Communities headed toward healing

These two articles in the L.A. Times about the community center ShareFest helped create in Harbor Gateway are examples of the direction ShareFest is nudging neighborhoods.

Both articles discuss the Cheryl Green Community Youth Center that ShareFest volunteers built on the Sixth Annual Workday, but they also show a glimpse of the community it is helping heal.

I accordance with ShareFest's goals, the center is a step toward diffusing violence, gangs and racial tension in Harbor Gateway, but there is still change to be had in this area and so many others.

Let's be proud of the work done but remember there is plenty more.

Youth center opens as racial tensions ease in Harbor Gateway

After Cheryl Green, a black teenager, was gunned down, allegedly by Latino gang members, near her house after school, her mother was approached by several African Americans offering to retaliate violently for her daughter's death.

Earlier this week, Charlene Lovett recalled the moment, looking back on how tense relations between blacks and Latinos had become in the section of Harbor Gateway known as "The Strip."

That was in December 2006, at a time when blacks said they feared Latino gangs were trying to push them out of the neighborhood. Lovett said retaliation, however, was not the answer.

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Youth center named for victim of ethnic violence

Los Angeles officials on Monday dedicated the Cheryl Green Community Youth Center in Harbor Gateway, named after the African American teenager who was shot to death in 2006 by Latino gang members.

Green, 14, was killed near her home when a 204th Street gang member fired into a group of black youths on Harvard Boulevard, police said. The Latino gang had been preying on and attacking blacks for years.

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