Aging adults still run Santa Ana even though the population is much younger

People over 65 make up only 6.8% of the City of Santa Ana, according to the U.S. Census – but they still rule this town.

Here’s how that works.  Take a look at the Santa Ana Neighborhood Associations – they are mostly made up of adults over 45.    The average member is closer to 65.

We live in the youngest city in Santa Ana.  Over 30% of our population is under 30!  There are 56,000 kids enrolled in the SAUSD’s K-12 schools (source – SAUSD)- and that does not include the Santa Ana schoolchildren who go to private schools or are in the Garden Grove Unified School District.

Yet what are the priorities of our Santa Ana City Council?  Older adults still run this city.  Look at the City Commissions and see for yourself.  Who is our Mayor looking to appoint to the new Arts Commission?  The ancient Don Cribb of course!

Check out the Parks and Recreation Commission.  Is anyone on that Commission under 35?  They all look to be 45-65.  And why hasn’t Council Member Angie Amezcua bothered to appoint someone to represent Ward 3?  That is without excuse!

What the heck is the “Civic Center Commission?”  It has one member, Chuck Dobson, and he is no spring chicken!

The Housing and Redevelopment Commission skews older too.  Art Sandoval might be their youngest member.  And they have two Section 8 member vacancies.  Lame!

How about the Environmental and Transportation Advisory Committee?  Again – old!  There is Cribb again, chairing this group.  And a realtor, Desi Reyes, who lost the spring in his step awhile ago.  I think Yesenia Godinez is a younger member but five vacancies on that Commission including the Student Representative.  For shame!

The same story prevails at the Historic Resources Commission.  And there is another aging realtor, Phil Schaeffer.

How about the Oversight Committee?  There are two Council Members on it – overseeing themselves I guess, and retired Council Member John Acosta, who as far as I know lives in Orange.  And Julie Stroud?  Are you kidding me?  Well at least she is finally off the Parks and Rec Commission.

The Planning Commission?  Old too – but they have one younger member, Phil Bacerra, whose main goal in life appears to be to open more bars in Downtown Santa Ana and to let them stay open until 4 am.

And of course there are seven vacancies on the Youth Commission.  What else did you expect?

I had to laugh by the way when Mayor Pro Tem Sal Tinajero complained in the OC Register today about the SACReD members who are ripping the City Council.  “Council members were taken aback by the comments, saying the City Council has been a proponent of affordable housing and supportive of resolutions for immigrant rights.  “To hear people make those types of comments was really tough for me to swallow because it’s not true … if that was the case, you would never have the Sunshine Ordinance,” said Mayor Pro Tem Sal Tinajero during the meeting.”

SACReD doesn’t represent the people of this city either but at least they skew younger.  No one elected them.  They are just a bunch of metiches – not unlike the Neighborhood Association types.  And they have figured out that the Council won’t pay heed to you unless you complain.

I don’t know what is in the City’s new Strategic Plan but I expect it is more of the same.  The older adults will keep ruling this city while younger families make do with a city that lacks much for them to do, and a Downtown that is dedicated to entertaining aging yuppies and hipsters who don’t live here.