- [Announcer] Support of the Empire Warehouse series on KVCR-TV comes from the Creative Corps Inland SoCal, a collaboration between the California Arts Council, the Inland Empire Community Foundation, Arts Connection, Riverside Arts Council, and the California Desert Arts Council, putting visual and media artists to work in the region.

And, viewers like you.

Thank you.

[gentle music] ♪ (traffic sounds) ♪ (traffic sounds) ♪ - [Sofia] Looking at these photos from the Inland Empire, I always forget that it was known as the Orange Empire.

It just used to be a bunch of oranges, vineyards, and, of course, Route 66.

And, I think coming from a city like this, you can't help but be obsessed with the culture and history that exists here.

And, I know people can kind of be distraught about the state of the city, but when I look at photos like this, I'm reminded of how great it was, but also how great it can be.

And, that's kind of why I named my own company, Come & See Media because when you look deeper, you can really find the beauty and the resilience and the roses growing from the concrete.

[light hopeful music] ♪ Back then in the I.E., it used to be wake up and smell the oranges.

It used to be just rows and rows of-- Oh, wait.

I forgot we're in the Warehouse Empire.

[upbeat music] ♪ (door clicks) [gentle music] ♪ (metal clanks in box) ♪ (door clicks) - [Sofia] I think for a lot of us online shopping has become a normal part of our lives, some of us more than others.

But whether it's buying an outfit, ordering some vitamins you need, or getting some parts you needed for your car, we all online shop.

Well?

All this online shopping needs facilities, right?

And, I've been noticing a lot of stuff in the Inland Empire and one thing that's starting to concern a lot of people that live in our communities is the logistics and warehouse industry.

And, well?

The I.E.

has an interesting relationship with it.

(plastic crinkling) ♪ If you live in the Inland Empire you probably have been noticing it too, whether it's the trucks surrounding you when you're on the 10, or the Amazon warehouses being built around you, or the pollution getting worse.

I think it's something that we all notice.

And, I'm no expert on the topic, but as a concerned citizen who lives in this community, I am going to talk to experts and community members that can help me learn more about what is going on in the I.E.

[gentle music] - [Sofia, narrating] The first person that came to mind was an old friend that I met when we did a panel on media and community representation.

And, that is environmental and health journalist, Anthony Victoria.

I brought you to this place 'cause you could kind of see, like, the valley.

There was a fire.

But-?

- You see the layer of pollution.

- Yeah.

- Small layer.

Not as thick as some days, but-?

- Yeah.

Not the nice cloud.

What have you seen are some patterns of why warehouses specifically choose the Inland Empire for like, establishing their buildings?

- I think there's several reasons, but one of the main ones is cheap rent.

So, developers find that the land here is leased at very low rates compared to other regions.

The other reason is that it's a strategic point of goods movement, and it always has been, if you look at our history.

You have places like Colton, which were founded by railroad companies and other Fortune 500 companies for that same reason.

And so, over time, we've seen that this is a place of movement.

I personally think, and this is me speaking as a resident, I personally think you have to have the community at the negotiating table.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- And, I think right now, it's sort of the other way around.

It's the developers sitting with the people in power.

If, for regular people who work in these warehouses, for people that maybe live next to these freight corridors are at the table with these developers, they're making clear demands about what they want to see and that those demands are actually met, and that there's some kind of middle ground.

And, I think for now, we haven't really seen that in this region, unfortunately.

- It's kind of hard to collab with someone when you're not on the same table that they are.

[gentle music] ♪ - Along with the economic disparities, along with the plight, there's people struggling to breathe.

There's people who are dying of cancer, people like my mom.

She died of cancer, unfortunately.

Right?

So, many other people that actually have organized in this movement who have come before people like you and I, have passed away as a result of the impacts, right?

It's like a slow violence.

That's what I always- - Yeah.

- like to tell people, right?

It might not be inherently violent in the sense that somebody is stabbing you or somebody is killing you directly.

But by them making these decisions, which are methodical, right, they create studies and stuff.

They approve these projects.

By the time 5, 10 years pass by, you notice your lungs feel heavier, right?

You begin to get sick.

You begin to develop cardiovascular diseases.

You begin to develop respiratory diseases.

All that stuff has an impact.

And, slowly, what that's doing, it's depleting not only our lungs and our health, but it's depleting the natural environment around us.

And so, in a lot of ways, people are fighting, fighting for their lives.

And, I think the urgency needs to be felt a little bit more I think when it comes to these government agencies, when it comes to these elected officials.

I think a lot of folks want to engage with these people.

They want these folks to listen to them.

They wanna look at them and say, "Hey, help me.

We're not here to antagonize you".

But, it has to be a two-way street.

And, I think in some cases, it's definitely not a two-way street.

