Behind the Badge
The police chief plucked up a 5-pound bag of big red apples and turned to a smiling resident.
“Here you go,” Garden Grove PD Chief Todd Elgin said, handing the fruit to the grateful woman.
For a couple of hours last Thursday, Elgin repeated the process over and over as hundreds of residents of Palma Vista Avenue, joined by their neighbors in the adjacent El Dorado Mobile Home Park, showed up for a community outreach event.
The event, the first of its kind for the GGPD and the City of Garden Grove, was a kickoff to a yearlong effort for police and other city agencies to learn about the top concerns of residents and improve the neighborhood by making it safer and cleaner.
Garden Grove PD Cadet Han Na Park, who speaks Spanish and Korean in addition to English, conducts a survey on improvements and other issues with local residents during a Palma Vista Avenue/El Dorado Mobile Home Park community outreach event.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
Before residents were able to receive apples, pasta, chips, candy and other free items donated by the Orange County Food Bank in Garden Grove, as well as check out several information booths, GGPD and city employees surveyed them about the biggest challenges in their neighborhood, their view of the PD, and other issues.
Results of the survey, produced by the city-run Neighborhood Improvement Committee, will be used to put together a community and economic development program designed to enhance the quality of life of residents, Elgin said.
“This neighborhood needs a driving force to bring the community together,” said GGPD Community Service Officer Kelly Huynh, who helped survey residents at the Nov. 17 event. “We’re hoping to get residents to buy in and take care of and improve their neighborhood.”
Police say ongoing issues on Palma Vista Avenue, an apartment-packed cul de sac just south of Katella Avenue and west of Euclid Street, include gangs, drugs and some landlords who are lax about maintaining their properties.
Garden Grove Police Chief Todd Elgin hands out apples to neighborhood families.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
“It’s a challenging neighborhood,” GGPD Lt. Tom DaRe said.
About 2,000 people live in the 238 apartment units on Palma Vista Avenue.
Next door, behind a gate that usually is closed but that was open to Palma Vista residents for Thursday’s event, about 1,500 people live in the El Dorado Mobile Park.
El Dorado Manager Leticia Gonzalez said there’s some friction between her residents and those on Palma Vista, and that the outreach event was a good first step to mending fences.
“I love this,” she said of the Palma Vista/El Dorado Community Outreach Event. “This helps us understand that we’re basically the same neighborhood, and that we’re united. An event like this allows us to get to know each other better and see who needs what.”
Garden Grove PD Community Service Officer Kris Backouris, left, talks to residents as she hands out pamphlets on child safety and crime prevention in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
Sandy Gonzalez, a five-year resident of Palma Vista Avenue with her husband and two teenage children, showed up at the event with her grandmother and a 3-year-old boy her grandmother was babysitting.
“They (Garden Grove Police) do a good job of not allowing people to loiter,” she said. “To me, the biggest issue is that the neighborhood kids have nowhere to play. There’s only the street, and most residents don’t let kids play between the apartment buildings.”
Among the information booths at Thursday’s event was one staffed with representatives of the Red Mountain Group. The developer is set to break ground soon on redevelopment of a retail center just north of Palma Vista Avenue that fell into disrepair after big box anchor tenant Kmart pulled out.
The retail center, which still has a Wal-Mart, a Walgreens and an Auto Zone, a gas station and a couple of fast-food joints, became such a dumping ground that GGPD patrol Officer Ralph Lee spurred efforts to get it fenced off to prevent people from using it as a trash bin.
Allison Mills, division manager for Garden Grove, hands out pasta and organic chips to local residents during the Nov. 17 event.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
The redeveloped portion of the center, set to open around next summer, will include a Gold’s Gym, a Smart & Final Extra and an Octapharma blood-donation center, among other tenants.
One of the non-profit vendors who set up an information booth at the event was the Community Health Initiative of Orange County, which connects children, families and other adults to affordable and quality healthcare and social services.
Mauricio DeLeon, a certified enrollment counselor with the Community Health Initiative of OC, said bringing the information directly to residents helps.
“There’s help out there,” DeLeon said, “but many residents don’t know where to get it. By coming out here and meeting with them, it makes things a lot easier.”
The Garden Grove NIC plans to hold a town hall meeting for Palma Vista/El Dorado Mobile Home Park residents early next year to go over findings of the survey and plan a course of action.
“This is all about identifying the needs of the neighborhood and coming up with quicker solutions,” Elgin said.
Alana Cheng, of the Garden Grove Neighborhood Improvement Committee, right, talks to residents as she takes a survey on improvements and other issues.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
Ann Eifert, of the Garden Grove Neighborhood Improvement Committee, left, hands out treats for the kids.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
Garden Grove Police Chief Todd Elgin hands out apples to neighborhood families during the event.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
