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Edmonds, James (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Edmonds was interviewed in his home. The interviewer lived next door to Edmonds at the time of the interview. 2/21/1983
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- 2020-10-27
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- *** File: cbjedmonds1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:04)... Introduction. Edmonds was born in Oklahoma and his family moved to Oregon in 1927 because of his father's health. The dampness bothered them so they moved to southern California and settled in Wilmington. His father distributed bananas for the United Fruit Company and he graduated from Banning High School in 1938. Most of the businesses in Wilmington were oriented to the harbor. Although his family never went hungry, times were tough during the Depression. In the 1930s, his parents divorced and his mother went to work for the Los Angeles Board of Education where she worked until she retired. (2:04-5:19)... Edmonds stayed out of school for a year and then he entered Woodbury University. He met his wife there; she had come from Michigan, and they married in 1941. They've lived in Long Beach ever since. He went to work for Bethlehem Steel in the ship building division on Terminal Island until he was drafted in 1943 and he went into the Navy. After the war, when he came home, he found his father was working in real estate, and he joined his father's business. He, however, was not so much interested in selling real estate but in economics and valuation of real estate. His father decided to leave Long Beach, so he sold the business to Edmonds who became an appraiser and mortage broker. In 1956 he incorporated the City and Suburban Mortgage Company and expanded his business throughout southern California. (5:19-7:54)... Banks and savings and loan association take deposits from the public and relend that money. Mortgage bankers use their own lines of credit to make loans in their own names. Then they sell those loans in the secondary market to other investors. When he began, he didn't have the resources to be a mortgage banker so he operated as a mortgage broker, placing loans with other investors for a fee. At that time, there was only one other mortgage banker in Long Beach, Lloyd Whaley, who was also a prominent developer. His company was Home Investment Company. Edmonds didn't get into developing real estate (7:54-13:44)... When Edmonds returned from the service, he found that most of Long Beach was already developed. Lakewood, however, was built in a formerly agricultural area called the Montana Ranch. This development, he believes, has been beneficial to the area. But Pine Avenue in Long Beach was the place for shopping right after WWII. By the time of the interview, the area was deteriorating. As suburbs were built, retail followed home owners to the suburbs. Rebuilding downtown to compete with the suburban shopping areas will be hard. Edmonds moved his business out of downtown to be closer to freeways. (13:44-19:19)... Lloyd Whaley built the Los Altos shopping center on land he retained when housing developments were laid out in the area. Developers really made their money on these commercial developments, not on building and selling houses. Whaley built retail spaces on three corners at Stearns and Bellflower and a previous owner controlled the other one. Edmonds knew Harry Buffum and Bud Young. Young was probably the one who wanted to build stores outside downtown Long Beach when May Company and other department stores expanded into the suburbs. Edmonds thinks Buffum would have been happy to just keep the downtown store. Edmonds also thinks Young would not have opposed the opening of other department stores in downtown Long Beach. Other stores were needed to bring people to Buffums. (19:19-25:47)... Edmonds represented Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company located in Greensboro, North Carolina. He and a previous representative had probably originated 70 percent of the real estate loans in the area that used to be called The Jungle. It was west of Magnolia and south of Ocean and it became the first redevelopment project in Long Beach. People in Long Beach knew about subsidence, but when an article about it appeared in the Wall Street Journal Jefferson Standard sent him a telegram saying they didn't want to make any more loans in Long Beach. Subsequently, they asked for a report on subsidence and decided they would begin to make loans again but only north of the Pacific Electric tracks that ran across Long Beach on their way to Newport. This really hurt his business since Jefferson Standard had been willing to make loans on older apartment buildings that other lender wouldn't. Long Beach was working to stop subsidence. (25:47-30:11)... Edmonds owned the building that housed his office at First and Elm. When he bought the property, he got half of the mineral rights. The previous owner kept the other half. Since WWII, Long Beach leaders struggled with the problem of subsidence and how to produce the oil that was under the tidelands and downtown Long Beach. They decided to build oil islands off shore and use them as platforms from which to drill. They struggled with how to use the revenue from the tidelands oil since the state restricted how it could be spent. And as they were considering downtown redevelopment, they discussed moving the civic center to