Meridians gone

Three apartment buildings demolished for San Bernardino redevelopment project
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/16/2009 06:10:31 PM PDT

Photo Gallery: "The Meridians" demolition

SAN BERNARDINO - The yellow loader's diesel engine growled as the machine scooped up the remains of what was once a Westside apartment building.

The machine's caterpillar tracks ground up, splintered and pulverized the wood, plaster, insulation and other building materials that had for several years been assembled in the form of kitchens and bedrooms.

The loader's driver manuevered his Caterpillar beast forward and backward as he scooped up pile after pile of debris and dumped the junk into the trailer of a waiting truck.

This was redevelopment
Heavy equipment from J & G Industries demolishes a row of apartments at North Meridian Avenue and West Fifth Street in San Bernardino. Carey Jenkins, a San Bernardino Economic Development Agency project manager, said officials would like to replace the fourplexes with senior housing and single-family homes. (Al Cuizon/Staff Photographer)
at work. Tuesday's activity was a clean up job to haul away the wreckage of one of three apartment buildings that were demolished the previous day. The scene was "The Meridians," a cluster of 18 troubled Westside apartments where San Bernardino officials have pushed the reset button in hopes of replacing a crime-plagued area with a healthier neighborhood.

"We're slowly winding ourselves through this whole process," said Carey Jenkins, a San Bernardino Economic Development Agency project manager.

Jenkins said the EDA is close to completing its ninth acquisition of an apartment complex at the Meridians. So far, the EDA has purchased foreclosed properties and Jenkins expects to begin negotiations with the owners of the remaining nine properties after that deal is completed.

The City Council, acting in its role to oversee redevelopment work, authorized plans to raze the Meridians in September. Jenkins said officials would like to replace the four-plexes with senior housing and single-family homes.

California law requires the EDA to help current tenants find new digs. Allyn McGinnis, who said he has lived in the Meridians since November 2007, doesn't object to the EDA's overall plan but wants to know more about how the redevelopment work will change his life.

"I wish them well, whatever they want to do, but I wish they'd let us know what's going on," McGinnis said. "If we just had more information, we would really be better off."

McGinnis also said he has seen good at the Meridians, but can affirm that life can be hard there.

"It's pretty rough," he said. "It can be rough and wild."

Jenkins said that for McGinnis and other tenants whose buildings are not yet in the EDA's hands, its difficult to say when they will receive the relocation aid that they are entitled to.

San Bernardino has previously taken a similar approach on the city's east side, where several apartments known as the Arden-Guthries - also said to be at the center of high crime activity - were demolished.

Jenkins said officials are considering the possibility of using the same tactics in other parts of the city, but he was not yet ready to disclose where those areas are.













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