I have been challenged in recent comments by our readers to present a new vision for Santa Ana. The fact is, I, and my colleagues here at the Orange Juice, have indeed presented a lot of new ideas for our city, over the past few years. But in the interest of settling the issue, here is my vision for a new Santa Ana.
- We must stop ignoring the City’s problems, while rushing to “fix them” by building luxury condo towers the people of our City quite frankly don’t need. This means stopping gang violence. We can only do so much from a punitive standpoint. We must stop the spread of gangs by imprisoning the heads of the gangs, but at the same time we need to do more to keep young people from joining gangs in the first place.
- With that latter thought in mind, we need more libraries, parks and after-school activities (particularly in the summertime). We need to look seriously at signing up with the County of Orange library system so we can get more branches sooner. With regard to parks, we could have had quite a few more over the past ten years, but our current city administration either gives the land away to their special interests, or encourages developers to build towers we don’t need.
- We also need to stop ignoring our crumbling infrastructure. There have been some baby steps in this area by the City lately, but not enough. For one thing, our City appears to have a lot more middle managers than other cities. We raised our water rates without even looking at the fact that Santa Ana’s water department spends 33% on administration, compared to other districts in the county which spend less than 20%. That needs to change!
- We need to find a way to hire more cops. That may mean signing up with the O.C. Sheriff’s Department. This option needs to be explored seriously. And in the process we need to look at our police department – and compare it to others in the area. How do our cops respond – and how late are they in responding? Those questions need to be asked!
- We need our city leaders to get involved with the Santa Ana Unified School District. And not by electing hacks like Rob Richardson and Audrey Noji. We need to toss the bums on the SAUSD board out and start over. If we cannot get a handle on our schools, we will never solve the other social problems in town.
- Our City Manager, Dave Ream, needs to go. We need to clean house on the 8th floor.
- We need a City administration that believes in OPEN, transparent government. ALL our City Council meetings ought to be televised, as should our commission meetings. And ALL this footage needs to be saved and archived online for public review.
- We do need change in our downtown area, but not this ridiculous half-baked Renaissance Plan, and certainly not a $15 million per mile street car system. We need more restaurants and entertainment, for one thing. And no, the Artists Village is not enough. Those poor guys have been hung out to dry by the City. They need more visitors. We can help not by replacing merchants but by playing to our strengths. The current administration does not get that. At all.
- We need mayoral term limits.
- We need ward specific council elections.
- We need to stop underwriting our local Chamber of Commerce. If they cannot stand on their own, they need to close up shop.
- We need to appoint city commissioners who are going to serve the public, not the special interests.
Any more ideas readers?
Art,
There is noting new in your 12 points. Stop… Stop… Stop… when it gets to your usual suspects.
The new would be if you say Cooperate… Cooperate… Cooperate… when it gets to your usual suspects.
Art, you still don’t get it – these things are not a “vision” for Santa Ana. You are still addressing the things you see right now at present, but not what you wish the City to be in the future. Having a vision for what the city should be entails deciding what the city will look like, embrace new needs for housing and technology, who will live here, and how we will pay for it. Devoting fully 40% of your “vision” list towards a list of current politics shows that you do not know what planning is all about. Planning is meant to develop a long term vision for the city’s growth and development for residents (both current and future) long after the current administration is gone. It is not meant to MAKE development happen – it is about putting the land use regulations in place that will respond to the market even as economics change. It is not about specific people or businesses – or even what people need right this minute. There are programs for that sort of thing, but it is NOT long term planning and zoning. You are being shortsighted and narrow minded if you think the City should address only immediate issues. Until you have a VISION for the City long after you and I are gone, you are still just being an activist and extremist.
Art, please allow me to present suggestions for ways that the City of Santa Ana can improve the quality of life for residents and visitors alike:
– A thorough analysis of the budget to determine any expenditures and programs that are not absolutely necessary that can be eliminated. Without even opening the budget, eliminating commissioner stipends and subsidies for non-essential and non-city entities would help our city.
– Once the budget picture is clearer, if hiring many more police officers is not possible under that budget, then a clear and thorough public safety plan with a clear funding plan needs to be submitted to the voters. Asking voters to fund putting more police officers on the street is a noble request. Funding management raises or foul-ups from previous administrations is not.