a more central part of the city. End of tape *** File: cbjedmonds2.mp3 (0:00-4:51)... Edmonds was appointed to the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency board in May, 1962. Urban renewal had begun nationally in the 1950s. As a mortgage broker and later a mortgage banker, he was upset by zoning in Long Beach. Some areas were basically red-lined by the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration. These areas were not zoned for residential development but they were areas where low income people lived. A group of citizens, including realtors, developers, and others concerned with affordable housing began to meet and later to pressure the city council to write a new master plan and begin urban renewal. There was concern about the area known as "the jungle," apartment buildings south of Ocean and west of Magnolia, and it became Long Beach's first redevelopment area. When the Redevelopment Agency was established, Mayor Ed Wade asked Edmonds to be its first chair. (4:51-7:59)... Some of the others on the Redevelopment Agency Board were realtors and bankers. Some of them were John Webster, Arnold Berg, Jim Odegaard, Harvey Miller and Arthur Maspero. (7:59-10:51)... Edmonds resigned from the Redevelopment Agency board in 1965 or 1966 because his business was expanding. When the Agency was first established, it was only authorized to study the Jungle. The study found many absentee owners who were not concerned about upgrading their property. Some owners didn't believe the city would actually do anything and others were anxious to have the Agency buy their property right away. The area was called "the jungle" because it was home to really poor people, drug adicts, mentally distrubed people and a problem for the police department. (10:51-15:57)... The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency was the first one in California to condemn properties without federal funds. The Agency used a California law that allowed it to issue bonds that would be repaid by the increase in property tax revenue generated by the redeveloped property. The bonds were tax exempt. Some owners agreed to sell their property at the value the Agency suggested. Others had to be taken to arbitration or were settled by courts. (15:57-19:34)... The city vacated a park in the Jungle redevelopment area and one building of own-your-own apartments created the biggest problem. It was probably the best maintained building in the area and many of the tenants didn't want to move. The Agency had to hold public hearings and could only make recommendations to the city council. The council was the final authority. The Agency concluded that high density use for the redeveloped property would bring the highest return to the city. The Jungle was actually costing the city more than the property tax it was bringing in. (19:34-24:38)... Some agency board members discussed redevelopment of the Pike with its owners, but never had any plans to redevelop it. Edmonds agreed to serve as a committee chair for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. This required traveling to meetings. Ultimately he joined the Association's board of governors which meets 3 or 4 times a year, usually in the east. He also became active in the California Mortgage Bankers Association and served as president in 1977-1978. During his term, the association supported an initiative, Prop. 2, to amend California's usury law removing the 10 percent ceiling on interest rates for real estate loans. (24:38-27:29)... Edmonds sold his mortgage company 4 years before the time of the interview but continued to work as a consultant. On the day of the interview, California Governor George Deukmejian asked Edmonds to serve as state Real Estate Commissioner. He said yes. At the time of the interview, he served as chair of the board of governors of the Greater Long Beach YMCA. He and his wife had long been members of the Los Altos YMCA. Edmonds was also a trustee of the Los Altos Methodist Church and Long Beach Community Hospital Foundation. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - James Edmonds was a mortgage broker and banker in post-WWII Long Beach who was appointed California's Real Estate Commissioner by Gov. George Deukmejian at the time of the interview. Edmonds graduated from Banning High School in San Pedro and joined the US Navy. When he completed his service, he settled in Long Beach and became a real estate appraiser and mortgage broker. It was an exciting time for real estate development with the expansion of suburbs. Edmonds was active in urging Long Beach officials to plan for the need for affordable housing and redevelopment of older parts of the city. He served as the first chair of the city's redevelopment agency and helped to oversee the transition of "the jungle," an area of small, tourist apartments built early in the twentieth century, into office towers. In this single interview, Edmonds also talks about his activities in national mortgage bankers groups and his support for a California initiative that raised the limit on interest that could be charged on real estate loans. TOPICS - Topics on this side of tape include: family background; education; childhood; City and Suburban Mortgage Company and real estateTopics on this side of tape include: Long Beach Redevelopment Agency; the Pike; Mortgage Bankers Association of America and California Mortgage Bankers Association
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