- [Announcer] Support of the Empire Warehouse series on KVCR-TV comes from the Creative Corps Inland SoCal, a collaboration between the California Arts Council, the Inland Empire Community Foundation, Arts Connection, Riverside Arts Council, and the California Desert Arts Council, putting visual and media artists to work in the region.

And, viewers like you.

Thank you.

[bright upbeat music] ♪ - [Sofia] In the I.E., we have 234 warehouses in the '80s.

As of last year, we have 4,000.

So, I've come to learn, why do warehouses come here?

What impacts do they have on our communities health wise and environmental wise?

And now, I wanna know the legal aspect of how does it look like when a developer comes to our city?

And, what do people in places of power think of this?

[upbeat music] ♪ - [Sofia] In January of 2024, I attended the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meeting where the board voted on whether or not another warehouse will be built in Bloomington.

This one they're voting on would be built on Slover and Alder Avenue right next to a high school and a block away from the Rocha's former home.

- One of the challenges for us in communities like Bloomington is, one, is we haven't developed any standards when it comes to what community benefits are, what the expectations are of developers.

It's all a negotiation.

And, that becomes very, very challenging because some may agree or disagree with some of the terms that are being negotiated.

In this community, in my opinion, it just doesn't make sense just because of the proximity to the school.

And, I have concerns with the district not having some of their issues addressed.

I know they offered $50,000 which is appreciated, but I know, also know that there was some other things that they requested and some of these requests were not met.

Some of them were a little over-the-top and I don't agree with, but there are some requests that were reasonable; some sidewalks and some other improvements they asked for.

- Yeah, this is extremely difficult.

(pauses) You know, there's part of me that I'm concerned about warehouses and things of that nature, but I'm also concerned about jobs, and there's people that are wearing shirts out there.

They've known me for a long while.

I think my past, I'm always concerned about the jobs and right now it seems it's always the jobs against the environment.

But, these people?

You know, they work very hard for their families and everything else.

When it comes down to the aesthetics, the whereabouts of certain buildings as opposed to the human concerns, and that is the families and the jobs, and everything else.

In this particular case, I'll support the laborers.

(applause) - [Woman] Thank you, Madam Chair.

With that, the motion passes, four in favor with Supervisor Baca opposing.

- [Chair] Thank you very much.

- [Sofia] Although there was no public comment at this meeting, I wanted to see what community members thought.

- We moved in, in 1991.

So, it's been a good, over 30 years that I lived in that area.

And, when we first moved in, they said, "Oh, this area is gonna prosper.

"You're gonna be between four freeways", and this and that.

"And, there's no sewer system but you will have it in less than 10 years."

So, and it's like, it's been this long and nothing has happened.

And, I'm like, okay.

Like, why isn't-?

Why is everything being constructed all around Bloomington?

But Bloomington, we're like the orphan child?

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- And, nobody cares, and it's trashed.

And I felt like, "Well, maybe if nobody's doing something, maybe it's up to the residents.

Maybe I need to go and find out what's going on, and that's why I'm here.

- How does, like, I guess the warehouse that was on vote today, like, how does it affect you?

- I live on the north side of Bloomington and I have to travel a lot, and I go down Cedar.

And, I just see, like, all the trucks and all the traffic, and you get bottled in there and you can't get out.

And, I've been to MAC meetings where the community gets together and they talk about-- Fire department talks about how it's so congested they can't even get to their victims.

-[Sofia] Oh, wow.

- [Mina] You know?

So, that's how it affects me and my family and all of the residents.

- I wonder?

Like, they have time to build the warehouses, but not sidewalks.

But not stuff that, you know, the residents actually need.

- Yeah.

What us as residents, I think what we need?

Yes, we do need jobs.

But, warehouse?

I mean, grocery stores can create a job.

A community center, having services for the children, the seniors, all kinds of different people, different ages?

Those people will have a job.

They will create a job.

So, it doesn't all have to be warehouses.

There's always hope.

I talk to people that have been through this rodeo in Bloomington, and see how disappointed they are and how hard they work, and, like, nothing happens.

You know?

Like, they still do the same thing.

The money talks.

And, I hear that side of it, but I also hear the side where people are, like, thinking, yes, maybe we can bring change.

