How a City Hopes to Fulfill New Dreams

San Bernardino Is Creating Space and Community for the Arts

In Southern California, most people know about San Bernardino and its ongoing municipal bankruptcy. Last summer, the L.A. Times called the city a “symbol of the nation’s urban woes.”

But most people don’t know that many of us who live and work in San Bernardino have been collaborating to revive interest in the arts—and rebuild our communities.

Maybe that sounds like just a nice thing to say. But it’s as real as the new San Bernardino Cultural Center we’ve created in the old Water Department building, a beautiful Spanish Revival structure constructed …

Painting Portraits in a Bankrupt City

I Moved to San Bernardino to Pursue My Ambitions. I Found a Place That Had Lost All Ambition of Its Own.

Early in 2013, I moved to San Bernardino with my girlfriend at the time and our 1-month-old daughter. I had family there but hadn’t lived in San Bernardino since I …