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Fremont's Adams Avenue is a snapshot of suburbia: a wide asphalt street lined with new single-family homes on one side and tall bushy trees shading the other.
But five years ago, it was just a neglected dirt road that dead-ended at homeless encampments along a railroad track. The homes back then had illegal additions and outdated floor plans. Some were owned by an absentee landlord. The trees were diseased and overgrown, and the driveways were unpaved.
The neighborhood owes its turnaround to a $5 million redevelopment effort that involved tearing down the dilapidated dwellings to build 17 affordable-housing units for first-time buyers. The project received top honors last spring from the California Redevelopment Association in the "single-family residential" category.
I think it did everything that redevelopment was supposed to do," said Redevelopment Director Laura Gonzalez-Escoto. "When a place looks neglected, you invite neglect - and that's why it's so important to have redevelopment agencies."
Blighted areas throughout the East Bay have benefited from the efforts of redevelopment agencies. The agencies have reinvested property taxes collected within aging districts - along with government grants to spruce up shops and shrubs, or take on residential or retail developments in the most challenged spots.
In spite of these successes, local economic development officials say huge chunks of cash are being siphoned away to Sacramento as lawmakers try to balance the state budget.
Dan Vanderpriem, Oakland's director of housing, redevelopment and economic development, said the city loses about $1 million per year...