But, I think the answer is in getting the community involved.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- Every single resident needs to put their voice together.

And so, we can have one voice.

- [Sofia] Yeah, very true.

- [Mina] All of us together.

- [Sofia] There's power in numbers.

- Right, right.

♪ - [Sofia] After today's meeting, I'm not going to lie, I left kind of sad and felt how crushed the people who had came to fight for their community felt.

Only one person had voted against the development and the rest voted in favor for it because of the jobs that it would create.

These people don't live in Bloomington.

However, I wanted to get the perspective of someone who lives in the affected community and is in the position to influence decisions.

[light thoughtful music] - [Sofia] I always came here as a kid and it's kind of become a nostalgic staple for many in the Inland Empire.

How has it been running this business for as long as you have?

- Yeah.

It's been-- It's really a joy.

It's been-- really become one of those iconic businesses, and there's very few places you can go anymore where you actually see the owner.

It means a lot to me.

You know, it's kind of that we've become that type of iconic business that very few businesses really reach that status.

- You mentioned being part of the Bloomington Municipal Advisory Committee.

How has that deepened your perspective about the ins and outs of, like, the city?

- Well, Bloomington is unincorporated.

And so, sometimes it's frustrating because we can make recommendations, but that doesn't mean our recommendations, or what we want is going to be accepted by the board of supervisors.

In Bloomington, like I said, we can only advise people.

And, that's one of the things that I've been trying to work on.

I would like to see Bloomington eventually become a city, incorporate so we make our own decisions.

'Cause right now, we-?

The people that live in Bloomington really do not make our decisions.

Our decisions are made by the board of supervisors and four of the five supervisors, we did not elect them.

So, only Supervisor Baca is the only representative we really have.

And, if he's outvoted by the other four supervisors that don't live in Bloomington and we didn't vote for, that could kind of become an issue.

So, that's one of the frustrations of being unincorporated, not being a city.

We took it upon ourselves to start looking at alternative means to basically balance our books because we could never become a city if we don't have the revenue.

We wouldn't last two seconds as a city, you know, in the-- being in the red every month.

So-?

- [Sofia] I read your piece on the Fontana Herald News.

- [Gary] Uh huh?

- And, you mentioned that you really do think warehouses are going to help achieve that gap in being self-sufficient for Bloomington.

Could you expound more about that?

- Right, sure.

And, that was one of the things.

'Cause, you know, we need to provide services for the people that live in Bloomington.

And, one of the only ways, when we did this, after we did this study, we were presented with some options by the county.

And, one of the options was to look at three different areas for potential industrial development.

Whether that was warehousing, or some other type of industrial development.

The criteria was only if we could bring the type of revenues that we needed into the community for services.

Also, that these-- Nothing would be near-- travel directly past school sites and they would be on known, designated, already existing truck routes.

So, basically what I'm saying is we wanted to select areas that were of least impact to the community that we felt.

And, we were offered three different areas.

And, the MAC at the time unanimously, and this was in 2017, selected two of the three areas for potential development if we could get the-- what we needed in the way of resources.

And, that only not included-?

Didn't also include money, obviously, community benefits, but also infrastructure improvements, which the community desperately needs.

We have nothing.

When development comes to a community and infrastructure improvements, government agencies do not have the money to fund the sidewalks, sewers, and all this type of thing.

So, the reality is the money is only gonna come out of one or two sets of hands.

It is either gonna come out of the business and development community, or it's gonna come out from the residents.

The residents don't have it, and a lot of times they don't-- If they do, they don't want to vote for to tax themselves.

And so, where are we gonna get these?

They want these.

They want these things.

They want sidewalks.

They want curbs and gutters.

They want quality public safety.

They want to feel safe.

But, they don't understand that- a lot of people, at least, don't understand- that somebody's gotta pay for that.

It just doesn't, the money just doesn't fall from heaven.

And so, how can we do that?

Right now, outsiders make all our decisions for us, whether it's outside political organizations or the board of supervisors, which 80% of them we did not vote for.

So, at the end of the day, if we could get to the point where we can balance our books and start moving towards incorporation, then we make our own decisions.

