Power to the People

When a “nuisance liquor store”--one that sold alcohol to minors and was a hangout for drug dealers--threatened their South Los Angeles neighborhood in 1992, residents fought back.

Already organized as the 90th, 91st, 92nd and 93rd Street block clubs, the homeowners used their clout to pressure the city to require the owner to install security lighting and hire a security guard.

Because of the clubs’ persistent efforts, the disgruntled owner moved out and the store is now a coin laundry.

The four South Los Angeles block clubs are among the thousands of neighborhood organizations in Southern California.

Representing an area as small as one block or as large as an entire community, neighborhood organizations or associations have the same goal: working together to improve the quality of life for residents.

They are thriving in neighborhoods rich and poor and take on tasks ranging from graffiti cleanup to crime prevention to lobbying against new development.

The exact number of neighborhood associations is difficult to track down, but there are 700 to 1,000 in the city of Los Angeles alone, according to Terry Cooper, professor of public administration at USC, who is compiling a database of neighborhood organizations in the city.

Neighborhood associations--volunteer, grass-roots groups--are not the same as homeowners’ associations, which usually feature mandatory membership.

Residents of condo complexes or other developments where ownership of land and amenities is shared automatically become members of homeowners’ associations, which manage budgets and control maintenance and repair services.

Community associations are not new. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the first true neighborhood organizations were charitable groups that helped the less fortunate and civic associations formed to maintain upscale appearances in wealthy areas.

It wasn’t until the 1960s and ‘70s, however, that the idea of neighborhood associations really took off, when social activism spurred the growth of federally funded organizations in lower-income areas.

More recently, neighborhood groups are emerging in higher-income communities.

“In the past five years, we’re getting more calls from exurbs and suburbs,” said Ricardo Byrd, executive director of the National Assn. of Neighborhoods.

Concerns From Crime to the Environment

“People are concerned about crime and environmental issues. The problems are not to the same degree as in the inner city, but these areas are not the utopia people once thought they were.”

According to Karen Harber, spokesperson for the national organization Neighborhoods USA, which has 1,100 members, up from 350 seven years ago, “The reason for the growth of these groups is that the amount of money cities allocate to neighborhoods is tighter, and people don’t like the way government is spending money.”

Lack of funding has forced homeowners to take responsibility for such services as street and park maintenance, either by pressuring government for more aid or doing the work themselves.

The Garfield Heights Neighborhood Assn. in Pasadena, for example, has raised $40,000 from a community development block grant and $25,000 from Wells Fargo Bank to develop a neighborhood plan with the nonprofit Los Angeles Community Design Center.

“The plan will look at issues such as signs, lighting, beautification and other improvements,” said Aprile Boettcher, president of the 320-household association.

“We’re trying to be creative in our sources of funding,” she said, explaining that besides grants, the association seeks services and donations from residents.

“For example, when we beautify our walkways, we’ll ask people who are gardeners to help and ask people whose walkways are being improved to donate $20.”

Garfield Heights--which is north of Orange Grove Boulevard and bordered on the west by Marengo Avenue and the east by Los Robles Avenue--was recently named a landmark district by the Pasadena City Council.

The designation marks an area’s historical or architectural significance, and residents are restricted in the changes or improvements they can make to their homes.

Throughout the Southland, residents also are realizing that if they want to improve their communities, they have a better chance of influencing city government if they band together.

“As a group we are so much more powerful than an individual,” said Juliet Kiperman, vice president of the Los Feliz Improvement Assn., which has 1,362 members and is one of the oldest neighborhood organizations in Los Angeles.

One of the Los Feliz group’s most recent accomplishments was lobbying city government to update the outdated water system in nearby Griffith Park, which was creating a fire hazard for residents. Members, by writing hundreds of letters and turning out in full force for standing-room-only hearings, convinced the Department of Water and Power, the mayor and the City Council to replace the pumps.

