Written by D’Ette Cole of Government Hill
Note: On November 5th City Council (A Session) meeting Government Hill residents gathered with white COVID masks on which were printed, “C-1”. They were there, after so many postponements to ask City Council to reject a zoning change from R-6 to C-2 in their residential neighborhood and to accept instead a compromise of C-1, a fair compromise that they were struggling to have approved.
Read about the case at the SA Heron.
Good morning,
We hope good prevails today. We have a compromise for C-1 on the property which sits just 24′ across the street from our homes. We hope that if any motion for higher than C-1 light commercial is introduced that you will not entertain it, you will not support it, and that you will be a protector and a proponent for community compromise and our 200′ neighbors’ compromise for c-1.
This has been a long pursuit which began over a year ago when we first got word that the property at the corner of Reno and Edgar street was going to be sold and that the longtime neighbors would be removed and the six houses leveled for a twenty-pump mega gas station a zoning change from an almost unheard of R-6 (residential) to C-2 (intense commercial). It seemed incredible that affordable housing would be demolished and we would be living across the street from a huge gas station. We did not know where to begin to fight.
First the case would have to go through the rezoning process to get rezoned from R-6 to C-2 commercial. Not imagining how this huge project could be plopped down in our tiny neighborhood immediately in front of our homes and so close to an elementary school, the 200′ neighbors banded together to show and tell the city that there must be some mistake.
Ours is a predominantly Latino, multi-generational, working class neighborhood. Several of the 200′ neighbors who have called this neighborhood home for decades, said I didn’t understand: No one will care, no one will listen, and we won’t win because we never win – we don’t matter. Before this process was over, I began to understand why they felt this way.
With the overwhelming opposition to this encroachment within the 200′ and blocks beyond, we organized and pushed on but there are group members who do not access the internet, that are not computer savvy, or would never be able to stand and speak here. There are those in our group that you have not seen because they cannot come to commissions or hearings due to health issues or because of their essential jobs, especially now with COVID.
Home.
This is home. We love our homes and are extremely house proud and though the story of how and when we each came to call this neighborhood our home is different from each of our neighbors – We all have stories of dreams and desires of inherited homes passed down, full of fond childhood memories:
Neighbors like Dora and Martin whose first homes with first mortgages bring the swell and pride of ownership in our community.
Neighbors like Addie and Caleb who have lived in their well-loved home for decades with adult children who have moved back in to care for ailing elders.
Roxanne and Aden, starter homeowners with hopes of future kids walking to the elementary school down the street.
Jazzma and Armando, retirement homeowners looking to downsize.
Lorenzo and Virgina, purchasing and refurbishing a small house on the top of hill with a million dollar view of the downtown skyline.
These are some of our neighbors.
These homes, these neighbors, these streets, our elementary school, and our park are a lot to fight for.
Our community has been worth every second, every meeting, pow wow, late night group call, every Sunday afternoon driveway meeting, every block walked, every signature collected, every email sent, every phone call, every educating and telling of details, every sign designed and every sign hung, every sleepless night, every tear shed and every new worry wrinkle.
Everything has been worth it because this fight has been about our homes and our neighborhood.
This process has been extremely intimidating and consistently disappointing. Our neighborhood and our homes have been publicly disparaged in descriptive terms like “derelict, crime ridden, crime stricken, drug and graffiti infested, unsafe and scary” by those who should know better, by a member of the Zoning Commission, by attorneys, by those who want to profit from our neighborhood.
We’ve been ignored, we’ve been dismissed, we’ve been excluded, we’ve been insulted, disparaged, berated and basically told to be quiet. We would not stay quiet.
We love our neighbors, we love our neighborhood, we love our city so we cannot be blamed for fighting so hard for the best outcome for this block that impacts us all so significantly. Despite it taking such a long time to get here, we look forward to a true C-1 compromise. A C-1 light commercial project that will be an appropriate buffer between the C2-NA Frost property on the access road and our dense residential front yards. A neighborhood friendly C-1 development that will be the appropriate scale and setting to meet our residential and school zone streets.
Council representatives: I couldn’t and I wouldn’t do the job that each of you has signed up for and run and won to do. I thank you for having the will and for wanting to make a difference, to make things better, do better, and do good. Please never underestimate the power of listening and understanding, conversation and collaboration and compromise – this fight would have been more civil, more fair, less hurtful, less marginalizing, and better for it.
Please support the 200′ neighbors C-1 compromise for this case.