[mellow music] - [Sofia] That conversation with Anthony really helped me understand how big the warehousing industry is and how it's slowly been changing the landscape of many cities here in the I.E.

Not only that, but how it affects the people who live near them.

One of the cities being hit the most by warehouse development is Bloomington.

This city, a once rural town, is now slowly being surrounded by warehouses in cities next to them and also within them.

(birds singing) (dogs barking) - [Sofia] So, we are totally not surrounded by warehouses!

(birds singing) On a more serious note, we are at the Rocha's old house, who we are gonna be speaking to next.

And, I've seen photos of their house, but I had to check it out in person.

And in person, it's kind of dystopian.

Even from this view, it's...um?

Reminds me of the house from "Up".

It's kind of sad, honestly.

Like, you buy a house with your significant other, and has a nice view of the mountains and the landscape.

And then, when you're about to retire, you have a neighbor called Amazon and they build huge slabs of concrete that just, like, completely blocks that view.

So, yeah.

It's kind of unreal.

[gentle music] ♪ - In 2014, we received a letter about the property behind us.

'Cause we were wondering, how come it's not being built?

And, the economy was rough.

So, people weren't building.

And, there was a-?

From the county, talking about a developer was interested in purchasing that property.

- [Kim] Or, first turning the land to commercial instead of residential.

- [Sofia] Oh, so it was zoned residential?

- Yes!

Yes, yes!

27 homes were supposed to go there, or 29.

- That's what the letter stated.

That developer was-- wanted to change this from residential, commercial and double shot, and build a-?

Like, a 340,000 square foot warehouse.

- We saw the developers canvass in the area.

Right?

Yeah.

They were walkin' around our neighborhood and my husband noticed them.

And goes, "who are those guys?"

Huh?

And then, we decided to have a little meeting at our house.

- [Sofia] Oh, yeah.

- [Kim] And-?

Well, the developers came there and met.

But they thought they were gonna do it individual, like that?

But, we had a group come to my house because we figured, you know, seven, eight heads are better than two!

(laughs) - [Sofia] Yeah!

- Yeah!

So, we had-?

So, we-?

They met with us, and we told them we didn't want their project.

There was nothin' they could say!

(chuckles) We didn't want their project.

- [Thomas] They found out, basically, that I was the-- Called me the ringleader; that I was the one that developed the letter and passed it out.

And then, he proposed a $55,000 offer if my wife and I would get on board, and (coughs) tell the community, "Be an advocate for the warehouse", and tell the community how great it would be for our community.

- [Sofia] Trying to buy you guys out.

- Exactly, exactly.

[gentle music] ♪ - [Sofia] So, as we know, the warehouse ended up being developed.

How did you guys first get that news?

And, how was life after that?

- [Thomas] That morning, I think it was September the 25th.

(shaky) My father was in the hospital.

- [Kim] Yeah.

So, he-?

So, it was a vote and his father passed that morning.

So, it was really devastating.

So, my husband thought it was so important and his dad would want him to go.

He just put his feelings aside and we went to the-- Because they were voting on the warehouse that day, and we had put, like he said, five years into our life into that.

And, they voted and they passed it.

They passed it four to one.

But, we had standing room only; people couldn't even get in there.

I mean, people had took off work.

And, we had-- They said, like, 300 people on the outside.

They couldn't even get in.

So, that's how many people were-- yeah!

And then, the whole room was packed.

- You talk about brokenhearted people, and- - Oh gosh, devastation.

- Devastation.

It was-- We were so-?

It was quiet.

Like, we're like stunned that it passed and all the hard work that we did.

- We kind of let it absorb.

You know?

And, we're prayers.

You know?

So, we prayed a lot.

We cried a lot.

And, we said like, what are we gonna do?

Our quality of life is now gonna be-?

It's just so different from what we thought our retirement years would be.

So, we said, "what are we gonna do, Tom?"

So, actually Tommy and I, we decided to move.

You know?

- I'll tell you this.

(coughs) The main thing I have to say, tell people, you need to speak up.

You need to speak up.

Like, I used a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter."

♪ - [Sofia] After speaking to Anthony, and the Rochas, it really helped me understand how warehousing is affecting communities.

But now, I'm wondering why are they coming to our communities?

And, how does that process look like when a warehouse wants to come to the Inland Empire?

[bold string music] ♪ ♪ - [Sofia] I am just taking a walk here in lovely Rialto, just admiring the lovely architecture we have here!

Uh?

It's giving very Roblox house meets Brutalism?

Very...utilitarian.

I would look at the mountains, but they're kind of blocked off by the warehouse.

Anyways, we're going to investigate, why do warehouses come to cities like...here?

And, what does that process look like when someone like Amazon wants to be our neighbor?

