After Shooting, Some Pacoima Tenants Tackle Gangs, Drugs

Last week a drug-related gang shooting sent screaming children running for cover at a Pacoima housing project. This week the parents of those children organized to fight escalating crime problems at the sprawling complex.

About 40 tenants of Van Nuys Pierce Park Apartments said they have been jarred into action in the aftermath of the playground shoot-out that injured five local gang members and led to the arrest of two rival South-Central gang members.

Despite fear of gang retaliation, the residents have formed a crime-watch group and will try to talk more of their neighbors into joining. Already, they have been promised increased police patrols through the project.

“I feel it is my responsibility to get involved. I can’t be afraid of this anymore,” one mother said. “I don’t want the gangs to take over. I have to live here.”

The June 30 shooting, which police said was prompted by a rock cocaine deal gone awry, occurred in a crowded children’s play area at about dinner time. Nearby teen-agers and adults whisked youngsters to safety from their swing sets, a baseball field and a sandbox, where one of the victims fell bleeding.

Rising Crime

Many residents said that the shoot-out made clear that drug dealing and gang activity are increasing at the 430-unit project in the 12700 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, home to about 2,000 low-income tenants.

The residents who came forward at Thursday night’s meeting must take on the explosive combination of gangs and cocaine, police said. The dealers who surround the project are mostly gang members involved in turf battles over sales areas, police said.

In fact, last week’s shooting was sparked by rival gang members arguing over who controlled the area of the project where the shooting took place, said Capt. Valentino Paniccia, patrol division commanding officer for the Foothill Division.

“Gangs and narcotics--they are synonymous,” Paniccia said.

Indeed, it is the fear of gangs that is keeping many tenants from joining the crime-watch group. When one woman walked into the meeting, several other residents applauded her for her courage.

An 11-year resident of the project, the woman said she is reluctant to call police because officers “come knocking at your door, and everybody knows that you are watching and telling them what’s going on.”

Pierce Park, though part of an area known for heavy drug dealing, does not have the highest concentration of the illegal activity in what police call the “Van Nuys Boulevard corridor,” Paniccia said. San Fernando Gardens, another housing project, and the Haddon Avenue-Mercer Street neighborhood of Pacoima have far higher concentrations, he said.

Nonetheless, Pierce Park residents witness around-the-clock drug dealing in their parking lots and courtyards. Some women never carry a purse in the project. Others rearrange work schedules to get home before dark.

They are afraid because their children play alongside youths suspected of being gang members. One mother said drug dealers standing in the hot sun pay children $1 to bring them a glass of ice water.

“We can’t sleep at night. People come and buy any kind of drugs 24 hours a day,” said another mother, whose 13-year-old son witnessed the shooting. “I try to keep my children away, but they see it going on all around.”

Fred Nobles, managing partner of the privately owned, federally subsidized complex, told residents at the meeting that a vigilant crime-watch group is needed so that management can inform police of where heavy drug dealing is going on.

Positive View

“I repeat again and again and again, we can solve our problem with drug dealers and criminal activity,” Nobles said. “We did it before, and we will do it again.”

The project, which almost covers a city block, has long attracted drug dealers. In the 1970s, it was said by police to be the PCP dealing center of the San Fernando Valley. A section of the sprawling complex was nicknamed “Sherm Alley” for the PCP-dipped cigarettes called “shermans” sold there.

But Nobles’ management company, owned by a limited partnership called Wogo Developers in Van Nuys, bought the project in 1979 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and instituted policies to stop the drug dealing. His team of managers, who are generally praised by tenants, started an aggressive crime-watch program and provided recreational activities for youths.

Apartments were renovated, and grounds were maintained with an eye toward crime abatement. For instance, lush oleander bushes were severely trimmed to eliminate hide-outs for sidewalk robbers and drug dealers on the run from authorities.

Residents called for and received increased police patrols, mounted and on foot. Tenants would report suspicious license-plate numbers to police and would regularly meet with management.

Although the complex was not without some drug dealing, the bold trafficking of the 1970s had mostly disappeared by the mid-1980s, police and residents said. And with that vast improvement, the tenacious tenants group disbanded.

“Apathy sets in when the problems subside,” Nobles said.

The lapse has given drug dealers an opportunity to regain the upper hand, Paniccia said.

“When there is a vacuum, when there is no observation, they move in,” said Paniccia, who met with Nobles this week to discuss beefing up patrols at the project.

Anna Alvarez, one of the on-site managers at Pierce Park, encouraged residents at the meeting to call management when they suspect problems and said that management in turn will notify police.

Except for a handful of troublemakers, the tenants and Nobles said, residents are hard-working people who cannot afford more expensive apartments. They blamed the drug dealing on outsiders.

Tenants in the project pay 30% of their gross monthly salaries toward rent, with federal housing funds making up the balance.

“The outsiders make a bad name for all of us,” said Lavada Worthington, a 10-year resident.