City Takes the Fight to Winnetka

Luis Lopez knocked on the door of an apartment on Cohasset Street, in a complex where flies hovered over an algae-encrusted pool.

When Maritza Maltez answered, Lopez, a community resource specialist with the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, asked her about neighborhood problems and what the city could do about them.

Gangs, Maltez said.

“It’s so insecure to be outside,” said Maltez, 23, holding her 2-year-old daughter in the doorway. “You don’t feel comfortable.”

As of last week, Lopez and other city officials have asked 75 apartment tenants about their neighborhood under a nuisance-abatement program that aims to clean up a 10-block area in Winnetka with the assistance of police and various city agencies.

Domestic violence, drug sales, car break-ins, speeding in alleys, gang activity and rats top residents’ list of concerns. They need more recreation centers and affordable housing.

“We have to focus on what they want--not on what we want to do but on what they want us to do,” Lopez said. “What happens in this area is no one goes back and says, ‘What can I do?’ At least they know someone is there.”

Since January, the Los Angeles Police Department, city attorney’s office and the building and safety, planning and housing departments have targeted the area, populated by 8,400 residents, to reduce crime and blight.

It is the second time the Citywide Nuisance Abatement Program has launched a neighborhood block project in the Valley. The first was initiated in 1997 in North Hills, where the city attorney’s office imposed a gang injunction and where crime has declined by 20%, officials said.

The nuisance-abatement program also has launched neighborhood block projects in Boyle Heights, Watts and Mar Vista.

Police identified the area bounded by Winnetka Avenue on the east, Mason Avenue on the west, Keswick Street on the north and Sherman Way on the south as a place where authorities could make a difference, Supervising Deputy City Atty. Tina Hess said.

“We are trying to bring resources and educate residents, property owners and business owners before the problem really gets out of control,” Hess said.

Although the Winnetka neighborhood has less crime and gang problems than North Hills, it has high rates of domestic violence, drug sales, robberies and assaults, Hess said.

City Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose district includes Winnetka, helped launch the project.

“It’s about teamwork,” Chick said. “It’s not just government bringing in resources and leaving, but empowering communities so when government moves on, things don’t slide down again.”

City officials coordinate graffiti cleanups, provide extra lighting in dark alleys, plant grass, rehabilitate abandoned properties and encourage apartment owners to fix and paint neglected buildings. The city attorney’s office and police also target drug dealers and help building owners evict tenants involved in crime. Officials expect to keep the program in place in Winnetka for a year.

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Although the project includes homeowners and businesses, officials are focusing on improving conditions for apartment dwellers, many of them low-income Latinos, on Cohasset and Saticoy streets, between Mason and Oso avenues.

Lopez said he has seen large families so cramped in one-bedroom apartments that they have converted balconies into extra bedrooms. Often, trash, including sofas and refrigerators, is strewn on curbs. Many tenants are afraid to go out at night and friends are afraid to visit them.

Lopez said he must walk a fine line between helping residents and not getting them in trouble because some are in the U.S. illegally.

“Some of these people won’t complain,” Lopez said. “They have more people living in their apartments than they should, and they don’t want the owners to find out.”

Graciela Pena, 41, lives with her husband and three children in a studio apartment. She said police often chase gang members out of the neighborhood and that a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center is needed.

“There are a lot of drug addicts in this neighborhood,” she said in Spanish.

Lopez said some homeowners are not convinced the neighborhood needs the extra attention. “Some are offended we are putting this much attention in the area,” he said.

Odell Mack, who lives in a house in the targeted area, said he has already seen improvements, including fewer abandoned vehicles on the streets and increased police presence. If officials improve the area’s neglected pockets, the whole community benefits, he said.

“I hope we’re able to get a higher consciousness with people to want to see the neighborhood free of drugs and crime,” said Mack, who belongs to the local community police advisory board.