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# Safety in numbers for residents of Pico
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/safety-in-numbers-for-residents-of-pico/
- Published: 2005-03-02T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:10:56.000Z
- Author: Ryan Hyatt
- Tags: Community, Pico, #archive-import, Homelessness

*Some Pico neighborhood residents question survey results in general, but that crime continues to plague the neighborhood.*

PICO NEIGHBORHOOD — Residents in this eastside neighborhood feel that crime has decreased in recent years, according to survey results released by City Hall this week.

Pico neighborhood residents were more likely than others to say the crime situation has “gotten better” over the past few years. Forty-one percent said crime has improved, compared to just 25 percent of those polled elsewhere in Santa Monica. Only 13 percent of Pico residents felt crime had gotten worse, compared to 17 percent of those living in other parts of Santa Monica.

City Hall hired Goodwin Simon Strategic Research Company to conduct a telephone survey of residents as part of an ongoing effort to assess satisfaction with city services and to explore views on policy and priorities. The survey was conducted in January.

Four-hundred telephone interviews were conducted citywide. In addition, there were 150 interviews conducted in the Pico area. Thirty-one respondents were also identified from the citywide sample, bringing the total number of Pico residents polled to 181.

The Pico neighborhood — which runs north of the Santa Monica Freeway to Santa Monica Boulevard, south to Pico Boulevard and east from Lincoln Boulevard to Centinela Boulevard — has historically been the center of Santa Monica’s violent crime, drug dealing and gang activity, despite encompassing just eight square blocks.

Peter Tigler, a Pico resident who is active in the community, said he agrees with the survey “If you look at violent crime, it is pretty consistent over the years,” Tigler said. “Pico is safer for burglaries, for example, more than the Promenade. The crimes going on here are not thugs hitting old women over the head and stealing their purses. It’s violent crimes — the shootings we hear every once in a while — that affect people.”

> “The crimes going on here are not thugs hitting old women over the head and stealing their purses. It’s violent crimes.” — PETER TIGLER Pico neighborhood resident

Santa Monica Police Lt. Frank Fabrega said the crime that might be most indicative of gang activity is aggravated assault. Between 2002 and 2004, aggravated assaults declined significantly in the Pico neighborhood. There were 29 in 2002, 25 in 2003, and 11 in 2004\. For the same years throughout the entire city, there were 307, 290 and 282 aggravated assaults, respectively.

Fabrega said there has only been one homicide in Pico since 2002, while there have been 13 elsewhere in Santa Monica. There have been three rapes reported in Pico, in contrast to 75 reported in Santa Monica during that same period.

“Sexual assaults often occur by acquaintances of the victim, such as friends or family members,” Fabrega said.

According to Fabrega, the number of reported robberies in Pico also have been on the decline, with 14 reported in 2002; six in 2003 and seven in 2004\. The number of robberies in the remainder of the city also reflect a decline, with 299 in 2002, and 242 both in 2003 and 2004\. “A lot of thefts become robberies once fear or force are used to escape,” Fabrega said.

Meanwhile, some Pico residents remain skeptical of the survey results. Yolanda de Cordova, office manager of the Pico Youth & Family Center, said she hasn’t spoken to anyone in the neighborhood who has been interviewed.

“I was really excited to hear the city was doing a Pico survey, but I’m not sure of the results,” she said. “I’ve asked some of the families we work with, and none of them have taken the survey. I think if some of them had, the survey would be more concrete and have different results.”

Cordova said the Pico Youth & Family Center works with 200 children, many of whom have been affected by gangs, violence and drugs.

“We would like to do our own survey on the kids and families we serve who are directly impacted, a cross reference to the city survey,” Cordova said.

In the city survey, respondents were asked to name one or two issues facing the city they felt were most important. Twenty-five percent of Pico residents said that crime, gangs or drugs were the most important issues, compared to 8 percent of those living elsewhere in Santa Monica.

Don Gray, also a Pico resident, agrees with the results, but doesn't believe a perceived reduction in crime has to do with local government involvement.

“I went to that gang violence workshop the city held last Saturday,” he said, refer-ring to a discussion of gang violence on Feb. 26 at John Adams Middle School. “Of the hundreds of people there, only a handful were from Pico. It was quite a turnout, but they were all out-of-towners. The city isn’t making a difference.

“If there has been a reduction in crime, it probably has an economic basis.”

Gray said the escalating property values in Santa Monica over the past few years has likely prompted area residents to call in more criminal activity to the police.

“It’s one thing if you own a home and there is a crack dealer on the corner of the street,” he said. “It’s another thing if you own a home that’s suddenly worth a million dollars, and there is a crack dealer on the corner of the street. People aren’t going to put up with that.”

Residents also were asked to rate the seriousness of several city problems. Of those, 69 percent of Pico residents said that traffic was a serious problem, compared to 61 percent of those living in other parts of Santa Monica. Whereas 37 percent of Pico residents said that gang violence was a serious issue, only 22 percent of their fellow Santa Monicans shared their sentiments.

Pico residents were no more likely than others to say that affordable housing, homelessness and parking were serious problems for the city.

Pico residents were more than likely than others to give City Hall positive ratings for providing services for youth (67 percent compared to 48 percent); providing services to senior citizens (61 percent versus 54 percent); operating efficiently (59 percent against 46 percent); supporting early childhood education (52 percent to 43 percent); enforcing noise limits at the airport (48 percent to 32 percent); and spending money in the right areas (33 percent to 25 percent).

The citywide sample was drawn using a random-digit-dial methodology, so that every working residential number in the city had the same chance of being called. The sample for the extra interviews in the Pico area was drawn randomly from commercial telephone directories listing residents of the defined area.

The margin of error for the citywide and Pico survey is 5 percent to 7 percent, respectively.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 2, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/030205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)