[intriguing music] ♪ (truck engines rumbling) - [Sofia] So, we almost got, like, a warehouse on every corner.

And, this is just a-?

Nothing here.

So, it probably will be a warehouse at one point.

Redlands, Highland, and San Bernardino used to be super concentrated with citrus.

And, it would just-- used to be so much.

[click!]

A lot of the old postcards that you see of this area, [click!]

you can just see, like, the orchards going [click!]

all the way up to the mountain.

And so, [click!]

it's very interesting to see how the landscape has changed.

And now, it's just cement, asphalt, and warehouses.

But I can't imagine, like, having to live right next to this.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ - [Sofia] We're going to have a conversation with Dr. Keil.

He's a professor at McKenna College.

His expertise is in economics and finance.

So, he's gonna help us kind of understand how warehouses fit within the economy, and its real impact.

(light digital sounds) - Hi!

- Hello!

So, one of the first things that I've heard from people discussing, you know, about warehouses are the economic benefits.

It's always like jobs, jobs.

They bring jobs.

Can you discuss certain trends that you've seen when it comes to employment and warehouses?

- To begin with, you would say, why do we have so much logistics here?

"The Economist" has referred to our region as the warehouse capital of the world.

And, why is that?

And, the reason is that 40% of imports into the United States comes through two ports.

The two ports are Los Angeles and Long Beach.

And so, that's an immense volume that comes through them, right?

In 2005, so 20 years ago, the logistics sector was actually quite small.

We're talking maybe the sixth or seventh largest sector in terms of employment.

And so, this entire development of logistics becoming what it is now, which is basically the second largest employment sector in the Inland Empire, that's everything that has happened over the last 20 years.

So, if you look at employment in the logistics industry, it really went up after the coronavirus recession until about February of 2022.

And then, it-- since then, it actually has gone down.

And, we believe that the logistics industry simply overestimated how long this boom was going to last.

And so, being worried about not being able to find workers later, they overhired.

And, as a result of that, they actually have laid off quite a few people since February 2022.

The warehouse industry, the logistics industry, let's face it, does not on average have very high paying jobs.

So, they are at the lower end of it, and that's in many ways, the criticism of the logistics industry.

Yes, it provides jobs, but these are low paying jobs and they don't create a lot of value added.

- Do you think there can be potential problems in having such a large industry centralized in a single area, especially with technology and automation advancing?

- Well?

So, I have a colleague at the University of Redlands, Johannes Munoz, and he specializes in figuring out for areas in the United States how much they will lose in terms of jobs due to automation.

And so, obviously for somebody who works in logistics, the percent of their tasks, their daily tasks that can be automated is much higher than it is for the two of us, right?

And, according to that, they project how much employment loss there will be due to automation.

And that, unfortunately for the Inland Empire, is pretty scary because if you think about it, think about logistics.

Think about trucks driving.

It's similar.

Many of the tasks that are low skilled in the logistics industry will be replaced by automation.

And so, that is a very scary part because then the question is, if the jobs and logistics are gone, what will the Inland Empire get?

[gentle piano/string music] ♪ ♪ - [Sofia] Coming to places like these, it really reminds me of when I would be a kid and I would go with my mom to visit my abuelita and stop at Union Station.

So, it really is evident that we really are surrounded by major arteries of transportation, whether it's the trains here, or even just Route 66, in general.

♪ In the 1800s, the Southern Pacific Railroad came to San Bernardino, and soon, San Bernardino became [click!]

the gateway to Southern California.

Decades after that, it's become a major contributor to the economy here in San Bernardino and the transportation of goods throughout the country.

So, now we know why warehouses and logistics centers find us so enticing, but I still want to know how does that process look like when they come in?

And, do they have to follow any rules when warehouses establish themselves in our communities?

♪ Today, I'm going to be talking to Andrea.

She's an advocate and a policy analyst for the People's Collective for Environmental Justice.

- We are now in a place in California, right?

Where we are passing laws at the state level demanding for electric trucks.

But, that would not have happened if 30, 40, 50 years ago, people that lived in front of the rail yards, people that lived in front of the warehouses in the Inland Empire, in L.A. and all across the U.S., weren't fighting for diesel to be out of their communities.

So, we are in a place now where there are policies that are forcing the industry to be accountable to the pollution that they're bringing in, and they have to invest in switching out the technology.

And, here in the Inland Empire and L.A., we have the first regulation of warehouses.

There's no other warehouse regulation in the whole country.

- Okay.

- One of the first ones was passed here.

And, it's gonna slowly force the warehouses to put up solar panels, to put up charging, to start electrifying so that the workers that are there and the people that live there don't have to be breathing in diesel.

- [Sofia] I mean, just driving the 10!

