Ramona

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

History

In the early 1900s Ramona was originally a small community outside of the main area of Greenfield, It did not really have a name yet. In this time it was nothing more of small farmhouses and some stores on the busy avenues. That was until the 1910s and 1920s that Ramona would be urbanized and and would be officially a part of Greenfield in 1922, it saw a lot of income since newer housing and stores would fill the blooming area. At that time Ramona was considered to be an affordably and relatively safe place to live in though it was nothing compared to the elegant and fancier neighborhood of Dawson which sat right above it. In 1956, when the Interstate 5 was being constructed the neighborhood would be cut from Dawson as it was decided that it was going to be built through a small section of housing that would spare the main avenue between Ramona and Dawson.

Though while having multiple residents displaced and degrading in land value. The neighborhood of Ramona held up quite well. That was until May 12th, 1964. When a house was scheduled for demolition because it wasn't up to modern standards and had been sitting vacant for quite some time. Two workers of the demolition team went to proceed to dismantle the house, when at some point a gas leak formed that was overlooked by the company, this caused the gas to be ignited when they started using tools while working. The house blew up. Flaming debris flew into it's neighbouring houses and even houses across the street, the house was almost completely disintegrated. This happend somewhere around 7 am, shortly after the explosion there were people already calling for the fire department. The dry Californian climate along with the dry materials of the houses made this perfect for the fire to spread from house to house very quickly. An hour and a half after the initial blaze and thats when the fire crew finally arrived (likely due to rush hour traffic). It took some time before most of the fire was extinguished, 92 houses were atleast destroyed and many more were damaged along with around 27 people losing their lives (including the two workmen). A memorial was hung up in a local church a few days after it had happend. The higher-ups of the demolition were sued and about 3 million was to be paid by the company. Though it was said that it would be miracle for them to recover after such a price. Despite the money, it was nothing to solve the absolute tragedy of that neighbourhood. Ramona suffered decline after that accident and experienced a huge wave of crime in the late 1980s as result of the crack epidemic, as dealers began selling drugs in Ramona because Westwood was a more patrolled area since it was a hotspot for crime at that time. Though the crime levels have decreased the last 10 years.

Ramona was a burnt-out slum for at least four years until October 24th, 1968 when a Real estate development team made plans to completely rebuild a part of Ramona, it would include 136 new suburban houses that would appeal to young families to move in so the east section would thrive again. The current inhabitants of that area agreed and two months later the remaining houses (which most of them were boarded up) were already demolished along with the streets. And the brand new roads would be laid out. It was at the beginning of 1969 that the neighborhood would be officially ready to be built on. The planning remained the same as of grid planning, though small changes were made so it wouldn't look as if the highway was abruptly cutting up the neighborhood. During the 1970s there was a big land boom, multiple apartments along with a new Bowling alley and retail were built after the houses came. The east part and the main avenues have somewhat been patched up. The neighborhood remains walkable and at least safer than before, but the core still remains run down.

Architectural influence

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 western 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 2000s a new 5 storey apartment complex was built on the eastern 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 burgerrshot, Sucre Cafe and Metrosub.

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 community school, became private)
• Ramona Community mall (a large 70s strip mall that consists of 10 stores, and a brand new Sucre café. Despite being a hotspot in the area. Due to the decline in the past 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
• Neko Asia
• Cleveland Hardware

Apartments:

• La Hacienda Del Rio Condominiums
  • (Ramona's second oldest apartment building from 1969 after the accident. Shorty after it's construction is what would lead up to the others)
• Sandywood Apartments
• Lang Apartments
• The Squire Square
  • (Ramona's oldest apartment building, built in 1956)
• Lola Place Apartment Homes
• Vide Elegante Apartments
• Cinco Living
• Ramona Studio Apartments
• Karvapete Apartments
• Pequeño Arroyo Apartments

Transit

Highway

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