Ramona

Ramona is a designated community area in the southeast area of Greenfield, California. It is located southeast of Downtown Greenfield.

History

Ramona used to be an old farming area when it was first settled, with a few small farms and houses here and there. That was untill 1903 when the nearby city of Greenfield rapidly expanded into the area. The first roads were layed out in 1903 and the streetcar line was expanded into ramona. The area rapidly expanded throughout the 1910s and 20s.

Ramona had a large mexican culture, just like many other cities in California, and many mexican restaurants filled out the area. the area housed many middle class households who worked at the factories and businesses in downtown. This stayed that way untill the 1950s when the highway act of 1956 was instituted. Many middle-upper class families moved out to the brand new suburbs like Los Llanos and Palma. Ramona turned into a working class neighbourhood with one of the highest crime rates behind Westwood. Then in the 1960s the new I-5 interstate cut the neighbourhoods of Ramona and Dawson in two. The area didnt have any new development and many stores went out of business.

Then in 1965 disaster struck. A gas leak had formed at a demolition site in western Ramona, the construction company ignored safety concern and this leak was overlooked. The house blew up and sent burning debris into neighbouring houses. Most of these houses were very old and not up to standard so in not even an hour after the blaze almost the entire eastern section of ramona burned down. Firefighters only arrived 2 hours after the initial blaze. Ramona was in ruin. Many houses and businesses were destroyed and or burned down the blaze also caused damage to the new I-5. The interstate was closed down and all the interstate traffic caused gridlock in Ramona during rush hours. Unfortunately 21 people died during the blaze and 4 died after. Around 152 Ramona citizens were homeless and had to take shelter in parking garages near the town. The city and the construction company were sued to the ground by the citizens who lost a family member or house. The construction company went into chapter 11 bankrupcty soon after.

Unfortunately the neighbourhood wasnt built in until 1969 when ground was broken for a new development on the eastern side of Ramona. Many new large single family homes, big apartment buildings, a large stripmall, a doctors office and a christian elementary school were built. this new suburban development attracted many white suburbanites into the neighbourhood. This was a turn around for Ramona and since then many new buildings were built in Ramona.

Ramona is one of many older suburbs in Greenfield, therefore it's a historic neighborhood. Most of Ramona's residents are from Spanish and or Mexican decent. So many houses there were back then inspired by various styles such as: Spanish revival, Spanish Colonial revival, Mission revival, Pueblo revival and many more... With also the typical historical Californian styles such as Craftsman and Victorian influence making it a very architecturally diverse neighborhood. Sadly many great homes were lost due to the fire and sometimes demolition through out the years.

Cultural protests

Due to the recent population boom in Greenfield, Ramona has been going through many economical changes, even after the 1970s when the eastern portion was entirely rebuild. The changes starting as early as the 1980s when they redeveloped the riverfront into new high end apartments. during the 1980s till the early 2000s many homes and businesses were taken down to be replaced with larger and fancier homes, apartments and businesses. In the late 2010s a new 5 storey apartment complex was built on the western edge of the district. Causing public outrage and protests, these protests are still going on to this day since the gentrification of surrounding neighbourhoods of downtown greenfield has not stopped since. The economical side also changed, from a lower class neighbourhood in the 1980s to a high end upper class neighbourhood now. Businesses were replaced with fancier chain stores, such as the new high end Golden Groceries store replacing an old family owned supermarket, a new Nacho Shack replacing an old repair store and other chains such as Burgershot, Sucre Cafe and WaySub.

Due to all this homes have reached an all time high of generally being 1 million+ dollar homes.

These changes have pushed cultural heritage and families out of the formerly mexican neighbourhood of Ramona into poorer suburbs like Westwood.

Protests are trying to stop the gentrification of older neighbourhoods and want the city council to do something about the rapidly raising property prices.

Notable builds

• St. Clair Episcopal Church
• OLS (Small private school)
• Ramona Community mall (a large 70s strip mall that consists of 10 stores, and a brand new Sucre café. The building is starting to show age)
• Spare's Bowl
• Bodega Gavi (Ramona's first high-end grocery store dating from the 70s)
• Ramona Pediatrics
• New Hope Community Church
• S.J. Khrysler House
• Cleveland Hardware

Apartments:

• La Hacienda Del Rio Condominiums (1960s)
• Sandywood Apartments (1970s)
• Lang Apartments (1970s)
• The Squire Square (Ramona's oldest apartment building, built in 1956)
• Lola Place Apartment Homes (1970s)
• Vide Elegante Apartments
• Cinco Living (2010s)
• Ramona Studio Apartments (1960s)
• Karvapete Apartments (1970s)
• Erkilla Apartments (1980s)
• Pequeño Arroyo Apartments
• Vista Del Rio Apartments (1980s)
• El Verde Apartments (1970s)

Transit

Highway

-Include information on highway