Before coming to LAist in late 2021, I covered topics such as mental health, domestic violence and environmental issues for newspapers in Texas, Arizona and northern California. I turned my focus to climate coverage after reporting on the devastating impacts of rising sea levels on communities in the remote Sundarbans islands in India.
A half-demolished home where a new warehouse project is being built in the unincorporated community of Bloomington in San Bernardino County .If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily morning newsletter, How To LA. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news.
The site of the future warehouse project, which will bring more than 2 million square feet of warehouse space to Bloomington.I meet Margaret Razo and her husband Rafael at a park that will be right across the street from the new warehouse project and next door to another warehouse being developed in Jurupa Valley.“Bloomington was so pretty, so beautiful,” Razo said. “And, just driving over here now, it's awful. All the houses are torn down. Childhood homes of our friends.
“At first I was mad at the people who were accepting the money and leaving Bloomington because I'm like, ‘Oh, they don't really love Bloomington,’” Razo continued. “How can you blame them? These big old companies are coming in and just throwing money at people and it's such a poor community. And it just keeps chipping away and chipping away more at Bloomington.”For some people, the buyouts, which have all been at or above fair market value, were welcome.
“It’s hard that we can't find anywhere to go because we don't have the money to buy a house,” Ortiz said in Spanish. “I have to protect my family and my animals.”“I be seeing machines going through, passing by my house, and I be getting scared,” she said. “And then sometimes I get the feeling of not wanting to come to school. Even if I do, I be thinking about the house instead of thinking about my subjects at school.
Like many unincorporated areas, Bloomington has a lack of basic infrastructure, such as sidewalks, sewage lines and flood control. That’s led to persistent flooding issues and dangerous traffic conditions. Many community members also worry about public safety with little law enforcement dedicated to the area.
$39 million for 2.2 miles of street improvements like sidewalks and traffic signals .More than $1 million in tax revenue per year will go to a fund for Bloomington to spend on public safety, code enforcement and parks. $6.4 million in one-time funding will go to a Bloomington-specific infrastructure fund. 198 apartment units will be built in another part of Bloomington to make up for the homes destroyed and comply with California's housing law.
Meaning, taxes. Unincorporated areas often lack basic infrastructure because they have less tax revenue, and the revenue that does exist is stretched across an entire county.
Gary Grossich owns a pizza shop in Colton, where he grew up, and moved to Bloomington 45 years ago after purchasing his dream home with his wife.He says that’s part of the problem — because Bloomington is unincorporated it has too little political representation.
“Each individual project, you gotta weigh the pros and cons,” Grossich said. “All projects have impacts, no matter what it is. You can build a church, it's gonna have impacts. The question really is, can you mitigate the impacts to beyond a significant level.
Bloomington California Capitalism Cheap City Climate County Development Displace
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