| The Palo Alto History Project |
| The A Street Gang Addison Avenue |
| The "A Street Gang:" A Neighborhood Crisis? The so-called "A Street Gang" was headquartered on Addison Avenue, a once (and now, again) sleepy Palo Alto street. The response to the gang by the neighborhood, City Council, and police was (although criticized by many) a primer on how to save a neighborhood. In the summers of 1993 and 1994, residents were reporting being awoken 2 or 3 times a night by screeching tires, cars gunning their engines, and yelling in the streets. On many mornings, Addison Avenue homeowners were finding broken bottles in their yards. Residents reported seeing people urinating in their yards and drinking in the street. Things really started to heat up on May 18th of 1994, when a shot was fired in the air outside of a party on Channing Avenue, a few blocks from the section of Addison Avenue where most of the problems had been. Five juvenile suspects were arrested, reportedly members of the Addison Street Gang. A fight that broke out at the El Camino Taco Bell between the A Street and V Street (Ventura St.) gangs further heightened Palo Alto vigilance. The "A Street" gang was estimated to have maybe 30 members. Still, the gangs were probably only "gangs" by Palo Alto standards. Police, teens, and community members seemed to downplay the word "gang" in association with the group. As Assistant Police Chief Lynne Johnson said at the time "They've been sort of wannabes." But she also said that PA Police were "basically pulling out all the stops and taking it real seriously." They did indeed and Palo Alto has avoided the gang problems that exist in Mountain View and Menlo Park at its borders. The response in the summer and fall of 1994 was both controversial and effective. It began when nearly 40 people showed up for a meeting at the Addison School to put pressure on the police for more surveillance and to push the Council to adopt a 10pm curfew for minors. Within a few months the Council had passed an 11pm curfew for weekdays (1am on weekends), a measure opposed by the ACLU and many others. The Palo Alto police also established an anti-gang force that tried to reach out to the largely Latino gang members through role models and meetings with gang leaders. By April 1995 the center of the gang activity had passed and Addison Avenue was restored to its usual state. The question remains whether this was a temporary summer hang-out for a group of basically innocent teens or a true threat to a peaceful neighborhood? -Matt Bowling |
| Palo Alto: Then & Now |
| Addison Street, quiet once again |
| Addison Street looking back toward Channing Street |
| Palo Alto Home Page |
| The map below shows the Green Gables area |
| Lynne Johnson, then assistant and now police chief of the PAPD |
| The Taco Bell on El Camino that hosted the scuffle between two local gangs |
1931 |
| 2007 |
| At left is Addison School flanked by two tall trees in 1931. The beautifully built school resembles the indoor variety popular in the East. In the 1950s many Palo Alto schools were rebuilt in an outside style with many cost-cutting measures. Addison School now resembles many of the other Palo Alto with far less impressive results. |
| Sources: Palo Alto Historical Association, Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto Times |