Resisting Ventura developers

VENTURA, Calif.--The Ventura Avenue Leadership Group--a group of working-class residents in this southern California city--is organizing to resist the gentrification of their neighborhood.

In the past four months, Ventura Avenue has been the target of a massive redevelopment plan that would gentrify the culturally diverse neighborhood by morphing it into a modern-day shopping destination.

Ventura Avenue, traditionally a working-class neighborhood, whose oilfields made it a self-sustainable community early last century, has long been looked on as the "poor side of town." It is here where working-class people can find an affordable living space outside of modern-day suburbia. Yet only two parks surround the Avenue--on opposite corners of the neighborhood.

According to studies by The City Project, a firm that deals with equitable access to green space in communities of color, Ventura Avenue has a higher than average obesity rate than the rest of the city of Ventura. One reason is the lack of access to parks and open space in this predominantly Latino neighborhood.

The Ventura Avenue Leadership Group is a Spanish-speaking group that evolved in the community shortly after The City Project's presentation. They consist of grassroots leaders who have organized a postcard campaign to lobby the city to turn an empty lot into a neighborhood park.

The Leadership Group also has been organizing in the neighborhood for the interests of the residents, not future developers. It has created a coalition to stop the annexation of unincorporated county land which is still undeveloped. The group has also succeeded in collaborating with City Planning staff to write community-focused policies and code for maintaining the eclectic ambiance in their working-class neighborhood.

The City Council was set to approve a plan for the neighborhood without the vision of its residents. However, the Ventura Avenue Leadership Group assembled a large group of residents from the neighborhood--including kids, college students, Spanish-speaking families and working-class people.

Along with the support of a county supervisor, these residents' testimony forced a unanimous vote from the City Council in favor of incorporating the park as a priority and doing away with the annexation of the Canada Larga property, which would have required taxpayer dollars to build infrastructure to a part of the city that is not yet incorporated.

The group claimed a small victory--the ability to have equitable access to green and open space in residents' immediate neighborhood. The community has empowered itself and its people in standing up to the developers and fighting for development which, in the long run, will help unify, not divide, the neighborhood.