(rshsdepot) San Bernardino, CA

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From The Press-Enterprise.

 

Bernie Wagenblast

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+

 

Progress slow after restoration of San Bernardino's Santa Fe Depot four
years ago

 

10:00 PM PST on Friday, November 28, 2008

 

By CHRIS RICHARD

The Press-Enterprise 

 

As San Bernardino officials redesign their beleaguered downtown to foster
business growth, they're focusing on the place where freeways, rail and bus
lines meet.

 

But San Bernardino's other experiment in capitalizing on its status as a
transportation hub, the Santa Fe Depot restoration, has been slow to bear
fruit.

 

Four and a half years after city officials poured $17 million into restoring
that building, it has only two tenants -- the San Bernardino Historical and
Railroad Museum and SANBAG. Officials hope to see a coffee shop open in the
depot lobby by mid-January. SANBAG spokeswoman Jane Dreher acknowledged it's
been a long wait.

 

"The project has been long in the making, let's say," she said with a sigh.

 

Business owner Mark Zekan said he hopes to open his Whistle Stop Snack Shop
by the second week in January.

 

Meanwhile, Dreher said a second business, which she declined to name, is
considering taking space on the depot's first floor.

 

Two years ago, City Councilwoman Esther Estrada, who represents the
neighborhood around the station, described the depot as the future
centerpiece of a shopping district similar to Olvera Street near Union
Station in Los Angeles. But this week, she said she'd seen the restoration
as only one piece in a broader development.

 

"It's not like you fix up the depot and all the sudden everybody's going to
go over there for coffee," she said. "What we did there was part of a
process, and the answer is not any one thing."

 

Mayoral Chief of Staff Jim Morris said any appraisal of the depot's impact
should consider the broader neighborhood. As an example, he cited the new
Superior Super Warehouse Market development south of the depot.

 

City Councilman Neil Derry questioned that, noting that the center lacks any
direct access to the train station.

 

"Transportation is a piece of the puzzle, but it's not going to be the
driving force. A park doesn't get you there. You really need to have an
employment base," Derry said.

 

"The recovery of downtown Los Angeles didn't happen because of the Red Line.
It happened because they rebuilt the financial district. They built housing
for young urban professionals. The Staples Center got built."

 

Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard_@_PE.com


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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1811
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org