Eastside redevelopment project morphs into campaign issue

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - A major redevelopment plan slated for an eastside neighborhood has emerged as a dividing line between candidates in all four city offices up for election this year.

Project supporters say the project's reduction in overall apartment units is an opportunity to strike a blow against crime and develop higher quality housing.

Opponents respond the plan is destined for failure and object to plans to lease rehabilitated apartments to low-income tenants. They counter that available funds should be used to buy, fix and sell some of the foreclosed houses scattered across San Bernardino.

Incumbent mayor Pat Morris favors the plan. Sitting councilmen Dennis Baxter and Fred Shorett, as well as City Council hopeful Virginia Marquez, are also supporters.

"There is so much misinformation out there," said Shorett, the incumbent in the 4th Ward council race. "We are not bringing in low-income housing. We are tearing down low-income housing."

Morris' two rivals in the mayoral campaign, City Attorney James F. Penman and contractor Rick Avila, oppose the project.

"I would kill it," said Avila, who would rather use the federal dollars dedicated to the project to help people purchase houses at low interest rates.

Council challengers Jason Desjardins and Joe Arnett, - respectively vying to unseat Baxter and Shorett - are also against the redevelopment plan.

Council incumbent Esther Estrada, running against Marquez, also says the redevelopment plan is flawed.

"San Bernardino already has more than its fair share of low-income housing. Is it a campaign issue? You bet it's a campaign issue," Estrada said.

The complexes targeted for redevelopment are on 19th Street and Sunrise Lane, near land once occupied by a troubled cluster of apartments known as the "Arden Guthries."

Some residents within the project site have protested the plan on their streets and inside City Hall.

Tenants speaking against the project have said they object to their neighborhood being described as focus of blight. They have also said they would prefer more assertive code enforcement to redevelopment work that could force them to move.

The council passed the redevelopment plan with a 4-3 vote on July 20. Marquez thinks it was the right call.

"I am in full support of development and improvement to any area of the city of San Bernardino, and I support what the constituents want as their neighbors in their community," she said in a phone message.

The project would use a $2.7 million chunk of San Bernardino's $8.4 million share of federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program money to acquire and rehabilitate foreclosed and abandoned four-plex apartment buildings.

Morris, citing official statistics that 356 serious crimes were reported in the project area from January 2007 through March 2009, says the complexes that stand along 19th and Sunrise are in dire need of government intervention.

The project site is "four blocks of pure hell," he said. "It's third world condition out there that threatens nearby schools."

Emmerton Elementary School and Colonel Joseph C. Rodriguez Preparatory Academy are adjacent to the project area. Morris' granddaughter attends Rodriguez Preparatory.

The project does not call for construction of new apartments on land once occupied by the Arden Guthries. Morris said EDA officials are still in negotiations aimed at bringing a Home Depot store to that location.

Morris said 100 apartment units are slated to be rehabilitated while another 144 are set to be demolished.

Mary Erickson Community Housing, an Orange County-based nonprofit, was hired to acquire, rehabilitate and manage 25 of the four-plexes in the first phase of the project.

The second phase of the project calls for senior housing to be built on 12 parcels and homes on 34 parcels.

Apartments rehabilitated during the first phase of the project are to be leased to low-income tenants in order to comply with federal law.

Project supporters are counting on the nonprofit to screen out future tenants who are likely to cause problems for the neighborhood.

"I don't know any parolee that's going to come out of prison with a good credit report," said Baxter, who expects units will be leased to people recovering from foreclosure.

But in opponents' narrative, the apartments end up as homes to criminals.

Desjardins, Baxter's opponent, said in a candidate forum that the EDA is working toward "subsidized parolee housing" and Arnett is not convinced a rigid application procedure will hold up.

"I'm sure they have a screening process, but you know as well as I do that things fall through the cracks," he said.

Penman contended that low-income apartments will scare buyers from the planned houses.

"It will end up being bought by the slumlords and it will become rentals," he predicted. "There's no market for single-family homes in that close proximity to low-income apartments.

Penman said he would rather knock down all the apartments within the project area and meet Uncle Sam's low-income requirements by building senior housing.

Redevelopment officials are implementing while candidates continue to debate.

"We've made some pretty good strides over the last month and a half," said Carey Jenkins, the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency's housing and community development director.

Jenkins said the EDA is about to close a deal on one complex that is intended to be demolished, and that the nonprofit has closed on three complexes.

The relocation process for current tenants could begin in nine to 18 months.

"I really want to stress the fact that we're not going to move quickly in relocating someone from that site," Jenkins said.