Crime has neighborhood distressed
OAKLAND: Fruitvale district's Latino residents say they're not receiving adequate funding to deal with robberies, violence
By Kamika Dunlap
STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 12/30/2007


The owners of El Huarache Azteca understand that the traditional Mexican food served at their restaurant is part of what helps add flavor to their Fruitvale neighborhood.
They know that drug dealers, pimps and gangs also are a part of the mix, making them fearful and, they say, terrorizing the community.

Eva Saavedra, owner of the popular restaurant, and her brother, Adrian Saavedra, who manages the restaurant, worry that the area -- home to them and many other Latino immigrants -- isn't safe enough to run a business and raise a family.

In recent incidents, Eva Saavedra's son was jumped Oct. 15 by gang members while on his way from Arise, a new Oakland charter high school in the Fruitvale Transit Village on MacArthur Boulevard. Eva and Adrian Saavedra's youngest brother, Guillermo, was found bludgeoned to death Nov. 10 at the corner of Fruitvale Avenue and International Boulevard.

"There's too much violence and people will kill for anything," Adrian Saavedra said. "I feel unprotected and that our neighborhood is being neglected."

In the past several years, the city of Oakland has pumped more than $10 million into Fruitvale to revitalize the area, yet residents say it is still plagued by crime, including gang violence, prostitution and robberies of local merchants.

Community leaders hope to transform the light industrial area with several commercial, residential and retail development projects. Residents, however, say the neighborhood needs a community


center and services for youths. The 21/2-square-mile East Oakland neighborhood is a popular hub for immigrants from Mexico and Central and South America.
In 2006, there were 18 homicides and 512 robberies reported along Fruitvale and San Leandro boulevards and from 23rd to 40th avenues, according to data from the Oakland Police Department. Merchants along Foothill Boulevard said they, too, have seen an increase in robberies.

The Fruitvale Transit Village was created in 2004 to encourage the multicultural neighborhood to flourish. The village, which resembles a Mexican Plaza, includes apartments and retail space, 90 percent of which is filled. There are plans to add 92 more units for working-class residents, to be completed by 2010.

Even with the many projects, some Latino residents say the city doesn't have enough services catering to the language and cultural needs of their community, specifically Latino youths. About 12 percent of Oakland's residents live in the Fruitvale, according to the Unity Council, an Oakland community development organization.

Earlier this month, City Council President Ignacio de la Fuente introduced the Fruitvale Safety Project. A three-month initiative, it's aimed to geographically tackle crime and violence in the Fruitvale through a more coordinated community effort.

"We have to deal with the patterns of crime and the changes in the city," De la Fuente said in announcing the initiative.

The project also includes biweekly meetings organized to help solve problems, educate the community about gang prevention programs and increase general awareness about public safety.

In the past year and a half, prostitution in Fruitvale has gone down about 33 percent, police said. An increased police presence and cameras mounted on telephone poles has helped monitor illegal activity.

But residents say Latino gang violence and other crime can be combated if more resources are directed at neighborhood programs. Some say city services are too heavily targeted toward African-American youths and complain that Measure Y services -- a 2004 ordinance that raised $19 million for a variety of anti-violence programs in Oakland -- are not reaching Latino youths and their families.

According to city data, about 71 percent of Measure Y funds are distributed to programs for African-Americans, 19 percent to Latinos and 5.7 percent to Asian-Americans.

Although the transit village looks nice, it's not improving the area, residents said.

"That sliver of the transit village can't be expected to transform the broader area," said Andres Soto, violence prevention coordinator for Alameda County. "A community center is as much a part of the infrastructure as redevelopment. We have to have both."

Some residents say they worry that De la Fuente's project is lip service and won't change anything.

About 7 percent of the 122 homicides in Oakland this year were linked to Latino gang rivalries, as were several nonfatal shootings, police said.


"Fruitvale is a trouble spot," said Sgt. Randy Brandwood, a supervisor for the Oakland Police Department's Gang Unit, which was revived in January 2006. "We monitor all gang activity but place a special emphasis on Hispanic gangs because of the violence associated with them."

Reach Kamika Dunlap at 510-208-6448 or kdunlap@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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