BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The Bakersfield City Council approved a $300,000 reimbursement grant for the Dolores Huerta Peace and Justice Cultural Center Wednesday night, following a packed meeting with passionate debate from community members.
The council chambers were filled with residents speaking both for and against the proposed downtown revitalization grant agreement with the Dolores C. Huerta Foundation, ultimately passing with a 5-2 vote.
"Every person in this city has increased expenses and you're taking $300,000 and giving it to an organization that does not support the citizens of this city," one resident said during public comment.
The grant will fund infrastructure improvements around the cultural center, which began construction in June. Several residents argued the money should be directed toward other community priorities.
"So if you want to give her $100,000 and Kern Resource Center $100,000, you would be giving a liberal and conservative non-profit, and then you can give the rest to the mission who feeds the ones who are struggling from all of the effects of all this political nonsense," another resident said.
Supporters of the project highlighted the economic benefits the center will bring to downtown Bakersfield, including plans to employ 40 full-time and 20 part-time workers.
"There is nothing here in Kern County that pays tribute to immigrants and the farm workers and to the farm worker movement, the agricultural community in our state was built upon the backs of immigrants, and our center was designed to honor all of those immigrants from all ethnic backgrounds," the project manager said.
Civil rights activist Dolores Huerta attended the meeting to defend the project she's championed.
"Right now, if you go by that area, if you went by that area before, it was an eyesore, it was an empty lot, there was a lot of homeless people who were hanging out there, and so this is really going to be helping the city of Bakersfield," Huerta said.
Councilmember Andrae Gonzales emphasized that the grant specifically addresses infrastructure concerns some opponents raised.
"There is a lot of talk about fixing sidewalks, fixing streets, this grant actually just does all that, it's a $300,000 reimbursement grant that pays for all of this public infrastructure, that's it," Gonzales said.
In other business, the council voted against increasing their own monthly stipend of $100 and approved renaming H Street to Cesar Chavez Boulevard in a close 4-3 vote. The city planning commission will review that application in a future meeting.
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