EX`CRAZY LISA' WANTS A PLACE TO CALL HER 'ZONE

by Loretta Green, San Jose Mercury News Columnist

THEY USED to call her ``Crazy Lisa.''

Her name is Alisi Manuel, and she would walk East Palo Alto streets high on
alcohol and dope.

``I loved to fight all the time, and when I'd get that alcohol in me, I'd
get violent,'' she explained.

Because she is a woman who laughs often and speaks with the enthusiasm of a
cheerleader, it is hard for those who did not know her then to imagine the
person she described.

Her path to becoming clean and sober happened the day she hit a cop on the
head with a rock. It got her a year in jail.

After 15 months in Daytop Village drug rehabilitation center and 2 1/2
years of being sober not counting jail time Manuel says she owes the
community something constructive.

For the past two years, she has been working on plans to open a social club
for people who have completed drug rehab. She will call it The Neutral Zone.

SHE HAS rented the building at 2381 University Ave. in East Palo Alto,
acquired nonprofit status, purchased insurance and applied for a business
license.

A major step will be obtaining permission from the city's planning
department, which she says has expressed reservation.

I was unable to get an official response because the department head
recently resigned. A hearing set for this coming Monday was canceled.

But Manuel does not appear to be easily discouraged.

``All the people who run the city have to do is give me a chance,'' she
said. ``They think I am using this for a front. Maybe they have a right to
feel that way, but the city needs this, and I want to give back to the
community because I have done wrong in my life.''

Manuel came to the United States from Tonga at the age of 12. She has lived
in East Palo Alto since 1972 and is a 1974 graduate of Ravenswood High
School. Though the couple no longer live together, she met her husband,
Mickey Manuel, when she was 18.

Mickey Manuel once owned the Nairobi Shopping Center, formerly at Bay Road
and University Avenue, before it was razed.

Alisi Manuel says the day she was released from jail, Fred Burks, senior
deputy probation officer for San Mateo County, took her to Daytop. She
vowed she would leave, but she didn't.

SHE SAYS people who complete treatment need clean and sober places to
socialize. She envisions the Neutral Zone as a place where only soft drinks
and juices will be served and where people can dance and play games.

Visiting the old spots can be dangerous.

She recalled how once, on a pass from Daytop, she sneaked into one of her
old haunts.

``I wanted to feel it to see if I could go into a place like that and
not hurt. All of my friends were offering me a drink.''

She resisted.

Manuel says her past life is no secret in the community. People remember
how the very corner where she wants to have the club was her drug territory.

``She has come a long way and really turned her life around,'' said Burks.
``She has a positive attitude and seems to be committed to doing something
positive for her community. Whether or not she is successful in doing it to
me remains questionable, because I don't know what the legal ramifications
are in the city of East Palo Alto.''

Manuel says another reason she wants to succeed is for her children, whose
ages range from 9 to 21.

``I want them to see that I've turned my life around. And I want them to
believe me,'' she said.

Write Loretta Green at the Mercury News, 310 University Ave., Palo Alto,
Calif. 94301; fax (650) 6887555; email LGreen@sjmercury.com.