We are people just like you. We're concerned renters and homeowners who banded together to devote a small amount of time to give part of ourselves for the good of the neighborhood.

The Fremont North Neighborhood Council is one of 44 such councils and watch patrols in Oxnard. The City of Oxnard charters these councils and provides a Neighborhood Council Handbook and Bylaws for the Neighborhood Councils and for the Citizen Advisory Group-level Inter-Neighborhood Council Forum.

Our neighborhood is a microcosm of Oxnard in general. We house the quite wealthy alongside the very poor. Once almost entirely White, Fremont North's racial profile now parallels that of the city as a whole. Our homes sell for slightly above the median for home sales in our ZIP code.

Our Fremont North Neighborhood has many blessings: Within walking distance we have an elementary and an intermediate school. We can also walk to several shopping centers and even take in a movie at Oxnard's only cinema. At Fremont Square we have many eateries, a fantastic bicycle shop, a pet shop with resident veterinarian, along with a supermarket, drug store and tonsorial parlors.

Unfortunately we also suffer an increasing crime rate, unlike most other neighborhoods. When our Watch Patrol was at its height, we managed to keep this crime fairly low and in balance with the rest of the city. Lack of volunteers has squelched this program resulting in our rising crime rate.

In a study done a couple of years ago, of the 116 reportable crimes that occurred in our neighborhood between November 2001 and October 2002, those crimes were perpetrated in our high-density area just north of Fremont Square. Some 53 crimes occurred in this area while 36 took place from our businesses (mainly "beer runs") and only 27 from residential areas in the remainder of our neighborhood.

Thus our current issues are several:

• Put legislative and legal pressure on our slumlords. The City has begun this process with promises made by its Housing Director, Mr. Sal Gonzales.

• Put code enforcement pressure on those same slumlords. Code Enforcement Leader, Larry McGrath, and Patrol Commander, Bryan MacDonald, are doing what they can, particularly as concerns several properties with severe structural problems.

• Encourage stricter legislative standards for businesses than for residences. Why should the city allow these multi-family dwellings, which are businesses after all, to deteriorate all the way to demolition?

• Demonstrate official City interest in our blighted area by improving its streets and alleys. The Streets Department has surveyed all these and promises action after they've completed work at Oxnard Shores. In other blighted areas where the city has improved the roadways, crime lessened greatly and resident interest in their part of those neighborhoods increased. Perhaps all this validates the "Broken Window" theory.

• Use Weed and Seed auspices to direct our youth away from gangs, to give them hopeful futures, and to provide them guidance.

• Encourage our state senator and assemblymember to enact new laws requiring that all alcoholic beverages be locked up in our stores. "Beer runs" lead to graffiti and break-ins. It is all too easy for persons to grab a bottle or a case of booze and exit the stores without paying. Were these beverages secured, this problem would evaporate. The difficulty in getting this legislation is a hugely influential (read: campaign contributions) alcohol lobby in Sacramento.

• Growth, smart or otherwise, is having a deleterious effect on our neighborhood. Quarter-mile lengths of starts and stops at H St. and Ivywood and at Doris Ave. heighten both tempers and noxious emissions. Thousands of homes are going up. No significant street improvements are planned. You take it from there.