VENTURA — The boom times whisper like a ghost across Ventura's west side. The boarded windows, rusted machines and dinosaur-like oil pumps frozen in time hint of dreams that literally ran out of gas.
This isolated side of town has many names, none that flatter: Wrong side of the tracks, Ventura's ghetto, or simply "the Avenue" to the people who live and work along the thoroughfare that bears the city's name.
The population is mostly working-class poor and Latino. The specter of industrial pollution lingers like a hangover since the nation's biggest oil companies mined petroleum and then left when it was gone.
Now, a determined group of civic leaders is trying to bring prosperity to the Avenue. But in a new twist, boosters are seeking to capitalize on the community's sullied past to build its future.
The strategy calls for tapping heavily into state and federal programs intended to restore idle land to productive uses. That has struck a sympathetic chord with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which last year added most of the west side to its 5-year-old Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative.
The program provides low-interest loans and grants to help revitalize blighted industrial and commercial properties suspected of being contaminated. In two months, the community could win a coveted designation that makes it eligible for even more federal money. State and private sources also are being sought.
"This is very, very important," said Rochelle Margolin, economic development associate for Ventura. "This is going to bring money at a faster pace and open up lots of new opportunities. What it means for the west side is a concentrated effort to revitalize the entire area and provide jobs."
Low Property Values, High Jobless Rate
Even along California's golden coast, it would be difficult to find a more perfect setting than the western portion of Ventura. Cradled in a narrow valley, the Ventura River flows lazily by as shorebirds poke in the estuary for a meal and the tall peaks of Los Padres National Forest reflect sunsets like a drive-in movie screen.
The climate is mild, and the air is clean and largely fog-free. From the Avenue, travel about one mile south and the Pacific beckons, or turn left and be in downtown Los Angeles in little more than an hour, or turn right and shop or dine in Santa Barbara, 35 miles to the north.
