Block Party Offers Hope for Residents

A group of kids takes turns seeing who can throw a roll of string through a hole cut in a dirty piece of particleboard.

A man grills chicken on a trailer-like barbecue that he usually tows to his children’s soccer games. In their shady frontyards in northwest Pasadena, residents sell clothes and toys, horchata and tamales.

It looked like a run-of-the-mill block party, but the gathering Saturday on Summit Avenue held special meaning for a neighborhood working to regain a sense of control and security.

The street has been at the center of an area long plagued by gang violence and drug sales. Two years ago, the neighborhood was among the first in Los Angeles County to be targeted with a court injunction aimed at curbing the activities of alleged gang members.

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While crime has dropped, many residents say they remain shelled up in their homes to avoid the problems outside. In recent days, an outbreak of gunfire nearby left one gang member dead and at least five others wounded.

“If you live in an area of chronic crime, you just accept it,” said resident Inez Yslas, who helped organize Saturday’s event. “You get used to being a little anxious.”

A coalition of neighbors, with the help of the Pasadena Police Department, closed off the street, cutting off drug buyers’ access to dealers, and allowing residents a peaceful get-together they normally couldn’t enjoy. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know anybody on this street,” said Becky Martinez, who for the first time since she moved to Summit six months ago let her four children play in the frontyard.

Most days, Martinez keeps them indoors or in her backyard, fearing the people still passing by in search of drugs. But she said she would never call the police. “You can’t call the cops and stay where you are,” she said. “You’d get blamed for it, and you’d have to move.”

Yslas said people in the neighborhood have become accustomed to living with crime. And while the civil court order barred specific individuals from a variety of gang-associated activities, the injunction will not work if residents do not report problems to authorities, she said. And some problems clearly remain. Francisco Garcia said he avoids pulling up behind cars stopped in the middle of the street during drug deals. “If you honk, they come out and start yelling at you,” he said.

But Juventino Barra, 10, said drive-by shootings were more common just a few years ago. Nonetheless, he still feels uncomfortable straying too far from his home. “They almost killed one of my friends,” he said.

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Despite lingering problems, some residents said the neighborhood has become much safer in recent years.

Demetrio Hernandez, who was barbecuing chicken, said some people overstate the amount of crime. He feels comfortable letting his children play outside. “Everybody talks so bad about this neighborhood,” he said.

Tremayne Fletcher, 15, who won the string-throwing contest, said gangs still operate on the street but don’t harass people in the neighborhood. “They don’t have a job, that’s all,” he said. “They’ve got to make a living somehow, and [dealing drugs] is the best way they know how.”

He complained that since the injunction was issued, police have often searched him and his friends when they have been walking down the street. “At night, people are sitting on their porch, and the police shine lights right on the porch,” he said. “That’s disrespectful.”

All the while, Yslas said she kept an eye up the street where the drug dealing appeared to be continuing. “The business of drugs is quick,” she said, explaining that it happens moments after police officers leave or turn their backs.

Though she said the block party gave her and her neighbors a taste of what a healthy community can be, the crime will go on. “It will persist, but so will we,” she said.