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W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
April 12, 2010
Volume 39, Number 15
AUCTION
City Cracks Down on Skid Row Drug Trade
INSIDE
Injunction, Which Would Keep 80 Alleged Dealers Out of the Area, Is Seen as Biggest Move Since Safer Cities Initiative by Ryan VaillancouRt
L.A.’s financial meltdown continues.
Staff WRiteR ity Attorney Carmen Trutanich last week launched a major crackdown on the Skid Row drug trade, identifying 80 suspected dealers whom he aims to exile from the povertystricken neighborhood. On Wednesday, April 7, Trutanich’s office filed an injunction naming 80 individuals, all with multiple drug-related convictions, who law enforcement officials believe are involved with selling mostly crack cocaine, but also marijuana, heroin and meth, in Skid Row. Fifty-three of the men and women are believed to be gang members. Staff from Trutanich’s office spent six months laying the foundation for what police officials say could be the most significant law enforcement effort in Skid Row since the 2006 launch of the Safer Cities Initiative. The City Attorney’s office has collected more than 100 declarations from police officers and narcotics experts detailing how the drug trade works in the area, said Bruce Riordan, who as chief of the office’s gang division was tapped to orchestrate the injunction. Riordan said the directive came from Trutanich, who after attending the Central City East Association’s monthly Skid Row walks became intent on developing a tool to protect the people who flock to the area for its recovery services. “I have learned that the single biggest criminal threat faced by the residents of this area is the open and notorious drug dealing and violence committed by hardcore gang members and career criminals who actually commute to Skid Row to do their dastardly deeds,” Trutanich said.
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A replacement for Mahony.
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Understanding the condo auctions.
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See the city’s living ‘Treasures.’
photo by Gary Leonard
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich speaking to a crowd in front of the Midnight Mission before last week’s Skid Row walk. The scenes he witnessed during previous walks prompted him to begin work on the new injunction.
The injunction, which will require approval from a judge before implementation, establishes the so-called Central City Recovery Zone. Bounded by Broadway, Central Avenue, Third and Ninth streets, the area loosely traces the roughly square mile that Central Division police officers also call the “box.” Like with gang injunctions, the targeted individuals would be prohibited from entering the defined area.
City officials and police crowded Gladys Park in Skid Row on Wednesday to unveil the initiative, bringing along a poster covered with mug shots of all 80 people named and another poster showing still surveillance images of what appear to be drug deals in action. In addition to the 80 individuals named in the filing, the injunction would give the City Attorney see Injunction, page 14
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It’s time for the Ring Festival.
photo by Gary Leonard
Wherefore Art Thou, Shakespeare Festival? Longtime Cultural Purveyor Changes Its Name and Opens a Downtown Stage
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22 CALENDAR LISTINGS 25 MAP 26 CLASSIFIEDS
by RichaRd Guzmán city editoR
W
hen Juliet says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” she is telling Romeo that names don’t matter, that they are meaningless and artificial. That may have been the way William Shakespeare saw it, but for a City Westbased purveyor of the Bard’s work, that’s not the case at all.
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For a quarter century, the organization long known as Shakespeare Festival/LA has gained a following by staging annual free summer Shakespeare shows in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. But as it turns 25, it has altered the moniker to the Shakespeare Center to reflect a number of changes that have occurred over the years, a wider focus in programming, and perhaps most importantly, a new performing arts facility. “We’ve changed our name to really resee Shakespeare, page 13
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Ben Donenberg, founder of the recently renamed Shakespeare Center, at the organization’s new stage in City West.