Neighborhoods

Tears have turned to cheers in Moorpark, and Joel Burchfield, an 11-year-old Little Leaguer who drowned in January trying to cross a rain-swollen drainage canal, is central to the full range of emotions. Many of the same people who came to the Burchfields' aid on the stormy day Joel disappeared have joined to support a Moorpark team that has reached the Little League World Series.

In a payout to residents who claimed health and other problems, the Lockheed Martin Corp. has agreed to $60 million in cash settlements for nearly 1,300 neighbors of its former military airplane manufacturing plant, according to a source close to the negotiations. Residents near the plant blamed an array of ailments, including cancer, on chemicals that had seeped into the soil and water during the 63 years the company built aircraft at the site near Burbank Airport.

Southern Californians may rank as laggards in nationwide surveys when it comes to volunteerism, but Saturday's frenzy of efforts by hundreds of volunteers showed the pride many Angelenos take in giving their time to scrub grime from buildings, slather fresh paint on walls and plant trees in once-barren landscapes. In South Los Angeles, more than 400 volunteers spent the morning cleaning up trash and graffiti along a five-mile stretch of Western Avenue, from Martin Luther King Jr.

Amid a snowballing movement for the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles, five members of the City Council on Monday proposed a citywide network of 103 "neighborhood councils" to help residents feel more connected to their government.

In an effort to bring City Hall closer to the people, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon has proposed that the council hold a special meeting in Sylmar next month. Although the meeting has to be approved by the full council, it is likely to support Alarcon's request. The council meeting on July 16 at Mission College would be the second in the San Fernando Valley in 10 months.

Walk a block in Monterey Park as the sun sets on a summer Sunday, or throw out questions at a local boxing event, and no one lacks an opinion. Nobody shrugs when they hear the name. Oscar De La Hoya is a son of East L.A., a superstar rising from the barrio into the arms of Madison Avenue and the nation at large. But even as he piles success after success, for reasons that touch the passionate heart of this sports-crazed community, in East L.A.

To gaze upon the glistening Marriott Marina behind the San Diego Convention Center is to see the bounty of the American way of life in resplendent display: Yachts that easily cost in the high six figures; yacht owners savoring the fruits of productive careers; a yacht harbor offering privacy, security, the latest in dockside amenities such as cable television, computer hookups, room service and a gorgeous view of San Diego Bay, Coronado and the skyline of the nation's sixth-largest city.

The city's Neighborhood Improvement Committee has been commended by the National Assn. of Housing and Redevelopment Officials for the revitalization of Stuart Drive. The neighborhood, plagued by crime and overcrowding, has been transformed since 1994, when the city formed a special committee to revive the blighted street, said Susan Evans, the city's housing development director.

To nearly one-third of Orange County's households, the glass is not just half-full, it's completely full. An estimated 262,900 households rated their neighborhood a perfect "10," according to a newly-released federal housing survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1994. "This doesn't surprise me," said Chuck Smith, executive vice president of the East Orange County Assn. of Realtors, who sees the findings as further evidence the region is emerging from the worst recession in 50 years.

At age 19, after running away from Georgia and hoboing around the country, Ernest James had seen enough of the wide world to consider where he wanted to settle. Bride in tow, he boarded the Louisville & Nashville Railroad--buying tickets this time--and headed resolutely to Bronzeville. In 1943, he was sure, there was no better place in America for a black man to build a life. "Everybody knew about Bronzeville, in Chicago," he remembers.