{"id":13506,"date":"2012-05-25T15:13:21","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T22:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=13506"},"modified":"2012-07-03T11:12:06","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T18:12:06","slug":"residents-sound-off-at-el-dorado-town-hall-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/05\/25\/residents-sound-off-at-el-dorado-town-hall-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents sound off at El Dorado Town Hall meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Lancaster Station Captain Bob Jonsen (speaking), City Manager Mark Bozigian (left) and members of the Lancaster Revitilization Commission spoke at the El Dorado Town Hall meeting Thursday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 Loud music, speeding cars, and juvenile delinquents are the top three issues plaguing the El Dorado neighborhood. So said residents who attended a Town Hall Meeting at El Dorado Elementary School Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The meeting was a chance for law enforcement and city officials to address safety and community service issues affecting the neighborhood, which covers the area from Avenue J to Lancaster Boulevard and from Division Street to Challenger Way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
About 150 residents attended the meeting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe want to hear from residents,\u201d City Manager Mark Bozigian told the crowd of about 150. \u201cWhat challenges your neighborhood is facing and constructive ideas on how they can be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to tell you we can\u2019t do it alone,\u201d Lancaster Station Captain Bob Jonsen added. \u201cWe need this partnership more than ever because [of] some of the challenges that are confronting us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said 70 percent of crimes in the El Dorado neighborhood were property related. He said residential burglaries, petty theft, and vehicle burglaries were the leading crimes in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three of those are preventable, but they\u2019re going to require us to work together to reduce them,\u201d Jonsen said.<\/p>\n

Residents at Thursday\u2019s town hall meeting seemed more concerned with quality of life issues. Several residents complained that their neighbors were blasting profanity-laced music, especially on Sunday mornings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019re some adults, not kids, that play their music and they do it spitefully,\u201d said Minister Thomas DiFilippi Sr. \u201cThey know that we\u2019ve complained.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiFilippi said one night his neighbors got concert speakers and pointed them into the houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only the windows would vibrate, you couldn\u2019t sleep with air plugs in and sound devices on your head,\u201d he said. \u201cI called several times and somebody told me \u2018good luck\u2019 from the Sheriff\u2019s Department\u2026 then people left that place drunk driving coming out into the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen encouraged residents to report these types of activities to the department as soon as they happen. He said Lancaster Station had specific units tasked with breaking up noisy parties.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ashleigh Kemper said she feared for her life when walking the streets of her neighborhood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe take it very seriously, and that\u2019s why we have these \u201cparty cars\u201d in place to go and break these disturbances up before they get to that point,\u201d Jonsen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeighbors who don\u2019t take pride in their neighborhood, they\u2019re just being scumbags for the rest of you, excuse my language,\u201d said Bozigian. \u201cSo we have a Chronic Nuisance Ordinance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bozigian said the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance enabled the city to charge residents a heavy fine after five deputy-responded complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t comply, they\u2019re going to get a bill from the city for a very hefty amount,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vehicles speeding through the neighborhood were also a concern for several residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing stops these people and nothing slows them down,\u201d said Ashleigh Kemper.<\/p>\n

Kemper, who lives on 3rd street east between Avenue J and Lancaster, said she often feared for her life while walking the streets of her neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just walking yesterday pushing the stroller with my seven-month-old, my four-year-old is riding her bike beside me, and a guy goes zooming up the street 60 miles an hour,\u201d Kemper said. \u201cHe looks at me and doesn\u2019t even slow down. What do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said residents should report the problem immediately so the department could notify its traffic unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about speeding is\u2026 it\u2019s the same people every single day,\u201d Jonsen said. \u201cI guarantee you, once they get one ticket, they\u2019re going to slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many residents also complained that a pack of juveniles were terrorizing certain streets in the El Dorado neighborhood.<\/p>\n

An elderly man, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, said two dozen youths routinely loitered near his home, blasting music and fighting in the streets.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pat Lynch said a pack of young troublemakers were intimidating residents in his neighborhood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll go on until three o\u2019clock in the morning\u2026 you hear them out there screaming and yelling at each other,\u201d the man said. \u201cYou gonna confront 24 of these guys and tell them to buzz off? No, I don\u2019t think so!\u201d<\/p>\n

Another resident, Pat Lynch, said the young troublemakers had taken to intimidating older residents for sport. Lynch said, the other day, one of the troublemakers placed his bicycle in the middle of the street, apparently daring anybody to mess with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids would not remove it, I drove around it, the car coming the other way had to go into my lane to go around it\u2026\u201d he said. \u201cThis is total intimidation out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynch said the youths had also pounded on his wife\u2019s vehicle as she drove by.<\/p>\n

He said the troublemakers should be picked up by the Sheriff\u2019s Department and made to do community service.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet them out there to pick up the trash and clean up the area,\u201d Lynch said, to applause from the audience.<\/p>\n

Another woman suggested the city find a way to divert the youths\u2019 attention to something more positive.<\/p>\n

More than a dozen community groups, including Paving the Way, the Boys and Girls Club, and the United Community Action Network (UCAN), spoke about their services at the Town Hall Meeting.<\/p>\n

Following the meeting, Jonsen said the Sheriff\u2019s Department should be able to quickly address all the residents\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jonsen said residents raised quality of life issues as opposed to crime-related issues.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to hear that they\u2019re more of the quality of life issues,\u201d Jonsen said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have the CORE program in place and I\u2019m very confident we\u2019ll be able to have a meeting like this in six months and have a lot of these frustrations somewhat diminished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said the CORE deputy assigned to the El Dorado neighborhood is Shannon Knight. He said Knight noted the residents’ concerns and would be using all the resources at department\u2019s disposal to address the issues.<\/p>\n

Community activist Dr. Miguel Coronado commended the Sheriff\u2019s Department and city officials for hosting the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wholeheartedly support our captain and our city leadership,\u201d Coronado said. \u201cWe must work together in our community together, our nation depends on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Loud music, speeding cars, and juvenile delinquents are the top three issues plaguing the El Dorado neighborhood. So said residents who attended a Town Hall Meeting at El Dorado Elementary School Thursday night. The meeting was a chance for law enforcement and city officials to address safety and community service issues affecting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}