Sep 3, 2019
Originally from the Philadelphia area, Janet
became enamored with the desert while traveling through New Mexico
on a family vacation to visit her dad’s one and only uncle in San
Diego. Driving through the desert she thought, “I have to
come back to this place.”
Attending school for architecture in Cincinnati,
Janet decided she wanted to get into the construction side of the
business and through a co-op program at the college, she'd heard
about Habitat for Humanity and landed a co-op in Atlanta, GA. While
there, she caught Albuquerque architect Antoine Predock on the cover of
Time magazine - this was her way back to the desert.
Though
the Predock office continued to say no co-op opportunities were
available, Janet remained hopeful and persistent.
She drove to Albuquerque, having no
interview appointment. While there, Janet worked at the youth
hostel where she was staying and picked up a job waitressing at the
local pancake house. The people were unique and interesting and she
quickly realized she wanted to live in this kind of environment.
And she finally ended up with a six month work session with the
Predock firm.
Though
Janet thought she might continue her schooling in New Mexico, her
last co-op experience was in Berkeley, CA, where she was
eventually hired on with a firm where she discovered straw
bale construction. The firm received a call to build a straw bale
home for composer Lou Harrison in Joshua Tree, known today as
Harrison House Music,
Arts and Ecology, and Janet found herself in Joshua Tree
to work on the project. This project would also be the beginning of
Janet's interaction with the San Bernardino County planning,
development, land-use and code enforcement
departments.
Janet's ability to navigate county codes and
ordinances became very useful later, in her role helping to fend
off what became know as 'Alta Mira', a proposed 248-home, gated
community on about 100 acres of land in Joshua Tree. Janet's
knowledge and dedication was instrumental in this matter and after
10 years of, the developers decided to move on. You can read all
about it here.
When
Janet arrived in Joshua Tree, she knew only one person, George, who
was associated with the Harrison House project. There was no
Crossroads, just Park Center Deli, known today as Park Rock Café,
next to the JTNP Visitors Center. This was Janet’s social scene
until she was introduced to the local radio station, which helped
her get more information about events happening in the
community.
Our
conversation about the County and the former Alta Mira project
leads us into a discussion of how and where neighbors can get
involved in the community, so as not to be caught off-guard about
the goings on around town and make their voices heard. We
also discuss the serious crisis of a shortage of long term rentals,
multi-family units or apartments in Joshua Tree, one that Janet
sees more and more local families with school-aged children
experiencing, and strongly suggests it would behoove the community
to come together to talk about these issues in proactive, rather
than reactive, ways.