City Council Candidate Treasure Ortiz Hosts a Carousel Mall Revitalization Townhall Meeting at The Enterprise Building

Thursday, June 27th, 2024 ~ San Bernardino, CA.

A town hall meeting was held at the 320 Premiere Hall inside The Enterprise Building in downtown San Bernardino that was both an explanation and a call to action about the city’s abandonment of the Carousel Mall Revitalization plan that was developed by Donald Monti of New York and his Renaissance Downtowns USA firm.

The meeting was attended by local residents of San Bernardino and surrounding town residents who came as far away as Pamona, along with several San Bernardino City officials, who were there as concerned members of the failing city’s leadership on what to do with the 43 Acre lot that the Carousel Mall once stood on, and a city reeling with allegations of corruption.

For Donald Monti’s part, who flew into town from New York for this meeting, he and his firm are suing the City of San Bernardino who had an agreement with his firm, whom Monti alleges that his firm spent millions of dollars to create a commercial property that would be an environmentally progressive and self sustained residential, commercial, business, and entertainment living environment with a themed water park.

A property that would create over 4,000 jobs, address the unhoused population, cater to education and training for local residents that would attract businesses to come and be a part of this downtown revitalization build out.

Monti told the attendees that he was never given an official reason as to why his organization was fired after creating this development plan, which led him to file a lawsuit. Something he says he has never had to do in his 40 years as a real estate and property developer.

An audio visual presentation was shared with the attendees that was “brilliantly conceived property“ as one attendee stated and would go a long way in the downtown revitalization effort. An effort Monti sites as being “shovel to the ground” ready to go now. Monti also pointed out that his firm’s research identified another 300 acres in San Bernardino that could soon follow with development build out and would literally reinvent this city that has been “deprived of it’s rich history and modernization.”

These sentiments were echoed by city residents, many of whom grew up in San Bernardino, who have fond memories from a childhood they experienced that their kids will not have. One city official commented on part of the city’s problem lies with the leadership and management that has come under much scrutiny for mis-management of tax payer dollars, state and federally mandated monies where accountability issues have led to the recent firings of the City Manager and City Finance Director, deemed a “whistle-blower” for expressing concerns that San Bernardino may very well be staring at another bankruptcy status.

On the July 4th issue of the El Chicano Weekly cover, an article titled “San Bernardino City Council Faces Tough Decisions as the 2024/2025 Budget Exceeds Revenue, Animal Services Scrutinized” / https://iecn.com/san-bernardino-city-council-faces-tough-decisions-as-2024-2025-budget-exceeds-revenue-animal-services-scrutinized/ is one of several very real concerns.

One city official shared with me that the recent $4.2 million dollars presented to the City by the State to address the unhoused crisis here seems to have no show of receipt as to where the funds have gone. And there are a number of similar stories, such as the agreed to budget to retrofit the vacated S.B. City Hall to meet earthquake code enforcement, has gone over budget by some $40 million dollars.

“We reached out to a huge commercial business expanding its national operations about bringing their business to San Bernardino and the executive we spoke with declined the offer stating ‘We will not pay to play in San Bernardino’ says another city official in attendance at the Town Hall meeting. 

As for any solutions offered regarding the Carousel Mall revitalization, both Monti - who remains interested in being the developer for the project - and for Treasure Ortiz who is running for election on the San Bernardino City Council to represent Ward 7 and is on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024, the choice to have the city’s leadership problems eradicated and for this project reinstated is up to the citizens of San Bernardino.

That means an active campaign by attending City Counsel meetings, with phone calls and emails to the council members, and to get out the vote. San Bernardino had one of its worst voter turn-outs in the last elections of nearly 8,000 votes cast in a population of some 224,274 people.

The takeaways from Thursday night’s Town Hall meeting and Call to Action: 

1) Actively campaign with phone calls, emails and attending City Council Meetings to let it be known that the Carousel Mall Revitalization project needs to be reinstated with Renaissance Downtowns USA as the master developer;

2) VOTE ~  “If we don’t vote, we are ignoring history and giving away [our] future” ~ Pat Mitchell


Town Hall Meeting Livestream:

https://fb.watch/sZHg3TqnYZ/?mibextid=Nif5oz


For more info about this Town Hall Meeting’s host and presenters:

Dr. Treasure Ortiz / https://www.treasureortiz.com/

Developer, Donald Monti / https://renaissancedowntownsusa.com/



Photos:


*Carousel Mall Redevelopment Art Work
*Dr. Treasure Ortiz, City Council Ward 7 (Candidate)
*Donald Monti, Developer