By Paulina Rojas

OASIS, Calif. — As soon as the sun starts to set in Oasis, a rural community in the eastern Coachella Valley, locals flock to the community’s first park, a simple soccer field with a gravel track around its perimeter that opened just a few months ago.

Children run about as mothers chat and teenagers hang out with their headphones on. Others bring snacks to share. This would be considered a normal scene in many other communities, but in this area it borders on revolutionary.

“A lot of cars pass by here and all the mothers would worry that something could happen to their children, since [before the park] there were no safe places to play,” said Rosalba De La Cruz-Olivarez, an Oasis resident and community leader with Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC).

Speaking in Spanish, De La Cruz-Olivarez said the park has not only created positive change among the children in her community but among adults as well.

“I have noticed a big difference in how the people here feel, everyone seems a lot happier because there is finally a place for us to go sit for a little while, outside of our homes,” Olivarez said.

Before the opening of the park, residents of Oasis would have to drive about 20 miles west to Coachella to get to the nearest outdoor public space. Which presents an obstacle for the many residents here who don’t own cars, in an area where access to public transportation is extremely limited.

While there are a number of parks in Coachella today, there was a time not too long ago when that wasn’t the case.

“You drive by the parks in Coachella and there is always a ton of people and then some,” said Assemblyman and former mayor of Coachella, Eduardo Garcia. “We are at a point where there is a park in just about every segment of the city and it is how a well planned city should be.”

When Garcia initially took office one of the first things he noticed was the lack of park space, and so he started to ask questions.

“I learned as mayor of Coachella in 2006 and when I was elected to the city council, two years prior that the population of the city had grown based on the development, but that the park space had not grown along with it,” he said. “I began to ask why that was.”

Now, 10 years later Garcia takes note of the positive impact parks have had on his city, and he is now using that to push for statewide legislation that would help bring similar benefits to more communities.

“We made the case that the investment of a $3.2 million dollar park bond will have a return on investment and address issues of quality of life and the health and wellbeing of people” he said.

The park bond – AB-2444 – is currently stalled in the state senate. But that does not mean Garcia has halted his efforts.

“We start with the park discussions for next year, this year already,” he said. “We’re going to have a couple of park hearings in our district and throughout the state to begin generating additional support.”

That support and community buy-in from all stakeholders is what led to the Oasis park being built.

“(What made the park a success was) the creativity and willingness of different sectors –government, non-profit, residents – to work together with a ‘can-do’ attitude,” said Silvia Paz, vice president of Desert Recreation District.

“Open space has a tremendous impact on community well being; having access to parks and recreation has been associated with improved mental and physical health, and it also offers youth a safe place to convene.”

Paz added that the park in Oasis is one of three being planned for the Eastern Coachella Valley. Funding is still being secured for completion of the park, which will include a basketball court and a play area with swings.

Back in Oasis, De La Cruz-Olivarez shared the details of the first birthday party that was held at the park a few weeks ago. A neighbor wanted to do something special for her son and everyone showed up.

“It was very beautiful to see everyone there together,” she said.

About the author:

Paulina Rojas joined Coachella Uninc. as a beat reporter in February 2016 after working as a city reporter in the eastern Coachella Valley for more than a year. Although born and raised in New York City, Paulina feels right at home in the eastern Coachella Valley. She loves the warmth of the people and buying fresh bread from her favorite bakery in downtown Coachella. Paulina is a graduate of the University of Houston, and her work has appeared in The Las Vegas Review – Journal, The Houston Chronicle, HelloGiggles and Vivala. View her author page here.

By Karen Borja

Convincing a government agency to meet you on your own turf is a win for professional organizers. A meeting in a community, as opposed to a distant government office, shifts the power dynamic, allows locals an opportunity to host and makes it impossible to deny that certain needs are or aren’t being addressed – after all, seeing is believing.

So it was a victory for North Shore residents to receive a visit from county officials in 2012 to discuss transportation needs. The five officials arrived late, spilled out of their van, sweaty, and red in the face exclaiming, “We got lost! We didn’t even know North Shore existed.”

A community leader whispered to me in Spanish, “How are they supposed to provide us with services if they don’t even know we exist?”

