Budget 2007: "We're in the money."

We're in the money, we're in the money;
We've got a lot of what it takes to get along!
We're in the money, that sky is sunny,
Old Man Depression you are through, you done us wrong.
We never see a headline about breadlines today.
And when we see the landlord we can look that guy right in the eye


We're in the money, come on, my honey,
Let's lend it, spend it, send it rolling along!
Oh, yes we're in the money, you bet we're in the money,
We've got a lot of what it takes to get along!
Let's go we're in the money, Look up the skies are sunny,
Old Man Depression you are through, you done us wrong.
We never see a headline about breadlines today.
And when we see the landlord we can look that guy right in the eye
We're in the money, come on, my honey,
Let's lend it, spend it, send it rolling along!


---Al Dubin, from Songs of the Great Depression



The city of Riverside has a brand new unofficial anthem that it's been singing since City Manager Brad Hudson and his troupe of county hires came to town nearly two years ago. Before his arrival, city departments were told to tighten their budgets and that there was not a dime to spare anywhere. Unfortunately even in this period of happy days are here again, many of these same departments are being told to do the same thing. Only now it's to promote the Riverside Renaissance.

But in an interesting twist, Hudson is playing Santa Claus and giving some of the departments their equivalent of a mini-Riverside Renaissance. At least on paper.


Riverside annual budget, 2007-08



On the list of promises, are the following.



10 additional police officer positions

15 additional fire fighter positions brought in late last year plus three additional positions

Maintain classified/stipend enhancements for public safety dispatchers and add four positions

Police and fire equipment including mobile data computers, a patrol helicopter, specialized fire equipment and other items

Additional code enforcement officers to the tune of 17 new positions

$84 million allotted for projects to improve traffic flow through the city


And a host of other items that are on the wish lists of several city departments that provide the city's basic five. How long will they stay on this list is the question which should be asked.

Because after all, budget hearings have just begun and from this point, anything goes. Anything can be dropped, traded, use for bargaining purposes, used for political purposes or they can survive all this by winning each round and then end up in the final bonus rounds of budget reconciliation and if they win there, then it's off to a position on the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1!

The show, Survivor Island couldn't be this complicated. So let the games begin, with stakes high for each participating department and whoever is left standing at the budget table and takes home the most toys, wins.

Also, given that it's an election year that will no doubt lead to each city council member whose seat is up for grabs to promise in May what they might not be able to deliver in July. The new election schedule works just great for doing so.





Meanwhile, in the Wood Street neighborhoods, it's bad news for the couple, Lin Lin and Wendy Guan, who owns the Kawa market that sits on Bandini and Magnolia who were pushed to accept $635,000 from the city to give up their property which includes their store and a residence, according to a column written by Press Enterprise writer Dan Bernstein. They apparently gave in after the city basically told them that the Guans would have to pay for their attorneys to the point where they would lose more money with the final sale, which also means that the city most likely would have resorted to eminent domain and if so, a residence would have been included, despite the city's promises not to seize single family residences through this process to sell to private developers.

For those who think that $635,000 for two parcels of property is a great price in a neighborhood where houses on one parcel begin in the $550,000 range, you might still be right. That price is a hell of a lot better than it would be if you faced eminent domain as welded by the city council acting as the city's redevelopment agency.


(excerpt)


But now the Guans have surrendered. Today, the city votes whether to pay $653,500 for the market and the house behind it. The property supposedly will be "redeveloped" into single-family affordable housing, although Councilman Dom Betro, who wouldn't talk to me, e-mailed a constituent: "I also am not opposed to a similar commercial use there." Gee, the Guans are going to love that.

Will this deal -- "made by the parties...in lieu of involuntary acquisition by eminent domain," according to agreement -- solve the problem?

Patti Triplett, the long-time Wood Streeter, doesn't think there'll be much unwanted Bandini foot traffic anymore. "I'm fed up with them drifting through the neighborhood. They can case houses, looking like (they're) going to the store."

I called the RPD in search of crime stats, but got nowhere. The city report recommending the buyout makes no mention of crime.


It's interesting how Betro allows for the option of "similar commercial development" which if that's the case obviously would mean that the city's interest in acquiring the property is not to alleviate the foot traffic "problem" existing in that neighborhood. If those people from the Olivewood Apartments travel down Bandini to get to the market to purchase the goods that they after all, may have difficult finding in their neighborhood given the lack of grocery stores or any commercial properties in that area, then they will probably continue to walk down Bandini on their way to some place to do their shopping.

Many of the tenants in those apartments probably do not drive and thus must walk or take the bus to purchase their groceries and other items. Many of them may be attracted to the market because it may be the only business selling groceries that is close to where they live.

Wouldn't this same foot traffic be attracted to any commercial enterprise that was established in that same spot? And once the market is gone, is it possible or even probable that the foot traffic would come down Bandini to Magnolia on its way to Ralphs grocery store or Vons at the Magnolia Center?

The latest action by the city council is the latest in a series of similar actions that have greatly changed the landscape of downtown Riverside but the businesses being pushed aside paid business taxes to the Downtown Neighborhood Partnership for years and watched as their money was spent on improvements mainly in the pedestrian mall. Then, the Partnership turned around and supported the city's decision to use eminent domain or threat of eminent domain against these same small businesses calling their area "blighted". It was, in comparison to Main Street between Fifth Street and 10th Street because the mall was where the bulk of the improvements had been made.

Asian-American and Latino small business owners have been especially hard hit by the city's actions downtown. Their businesses will be replaced by mixed use which is commercial businesses on the first floor and residential apartments or lofts on the top floor. Price ranges for housing on Market Street will range between $400,000-800,000 so expect the tide of gentrification to be felt downtown soon.

For all the discussion of "affordable housing" including that line dropped by Betro in the Bernstein column, not much if any of that type of housing has been created downtown. Any time affordable housing comes up for discussion in Betro's Development Committee in connection with any new housing project, it's shunted off to some other neighborhood.