Crackdown Pledged on Drug Sales Close to Day-Care Center

Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young pledged Wednesday quick and hard-hitting police action to drive drug dealers away from a South Sullivan Street day-care center, then to follow up with a long-term rehabilitation of the troubled neighborhood.

A plan for the intensive policing of the drug dealers and their customers--who conduct their heroin, cocaine and marijuana transactions in an apartment parking lot directly across the street from the Pride Development County day-care center--will be given to the council within a week, he said.

Young said the city would then pursue a rehabilitation program, which could involve repairing or demolishing vacant houses in the area that are thought to attract addicts.

“We want to know what is attracting these drug addicts and vagrants to come to the area,” the mayor said in an interview. “Maybe it’s the dealers, maybe it’s the kind of houses that are in the area. We don’t know, and we have to find out.”

Monday night, Dorothy L. Davis, the founder of the city-subsidized day-care center, had appealed to the City Council for help because, she said, the dealers had become increasingly blatant.

The mayor commended Davis for coming to the council.

“We have an obligation to Mrs. Davis,” he said. “It’s hard for anyone to step forward and point out a drug problem. She needs a response.”

The neighborhood is much like others in Santa Ana, plagued by pockets of drug dealing and in need of close monitoring, said Councilman John Acosta.

“The monitoring has to be done like a sponge,” Acosta said. “We want to (encourage) dealers to clear out of the city instead of moving from one location to the next.”

Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Chavez said police have been stepping up efforts to rein in the drug pushers even before Davis asked the City Council for help.

Meanwhile, Terence Davis, Dorothy Davis’ son and administrator of Pride Development, said he plans to build a higher fence around the center as well as install tinted windows in the front rooms so the children, ranging in age from 2 to 14, can not see the drug dealing across the street.

On Wednesday morning, seven police cars drove around the parking lot in the morning instead of the usual two, he said.

“It will take consistency. The police can’t do it in a week and then quit. But I’m glad we’re finally getting some help,” he said.