David Lopez is 18 now, and he’s spent most of his childhood in Watts. When he was just 6, the brother who raised him joined a gang and in the subsequent years David experienced first-hand the allure of gang life and the tragedy of its violence.  He sat down with me on the patio of Burger King on 108th St. in Watts to recount his experiences. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of that interview.

Stephanie Harnett: Do you remember the first time you realized your brother was in a gang?

David Lopez: Oh, yeah, I remember that. Uh, it was actually, well, back in the day, my family and everybody used to, um, they used to play volleyball in front of my house, like right in front, like in the street, with the neighbors that lived across the street. And my brother, he was pretty good at volleyball. And from time to time he kinda stopped playing with us and he would go kick it in the whole little group thing.

SH: Still on the street?

DL: Yeah, but, like, on the corner. Not so much in front of my house. Yeah, I found out he was gang banging when I seen the tattoo.  He had a tattoo of his gang.

When was the first time you saw the tattoo? How old were you?

I was probably like around 7, 6 or 7.

And you already knew what it meant?

Yeah, I already knew what it meant. I mean, it was written all over the floor and stuff, the walls throughout my whole block.  It was written, so I already knew what was up. I knew what it meant.

And what’d you think when you saw that?

I mean, I kinda already knew my brother was in a gang ’cause, like, he was already bald and he would dress like, um, he would wear the high socks with the, like, the plaid shorts and the Cortez’s, the Nikes.  So I already knew what’s up.  I mean, I’d seen him, I’d seen people that looked exactly like him, so I’m guessing, you know, he was in a gang.

But you looked up to your brother?

Yeah, I looked up to him a lot.

So did you think that was cool when you first saw it [the tattoo]?

Yeah.  I mean, I kinda started wanting to dress like him.  And he would actually dress, I mean, he would buy me clothes that actually matched with him.  Yeah, so I would.  I actually had my head shaved for a while too.  At a real young age.  I was still, like, real young.  I was young as f***.  Oop.  Yeah, and, uh, yeah. I was bald throughout all of middle school.  I mean, not middle school, elementary.  And some of middle school.  Yeah. And I was dressing like him too.

Did you want to follow in his footsteps?

Yeah, I did.  I mean, I thought what he was doing was cool, ’cause, I mean, he had a lot of friends and stuff.  And he would, everybody would call him, uh, nah, I can’t say what they called him. I mean, I thought it was cool.  I actually wanted to do it. Yeah, not until like middle school though is when I actually wanted to be, you know, in a gang.

And did you actively pursue that?

Well, it started ’cause, uh, one of my cousins got shot right there by my house and, like, he was real close to me.  He was my age, and I was probably like around 12, and he was 13, and he got shot. Yeah, ’cause he was actually gang banging, but he wasn’t gang banging where my brother was from.  He was gang banging in some other neighborhood, some other one in South Central. But the opposing gang from, uh, the opposing gang that went at it with my brother’s, that was the one that shot my cousin. So that kinda, you know, it got me mad and stuff, and I wanted to be in a gang. I wanted to get them back. And that’s kinda what made me wanna, you know, join a gang like real, real, real bad.

Were you mad? Or did you feel and obligation?

I was mad. I was mad. And yeah, it was like an obligation, too. I felt like it was an obligation. ‘Cause I remember seeing my brother and, like, a couple of his homies get in the car talking about, like, they were gonna get them back. And I wanted to go. But my brother didn’t let me go.

So what happened after that?

After that incident? After my cousin? Oh, it was probably like a week later. Uh, I told some of the little dudes. ‘Cause my brother, he was already older.  He wasn’t considered a "new booty." That’s what they call them, "new booties," the ones that are, like, barely trying to get their stripes. Those are usually, probably, like, at the age of 11, 12.  And they’re already gang banging and stuff. Most of them were my friends, ’cause I would go to school with them.  I went to Ritter [Elementary School] with them. And, um, I mean, like, I told them, I was like, "Alright, I wanna get in, I wanna get in." And they were like, "Alright, we’re gonna set it up." And they were gonna chord me in, chord me in meaning that they were gonna jump me for 13 seconds, like they were all gonna, like, beat my a** for 13 seconds, ’cause, you know, Southside 13.  And, um, my brother found out about this and he didn’t let it happen.  He didn’t let it happen.  He, he beat my a** himself.  And he kinda put stuff in my head.  He was like, "Look, why are you trying to be a gangster if you are letting me beat you a**?" And all this stuff.  So he kept, like, he kept hitting me and hitting me and hitting me, but, I mean, I knew he was doing it for the best, ’cause I know he didn’t want me to follow his same footsteps.  He didn’t want me to go down the same road.

