Las Casitas Residents Upgrading Tract Image : Community: One condo owner calls it 'the worst of the best' of Thousand Oaks. Some can't afford to move, but others want to fix up the 540 homes.

By STEPHANIE SIMON

Nov. 21, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Most residents move to Las Casitas for one reason: It’s cheap. Slapped between the Ventura Freeway and Hillcrest Drive, just west of Ventu Park Road in Thousand Oaks, the neighborhood has earned a bad rap over the years.

Residents themselves say it’s been pegged as crime-ridden and roach-infested, the closest thing Thousand Oaks has to a slum.

Many longtime homeowners say they bought condos in Las Casitas because they could afford nothing else. Some renters say they’re counting their pennies until they can move out.

But a growing core of residents want to stay in Las Casitas. Optimistic and energetic, they are determined to make a stand and save their neighborhood. And with the City Council’s help, they have made some progress.

“Sometimes I feel like a very young father, because I’m so proud of every owner and renter in Las Casitas,” said Robert Bickle, president of the homeowners association.

“People are starting to care about the neighborhood,” Bickle said. “They’re starting to say ‘Hey, I can make a go of it here.’ ”

Indeed, Las Casitas hardly looks like a “bad” part of town.

The tract’s 540 condominiums, wedged four to a building, sit on tidy front lawns. Bright plastic toys and pint-sized bikes pile up in front of the wood-and-brick homes, next to flourishing rose gardens and jumbo potted plants.

After school, children whiz through the neighborhood on roller skates, tugging balloons behind them. Young men cluster in a garage, joking and chatting as they work on a car. Mothers gossip in Spanish and hail the mailman as he makes his rounds.

Aside from a clear sense of community, the neighborhood offers some of Thousand Oaks’ most affordable housing. The two-bedroom, one-bath condominiums sell for roughly $70,000 apiece and rent ranges from $650 to $850 a month, depending on location and condition.

“It’s the one place in the Newbury Park or Thousand Oaks area that someone trying to get their feet on the ground can afford,” three-year resident Brenda Taylor explained.

With approximately 2,600 residents, Las Casitas houses many of Thousand Oaks’ poorest and least educated citizens.

The median family income in Las Casitas stands at just $30,960 a year, less than half the citywide figure. About 69% of Las Casitas’ adult residents hold high school diplomas, compared with 90% of Thousand Oaks’ total adult population.

The neighborhood also boasts enormous racial diversity. Thousand Oaks remains an overwhelmingly white city. But in Las Casitas, whites make up less than half the population, and Latinos account for 43%, according to the 1990 census. Five years from now, Latino residents are expected to outnumber whites in Las Casitas.

The mix has created little outright hostility. Still, some friction between whites and Latinos has built up over the issue of vending trucks.

For years, peddlers have cruised through Las Casitas’ seven short streets, hawking Popsicles, plastic flowers, cassettes, onions, Jell-O and just about every other transportable commodity.

Their distinctive horns--a gruff, wheezing blare from the produce truck, a high-pitched melody from the ice-cream vendor--attract mainly Latino residents. Each afternoon, women gather on the street to buy goods, including Mexican products such as maiz , plantains and mole sauce.

“I like this because I can buy special foods here and I can speak Spanish,” one six-year resident said as she peered into a Rodriguez Produce truck parked along the curb.

But some white residents take a different view. They see vending trucks as noisy, pollutant-spewing nuisances which wake children from naps and block traffic in narrow cul-de-sacs. And they blame the Latino population for encouraging the vendors to rumble through Las Casitas daily.

Buying from vendors “is part of the Hispanic culture,” said resident Chris Taylor, echoing a common view. “Is it wrong or is it bad? No. But it sure is distracting.”

Responding in part to these complaints, the Thousand Oaks City Council recently voted to ban vending in residential neighborhoods. The law took effect about two weeks ago and is just beginning to be enforced.

Although Las Casitas’ Latino population began to explode only in the past decade, the tract’s developer coincidentally gave all seven streets in the neighborhood Spanish names like many other streets throughout the Conejo Valley.

Now, however, some residents want to change the tract’s moniker--not because of its Spanish origins, but because of its connotations.

“People hear the name Las Casitas and they freak,” says Jeffrey Bock, who has proposed dubbing the neighborhood Conejo Creek Condos. “But bad is a relative term. I mean, this is Thousand Oaks. We’re talking the worst of the best here.”

Most residents and outside analysts agree that Las Casitas’ problems stem primarily from the low owner-occupancy rate. About 60% of the residents are renters, and though they may stay for years, they do not have the same investment in the community as homeowners.

To encourage renters to buy their condominiums, the city recently hired consultant California Financial Express, a Pasadena-based mortgage banking firm, to draft an Ownership Assistance Plan for Las Casitas.

