MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2005
Volume 4, Issue 92
FR EE
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
Hundreds gather to fight gang violence
DAILY LOTTERY SUPER LOTTO 7 9 23 30 40 Meganumber: 5 Jackpot: $10 Million
FANTASY 5 3 15 21 26 30
DAILY 3 Daytime: Evening:
BY JOHN WOOD
675 037
Daily Press Staff Writer
DAILY DERBY 1st: 2nd: 3rd:
12 Lucky Charms 11 Money Bags 10 Solid Gold
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1:46.17
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
SHEPARD
In November at the Tate Britain gallery, sculptor Antony Gormley presented “Bed,” a pile of 8,000 slices of bread arranged to resemble a large mattress but from which Gormley had first eaten an amount out of it that represented the volume of his body. Apparently Gormley did not devour the bread so much as chew it and then remove it and form different-shaped pieces, which he then dried out, chemically preserved, and displayed. The Tate Britain was so thrilled with the installation that it became the centerpiece in a room devoted to Gormley’s lifetime body of work.
TODAY IN HISTORY In 1975, more than 40 people were killed in London’s Underground when a subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel. In 1993, a gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.
QUOTE OF THE DAY “The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”
HUBERT H. HUMPHREY
AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENT (1911-1978)
INDEX 2
Surf Report Water temperature: 60°
4 9
National Hunting’s generation gap
10
Comics Garfield the cat
11
Classifieds Show some class
12-13
Legal Notices DBAs
14-19
People in the News Mel sells the ranch
vational speaker whose 16-yearold son was killed in a drive-by shooting. “We need to be able to go out to the edge of the branch where the fruit is sweeter.” Bill Martinez, a gang-violence consultant who runs a training program at California State University of Los Angeles, agreed. See WORKSHOP, page 6
Pico priorities go beyond curbing crime BY JOHN WOOD Daily Press Staff Writer
PICO NEIGHBORHOOD — Making real change in eastern Santa Monica will take more than putting gangsters behind bars; it will require building sup-
port for schools, while expanding the programs and jobs available to older youths. That was the message delivered last week by Maria Loya, elected in January to co-chair the Pico Neighborhood Association, a See PRIORITIES, page 8
Patricia Farris answers to a higher power BY LESLIE ANNE JONES
State Ducks sold
be young, to live in a tough neighborhood, to have family members in gangs. Blinky Rodriguez, one of five experts on gang violence to speak later in the meeting, said hiring exgang members to work with youths is effective. “We live in extreme times, everything is extreme,” said Rodriguez, an educator and moti-
3
Opinion Confirming identities
John Wood/Daily Press Leslie Sultan (right), 26, a youth coordinator for the Pico Youth and Family Center, speaks with a group of students during a Saturday workshop on ending gang violence. More than 400 people attended the event.
COMMUNITYPROFILES | COMMUNITY PROFILES IS A WEEKLY SERIES THAT APPEARS EACH MONDAY AND DELVES INTO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE, WORK AND PLAY IN SANTA MONICA.
Horoscopes Put your feet up, Sag
SUNSET PARK — The first words used to describe gang affiliation were love, protection, homies, family and neighborhood. Then the group of middle and high school students meeting as part of a weekend workshop on ending gang violence in Santa Monica added to their description the words boredom, isolation, death, rape, respect, money, cars, drugs, girls, alienation, harassment, loss of manhood and weapons. At least some parents noticed the conflicting sentiments. Tapping the perceived positive aspects of gang membership, the things that lure young people into the gang lifestyle, was one key strategy proposed for quelling gang violence. Developing an inter-agency partnership also was suggested, as were increasing parent involvement, re-examining the way officers police local neighborhoods, partnering with the business community to offer jobs and training to youths, and developing new education programs for students, teachers and counselors. More than 400 people turned out for the Saturday morning meeting on gang violence held at John Adams Middle School, and
hosted by State Sen. Sheila Kuehl and Santa Monica City Hall. Much of the workshop was spent in small groups of 20 to 40 people, where parents, students, ex-gang members and an array of experts began to fashion a solution for ending the ongoing cycle of violence. In a group only for youths, about 30 students, mostly from Santa Monica and Olympic high schools, offered their views on how best to deal with violence in Santa Monica and particularly in the eastside Pico neighborhood, where gangs are most entrenched and gunshots are frequent. Asked by a facilitator who among the students was directly affected by gang violence, only one boy put up his hand. Asked who was affected through their family or neighborhood, every youth in the room raised a hand. “Shootings on our streets,” said a girl clutching a pink handbag, after the facilitator asked how the youths were affected. “Getting shot at,” offered a boy slouched low in his seat and wearing baggy jeans, a white T-shirt and a striped Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap. The group of students agreed strongly that more counselors and mentors were needed to give advice to youngsters. Counselors who understand what it’s like to
20
Jacquie Banks
Special to the Daily Press
Patricia Farris’ path to becoming one of Santa Monica’s top religious leaders might have been driven by divine intervention, seeing as how she didn’t even consider a career of serving a higher power until her years of higher education. Having completed a tour of duty that spanned both coasts, Farris now finds satisfaction working with people from all walks of life — senior citizens, youth, the homeless, the broken-
hearted, the addicted and people in crisis. Although based in Santa Monica, Farris maintains relations with communities as far away as Nigeria and Vietnam. It’s a career fit only for an adept public figure, a role that Farris has embraced as senior pastor of First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica for the past five years. She feels blessed that the congregation has accepted her, and its members feel equally blessed to be led by a woman who has decades of experience in the ministry. The only child of an accountant
and homemaker, Farris, 53, was active in her church growing up in Phoenix. There, she learned what it meant to contribute to the community and to the world. But the thought of making a career out of it never crossed her mind — women weren’t even allowed to be ordained ministers in the United Methodist Church until 1956. Farris attended Carleton College in Minnesota, where she majored in political science and See PROFILES, page 7
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