NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Staff Kevin Johnson,
a former point guard for the Phoenix Suns, spoke at the School of
Public Policy and Social Research on his efforts at community
redevelopment.
By Eric Perez DAILY BRUIN REPORTER
[email protected]
You can’t go home again, the old adage says. However,
former NBA all-star Kevin Johnson proved that not only can you go
back home, you can go back and rebuild it.
Johnson, founder of the St. Hope Corporation, gave a lecture
Tuesday afternoon at the UCLA school of Public Policy on economic
redevelopment in the urban community.
In front of a classroom of primarily public policy students and
administrators, Johnson explained in detail the necessity of
revitalizing the community through the economic model.
The community that Johnson had targeted was the Oak Park suburb
near downtown Sacramento, his own community. What was once a
thriving area in Sacramento is now home to grim statistics,
including a low median household income, low high school
graduations rates and a high unemployment rate.
Johnson feels that in order to combat these conditions, the
fight must begin with education. But in essence, it’s about
the money, Johnson argued. Johnson realized this after starting the
educational after-school program the St. Hope Academy in 1989.
“It’s important to put economic development at the
forefront of inner city revitalization,” Johnson said.
The academy began as a social service after-school program that
was an intensive language and math program for children in
kindergarten to the eighth grade level.
The St. Hope Academy sought to charter their own school after
realizing they needed to spend more time and resources with the
children who needed their help. What Johnson realized, however, was
that in order to open a school that had sufficient funds and low
student-to-teacher ratios, a great deal of money is necessary.
“The small student-to-teacher ratio that you want so
desperately in these inner city communities can only occur if you
have dollars to offset some of the challenges when it comes to
funding,” Johnson said.
The St. Hope Corporation tried to acquire funding through
community revitalization. The corporation sought to renovate the
Guild Theatre into a multi-cultural arts center and open businesses
that would generate revenue that would eventually be recirculated
into the St. Hope Academy.
In fact, Johnson spoke out against the more traditional forms of
community revitalization, such as social services.
“We didn’t want social services,” Johnson
said. “We needed to do business. The social services deplete
all the resources you have in that community. That’s not
freedom. We wanted economic freedom that social services and
government programs would not get for us. We had to create private
dollars here.”
Johnson then explained step by step the trials that his
corporation faced in trying to acquire funding from the Sacramento
Housing and Redevelopment Agency.
After an initial rejection and a two year wait, the St. Hope
Corporation was finally granted 2.5 million dollars in grants and
loans. The corporation was thereby enabled to renovate The Guild
Theatre and open successful businesses, including a Starbucks.
Currently, the St. Hope Corporation awaits a charter for their
academy in 2003.
None of this would have been possible, Johnson asserts, without
working within an economic model. And none of this would have been
possible if an NBA star had not come home.