Program Helps Brighten Blighted Anaheim Areas : Improvement: City-sponsored effort cleans out crime, cleans up targeted communities with assistance of residents, police and others.

When Yvonne Fernandez moved from the Guinida Lane neighborhood two years ago, she thought she was gone for good.

Drug dealing was so rampant in the three-block area that Fernandez, 32, was afraid to walk outside and feared for her three children.

“It was bad,” Fernandez said. “It was really bad. You couldn’t walk in the street without being offered drugs or asked for money.”

When Fernandez returned for a visit three months ago, she was amazed by the transformation. Gone were the drug dealers, transient crack cocaine users, panhandlers, and much of the graffiti. Ultimately, she moved back.

The area is one of five in the city that is currently going through the “Neighborhood Improvement Process,” a city program aimed at rejuvenating battered communities through code enforcement, drug sweeps and neighborhood cleanups.

The program, begun in 1989 in the city’s Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood, attempts to bring together residents, landlords, school employees, businesses and churches that have a stake in the neighborhood.

The goal, city officials say, is to improve the quality of life for residents who had come to accept the crime and blight that surrounded them. In all, 24 neighborhoods in Anaheim have been targeted.

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The first step in the Guinida Lane area was a series of undercover drug sweeps conducted over six months. More than 100 buyers and sellers were arrested.

“A crack cocaine epidemic had taken over the area and we attacked it,” Officer Richard Trujillo said. “At the same time, we put up lights, brightening up the street and making it less attractive for the bad element. So, when these drug pushers get out of jail, they say, ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t the same area.’ ”

In the first six months of 1993, there were 1,022 calls from the area to police. In the first six months of this year, there were 381. The number of robberies, burglaries, assaults, car thefts and other crimes were down significantly, police said.

Much of this can be attributed, residents say, to the presence of Trujillo, who has been assigned exclusively to the neighborhood since last October. He is part of the Police Department’s community-oriented policing team, a personal approach that is part of the Neighborhood Improvement Process.

Owners of some of the 49 apartment buildings have been encouraged by the drop in crime and are taking a more active role in improving and maintaining their properties.

Landlord Jerry Taylor, 62, who bought a four-unit building 20 years ago, said he tried to maintain his property but had felt he was fighting a losing battle in recent years.

“I felt hopeless,” Taylor said as he trimmed branches from a tree on his property. “I’d come here every week, paint out graffiti and pick up trash and replace broken windows. I’d come back a week later, and it would be the same thing all over again.”

But Taylor said things have improved dramatically in the past year.

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“A year ago, there was drug dealing out in the open and shooting, and nobody seemed to care,” he said. “But the city and the police really got in here and cleaned it up, and everyone is working real hard to make this turnaround.”

The program is funded by the city, with county, state or federal grants, and through partnerships with apartment owners, officials said.

“The city really needs to be proactive in these neighborhoods, because the alternative is that things get worse,” said Steven E. Swaim, the city’s community services superintendent.

Principal Patsy Tafolla said she had been trying to unite parents to clean up the area for years, with little success.

“As soon as the city manager’s office and the police stepped in, things started moving really fast and in a much more efficient way,” Tafolla said.

The elementary school, where parents hold monthly meetings about the neighborhood, also served as headquarters two weeks ago when the city organized a neighborhood cleanup.

Dozens of tenants and their children, apartment managers and landlords canvassed the area along with city officials, carrying trash bags, paintbrushes, rakes and brooms. They spent the day weeding, picking up trash and painting over graffiti.

“Doing this not only brings us together but it also makes us feel safer,” Tafolla said during the cleanup.

Elfriede Striet, who has managed an apartment building for 23 years, said when she “came here, this neighborhood was like Anaheim Hills. Now, it’s Skid Row.”

But she is encouraged.

“We were prisoners who couldn’t walk out our front door without being harassed,” Striet said. “We complained so much and we just kept complaining, and they have taken some action and cleaned it up a lot. It really gives you faith in the system.”

Steps to Safe Streets

Anaheim’s program for transforming crime-infested enclaves into safe neighborhoods combines efforts of police, social services, property owners and tenants. Here are the steps:

1. Analyze neighborhood demographics and crime statistics.

2. Organize meetings among police, residents and owners; formulate improvement plan.

3. Involve local businesses and social groups to finance and organize the plan.

4. Implement neighborhood improvement plan; increase police patrols.

5. Evaluate goals to ensure plan is maintained through life of neighborhood.

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Source: City of Anaheim