BSRancher...
Post created to draw business
SAN BERNARDINO: An adviser aims to restore the city's appeal and spur economic growth.
10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, May 13, 2006
When Emil Marzullo moved to San Bernardino from Jersey City at age 11 in 1965, it felt like utopia to him.
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His parents found a more spacious home than the crowded tenement building that he and his nine siblings had lived in. As a teen, he cruised E Street and hung out at a McDonald's that was only the second to be opened before the restaurant became a nationwide chain.
"It was a little bit like the 'American Graffiti' movie without the fantasy bits," Marzullo recalled.
The city's status as the economic and social center of San Bernardino County has faded in the ensuing years because of jobs lost as industries moved away or died, changing development patterns and increased crime.
Now, as economic and community development adviser to San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris, Marzullo is tasked with helping to restore some of that luster to the city.
The position was created by Pat Morris to ensure a coordinated strategy for spurring economic development and attracting businesses.
Marzullo, who started the job two weeks ago, doesn't see the position as competing or duplicating the work of other departments but as a way to improve collaboration.
"He's going to be a man who fits together all these operations," Pat Morris said.
The perception in the business community has been that it's difficult to do business in San Bernardino and that the city has missed opportunities in the past, said Jim Morris, chief of staff to the mayor.
Jim Morris and Pat Morris say San Bernardino now is primed to take advantage of an economic boom and they want to make sure the city is in the driver's seat.
With the Inland area expected to add about 3 million residents over the next 20 years, San Bernardino stands to benefit from its location near major freeway corridors, railroad lines and Metrolink, said Jim Morris.
Downtown will be key to the vision, with plans to promote mixed-use development that includes both commercial and residential aspects. As the population grows and congestion increases, more people will want to work and shop near where they live, he said.
"We're going to design the downtown so it has connectivity so you can park once and do several things," Marzullo said.
A map of the city core hangs in Marzullo's sixth-floor office in City Hall and shows several of the projects in the planning stages, grouped together under the heading "San Bernardino Renaissance."
They include mixed-use housing and commercial developments, a major renovation of the Carousel Mall, new Omnitrans and Metrolink stations that will make downtown a transit hub, and a food court in front of the CinemaStar theater complex.
Other initiatives include plans to expand a railroad intermodal yard and an office complex on Hospitality Lane.
"The economic forces are now in our favor," Marzullo said.
Marzullo, 52, came to the city after 25 years with San Bernardino County, from which he retired in 2004. He had worked in land-use planning and economic development and most recently as director of special districts, overseeing dozens of rural districts that provide water, sewer, fire-protection, street-lighting and other municipal services.
Marzullo had been working as a private development consultant since he retired and wasn't looking to get back into government work.
He was recruited by Pat Morris' campaign last fall, but turned down the job. He was approached again after Pat Morris won in February, he said.
Marzullo agreed to meet with Pat Morris and came away impressed with the mayor's vision for the city.
He took the $90,000-a-year job on a contract basis instead of becoming a city employee.
"I go home feeling excited about work," Marzullo said. "I didn't get that in private development. In this post I have an opportunity to make a difference."
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