Pacific Avenue Positive Loitering Rally

Pacific Avenue 'positive loitering' rally set for Friday
By LAURA COPELAND
Posted: 12/06/2009 01:30:54 AM PST

SANTA CRUZ -- Take Back Santa Cruz, a grassroots organization formed in late October in response to criminal activity, will hold an hourlong "positive loitering" event on the corner of Pacific Avenue and Laurel Street on Friday.

Organizers are encouraging attendees at the 6:30 p.m. event to carry mugs of apple cider, bring friends and aim smiles at "suspicious characters."

Analicia Cube, who spearheads Take Back Santa Cruz, maintains that the event is not a protest -- the word has too much of a negative connotation, she says -- but rather an uplifting effort aimed at banding together neighbors who might not otherwise approach that corner of downtown.

"We sit in our homes and complain about the state of our town," reads the description of the event on the group's Facebook page. "Now is your chance to show up and be counted. You have the power to change this community."

Since it formed as a Facebook group at the end of October, Take Back Santa Cruz has amassed nearly 2,000 members -- many more than organizers expected. An official Web site is in the works, said Santa Cruz resident Kirsten Attlesey, who helps run the Facebook group.
"The final straw was what happened to Tyler," said Attlesey, a 40-year-old mother of two whose children both attend public school in Santa Cruz.

Sixteen-year-old Tyler Tenorio was stabbed to death by suspected gang members on Laurel Street near Chestnut Street on Oct. 20. Attlesey called incident the "aha'
moment" that spurred the group into action.

Organizers have been meeting privately with law enforcement officials and have also been in touch with Santa Cruz Neighbors, a nonprofit neighborhood association. Police are aware of Friday's event -- as is the regional manager of Taco Bell, where the group plans to gather -- and fully support it, Attlesey said.

Take Back Santa Cruz organizers drew inspiration for the rally from a similar gathering in Chicago, when neighbors gathered at an intersection on a Friday night to stand up against gang violence in the area. Nearly 20 people attended the mid-August "positive loitering" rally, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"We hope to get a hundred people out there," Attlesey says. "But who knows -- I'd be happy with the 45 people we have."

By late Saturday, 238 people had responded "yes" or "maybe" on the Facebook event in the two days since organizers created it Thursday.

The event -- which seems as much a morale booster as it is a message to criminals -- will kick off what organizers hope will be regular positive loitering events.

Take Back Santa Cruz has kept an open dialogue with its members, Attlesey said, and has received many requests from group members wanting similar events in their own neighborhoods.

For information, visit www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=189308553419&ref=ts