West-side activist urges Salt Lake to focus on gang violence, not bike lanes

West-side activist Michael Clara criticized Salt Lake City leaders this week for actions that he says rank creating bike lanes as a higher priority than combatting gang violence.

During Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Clara called on Mayor Ralph Becker and council members to hire a full-time gang-prevention specialist "to coordinate and implement gang intervention and diversion strategies."

"Certainly you realize that for many west-side residents, hiring a gang prevention specialist might be just as important as the hiring of a bike-lane coordinator was to east-side residents," he told city leaders.

Last month, Dan Bergenthal was introduced as the city's bikeways and trails coordinator, a new $75,000-a-year position approved by the City Council in the 2008-09 fiscal year budget.

Clara, representing the Poplar Grove Community Council, also asked that the mayor's office partner with the Salt Lake City School District on the Gang Resistance Education and Training program. GREAT puts law enforcement in classrooms to teach about the dangers of gang membership.

"We ask that you demonstrate your commitment to the welfare of our community by making this issue a budget priority item," Clara said.

Clara's call for change comes four months after 7-year-old Maria Menchaca was killed by a stray bullet in a gang-related drive-by shooting July 6 near her family's Glendale home.

A week after the tragedy, Becker called together law-enforcement and community leaders to discuss the city's gang problem and how best to address it. That discussion identified a need to develop an ongoing, sustainable fight against gang violence, the mayor said.

"What happens is there will be a horrible instance and there will be an immediate response," Becker said, citing the around-the-clock law-enforcement saturation of Glendale July 11-13.

Typically, the focus on gang violence in an area will die down in the months following such a tragedy, he said.

"We've decided we're no longer going to respond that way," Becker said.

Since that meeting, city officials have been working to develop a long-term game plan to address gang violence. Staff has been analyzing what the city, state, county and schools are doing to prevent and combat gang violence, looking for gaps and areas of overlap between entities where better coordination likely would improve results.

"There's a lot going on," Becker said. "Honestly, I don't know what else we could be doing."

Clara's pitch for a gang-prevention specialist has merit, the mayor said, and will be considered.

"That's the first time I've heard of his proposal," Becker said. "Certainly, we'll take a look at that."

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