Alfredo Amezcua pulled together an amazing coalition at tonight’s community meeting
I attended a community meeting tonight at the Santa Ana Public Law Center. The meeting was moderated by Alfredo Amezcua, a local attorney and former college education board member, who also prepared the agenda. The organization he heads up is called the “Santa Ana Collaborative for Responsible Development.”
The main focus of this organization is the pending Station District development, which involved properties acquired by the City of Santa Ana over by the Train Station. How those properties get developed is this group’s main concern.
We heard tonight from Eric Altman of OCCORD and his colleague Becky Dennison. They told us about what they did with the Grand Ave. Project in Los Angeles. They met with the developer regularly and were able to work on what is called a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).
Click here to read the rest of this post.
I hope Mr. Amezcua will be working closely with Councilwoman Martinez to help solve Santa Ana’s problems. Both have a passion for people and will work hard to see that our needs are met.
Councilwoman Michele Martinez will not be seeking re-election or running for Mayor. We seem to always run off the good people. In 2006 Mike Garcia left and now in 2010 Michele is leaving. Good luck Santa Ana. I wish Alfredo and the rest of the council luck. No one could ever replace Councilwoman Martinez passion, energy and responsiveness. She was not perfect but she dedicated her youth to this city and I respect her for that.
I agree with Sad News from S.A. We are losing another great one as Marinez retires from the Council. While I did not agree with her on some topics I always found her to be warm, open, and willing to listen. Michele’s youthful wit and wisdom brought a fresh energy to the Council. I can only hope whoever takes her place will have the same passion. Please run a post profiling Ms. Martinez so we can all tell her how much she is loved.
How ironic that the three best Santa Ana City Councilmembers of all time, Michele Martinez, Mike Garcia, and Tony Espinosa, only served one term each! Good people don’t want to put up with the games from the usual suspects and good old boys who still rule city hall.
I agree with S.N.I. that Martinz/Garcia/Espinosa are in the Top 10 Best Santa Ana City Councilmembers of all time, I would also add Ron May, J. Ogden Markel,Vernon Evans, Harry K. Yamamoto and perhaps the best, Ray Villa. Other readers may have others whey would add to the list. I wish we knew more about the members from the turn of the century though the 1960’s. Many of them may have been as great as Martinez etal, but it’s hard to get information about them.
I thought the meeting brought together a great group of folks that really care about all the residents of our city. Kudos to Alfredo for stepping up and doing this and once again proving that he understands the community.
I liked the vibe that most of the folks in the room had. It was great to hear folks advocating for affordable housing in Santa Ana. That must have really gotten under the skin of some of those in attendance.
Hey Art do you have any idea why Phil Bacerra left the meeting so quickly after arriving or why Tommy Gordon got so upset about having his picture taken?
Sean,
It was very odd to see Bacerra rush out after I took his picture. Thomas ran out of a picture too, but he stayed for the rest of the meeting.
I was asked by Tish Leon afterwards not to post the pictures…