Had your brother had bad experiences before that?

Yeah. [pause] Yeah. Ah, he never actually told me what happened but he told me that for a while, for a cool minute, I know he couldn’t sleep at all.  I know he couldn’t sleep at all, like he was traumatized, like real stuff. I was already, like, probably in the eighth grade when he told me this.

So how did you feel then, after your brother beat you up?

I mean, ah, I was mad too.  I was mad ’cause I actually wanted to be in a gang. I wanted to be in a gang like real, real, real bad. And my brother, he wasn’t letting it happen. Like, no matter what. I would even try to, like, do, like, on a low key, like real, like, secretive and stuff. But one way or another he found out.  I mean, he was part of the gang so eventually he was gonna find out and he would never let it happen. It came to times where he actually told me to stay inside of the house and he wouldn’t let me go outside. And, like, my dad and my mom, they were always working, so he was the one that was in charge of me and stuff.

So what did you do after that? You figured out that [joining the gang] is not an option anymore, right?

Yeah, I mean, I would still kick it with my homies right there that stayed on the block.

While they were gang banging?

Yeah.  And, um, in 6th grade I went to a school right here, Markham.  Markham Middle School, right here off of, uh, Compton and 108. And, um, I went there for actually two weeks.  And I was kicking it a lot with my homies right there, and, like, the first week all my homeboys got, like, kicked out of school.

Why?

Selling drugs, I mean, gang banging and fightin’ and stuff.  And I was the only one that was kinda like cool, ’cause I was still getting good grades.  Like, throughout elementary school I had, like, straight A’s and stuff.  And, um, I mean, I was still getting good grades at Markham. And, uh, once they got kicked out, like…That’s cause, in middle school, that’s when all the gang banging starts and stuff. So there was already a couple people that were gang banging at Markham, and they seen me kickin’ it with that gang, so I got my a** beat. I got jumped. Sixth grade.

So even though you weren’t part of the gang, they saw you together with them and they just assumed?

Yeah. So my parents found out and they sent me to a private school closer to my house, a Catholic private school, a middle school. And that’s kinda when I started separating from the little gang thing ’cause, uh, no gang bangers were right there at the private school.  Like, absolutely none of them. Nobody that had gang banged went to that school or nothing like that.

So what did you do once you started that private school?  You got a new group of friends?

Yeah, I got a new group of friends. I was always playing sports like basketball.  That’s another thing my brother did; he would coach my basketball team.

What age were you when he coached your basketball team?

Ah, it was probably, well, I started playing when I was 7, ah, he didn’t start coaching my team ’til I was like 9. Yeah, and uh, where was I? Oh, at middle school. Oh, and people that I met there, they were all into sports, and I started getting into basketball, like, a lot more.  And I started to get into football a lot more.  And I found out that I was pretty good at it, so, I mean, I started playing it and I kinda like forgot about that whole gang banging thing.  And, um, I think my brother tried to, you know, get straight too, ’cause, like, that’s when he started looking for jobs. He wasn’t just layin’ around the house anymore, he was actually like trying to do something.

Was he still involved in the gang at that point?

Uh, well, yeah, you can’t get out that gang. You can’t get out.  Unless you’re dead or you have a kid or a family or something. Or you move away. That’s the only reason you’ll get out that gang. You can’t just say, "Oh, I wanna be out." No.

You’re there for life?

Yeah, basically.

Now, what else did you do at the middle school? You told me before about this tagging crew.

Oh, that wasn’t until freshman year of high school.

Ok, tell me about that.

Hold on, um, what kind of lead to that was ’cause, oh, my eighth grade, um, that’s when I kinda started getting a little bad too. But not so much on gang banging, but drugs. Yeah, I started using drugs a lot.

What’d you use?

Well, uh, I started off with weed.  It’s cause I had, I aint gonna lie, my eighth grade year I was like, I was big, I was chubby. And I was like real short.

After playing all those sports?