And, you know, then the people in Bloomington?

If they don't... (pauses) want any type of warehouse development, and we're a city, and we vote on that and that's what they decide, that's perfectly fine with me.

As long as the people in Bloomington are the ones making the decisions, not people from outside the community.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- [Gary] And, that's what we have right now to a large degree.

♪ - Although many may not agree with Gary and his belief that warehouses will help the community of Bloomington, I can't help but see that this man really does love his community and wants it to flourish.

However, if that is the case that warehouses in the city will help the city have more money, wouldn't Bloomington look a lot different than it does now?

So, I'm meeting up with a photographer who is a Bloomington local who's been documenting how the face of the city has changed.

- This is right off Jurupa, by Kessler Park.

From what I remember, a lot of these homes had, you know, stables.

They were kind of like farms.

You know, they had chickens; big plots of land, too.

And, sadly, they decided to sell their homes.

I started noticing the warehouses being a problem when they started tearing down homes, especially on Cedar.

I started to think, like, why is there a need for warehouses to the point where you need to tear down homes when it's, like, an issue?

Like, housing is an issue right now?

I started taking a film class back in college, and that's when I guess I discovered that I really love you know, photography and the whole film process.

And, I took it actually with Tamara Cedré.

She was my first photography professor back at Riverside City College.

So, I think she definitely opened that for me.

I don't know.

She was really an inspiration and she still is.

- [Sofia] I see a lot of her work is, like, a lot of documenting how life is.

I can see where, like, that comes in.

How would you describe your scope of work now?

- [Fernanda] I think now, it's-?

I'm not sure where to put myself quite yet, but [click!]

people say it's very [click!]

photo-like journalism, [click!]

documentary style.

- Do you have a goal in terms of, like, that you wanna achieve with the work that you share into the world?

- I think I do.

I wanna say it's mostly for historical reasons because the whole reason I started with the, you know, Bloomington?

Documenting Bloomington was because there's not a whole lot [click!]

of archival [click!]

photographs, really, [click!]

or history in Bloomington.

[click!]

Even, like, the county library?

There's not much.

So, I guess my hope is that my work will survive time.

- How do you feel about the state of Bloomington now?

- Very frustrated.

- Yeah?

- And, sad about it [click!]

getting torn down.

[click!]

They're...

[click!]

destroying communities basically, and they think this is gonna turn us into a city because we're unincorporated.

But, I honestly don't think that is a way to go.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

You don't see it happening?

- [Fernanda] Not with warehouses.

No, I don't.

They don't bring money into the community.

- [Sofia] And they've been here for a while, too.

So it's, like, where?

- Yeah.

Where?

When is this gonna happen?

(chuckles) Like, I don't think it's-- That's not the way we should be trying to turn into a city.

(tire whining sounds) - [Sofia] It's sad to see the transformation Bloomington has experienced as a result of these developers and warehouses.

A once quiet rural town with many residents having their own small farm and livestock, where they could walk out and breathe fresh air and look at the surrounding mountains is now completely boxed in by the surrounding cities' warehouses with more being built within their own city.

[somber music] ♪ [gentle piano music] ♪ ♪ - [Sofia] Over the past couple months, I've set off on a journey to learn as much as I could about why warehouses are taking over the Inland Empire.

And, before that, I didn't really try to pay attention to it, but there comes to a point where you can't help but notice it everywhere.

You know?

You realize that all your friends are working warehouse jobs, all your tíos are truck drivers, you got asthma, and you really hate the 10!

But, through it all, I've learned the good, the ugly, and the reality of the situation, which is, warehouses?

They're not going away, but more importantly, the people here aren't going away.

And, I've had the honor to meet such passionate people who care about their community.

They fight for what they believe is right.

They educate others and they work hard.

And, for me, that is what makes me proud to be from the Inland Empire.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [upbeat music] ♪ [music fades] - [Announcer] Support of the Empire Warehouse series on KVCR-TV comes from the Creative Corps Inland SoCal, a collaboration between the California Arts Council, the Inland Empire Community Foundation, Arts Connection, Riverside Arts Council, and the California Desert Arts Council, putting visual and media artists to work in the region.

And, viewers like you.

Thank you.