- [Andrea] Just driving the 10, you can hop on- - Yeah!

- the back of every truck and make it to the port of L.A. - Literally, I hate driving the 10 because it's just-- You're surrounded by semis.

- [Andrea] You're surrounded, and it's so dangerous for both you as a driver and the semi driver.

Like-?

- [Sofia] Yeah!

- We-?

And, that's the other part that I think is really important to talk about, right?

Truckers.

Like, are truckers that own a truck or maybe they own two or three.

They're starting their small business, right?

Or, maybe they drive for someone like Amazon or UPS, or whatever.

Those are dignified jobs.

They're actually doing-- They are doing the work.

Like, they're doing work that we absolutely need.

They're essential workers, right?

How dangerous is it for them to be driving through these little neighborhoods, right?

Where there's not even sidewalks that are built.

- [Sofia] Tight turns.

- [Andrea] Or lighting, or-?

That's putting a driver into danger, and it's also putting the families that live around there in danger.

They're not building enough of the other parts that we need.

It's so focused on the warehouses.

- Yeah.

- [Andrea] Right?

We really need policies that say, if you're gonna put a warehouse, fine.

Make sure it's clean.

But, make sure the trucking routes are not going close to homes and schools, make sure that there's a buffer, right?

Anecdotally, you can just tell when you go to these city meetings that a lot of the people that are there are people of color that are fighting against it.

It's not always the case.

- Yeah.

- But, many times it is people of color.

And, a couple of years ago, our organization did a study with some students at the University of Redlands, and these students basically tracked all the big warehouses in the community.

And then, they put some-- They tried to see where are the people of color, and there is a correlation.

Wherever there's the ZIP codes with highest people of color, you're gonna find more of the industrial areas, and where it's growing.

There are studies that show that, like, our ZIP codes here closest to the warehouses are the ones that shop the least from Amazon.

- Mm hm.

- Right?

While the people that shop the most from Amazon, that get a package every single day, get a shipment of packages every single day, they live the farthest from it.

You know?

- That's crazy.

- Yeah!

So, what are our communities being built for?

Because they should be being built for us, right?

For us to thrive, for us to have opportunity, for us to live long and healthy lives.

But if they're just being built so that we can support someone else's benefit, then that's not fair.

I mean, I think this is a very important industry.

We have the clothes on us, the food on us a lot because of this industry and the people that work this industry, and our communities that hold this industry.

- [Sofia] Mm hm.

- [Andrea] But, we can't-- It can't be at the cost of our health, right?

And, that's a thing that happens a lot with environmental justice communities, is that they're forced to choose between having, you know, these jobs, these opportunities with, you know, the air that they breathe.

So, the middle ground is these corporations have to be accountable for the pollution that they cause, they have to be accountable to the workers.

They need to raise their standards.

They need to raise wages; make it a safer place to work.

They need to invest in the best technology possible.

I mean, if Jeff Bezos can make it to the moon, he can make every single truck electric like, in a day.

In a day!

[upbeat string music] ♪ (ambient truck traffic sounds) ♪ (truck engine rumbling) - [Sofia] So, after everything I've learned, I do have an understanding of what makes the I.E.

attractive for warehouses, and I know that they're not going away anytime soon.

But, I'm glad that there is work being done to put policies to hold these warehouses accountable so that the communities here are respected.

[upbeat string music] ♪ ♪ Honestly, nowadays, online shopping is too easy.

Wherever I go on my phone, it's everywhere.

Look.

I could be watching funny videos and in one swipe, I'm shopping.

But, one thing that does come to mind is all the work, facilities, and hands needed to make this...possible.

[gentle music] ♪ (tire whining sounds) - [Sofia] So, we've been focusing on the impact that the warehouse and logistics industry has on the communities around them.

However, I wanted to know how it is for the workers that work within them.

Growing up in San Bernardino, I have had countless friends and family who have at one point had a warehouse job.

Here in the I.E., we got plenty of them.

To get more insight on how it is for warehouse workers, I'm going to meet with my cousin Adam, who used to work at Amazon.

♪ - [Sofia] How did you even get started at Amazon?

Like, how did you find out about that?

- Amazon.

So, how I found out about it was a mutual friend.

She-?

At the time, I didn't have a job and she was, like, "Hey, like, there's an opening position over here in Amazon.

"They just built it brand new.

Would you want to apply here?"

And, I was like, "Sure.

What do I need to do?"

She basically was just like, "Just apply online, wait for a call, and then go in, get COVID tested."

At the time, being a full-time college student, I learned I wanted more experience in the real world.

The certain positions that I had, they just were mindless.

You felt like-?

Yeah, you did feel like a robot doing the same thing over and over, but I did work long hours.

