VENTURA : Group’s Anti-Crime Efforts Celebrated

One year after 300 angry Ventura Avenue residents crammed a school room to confront neighborhood drug and gang problems, members of a newly formed community coalition are celebrating their success.

In the past 12 months, members of the Westside Community Council have organized in an attempt to clean up their neighborhood, run off criminals and register people to vote.

“The challenges facing our community are daunting and the answers are not easy to come by,” Tony Antinarelli, chairman of the neighborhood council, told about 150 Ventura Avenue residents at a meeting late Thursday.

“But everybody can do something to participate.”

In May, 1994, days after gunshots rattled the neighborhood once too often for residents, community leaders held a town hall meeting to combat the escalating violence.

Since then, the Westside Community Council has become a political force, registering voters, appearing before the City Council and demanding neighborhood improvements.

With more than 250 members, the council has formed six subcommittees that target public safety, revitalization, homelessness, youth services, voter registration and community pride.

“People are coming out of their houses and they’re volunteering to do things,” said Michael Del Dosso, who heads the public safety committee.

“This is what makes a neighborhood,” he said.

The council now publishes a quarterly newsletter, offers weekend night alternatives to teen-agers, conducts residents’ neighborhood patrols and works to beautify the community.