EL RIO : Residents Seeking Center for Children

In El Rio, residents call Balboa Street “Trouble Street.”

In the past several years, El Rio gang members have been involved in several drive-by shootings in the area, said Lt. Bill Edwards, a member of the Ventura County sheriff’s task force on gangs.

And businesses such as AAA Sunshine Homes, a mobile home dealership at Balboa and Ventura Boulevard, have been vandalized and painted with graffiti.

But resident Diane Engels and the other members of the newly formed Youth Action Committee are trying to take the trouble out of Trouble Street.

They want to build a place for the area’s children to hang out and try to lure them away from gangs.

“I just want them to see how stupid it is,” Engels said. “They’re killing each other.”

The group hopes to build a youth center and gymnasium by soliciting donations and applying for federal funds through Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura).

The committee will meet at Rio De Valle School at 7 p.m. Jan. 22 to discuss the venture, a gathering that Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn said he will attend.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to keep them out of trouble,” Engels said. “The kids need something to do.”

AAA Sunshine Homes administrator Mary Urias, who lives in the neighborhood, said the youth center is a good idea.

The business has had its office equipment stolen twice, its windows broken and its mobile homes painted with graffiti many times during the past year.

But she expressed reservations about how much good the center might do.

“A youth center may help the young kids, but these older kids, there’s nothing that’s going to stop them because there’s no parental support,” Urias said. “They’re their own kids.”

Edwards agreed. “I think it’s a good idea to build a youth center for the community of El Rio,” especially the children who are close to being drawn into a gang, he said.

But, he added, he would hate to see some hard-core gang members take over the center and ruin it for everyone.