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Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Tag Archives: fisher park

Orange County will install new fences to keep the homeless out of the flood control channels

Posted on by Posted in Andrew Do, Crime, homeless, OC Sheriff, Orange County, Public Safety, public works, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Current fencing at Fisher Park

Public Safety: Orange County Installs Secure Fencing at 24 Sites along Flood Control Channels to Prevent Homeless Encampments

Santa Ana, California – The County of Orange is installing new fencing at 24 sites along flood control channels to keep neighborhoods safe and prevent homeless encampments.

Supervisor Andrew Do, Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, worked with city leaders, county staff and law enforcement agencies on the fencing projects in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Westminster after reports of criminal activity, including a series of fires set by a homeless arsonist. Continue reading→

$9 million for new O.C. bike trails, but not on Santiago Creek’s trail

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Nature, Orange County, Parks and Recreation, Santa Ana 22 Comments

“More than $9 million of federal dollars will be spent to add 28 crucial miles of bike lanes and trails in Orange County, an effort to better connect the region’s bikeway system,” according to the O.C. Register.

That is great news, and Santa Ana will draw some benefit from this expenditure, with new bikeways along 1st St., Chestnut Ave. and Newhope St., and new bike crossings along the Maple Bike Trail.

However there will be no money to complete the Santiago Creek bike trail, which abruptly ends after you pass the MainPlace Mall/5 Fwy. overpass.  Read more about that here and here.   Continue reading→

Anti Santiago Creek bike trail NIMBYs caught on film!

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Nature, Neighborhood Associations, Orange County, Parks and Recreation, Santa Ana 7 Comments

The pathetic NIMBY’s who oppose completing the Santiago Creek bike trail have been caught on film and the results are hilarious.  What is not funny is their insistence on forcing bicyclists onto dangerous city streets instead of finishing the segment of the Santiago Creek bike trail that extends briefly through the Floral Park and Fisher Park portion of the creek.

Check out the video above and let us know what you think!  And click here to find out more about what you can do to help us finish the bike trail!

Santa Ana staff rejects Floral/Fisher Park NIMBYs’ demand to fence off trail

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Civic Affairs, Nature, Neighborhood Associations, Parks and Recreation, Paul Walters, Planning, Santa Ana 24 Comments

The Public Right of Way is 156 ft at its widest, runs 24 feet wide most of the length and the narrowest is 17 ft wide at Jack Fisher Park

The City of Santa Ana’s acting City Manager has made public a memo that is not good news for the Floral/Fisher Park NIMBY’s who want to fence off the unfinished Santiago Creek bike trail that runs through their neighborhood.  According to the memo, “Staff does not recommend fencing access to the area as it may result in other unintended consequences, such as creating a dead-end trail configuration and limiting access to the Police and Fire Departments, and will not be the most effective way of dealing with the issues raised by the neighbors.”

Here is the complete memo:

MEMORANDUM To: Paul Walters, Interim City Manager
Date: January 27, 2012
From: Mark Lawrence, Executive Assistant to the City Manager
Subject: OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUES RELATED TO A NEIGHBORHOOD REQUEST TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO THE FOOTPATH RUNNING BETWEEN JACK FISHER PARK AND THE CLASS I BICYCLE PATH THAT TERMINATES AT THE 5 FREEWAY Continue reading→

KOCE’s Real Orange to feature the Santiago Creek bike trail controversy

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Family, Nature, Orange County, Parks and Recreation, Santa Ana 2 Comments

Southern California’s PBS TV station, KOCE , is airing a story this Friday night about the controversy regarding the pending completion of the bike trail in Santiago Creek.  A group of residents in Santa Ana’s Fisher Park Neighborhood are trying to stop the bike trail and are advocating for having the area fenced off from the public.  The KOCE feature will present both sides of this story.

KOCE is going to air this segment on Thursday night at 5:00pm and 11:30pm on “Real Orange” on PBS SoCal, and it will be  repeated on Sunday night at 5:00pm and 11:30pm. Continue reading→

Supporters of finishing the Santiago Creek Bike Trail launch new website

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Family, Health and Medical, Nature, Orange County, Parks and Recreation, Santa Ana, Transportation 5 Comments

The grass-roots neighborhood organization, Neighbors for the Santiago Creek Bike Trail, that was formed to further the goal of a bike path in the “missing link” along Santiago Creek, has launched a new website.

This “missing link” is the 1/4-mile gap located in the Santiago Creek, between the 5 Freeway underpass and Flower Street (see map on reverse.) The City of Santa Ana does not currently have a bike trail proposed in the missing link. With this link closed, our neighborhoods will have ready access to adjoining trails. We want open space and the ability to connect to these outlying bike trails, shopping centers and communities either by biking, jogging or hiking. Continue reading→

Pulido’s lawyer gets dragged into the Santiago Creek bike trail melee

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Civic Affairs, Miguel Pulido, Nature, Parks and Recreation, Paul Walters, Politics, public works, Santa Ana 55 Comments

The battle to finish the Santiago creek bike trail that currently ends under a bridge, just south of the Main Place Mall and Memory Lane, in north Santa Ana, took an interesting turn today as various letters and emails that were requested by the bike trail proponents were emailed by Santa Ana City Clerk Mary Huizar to an email list of media, bloggers and trail supporters.  I loaded the documents into Google Documents and you can see them for yourself at this link.

