HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-02-2022_Open Session_General Comment_former resident_Possible alternative to warehouse moratorium_RedactedFrom:
To:Public Comments; Mayor John Valdivia; Sandra Ibarra; Fred Shorett; Ben Reynoso; Kimberly Calvin; Damon L.
Alexander; Theodore Sanchez; Juan Figueroa; Council
Subject:Possible alternative to warehouse moratorium
Date:Monday, February 21, 2022 5:54:36 PM
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Hello Mayor and Council members.
I previously lived in the City of San Bernardino for more than 22 years, and continue to work
there, and have been very concerned with how the character of the landscape has changed over
the years. While I recognize (and am grateful!) for the efforts that you have made to bring
employment opportunities to your city, it is disheartening and disturbing to see the loss of
open spaces and green, growing things that are necessary to the health of the environment and
the well-being of your residents- both of which are further harmed by the additional pollutants
being expelled into the air by the increased truck traffic and industry brought about by the
warehouses spreading so rapidly across the California landscape in your city and elsewhere.
It has been proven by many studies that plants have the ability to counteract many of the
dangerous chemicals in our air. NASA even did studies and used the results to determine
which plants to include in the international Space Station to help keep the Astronauts alive and
healthy in their closed environment. It has also been long known that the effects of having a
green, open space that can be visited is extremely beneficial to the mental and spiritual well-
being of residents of a large, urban environment (This is why Frederick Law Olmstead
designed and created Central Park in New York City way back in the 1850's in spite of the
argument at the time that the space was needed for housing.)
I realize that you have so many voices screaming at you from both sides of this issue that you
may be finding it difficult to think, so I would like to suggest a compromise. Rather than
placing a moratorium on building warehouses, perhaps you might require any new warehouse
construction to include a "green" roof with public access and vertical gardens on their exterior
walls. Many cities, including, but not limited to, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York have
buildings that have Public Parks or other Public Gardens on their rooftops. Likewise vertical
gardens have been used in many places to disguise or "soften" the appearance of tall buildings
or monolithic structures.
With the size of some of the warehouses going up, such a garden might really help mitigate
the negative effects of the building itself. Why, if there is enough of a border of green plants
that could filter the air to the rooftop community and protect their health, then you might even
one day build tiny homes or micro-shelters for the unhoused on one of them and still have
room for them to grow their own vegetables in raised beds on a warehouse rooftop!
I know that residents are unhappy with the pay scale of new jobs that accompany warehouses,
but I fear there may come a time when such jobs are the only ones available, and believe me- a
low paying job is better than none at all. I also know first-hand how dangerous the pollutants
associated with trucks can be for those with asthma, the elderly and children, and I understand
how depressing it can be to live in an apartment with no park nearby and nothing but a dingy,
industrial landscape to look at, but the knowledge and technology does currently exist for a
new building (of any kind) to mitigate its own negative effects on the environment and those
who live and work near to it. It is for those who regulate the building of such buildings to push
the builders to use those technologies.
I hope that you will give the builders that push, and possibly give some sort of incentive to the
owners of existing large buildings to retrofit their buildings to add green roofs and/or vertical
gardens. You have the chance to make San Bernardino a shining example to other large cities
with a similar dilemma, I truly hope you do so.
Thank you for your time.
-A concerned former resident.
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