Cruisers Move Their Cars to Elysian Park : Neighbors Cite Fears; Drivers Defend Tradition

Sgt. Bob Freet slid out of his unmarked police car, dug into his pocket for a ring of keys and prepared for what has become an almost pointless task--locking the gates to Los Angeles’ Elysian Park.

“We’ll lock ‘em up again tonight, but they won’t stay locked for long,” Freet lamented. “They’ll use bolt cutters, wrenches, maybe even blowtorches. There’s not much we can do about it.”

Sure enough, within half an hour the locks were smashed and Elysian Park Drive was once again open to the “cruisers,” young men and women who slowly parade their hot rods and customized low-rider cars over a one-mile course.

Barred from Van Nuys Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley, Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles and other preferred strips of pavement, the cruisers have staked a claim in Elysian Park, just north of Dodger Stadium.

As many as 2,000 cars and 8,000 youths can be found in the park on weekends and on Wednesday evenings--the traditional night for cruising--and the crowds are growing, police said.

‘Problem of Migration’

“It’s essentially a problem of migration,” said Rampart Division Capt. Frank Patchett, who has assigned a police task force to handle the problem. “Cruising is a tradition, and if the cruisers get yanked out of one area, they’ll just go somewhere else.”

Freet, who is in charge of the task force, said cruisers have always frequented Elysian Park, usually only during the summer. Since last August, however, the hot rodders and low riders have been steadily multiplying, and “there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight,” Freet said.

And this year, he said, the crowds have become more hostile and “take more liberties than they once did.”

Police report a 50% increase since last summer in such crimes as robbery, assault and battery, auto theft, automobile burglary and residential burglary at the homes along Park Drive, which borders the park’s west edge.

The Police Department’s sprawling training academy is situated in the 575-acre park, but its presence has not deterred the cruisers, Freet said.

155 Arrested After Closing

In the last month and a half, Rampart police on two occasions have swarmed into the park after it closes at 10:30 p.m., arresting 155 people and booking them on trespassing and other charges, such as drug possession, and impounding their cars.

“We usually use about 40 to 50 officers, and when we hit the park with our bullhorns and buses, everyone is in a dead run,” Freet said. “We thought the arrests would send a message out, but they just keep returning.”

The problem is particularly bad on Sunday afternoons, said Gordon Bohn, chief administrator at Barlow Hospital, a small medical center on Stadium Way in the park.

The cruisers and drag racers come out in such numbers that traffic winds up in gridlock outside the hospital, Bohn said, adding that the cruisers disturb the patients and employees with shouting, loud music and occasional threats.

“It’s gotten so bad that they get tanked up, urinate on our buildings and throw their beer bottles and trash all around,” Bohn said. “The situation just can’t continue.”

A group of residents whose houses border the park and who often have to use the cruisers’ route to get home are also angry, and some fear that their lives are in danger.

“It’s terrifying. They drink, take drugs, drive on the wrong side of the road and just create mayhem,” said a resident who, like others, did not want to be named because she fears retaliation.

The cruisers, however, tell a different story. They say cruising is a tradition that has deep roots in American culture and is both a social event and a celebration of the automobile.

Cruisers, as well as police, said that the vast majority of the cruisers are law-abiding but that a small fraction, often people who come from as far away as Ventura and San Bernardino counties, create friction that leads to rowdy behavior and crime.

“We’re just out to have a good time and drive around,” said Javier Cruz, a 21-year-old Boyle Heights resident who cruises in his bright blue 1966 Chevrolet. “It’s the out-of-towners who make the trouble.”

Jose Salazar, a 19-year-old resident of the San Fernando Valley, said that members of his family have been cruising for decades and that “we’d just go somewhere else” if police barricade Stadium Way to cut down on the traffic.

“This is a public park, and we’re not bothering anyone,” Salazar said, leaning on his 1974 Oldsmobile. “The police take it too seriously, anyway.”

Don’t Pose Threat

Sue Nelson, spokeswoman for the Elysian Heights Residents Assn., said the cruisers are a nuisance but do not pose a threat to anyone.

“They don’t seem to be causing much harm, and they are more of a show-off crowd than an angry crowd,” Nelson said. “I was a teen-ager myself once, and this just seems to be another form of machismo. “

Jeb Brighouse, president of the Echo Park Homeowners Assn., added that his organization is also not alarmed.

“Cars are important to kids, and it’s not right for us to not let them have a place to cruise,” Brighouse said. “The police should maybe even set aside an area in the city just for driving around.”

For the group of about 50 homeowners who live about 200 yards from the cruising area, however, the situation is a constant worry. About 30 residents recently signed a petition claiming that the problem is out of control and asking police to at least keep the cruisers in the park and away from their houses, Freet said.

Further, homeowners said, they cannot sleep at night because of the loud music coming from cars, and at times they are afraid to leave their houses because they fear robbery or assault.

‘Sometimes Cannot Get Home’

“These people are proud of their cars, but why bring them here?” one woman asked. “They defecate on our driveways, leave trash all over and clog up the streets so bad that we sometimes cannot get home.”

Added another woman: “I hope they crash and kill themselves. They break into the park and begin cruising and just stand around. I got marooned in their traffic the other day, and I was just shaking because I thought they would do something to me.”

Police have considered blocking off Stadium Way, a wide thoroughfare that runs from the Golden State Freeway to the Pasadena Freeway, cutting through the park. But, Freet said, there are 17 entrances to the park, and the department does not have the manpower to station officers at each entrance.

“Geographically, we can’t do to Elysian Park what has been done to Van Nuys Boulevard or Whittier Boulevard,” Freet said. “I think we’re just going to have to rely on arrest sweeps and, hopefully, they will get the message.”

Sgt. John Jergensen, a 27-year police veteran who was in charge of the task force that put an end to cruising on Van Nuys Boulevard, said that once an area becomes a cruising hangout, it is very hard to change it.

“You’ve got to nip in the bud,” Jergensen said. “The longer they’re there, the easier it is for more people to hear about it and join in. You just can’t let cruisers get established.”