But these efforts have been stymied by the government’s refusal to guarantee loans in neighborhoods with low owner-occupancy rates. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development used to offer loans with a low down payment, but recently withdrew that offer for Las Casitas.

City officials are lobbying hard to change that policy.

“Until Washington gives us the go-ahead we’re treading water,” said Katherine Luna, a consultant with California Financial Express. “We were moving ahead with full force, and then we had to put the brakes on.”

While awaiting government action, the City Council has taken one step to boost homeownership.

The city has agreed to buy a Las Casitas condo from the federal government, which foreclosed on the unit. After spending a few thousand dollars on new appliances and carpeting, the city will resell the condo to a first-time home buyer.

“We’re trying to turn this into a place where young families or people who don’t make a lot of money can come and get an investment going, rather than renting all their life,” homeowner Bickle said.

Yet persuading young professionals to move into the neighborhood might be tough. Especially since some current homeowners agree with one mother that buying in Las Casitas was “the worst freakin’ financial mistake I’ve ever made.”

“You’re young, you’re buying your first house, you listen to what everyone says and you make a decision--and then you realize that you should have been a whole lot smarter,” another homeowner, Lori Rai, said.

Rai’s condominium is worth exactly as much today as she paid for it 10 years ago. And she readily admits that she’s bitter about the stagnant property value.

But Rai also recognizes that she’s in better shape financially than those who bought in Las Casitas during a mini-boom five years ago and have since watched property values plummet by up to $50,000 per unit.

“I can’t sell without losing more than $20,000,” Paula Christensen, 33, said. “But I might just drop all my money anyway. Las Casitas has gotten better over the last few years, but I just don’t feel comfortable here.”

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department cannot compare crime rates in Las Casitas with other Thousand Oaks tracts. But the department does compile statistics about the neighborhood itself.

Over the past year, fully one-third of calls to the Sheriff’s Department from Las Casitas involved complaints about loud music, raucous parties or other disruptive noises. Another 21% involved domestic disturbances.

“That’s pretty normal for a high-density area,” Sgt. Bruce Hansen said. “You can hear the television in the next condo, you can hear the loud music, you can hear the family fights. So you have a lot of police presence responding to disturbance calls.”

Compared with previous years, Hansen said, the number of crimes and calls for service has dropped in almost all categories.

Still, some Las Casitas residents find little comfort in those statistics.

“A lot of people drink here, a lot of police come here, a lot of men hang out behind the houses and sleep. There’s a lot of trouble here,” resident Marisol Rodriguez said. Cradling her 7-month-old baby, Rodriguez added: “It’s so bad for a little child to see every day.”

The fear and frustration are obvious in longtime residents’ voices. One mother, who has lived in Las Casitas for seven years, speaks of having “done my time” in Las Casitas, as though it were a prison. Another young woman complains of cockroach-infested condos and litter-strewn alleys.

To help turn the area around, city leaders formed a Las Casitas Neighborhood Improvement Committee last year. Mayor Elois Zeanah and Councilwoman Judy Lazar now serve on the committee, which meets monthly.

Already, some residents say they can see results.

Vagrants no longer wander into the complex’s two pools, thanks to new fencing. A dangerous flood-control channel, site of many illicit parties, will soon be blocked off as well.

The homeowners association is converting a deserted triangle of dirt into a grassy park, complete with playground equipment and hopscotch games. The group also plans to repave the common driveways--once known as “Hell’s Alleys”--and add brighter lighting.

Using hefty $145-a-month dues, the homeowners association has hired two painters, a pest exterminator and a city street sweeper to keep Las Casitas clean. Minor upgrades--from new laundry-room doors to bigger trash bins--have also boosted the neighborhood’s appearance.

Perhaps the most far-reaching changes, though, have come from City Council actions.

Since Thousand Oaks passed an overcrowding ordinance last year, city staff has received 75 complaints of jam-packed condominiums in Las Casitas.

So far, the city has resolved 65 of the overcrowding complaints.

To further crack down on overcrowding, the City Council recently approved a parking permit system for Las Casitas. Under the new law, to take effect Jan. 1, each household will be entitled to keep only one car on the street overnight. In addition, each unit has two carport parking spaces.

Still another weapon in the city’s arsenal is a year-old law prohibiting drinking on private property open to public view, such as a common yard or carport. Since the Sheriff’s Department began enforcing the law in Las Casitas, residents say their shared driveways and parking spaces have become much safer.

“I don’t want anyone who comes here to think they’re moving into heaven, because they’re not,” said Bickle, president of the homeowners association. “But we’re not as bad as everyone thinks.”

Las Casitas at a Glance Population: 2,585

Median family income: $30,690

Education Less than ninth grade: 17.0%

Some high school: 13.8%

High school diploma: 69.2%

Bachelor’s degree: 11.6%

Ethnic groups Latino: 43.1%

White: 48.9%

Black: 2.4%

Asian: 5.3%

Source: U.S. Census, 1990