervisor. About 20 barbecue pits and some portable bathrooms will be added to the picnic area. Another access road is being built to improve the flow of cars into the popular recreation area.

Residents praise authorities for the change in atmosphere.

“It’s been like night and day for the last month since the police and the mounted park rangers have arrived,” said Eddie J. Milligan, who operates the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center under a contract with the city.

“Now, on Sundays, people don’t mind coming down to exercise their horses,” he said. “But before, at least 50% of the people who board their horses here would stay home.”

Snow described the changes at Orcas Park as “vast improvements,” but he said more needs to be done.

“The additional parking spaces helped, but I still have seen a great number of cars illegally parked and blocking driveways,” Snow said. “So, until the city commits to having the Department of Transportation out there on Sundays towing cars, the neighbors are still going to have big problems.”