Neighborhood organizations do not form spontaneously; most get started because of an urgent issue that rallies residents.

According to Los Feliz association president Charlotte De Armond, the group was formed in 1916 to keep Los Feliz, an affluent neighborhood on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, as a primarily residential area.

Influencing zoning decisions, De Armond said, has always been a key association activity.

“If there’s any request for a deviation in the city code,” she said, “we evaluate what the homeowner is requesting. If it will change the character of the neighborhood, we will try to keep the zoning administrator from approving it.”

A lack of police presence has also been a recurring problem for Los Feliz, said Kiperman, explaining that residents worry about gangs that congregate in nearby Griffith Park.

“But the [Los Angeles Police Department’s] Northeast Division covers such a huge area,” she said, “that they wouldn’t come into our area, so in 1993 we established a Community Police Center to bring them to us.”

Overcoming Scarcity of Police Officers

The center, which opened in more spacious quarters in February on the second floor of a Cal Fed building on Hillhurst Avenue, is a place for officers to write reports, meet residents and in general maintain a stronger presence in the community.

The scarcity of police officers in the neighborhood was also an issue for Bel-Air’s Roscomare Valley Assn., which several years ago hired a private security patrol to keep an eye out for suspicious activity.

The Roscomare association, which has about 300 members, was founded in 1952 to “enhance and protect property values” during a local growth spurt, said president Steve Twining.

“For example, we’re always trying to find ways to reduce speed on Roscomare Road because the street is an alternative to the 405 [freeway], and the traffic lowers our property values.”

The group has made some headway in controlling traffic: It purchased a $15,000 electronic “speed board” that shows drivers how fast they are going and has petitioned the city to install low speed humps on Roscomare Road.

The association is concerned about natural disasters. Fire is a constant threat--most of the area’s homes were destroyed in the Bel-Air fire in 1961--and many homeowners suffered damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The association pressures the city and county fire departments to maintain proper equipment, and sponsors emergency disaster training for residents.

In southeast Los Angeles, residents are struggling to help their neighborhoods deal with a different set of problems. Crime, graffiti, gangs, vicious stray dogs and a host of other problems motivated Elizabeth McClellan to start the 91st Street Block Club, one of many block clubs in the area, each consisting of about 20 to 40 homes.

The 91st Street club, founded in 1989, became especially active after the 1992 L.A. riots.

“Everything was out of control,” McClellan said. “Prostitutes on the corner, gangs smoking crack on the streets, people dumping their trash here.”

Determined to make their street safer, McClellan and her neighbors sought help from local police and their city councilman’s office.

Most neighborhood organizations, like McClellan’s, work closely with local government. They try to influence decision-makers through letter-writing, lobbying the mayor or City Council members, attending hearings and serving on advisory committees. Some may take more forceful measures, such as protests, boycotts and legal action.

Many neighborhood groups bring their concerns to City Council deputies who act as liaisons to the community. Other cities sponsor programs that work exclusively with neighborhood groups, such as Neighborhood Connections in Pasadena, founded in 1987.

“We help groups determine how best to use the city’s resources,” said Cynthia Abbott, former program coordinator for Neighborhood Connections, which serves about 90 neighborhood groups.

“For example, if a business wants to sell alcohol and needs a conditional-use permit, we will identify the neighborhoods near that business and notify them of any hearings.”

Another government-sponsored program, the Eight District Empowerment Congress in southeast Los Angeles, was established by Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas in 1992.

The congress, an early form of the “neighborhood advisory councils” being considered under charter reform, is broken down into four neighborhood development councils.

These groups of elected neighborhood leaders meet regularly to discuss residents’ concerns, which are then relayed to the council member’s staff.

“We’ve got one arm in the community; the other reaches to the city councilman’s office,” said McClellan, who is a member of one of the neighborhood development councils.

“If there’s a problem with stray dogs, the block captains can come to me, and I have the numbers for the animal control officers,” she said.