That meeting proved to be a turning point. From then on North Shore residents understood that they had to organize to remove the distance that existed between them and their visitors.

The 45-year-old PICO (People Improving Communities through Organizing) organizing model I use to train people holds that a protest would alienate. Instead, it suggests that residents need to forge relationships to prove their existence and win support for their cause. Using the PICO approach, North Shore residents committed themselves to building relationships with decision-makers by attending and hosting meetings where they could share their testimony on day-to-day experiences with difficult local themes.

In my work I often ask residents what they like and dislike about their communities and I follow up by asking, “What can you do to change things?” I’ve heard thousands of answers over the course of my five-year organizing career in the Inland Empire. The answers that provoke the most tears and deepest desperation are those that come from the Eastern Coachella Valley, where people are struggling to survive the intense hardships of extreme poverty.

In helping them to meet these challenges, I try to unlock the power they hold. It is the hardest part of my job. But that inner power is displayed when a shy, immigrant, monolingual mother publicly shares how even the slightest improvements to transportation in her community will save her family thousands in college tuition because it will allow her son to finish a degree in not more than four years. It is apparent when kids, parents, and soccer coaches convince local government to convert an abandoned, neglected school into the unincorporated area’s first park.

After 11 years of engaging in community organizing, I know unlocking the power of people is what will continue to move any community forward.

Right now, that power is seen in the group of ECV mothers calling on their school board to build a new elementary school instead of doubling the size of the local continuation school. After three years of organizing neighborhood residents, these mother can now see that their efforts led to an investment that will help their community’s future in more ways than just education.

I write this as a testament that community organizing works and is something many places desperately need. No one was talking about these communities, let alone their people, until residents started sharing their testimonies publicly.

As the first mobile clinic rolls through North Shore, and the first park for the community of Oasis is being opened it is important for me to step into the background and shine the spotlight on the residents who organized and are helping make their neighborhoods better for everyone.

There is an expression in Spanish that translates to, “there is no worse effort than the one that was never made.” I have heard this from so many involved in community organizing in poor neighborhoods. People have used it at times when our organizing efforts are at their dimmest.

There is always a sense of pride when we claim victories in the Eastern Coachella Valley because I realize then that I have allowed myself to be lead to victory by the community. Community organizing unlocks the power of people and creates change in our communities.

About the author:

Karen Borja is the Associate Director of Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC). She was born and raised in Coachella, and has been involved in community organizing since 2006. She can be reached at [email protected]

If you would like to be a community contributor, email us at [email protected].

COACHELLA, CA — Coachella Mayor Eduardo Garcia recently gave a press conference to young journalists, during which he detailed his overall vision and planned improvements for the city in which he grew up.

While the city has a balanced budget and, according to Garcia, is “able to provide an adequate level of services such has police, fire, parks and roads to Coachella residents,” the decrease in tax revenue has stagnated city expansion. Voters will decide in November if a proposed tax to renovation and add parks will come to fruition. Because of the lack of funds in the budget, the Mayor is unwilling to dip into city cash reserves.

The Mayor addressed a matter of great concern for Coachella: the lack of revenue from businesses. Coachella draws most of its tax revenue from property taxes, he said, and this source of income has decreased substantially due to low home prices and plummeting sales.

“Improving the city’s tax base is one of the obstacles we need to start looking seriously at,” said Garcia.

Currently the city’s top industry is agriculture which offers low-paying manual labor jobs to residents. The mayor hopes to entice business to the city in the future, noting that they would bring important revenue boosts with them but acknowledges that this task might be difficult with the average resident of Coachella not having a college degree. He pointed to the recently built Coca- Cola distribution center as a step forward, saying that similar light industry is an avenue to pursue.

While tourism is the region’s second major source of income, the Mayor said, “(There is) not a single hotel in the city. Cities have a bed tax on hotels but this is something that we can’t do.”

He proposed that the city allow and entice hotels into the city of Coachella in order to take of advantage of this revenue source.

With 80 percent of the city undeveloped and population growing 79 percent from 22,000 in 2000 to 40,000 in 2010, the city is one of the fasted-growing areas in the state. Mayor Garcia said he is committed to figuring out ways to increase the city’s tax base so this growth can be managed in an orderly and controlled manner to improve the quality of life of residents.

