As unemployment continues to rise in the Nation and more importantly throughout California in an already submerged housing market, Ponte Vista will create over 5,000 new construction jobs over its seven-year build-out.  Ponte Vista will provide aid to those who are unemployed by creating good paying jobs for union members and for local residents.

Click here to read the LA Times Article citing the rise in California’s unemployment rate

As painful as they are, high gas prices may have a silver lining by helping to force innovation in the way we design and plan our communities, according to a recent article in the New York Times. People are coming to realize, in growing numbers, that the flight to the suburbs had its cost, and as a result they are moving to smaller, denser areas where they can get out of their cars.

In letters June 25, 2008 to Mayor Antonio Villariagosa, Councilmember Janice Hahn and the Los Angeles City Planning Department, Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, said the Ponte Vista development will serve as “an economic catalyst to revitalize San Pedro and a complement to the development currently taking place in Downtown San Pedro. Writing on behalf of 350 local unions and their 850,000 members, Ms. Durazo said “Not only does Ponte Vista mean job creation, it also means moderately priced housing.   Read the letter…

Development of the Ponte Vista community is supported by the Dalmatian-American Club of San Pedro. “It is our collective belief that the merits of the project — especially the much needed senior and first-time home buyer housing — greatly outweigh any of the misconceptions that are being discussed in our community. We trust that any concerns about traffic and other issues will be fully dealt with by the time the project is completed.”
- Gojko Spralija, President Dalmatian-American Club of San Pedro, Inc., May 21, 2008.

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has endorsed the Ponte Vista development. SCAG reviews environmental impact reports for developments having regional significance for consistency with regional plans for Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. “The Ponte Vista Project is a good example of an infill/redevelopment project that brings higher density homes to a jobs-rich, housing-poor area of the region,” stated Jill Egerman, Associate Environmental Planner for SCAG.

“Ponte Vista will create and provide mixed income housing options that teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers, union members, working families can afford with units starting in the mid $300,000s. Ponte Vista will enable our younger and most junior members to realize the American Dream of homeownership. Quality and workforce housing in the City of Los Angeles has eluded a large segment of our residents. We strongly feel Ponte Vista will help alleviate this housing crisis.”
— Jim Santangelo, President, Teamsters Joint Council 42, in an April 1, 2008 letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa.

“Smart growth practices can lessen the environmental impacts of development with techniques that include compact development, reduced impervious surfaces and improved water detention, safeguarding of environmentally sensitive areas, mixing of land uses (e.g., homes, offices, and shops), transit accessibility, and better pedestrian and bicycle amenities.”

- United States Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/dced/topics/eb.htm

“I support the Ponte Vista development on Western Avenue. I have lived in the Gardens on Westmont Drive for the past 20 years. Ponte Vista will add greatly needed affordable housing for seniors and young working families. I support R-3 zoning for this area to help keep the cost of each unit down.”

- Tom McCain, “Sunday Letters to the Editor”, South Bay Daily Breeze, February 18, 2007.

The American Association of Retired People (AARP) has called for the development of communities that “facilitate personal independence and the engagement of residents in civic and social life” as the nation’s population ages. AARP’s Livable Communities Initiative offers guidance to planners on how to better understand, evaluate and plan for the needs of older adults (http://www.planetizen.com/node/28644). A recent AARP survey asked people over 50 to grade their communities on a variety of features and opportunities. “The impact of community design and amenities on community engagement is substantial. Respondents with a lower overall grade for their communities were also found to be less engaged in their communities, as measured by participation in social activities, relationships with neighbors, volunteer work, and civic participation such as voting. And those less engaged individuals were also less likely to report having a high quality of life.”
- Jana Lynott and Robert Hodder, of AARP’s Public Policy Institute, and Andy Kochera, AARP’s Director of Livable Communities.

“There is no such thing as the status quo except perhaps in museums. We’d like to hold back the clock but it’s not possible. Condominiums are the way of the future. It is what it is. In today’s economy, how many can afford the luxury of a single home?”
- Angie Papadakis, Rancho Palos Verdes, “Thursday Letters to the Editor,” South Bay Daily Breeze, February 8, 2007.

Bisno Development’s Ponte Vista in San Pedro will create 5,435 construction jobs over its seven year build. Many will be good paying union jobs because of a Project Labor Agreement that Bisno negotiated with the Los Angeles/Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council. “Ponte Vista has the only Project Labor Agreement of its kind on a private residential development in the City of Los Angeles. This project is critical to our union because many of the Local 802 members reside within the Harbor Area, including Wilmington, Harbor City and San Pedro.”
- Sergio Rascon, business manager, Laborers International Union of North America, Local 300.

“It’s beautiful,” he said. “This is a planned community and all the people I grew up with and went to high school with have gone to planned communities (elsewhere). … People don’t like change, but you need change for a better tomorrow. Enough said. Let’s get it done.”
- San Pedro longshore worker Joe Donato, South Bay Daily Breeze, Jan. 20, 2006.