I know, but I was still chubby. I mean, I liked girls a lot, and they didn’t like me back, so I remember my brother being big too and then all of a sudden when he started using cocaine he got skinny.  So I, I wanted to get skinny, so I started sniffing. And, uh, yeah, I was sniffing until the second semester my freshman year.

And did you get skinny?

Yeah, I lost a lot of weight. My eighth grade year I was 200. Uh, the beginning of my eighth grade year I was 200 [pounds]. By the beginning of my ninth grade year I was 160. And then, uh, let me see, let me see, let me see, oh, and then I started kickin’ it with my cousin, the one that got shot. He didn’t die. Yeah, so, um, I started kickin’ it with him even more. And he went to a public high school. And at public high schools it’s all about, you know, tagging and gang banging and stuff. So, he was into the tagging thing. I started tagging ’cause I started kickin’ it with my cousin and my cousin started tagging so I started tagging. And yeah, we were in a tagging crew. We would, we would, uh, everywhere we would go we’d take a marker or a spray can and just tag.

And what did you tag?

[laugh] We tagged N-E-G. Negative Crew.

And what does that mean?

I don’t know, it was just a name. I really didn’t know what it meant.

Really?

Yeah, I was just in the crew.

And what kind of places did you put this? You said everywhere you went.

Yeah, basically.  Busses, street poles, walls, tables, everything, floors, everywhere.  Wherever, wherever I got a, like, chance to do it I did.

And what was the objective?

It was fun. Oh wait, the objective? It was to, uh, make the crew known, so the more you have it up, the more people are gonna see it and the more people are gonna know about you and yeah, it’s just to get popular.  That’s all a tagging crew is.  It’s like a uh, popular game. Like, whoever puts it up the most is the one that’s known the most. And I don’t know, it’s, now that I think about it, it’s dumb.  But at the time, it was more of an adrenaline rush ’cause I used to like the feeling of getting caught, but I didn’t get caught, so yeah.

You never got caught?

 I got caught, oh, my freshman year I got caught, but not by, like, a cop or anything. I got caught by some, some gangsters. I was in Paramount, and I was tagging on a wall. It was, ah, I think it was just a wall right there.  It was on a big street, too, and some gangsters had seen me and I was with my, it was me, my friend, one of my homeboys, and, uh, another one of my homeboys that I don’t really consider my homeboy anymore because of that day. ‘Cause, uh, like, the gangsters, they went up to us, and they asked us where we were from. And I had to say I was from N-E-G. I didn’t say I banged, I told him that I write, I didn’t bang. And he goes, "Alright, well, what you write?" And I was like, "Well, I write N-E-G crew." And he goes, "Oh, I’m from Locos Trece [a gang]" or whatever and I was all, "Alright, alright."  Then what’d he say? I think he seen my phone in my pocket and he, no in my hand, ’cause, I think, I don’t know why I had my phone in my hand, but he seen it and he wanted me to give it to him.  And I was like, "Nah, it aint happenin’." And it was like five, six of them. And I remember him just socking me, and he spit on me and that’s when I socked him back and then they all rushed in.  Yeah, so I got my a** beat right there too. And my other homie, he helped, he helped me out.  But the other one? He ran. So that’s why I don’t really consider him my homeboy anymore. ‘Cause he wasn’t there. And, oh, from that day on I was like, oh, I kinda wanted to stop.  ‘Cause, I mean, I don’t want to get my a** beat anymore.  So, yeah, I kinda stopped from that day.

And were you able to get out of the tagging crew?

Oh yeah.  Yeah, yeah.  It’s not like a gang.  It’s different. It’s, you can get out if you want to.  It depends though. There’s, uh, there’s a tagging crew that just tags and there’s a tag-banging crew. A tag-banging crew is kinda like a little, small gang, a small gang that tags. But I wasn’t like that. Tagging was just to write.  We just wrote, we just tagged everywhere.  We didn’t actually, like, go ask people where they were from if they looked suspicious or anything, if they looked like gangsters or anything.  We didn’t ask them where they were from.  We didn’t have beef with any crews, meaning that we didn’t, like, fight any crews just because.  I don’t know.  The only reason we would fight is, uh, if somebody had our names, and we would fight for the name. At that time, uh, they called me Glass.  I’ve had, like, two names.  They called me Glass ’cause I used to do the, the drug. They called me Glass and I remember another dude was named Glass from another crew and me and him had to fight ’cause, fight for the name.  But that was like the only reason we fought.  We didn’t fight ’cause, like, we hated each other.  We, we didn’t have beef with other crews.