So, I remember going in at 4:00 AM, four in the morning.

I would get off probably three?

Three in the afternoon.

So, there were definitely long hours.

During the summer, it does suck because if you do work in the trailers, whether it's called inbound or outbound, you are gonna be in there for quite a while.

So, that's the part where you need to-- You need to stay hydrated as much as you can.

If you feel like you're gonna pass out, let them know.

Let them know that, "Hey!

Like, I'm a little bit lightheaded."

I've seen a couple people pass out.

- And, in the trailers?

- And, it's enclosed.

You can smell everything.

They did have fans.

It didn't-- Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- [Adam] But, I mean-?

- So, you would go in there and hope.

- You just hope it's- - Like, the fan's working.

- [Adam] Yeah, just in case.

But, yeah.

It did get hot in those.

- [Sofia] Would you do that as, like, a career?

Or, no?

- As a career?

No, I wouldn't.

- No?

- Now knowing what I had to do, I probably wouldn't.

But, desperate times?

Desperate situations.

If you gotta do it, you gotta do it.

- Yeah.

- For me, I learned, you know, when you're a man, you need to take care of your family, and that's something I grew up with.

- Yeah.

- Traditionally, it's how I was raised and I went to work and I was like, "You know what?

I need to help my brother.

I need to help my mom."

- Yeah.

- I was willing to take that load on.

When you go to work at Amazon, you just need money.

You just need to-?

I mean, if you need a steady job, it's a good steady job just going for the money.

But then, there's some people that they actually take it a step further.

Props to them; they're looking more into it.

They look into environmental causes that Amazon might do.

Me, personally, I wasn't that kind of person.

I just went in, went to work, leave.

- [Sofia] I can get that.

Like, it could help maybe, like, educate people?

Because, sometimes you don't know like what you're exposed to.

- Yeah.

That's-?

- Yeah.

'Cause you know you're working and you're, like, what if I'm touching, or like-?

- [Adam] The wrong stuff-?

- Where I'm at, it was like, there's something there.

- Especially in Amazon.

Like, I remember when I was in a trailer, we'll pull boxes out and there's, like, liquid stuff that we never seen before!

- Yeah!

- And we're like, "Oh, what is this?"

Some people said, "Oh, it's just soap.

Some people said it's, like, "Oh, it's a car battery", or something like that.

- Yeah.

Like, a mystery box.

- It's a mystery box; you don't know what you're getting!

- Gee!

- But, no.

There's times-?

I mean, of course, we wear gloves.

But, I mean, if it's leaking, our gloves are not-?

- Yeah.

- They're not the safest ones.

They're just making sure that we don't get blisters.

But, if that chemical gets within our hands, we might have something on us.

So, it's always best to be careful on what you have.

- But, I can understand that.

It's, like, you're working and sometimes, like, you know?

The environment, or certain issues?

They're not really talked about, especially.

You know?

- Yeah, some people didn't know about it.

We didn't-- I didn't know about it until I left.

I see the news going on about Amazon, the trucks going on.

I just-?

I just went in, worked, get out!

(laughs) - Yeah, you're barely awake!

- Barely awake.

Yeah!

- You're barely awake.

- 4:00 AM, man.

- I get it.

- I just wanna get out.

- Yeah.

So, props to you, though.

'Cause that was not easy.

I remember seeing you.

You had, like, a beard.

- Yeah.

- A Monster can!

- I would drink two a day!

Just go in; get it done.

Robot.

- You're like running on E, basically.

- Yeah, definitely running on E!

(he laughs) - You did it, though.

- Did it.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ - [Sofia] After that conversation with Adam, it really reminded me of the Latino work ethic of, "tell me what you need done and it'll get done."

I think many workers, [click!]

especially people of color, which make up the [click!]

majority of I.E.

warehouse workers, are primarily [click!]

focused on paying for rent and putting food on the table.

[click!]

For many of them, information on the environmental [click!]

and health hazards of the industry is [click!]

inaccessible or often not presented in an easily comprehensible way.

To get more of a full picture of what many warehouse workers deal with, I am talking with the executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center.

- [Sofia] Have you noticed any common health or safety concerns that warehouse workers are dealing with?

- There's a few kind of main areas of injury, and health and safety issues that we see consistently.

This is a, you know, massive industry with a very diverse set of facilities.

But, maybe the categories fall into kind of musculoskeletal injuries, some of which are coming from repetitive injuries, repetitive motion injuries, for workers who are just doing the same thing all day, moving a box or doing more small work like, consistently, but at a really high pace.

More catastrophic injuries, like getting hit by a machine or a forklift, or something like that.

Or, something like a box falling on you is another really common area.

Just, you know, something that you know exactly what happened and it was a big impact.

