The hollow shells stared at me with broken windows for eyes, and the existential void beneath the layers of darkness reminded me of the abandoned buildings littered throughout the city of Houston. I’ve been documenting the evolution of the city photographically for half a decade, and in that time I realized two things: There is a large population of homeless citizens out on the pavement and there are numerous unused buildings that have been empty for years. It’s ludicrous to me that there are shelters for these people, but a NO TRESPASSING sign and an idle security guard keeps A and B separated. Logic tells me that A plus B equals C, the solution in which abandoned buildings can be used as housing for the homeless, even if only temporarily. But politicians have a different equation, a different kind of mathematics, a different kind of logic. They would rather raze the buildings and sell the lot to developers, thus bringing business to the area, and that would pump money into the city…

What cities throughout America need is not just a new approach in urban planning, but a new urban policy. Abandoned structures should not only be regenerated as a housing project for the homeless, but also as hosts for education centers to teach the citizens new skills that will allow them to be independent and self-sustaining.

notebook no.9, 13.02.13.

The California Hotel was a popular venue for acclaimed recording artist like James Brown, Ray Charles and Billie Holiday. Photo courtesy of EBALDC.

The California Hotel was built in 1929 and operated as a commercial hotel. It was one of the few hotels where blacks could stay and African American musicians could express their art. For nearly three decades, beginning in 1936, many African-American relied on “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” to help them decide where they could travel during an era of racial division. The hotel’s ballroom was also famous for the celebrities who played there. From the ‘20s through 1971, the site boosted a “who’s who” reputation, drawing jazz and blues greats who ranged from Fats Domino to Ike & Tina Turner as well as fans who came to listen and dance.

Mayor Quan: “…Remember all of the guys in West Oakland who were working on the railroad? They created the first African-American union in this country. They ran a campaign that said, ‘We don’t work at places where we can’t eat and stay and become customers.’” She paused for more jubilation. “Among the high-class hotels, this became one of the first ones and they were so successful. I know you guys remember this—in the 50’s—when no great jazz artist would come to Oakland without playing in the ballroom back there. How many of you remember that? It’s wonderful to see this West Coast monument come back alive.”

…East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), a corporation that develops affordable housing, acquired the hotel for redevelopment in 2011. The group’s plan is to turn the California Hotel into a place where local economic development can thrive. In addition to affordable housing, the redeveloped site will help bring community and commercial retail spaces nearby, organizers said, and offer non-profit services as well as community gardening…

oaklandnorth, 26.07.12.

yay! another restored building in Oakland! 

this is that building that you’d pass by all the time on the freeway from SF/north to Hayward east/south (580 south). so sad how freeways devastate communities.

now if San Diego would get its shit together and clean up that building on C st. by Fourth already. (…the homelessness problem would start getting solved, and along with a repaving around the trolley tracks on C st., that “downtown” area would start looking nice.)

Vacant office space in Hillcrest to become Walgreens

Originally proposed to be part of a boutique hotel, the vacant building at 301 University Ave. in Hillcrest will become a Walgreens before the end of 2012.

read more: sduptownnews, 06.01.12.

so what, if the boutique hotel thing fell through?
I’m sure there’s some group of creative architects out there that would love to make this place pretty. or upcoming entrepreneurs wanting to set up small shops. (but probably need $$$$)

I should’ve gotten into this stuff earlier and popped in to the Uptown Community meetings. 

what I would like: 3-4 story apartment building — ground floor as retail, restaurant/bar, or community space; rooftop garden/park with solar panels.

no one’s got vision here!

Sippin’ on drinks at Urban Mo’s in San Diego’s happenin’ LGBT neighborhood, Hillcrest..  gonna be way more fun staring across at a Walgreens than this! 

because we just can’t get enough of big-chain pharmacies!
thanks for accessing the community demands and making the best decisions on our behalf! our urban environment can’t get any uglier!

feelin’ kinda glad I moved out of Hillcrest now..

sd u-t, 25.01.12.

so this is going to be built or not?

I can’t comprehend this article no matter how many times I read it. 
I should start following San Diego news more often. 

Board Approves Design of Fat City Lofts Project; Fails to Pass Recommendation on Land-Use Permits

The Board voted 6-0 with two abstentions (Chair Kilkenny and Secretary Relyea) to grant design review approval, based on architecture and urban design, for the Fat City Lofts project, a proposed mixed-use project development on the block bounded by Pacific Highway, California and Hawthorne streets, and a vacated portion of Ivy Street. The proposed project would include 232 apartments, 4,485 square feet of ground floor retail space and 294 parking spaces.

The project also requires approval of a Coastal Development Permit and Centre City Development Permit by CCDC Board Chairman Kim Kilkenny. Due to the residential project’s location in close proximity to the Solar Turbine’s industrial complex, CCDC staff recommended denial of the permits based on the project’s inconsistency with policies of 1992 Centre City Community Plan and the City of San Diego’s General Plan Economic Prosperity Element that seek to avoid land use incompatibility and protect base sector industrial uses..

– ccdc newsletter

“Miracle shopping mall” on 9th/Palm in Imperial Beach, CA (south san diego county) currently/ as seen on g.maps.

Demolition of the 9th Street and Palm Avenue shopping center will begin Oct. 26, a notice sent out Tuesday by the city said.

