NEIGHBORHOOD PROFILE: SOUTHWEST SANTA ANA

Get me the hell away from this TV

All this news and view are beneath me

Cause all I hear about is shots ringin’ out

About gangs puttin’ each others head out

from “Burn Hollywood Burn” by Public Enemy

Enough gang stories, already, seems to be the anguished plea from residents of southwest Santa Ana. They know their neighborhood is dotted with the infamous and the unsavory; the benign Bloods and Crips as well as the notorious 5th Street and F-Troop gangs call the area their turf. But there are good people in the neighborhood whose humble, decent lives are constantly overshadowed by headline-grabbing punks. To them, the barrage of “write-by” character assassinations are every bit as devastating as a drive-by shooting.

“I remember one time, one of the Orange County papers referred to our neighborhood as seedy or seamy. It really irks me sometimes that that’s all people want to see,” said Samuel Vance, who was raised in southwest Santa Ana and still lives there with his wife and daughters. “They come here looking for that. You can go to South County and you’ll find gangs too, but people are always coming here looking for gangs.”

No one is denying the problems of the area; residents just want it understood that there is another side to the story. “Gangs are one of the big things here, just like drugs. All of that does exist, but we have a lot of good, good neighbors--people who have been here since the ‘50s and ‘60s and who will help you fix your car or who come to your aid in general,” Vance said.

Residents emphasize it isn’t just an area of gangs and drugs. Several southwest alumni have gone on to achieve success in business, politics or community activism; some have achieved fame in sports, among them Houston Astros outfielder Gerald Young, retired Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Isaac Curtis and San Diego Padres shortstop Garry Templeton, who sponsors a little league in the area out of the Jerome Center.

There are also community-minded groups such as the Annie Mae Tripp Community Center on 2nd Street, which has fed and clothed the indigent for 20 years. A couple of blocks up the street is the Head Start preschool and day care center operated by the Council of Affiliated Negro Organizations, also known as CANO.

The school has been doing a booming business since the Watts riots 25 years ago. Now 200 strong, CANO teaches children social and motor skills, shapes, colors, numbers and whatever else it takes to give the community’s preschoolers a leg up for elementary school. And, in spite of their Bristol Street location in this reportedly “seamy” area, there have been few incidents of vandalism.

“The neighbors and gangs are very protective of us. They know we’re doing something positive for their brothers and sisters,” said the center’s director, Alta Manning.

Still, there is no escaping the glaring presence of drugs and occasional violence. Just last week on Wood Street, 12-year-old Pedro Sanchez Hernandez was killed when he didn’t duck fast enough when someone shouted “drive-by” as he and his brother walked to a friend’s house. Hernandez was neither a drug user nor in a gang.

And that is another sore point for residents. A lot of the neighborhood’s reputation, they believe, is exacerbated by outside elements. According to reports, the alleged suspects who shot Hernandez were from Westminster and, both residents and police contend, a lot of the drug purchasers and users are not people from the neighborhood. Rather, they are often white kids from Newport Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa and El Toro.

“When you see a lot of white kids in this neighborhood, it’s common to stop them and find out they’ve purchased drugs,” said Investigator John Teutimez of the Santa Ana Police Department. And, he adds, the people in the neighborhood “sell it to live, not to use. Not too many who sell are into using.”

The question is, what to do about it. The city has erected barricades on Cubbon and Brook streets at Bristol Street to impede quick getaways, and there are redevelopment projects under way to widen, landscape and wall off Bristol Street in some areas.

That project, however, may mean that several small businesses, possibly the CANO preschool and some residences will have to relocate. It is a project that makes Dr. Robert Gonzales, an optometrist whose business on Bristol Street will most likely be a casualty of eminent domain, wax philosophical. “There are definitely some bad spots, and it needs to be improved, but I don’t know that wiping it out is the way to do it. People just don’t want to see minority communities. They want to wall it off so they don’t have to look at it.”

Population Total: (1990 est.) 19,621 1980-90 change: +21.4% Median Age: 25.1

Racial/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino), 7%; Latino, 76%; Black, 9%; Other, 8%

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 24.9 years FEMALES Median age: 25.5 years

Income Per capita: $8,347 Median household: $34,502 Average household: $36,938 Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 36% $25,000-49,999: 34% $50,000-74,999: 22% $75,000-$99,999: 5% $100,000 and more: 3%