The O.C. Register today ripped the City of Santa Ana for their ridiculous actions against so-called “human signs.” I applaud the editorial department at the Register for joining us in taking Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and his Council puppets to task for attacking these workers instead of dealing with the real problems in our city.
Here are a few excerpts:
There’s something perverse about the city of Santa Ana’s decision to file criminal charges against those folks who are paid to stand along the road and hold large signs pointing drivers to various businesses. City officials, who are notoriously negligent in dealing with Santa Ana’s crumbling infrastructure, believe that private sign holders are posing a grave threat to the city’s quality of life.
The city’s sign crackdown is driven by the same perspective that has caused it to crack down on homeless shelters, pay telephones, street vendors and Mexican-food trucks. As OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano recently wrote, “The root of the problem is that Santa Ana is governed by people who don’t want to accept the immigrant magnet where they live.” City officials want Santa Ana to be an upscale tourist destination and business/government hub, and too often over the years have put their priorities in flashy gentrification projects rather than in improving neighborhoods for the people who actually live there.
Other local cities embrace the same approach. Garden Grove is fixated on big redevelopment projects because of Anaheim-envy. Irvine officials wish their city were more urbanized, so they push for high-density construction and public transportation. City officials in Santa Ana and elsewhere need to accept the character of their cities, focus on their basic responsibilities (crime prevention, infrastructure maintenance, etc.) and leave the public (and the sign holders) alone.
Great post Art. I think it’s time for you to give us an update on Carlos “Forest Gump’ Bustamonte and his political plans. I understand he was behind this sign law and is the king of the Mexican Americans who thinks it was o.k. for his parents and In-Laws to come across the Border but wants to stop the rest from following the same exact dream. He’s in tight with Mike Harrah and he and his twin brother are trying to get rich doing real estate deal while ridding the town of Mexicans. Please send your pajaritos out to find out what exactly Bustamonte is doing and what are his political plans. Gracias!!
Bustamante’s mom has crossed the border back to Mexico. She has built a palatial home reminiscent of the homes that dot the Newport Coast landscape. It’s my understanding she has a staff to help her manage her new mansion in Baja California.
This is the woman that Carlos used as an example to advance his agenda in support of Comlink’s vending truck ordinance. He made claims that his mother, a resident of French Court, was horrifed by the vending truck business in her neighborhood. Well, I guess she was so horrifed that she took all the money she earned in the U.S. and fled back to Mexico.
Did Carlos and Alfonso’s mom come to America to drop babies that she knew full well would have immediate status of American citizens?
The Register opinion is pathetic.
A company who has it’s offices in the city of Santa Ana should have some pride in the city.
Older cities like Orange, Brea, and parts of Anaheim are thriving because they had the good sense to gentrify and not just be low rent districts. Other cities simply don’t allow things that cause visual blight, safety, or ADA issues, and finally Santa Ana is doing something to come into line with those regulations in other cities.
Santa Ana needs to do something about its image and give the residents a reason to stay here besides cheap rent. After only a couple of years, almost every single one of the artist district lofts have have been resold and the original buyers have left. That speaks volumes about the city, especially in an area where the streets are in pretty good shape, the library and a couple of parks are within walking distance, and there are local businesses to support the loft lifestyle.
The city is addressing the primary issues of streets and infrastructure, libraries and parks, and other needs. Maybe they’re not doing it fast enough for some, but the work is ongoing and there is improvement.
Now the secondary issues that plague the city, things that have been let go and have run rampant, are finally being addressed. The signs have been illegal for years. This is not a new ordinance, the city is just catching up with enforcement. That’s a good thing.
Maybe some of the new residents will now want to stay here instead of bailing out. The residents that have been putting up with these issues over the years are glad to see the city finally addressing the blight and quality of life itms that they have been forced to live with.
The city of Santa Ana will never be an Irvine, but it deserves a better image, and in a couple of years it may actually turn around the negative reputation it has earned over the years by not addressing the quality of life issues.
Until he got his nuts crushed, politically speaking, when he ran for supervisor, Carlos was considered the Republicans “rising star” !! JaJaJa!!! Art, Could you please do a feature post regarding Bustamonte and his background and what you think his future is politically. I want to know how two guys who work for the county (he and his gemelo hermano) get rich in real estate and their mom, a former house cleaner from T.J., ends up living in a castle in Mexico???? Will someone please follow the money and let us know more about these clowns?