Residents on McClellan’s street also persuaded the city to fence off and landscape an alley abutting their back yards to keep out litter and drug dealers. The once trash-filled eyesore is now a grassy area where residents hold a barbecue each spring.

In other areas, city government, rather than a group of residents, instigates neighborhood reform.

The Avon-Dakota Neighborhood in Anaheim, for example, was created by the Neighborhood Services Division of the city of Anaheim.

According to Steve Swaim, superintendent of community services, in the early 1990s, the mostly Latino neighborhood, a high-density area of about 20 to 30 small apartment buildings, was plagued by gangs, graffiti, litter and drug dealers.

Most of the deteriorating apartments violated building codes.

“We felt the city needed to establish an office to bring together police, code enforcement, apartment owners and residents,” said Swaim. He admits that getting absentee landlords and apartment owners to commit to improvement was a struggle. “The key was that it needed to be a winning solution for everyone,” he said.

The strategy worked: The police department assigned one officer to the neighborhood in a “community policing” arrangement and code enforcement officers pushed building owners into compliance.

And the city, with the aid of a community development block grant, sponsored graffiti and trash cleanup days, revamped a local schoolyard and helped residents plant trees on the streets.

The city won a national “Advocacy Planning Award” from the American Planning Assn. in 1994 for its work with Avon-Dakota and is implementing the program in about 16 other neighborhoods in the city.

Although governmental aid is crucial to the success of most neighborhood groups, the pivotal players are active and concerned residents.

“We care, we get involved and we’re outspoken,” said Kiperman, vice president of the Los Feliz association. “We don’t sit back and let things happen.”

Not every neighborhood organization will win a national award, but most help their citizens reap the rewards daily of a better quality of life.

And as Boettcher of Garfield Heights pointed out, getting involved with a neighborhood group has another benefit: “It’s a wonderful way to meet and get to know your neighbors.”

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What Your Neighborhood Can Do

* Contact your local police or sheriff’s department about setting up a Neighborhood Watch or patrol.

* Paint over graffiti or pick up trash during a cleanup day. If you need to dispose of heavy objects or large amounts of trash, ask your city public works department for aid.

* Adopt a local school: Fund or repair playground equipment or donate money to the PTA.

* Create a phone list of local organizations that provide such services as child care, counseling and job training.

* Publish a newsletter that describes community events, profiles local residents and offers safety tips and news.

* Publish a history of the neighborhood. Do research at your local library and ask residents for pictures to create a photo history.

* Invite the Red Cross or fire department to teach residents about disaster preparedness and safety.

* Have a party. A potluck, barbecue, street fair or picnic in the park is a way to bring everyone together and recruit new volunteers.

Taking the First Steps

* Find a group of dedicated leaders to get the ball rolling.

* Don’t make assumptions about the neighborhood’s concerns. “Take an informal survey, asking people what they like and don’t like about the neighborhood and what they’d like to improve,” said Cynthia Abbott of Neighborhood Connections.

* At the first meeting, articulate a mission and set up a realistic plan to accomplish both short- and long-term goals.

“Be clear about what you want to devote your energy to; these are volunteer organizations,” said Carolyn Shaffer, co-author with Kristin Anundsen of “Creating Community Anywhere” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1993).

* Determine how the group will be funded. Dues? Fund raising? “Go to your city government and see how money is allocated, and apply for grants,” said Karen Harber of Neighborhoods USA.

* Elect leaders and establish committees. Possible committees: Traffic, zoning, schools, crime prevention, land use, history, parks, planning, recreation and beautification.

* Get training for leaders from police departments, universities or local community organizations. Neighborhoods USA sponsors an annual conference the weekend before Memorial Day with more than 60 workshops on solving neighborhood problems; call (608) 261-9989 for information.

* In the beginning, aim for a few early successes, even if they are small.

* Once the group is established, consider joining a network of other neighborhood organizations.