NATIONAL CITY, Calif. — An historic music hall in National City has been deteriorating for years, Granger Music Hall on fourth street has been trashed by people breaking into the property and using it as a place to sleep.
20 years ago Granger Music Hall used to be a beautiful building where people would come and listen to live music, right now it's an eyesore– piles of trash, graffiti, a makeshift homeless encampment and spider webs–these are just some of the issues that you will see if you pass by it in National City.
However, this building painted a different picture decades ago, says Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis,“You know it was this really historical spot that had a lot of rich stories, from hauntings to certain events happening that were significant.”
The property is closed to the public, but it's next to a homeless encampment where people have broken into the property by welding the metal gate.
According to the city, the music hall was moved from its original location when the Granger family–the owners of the building–had plans to move it to Mexico.
To help keep it in the area the Historical Society helped move it to fourth street, but the organization could no longer look over it and it was then passed on to the city. Once the city had taken over Granger Music Hall it noticed multiple problems inside the site that ranged from electrical and plumbing issues.
With so many hazards that are still in need of improvement it's been decaying ever since and the city has yet to address it.
CBS 8 witnessed people illegally breaking into the building and asked Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis and Councilmember Ron Morrison–both running for Mayor this November– why it's taken so long to revamp the music hall?
Mayor Solis tells CBS 8 it's because of a lack of resources.
“Again with inflation it is probably going to cost about anywhere from 4 to 5 million dollars just to move the facility,” said Mayor Solis.
Councilman Morrison blames the delay on city staff who are still determining where to relocate it again. The two possible locations are the port in Pepper Park or on El Toyon park.
“We are getting kind of tired of dealing with the port on this issue and it would be a difficult move,” said Councilman Morrison.
With no action from the city just yet, music enthusiasts fear this site will never open to the public, but Mayor Solis says state and federal funding will soon make the relocation happen in the near future.
She also adds that the relocation is mainly aimed to be on El Toyon Park, as of now the port in Pepper Park has other community projects in the works.
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