Street That Won Anti-Drug Fight Seeks New Name

For more than two decades, residents and property owners on a portion of Eucalyptus Avenue in Bellflower have been fighting a seesaw battle with drug dealers for control of their street. Now, with the anti-drug forces seemingly holding the upper hand, some of them want to get rid of Eucalyptus Avenue altogether.

No, they don’t want to abolish the street. They want to abolish the name.

Under the un-Shakespearean theory that Eucalyptus Avenue by any other name would not be Eucalyptus Avenue, some residents, property owners and city officials think it might be a good idea to eventually change the name of the street.

It may sound superficial, and everyone agrees that it would be only one small facet of the continuing fight against drug dealing. But some think a new name just might help erase the bad reputation that hangs over the street--a reputation that draws bad elements like a magnet.

“A name change might be one little piece of the solution,” said John Peterson, who owns two apartment buildings on the street. “It might help us get away from the reputation the street has developed over the years.”

“A name change by itself wouldn’t solve the problem,” said Mike Egan, supervisor of the city’s Public Safety Department. “We have to fix the things that cause the problem in the first place. But if we can get all those things working, then maybe changing the name would help.”

The portion of Eucalyptus Avenue at issue is a two-block section just south of Alondra Boulevard in Bellflower, a generally quiet suburban community of about 62,000 people.

At first glance, the neighborhood does not seem a likely spot for drug dealing. The street is lined with trees, many of the lawns are well-maintained, and the apartment buildings and small homes that line the street, while not luxurious, are not the grim urban tenements most people associate with drug dealers. Apartments in the neighborhood rent for $450 to $650 a month.

However, the neighborhood is densely populated, with as many as 2,500 people crammed into the two-block stretch. Of those, residents and property owners say, a small percentage cause the problems.

The problems have at times been horrendous. In recent years, the on-street drug dealing and drug buying was so prevalent that buyers’ cars were lined up two deep along the street. Residents couldn’t pull out of their driveways. Other crime was rampant. Many residents didn’t walk on the street at night and did so with trepidation even in daylight.

“It was bad,” said Kessia Jimmerson, 15, who has lived in a townhouse on the street off and on for three years. “If you walked down the street (the drug dealers) would be calling you . . . and talking bad. It was thuggish. It makes the street look real bad.”

The problems on the street, residents say, date back more than 20 years, when a group of motorcyclists took up residence and began dealing drugs. Over the years since then, Eucalyptus has become known throughout the area as the street where drugs are easily available. In recent years, those drugs have included crack cocaine.

There have been periodic crackdowns. In 1989, for example, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, who provide police protection to Bellflower, made 100 drug-related arrests on the street in three months. Later, a street barrier at the intersection with Alondra was erected to discourage non-resident traffic.

The problem went away for a while, residents say. Suddenly, children could play outside and residents could walk the sidewalks without fear. But gradually the drug dealers came back.

Some residents and city officials blame absentee landlords, who either didn’t know or didn’t care that they were renting apartments to drug dealers. In some cases, they were renting to dealers who had just been evicted from other units on the street.

“We would go in with law enforcement and remove the people who were creating the problem,” Bellflower City Councilman Bob Stone said. “Then they would get out of jail, or whatever, and come back and reinfest the street. Some property owners would continue to rent to those same kind of people.”

“It gets cleaned up, people forget about it, and then, boom, it’s back again,” said Rod Nisbet, who has owned an apartment building on the street since 1962.

The situation on Eucalyptus was not only dangerous for the residents but also expensive for taxpayers. According to Egan, in three years the city spent $300,000 for law enforcement on that two-block section of Eucalyptus alone.

The most recent crackdown came in July, when deputies arrested 23 people on the street for various drug offenses. Although residents say some problem elements remain, most agree that the street is far better off than it was even four months ago.

And this time, residents and property owners say, they’re going to make it stick.

“This time we can’t let our guard down,” said Leon Shoag, who owns a 15-unit apartment building on the street. “It’s 95% better than it was, but if we let our guard down it will come right back. This time we’re going to win this battle.”

Part of that battle involves getting property owners to evict and refuse to rent to known drug dealers. Peterson, Shoag and others have started an informal association of apartment owners to monitor problem tenants and inform other owners and managers if a tenant has been evicted for drug dealing. Property owners have also vowed to screen their prospective tenants more closely.

“We’ve got almost every (apartment) manager and 90% of the owners to cooperate and work with us,” Peterson said.

A Neighborhood Watch organization also keeps track of activity on the street and works closely with law enforcement and the property owners’ group. A local group called Bellflower Against Gangs also is working in the neighborhood and last week sponsored a street fair to “help promote the new atmosphere of safety and harmony,” according to a flyer for the event. Hundreds of people attended.

Meanwhile, cosmetic changes are being made. Last week, the barrier at the end of the street was removed after property owners complained that it had outlived its usefulness and was scaring away prospective tenants.

And the possibility of changing the street’s name was raised--so that decent tenants won’t automatically pass over an ad for a Eucalyptus Avenue apartment simply because of the street’s bad reputation.

Changing a street name is difficult, and expensive for residents and businesses. But at least some people think there’s something in a name.

“Right now Eucalyptus Avenue is known for things that have happened in the past,” Peterson said. “We’ve got to get away from that reputation. Maybe a name change might make a difference.”

“I think we ought to call it Peaceful Haven,” said Rose Sarnowski, who has lived on the street for 12 years. “It’s a nice name. And it’s what we want the street to be.”