Anon 1220 is either Don Cribb or a another of his ilk who chose to ignore the reality of Santa Ana and instead pursue a fantisy which gets them power, money, fame, or all three. I put Real Estate Broker for MIke Harrah Gil Morreo and Chamber President Mike Metzler in the same boat. They will play games with the city’s money if councilmembers will let them but at the end of the day we should embrace our Hispanic nature and live it to the fullest. 4th st. and Fiesta Marketplace in Downtown is an economic success and we should be attempting to duplicate it all over Santa Ana instead of trying to square art’s agenda peg in a round Mexican cultural hole. Let’s not throw more good money after bad and instead dedicate ourselves to fixing streets and schools, and librarys so that middle class residents of all colors will want to live here. No more black box theaters and Canery Island Pine tree plans used as an Urban Botox to smooth our cities wrinkles. We need major plastic surgery when it comes to fixing what’s wrong with our city and guys like Don Cribb, Carlos Bustamonte, and their Artsy Fartsy buddies just don’t get it!
Art I use to live in Santa Ana but I still work there.
I think the city has been doing a great job in the area by St Joseph’s Catholic church. There are just to many high density apartments in that area to be supported by the various governments services. I see that the current city council and mayor are correcting a problem that previous councils allowed to perpetuate by allowing for anybody who owns property to build apartments. There seemed to be absolutely no brains used by the fomer council when they okayed this action which created the problems Santa Ana has today.
Then, sure the big sign ban is stupid,that was a terrible miss.
The Street vendors issue is a problem when you go down any apartment residence street and you see as many as 7 to 10 grocery store larger trucks(on the last day I drove by, one truck was double parked). This is a blight and hazard.
The little push cart vendors I have no problem with given that I figure the possible harm is extremely minimal.
The people selling fruits on the mediums need to be removed because they could slow down traffic/disrupt attention.
The problems I have with the city are the big ones where possibly indirectly the sitution creates a harmful sitution.
In fact , I work close to where you use to live and I can tell you things look like they are getting nicer. A new renovated indoor swapmeet is moving in across the city’s yard on first street, a renovated BOA branch is moving in next ddor to that location. But, the homeless situation is what needs to be adresses and I disagree with you and Gustavo if you believe it should be on the back burner.I personally have talked to business owners in this area who will offer their own terrible accounts of dealing with these people. Sure the homeless shelter off 1st has been here before most business or even residents but this doesn’t mean that business or residents should have to tolerate the problems brought on by the shelter.
I’m not really sure where Gustavo lives now but when you make the comparison of the area that I mentioned or live/work in the area that I live you should know things are looking better.
Jose
#3
“After only a couple of years, almost every single one of the artist district lofts have have been resold and the original buyers have left. That speaks volumes about the city…”
Wrong. That speaks volumes about the real estate market. So the original owners have flipped their loft and new owners are in. Big deal.
Carlos’ father established himself like many other Americans have. He built his own company, where he and his sons worked hard. He taught his children a strong work ethic, and gave them a good private school education. Nothing wrong with that. So his mom chose to move back to Mexico…so what!
Is that Bob Citron holding that sign?
The only problem with Carlos’s family story is if he is enjoying the fruits of his parents coming to the U.S. from Tiajuana but now he wants to build a wall and stop his primos from making the same life for their kids!
I agree that Bustamonte is a hypocrite to try to make life hard for all Mexicans from Santa Ana when he and his family and his wifes family all came across the border in the same way. Come on Carlos, you think yours doesn’t stink because you have been her for a generation? Basta!!
“he and his sons worked hard”
Carlos has never worked hard a day in his life. He knocked someone up, refused to pay support and was brought into his cushy county job by his mentor and fellow idiot, Rob Richardson.
“He knocked someone up, refused to pay support”
We are still waiting for him to go on Springer or Povich and go through the DNA testing to settle this once and for all:):):)
Is Bustamante the fella that landed on the Oprah Winfrey show?
BUSTAMANTE IS NOT THE ISSUE HERE,THE PROBLEM IS THE SIGN TWIRLERS, WHO ILLEGALLY BLOCK SIDEWALKS AND MAKE SANTA ANA LOOK LIKE TIJUANA!
#15
Let’s get this right, if a human sign twirler twirls his sign, does not block a sidewalk, then all is OK and it doesn’t look like Tijuana?
You’ve been walking too many greyhounds in the heat!
#15,
The sign twirlers for the most part are on corners of intersections.Blocking pedestrian traffic does not occur,so where is the infraction.Can this be prosecuted?.This has never been a issue for this reason.The real reason is your discription of “Making Santa Ana look like Tijuana”.Your problem is that some of these twirlers are Mexican looking therefore placing a Mexican image on Sana Ana.Your concern is understood.Non Mexican twirlers are OK-no need to deal with this issue if this is the case.
Immigration magnet? What does that phrase mean exactly? Is the city expected to get more immigrants or is it a statement about how it already is a highly attractive destination?