Gang monikers are scrawled on dozens of houses, into a cactus and on trash bins, sidewalks and trees that line the area's streets. Black residents said they still sometimes look nervously over their shoulders and mostly keep to themselves. There are still boundaries they seldom cross, and several houses are for rent or have eviction notices hanging in their windows.
"It wasn't just Cheryl's killing. We lost a Latino man just a week before that. . . . Cheryl Green was just the straw that broke the camel's back," said Levi Wade, a gang intervention worker with the Toberman Neighborhood Center. Wade was referring to the Dec. 5, 2006, slaying of Arturo Ponce, 34, a Mexican immigrant and cook who was shot to death in front of his 205th Street apartment.
Wade, who has worked in Harbor Gateway for nearly a decade, is African American and walks through the streets with his Latino partner, Leroy Martinez.
"You first gotta show them that you believe in what you're doing," Wade said. He said changes to the neighborhood will not occur overnight, but noted small steps like a picnic in May that drew both black and Latino residents.
He cajoled some black residents to attend Monday's opening of the youth center and said it was a small step forward, although much more needs to be done.
Elvino George, 23, was born in Sierra Leone and moved into an apartment on 204th Street about seven months ago with his sister and her 4-year-old daughter.
He said the violence has not been as bad as they had heard. But he watches young men in hooded sweat shirts spray-paint 204th Street Latino gang graffiti on homes and often feels the stares of young Latinos in the neighborhood when he walks or drives past.
Los Angeles Police Department Officer Scott Coffee, who works a gang detail, said that several active and violent 204th Street gang members were arrested after Green's killing and that, though there have been shootings and other violence, there has not been a slaying in the area since.
Coffee said that many of the older gang members are either in jail or have moved away and that much of the graffiti is from youths.
Many at the opening of the youth center on Monday said they also saw signs of hope.
"I'm looking at all these young kids right now," Lovett said. "Hispanic and black and we're sitting next to each other, and that's what it's all about."
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ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com
