Inland Utopia » redevelopment abuse

Norma Torres on Redevelopment Agencies

mmunson — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 20:17:14 +0000

Ontario is one of the cities in our district that has redevelopment abuse issues, since the agencies may be on the chopping block due to the budget crisis, this recent update from the Assembly woman is worthy.

(Sacramento) – In the wake of the vigorous debate over the Governor’s proposal earlier this year to eliminate redevelopment agencies Assembly member Norma Torres (D-Pomona) produced legislation to insure the redevelopment agencies do not misuse their authority. Assembly Bill 1275 clarifies the general powers of a redevelopment agency. Specifically AB 1275 declares a redevelopment agency cannot delegate its obligation to make a decision, determination, or other action to a person. The legislation cleared the Assembly on a 78 to 0 vote. Here’s more from Assembly member Torres in this Assembly Access video.

Glad I Did Not Get Bamboozled

mmunson — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:41:24 +0000

I did not vote for Ovitt in 2004, 2006 or 2010. I knew that Ontario was famous for corrupt politicians and voted for his opponent in each election. I also never voted for Schwarzenegger and voted Libertarian Party on his two elections as well.

I am also glad that redevelopment agencies are being killed in California. Redevelopment agencies namely in places such as Ontario led to all this corruption that has taken place in Ontario, Upland and San Bernardino County.

I know redevelopment agencies do noble things, but taxpayers end up getting ripped off from all the sweetheart development deals that get made where in Ontario, two developers get a parcel of land for 45 thousand when it was valued at 8 million dollars. Redevelopment agencies are hotbeds of corruption and I am glad Governor Brown is pulling the plug. The same folks who are responsible for the Colonies Scandal are part of the earlier 6th and Mountain scandal. That is why the Colonies developers were the fairy godfathers to Supervisor Ovitt.

It seems likely something will happen with Supervisor Ovitt in the near future, I hope all political figures and major donors in San Bernardino County learn from these experiences so they do not have to lawyer up or face jail charges and just serve the common people instead of trying to make their cronies rich.

Ontario’s Heritage Must Be Preserved

mmunson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:41:45 +0000

The master plan for remaking Ontario’s downtown believes that a good downtown must remove the original buildings for a made up reality artificially made like Disneyland. Ontario really badly wants to remove the tenants that make up the older downtown along Euclid Avenue such as the Yangtze restaurant so they could make Ontario truly the destination of Southern California. I do feel insulted when I hear people demean my community that I have lived in for the last 27 years when they think of it as a wasteland after they attended an national conference at the Ontario Convention Center

However Ontario does not need to white wash its main thoroughfare by either removing historic buildings or its Latino dominated downtown business sector. If the Planning Commission things they could turn Euclid Avenue into an upscale shopping district then I probaly have some mushrooms to sell them. Latino and non-latino oriented businesses should be integrated together so we can succeed together. The son of the owner of the restaurant Gary Gin said, the redevelopment project is basically failing due to a very cold housing market and why bother demolishing any more buildings. Maybe we should just end the negotiations and just salvage the redevelopment project with the current housing development and keep it as it is.

Unfortunately due to the Supreme Court, property owners have less rights than municipalities. If the city of Ontario wants to demolish the Yangtze they will find a way to do it. Maybe the Ontario Redevelopment Agency will end up replacing the family business with a corporate owned Panda Inn restaurant instead.

Would it be better just to demolish the abandoned Toys R’Us, Target and Food 4 Less buildings on 5th and Mountain instead of having to burden a small business owner with lawsuits and litigation. Would it be better just to make do with the downtown we have, where in Claremont they adapt older buildings for modern usage? We are living in an economy where people do not want to spend big money like they used to. We need to appreciate our heritage, while becoming fiscally prudent.

My advice for the people concerned, visit the Yangtze restaurant at least once just in case if the owner surrenders to the city to close it down so they can build their white elephant project. Write to the city council members and the mayor and get involved in your local government.