Coordinated Aid for ‘Islands’

Orange County supervisors deserve credit for approving a program to revitalize blighted neighborhoods under their jurisdiction. Usually small, often surrounded completely by a city, the unincorporated territories are known as “islands.” The county administers them because of surrounding cities’ unwillingness to annex them or the desire of the islanders to stay independent. But being miles away from the county headquarters in Santa Ana, dependent on the attention of the county supervisors in whose districts the islands stand, the enclaves sometimes do not get the services they deserve.

It would be better if there were no islands, if they were merged into the cities that surround them. Although numerous commissions have made that suggestion, unfortunately it has never been implemented. So the county is required to police the islands, clean the streets and provide social services.

El Modena, for instance, is surrounded by the city of Orange. It’s tiny, consisting of only eight streets, yet Supervisor Cynthia Coad says three gangs fight for turf inside its boundaries. Two months ago the supervisors launched a pilot project to coordinate county services in El Modena. Its success led to approval two weeks ago for spending $500,000 to improve seven additional unincorporated territories. That’s a good start, but the eight are just a small fraction of the 70 islands in Orange County.

The Sheriff’s Department helped in El Modena by assigning two bilingual deputies to patrol the area, get acquainted with the residents and help direct them to other services. Such community policing is practiced by many police departments in Orange County.

In El Modena the deputies called for tow trucks to haul away abandoned vehicles on the streets. They identified gang members and arrested drug pushers. Code enforcement officers came in to cite landlords for substandard and overcrowded housing.

Coordinating those activities is important. Doing one at a time too often doesn’t work. One important tactic was having social workers help those evicted from housing to find other rentals. The government has to be careful that by addressing one problem, it does not contribute to homelessness.

As long as the islands exist, the county will have to be sure their residents are not unduly shortchanged in comparison with those living in cities.