Coachella, CA – The Coachella City Council unanimously approved a ballot measure last week that, if passed by voters in November, would create two new taxes and increase the recreational options for the city’s young population.

Revenue from the proposed new taxes would help pay for the formation of a citywide community facilities district that will include six soccer fields, three baseball fields, one football field and a community center.

The newly generated funds would bring The City of Coachella to the national standards for park acreage. Currently, Coachella has only 49 acres of parks for its 40,000 residents. The national standard for a city this size is 142 acres. The City of Coachella currently has four softball/baseball fields when it should have eight, three soccer/football fields when it should have six, five basketball courts when it should have eight, and lacks more than 26,000 square feet of community space for its more than 40,000 residents.

The City of Coachella does however meet the standard when it comes to swimming pools (2) and skateboard parks (1). Generated revenues from the proposed taxes would bring Coachella up to standard when it comes to the above mentioned facilities.

The two new taxes would increase property taxes for residential lots by $75 and would increase sales tax in the city by half a cent. The total combined revenue is expected to generate $12.8 million. The City of Coachella currently pays one million dollars for its current park acreage, or about $25,000 per acre. The generated funds would pay to maintain the new facilities.

“It sounds like a good idea overall, if it’s going to benefit the kids,” said Christopher Limon, a Coachella resident. Limon, a former resident of Oasis in the eastern Coachella Valley, moved to Coachella several years ago during the housing boom with his parents and younger brother.

Limon wishes the city provided more safe places for young children like his little brother and other youth to gather and have a good time, adding, “With no summer school and other budget cuts affecting social programs here in the valley more and more youth are winding up on the streets with nothing to do.”

“The voters will have the ultimate say so for the future of the city,” said Eduardo Garcia, mayor of Coachella.

If passed by the voters, the mayor said the plans for the new facilities would go into effect immediately.

By Aurora Saldivar, COACHELLA UNINCORPORATED

Mayor Eduardo Garcia seems to be putting his youth and vitality to work in sparking some new life back into the city of Coachella. Before the June 22 City Council meeting, the mayor took the time to share his enthusiasm for the new direction Coachella seems to be moving in to Coachella Unincorporated.

A priority will be working to develop the undeveloped areas of Coachella to bring the city to its full and vibrant potential, he said.

“I don’t see any other cities bragging about having a balanced budget,” he added, boasting about the city’s annual budget. This fantastic feat allows for Coachella to engage in some innovative projects, he said. Among the projects will be street and park renovations, along with extending water and sewer lines.

There certainly seems to be some rapid movement occurring in the city. Coachella will also soon welcome a Farmer’s Market into the community. This market will create a venue for local farmers to sell their produce and also allow those on food stamps to receive twice the amount than at your average grocery store, Garcia said.

This is a trendy and innovative endeavor that has already been going on in the cities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert and La Quinta. With all these new developments you might very well ask whether there is the risk of overly developing Coachella, detracting from the city’s cultural identity. Garcia said the key is to just “be honest and be proud of who you are.”

Although the Mayor cites Palm Desert as a model city, he acknowledges that they won’t turn the city into a copy of shopping centers like El Paseo—instead he hopes the end result would resemble Old Town Indio on Miles Street.

Coachella, to residents, is a city that has soaked up the best characteristics of the Hispanic culture with an emphasis on family and community involvement. All new business allowed into the city will be a direct reflection of the needs of Coachella residents as well as maintaining the overall “Pueblo Viejo” style. Garcia makes protecting the cultural identity of the city a priority. He articulates his vision and hopes that these new projects will bring attention to the city of Coachella to those across the Valley.

Despite the negative view of Coachella often expressed in the media focusing on crime and vandalism, the city’s mood is currently one of hope; the hope that the hard work and planning of residents will lead the city to flourish both culturally and economically. Garcia hopes that these new city projects will speak for themselves showing that the city has more to offer than a negative headline splashed across the front page.

Garcia seems sure that the integrity of these new projects will lead to a change in perspective and insists that Coachella’s “resources will go towards soccer fields, not a branding campaign.”

At any rate, it seems that Coachella residents should be ready to witness some pretty exciting new changes to their beloved city.