Rental ban puts spotlight on Escondido neighborhood

Rental ban puts spotlight on Escondido neighborhood

ESCONDIDO - Since the Escondido City Council adopted its controversial new rental law, Benny Herrera's Mission Park neighborhood has been getting a lot of attention.A study released earlier this year found that the central Escondido neighborhood was overwhelmingly Latino, plagued with poverty and cluttered with overcrowded apartments. Several council members pointed to the study in adopting the new law to bar landlords from renting to illegal immigrants in an effort to alleviate overcrowding.

But Herrera, who has lived in his Park Place home for more than 40 years, said the city was able to fix many of the problems that afflicted his corner of the Mission Park neighborhood by working with him and a group of his neighbors. In recent years, the city built sidewalks, provided streetlights and encouraged residents to report graffiti and vandalism, he said.

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