444. El Cerrito Fears Urban Blight and Crime in 1987

444.

Published news story for The El Cerrito Journal, April 1987, by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, “New Housing Complex, New City Hall To Clean Up Avenue”. This 1987 story reads like a government report because it essentially is a local government report. But it’s also a window on the city’s strategy against urban blight in 1987.

What’s underneath the legalistic chat is the story of El Cerrito’s effort to stop the spreading crime of adjacent Richmond, California.

Richmond is one of the most dangerous cities in the United States – next to Oakland with respect to both geography and crime statistics. Some of the Richmond land area remains unincorporated. Outside California, you would have to compare the Richmond area’s crime statistics to 2008 New Orleans, Detroit, or St. Louis. In 1987 when I wrote this story, it was roughly the same.

There is not much disagreement about the crime and economic failure that marks much of the Richmond area; it’s sadly obvious. But there has always been disagreement about why it got this way, remains so, and what municipal governments can do about it.

Consequently, nearby cities -- El Cerrito in this case -- always maintained an obsequious government presence on their main streets, especially those streets bordering violent crime-prone Richmond. You know when you’ve crossed into El Cerrito from Richmond or vice versa. It’s a designed municipal zone.

Along those lines, this story is about the 1987 development of an apartment complex on El Cerrito’s San Pablo Avenue. The complex was being advertised from the get-go as a residential area for athletic, upper-middle class adults and not academic drop-outs from Richmond in need of cheap housing.

I have to mention all of this because in this same issue, you see a story by reporter Holly Robinson about new RUSD Superintendent Dr. Walter Marks who is quoted as saying, “I want it known that I don’t come with any pre-packaged set of answers, but I do have energy, enthusiasm….” He began the job after this issue hit the stands in 1987, and is today remembered as the financial disaster that hit Contra Costa County education in the late 1980s.

Also in this 1987 issue, we have a story by Peggy Liddle about a new anti-crime group set up by businesses on 1987 San Pablo Avenue. So, the late 1980s were all about El Cerrito – through redevelopment – trying desperately to keep itself distinct from neighboring Richmond:


El Cerrito’s San Pablo Avenue may soon have a new apartment complex catering to financially secure and athletically inclined young adults, featuring hot tubs, swimming pools, and jogging trails.

A presentation of a proposed 162-unit apartment complex to be located on San Pablo at Manila, was given at the last city council meeting. City planners hope to bring garden charm to the beat-up main artery of El Cerrito.

Also involved in the deal is a land swap between developer Riley-Bower and the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency. The Agency, since it controls the land to be used for the apartment complex, stipulates that part of the site will provide a future spot for a new El Cerrito City Hall.

Redevelopment Agency director Patrick D. O’Keeffe wrote in an earlier staff report that the apartment complex would “clean up a substantial portion of San Pablo Avenue, provide needed rental housing opportunities, and provide clientele for surrounding retail.”


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