And often, those are the injuries that you're likelier to get time off for workers' comp because it's pretty clear what happened.

But often, that does lead to just injuries that keep coming back.

A lot of those workers even though they have the right to workers' comp and treatment, don't necessarily get it as much as they need.

And, most of these folks also don't have health insurance, through their employer.

So, it's really hard.

Then beyond that, you start to see, you know, kind of illnesses and injuries related to heat, which is really, really increasing.

As climate change is increasing, as we start to see more and more workers who are working, not just indoors inside a warehouse that might heat up, but also going out into a container, going out onto a yard and being out in the sun in really hot times in the summer.

And, those are similarly, like, really hard to track because somebody might have a heart attack, somebody might faint; is that because of the heat?

Probably somewhat, but it's hard to track.

And so, employers are really good at saying, "Oh, that person just had a bad heart."

We worked to establish a indoor heat standard in California.

So, we've worked to establish policies that establish what we call joint employment.

Basically, if you're at a warehouse operated by Walmart, but you're employed through the third party, employed through a staffing agency, both companies are actually responsible for your working conditions.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ - [Sheheryar] So, taking action in the workplace is a risk.

And, the first thing we tell people is to make sure that they don't do something that they're gonna regret.

We educate people about their rights.

We educate people also about best practices, about how to take action and have the best chance of success, both to get what they're calling for, but also to protect themselves from termination.

And, we also tell people that it's a risk and we also let people know, right?

Like, that's the decision that they have to make.

What we remind them is that, again, like, one person on their own?

The risks are pretty high.

Ten people, a lot better; a hundred people, right?

Much, much, much better.

Not just because you're one of a larger group, but because of the power that group creates.

[bright upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - [Sofia] So, warehouses?

They're not going away anytime soon.

But, I do think by educating workers on the injuries and hazards that they can experience on the job is a good step.

So, I really admire what Warehouse Worker Resource Center is doing, because these people are honest workers.

Whether you're a delivery driver loading up cargo or packaging, you deserve to work in a safe condition.

[bright upbeat music] ♪ ♪ In the I.E., we have 234 warehouses in the '80s.

As of last year, we have 4,000.

So, I've come to learn, why do warehouses come here?

What impacts do they have on our communities health wise and environmental wise?

And now, I wanna know the legal aspect of how does it look like when a developer comes to our city?

And, what do people in places of power think of this?

[upbeat music] ♪ - [Sofia] In January of 2024, I attended the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meeting where the board voted on whether or not another warehouse will be built in Bloomington.

This one they're voting on would be built on Slover and Alder Avenue right next to a high school and a block away from the Rocha's former home.

- One of the challenges for us in communities like Bloomington is, one, is we haven't developed any standards when it comes to what community benefits are, what the expectations are of developers.

It's all a negotiation.

And, that becomes very, very challenging because some may agree or disagree with some of the terms that are being negotiated.

In this community, in my opinion, it just doesn't make sense just because of the proximity to the school.

And, I have concerns with the district not having some of their issues addressed.

I know they offered $50,000 which is appreciated, but I know also know that there was some other things that they requested and some of these requests were not met.

Some of them were a little over-the-top and I don't agree with, but there are some requests that were reasonable; some sidewalks and some other improvements they asked for.

- Yeah, this is extremely difficult.

(pauses) You know, there's part of me that I'm concerned about warehouses and things of that nature, but I'm also concerned about jobs, and there's people that are wearing shirts out there.

They've known me for a long while.

I think my past, I'm always concerned about the jobs and right now it seems it's always the jobs against the environment.

But, these people?

You know, they work very hard for their families and everything else.

When it comes down to the aesthetics, the whereabouts of certain buildings as opposed to the human concerns, and that is the families and the jobs, and everything else.

In this particular case, I'll support the laborers.

(applause) - [Woman] Thank you, Madam Chair.

With that, the motion passes, four in favor with Supervisor Baca opposing.

- [Chair] Thank you very much.

- [Sofia] Although there was no public comment at this meeting, I wanted to see what community members thought.

- We moved in, in 1991.

So, it's been a good, over 30 years that I lived in that area.

And, when we first moved in, they said, "Oh, this area is gonna prosper.

"You're gonna be between four freeways", and this and that.

"And, there's no sewer system but you will have it in less than 10 years."

So, and it's like, it's been this long and nothing has happened.

And, I'm like, okay.

Like, why isn't-?

Why is everything being constructed all around Bloomington?

But Bloomington, we're like the orphan child?

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- And, nobody cares, and it's trashed.

And I felt like, "Well, maybe if nobody's doing something, maybe it's up to the residents.

Maybe I need to go and find out what's going on, and that's why I'm here.

- How does, like, I guess the warehouse that was on vote today, like, how does it affect you?

