COSTA MESA : Meeting to Address Community Safety

Representatives from the Police Department, school district and the city will attend a neighborhood meeting Wednesday organized by a resident of east Costa Mesa.

Patty Baugh, an Albert Place homeowner for seven years, said she has become concerned about neighborhood safety.

“Things have just been changing,” Baugh said. “There are extra adults wandering the streets in the daytime that weren’t there before. I don’t know where they came from. It makes me nervous.”

Community Relations Officer Sue Crouse, who plans to speak Wednesday about crime prevention, said police have not noticed an increase in crime in the east side, but vigilance will help keep the neighborhood safe.

“People are becoming more aware,” Crouse said. “I think you’re seeing more people becoming involved in the neighborhood. Their eyes are opening up, but we haven’t seen an increase in crime.”

Baugh has invited gang detail officers and Roy Alvarado, a gang prevention counselor, to help educate people.

Baugh serves on the board of directors of the Eastside Homeowners Assn., which she said represents about 20,000 homes east of Newport Boulevard and south of Mesa Drive.

Among other things, code enforcement officers will talk about rules governing yard sales--which are sometimes held more often than the two times the city allows yearly, Baugh said.

“Some of these laws and codes aren’t enforced, but I think if we bother (city workers), then the laws are enforced,” Baugh said.

She praised Mac Bernd, supervisor of the Newport Mesa Unified School District, for agreeing to attend, and said she received help from Crouse and other city workers.

Representatives from the Mesa Consolidated Water District, neighborhood watch groups, the animal control department and the housing and community development department also will appear at the meeting, Baugh said.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Kaiser Elementary School, 2130 Santa Ana Ave.