Shootings Scar Progress at Troubled Complex

Stephanie Browning knows what outsiders say about her condominium complex--that it’s infested with gangs and choked by drugs, the closest thing Thousand Oaks has to a slum.

And she knows that a shooting last weekend, in which Van Nuys gang members allegedly killed one man and wounded another at the Conejo Creek complex, further crippled its reputation.

But the 45-year-old mother of two said what most people don’t see are the hundreds of decent, hard-working families trying to provide a better life for their children and prevent their neighborhood from spiraling out of control.

“I keep telling people that the neighborhood has cleaned up a lot,” said Browning, a clerical worker who has lived in the troubled complex for nearly 13 years.

“But I’m afraid this shooting might derail some of the progress that has been made,” she said. “This is the time when people have to decide what kind of community they want to have.”

This isn’t the sort of place most people think of when they think of Thousand Oaks.

In a city of large lots and ranch-style homes, a city overwhelmingly populated by affluent whites and touted as one of the safest places in the nation, the Conejo Creek condominium complex stands apart.

It is a crowded neighborhood packed with endless rows of sand-colored four-plexes that loop for a mile along a horseshoe-shaped street bordered by tall trees and tidy lawns.

Carved out of vacant ranchland three decades ago, it’s a community that city officials say could not be built today because it has none of the semirural amenities--such as ample open space and parkland--now required by City Hall.

But it is the place where many of Thousand Oaks’ poorest residents flock, a complex that draws recent arrivals from Mexico and Central America who jam into two-bedroom units so that they, too, can afford the good life enjoyed by those who live elsewhere in the city.

“When we first moved here, I thought it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen,” said Maria Esparza, a 62-year-old grandmother who lives in the complex with her son, his wife and their three children. “The city needs a place like this for working people.”

Wedged between the Ventura Freeway and Hillcrest Drive, the 540-unit complex is home to more than 2,600 residents.

The median family income there stands at $30,960 a year, about half the citywide number, according to the 1990 U.S. census. And only 69% of Conejo Creek residents hold high school diplomas, contrasted with 90% of Thousand Oaks’ total adult population.

More than 10% of the residents live in poverty, contrasted with 4.2% in the city as a whole, according to the census figures, the most recent available. The neighborhood also is one of the city’s most crowded and racially diverse, with residents on average living five to a unit--twice the number as in a typical Thousand Oaks house--and Latinos accounting for 43% of the population, contrasted with 10% citywide.

In recent years the condominiums have become a haven for Central American immigrants, a demographic shift that has caused some friction between the new arrivals and more established Mexican immigrants. Authorities believe escalating tensions between the two groups contributed to last weekend’s shooting.

But with so many people crammed into such a relatively small space, the complex has long been a hot spot for police.

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Sheriff’s officials have logged an average of 850 calls for service annually at the complex in recent years. Most calls have involved minor complaints, such as loud parties and public drinking. But occasionally more serious trouble has erupted.

“Almost once a year we have a stabbing or shooting at that complex,” said Senior Deputy Harold Hanley, who patrols the area. “That’s just been the history of it. Conejo Creek has just been one of the biggest challenges for us.”

But there are some things numbers can’t measure. This is a neighborhood that is solidly working class, a place where fathers often hold down two jobs and mothers push strollers along the sidewalks that crisscross the community.

It’s a place where barbecue grills and inflatable swimming pools dot the landscape and residents gather under the shade of trees to fend off the afternoon heat and keep watch on their children.

It’s also one of the city’s most affordable communities, where a two-bedroom, one-bath condo sells for about $100,000 and rents range between $700 and $850 a month--hundreds of dollars less than the average Thousand Oaks rent.

Above all, residents say it’s a community trying to get better.

The homeowners’ association a year go opened a resource center offering a range of community programs. The association also co-sponsors programs to help Spanish-speaking residents learn English, and it assists renters who want to eventually buy their condominiums, a move that has boosted neighborhood pride through home ownership.

“I’m hoping that in light of this horrible situation, the community is going to come out and say, ‘This is unacceptable, we can’t have this in our community,’ ” said Kevin Vincent, president of the homeowners’ association.

“I understand the fear, and it’s a very real fear,” he added. “It takes a very strong person to be willing to stand up and say we are not going to put up with this, but I think that might happen now.”

Ranchland Site 30 Years Ago

The condominium complex was built 30 years ago, at a time when much of Newbury Park was a vast stretch of ranchland.

Proposed along with a handful of other projects, it was the first of those built and stood alone for several years, connected to the rest of Thousand Oaks only by the Ventura Freeway, which borders directly to the south.

The complex was not pitched to city leaders as a low-income housing project, recalls Philip Gatch, the city’s community development director. Rather, Gatch said, it was presented as a lower-priced, for-sale project--an idea embraced at the time by a City Council eager to create such housing in the community.

More than 90% of the condominium residents were white when the units were first sold in the early 1970s, Gatch said.

Residents say that combination--low-cost housing and white residents--earned the project the derisive nickname of “white Watts”--a knock against the moderate-income buyers it attracted.

The complex has plenty of neighbors now.

Standing in the shadow of biotechnology giant Amgen Inc., it is bordered on the west by a 600-unit apartment project and on the north by a single-family home subdivision. A strip mall now occupies its east side along Ventu Park Road, complete with a Del Taco and a Holiday Inn where some of Conejo Creek’s residents serve fast food or clean hotel rooms.

