A city’s home page says a lot. The City of Santa Ana’s website clearly states “our government is closed to you.” Travel south to the City of Costa Mesa and their website shouts “we want you involved in our local government.”
For one thing, Santa Ana’s website does not offer information in Spanish. That is alarming in a city that is 76% Latino, as per 2000 U.S. Census data. The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where less than 40% of the population is Latino, has figured out a way to translate their website for free, using Google’s Language Tools. (See the graphic below). Why can’t Santa Ana do the same thing? We could even offer translations in Vietnamese! Of course the City of Costa Mesa offers a translation link on their home page too, which uses Yahoo’s free Babel Fish translator.
If you compare the home page of the City of Santa Ana’s website to the City of Costa Mesa’s home page (see the graphic below), the difference is startling. Costa Mesa tells you right there on the home page what city meetings are coming up this week! Click on the City of Santa Ana’s “City Meetings” link and you go to a page that tells you when the meetings are scheduled, for example the City Council meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month, but there are no exact dates offered. Click on the Santa Ana “Calendar” link and again you have to click on each day to find out what is going on.
Take a look at the City of Costa Mesa’s home page and you will see a world of difference compared to Santa Ana’s home page. For one thing the weekly meetings are front and center. But notice that you can also sign up for email notification. Imagine what Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream would say about that? “Why would I want to tell our residents about our meetings – damn they might actually show up and complain!”
Costa Mesa also makes their video footage of their city meetings available in an onine archive. Santa Ana offers streaming video of some of their Council meetings, as they happen, but no online archive. You have to go to our ONE public library to find the archived DVDs of the Council meetings.
Finally, compare Costa Mesa’s budget to Santa Ana’s. There is no comparison. Costa Mesa is a well run city, but they too are feeling the pinch of a bad economy. According to the Daily News, they are looking to make a few cuts to deal with a projected ten million dollar deficit. Santa Ana, on the other hand, has a massive budget deficit of some $28 to $40 million dollars.
It does not take a lot of money for a City to reach out to its residents utilizing the Internet. Costa Mesa has figured it out. Their home page says “we want you involved in our local government.” Santa Ana’s pathetic home page is a reflection of City Manager Dave Ream’s dedication to shutting the door on city residents. Why won’t our City Council stand up to this man and demand that the civic walls come down? No wonder there is so much voter apathy in Santa Ana.
Art – You are on the mark with this post.
You are 100% correct. The walls need to come down, starting with the the City’s website.
Art…why is it always governments responsibility to provide? Take the recent election, where LA and OC counties are required by law to provide ballots in many different languages. Why isn’t the burdon placed on the immigrant population to learn and have an understanding of the English language rather on the taxpayers to provide so many different language ballots?
Do you think the hispanics in the community actually read or care about the city’s webpage? Most don’t even have access to the internet.
Jack
Jack,
There were 15.7 million Hispanic Internet users in the US in 2005, according to eMarketer. This total will rise to 16.7 million in 2006 and by 25%, to reach nearly 21 million, by 2010. This means that by 2010 the number of Hispanic Internet users will approach the number of African-American users.
And it is free for Santa Ana to use Google or Yahoo’s translator service. So why not make use of it?
Jack doesn’t know jack s—t.
WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! I go to Mexico on vacation, I expect to need Spanish to get around a little bit. If I move there..I damn well expect that i better speak/understand the language. If I have any reason to go onto Rosarito’s city web page…if it exists…do I need to go on?! I’m Mexican! cut the B.S. America – English, Mexico – spanish, Vietnam – Vietnamese, Russia – Russian.
My parents and grandparents learned the language. Art…I have agreed with most of what you post. Why not encourage people to learn the language?! Why not encourage non-english speakers to go get a Spanish/English dictionary…that might help them help themselves!
Help yourself! Give a man a fish…he eats for a day…Teach him how to fish…he eats for a lifetime.
Access to the internet but can’t read english?! The Santa Ana public library is a good place to start! Has anyone been in there lately?! Many people helping themselves.
If I want to learn something and have no money for a tutor or to buy something that will teach me?…I go to the library…free…maybe walk or take the bus if I can’t afford a car or nobody to give me a ride. Lots of non-English speakers in the library everyday. They even serve lunch and dinner across the street if I am that broke.
Oh, and by the way, I never read about any of this on Santa Ana webpage…those non-English speakers in the library every day probably didn’t read about it on the Santa Ana webpage either…they can’t read English, right?
I hope I’m not being too big of a “JACK”arse. I just wish that more often, people would want to help themselves. Instead, I find far too many people fighting to alleviate others from facing their own RESPONSIBLITIES.
I guess they key word here is responsibility…who’s is it?!
…I respect the ideas of those that think that it is not the individuals responsibility in many cases. I will just agree to disagree and continue to read the blog. thanks for the entertainment
Wasn’t there a blog within the last six months on this same subject…the city’s website…or lack thereof?
What makes you think things would change? They didn’t care then…and they certainly don’t now.
As for you, Jack..I am a 30 year resident of SA who is of hispanic/hawaiian/caucasian/black foot indian decent who has had internet access FOR YEARS. I agree with Dr. Lomeli..you don’t know shit….