Block Party Brings Neighbors Together

Under her shade tree on Fullbright Avenue, Carole Ozanian handed out the prizes: The newest resident, Jeffrey Yohai, got a yard sign that reads “Daisies”; the resident who had lived there longest, Garnet Clark, got a small, ornate picture frame.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done something like this,” said Clark, who moved to the area 40 years ago, when orange groves still surrounded her home.

For Ozanian, the owner of Big Valley Music in Northridge, the neighborhood was never closer than in the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake. But the camaraderie disappeared with the rubble.

So, on Sunday, Ozanian set up tables and croquet hoops on her front lawn. Her husband, Norman Polen, grilled hot dogs. And they invited the neighborhood over for a block party.

“I came from a small town,” said Ozanian, who grew up in Bellflower when there was still farmland and many of the neighbors had known each other for decades. She and her husband moved in 1976, after their children had grown up. Although they enjoyed the quiet of the new neighborhood, they did not get to know their neighbors.

“I’m from Tennessee--Memphis,” said Lillian Byrd, who has lived on Fullbright for six years. She said it was not uncommon for new neighbors there to be welcomed with a covered dish, but in Los Angeles that’s less likely.

About 25 adults and children joined the small gathering, including a late arrival by Los Angeles Unified School District board member Julie Korenstein.

“This was a little bit unusual,” Korenstein said, in explaining her appearance. “You don’t get to see it very often--the old-fashioned block party.”