Did you know that the O.C. Register started using the term “Ethnic Cleansing” with regard to the gentrification of Downtown Santa Ana way back in 2004?
Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Sean Mill wrote a letter to the Register that they published on August 1, 2004. I have reproduced the letter above. The Register’s letters editor came up with the headline of “Ethnic Cleansing in Santa Ana?” Mill did NOT use that term in his letter! Continue reading
Frank Barbaro, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) attacked Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez today, in a statement released to the media.
Barbaro wrote that “We strongly agree with the Anti-Defamation League’s position that no matter how strong one’s objections to any government policy, invoking the Holocaust and the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people is grossly offensive and has no place in civil political discourse.
Barbaro also wrote that “Using the Holocaust as an analogy for the frustration of local politics displays an ignorance of history and an insensitivity to the tragedy in human history that saw the murder of six million Jews and millions of others. The use of words such as ‘ethnic cleansing’ had no place in meaningful debate and discourse at the Santa Ana City Council meeting.” Continue reading
If you’ve ever visited the the Santa Ana Public Library in the Civic Center you probably have noticed a statue of a man holding a dove in front of the main entrance and asked yourself “who is he”? Is it a statue honoring one of Santa Ana’s or Orange County’s forefathers? Is it a statue honoring a historical figure from literature? An author perhaps? No this statue is none of these.
The nine-foot bronze statue that was erected in 1994 honors Alex Odeh, the west-coast regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who was murdered October 11, 1985 in a terrorist attack right here in Santa Ana at 1905 E. 17th Street. Odeh was killed when a bomb triggered as he put the key into his office door exploded. The FBI classified the bombing as a terrorist attack and believed that Jewish militants from the Jewish Defense League (JDL) were probably responsible for the murder. Continue reading
Santa Ana artist and musician Theo Hirsch unloaded on the Republicans and fake liberals who have been attacking Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez this week, in a hard hitting post on his blog. Here are a few excerpts:
After a ton of local controversy because council woman Claudia Alvares had the balls to Call out Irv Chase in accusations of Gentrification, many things have become apparent:
I got a phone call tonight, on my cell phone, from a young lady who said that Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez should “learn English” and “go back to Mexico.” The caller blurted out something about the Holocaust and then hung up.
I was left wondering if the anonymous caller knew anything about the Native American Holocaust? Or that Alvarez, like 60% of modern Mexicans and Mexican Americans, is a Mestizo – which means she is descended from Native Americans and the Spanish who conquered Mexico. (Another 30% of today’s Mexicans are thought to be Natives even today – in fact many of these people still speak only their native tongues).
Alvarez erred by comparing Santa Ana business owner and developer Irv Chase to Adolf Hitler – but she was trying to make a valid point – that Chase has systematically profited over the years by partnering with former Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream to squeeze Latinos out of Downtown Santa Ana. Chase’s purchase of the Yost Theater, which Ream arranged to have effectively stolen from the Olivas family, is but one such example of this. Continue reading
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez apologized today, in a phone call to the L.A. Times, for making statements that could be construed to be anti-Semitic.
“What I said was inappropriate, and I let my emotions get the best of me,” Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez told the L.A. Times. Here are a few more excerpts from the L.A. Times article:
Alvarez said getting emotional did not justify her statements. She said the debate has affected her personally because her father owned a business downtown, and the incident is the culmination of escalating tensions surrounding the downtown area.
“The conversation is not over,” she said. “I obviously need to learn how to keep my cool.”
What the heck is all this about, you might be wondering?
The Santa Ana City Council is holding a special meeting on Wednesday, August 24, at 5 pm. The biggest item on the agenda is a public hearing regarding the controversial Downtown Santa Ana PBID – an annual assessment that has succeeded in cleaning up and marketing Downtown Santa Ana.
I have no idea how the Santa Ana City Council will approach the PBID, but I do know that Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez has a real problem with Downtown, Inc., the organization that runs the PBID. I think Downtown, Inc. can count on Mayor Miguel Pulido and Council Members Carlos Bustamante, Vince Sarmiento and David Benavides. I am not sure where Council Members Sal Tinajero and Michele Martinez are on the PBID. I think they are supportive of the proposed changes to the PBID’s boundaries, bit they may want even more changes.
Here are the details about the Public Hearing: Continue reading
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez says that “the City Council has no authority to tell the Police Department what the policy should be,” according to the O.C. Register. That simply is not true.
Oakland is now abstaining from impounding unlicensed drivers’ cars – and from the hundreds of thousands of dollars the controversial seizures generate a year, according to California Watch. We wrote about that previously, at this link. Continue reading
The impounding of cars driven by immigrants, by the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD), is on the agenda for the Santa Ana City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting scheduled for today, August 10, at 6 pm.
SAPD Deputy Chief Carlos Rojas will be making a presentation about the car impounding to the Committee, which is comprised of Santa Ana Council Members David Benavides and Sal Tinajero and Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez.
The car impounding has taken place for years at the SAPD’s DUI checkpoints. Continue reading
Former Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream was not a fan of the Orange Juice blog
I have taken a lot of heat over the past couple of years because I ended up supporting Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido for Mayor last year – and I was retained by his consultant to design his campaign blog. This left a few of my friends scratching their heads.
I fought Pulido and his allies for over fifteen years – and flayed them onthe political blog I created, the Orange Juice. The Orange Juice blog changed Santa Ana politics. It broke down the barriers built up by now retired Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream. We went after him and his allies with such a vengeance that they monitored our site all day long. Continue reading
The City of Santa Ana spent hundreds of thousands starting up the Artists Village. Then they made tattoo shops, hookah bars and massage parlors illegal in the Downtown area. Now they have forced a gay bar that is opening up soon, called the Velvet Lounge, to go without male go-go dancers, according to the O.C. Register.
I don’t get it. If you are going to have an Artists Village shouldn’t you leave the prudishness at the door?
The argument I get from City Council loyalists is that Santa Ana is a family city, which is true to a certain extent but most families don’t venture into the Downtown area after dark. So why not let our hair down? Continue reading
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We broke the story that the Santa Ana City Council suspended the search for a new City Manager, and today the O.C. Register followed up with a new article indicating that SAPD Police Chief Paul Walters, who has been serving as the Interim Santa Ana City Manager, now wants to be considered as an applicant for the job on a permanent basis.
Santa Ana Council Member Michele Martinez told the Register that more than fifty candidates have applied for the City Manager job. That is not surprising. Santa Ana is the Orange County seat and the city has a lot going for it. Continue reading
Can’t let a rainy day go by without a new edition of Santa Ana Political Chismes, can we? Church doesn’t start for another hour, so here goes…
Santa Ana will continue to dominate the 69th Assembly District, in the latest redistricting proposal that is now headed for public comment. The new district map includes all of Santa Ana, for the most part, and just a piece of Anaheim.
The Democrats ought to be able to hang on to this seat easily – and odds are that a Santa Ana Council Member will be following the incumbent, Jose Solorio, to Sacramento. Continue reading
I was going to wait a week for the next Santa Ana Political Chismes column, but I have some more Chismes and they need to get posted now, so here we go: