Jose,

In the photo above, you can see plants uprooted from the garden. The entire space was built and planted by community members though only part of it would look like a traditional garden (this part is partially visible in the picture with the PN4S sign). There are copious news articles documenting this, especially from the mid-late 1990's.

In your post you seem to say that efforts should be made to reduce gang violence and that people shouldn't worry about parking lots and the destruction of urban green space. I want to know why you think these are mutually exclusive? If you research the topic, you'll find that the built environment and infrastructure most often have a greater effect on street crime than laws do (though often less than economic conditions, not that the three categories are easily separable). You don't have to choose between lower levels of gang violence and preserving green space, the goals work well together.