GREUEL TARGETS JUNK CARS.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

With more than 2,500 reports of abandoned cars in the San Fernando Valley every year, a coalition of community groups lead by Councilwoman Wendy Greuel will sweep her East Valley district today to remove blight-causing jalopies.

Dozens of volunteers and city officials will join Greuel in the one-day ``Move It or Lose It'' operation in which unsightly dumped vehicles that can drag down a neighborhood's value and attract criminal activity will be tagged or towed.

``It's people taking back their neighborhood,'' said Greuel. ``People were literally dumping cars in certain (poor) neighborhoods.''

The forgotten cars have limited street sweeping and created blight in parts of neighborhoods like Tujunga, Sun Valley, Sunland and North Hollywood, which she represents. Violators figured residents would not call police or get involved, she said.

The campaign is the second such organized by Greuel's office. In September 2002, 352 abandoned vehicles were towed and 348 were ticketed.

``They made a real big difference. Sometimes it takes something like this to wake people up. People remember this; they don't want their cars towed away,'' said Jerry Piro, vice-president of the East Valley Coalition, an environmental advocacy group, who participated in the sweep two years ago.

A car is considered abandoned if it has not been registered for more than six months, moved for over 72 hours or if it doesn't appear to be drivable, often because the car is gutted or stripped.

Many of the abandoned cars are concentrated around dense apartment buildings and near auto dismantling yards, said Pablo Monterrosa, a Los Angeles Police Department senior lead officer for the North Hollywood division.

``It attracts the homeless, gang members and suspects looking for a location where people don't care how the neighborhood looks,'' he said, noting that he spent sometimes 30 percent of his day checking on dumped cars.

Volunteers are encouraged to assemble at 8:30 a.m. in front of Greuel's Tujunga district office at 7747 Foothill Boulevard and also at 10 a.m. in front of her North Hollywood office at 6350 Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com