So what happened when you fought Glass?

I kept my name. [laughs] Yeah.

What about the sense of camaraderie? These were your "brothers" and you stuck up for each other, right?

Oh yeah.  Yeah.  We was boys.  We was bros.  And, um, I would only kick it with them on the weekends ’cause, uh, on the weekdays I would, you know, go to school, even though my freshman year I messed up real bad.

How so?

I mean, I would go to, you know, Verb [Verbum Dei High School, where David is currently a senior], and, like, you know how I’ve always had a job, you know, at my school? So, um, I would hardly show up. I didn’t like going to school.  I didn’t like going to work. So, uh, I wouldn’t even show up. I was, like, on the verge of, like, getting kicked out.  I don’t know why I didn’t, but I didn’t. So, yeah.

So what were you doing while you were not going to school?  Were you tagging?

Uh, sometimes.  Sometimes I would tag, sometimes I would go with girls, sometimes I would go to parties.

During the day?

Yeah, ditching parties.

Ditching parties?  Tell me about that.

Um, ditching parties, well, it didn’t really happen at my school ’cause there are a lot of, like, smart people at my school so not a lot would, you know, would ditch. But I would kick it with my cousin, and he would always have ditching parties ’cause at public schools they don’t really care.  They have ditching parties all the time. And yeah, we would just kick back.

So that’s what you did freshman year. Then what did you do after that?

Um, sophomore year, my first semester I was kinda doing the same thing, but it wasn’t as much but I was still kinda doing it. I was still kinda tagging a little bit, I was still doing just a little bit of drugs, I wasn’t sniffing any more, though.  I was still smoking weed though.  And, um, oh yeah, my sophomore year when my first semester was over I remember I had like a point five [0.5] GPA.  So, I had basically, like, all Fs and a couple, like two or three, Ds, I don’t know.  And I remember, I saw my mom’s look like she looked all disappointed and stuff and I was like, "Aww, man." I mean, ’cause they were actually paying for the school and yeah.  And then they kicked me off the football team too. I was playing football too, my freshman year, my freshman year and my sophomore year I was playing football.  And they kicked me off the football team, so I, you know, I had to step my game up. I had to work hard and get good grades.

And did you do that?

Yeah.

When did you finally turn it around?

Well, I had a point five GPA for my first semester of sophomore year. By my second semester I had a, I had a 3.1. And then they bumped me up to honors. Yeah.

Wow that is quite an about face, huh?

I know.

And what are you doing now? You’re a senior, right?

Yeah, I’m a senior.

Are you going to school next year?

Yeah, I’m going to school next year.

Where are you going?

It’s either between UC Merced and Cal State Long Beach.

That’s great. And what about your brother?

My brother right now? Oh, well, he doesn’t live at home anymore. He found a girl and he’s living with her. And he basically, like, she’s pregnant too.  So he’s about to have a kid. Um, he’s doing good; he has a job, he’s cool.  He’s actually doin’ real good right now.  He stopped doin’ the drugs, he doesn’t go around the house anymore, he doesn’t, like, mess with all that gang banging stuff.  He’s 30 now.  Yeah.

What do you mean, "go around the house?"

Like, the only times he would go to the house before was to, you know, gang bang and stuff. Now, he just goes to the house to, you know, say hi to my mom and my dad, but he doesn’t even, like, go outside.  He doesn’t kick it. Well, most of the people that he would actually hang out with are either in dead or in jail. Yeah.

What about your friends, the ones you used to hang out with in public school?

Uh, I know two, two are dead. And one, his name was Ernesto, he was, like, my best friend.  Uh, I don’t know where he went, I don’t know.  I don’t know anything about him. And I think, like, four are in jail. Yeah.

So are you glad you never did that [joined the gang]?

Yeah.  I thank my brother for beating my a** that day.  Yeah, ’cause, ah, I didn’t want to end up like most of the friends that I have, well, that I had back then, either in jail or dead or, nah, I’m cool.

Did you ever know anyone else who had an older brother, or someone who was involved with a gang, who told them not to join? Or would you say that it’s the opposite, that they try to recruit?

