Double Vision : El Rio as Utopia or a Community Besieged by Decay

By TINA DAUNT

May 1, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Traffic on the Ventura Freeway whips past Louie Rocha’s El Rio home at afrantic pace, creating a constant roar that pierces the thick cinder-block walls. Yet he tunes out the noise.

To Rocha, his house in this tiny community is still the peaceful haven he built for his family 49 years ago. He insists the water from neighborhood wells is still pure, despite occasional warnings to the contrary from health inspectors.

He says El Rio’s streets are still safe, though members of one of the county’s most active gangs patrol the neighborhood at night with their guns and spray paint.

While the signs of decay have besieged the area, it is still seen by Rocha and many others here as an everyman’s Utopia--a place where a plot of ground can be turned into a dream built of clapboard and stucco.

“When I got out of the service, I just wanted a piece of land to call my own,” said Rocha, 71, who bought a half-acre on Cortez Street for $4,700 in 1945. “My wife and I raised seven kids here. They all turned out good. I attribute that to the community.”

El Rio boosts a population of 6,419--with Latinos accounting for 64.3% and whites making up 30.8%--on fewer than 10 square blocks wedged between Vineyard and Rose avenues, north of Oxnard.

Once considered a country haven, the community is now nearly surrounded by commercial development. Half of El Rio lies in the shadow of the Ventura Freeway while the eastern portion borders Oxnard’s new auto mall.

But some symbols of urbanization are nonexistent here. There is no sewer system; residents depend on septic tanks as they have for decades. There are no fancy restaurants and grocery stores, only modest markets and hamburger and taco stands along a small commercial strip.

There are no sidewalks or street lights--residents would rather muddle through in darkness than pay for such a luxury, which many people cannot afford.

According to the 1990 U. S. Census, the median income per household is $35,991--nearly $10,000 below the county’s median. Also, 12.4% of El Rio’s population lives below the poverty level, almost double the county’s rate.

Yet for all the problems in this little community, many parents who have spent their lives here hope their children and grandchildren will do the same.

Although the residences may be weather-beaten and cracked, they are passed from one generation to the next. The census found extraordinary stability in El Rio. Sixty-one percent of the current population lived in the same residence in 1985, far higher than the county’s rate of 45%.

“It’s my turn now to raise my children here,” said Rebecca Dominguez, whose grandfather moved to El Rio in 1910. “I hope to have my grandchildren here. We have a closeness in this community I don’t believe exists in city life. We all have something to be proud of.”

The community was founded in the late 1800s by Simon Cohn, a merchant who set up a general store where the Ventura Freeway’s northbound exit ramp at Vineyard Avenue is now situated. Originally, the community was called New Jerusalem because of Cohn’s Jewish heritage, but it was later renamed El Rio because of its proximity to the Santa Clara River.

Once flush with fields of lima beans and sugar beets, the area eventually gave way to development, with early settlers carving out large plots to raise chickens and grow vegetables.

From the start, there was a push for independence that, even today, drives the area’s politics.

“We want to be left alone,” said Rocha, El Rio’s rebel rouser and unofficial mayor. “We don’t have street sweepers and all that other stuff, and we don’t want them. If we want the streets clean, the old ladies and the old men get out with their push-brooms and clean our streets.

“We feel we can get along without all those city conveniences because we can do it ourselves.”

While other unincorporated areas of the county turned to nearby cities to supply their water and educate their children, El Rio went its own way.

El Rio may not have sidewalks, but it has its own water companies, six of them, in fact. And while the community finds it too expensive to pay for sewers, it has its own school district, which operates four elementary schools and a junior high in El Rio.

Whenever rumors arise that Oxnard might annex the tiny community, residents pepper county officials with petitions to fight the move, saying the city would only raise their taxes.

“People figure that it has been working fine with the way it is, so why not just stick with it,” said Ernest J. Almanza, 58, who has served on El Rio’s school board for nearly 29 years.

And there are other quirky things about El Rio. Within the core of the community, more than a dozen churches beckon the faithful, though some of the structures are now vacant because of a lack of worshipers.

Although cable television was hooked up in El Rio years ago, giant television antennas still tower over rooftops, standing by just in case modern technology fails.

