Residents March on Svorinich’s Office

About 20 Watts residents, including half a dozen children, braved the rain Tuesday afternoon and marched down 103rd Avenue to the office of City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. to complain about nuisance abandoned houses and other urban perils.

Members of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now said they have been trying since the August slaying of 82-year-old Viola McClain--which followed the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in a vacant home--to meet with Svorinich, but to no avail.

“We asked for a meeting and he doesn’t pay any attention to us,” Maria Soliz, a seven-year resident of Watts, said in Spanish. “We want more protection. There’s a lot of prostitution. The kids are walking to school--there’s trash in the streets. There’s almost no police. There are many problems. We want help from the councilman.”

But Soliz and most of the ACORN members were left out in the drizzle while their leaders went to talk to Svorinich staffers. At 4 p.m., one aide emerged to close and lock the iron gate outside the office door, not speaking to the protesters, including teens and toddlers in carriages, as they waited on the wet sidewalk.

Those in the meeting said Barry Glickman, Svorinich’s chief of staff, promised to set up meetings for ACORN with various city bureaucrats who handle nuisance abatement, but would not commit to a date for them to talk directly to the council member.

“He said a lot of stuff we want to hear,” said Juan Melendrez, 23, one of the residents who met with Glickman. “But we want to see stuff done, not just hear it. It’s the same thing: put on hold.”

Earlier in the day, Glickman said he had never before heard that the residents wanted to meet with Svorinich.