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- Francisco Martinez, 22, wants to turn the abandoned library in South L.A.’s Hyde Park neighborhood into a youth center. Martinez and a few dozen other young people gathered outside the library Monday to demand that the city reopen the library as a youth center.
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- The Hyde Park Library closed permanently in December, 2004. The abandoned building has a 8-foot-tall fence wrapped around it to prevent people from trespassing. Graffiti lines the walls and grass grows through cracks in the pavement.
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- Youth Justice L.A. gathered outside the library Monday to demonstrate. This is the group’s second attempt to push the government to reopen the library as a youth center. According to the group, 40 police officers showed up to their previous protest at the library in 2011.
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- Protesters believe if this space reopens as a youth center, more young people could avoid gang life and drug addiction.
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- Protesters urged drivers to honk in support of investing in youth as they passed by the closed library.
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- Protesters want the city to redirect five percent of the city’s law enforcement budget to youth programs.
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- Francisco Martinez is now 10-months sober and a college student. He says when he looks at the fence around the library it reminds him of being locked up again.