When Two Beautiful Dreams Conflict
Amid the parking lots that surround the towering glass structures of the Crystal Cathedral sits a little red house. Church officials, who plan a four-story, $40-million International Hospitality Center for 300,000 annual visitors, would like the owner to move, and his children would like him to move. But Emil Kajer, 83, has lived in the small, one-story house on Salerno Street for almost 40 years and he has no intention of moving.
“Sure the [Hospitality Center] is a beautiful dream,” Kajer says, with an impish grin.
“This is my beautiful dream,” he says pointing to the little red house. “I don’t need money: I need this.”
The Hospitality Center, a 53,465-square-foot visitor’s center, was approved by city officials in May. It will house a food court, bookstore, research center, box office, and an exhibition hall honoring the world’s great “Christian capitalists.”
“We’ve always understood and respected his wanting to stay there,” said Larry Davis, the church’s city liaison for the project. “Being a person who enjoys my own home [in the same neighborhood], I can see why he wants to stay there.”
Davis said construction of the center is expected to begin next year and that landscaping and street work will begin this summer. He also said if the property became available, the church would look into purchasing it, but there are no plans now for further expansion.
Kajer said he has mixed emotions when thinking about the loss of his neighborhood. “[Church officials] try to make it easier for me, but still it hurts,” he says. “There used to be trees and flowers and beautiful grass, but now there’s just asphalt and dirt. Every one of the houses had families and every one had energy . . . life. Now it is just a parking lot.”
An officer in the Yugoslavian army, Kajer came to America in 1941. A dimple, caused by a German bullet and visible in his cheek when he smiles, is a permanent reminder of his service.
Kajer moved to Garden Grove in the early ‘60s, raised three daughters and, a few years ago, lost his wife. His attachment to the home made the decision to stay obvious when he was asked two years ago if he wanted to sell.
His daughter Georgie Kajer said her father was primarily concerned about having access to basic services.
“I don’t know if the city viewed this as a problem, that a private property owner can be landlocked by a church,” she said. “When I brought that concern to the Planning Commission, there was no response because everybody was so excited about the church’s project.”
But Kajer and a daughter persisted and his concerns were eventually addressed. Their proposal for a 20-foot-wide driveway and 39-foot-wide turn-around and guest parking area was recently accepted by church officials.
“They don’t make little homes like this for working-class families.” Kajer said. “Pretty soon [family homes] will be like the dodos and everything will be the cages and the condominiums.”
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Chris Ceballos can be reached at (714) 966-7440.
