Taking on the Gangs--on All Fronts : Mission Bay violence got quick action. What about other neighborhoods?

The decisive nighttime closure of two Mission Bay parking lots after the latest spasm of gang violence there shows how quickly the city can react when it wants to.

Spurred by public fear and furor over safety at one of the city’s most popular summertime recreational spots, the city invoked its emergency powers to order the Bonita Cove and Ventura Cove parking lots off-limits at night after two people were stabbed to death.

And 18 more police officers were assigned to the area three weeks earlier than usual.

In truth, as police readily admit, the beach areas are not as prone to gang violence as other sections of the city, places where the problem is more stubborn and the solution is not as neat as fencing off turf where gangs congregate. (Alcohol consumption remains the primary cause of violence at the beach, and little relief will come until the city finds some way to ban booze on the beaches.)

In the first quarter of this year, for example, there were six other gang-related homicides in San Diego--three in Logan Heights, one in the South Bay, one in Mira Mesa, and one in Southeast San Diego.

Despite the presence of the Police Department’s 105-member Special Enforcement Division, mobile police substations and sweep operations aimed at gang members, gang violence remained as common in 1990 as it was in 1989. The number of homicides dropped from 15 to 12, but the number of assaults with deadly weapons rose from 247 to 296, and the number of shootings at dwellings stayed almost exactly even. Drive-by shootings declined from 75 to 52, but all other gang-related crimes increased from 442 to 462.

What differentiates Mission Bay from other parts of the city is that both the gangs and the beach-goers consider the park their turf.

A citizen group, organizing through former Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s radio talk show, plans a “Take Back the Beach”’ rally today in the parking lot directly east of the Bahia Hotel.

Throw in resort hotel operators sensitive to the escalating violence and a councilman running for reelection this summer, and the crisis is sure to receive a high profile and quick attention.

That’s fine. But to be fair, the city owes other neighborhoods that have long complained about gangs an increased police presence in parks and other gang hangouts.

And because fences and foot patrols will never be the whole answer, expanded recreation programs, longer library hours and other intervention programs--proposed but unfunded or underfunded in next year’s budget--must be part of a citywide strategy against the gangs.