Community Service Centers

Believing that a good education begins with healthy students, seven northeast Valley schools have joined together to apply for a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Education, hoping to turn their campuses into miniature community service centers.

The Long Beach Plaza Mall, a symbol of redevelopment plans that went awry, is in foreclosure and ready to close by mid-July after years of money-losing operations. But a funny thing happened on the way to its rendezvous with a wrecking ball. The plaza became a unique hybrid, part shopping mall, part job center, a meeting place for groups as disparate as Alcoholics Anonymous and World War II veterans from the Philippine Islands.

The Police Department's West Valley-Ventura Boulevard Community Assistance Office officially opened Thursday, making the storefront location the San Fernando Valley's 18th police community service center. Serving the Tarzana-Encino area, the office is staffed by about 10 community volunteers, said Officer Victor Monroe, one of the two police officers who oversees the center.

About 75 city officials and residents involved in the planning of Center 2000 gathered Friday to celebrate the start of construction for the $22-million community center and sports park. Construction begins Monday for the 18-acre park, which will include a prehistoric-themed playground, two regulation soccer fields, a Little League and adult softball field, roller hockey rink and dual-skill-level skateboard area.

Charity is never as bittersweet, or as necessary, as during the holidays. This season of giving is particularly hard for very poor parents and their children. The parents may have nothing to give; the children may get nothing. The need for generosity from others is never greater; the opportunity to give never riper. Fortunately in Southern California many shelters, schools, community service centers and small agencies are ready to accept your gifts.

Although the Board of Supervisors last week spared many critical services from the budget ax, including sheriff's department substations and district attorney's field offices, it decided to scale back hours at all 16 county library branches in Central Los Angeles. Beginning Oct. 19, libraries will open later and close earlier. Some will be closed on days they are now open. The Huntington Park and East Los Angeles libraries are among seven county branches where Sunday hours will be eliminated.

Pacific Bell on Wednesday unveiled its latest bilingual service, a Vietnamese center to help non-English-speaking customers get service for what some consider the most important appliance in any household--the telephone. In a move that is one part humanitarian and one part aggressive marketing, the company will reach out and touch the more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees living in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Pacific Bell on Wednesday unveiled its latest bilingual service, a Vietnamese center to help customers get service for what is arguably the most important appliance in any household--the telephone. In a move that's one part humanitarian and one part aggressive marketing, the company will reach out and touch the more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees living in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The dentist spotted a broken tooth and several cavities when he peered into the mouth of an elderly Chinese woman, but even though he spoke English and Thai, she spoke only Mandarin. But rather than turning her away, the dentist simply held up a brightly colored sign that read "Mandarin," and within a few minutes an interpreter was by his side carefully explaining his diagnosis to the woman in her native tongue.

The ceremony was intended to mark a victory over delay and disappointment: After three years of effort, ground was being broken for a long-promised community center for residents of the San Fernando Gardens public housing project in Pacoima. Bureaucrats noted the need for the center--whose purpose was to provide space for job training and language classes, gang-prevention programs and day-care services for the children of working parents.

Elderly women tap a staccato cadence in a dance studio. Older men pump iron in a fitness room next door. Preschoolers romp on a grassy playground. For more than a decade, the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus on Vanowen Street has provided recreational, social and cultural programs for young children and elderly West Valley residents. But the Jewish Federation / Valley Alliance and West Valley Jewish Community Center, which together run the campus at 22622 Vanowen St.

Officials of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles announced at a community meeting Tuesday night that they will not sell the center in the Fairfax district to a private high school. The future of the Westside Jewish Community Center, which has served the neighborhood for 43 years, had been in doubt since a private high school offered to purchase the center and turn it into a school campus.

A federal housing official visited a Gardena community center Thursday to see Housing and Urban Development dollars at work. "I came to this community to see firsthand our investment," Federal Housing Commissioner Nicolas Retsinas told about 100 senior citizens at the Nakaoka Memorial Community Center. "You keep doing good things, we'll keep investing."

Citing potential security and parking problems, some officials in Artesia are having second thoughts about building a community center in Padelford Park. The City Council is expected to decide next month whether to accept a $500,000 county parks grant to build the facility, Assistant City Manager Maria Dadian said. Even if the council does not accept the grant, she said, it may choose to build the center elsewhere without county money.

The Buena Clinton neighborhood, once known as one of Orange County's most blighted areas, will celebrate a remarkable turnaround today with the grand opening of the Buena Clinton Neighborhood Center. The center sits on land that formerly held rundown, crime-plagued apartment complexes. City Manager George Tindall said at least $10 million from federal, state and local funds has been spent to give the neighborhood a face-lift.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved funds that will give the Oakwood Family Youth Center a project coordinator to help write grant proposals for nonprofit groups in the area. The center will house seven community organizations that provide employment training and family services in the neighborhood. A building that formerly housed the Venice library branch is being converted into the center, which is scheduled to open by the end of summer.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved funds that will give the Oakwood Family Youth Center a project coordinator to help write grant proposals for nonprofit groups in the area. The center will house seven community organizations that provide employment training and family services in the neighborhood. A building that formerly housed the Venice library branch is being converted into the center, which is scheduled to open by the end of summer.

The Buena Clinton neighborhood, once known as one of Orange County's most blighted areas, will celebrate a remarkable turnaround today with the grand opening of the Buena Clinton Neighborhood Center. The center sits on land that formerly held rundown, crime-plagued apartment complexes. City Manager George Tindall said at least $10 million from federal, state and local funds has been spent to give the neighborhood a face-lift.

The dentist spotted a broken tooth and several cavities when he peered into the mouth of an elderly Chinese woman, but even though he spoke English and Thai, she spoke only Mandarin. But rather than turning her away, the dentist simply held up a brightly colored sign that read "Mandarin," and within a few minutes an interpreter was by his side carefully explaining his diagnosis to the woman in her native tongue.

The Police Department's West Valley-Ventura Boulevard Community Assistance Office officially opened Thursday, making the storefront location the San Fernando Valley's 18th police community service center. Serving the Tarzana-Encino area, the office is staffed by about 10 community volunteers, said Officer Victor Monroe, one of the two police officers who oversees the center.