WELCOME

 

Hi, I’m Consuelo! Welcome to my neighborhood of Solano Heights. I’ve been living here in a small apartment with my family now for 15 years!

I love my neighborhood, but I’m getting a little worried about all the changes that are going on.

My husband works a few blocks from our apartment at JT’s furniture factory and lately he’s heard rumors  that some people in the neighborhood –– like Mary Jones’ homeowner group –– don’t want to live next to a factory. They want to change the “zoning” so that JT may have to shut down or move someplace else.

And that’s not all!

Last month, that big developer, Everett Mann, bought my building –– well actually, he bought most of our block!  The Solano News says that he’s going to  fix up the neighborhood and make it look a lot better. But some of my neighbors say that after he does all that, he will want to rent to professional people who can pay a lot more rent than we can.

Yesterday I heard Jerome Washington, the President of Magnolia University, talking on the radio about how its time to expand the campus, and how that will make the neighborhood better too.

Then there’s that tree lady, Tulip Groves. All she cares about are parks. Parks, parks, parks. Which are great, really great for my kids.  They could use more safe places to play and get exercise. But we can’t just have parks, can we? We need places to live and work and shop.

All of these folks say they just want to make Solano Heights a better place, but none of them seem to agree on how to do that.

And my big question is: better for whom?

So I’m glad you’re all here to play out what is possible when these people work out their differences one way or the other so that Solano Heights can be a better place for all of us to live and work and play.