I know that happens a lot, the recruiting. Yeah, that happens a lot. It happens a lot a lot. But I think I know like two people that actually go to my school now, so Verbum Dei [High School], that have brothers like that, that have gang banged, but didn’t let them gang bang. As far as that, I don’t know anybody else.  I know around the block, a lot of my homeboys that are, like, either in jail or dead now, um, they, um, they had older brothers that were in the gang too.  So, yeah.

What if you had a younger brother?

Well, to me my younger brother is my nephew. Yeah, and he aint coming close to that, I’m gonna make sure of that.  He aint comin’ near it. I don’t even want him to go outside right now.

Why?

‘Cause I don’t even want him to have friends, like I had friends. I told my sister that she should, like, put him in a private school from, like, kinder[garten] all the way to twelfth grade.

You think that’s the best place? In private school?

Yeah.  Yeah, no doubt.

And what about when you have a son?

I’m not livin’ around here! Nuh-uh, I don’t want to live over here.

Where do you want to live?

Anywhere but here. Uh, no, I’m cool. Nah, I’m alright.  I’m tryin’ to move outta here.  Not in Watts, not in Compton, not in South Central. I’m cool.

A parking lot with more than 100 spaces at University High School was closed recently to make way for the construction of a new gym, but some students wish the school had waited until the summer to start building.

The West Los Angeles high school gym is located on a fault line, so the school is moving the structure from its current location on Westgate Avenue to Ohio Avenue on what was, until March, a student parking lot.  There are two smaller parking lots off Barrington Avenue offering free and permit-less parking for those students who arrive early enough, but others still try parking on the streets.

“Fridays are horrible,” said senior Golmah Zarinkhou, who used to park on the streets near school.  “One day I had to spend an hour-and-a-half looking for parking.”

Most streets near University High School have street cleaning on Friday, meaning students who leave their cars there between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. that day could get tickets or worse.

“I do notice quite a few people get towed,” said one resident who lives across the street but preferred not to be identified.

A total of 2,218 students attend University High School, but parking is primarily an issue that affects some of the 483 seniors.

Parking regulations on the streets that surround University High School – including Barrington, Texas, Westgate and Ohio avenues – vary.  On the school-side of Westgate Avenue, for example, only loading is permitted on school days between 6:30-9:00 a.m. and 1:30-4:00 p.m.  The school-side parking lane on Texas Avenue is reserved for buses, but there is some mostly unrestricted parking on Barrington Avenue opposite the school.

The school-side of Barrington Avenue does not allow any parking from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but this restriction could be loosened.  According to Mo Blorfroshan, a transportation engineer for the western district office of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, changing that restriction on the school-side of the street would require a letter from the Los Angeles Unified School District requesting different parking regulations.

“We would have no problem with that,” said Blorfroshan.

After the LAUSD request letter is received, Blorfroshan explained it would take approximately 8-10 weeks to put the new regulations into effect and install new signs.

Changing street cleaning to weekends might also ease the parking situation at the high school.  Alternately, a dirt lot once occupied by bungalows could be converted into a parking lot.  These plans, the school’s student newspaper reports, are scheduled for construction in May.  The newspaper said the lot, in its current state, is inadequate for students due to its “unsafe entrance gate, uneven ground and falling pinecones.”

Assistant principal Dan Blank declined to comment for this story.

Jim Nakabara, a 33-year teacher and the school’s athletic director, believes the issue is overstated.

“Once [people] get used to parking in a certain area, it’s a habit and they don’t want to break the habit,” he said.

Students’ reluctance to park elsewhere might also be related to the conditions under which they were told about the large parking lot’s closing.  Zarinkhou said the school left notes on vehicles one Friday explaining the lot would be closed on Monday.

“Previous notice would have been definitely nice,” Zarinkhou said.

Some students and faculty wonder why construction could not have started in the summer, but with the school already behind the initially proposed construction schedule, high school officials might have wanted to expedite the construction process.

“I just think the district is playing it safe,” said Nakabara, who also attended University High School.  “There is a fault they found when they were researching it a few years ago and they said in a major earthquake there’ll be less than a one percent chance of major damage to the building.”

Once the new gym is completed, the West Gym presently serving students can be demolished.  On that space, tennis courts or a new parking lot might fit, Nakabara said.  With demand for student parking far outstripping the supply of available spaces, the school might also introduce paid parking permits with the potential new lot.  For now, though, students who drive to school can choose from the two lots on Barrington Avenue or try street parking.

Turning South Los Angeles into an oasis that can provide healthier food to South L.A. communities was the subject of a two-day conference hosted by the California Endowment April 8-9.