- I live on the north side of Bloomington and I have to travel a lot, and I go down Cedar.

And, I just see, like, all the trucks and all the traffic, and you get bottled in there and you can't get out.

And, I've been to MAC meetings where the community gets together and they talk about-- Fire department talks about how it's so congested they can't even get to their victims.

-[Sofia] Oh, wow.

- [Mina] You know?

So, that's how it affects me and my family and all of the residents.

- I wonder?

Like, they have time to build the warehouses, but not sidewalks.

But not stuff that, you know, the residents actually need.

- Yeah.

What us as residents, I think what we need?

Yes, we do need jobs.

But, warehouse?

I mean, grocery stores can create a job.

A community center, having services for the children, the seniors, all kinds of different people, different ages?

Those people will have a job.

They will create a job.

So, it doesn't all have to be warehouses.

There's always hope.

I talk to people that have been through this rodeo in Bloomington, and see how disappointed they are and how hard they work, and, like, nothing happens.

You know?

Like, they still do the same thing.

The money talks.

And, I hear that side of it, but I also hear the side where people are, like, thinking, yes, maybe we can bring change.

But, I think the answer is in getting the community involved.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- Every single resident needs to put their voice together.

And so, we can have one voice.

- [Sofia] Yeah, very true.

- [Mina] All of us together.

- [Sofia] There's power in numbers.

- Right, right.

♪ - [Sofia] After today's meeting, I'm not going to lie, I left kind of sad and felt how crushed the people who had came to fight for their community felt.

Only one person had voted against the development and the rest voted in favor for it because of the jobs that it would create.

These people don't live in Bloomington.

However, I wanted to get the perspective of someone who lives in the affected community and is in the position to influence decisions.

[light thoughtful music] - [Sofia] I always came here as a kid and it's kind of become a nostalgic staple for many in the Inland Empire.

How has it been running this business for as long as you have?

- Yeah.

It's been-- It's really a joy.

It's been-- really become one of those iconic businesses, and there's very few places you can go anymore where you actually see the owner.

It means a lot to me.

You know, it's kind of that we've become that type of iconic business that very few businesses really reach that status.

- You mentioned being part of the Bloomington Municipal Advisory Committee.

How has that deepened your perspective about the ins and outs of, like, the city?

- Well, Bloomington is unincorporated.

And so, sometimes it's frustrating because we can make recommendations, but that doesn't mean our recommendations, or what we want is going to be accepted by the board of supervisors.

In Bloomington, like I said, we can only advise people.

And, that's one of the things that I've been trying to work on.

I would like to see Bloomington eventually become a city, incorporate so we make our own decisions.

'Cause right now, we-?

The people that live in Bloomington really do not make our decisions.

Our decisions are made by the board of supervisors and four of the five supervisors, we did not elect them.

So, only Supervisor Baca is the only representative we really have.

And, if he's outvoted by the other four supervisors that don't live in Bloomington and we didn't vote for, that could kind of become an issue.

So, that's one of the frustrations of being unincorporated, not being a city.

We took it upon ourselves to start looking at alternative means to basically balance our books because we could never become a city if we don't have the revenue.

We wouldn't last two seconds as a city, you know, in the-- being in the red every month.

So-?

- [Sofia] I read your piece on the Fontana Herald News.

- [Gary] Uh huh?

- And, you mentioned that you really do think warehouses are going to help achieve that gap in being self-sufficient for Bloomington.

Could you expound more about that?

- Right, sure.

And, that was one of the things.

'Cause, you know, we need to provide services for the people that live in Bloomington.

And, one of the only ways, when we did this, after we did this study, we were presented with some options by the county.

And, one of the options was to look at three different areas for potential industrial development.

Whether that was warehousing, or some other type of industrial development.

The criteria was only if we could bring the type of revenues that we needed into the community for services.

Also, that these-- Nothing would be near-- travel directly past school sites and they would be on known, designated, already existing truck routes.

So, basically what I'm saying is we wanted to select areas that were of least impact to the community that we felt.

And, we were offered three different areas.

And, the MAC at the time unanimously, and this was in 2017, selected two of the three areas for potential development if we could get the-- what we needed in the way of resources.

And, that only not included-?

Didn't also include money, obviously, community benefits, but also infrastructure improvements, which the community desperately needs.

We have nothing.

When development comes to a community and infrastructure improvements, government agencies do not have the money to fund the sidewalks, sewers, and all this type of thing.

So, the reality is the money is only gonna come out of one or two sets of hands.

It is either gonna come out of the business and development community, or it's gonna come out from the residents.

The residents don't have it, and a lot of times they don't-- If they do, they don't want to vote for to tax themselves.

And so, where are we gonna get these?

