POLICE, RESIDENTS TAME WILD WEST ATMOSPHERE

The year began badly for East Palo Alto in 1999.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 8, Vernon James Dwight Compton was
shot to death by a drugged-out assailant as Compton and a friend were
walking down Capitol Avenue, a block off the city's main
thoroughfare.

But for the next 357 days, not another person would die violently in
East Palo Alto. As of late Friday, it appeared that 1999 would mark
only the second year this decade that the city has been victim to a
single homicide. In 1992, 39 people were killed, making the town the
per capita homicide capital of the nation.

East Palo Alto is not the only place where crime is falling. Homicide
levels have tumbled in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, and are at
their lowest levels nationally since the late '60s.

Even with the declines, East Palo Alto is still a violent place. The
city continues to lead the area per capita in serious crimes including
rapes, robberies and assaults. But many say the homicide milestone
reflects very real accomplishments that are helping transform East
Palo Alto into a safer community.

The signs of this slow but steady transformation are everywhere in
East Palo Alto.

On Sacramento Street, a one-block cul-de-sac off University Avenue,
the graffiti that used to plaster the walls of the apartment complex
at No. 561 are largely gone.

The boxy '50s-era buildings were once home to one of East Palo Alto's
most violent gangs. The ``$ac $t.'' branch of the NorteF1os, complete
with radio-equipped lookouts on the roof, brazenly ran drugs out of
the complex. In front of the complex was a swath of pavement called
the ``million-dollar spot,'' known throughout town as one of the most
lucrative places to deal drugs in the city.

Residents cowered in their homes as young toughs raced cars up and
down the block, staged dogfights on the street and indiscriminately
fired guns at houses. Cars full of drug customers from around the Bay
Area clogged the block. It was not unusual to see the coroner carting
away the bodies of bullet-ridden young men who had ended up on the
losing side of fights.

``When I first moved here, it was like hell,'' said Victoria Kupu, who
lived on Sacramento Street for more than 15 years and still comes back
to visit her family there. ``We were so scared we couldn't sleep. And
we never let our children outside.''

The Sacramento Street gang has not disappeared, according to police.
But many residents along the block say the Wild West atmosphere that
used to define the block is fading.

New owners of the apartment complex have cleaned out problem tenants.
New fences and walls on the block have made escape routes for dealers
more challenging. And on the streets, children now ride their bikes
and play where gangsters once loitered.

``When I worked the streets in the late '80s and early '90s, you
didn't see kids,'' said San Mateo County sheriff's Sgt. Tom Maloney, a
longtime veteran of police work in East Palo Alto.

Promising signs

Across town at the East Side Market, there are more promising signs.
The area around the market was once one of the most popular places to
buy drugs in East Palo Alto. The grocery store now has more customers
just interested in a snack.

``The days of large-scale, open-air drug trafficking are gone from
this town,'' said Maloney.

Crime statistics, though not always exact, also paint a picture of a
city pulling back from the brink. In addition to the dramatic drop in
homicides, robberies fell about 75 percent between 1992 and 1998,
according to FBI statistics.

Nationwide, serious crime has declined every year since 1992,
according to the FBI. Criminologists and law enforcement leaders have
attributed the drop to several factors, including an improved economy,
expanded and improved law enforcement efforts, the waning of the crack
cocaine epidemic and the decreasing number of young men.

East Palo Alto has benefited from these developments as
well.

The new Ravenswood 101 shopping center, completed last year, brought
scores of new jobs to the city -- and the promise of much-needed tax
revenue. The plaza's anchor tenant, Home Depot, employs more than 150
local residents, according to East Palo Alto Mayor Sharifa Wilson.

Notorious complex

The new development also displaced some of the city's most troubled
properties, including the notorious apartment complex at 2000 Cooley
Ave., site of numerous shootings and home to another one of East Palo
Alto's most violent gangs.

Many in the community also credit stepped-up law enforcement efforts
in the city for making East Palo Alto's streets safer.

Earlier this decade, the city was patrolled only by the fledgling East
Palo Alto Police Department. The department was understaffed and,
according to many in law enforcement, ill-prepared to deal with the
avalanche of violence that hit the city in the late '80s and early
'90s.

Today, the department is slowly working toward a full complement of
more than 40 officers. And it is receiving critical assistance from
the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's substation just
blocks from City Hall handles all serious crime investigations in the
city, and a new crime-suppression team works the streets, cracking
down on gang activity, parole violators and traditional hot spots like
Sacramento Street.

But many note that without the support of the community, law
enforcement efforts would not be succeeding.

In 1992, Bob Hoover was one of several residents who put his personal
safety on the line to confront the drug dealers who were wreaking
havoc on his city.

As a member of the grass-roots group Just Us, Hoover spent his days
and nights patrolling the city's streets armed only with a
walkie-talkie, a video camera and a notebook that he used to jot down
the license plates of those selling and using drugs. Other groups like
Turnaround East Palo Alto undertook similar efforts.

Hoover, a 40-year resident of East Palo Alto, now helps neighborhoods
form block clubs. He says there is something different in the city
today.

``Any problem that is in a community did not happen overnight and
we're not going to solve it overnight,'' he said. ``But the thing I
can feel and see is that people now believe this is a community you
can make something happen in. There's a real change in attitude.''

Hoover and others acknowledge there is still a long way yet to
go.

While blocks like Sacramento Street may have turned the corner, there
are others where violence and drug trafficking remain a part of life.
And even with the dip in crime, the city still has many more serious
crimes per capita than its neighbors.

East Palo Alto's police department, hit recently with a string of
allegations of misconduct, also remains a sore spot for many residents
who say they are tired of shenanigans by rogue cops.

Police Chief Wesley Bowling has earned praise from some for his
efforts to turn the department around, but problems persist. With the
expiration next June of a $1.2 million federal grant that has paid for
18 officers, the city faces a serious funding challenge, said City
Manager Monika Hudson.

``People are enjoying the drop in crime, the lack of drug dealers on
the street and gunshots in the night,'' Bowling said. ``We need those
18 officers in order to maintain safety and the quality of life we
have developed in the community.''

Hudson says the city plans to go forward this year with more projects,
including expanded community policing and a new code enforcement
office. That will come as good news to many community members like
Sacramento Street resident Bertha Smith, who, like many, has waited
decades for a turnaround.

``There are a lot of hard-working, good people in East Palo Alto,''
Smith said. ``I know we could be a good city, a better city than what
we were.''