A Tragedy That Hovers Over a Community

As 1996 begins, very few folks in the Northeast communities of L.A. have forgotten Stephanie Kuhen. In case you have forgotten, she was the 3-year-old girl riding in a car that went down the wrong street in the middle of the night in Cypress Park and was raked with gunfire by gang members. She was killed and her 2-year-old brother was wounded. Her death outraged many Angelenos and people across the nation, including President Clinton, who felt that Latino punk gangsters showed no decency by killing an innocent little girl--a little white girl at that. Many Cypress Park residents also were outraged at the killing but even more so at the unyielding attention their neighborhood attracted.

In addition, they were angry at politicians who presumably haven’t done enough to improve their streets and schools, something outsiders only noticed after the killing.

No one wants a repeat of the murder.

Today, in issues as diverse as police protection and Little League, the memory of little Stephanie won’t be far away. She will be used again and again in the fight for better services and, not surprisingly, against unpopular officeholders.

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In the wake of the shooting, no official has felt the Northeast’s wrath more than L.A. City Councilman Mike Hernandez, who represents Cypress Park. Hernandez was savaged at several community meetings for doing too little to stem the area’s gang problems. The Cypress Park library is inadequate, residents complained. The longtime fire station, recently abandoned by the Fire Department, had become a magnet for troublemakers, they said.

When Hernandez told residents he had quietly found money to address these problems, they were even more enraged because he had not consulted them on how to spend the money. “He’s no longer one of us,” said Art Pulido, a boyhood friend who now is the councilman’s frequent critic.

No doubt, Hernandez will hear some criticism when a new police substation opens today in Cypress Park for the express purpose of fighting gang violence. It will heighten the police presence in an area where officers are already stretched to the limit.

And to meet criticism about the abandoned fire station, that’s where the substation will be located: on Cypress Avenue just minutes from where last September’s attack occurred. Along with officers from the Northeast station, a city schools truant officer and a county parole officer will work out of the substation.

“It’s a win-win situation for the community,” said Morrie Goldman, Hernandez’s chief of staff.

But Cypress Park resident Joe Gonzalez had another view: “This should have happened before the little girl died.”

I don’t think even Hernandez argues with that.

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Stephanie’s memory also hangs over small things--like Little League. There are plans to start Little League baseball in areas from Echo Park to Highland Park, territory which includes--you guessed it--Cypress Park.

These neighborhoods have city-sponsored baseball but not Little League; there hasn’t been the support, the interest or perhaps the need--until now. It’s about time, says Joe Molina of Highland Park, whose wife, Cathy, heads the area’s fledgling Little League program. “Why can’t our kids compete for the championship in Williamsport?”

The city Recreation and Parks Department officials, Molina says, don’t want Little League baseball anywhere in the Northeast area because they think the city’s programs are adequate.

With Little League’s season scheduled to begin in April, the Molinas and others are fighting Recreation and Parks to play Little League games in city parks, which have the only adequate facilities in the area.

Despite the $300,000-plus Little League has pledged toward using and upgrading the facilities, Joe Molina says the department is stonewalling Little League.

Two sites are coveted by Little League: one in Bishop’s Canyon, a stone’s throw from Dodger Stadium, and the other in San Pascual Park in Highland Park. While the Bishop’s Canyon site, which is in Hernandez’s council district, seems assured, continued squabbling over San Pascual and its subpar facilities has frustrated and angered both sides. The catch is that if Little Leagues pays for improvements, like lights and bathrooms, it wants first dibs on the field, and the city is reluctant to agree.

The battling has reached the ears of Councilman Richard Alatorre, the consummate deal-maker whose district includes San Pascual.

When I called about the dispute, Alatorre simply said: “I support the Little League even if they can be a pain in the butt. I want it to happen. It’s going to happen.”

Molina wants it to happen, too: “Right now, the only organized sport around here are the gangs.” As far as he’s concerned, the more 8-year-olds there are playing baseball, the fewer 15-year-olds will wind up playing with guns--or ambushing 3-year-olds.