SOME AREA FAMILIES SEE VALLEY GRASS AS GREENER : NEVER THOUGHT OF MOVING.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Bonnie Goldstein figured she couldn't run far enough fast enough. So she stopped her search for a house in Simi Valley and decided to stay in Granada Hills.

She doesn't regret her decision.

``They have problems out there too,'' the school library aide said of Simi Valley. ``There's an increase in gangs and an increase in graffiti. It's not quite the garden spot. When everyone moves to the garden spot, the bad guys find out.''

Goldstein is among the majority in the San Fernando Valley - those who are staying in a changing world, torn between trying to preserve what drew them to the suburbs in the first place and trying to find ways to live in changing neighborhoods. They express ambiguities and doubts, as well as hopes for the future of the Valley.

Those who stay in the Valley for long periods tend to be older, hold steady jobs and live in their own homes, said James Allen, a Cal State Northridge geography professor and co-author of ``The Ethnic Quilt: Population Diversity in Southern California,'' a demographic study of the region.

Unlike apartment dwellers who tend to be young and move frequently, ``these are people with stable jobs who like living in their neighborhoods. They have no particular reason to move,'' Allen said. ``By the time they reach their 40s, if they have lived in a neighborhood for five or six years, they're getting attached to the area. Why should they move?''

Ruth Leon was born and raised in Van Nuys. Her grandparents, who emigrated from Mexico, were among the first residents of the area's original barrio bounded by Kester Avenue on the west, Cedros Avenue on the east, Erwin Street on the north and Aetna Street on the south.

``There was nothing but Mexicans. There were no Salvadorans,'' said Leon who grew up on Delano Street, kitty-corner from her husband's childhood home on Calvert Street.

Mario Leon graduated from Van Nuys High School; Ruth Leon from Birmingham High School.

All four of their children graduated from Van Nuys High. It never occurred to the couple to move out of the Valley.

``It's my roots,'' Ruth Leon said. ``Both me and my husband were raised here in the Valley. We've had a lot of changes but what community hasn't?''

Leon said a community without lifelong residents isn't complete.

``If you don't have old-timers to stay and guide the younger families moving in, you don't have much of a community,'' she said.

Bill and Betty Yates won't give up on their Van Nuys community. For the past 10 years, the octogenarian couple has been active in efforts to eliminate graffiti and vandalism.

At 80, Betty Yates is captain of the Neighborhood Watch group and a police community representative. She organizes block parties, welcomes new residents to the neighborhood and keeps an eye out for crime.

``We're always glad to see new people,'' she said. ``We appreciate different cultures and mores and foods.''

And while burglaries and thefts have become more commonplace, they have no intention of leaving their house of 43 years.

``No matter where you move you're going to have a problem,'' Betty Yates said. ``I know what the basic problems are here. I like the Valley. I'm familiar with it. It's home.''

And while she welcomes newcomers to her neighborhood, she's disturbed by what she sees as the slow deterioration of Van Nuys, once the hub of the San Fernando Valley.

``I'm surprised Van Nuys has gone down the tubes so bad,'' she said.

Gloria Woods also is committed to her Studio City neighborhood. She has to be. City resources are stretched too thin to eliminate graffiti as quickly as she and other neighbors would like.

Tackles graffiti

To keep her neighborhood clean, Woods paints over graffiti whenever she comes across it.

``I started doing it first because I didn't like seeing it,'' said Woods who started out with a small plastic bucket and paint brush. Now she totes two five-gallon cans, roller brushes and spray paint in three colors: blue for mailboxes, green for freeway entrance signs and red for stop signs.

Woods wouldn't have it any other way.

``My friends are here on the board of the residents association and I work hard to clean up my community,'' the retired mail-order clerical worker said. ``I like doing my community stuff. I like being a community activist and I would probably miss that if I moved.''

Yet she finds herself daydreaming about life in San Luis Obispo where the freeways are clear and homeowners have pride - and money - to maintain their yards. During the past 20 years in Studio City, Woods said, traffic has worsened and the community has decayed.

``When I first lived here, you could get to the West Valley in 15 minutes. Now you sit on the freeway for 45 minutes. The commute (hours) used to be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Now it's all day.''

She's also noticed a decline in the Valley's appearance.

Leslie Yamashita won't leave her Van Nuys neighborhood. She shares a kinship with her neighbors she said she can't get anywhere else.

Together, they lived through the 1992 riots, sparked by the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of motorist Rodney King. Together, they picked through the rubble left by the Northridge Earthquake and watched as wildfires raged out of control in the Malibu hills in 1993.

``One of the nice things about staying here now is that myself and my neighbors have been here the same amount of time,'' said Yamashita who has lived in Van Nuys for nine years.

``We've been through the riots together, the earthquake together. There's a certain warmth that I feel in this neighborhood that I wouldn't if I moved out.''

Yet she's troubled by the low priority some of her neighbors place on education. When her son was in kindergarten, she refused to enroll him at the neighborhood school.

``They have kids who go to school not knowing their ABCs,'' she said. ``I'm not going to put my son in with 120 uneducated children who don't know English and who have a low value of education.''

Victim of crime

Paula Rangel was assaulted trying to make a difference at a 69-unit complex in North Hills where she worked as a manager-cum-social worker. She was returning to her apartment one day when she ordered a group of gang members to leave.

Everybody scattered except a man and woman. The man knocked her to the ground and robbed her.

The pair was arrested the next day after they tried to cash one of Rangel's money orders. The incident occurred last year. Rangel was so shaken by the incident that she and her family moved to the city of San Fernando, her childhood home.

``I chose it because it's family-oriented and churches are active in the community,'' she said. ``Neighbors have been here for 20 years. There's more of a community sense.''

In her old neighborhood, Rangel tried to make a difference by starting a domestic-abuse prevention program for battered women in the complex, after-school activities for children with too much time on their hands and weekly fellowship meetings for those who had lost their way.

``I became a community activist because I wanted to make a change,'' the grandmother of five said.

Although she no longer works at the apartment complex, Rangel keeps in touch with the families there. She recently referred a family with a troublesome child to a Valley-based program for at-risk teens.

``We can't run away,'' Rangel said. ``I had to move here because of safety purposes. That doesn't mean I will give up. No way in hell.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, chart

PHOTO (1) For Leslie Yamashita, her husband, Mark, and her son, Andy, Los Angeles' calamities have created a neighborhood bond in Van Nuys.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

(2 -- color) Paula Rangel, with her son Sal, left, her daughter, Cynthia, and her son Pablo, left North Hills for safety.

David R. Crane/Daily News

(3 -- color)Van Nuys residents Ruth and Mario Leon were born and raised in the Valley suburb.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News

Chart: Staying put