As the area around the condominium complex grew, so did the population--and the problems--within its borders.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathryn Kemp, who for six years was Thousand Oaks’ top law enforcement official, remembers when she began the job and talked with residents who cared deeply about their community but who had no idea how to make things better.

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Kemp said the Sheriff’s Department set out to lead the way. The gang unit jumped on gang members in the neighborhood, choking off their activity, while beefed-up enforcement shut down the local drug trade, she said.

Bike patrols increased and deputies spent time getting to know residents, asking about their concerns and urging them to call police at the first sign of trouble.

“We decided that we just couldn’t go in there and visit and expect everybody to get involved, we had to go in and invest,” Kemp said. “We would tell them all the time, ‘Don’t let somebody else’s activity allow you to lose control of your neighborhood. You need to stand strong with your neighbors. You need to address the issues, not lock your doors and hide from them.’ ”

But perhaps the most important piece of the crime-fighting puzzle at Conejo Creek was creation of a resource center at the complex.

A joint venture by the city, Sheriff’s Department and the homeowners’ association, the center was staffed by a deputy until January. Since then, a team of volunteers and tutors from the Conejo Recreation and Park District have kept the doors open, providing a place where children can do their homework and listen to stories read aloud after school.

Moorpark College student Atrisha Newton, 18, helps run the homework club after school three times a week.

On a recent afternoon, more than 20 youngsters gathered in the condominium unit that has been converted into the resource center.

Newton, a 10-year Thousand Oaks resident, said the complex has long had an unsavory reputation--bad enough that her parents wouldn’t allow her to venture into the area years ago. But she said the neighborhood has taken a dramatic turn for the better, to the point that she never worries about spending time there.

“I know people still look down on the neighborhood as a bad area inundated by gangs and drugs,” Newton said. “But I’ve seen it improve. There are a lot of friendly people here who love their community.”

People living here have also noticed the improvements. But for longtime residents, who have seen problems wash in and out like the tide, there is growing concern that the condominium complex is headed for another rough patch.

A central question now is whether recent events will serve to break the momentum underway to make Conejo Creek a better place.

“There is no place that is 100% safe,” said Javier Gonzalez, 31, a three-year resident who doesn’t live closer to his factory job in Oxnard because he wants his children to attend Thousand Oaks schools.

“In this case the people came from outside the city to cause trouble,” he said. “It just shows that we always have to pay attention and watch for trouble.”

Gunfire From Two Cars Kills Teen

The recent shootings rattled most of the complex’s blue-collar residents.

On the afternoon of April 28, as parents stood outside talking and children played in the street, police say, two carloads of Salvadoran gang members from Van Nuys opened fire on 19-year-old Edgar Cruz and his friend, Andres Morales, 18. Authorities say neither man belonged to a gang.

Cruz died at the scene. Morales was treated at Los Robles Regional Medical Center and later released.

More Van Nuys gang members returned Sunday, this time opening fire on a group of condominium residents on their way to a memorial service for Cruz, according to police. No one was injured in the second incident.

Authorities said they believe the violence stems from run-ins between Conejo Creek residents from Mexico and a man with ties to the Salvadoran gang who had recently moved into the complex. Cruz’s uncle said his nephew was at the scene of an earlier fight between Mexican and Salvadoran residents, but stressed the teenager had not been directly involved.

Although there are few details on what sparked the feud, authorities said it centers on cultural rivalries between the Salvadoran man and his Mexican neighbors.

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In recent weeks, fights escalated between the two sides, prompting the Salvadoran to call on his friends in Van Nuys for backup, police said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested 10 men in connection with the shootings, all members of a Van Nuys gang. Scores of police also swept Thursday through 11 residences in Newbury Park and Van Nuys, seizing evidence that prosecutors hope will make cases against the suspects.

In the wake of the back-to-back shootings, sheriff’s officials last week hosted a “town hall” meeting attended by more than 200 residents who demanded more police protection.

Sheriff’s officials said they have beefed up patrols. As many as eight extra deputies are working the area each night, some on bicycles and others in black-and-white cruisers that circle the complex several times an hour.

“People in the community are really upset and they want things to change,” said Senior Deputy Ed Tumbleson, who was assigned last year to the resource center and who spoke to residents at last week’s meeting.

“Crime and gangs will only survive in an environment where citizens allow them to,” he added. “I think this is going to be a catalyst for the community.”

Indeed, positive change is already happening. After years of trying, neighborhood leaders say they believe there is now enough support to create a Neighborhood Watch program.

There is even talk of returning a deputy to the resource center at the condominium complex, though sheriff’s officials and residents say a decision to revive the six-month program is in the hands of city leaders.

Councilwoman Linda Parks said she intends to ask her colleagues this week to tap the general fund to pay for a part-time officer at Conejo Creek for another six months--and later consider permanent funding.

And there is a concerted push to maintain the higher level of police patrols through the community, a sign that residents are still on edge but want as much help as possible putting an end to the violence.

“I think things are getting better, but it comes very slow,” said Martin Myurquin, a Mexican immigrant who has lived at Conejo Creek for three years and works as a cook at a nearby Japanese restaurant.

Walking his two children--Mar, 8, and Lluvia, 7--back to Conejo Creek after meeting them at the school bus stop, Myurquin last week said he has some concerns about their safety in the wake of the shootings.

But he said the neighborhood with some outside help can be a safe place to live and a good place to raise children.

“I think that people in Thousand Oaks see this place as all bad, but that’s not true,” he said. “We just have to find a way to attack the problems before they happen.”