Residents rid streets of waste

Andrew Edwards

The streets of Oak View got a little cleaner recently after several

neighborhood youths carrying bags, rakes and other tools prowled the

sidewalks and blacktop looking for litter.

The Saturday cleanup was part of the annual Oak View Pride Day, an

event in which area youngsters go on a search-and-cleanup mission to

keep trash out of the neighborhood.

“There’s no better way to show pride than to clean the community,”

said Elsa Greenfield, program director for Community Service

Programs, Inc., a Santa Ana-based nonprofit that took the lead role

organizing Saturday’s event.

Most of the work was carried out by children and teenagers. The

youngsters met event coordinators at Oak View Elementary School and

filled their black plastic bags with candy wrappers, newspapers,

plastic foam and other junk that was cluttered around the

neighborhood. When younger children were asked why they chose to

spend a Saturday morning at work, many had the same response, simply

saying they were helping the community.

“We care about what’s happening in our community,” 14-year-old

Junior Zuniga said. “It was dirty, but we can’t be living like that.”

One of the adults who came to help out, 19-year-old Oscar Sanchez,

finished the two-hour cleanup pushing a shopping cart loaded with two

tires and other trash he was taking off the streets.

Sanchez grew up in Oak View, but is preparing to leave Huntington

Beach for Iraq, where he expects to serve as a prison guard. He

enlisted in the Marines after graduating from Ocean View High School

last June. Sanchez said growing up in Oak View gave him a unique

appreciation for life -- many of the people he grew up with have not

made it as far.

“Half my friends I don’t have anymore,” he said. “They’re gone

because they got deported, went to gangs or dropped out of school.”

Oak View is a small neighborhood in central Huntington Beach,

almost out of sight from the strip malls, high-priced homes and signs

of beach culture that permeate Surf City. The largely Latino

community is a place where the sounds of the Spanish language often

fill the air.

“This community’s kind of forgotten,” Greenfield said. “[Oak View

is] small. There’s a language barrier; people stay here.”

Sanchez had a similar take on Oak View’s relationship with the

rest of Huntington Beach.

“It’s just like a little town of its own,” he said. “You don’t

have any access to the outside, except for school.”

Huntington Beach is perennially ranked as one of the United

States’ safest places to live, but the city is not immune from crime

problems like gang activity.

“It goes up and down; sometimes gangs are active, sometimes less

active,” Police Chief Ken Small said. “They’re always trying to

recruit.”

Currently four officers are assigned to the Oak View Task Force, a

special substation that matches community policing with strict law

enforcement against known gang members.

“If you’re in a gang, our No. 1 job is to put you in jail. We’re

going to enforce the law aggressively to get you out of our

community,” Small said.

On the flip side, the Huntington Beach Police and other community

agencies work to intervene in young people’s lives early on. Groups

like Community Service Programs and the El Viento Foundation, which

operates out of Golden West College, provide recreation and

educational programs to help Oak View children stay out of trouble.

“We compete with the gangs,” Greenfield said.

Community Service Programs also include parenting classes and help

with job interviews, said Max Madrid, the group’s director of gang

prevention.

The El Viento Foundation’s activities include field trips to

places like the Ocean Institute in Dana Point and the J. Paul Getty

Museum in Los Angeles, said Zayda Garcia, foundation executive

director. Students who stay with the program from fourth through 12th

grade earn two-year scholarships to attend community college.

Oak View parents like Demecio Meza, who sits on the Oak View

Parents Advisory Committee, want more activities available for

neighborhood children.

“[Parents] want to see more sports, something that can get them

out of the gang affiliation,” Meza said through an interpreter.

“Something that will entertain them; something that will keep them

away from drugs.”