Center deters gang activity
This isn’t your typical youth center. Enter the reception area of the newly opened Pico Youth and Family Center and feel a distinctly coffeehouse flavor.
Travel down the hallway covered in intricate graffiti art — the kind typically found on the side of freeways — and find a small enclave with a row of computer stations.
Opposite the computers is a large screen television, a black leather couch and a high-end video game system.
A Che Guevara banner watches over it all. At the end of the hallway, another room contains the best technology has to offer when it comes to music recording. Turntables, a mixing station, keyboards and a CD-burner are all top of the line instruments used in recording hip-hop.
“All this is designed to help these kids express their artistic talents,” said Oscar de la Torre, the center’s founder and director.
“All this is designed to help these kids express their artistic talents...Young people needed a space of their own.” — — OSCAR DE LA TORRE Youth center director
But mainly the center is designed to give kids from the Pico neighborhood a place to hang out other than the streets, where they can get caught in the crossfire of gangs and the illegal drug trade.
That’s exactly what happened in 1998 when four teenagers were killed in separate incidents throughout the neighborhood. The homicides sparked a city-wide movement that eventually brought about the creation of the youth center.
“Young people needed a space of their own,” said de la Torre, 30. “The Promenade had become too expensive for young people. They needed a place to congregate.”
The Pico neighborhood covers about eight square blocks just north of the Santa Monica Freeway to Pico Boulevard, and east to the city limits.
While planning the center, neighborhood kids said they wanted a place with a distinct hip-hop flavor. According to Torre, they wanted somewhere they would-n’t get in trouble for painting on walls or playing loud music.
“There was a distinct feeling of helplessness, of powerlessness among these kids,” he said. “They felt their voice didn’t matter.”
One teen hanging out at the center last Friday seemed to appreciate the new space.
“Instead of chilling on the streets, it’s better to be inside with all the music and the video games,” said Heriberto Gomez, Jr, 19. “If I didn’t have this place, I know I would be out there with my friends getting into trouble.”
Gang activity in the Pico neighborhood has been on the rise lately. In the last three months there have been three recent shootings on the city’s east side, none of which have been fatal.
The neighborhood has been embroiled for years in a turf war largely between two gangs — the Graveyard Crips and the Santa Monica 17th Street gang.
The tension appears to be not only racially motivated between the two groups — one black, the other Latino — but also drug related. Drug dealing on street corners along Delaware Avenue has a been a problem for years, residents say.
“There’s trouble everywhere right now,” said Oscar Franco, 17. “It’s really hot on the streets right now.”
Others at the center last Friday said the increased gang activity reinforced the need for the center.
“That’s just life,” said Miguel Martin. “I can’t do anything about it but stay away from it all and keep in here.”
Besides protecting the neighborhood kids, de la Torre — who grew up on 17th Street and went to Santa Monica High School — wants to help mobilize them too.
“We want to be able to put pressure on the city council to get the services we need,” said Torre. “It’s not their money, it’s the people’s money and it should be used to help us.”
The center, located on the corner of Pico Boulevard and Ninth Street, still needs more computers and technicians to teach the kids how to use all the new equipment, especially the turntables and keyboards. If you would like to help, please contact the Pico Youth and Family Center at (310) 396-7101.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 19, 2002. Read the original PDF.