What this all boils down to is a belief by the handful of residents who don’t want the bike trail that they would be better off by denying public access to the trail, with a fence.  There demands are a bit tough to make out by pay special attention to the letter sent to the City of Santa Ana by their attorney, Mark Rosen.  You remember him, he was an elected member of the Garden Grove City Council and he is Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido’s lawyer, which strikes me as a bit of a conflict of interest.  But there he is now representing the NIMBY neighbors. Continue reading→

Former Councilman Ted Moreno enters the Santiago Creek bike trail debate

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Civic Affairs, Health and Medical, Parks and Recreation, Santa Ana 40 Comments

Former Santa Ana Councilman Ted Moreno is defending the Fisher Park residents’ right to a messy creek

Former Santa Ana Councilman Ted Moreno has returned at long last from a self-imposed exile from local community affairs and politics.  Moreno was drawn back into the fray by an article posted on this blog on Dec. 18, regarding the efforts by a handful of Santa Ana’s wealthier residents, in the Fisher Park neighborhood, to stop the Santiago Creek bike trail from being completed.

Moreno, was convicted of extortion and money-laundering in an alleged scheme to take control of the Santa Ana City Council and sentenced in February of 2001 to almost five years in prison, according to the L.A. Times.  Many residents then and now felt that Moreno was entrapped and my old friend Lou Lopez, who was the first Latino elected to the Anaheim City Council, told me that the same FBI informant who entrapped Moreno, also tried to ensnare him.  But Lopez, a retired police officer, ran the other way, while Moreno got caught. Continue reading→

Anonymous “Save Santiago Creek Alliance” opposes finishing bike trail

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Green, Nature, Neighborhood Associations, Parks and Recreation, Public Safety, Santa Ana 31 Comments

A new website of people who are against finishing the Santiago Creek bike trail, called the “Save Santiago Creek Alliance,” is purporting to represent resident’s of Santa Ana’s Casa de Santiago, Fisher Park, Floral Park, Morrison Park, Riverview, and West Floral Park neighborhoods – but not one name appears anywhere on the website.  It is completely anonymous.

I did get an email today from a fellow named Ronald E Salem.  He claims to be the “interim director” of this mysterious anonymous organization, but his name is not to be found on their website.  I did find his Facebook page.  This guy is definitely part of the 1%.  His profile picture (see above) shows him piloting a yacht.  Nice.  He appears to be a psychologist with a family counseling practice based in Glendora.

It is terribly dishonest for these people to use the word “Alliance” in their name, given that the major proponents of finishing the Santiago Creek bike trail are the Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance. Continue reading→

Poll: Should we finish the Santiago Creek bike trail in Fisher Park?

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Nature, Neighborhood Associations, Parks and Recreation, Santa Ana 85 Comments

The disaster that is Fisher Park’s stretch of Santiago Creek

UPDATE: Now YOU can vote to support the completion of the portion of the Santiago Creek bike trail that runs through Santa Ana’s Fisher Park neighborhood.  Click here to vote!

Did the Fisher Park NIMBYs who are blocking the completion of the Santiago Creek bike trail ruin their own neighborhood?  It is a fair question to ask.

If you visit the Santiago Creek bike train in Santiago Park – or over at the Santiago Park Nature Reserve, you won’t see the horrible graffiti that is sprayed all over the place in the Fisher Park Neighborhood.  Sure, you will find isolated tagging, but nothing like the disaster at Fisher Park.

And now, according to my sources, the Fisher Park NIMBYs, led by Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Mark McLaughlin and Chapman University Professor Paul Apodaca, want to fence off their part of the creek altogether – as if that will be some sort of panacea!  It will only make things worse. Continue reading→

Will Fisher Park residents keep blocking the Santiago Creek bike trail?

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Neighborhood Associations, Parks and Recreation, Santa Ana 33 Comments

The Santiago Creek bike trail ends in the Fisher Park Neighborhood

A possible creekside bike trail proposed by some residents in north Santa Ana is generating controversy in an adjacent neighborhood, with neighbors arguing over whether the trail would create more crime and safety hazards in the area, according to the Voice of OC.

The irony is that the path is currently a major safety hazard – there are plenty of areas for miscreants to lie in wait.  If it was a bike path it would be clear, clean and would attract decent people trying to get exercise – instead of the gang bangers who litter the area with trash and graffiti.

If you take the Santiago Creek bike trail from Santiago Park, under the tunnel that takes you below Main St., towards the Discovery Center, it winds first west then north, then it jogs west again, below the 5 Freeway.  It ends right as the trail gets interesting – with a chain there to keep folks out and a foreboding trail ahead that is full of huge rocks.  You can hike the trail, but it is impossible to bike through it – and on your left, there is eventually a sheer drop of at least 18 feet, to the rocky Santiago Creek bed below.  On your right, as you walk through the trail, are homes of folks who don’t want you to be there. Continue reading→

Mothers of Floral Park announce cancellation of their Summer Carnival

Posted on by Posted in Civic Affairs, Entertainment, Neighborhood Associations, Santa Ana, Women, Youth Activities Leave a comment

The Mothers of Floral Park asked me to let our readers know that they have had to cancel their Summer Carnival, which was planned for this Saturday, August 28, at Fisher Park.

The good news is that there are several other events going on this Saturday, here in Santa Ana, and in our nearby cities, including:

 Whatever you end up doing this weekend, have a great time!  Best of luck to the Mothers of Floral Park on their future events this year.