A YEAR AFTER POLICE RAID, DREW STREET RESIDENTS CELEBRATE WITH BLOCK PARTY

The Glassell Park Neighborhood Was a Longtime Haven for Drug Deals
and Gang Wars. Now, Children Play in the Streets and Neighbors Feel Safer.

On a street where gangsters have notoriously ruled for generations,
Rosa Recinos lounged in a plastic chair on the sidewalk Saturday
morning and soaked in the scene.

"The children are laughing and playing outside," she said. "This is
something you would have never seen here before."

After nearly 30 years of living on Drew Street in Northeast Los
Angeles, the 50-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, like many of her
neighbors, has lived through it all on these two blocks.

The Drew Street clique, an Avenues gang run by five interrelated
families, wreaked havoc on the neighborhood, turning it into an
open-market drug bazaar and turf zone where bullets regularly blasted
through cars and apartment buildings. Rarely did families step
outside, day or night.

But Saturday, a year after police stormed the Glassell Park
neighborhood, rooting out many leaders of the gang with a federal
racketeering indictment, Drew Street celebrated with a block party.

Evenings are no longer pierced by the sounds of screeching tires and
whirring helicopter blades, residents said. Graffiti that once
scarred homes and trees is rare and telephone wires are free of
dangling tennis shoes, a signal that drugs were sold nearby.

As of May, violent and property crime in the area had fallen about
45% since early 2008, said Capt. Bill Murphy of the LAPD's Northeast
Division. Despite the dramatic changes, the work is not over.

Police, along with city officials, are working with the neighborhood
council and neighborhood watch to unify the community and gain
confidence, a difficult task given decades of distrust.

"It's not a perfect neighborhood, but it's much, much better," Murphy
said. "It took us a long time to build trust with residents, and we
are not going to let it go."

Following the raid last year, police maintained a daily presence for
several weeks with a mobile command center and regular foot patrols.

It was around this time many residents say the neighborhood began to
feel safer. More neighbors called police when they saw suspicious
activity, unlike in the past, when they feared retaliation.

"No more bullets," said Luis Ku, as he stepped outside his lavender
stucco home to pick up the morning newspaper. He pointed across the
street to an apartment building, where one shot left a hole the size
of a half dollar, and to his driveway, where a bullet once crushed
the side view mirror of his car.

Although things have calmed down, the 53-year-old father of two
thinks drug sales are still rampant on the block. He said cars come
and go throughout the day and he has seen men down the street
negotiate with clients.

"One woman came up to me the other day while I was sitting in the
frontyard, looked right at me and said, 'Hey, you sellin' marijuana?'
" Ku said. "I laughed and thought, 'Are you kidding me?' "

Though gang activity dates back to the zoot suit era in Northeast Los
Angeles, Drew Street gained attention last February when a
drug-related shootout erupted, leaving two men dead.

At the center of the violence was Maria "Chata" Leon, a mother of 13
with a lengthy arrest record. Her son, Daniel Leon, was one of those
killed in the shootout. During at least two raids on her Drew Street
home, officers found guns and drugs, along with surveillance cameras
and laser trip wires.

Her home was razed after it was declared a public nuisance. Leon was
recently imprisoned on federal charges.

Several of her sons who had gang affiliations were killed or locked up.

On Saturday, it was all history as dozens of children bounced on a
jumper not far from the plot of land once occupied by the Leons.

Ignacio Ramirez, 62, and his wife, Maria, looked on with relief from
the shade of a tree. Over the course of 40 years of living in the
neighborhood, their garage was burglarized, their son's bike was
stolen and once, a bullet ricocheted off the pavement and landed in
their front door.

They raised three sons who graduated from college. A decade ago, one
bought a home on the same block.

"We made an investment when we chose to move here," Ramirez said. "We
never had problems with anyone and had no reason to run away,
especially now that things are better."