– The public safety plan needs to implement measures that will aggressively address crime and gangs the way that gangs aggressively address law-abiding residents. This would have to be a no-tolerance policy with a broken-windows approach that would include gang injunctions, stricter penalties that would include absolutely no contact with any other gang members once a gang member is convicted, and stiffer penalties on businesses that allow graffiti to remain longer than one day.
– A clear snapshot of our city
Idiot # 1,
Where did he mention the usual suspects?
Oh, thats right, he DIDN’T.
Poster 4,
Thanks. The fact is, I am now working with the “Usual Suspects” as we endeavor to defeat Measure D.
They need a new name though. Perhaps something like “Santa Ana neighbors for good government?”
Pulido and his cabal have lost their support.
We must all work together to bring down Pulido and his machine. Only then will we bring real change to Santa Ana.
Well done #2!
I would like to add that Art must develop his genuine tolerance for the people which he dislikes and must not criticize them in non constructive way.
The effort to Remove elected person from the office should be done only within the short period of time just before the election, during the campaign.
After the election Art must be able to shake the hands, showing his loyalty to the elected officials until the next election round.
Art must learn full meaning of the word [“coalition”] in the political realm and not to call everyone a puppet or trader etc. etc. etc.
His graduation test should be new library in Santa Ana with his name on it. He should be able to organize all City Resources for that purpose including all his enemies and usual suspects.
He should start working with Mr. Tinajero, Benavides, Alvarez, Bustamante, Pulido, Ream, Cribb, Harrah and Fiala etc. etc. etc.
Without such ability, Art is just loud “trailer park” activist.
Same goes for Mr. Gordon and Mill.
Poster 7 (Stanley),
Stanley, no one takes you seriously. No one wants to work with you. You really need to get a clue. You are a racist Mexican hater and an indicted wife-beater. Who would want to work with you?
There is no working with a Council that refuses to televise all of its Council meetings. That is all you need to know about them. Growing up in a communist country Stanley you ought to recognize what is going on in Santa Ana. These politicians want a closed government, so they can do as they please.
As for this notion of a trailer park, I live a very nice house in Park Santiago. You live in a condo where everyone in your HOA despises you. Good luck with that. Perhaps a trailer is in YOUR future Stanley.
Let’s see, we need new restaurants, bars, and nightlife, but we don’t want to build the high rise condos that will attract the base for these businesses?
I guess Art thinks economic diversity is bad. He’d rather have a working class town on par with Bell Gardens and Cudahay.
#3 is the only one in this string of comments that has written anything practical in regards to the subject of Art’s post.
I’m sorry, I did not mean to interrupt the argument with crazy Fiala.
#9
What are you blind? Drive the streets at dusk, if you dare and see all the working class walking home from the bus stops..we can exclude the gang members and other street trash for this hour.
Drive the streets at 1am and see what you find. Gangsters, homeless sleeping on park benches, hookers, drunks, and the loiterers hanging in front of a house because the 20 people who live there sleep in shifts.
Wake up and smell the coffee. The cops drive right past these people because they know the reality. There is not enough jail space and not enough homeless shelters to get them off the street until they commit a more serious crime.
You already have Cudahay, Bell Gardens, and East LA. The strange part is they don’t do this as much in the rest of OC as in Santa Ana. I’m not a social scientist, but I assume their is a reason. Personally I don’t think new libraries or parks will fix it. But we already lived through the high density apartment craze in this town resulting in Ross Street, Fruit Street, and a dozen more. We certainly don’t need any more high density buildings until we have the streets, cops, and facilities to manage what they attract. If you doubt what they attract, take a cruize after dark.
ANON #3 FOR MAYOR!!!
#2
Nice chit chat about planning. The city’s current General Plan is closing in on 30 years old! Now that’s real vision – an aging and outdated general plan. Your ire should be directed at Ream and Pulido. Most of us, including Pedroza, understand “vision,” however the current leadership has failed to provide the residents of this city with the “planning vision” you cite.
The OJ will continue to flourish because it’s filling a void — alerting residents to what’s going on in the city and behind closed doors. Pulido, Bustamante, Sarmineto, Alvarez, Benevides, and Tinajero’s recent action to NOT televise the second council meeting of the month only makes the OJ more important to the city.
I agree with Saint Chris. That’s the best plan that I have heard for Santa Ana!
you keep forgetting we need to get rid of joseph fletcher and paula coleman from the city attorney’s office. how can we fight to rid the city of gangs when we have two of the most ruthless gang members working for the city?