In the last five weeks, five shootings have occurred in the Pico neighborhood.
Fast work by Santa Monica Police has led to the arrest of eight suspected shooters, most of which are known gang members.
Neighborhood residents chalk up the gunplay to turf wars involving control of the illicit drug trade and a long standing racial gang war exacerbated by hard core convicts recently released from prison.
The two-decade-old official city neighborhood group, the Pico Neighborhood Association, has been active in dealing with the gang and drug problems from the start. But, for the most part, Pico’s problems have been brushed under the carpet by city officials.
More recently, community activists such as Oscar de la Torre have stepped up to the plate with their own solutions. de la Torre is founder and president of the Pico Youth and Family Center, a nonprofit organization funded by the city. de la Torre was recently elected to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education. de la Torre is doing his thing and does-n’t seem to be interested in working with other neighborhood organizations. According to an anonymous source at the PNA, “Oscar is a prolific self-promoter and wants the limelight to himself. He doesn’t inform us of his activities.” de la Torre’s coalition includes the Mothers for Justice, a group he is closely associated with, who filed complaints of discrimination against the school district last year, members of the local NAACP and religious leaders from some of the neighborhood churches.
They drafted a list of solutions (printed in the June 9 edition, SMDP) such as “Establish trust with youth” and “Bring, schools, churches and community together to help prevent violence.”
Philosophizing and peace marches are a start and a step in the right direction, but in the end, it’s action not platitudes that’s needed.
Tough decision making, bridging the gap with all Pico neighbors, specific programs and goals and a dogged determination to see it through to the end need to be undertaken if the violence is ever going to stop.
On the other hand, the PNA advocates an effective policing policy including true community policing and adequate resources to deal with the neighborhood issues. That means coming down hard on troublemakers although some oppose this because they feel that youth of color will be unfairly targeted.
The PNA also suggests a working plan for the neighborhood involving a social service focus targeting residents, not homeless transients, which is the preference of city officials currently.
The PNA advocates an amendment to the City Charter to allow the eviction of a tenant from city-funded housing who commits a violent crime or illegally discharges a weapon.
Another suggestion is to fix broken windows. PNA board member Peter Tigler claims that the city itself is very slow to clean up the area. “Planting, maintenance, large object trash collection, traffic control and code enforcement and resources for improvement must be on par with other parts of the city,” Tigler says.
Many feel that the Pico area has become a dumping ground for the city’s affordable housing projects.
The city doesn’t want to develop mixed income units or ownership programs. Community Corp. of Santa Monica, the city’s major provider of affordable housing, fails to do criminal checks of prospective tenants.
Part of the reason why the neighborhood problems are ignored is due to the apathy of most Pico residents. Some don’t care. Others don’t want to get involved and some have family members or know individuals in gangs.
The rest of Santa Monica takes the attitude that “it’s there in the Pico neighborhood, let’s ignore it.”
“While real estate interests brag about increased property values resulting from good schools, they ignore the affect gang wars and shootings have on property values,” Tigler says.
Some of the blame can fall on the politicians. For example, they’re discussing limiting the operating hours of the Police Activities League used by hundreds of Pico youth. Yet, they spend millions for programs that don’t benefit residents of the city, let alone the Pico neighborhood.
The Pico neighborhood needs to speak with a loud, unified voice if it wants to solve problems, once and for all.
And, the City Council and aspiring politicians need to get serious about what’s going on, or bullets will continue to fill the air and, inevitably, more innocent people will die. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 13, 2003. Read the original PDF.