COUNCILMAN WANTS INJUNCTION SLAPPED ON NORTH HILLS GANGS.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

Hoping to curb rampant drug dealing in North Hills, Councilman Richard Alarcon is seeking an injunction against gangs along Orion Street in a get-tough approach that has yielded success in other parts of the city.

The City Attorney's Office has begun evaluating the area - between Nordhoff and Parthenia streets on Orion Street, and areas just east and west of Sepulveda Boulevard - to decide whether an injunction is merited, said Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for the city attorney.

Over the past four years, North Hills has seen a 10 percent drop in crime, but Alarcon, Los Angeles police and residents agree the area still is plagued by drugs and gangs.

``North Hills is still a very high area of crime,'' said Alarcon. ``It probably has the highest concentration of gang and drug activity in perhaps the whole San Fernando Valley.''

In addition to seeking an injunction, Alarcon has asked the City Attorney's Office to take on the community's blighted apartment complexes, which tend to become chronic crime areas, according to police.

Using its Criminal Nuisance Abatement Project (CNAP) and the Focused Attack Linking Community Organizations and Neighborhoods (FALCON) program, the city attorney will be putting pressure on apartment owners to maintain on-site managers, evict tenants using drugs, increase lighting, fix broken gates, and install security doors, according to police and Goldstein.

Alarcon began meeting with the city attorney's and mayor's offices after residents like Margarita Lopez sought his help to end violence in the area.

``There have been occasions where there's been a lot of shooting on Orion from Rayen Street to Nordhoff and you get scared because you never know if will jump over to the other side where the elementary school is,'' said Lopez, the mother of three school-age children and a five-year resident of Orion Street.

Drugs have been the No. 1 problem, according to LAPD Devonshire Capt. Vance Proctor.

Of 4,500 arrests made in 1996 in an area bordered by Nordhoff and Roscoe boulevards, Noble Avenue and the San Diego Freeway, 80 percent were narcotics-related arrests, said Proctor.

``Supported with the proper resources I would be very much in favor of an injunction,'' said Proctor, who noted the injunction would be labor-intensive since gang members are served individually.

``From what I've seen and read and heard in other districts, it seems to have a dramatic effect especially in the quality of life in those areas,'' Proctor said.

Since the mid-1980s, the City Attorney's Office has successfully wielded the injunction as a tool against gangs in four areas - in East Los Angeles with the Dog Town Street gang, in the Cadillac-Corning area of West Los Angeles, on Blythe Street in Van Nuys, and in the Jefferson Park area against the notorious 18th Street gang.

The city attorney currently has a request for an injunction against the 18th Street gang in the Pico-Union area.

``The injunctions have all been successful in the sense that street gangs and criminal activity has diminished,'' said Goldstein. ``In most cases the street gangs disbanded and the neighbors took back their community.''

At Langdon Avenue School in North Hills, where students were once taught a drill to take cover from shootings, Principal Daniel Balderrama said the past five years have been calm, but he worries about the negative influences of gangs.

``What concerns me is that these kids should be exposed to seeing crime and running the risk of over time getting involved in it,'' said Balderrama, whose playground borders Orion Street.

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Map: Proposed target area (Orion Ave. -- North Hills)