   

The conference, titled “Food Desert to Food Oasis,” brought together a number of activists looking for feasible ways to help South L.A. residents, who are underserved by an inadequate number of markets.  Speakers answered questions and took audience suggestions about how to solve the lack of healthy market food available in the area and simultaneously spark local business development.  Event organizers hoped to show how difficult and complex the issue can be to address.

“We need you to engage with your ideas and your concerns,” said Mary Lee, senior associate of event sponsor PolicyLink, as the second day of the conference began on Friday.  “Before we’re through with this exercise, we may not have all the answers—we couldn’t possibly have all the answers.”

   

Even so, Lee stressed that all the obstacles preventing the construction of more markets offering healthy food in South L.A., such as various zoning regulations and business owners unwilling to move, were surmountable.

“The reality is we have…developers who are ready and able and equipped to do this work and bring these stores into our community,” Lee said.

On the second day of the conference, two underutilized lots were presented as case studies of places in South L.A. that could use a grocery store.  The first location, at 4401-4455 Slauson Ave., is a 3.2-acre site with 11 parcels.  The second site, at 1626-1654 Florence Ave., is just 0.77 acres and contains 10 parcels.

The diversity of many South L.A. neighborhoods could get in the way of a community presenting a clear list of requests to a developer considering the construction of a large market on a vacant lot. 

“Most frequently, the community voice is one that is uneven,” said speaker Jackie Dupont Walker, president of Ward Economic Development Corporation. 

   

Learning what a community wants in a soon-to-be-developed market is in the developer’s best interest, she added.

   

“The community voice must stay at the table.  In fact, it’s in the best interests of all parties because those are the actual people who are going to … make the venture profitable.”

   

Before a supermarket developer becomes serious about potentially building at a specific site, census data will often be pulled to determine how many people could be served.  This presents a problem for South Los Angeles, said speaker Carolyn Hull of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles.

   

“Often times the census data undercounts our community.” Hull said.  “So it’s very important that we actually get present data … that can accurately represent the buying power of our community.”

   

Instead of attracting more big chain stores like the Ralphs supermarket at Vermont Avenue and Adams Boulevard, one audience member questioned the focus on attracting larger stores to fill the approximately $60 million of unmet need for healthy food within a two-mile radius of one of the two project sites.

   

“That could be 60 little corner stores each selling $1 million of fresh, healthy, affordable food or 30 stores with $2 million each in revenue,” he said.

   

Again underscoring the difficulty of the issue, moderator Brenda Shockley, president of Community Build Inc., pointed out that larger stores can offer healthy food for South Los Angeles residents but also start an economic “development ripple effect” in the area. 

Conversely, adding a smaller market like a Fresh & Easy – currently with no South L.A. locations – could provide healthier foods in a shorter time frame than it would take to plan and build a market or full-service supermarket.

   

“I want to know how we get the timetable sped up a little bit in this area because we have got all the resources in the room to do it,” said another audience member, frustrated at the slow or nonexistent construction progress of South L.A. projects like the Marlton Square shopping center in Crenshaw.

   

Introducing farmer’s markets was another short-term solution suggested by audience member Erin Banks, the office manager of Los Angeles-based Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

   

“You can rotate [the farmer’s market location during the week] until you can figure out the bigger picture,” Banks said.

   

Those wishing to share their opinion on the issue will have another chance May 7 at a Food Resource Development Coalition meeting at 10 a.m. at 3731 Stocker Street (Suite 201) also confronting the lack of grocery stores in South L.A.

Venice residents tired of Recreational Vehicles and converted vans lining their streets and increasing crime might soon see some progress on the issue, depending on the results of an upcoming California Coastal Commission vote.

   

For years, people living in RVs and old converted vans have parked in Venice around homes and businesses, sometimes frustrating locals who complain that the transient population leave litter on the streets and is an eyesore.  Venice residents recently had a chance to vote on a neighborhood council proposal about the RVs and establishing permit-only overnight parking. And while the vote attracted record turnout, the California Coastal Commission will have ultimate say on the issue when a vote is taken in June.

   

“Until you’ve lived with this stuff right in front of your house, [from] when you walk out of your house and got this right in front of you day after day, you have no concept of what it is [like],” said Stuart Oscars, a Venice resident since 1995.

