Pico Union District

A week after Los Angeles police began a round-the-clock crackdown on drug pushers in a square-mile section of the Pico-Union district, police and many residents of the community said Thursday that safety and tranquillity appear to be taking hold in the area. Since the program began, said Capt. Robert Riley, commander of the Rampart Division, there have been no murders or drive-by shootings in the neighborhood around 11th and Alvarado streets, which has had 22 homicides in the last five months.

At the corner of Normandie Avenue and Pico Boulevard, a large mural on the side of a public storage building offers a poignant message: "We are each of us angels with one wing. We can only fly embracing each other." Such is the essence of the Byzantine-Latino Quarter, a corner of the Pico-Union district where Greeks, Mexicans and Central Americans have found vibrant synergy.

Maritza Cruz Salinas is not about to settle for a bad ballerina bun of a hairstyle. "You're not doing it right, Mom," the 10-year-old snaps, reaching for her brown locks and wiggling impatiently in her black leotard and powder-pink tights. "It has to be perfect." Perfect because class is about to begin -- and, for the first time, the fifth-grader will dance on her toes like a real ballerina. And she must look the part.

Los Angeles school and union officials have agreed in concept to develop a group of independent small schools in the Pico-Union area, allowing students to choose a campus that best fits their interests, the district announced Monday. Although still in the conceptual phase, the Belmont Pilot Schools Network would consist of five to 10 fully autonomous high schools launched over the next five years, with a maximum of 400 students each.

The thicket of billboards blanketing much of Los Angeles is so unpopular that city leaders have barred any new ones. But what if allowing one more billboard could give hundreds of children from a working-class neighborhood the chance to pursue their dreams of becoming opera singers or actors?

A proposal to help pay for a performing arts academy in Pico-Union by sticking a billboard on its roof received praise this week from neighbors -- a view opposite that of Westside lawmakers who worry it would undermine a city ban on new billboards.

A customer and waitress at a Pico-Union restaurant were killed in front of several dozen diners by a suspected gang member who opened fire after he and others were asked to leave, according to police and witnesses. Yesenia Rodriguez, who along with her family owned the Flor Blanca restaurant, died on the way to County-USC Medical Center, one day before her 29th birthday, police said. The customer, identified by police as Manuel De Jesus Rivas Carillo, 24, died at the scene.

They say their confessions before Mass in a space as big as a bathroom with a bamboo screen separating priest from sinner. They worship inside a Pico-Union warehouse that they have transformed with their candles, flowers and spirit into a soulful holy place. The statues that were damaged in the fire last year are being refurbished and returning to the congregation in the warehouse, like old friends recovering from smoke inhalation. What happens to a community after a fire destroys its church?

Many children in the Pico-Union district have never been on a train or felt snow, but a dozen of them will be aboard Amtrak's Desert Wind through the Rocky Mountains when the local Teen Post sponsors a train trek to Denver in three weeks. "I've never been to Denver and I've never heard of Denver, but I really, really want to go to Denver," said a 7-year-old girl named Heidi as she took a break from her math studies at the Teen Post on Venice Boulevard. "I want to go there and play."

Residents angered by a barrage of alcohol advertisements and neon signs that dominate market storefronts in the Pico-Union district have formed a group that patrols the area for liquor-law violations. The "New City/Pueblo Nuevo Prevention Project" was spurred by the residents' need to tackle alcohol-related problems such as public drinking, loitering and gang activity. "Those neon liquor signs are an eyesore," said resident Ramon Berdin. "There aren't as many up now.