The old shopping center will be torn down to make way for a new center which so far has commitments from Fresh & Easy, Panda Express and Starbucks to open stores, said Imperial Beach Redevelopment Agency Coordinator Jerry Selby.

imperialbeachpatch, 04.10.11.

and then the new plan:

IT’S BASICALLY ANOTHER STRIP MALL.
but this time with even more car parking, it looks like.

gdmit, who are these people running these redevelopment agencies??!
This plan is frustratingly many times worse than my neighborhood Uptown District Shopping Center in which I get irritated every time I have to walk through 4 rows of parked cars to get to a “sidewalk” to get to TJ’s.

yes, you’ve fucking included some trees in the car park to mitigate the urban heat island effect a notch, and separated all the buildings so it’s not a typical “strip mall”, but hey! The strip mall layout was probably more efficient than this—less energy lost by buildings next to each other, and less chance of cars backing out and causing accidents.

yes, a few of the buildings are set right along the street, but then what??

Suppose you live closeby in this neighborhood, you live in a house just south of this shopping center, on 8th st. And you want to go to building A. What is your option? You gotta walk through rows of parked cars to get there. You can still feel the heat emanating from the engines, and see oil leaking onto the asphalt. Unpleasant.

Or even, suppose you drove here to patronize the business at building D. You parked right at building D. Then you see whatever business is at building A, E, or F, or C, and want to go there. But it’d be stupid to get in your car to drive a few meters, repark it, and get out. So what is your option? You gotta walk in between rows of parked cars.

To whoever designed this, Sudberry Development or whatever,

Thanks for being smart and making the most efficient use of land.
Thanks for being considerate of only automobile drivers. 

Yours truly,
A sure future visitor to Miracle Shopping Center. 

Named for the city that created it, the Loo is a prefab, stainless-steel public restroom, big enough to hold a person and a bike or a mom and a stroller. Eco-friendly with its solar panels and low-flow toilet, its surfaces are graffiti-proof, and a system of louvers allows police to monitor activity inside it without infringing on privacy.

To Girls Think Tank, a nonprofit focused on homelessness, the Loo was a simple solution to Downtown’s public-restroom shortage; in June 2010, the City Council agreed.

But public-works projects, even those as relatively small as the Loo, can easily become complicated: First there was a five-month public-outreach process. Then arose the issue of who’d pay for the maintenance. By June 2011, everything appeared to have been sorted out. But then came a lawsuit challenging the state’s overhaul of local redevelopment programs and, with it, a freeze on the Loo’s funding source…

sdcitybeat, 28.09.11.

I don’t know what the deal is with American public restrooms.

In Germany (and maybe some other European countries, too), the solution is pretty simple: pay 50 eurocents or 1€ to use the restroom. 

This includes restrooms at train stations and even libraries. 
There are no signs at restaurants saying “Restrooms for customers only”. If you aren’t a customer but need to use the restroom, just drop off 50 or so eurocents. That’s it. 

Of course, these coins can no way cover the total cost of paying maintenance staff, but they help out a lot in paying for toilet paper and the water bill. Which then still is an effective way to decrease maintenance cost.

I’m sure even homeless people could find enough change to pay to use a clean restroom.

and yes, public restrooms in Germany are pretty decently clean.

Interesting story about a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn called Gowanus. 

Brownfield (industrial sites) redevelopment, superfund, toxic cleanup / environmental hazard, businesses opening up despite the recession and without big developers leading first..

“Many buildings and storefronts that had been sitting empty have opened with some really interesting retail and restaurant spots,” he said, giving as examples Bar Tano and Michael & Ping’s, a Chinese restaurant. “Also, because the rents are not yet astronomical, you’re seeing some great businesses that you might not see in a pricier neighborhood. Places like Brooklyn Homebrew on Eighth Street, where you can buy home-brew kits and ingredients, really give the neighborhood a unique quality. 

“The fact that this miniretail explosion happened during the recession,” Mr. Carden said, “I think speaks to the potential of this neighborhood.”

nytimes, 29.07.11.

and then some current news on the canal..

via climateadaptation: Hurricane Irene Could Be a Shitstorm in the Gowanus Canal (nymag)

Bob Filner’s political career began in the early 1980s, when he was a member of the San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education. He served on the San Diego City Council in the late ’80s and early ’90s until running successfully, in 1992, for the U.S. House of Representatives, where he’s served ever since.

Nearly 69 years old now, Filner has decided to give up his seat in Congress and move from Chula Vista to run for mayor of San Diego. He’s the only high-profile Democrat in the race, running against three high-profile Republicans—Carl DeMaio, Bonnie Dumanis and Nathan Fletcher—and 10 other candidates.

Do you have a take on the role of redevelopment in San Diego and whether it should continue?

I think it has to, [but] we have to change the focus. The redevelopment that went on in Downtown was good for our city. But you can’t call Downtown now the blighted area that redevelopment was for. And the perception is, and I think a lot of reality is, that now major developers are getting major projects to the exclusion of things around the city.

I would like a redevelopment agency that looked at the whole city and not just Downtown. Our neighborhoods are being screwed. I’m going to run the whole campaign around neighborhoods—there are different needs in different neighborhoods. And I think Downtown, CCDC has done its job. They’ve turned Downtown around.

Now it’s time to refocus and maybe use those tools redevelopment gives us on other areas. And maybe be more creative because you don’t have that same kind of blight, but you have infrastructure needs.

full interview: sdcitybeat, 17.08.11.