Residents March for Cleaner Community
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Five Neighborhood Watch groups took to the streets in Pacoima on Saturday in an attempt to show that drug dealing, prostitution and gang activity are not welcome in their community.
Members of the group marched down the side streets near Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road, calling to their neighbors to join them, and heckling gang members who stood in front of a suspected crack house.
“I don’t want to make it another Beverly Hills. Just clean it up, make it a nice city,” said Efren Olvera, president of the Haddon-Mercer Homeowners Assn. and a driving force behind Vecinos Unidos , or Neighbors United.
The 50 marchers, including children and grandparents, followed Olvera, who drove a car equipped with loudspeakers and exhorted residents and others to join the effort to clean up the community.
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