Redevelopment Boosting In Suisun City

Few in Suisun City champion redevelopment more than City Manager Suzanne Bragdon, whose office overlooks the redeveloped waterfront from City Hall.

For her, the argument that the end of redevelopment would help pay for core city services is a falsehood.  Without redevelopment money, there would be cuts of up to 10 percent to the city’s general fund, on top of cuts that could come as soon as June, after the City Council meets to draw up its budget for the next fiscal year.

The city has 23-25 percent reserves, but it’s unknown now how far the City Council will tap into those reserves.

In the meantime, Bragdon said the city’s three-year “bridging” budgeting strategy allows the council time to react to economic changes.

“We are assuming conservatively that redevelopment will stay in place,” she said, but adds that the city is budgeting so it can react either way.

Aside from a 10 percent cut to city funding, Bragdon says eliminating redevelopment would mean Suisun would lose out on a key tool to transforming the waterfront into a thriving community of businesses that contribute to the city’s tax base more than today. Such efforts would include filling in tenants at Harbor Square and could extend to work on the west side of Main Street, with its many abandoned storefronts.

“It’s that needing to build the ongoing revenue,” Bragdon said.

According to Bragdon’s report in the city newsletter mailed out to city residents in April, the city has invested $65 million so far in the redevelopment of Suisun City and created 326 affordable housing units. Since redevelopment started, the city reports crime dropped 60 percent in town.

Where once a gas company sat at the end of an industrial-looking harbor, visitors and residents stroll the waterfront promenade beneath a multi-story . Bragdon said without redevelopment financing, the hotel’s business plan wouldn’t have penciled out. Now, it’s thriving.

For longtime residents, the changes have been stark.

In 1987 the San Francisco Chronicle tagged Suisun City as the worst city in the Bay Area.  According to the city, that year 70 percent of the police department budget was spent on a former neighborhood near the current City Hall called the Crescent neighborhood.

As you can see in the 1987 aerial photo accompanying this story, there was also little public access to the water. Compare it with the 2010 photo to see redevelopment's changes.

UP NEXT: REDEVELOPMENT FROM A BUSINESS' PERSPECTIVE