CAL CITY PINS HOPES ON PRISON PLAN.

Byline: Claire Vitucci Associated Press 

Standing amid the 207 square miles of desert scrub that make up California's third-largest city in area, it's hard to imagine this town's original destiny.

Lonely street signs mark paved roads that end abruptly in the middle of the Mojave Desert. A major supermarket is nowhere in sight. The nearest hospital is 35 miles away. In fact, California City - population 8,800 - didn't get its first chain drug store until last year.

Instead, lined up in rows among an occasional Joshua tree, are completed prison cell blocks. When bolted together, it is hoped these confines will hold not only convicted criminals, but the future of a beleaguered city beset by dreams that went awry.

Lured by a mirage

The town's pioneers, some of whom still live there, were lured to California City four decades ago by advertising that screamed ``Don't miss the exploding Antelope Valley!''

``Almost every month they had more grandiose new plans, '' said Glenn Stevenson, who retired here in 1962 with his now-deceased wife. ``But most of the original scheme fell through and never materialized.''

It was 1956 when Czechoslovakian Nathan K. Mendelsohn, who once taught sociology at Columbia University, first eyed the high-desert ranch land that was to become California City.

By 1958, his ``master-planned community'' was promising cul-de-sacs, parks, a medical village, even a California State University campus.

Dreams to dust

New residents - primarily from urban Los Angeles - flocked to the area in search of open-space living and high-yield investment.

At first there were no phones, so residents communicated via CB radio, often broadcasting their grocery lists to whoever was headed to the nearest supermarket, 20 miles away.

``It was a wonderful time,'' Stevenson said. ``Everybody knew everybody on a first-name basis.''

But although many of the residents enjoyed their tranquil life in an isolated town, they were frustrated that plans for growth never seemed to materialize.

``We just couldn't get an industrial base to come in,'' Stevenson said. ``You just can't run a city this size on residential development.''

So the flamboyant Mendelsohn - often seen cruising around town in his Jaguar, wearing a suit and hat - offered people property for $1 if they would just open a business in California City.

Mendelsohn ``believed that this was going to be the next Palm Springs and he was going to own it,'' said Larry Adams, California City's mayor. ``He assumed he was going to do very, very well and the city was going to prosper. And it didn't.''

`It's been a scam town'

Mendelsohn sold his California City Development Co. in 1964, and the town turned to other dreamers.

But the hydroponic tomato ranch turned into a front for a marijuana plantation. The herb farm went belly-up after the plants were munched by rabbits and finished off by a sandstorm. And then there was the ``miracle'' water well. The only thing that pipe dream pumped were funds from City Hall.

``Those kinds of things happen all the time here'' Adams said. ``It's been a scam town.''

Yet the dreamers keep coming.

Septuagenarians Robert Wilson and John Brown envision turning California City into another Las Vegas, complete with glitzy casinos, fine dining and A-list entertainment. Only problem is, it would take an unlikely vote of all Californians to allow Las Vegas-style gambling in California City.

There was similar skepticism when the Corrections Corp. of America agreed to build a 2,500-bed, privately operated prison in town.

But this could be the plan that finally works for California City.

David Myers, president of CCA's West Coast region, said the prison will create about 500 new jobs, most of them correctional officer positions. He said the company will hire local residents and train them.

The 10-building prison is expected to be finished by this summer. When it's up and running, the medium-security facility is expected to haul in about $350,000 a year in revenue for California City.

True, CCA has yet to line up any inmates. The company is battling the state's powerful prison guard union, which is trying to prevent the nonunion CCA prison from taking any state inmates away from unionized prisons.

But Myers says that if the California City lockup can't house California inmates, CCA intends to take federal criminals or bring in inmates from other states.

Pariahs welcome

``Most people watching this play out see it as the field of dreams scenario,'' said Bill Mabie, chief aide to state Sen. Richard Polanco, who is the current chairman of the Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations.

``If you build it they will come,'' he said. ``There is not a shortage of inmates; there is a shortage of cells.''

California City received another boost recently when the global power company AES announced plans to build a 500-megawatt power station in the area.

If approved by the California Energy Commission, construction would begin sometime in the year 2000, said Gary Poe, the company's business development manager.

Prisons and power stations aren't usually welcome anywhere near the back yards of America. But here in California City, they're a godsend for residents whose homes are worth far less now, in many cases, than when they bought them.

``The property values in California City have been pretty depressed,'' said Gary Marsh, vice president of Mike Strong, Inc. - the local contractor helping to build the CCA prison.

``With the start of the prison, property values have started to improve a little,'' he noted. ``There'll be a need for people to live here.''

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5 Photos

PHOTO (1-2) (Photo 1--Color in AV Edition only) A sign welcomes visitors to California City, left, while others indicate planned streets never built.

Jill Connelly/Associated Press

(3--Color in AV Edition only) (Ran in SAC and AV Editions only) Workers assemble steel rebar at the prison construction site in California City, where residents hope the project will bring in jobs.

(4-5) (Photo 4 ran in SAC and AV Editions only) (Photo 5 ran in AV Edition only) Developers Robert Wilson, left, and John Brown envision a Las Vegas casino-style revival for California City, which would need state voters' approval, while Mayor Larry Adams, above, foresees a more certain and secure future with the prison project.

Katie Callan/Associated Press