Summertime on Shalimar

Andrew Glazer

WEST SIDE -- In the blue dusk of a cool Thursday evening, six girls

with damp, perfumed hair pulled back in ponytails sat on the pavement

between two townhouses on Shalimar Street, coloring with pastel markers.

Twelve children, ages 4 to 14, played separate baseball games in the

middle of the street, running bases chalked onto the asphalt.

Five boys and girls perched on a broken wooden fence. Their teeth and

tongues were dyed orange, pink and blue by the Popsicles they bought from

the ice cream man who passes there at roughly 5 o’clock each evening.

A teenage couple kissed.

Parents -- leaning from the windows of their homes, sitting on the

curb or on folding beach chairs in their frontyards -- watched their

children and chatted with one another.

But Shalimar Street at night hasn’t always been this way. Windows

remained closed and the streets were empty of children. Residents stayed

inside, chilled by the menace of drive-by shootings, gangs and open-air

drug sales.

But three years ago, the city closed the street to drive-through

traffic. And police, with frequent visits, made their presence known

there.

Since then, the energy of the shaded street -- lined with townhouses

occupied primarily by first-generation Mexican immigrants -- has bubbled

throughout the neighborhood, unimpeded by the gates enclosing homes in

other Orange County communities.

During summer, the sun, still high in the sky through the early

evening, beams even more activity onto the block.

“It’s really wonderful for the children,� said Juana Arrosco, 35, who

has seven of her own. “They have fun playing all day. And I can calmly

watch them here.�

She stood, arms crossed across her light pink blouse, somehow managing

to keep a vigilant eye on her small clan.

Piedad Delgado, 27, stood in front of her home with four of her

neighbors. Her son Eriberto, 7, whose mouth has yet to grow into his two

new front teeth, pulled at her pant leg.

“It’s really much better living here with all the children out,� said

Delgado, who moved to Shalimar three months ago from a less

child-friendly portion of 18th Street. “I don’t really know other

neighborhoods, but I love it here.�

However, the shadow of the old Shalimar still darkens the block.

Shards of glass and tiny plastic bags used to hold drugs sparkle like

diamonds on front lawns. Residents say gang members still show up after

dark, leaning on cars, glaring.

“It can make you very tired of living here,� said 11-year-old Maria Cervantes, slurping on a rainbow-colored Popsicle.

“I make sure my children are inside before 8 o’clock,� said Arrosco.

“Any later than that, no way.�

And as the sun dipped below the beige buildings, turning the sky an

eggplant purple, mothers ushered their children inside.