Opening Day

Dancers from Virginia Avenue Park on Saturday celebrate the grand opening of the new Pico Youth and Family Center, which relocated to a bigger building adjacent to Santa Monica High School. The center, which was created in 2002 in response to an increase in gang violence, provides kids with a place to do homework, surf the Internet, and record music in a studio with two turntables and a beat machine.  “We like being here and helping out. It’s a place where we are always comfortable,” Samohi senior Jasmine Mier said of the center.