   

Oscars, a local activist who serves on two sub-committees within the Venice Neighborhood Council, said he witnessed drug use and theft when RVs parked in front of his house before his street established stricter parking regulations.  It took years to make that happen, Oscars said, and might take even more time to resolve the issue on a more widespread level.

   

“Everyone thought this would be a quick fix,” he said.

   

Estimates of RVs in Venice vary from 100 to 300, depending on season.  Some contend the troublemaking RV owners are in the minority.   

   

“There are some people here that abuse this,” said Anthony Lamonea, who lives in his RV in Venice.  “They throw their trash everywhere, but there’s a big percentage of us that watch people and say ‘Hey man, you’re making it hard for us.’”

   

Officer Theresa Skinner of the Venice Police Department specializes in the Oakwood area of the city and says 80 percent of her calls are about people living in RVs and converted vans.

“We have had several instances of prostitution and narcotic use, finding paraphernalia laying around [and] condoms. … You come here, you stay here from street sweep day to street sweep day,” Skinner said, as if speaking to an RV owner, “there’s trash all over, the generator’s running all night, they hear your radio … if you moved every two days and went to another place where you weren’t congregating, nobody would even notice they were there.”

   

Even so, Skinner does not think homeowners realize there are many respectable RV owners on the streets.  Lamonea maintains that most RV owners are good neighbors to Venice homeowners and businesses.

   

“Actually, we’re security for most of those people.  If we see any activity going on, to keep the heat off us, we’ll confront some moron [who’s] trying to do harm,” Lamonea said.   

Finding an affordable alternate place for these RV owners to go at night has been a problem.

   

“Where do you find this limited space in an ocean beach area?  We’re working on it,” said Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

   

One option is the Dockweiler Beach RV Park, which currently has space for 117 RVs and is a 15-minute drive from Venice.  Unlike the free and generally unrestricted parking in Venice, however, the park charges at least $34 a night per RV until May 23, when the cheapest summer rate will be $41 a night per RV.

   

Other parking lots near the RV park could serve as the future site of a free overnight lot for RV parking if Skinner’s proposal is accepted.  Senior Lead Officer Skinner thinks the beach lots at Dockweiler Beach – across the street from a public waste facility – would be the perfect place to start a pilot program.

“Let’s try it for 6 months.  Let’s see how they police themselves—are they going to pick up their trash, are they going to pick up their urine, let’s see how it works,” Skinner said.

Alternatively, Rosendahl said his district is considering the application of a program modeled after rehabilitation programs successfully employed in areas with a high RV concentration like Santa Barbara, Calif., and Eugene, Ore.  The Eugene program allows RVs to park in private parking lots, but the vehicle owners “must prove they have a plan and want to improve their lives,” Oscars said.

If the California Coastal Commission votes that Venice residents can establish permitted parking zones, RV owners would have to find another place outside the city to park overnight.  A “Yes” vote would then leave the decision to establish overnight parking zones up to each Venice city block.

“Hopefully the Coastal Commission will give us the approval to go forward, then we’ll deal with it block-by-block,” Rosendahl said.

This multi-step process is set in place because of what Rosendahl calls “dual jurisdiction issues.”  Introducing permitted parking in most of Venice might restrict beach access, something that goes against the California Coastal Commission’s permanent responsibilities.

Directors/Editors-in-Chief:

William Celis, Professor of Journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Willa Seidenberg, Lecturer at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

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Emily Henry

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Catherine Cloutier

Mentoring Coordinator:

Silva Sevlian

Contributing Reporters:

Alex Caputo-Pearl

Wendy Carrillo

Jennifer Chapski

David Chong

Jessica Conner

Ned Dannenberg

Kaelyn Forde Eckenrode

Kaitlin Funaro

Zachary Gale

Erik Garcia

Dianne de Guzman

Stephanie Harnett

Lisa Holmes

Jacqueline Howard

Neila Jamee

Courtney Kabot

John Legittino

Sara Lerner

Debory Li

Shannon Mitchell

Eugene Mosley

Maritza Narvarro

Emily Nerland

Evelyn Padilla

Kevin Patra

Newly Paul

Stefanie Peralta

Mohammed Rahman

Rene Rosales

Chris Siciliano

Torey Van Oot

Guillermo Vazquez

Adriana Venegas-Chavez

Claire Webb

Adrianna Weingold

Stephanie Wenger

Timothy Werth