They want these.

They want these things.

They want sidewalks.

They want curbs and gutters.

They want quality public safety.

They want to feel safe.

But, they don't understand that- a lot of people, at least, don't understand- that somebody's gotta pay for that.

It just doesn't, the money just doesn't fall from heaven.

And so, how can we do that?

Right now, outsiders make all our decisions for us, whether it's outside political organizations or the board of supervisors, which 80% of them we did not vote for.

So, at the end of the day, if we could get to the point where we can balance our books and start moving towards incorporation, then we make our own decisions.

And, you know, then the people in Bloomington?

If they don't... (pauses) want any type of warehouse development, and we're a city, and we vote on that and that's what they decide, that's perfectly fine with me.

As long as the people in Bloomington are the ones making the decisions, not people from outside the community.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

- [Gary] And, that's what we have right now to a large degree.

♪ - Although many may not agree with Gary and his belief that warehouses will help the community of Bloomington, I can't help but see that this man really does love his community and wants it to flourish.

However, if that is the case that warehouses in the city will help the city have more money, wouldn't Bloomington look a lot different than it does now?

So, I'm meeting up with a photographer who is a Bloomington local who's been documenting how the face of the city has changed.

- This is right off Jurupa, by Kessler Park.

From what I remember, a lot of these homes had, you know, stables.

They were kind of like farms.

You know, they had chickens; big plots of land, too.

And, sadly, they decided to sell their homes.

I started noticing the warehouses being a problem when they started tearing down homes, especially on Cedar.

I started to think, like, why is there a need for warehouses to the point where you need to tear down homes when it's, like, an issue?

Like, housing is an issue right now?

I started taking a film class back in college, and that's when I guess I discovered that I really love you know, photography and the whole film process.

And, I took it actually with Tamara Cedré.

She was my first photography professor back at Riverside City College.

So, I think she definitely opened that for me.

I don't know.

She was really an inspiration and she still is.

- [Sofia] I see a lot of her work is, like, a lot of documenting how life is.

I can see where, like, that comes in.

How would you describe your scope of work now?

- [Fernanda] I think now, it's-?

I'm not sure where to put myself quite yet, but [click!]

people say it's very [click!]

photo-like journalism, [click!]

documentary style.

- Do you have a goal in terms of, like, that you wanna achieve with the work that you share into the world?

- I think I do.

I wanna say it's mostly for historical reasons because the whole reason I started with the, you know, Bloomington?

Documenting Bloomington was because there's not a whole lot [click!]

of archival [click!]

photographs, really, [click!]

or history in Bloomington.

[click!]

Even, like, the county library?

There's not much.

So, I guess my hope is that my work will survive time.

- How do you feel about the state of Bloomington now?

- Very frustrated.

- Yeah?

- And, sad about it [click!]

getting torn down.

[click!]

They're...

[click!]

destroying communities basically, and they think this is gonna turn us into a city because we're unincorporated.

But, I honestly don't think that is a way to go.

- [Sofia] Yeah.

You don't see it happening?

- [Fernanda] Not with warehouses.

No, I don't.

They don't bring money into the community.

- [Sofia] And they've been here for a while, too.

So it's, like, where?

- Yeah.

Where?

When is this gonna happen?

(chuckles) Like, I don't think it's-- That's not the way we should be trying to turn into a city.

(tire whining sounds) - [Sofia] It's sad to see the transformation Bloomington has experienced as a result of these developers and warehouses.

A once quiet rural town with many residents having their own small farm and livestock, where they could walk out and breathe fresh air and look at the surrounding mountains is now completely boxed in by the surrounding cities' warehouses with more being built within their own city.

[somber music] ♪ [gentle piano music] ♪ ♪ - [Sofia] Over the past couple months, I've set off on a journey to learn as much as I could about why warehouses are taking over the Inland Empire.

And, before that, I didn't really try to pay attention to it, but there comes to a point where you can't help but notice it everywhere.

You know?

You realize that all your friends are working warehouse jobs, all your tíos are truck drivers, you got asthma, and you really hate the 10!

But, through it all, I've learned the good, the ugly, and the reality of the situation, which is, warehouses?

They're not going away, but more importantly, the people here aren't going away.

And, I've had the honor to meet such passionate people who care about their community.

They fight for what they believe is right.

They educate others and they work hard.

And, for me, that is what makes me proud to be from the Inland Empire.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [upbeat music] ♪ [music fades] - [Announcer] Support of the Empire Warehouse series on KVCR-TV comes from the Creative Corps Inland SoCal, a collaboration between the California Arts Council, the Inland Empire Community Foundation, Arts Connection, Riverside Arts Council, and the California Desert Arts Council, putting visual and media artists to work in the region.

And, viewers like you.