On the street corners, residents set up makeshift fruit stands: Four avocados for a dollar, two persimmons for 25 cents. In the mornings, residents awaken to sounds of crowing roosters and freeway traffic.

Rebecca Dominguez could afford to move elsewhere with her three children, ages 10, 13 and 15. At age 38, she has a good job as a paralegal in Ventura. Yet she prefers to remain in El Rio, living just blocks away from the house where she grew up.

“The community is so tightknit,” Dominguez said. “Even if you are not related, you feel like you are related. The old ones pass on and the second or third generation comes in. No one misses a step. It just goes on.”

Roger McDonald, pastor of the First Baptist Church of El Rio, moved to the area five years ago, impressed by the community’s spirit. These days, however, McDonald says he is bothered by El Rio’s tendency to fight progress.

“People resist becoming a part of Oxnard and I see that as being a bad thing for us,” McDonald said. “It makes us look like a poor community. I don’t like the fact that we are considered ‘Little El Rio’ over here. I would much rather be considered North Oxnard.”

Another troubling aspect of life in El Rio, residents say, is gang activity.

At night, members of El Rio’s gang gather at a boarded-up house on Balboa Street. Their activities have become so notorious that residents have nicknamed the avenue “Trouble Street.” Weekend shootings and stabbings are common.

Last month, sheriff’s deputies said they were called to Balboa Street to break up a fight. They found one of the local gang members stabbed in the chest but not mortally wounded.

One woman, who asked not to be named, said she avoids going out after dark because she is afraid of the young thugs.

“I’m scared,” said the woman, a resident of Balboa Street. “After the sun goes down, I don’t go out for any reason. They just come here to do trouble.

“Ten days ago, a gang from La Colonia (in Oxnard) came over to fight. I heard 17 gunshots. Aye, ye, ye. Too much trouble.”

Ruth Thomas, 82, has lived in El Rio for more than 20 years. Now she wishes she could move and leave behind the noise and the local ruffians.

“There are too many problems here,” she said. “The neighborhood is not what it used to be . . . I made a mistake not to get away.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who represents the area, says he is trying to take steps to help clean up the community.

Using money raised from Proposition 172, the half-cent sales tax initiative approved by voters in November, the Sheriff’s Department recently stepped up its night patrol of the area. Flynn also said he has plans under way to set up a storefront substation on Cortez Street.

Also, Flynn has started an effort to raise money to build a gym and activity center for area youths.

“I don’t want to paint it as a crime area,” Flynn said. “But the youth need a lot of attention. They have not had a lot of supervised activities. We want to get them more involved in healthier activities. We think we can.”

Yet gangs are only one of El Rio’s woes.

During the worst of the drought, nitrate levels in the community’s water supply have exceeded normal limits, prompting state health inspectors to force residents to drink bottled water until the water became safe again.

Lowell Preston, manager of the county’s water resources department, said he believes it is just a matter of time before nitrate levels become so high that El Rio must permanently shut down its neighborhood wells.

“Everyone has their own little well and their own little water company,” Preston said. “They have their own ideas about the way things should be done and they want their independence. Maybe they are a little shortsighted.

“Right now they have plenty of water in their wells because its raining. But that’s not going to always be the case. They don’t want to join Oxnard, but they might not have any choice when their wells run dry.”

Rocha becomes angry when he hears outsiders talk about El Rio’s problems.

“Here we go again,” Rocha said. “Our water is so good, I can drink it day and night and it’s perfect. You go to Oxnard and the water is lousy.

“As for the gangs, we used to have problems here. But we quieted those kids up long, long ago.

“It’s beautiful to live in El Rio. . . . It’s so peaceful here.”

Ida Grajeda, 83, who has lived across the street from Rocha since 1947, knows the community has its problems. But, because of her age, she said it’s easy for her to stay.

“If I go somewhere else, I won’t know who my neighbors are,” she said. “I’ve got good neighbors here.”

El Rio at a Glance

Population: 6,419

RACIAL BREAKDOWN

Latino: 64.3%

White: 30.8%

Asian: 2.2%

Black: .47%

Other: 2.2%

EDUCATION(Residents 18 and older)

High school degrees: 54.9%

College degrees: 7.1%