Wanted: Good Ideas to Lay Great Tracks

The first significant investment the City of Santa Ana would be implementing in our neighborhood is roughly three years out, but today and tomorrow, the project will need your input to make it a success.

The three or four of you who follow this blog already know that I back this idea and I sincerely believe that building a fixed-guideway system will improve all property values all along its path as well as serve as a tremendous asset to the “working class” resident.

With that being said, the City of Santa Ana will be hosting two listening sessions where they hope to gather community input to help make this project a success for everyone.

Please Join the Cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove for a Community Listening Session for the Proposed Fixed-Guideway Project.
Your opinion is important to us!

Two community listening sessions are being planned for the proposed Santa Ana and Garden Grove Fixed Guideway project.

The goal of the project is to provide residents, workers and visitors with a new east-west transit connection between the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center (SARTC), the Downtown District and Civic Center in Central Santa Ana, and Garden Grove.

Public input is important to the project’s development and we want to hear your thoughts and ideas. We have planned two community listening sessions, both are open to the public. Please attend the meeting most convenient for your schedule.

When and Where:
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center (Train Station)
Room - Main Lobby
1000 East Santa Ana Boulevard
Santa Ana, CA 92701
*Corner of Santa Ana Boulevard and Santiago Avenue

When and Where:
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Santa Ana City Hall - Community Development Conference Room
Second Floor, Room 209
20 Civic Center Plaza
Santa Ana, CA 92701
*Corner of Civic Center Drive and Ross Street
For more information, please call us at (866) 580-9455

Upon first hearing about the rail project several years ago, I tried to find specific examples of how a streetcar system was detrimental to its city or the surrounding neighborhoods and found only hearsay.

If anyone out there in the Blogosphere knows of an example, please send it my way.

And no, the monorail project proposed and developed by Lyle Lanley does not count.

"Y'know, a town with money is a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it and danged if he knows how to use it."

Fast Water, Slow Drains and Hitler's Revenge

Every time the sky opens up like it has these past few days, I flashback like a segment in LOST to my freshman year in college when I owned a 1990, 2-door Volkswagon Jetta (I know, total chick car).

Although it was a great alternative to walking to school, this car was a complete nightmare for this starving student. Not only did the car require some kind of major maintenance every other month keeping me in an eternal poor house, but this vehicle, appropriately nicknamed "Hitler's Revenge" by a good friend, leaked water like a sieve from Hell.

The worst part about the leaking water wasn't the fact that it destroyed a $160 Art History book, or my mid-term art project, no, it was the smell that matured from the floor just behind the driver's seat. I'd often warn people that asked me for a ride that my car had a very distinct aroma–equating it to a hot burlap sack of wet spoiled potatoes. Forget the air-fresheners, it only intensified my car's unique fragrance.

It's safe to say that because of "Hitler's Revenge", I will probably never, ever buy another Volkswagon for as long as I live.

Flash forward some 10+ years and I'm answering a phone call from a neighbor living at the lofts saying that the deluge has caused the gutter water to rise over the sidewalk and slowly creep through her front door.

Naturally, my first instinct is to call Public Works to see if they know of any sewer/gutter blockages. If not, then what are the public's options to help protect their property.

From a call I placed in to Public Works on Tuesday I learned two things: “All drains and gutters in Santa Ana drain slowly” (clogged with the dreams of so many who have tried to make Santa Ana a better place, perhaps?) and the City of Santa Ana offers up to 10 free sandbags to residents, 24 hours a day at a self-service station down at 215 South Center Street (92703).


View Larger Map

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I've attached a photo below that my good neighbor-friend took as he drove around the complex. All I can say is that I’ve lived here for roughly three and half years and I’ve never seen the water run this high, so this is definitely out of the norm.

Though this might seem like another dire situation where residents of Santa Ana are once again “assed-out” by the City, the flooding at this intersection will most likely need to be addressed when the City moves forward with their Go-Local Street Car plan…hopefully.

Hopes and Fears

After living in Santa Ana for over three years, it seems as if things are finally happening in the empty lots just West of the Santiago Lofts.

When I first told my friends and family I was moving to Santa Ana, they thought I was crazy. But to me, it made perfect sense because I believe in this city–what it is, what it was, and what it could be.

As of Monday night, the Related/Griffin team is now one step closer in becoming the master developer for these nearby lots. And after three years of watching other cities evolve while Santa Ana moved at a snail's pace, I am filled with hope with the thought of what could come to our city.

But at the same time, my hopes are equally met with trepidation and fears.

Allow me to share some of my hopes and fears:

I'm hopeful that what we build, retains the quality residents already living here while attracting new ones who are invested in this city, looking to build stronger communities.

I'm fearful that like everything else in Santa Ana, it will take too long to develop and we'll have once again missed our window of opportunity.

I'm hopeful that within these ~7 acres being developed, creative open spaces and green spaces; such as parks (ground and rooftop) gardens (community/rooftop) are implemented.

I'm fearful that the children of our neighborhoods are to continue playing in empty parking lots–such as those that do everyday at Garfield Elementary.

I'm hopeful the grand vision for the Station District is for a creative, urban renewal that activates our streets and would rival the revivals that took place in destinations such as University Heights (Park Blvd/Adams Ave) in San Diego and Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.

I'm fearful that the design cues will be taken from stale city of Irvine.

I'm hopeful that when finally implemented, the streetcar is a new avenue that brings commerce to Santa Ana.

I'm fearful the streetcar will just be another way to fabulous Garden Grove.

I'm hopeful that whatever ground floor retail & restaurants planned for these lots "fit"–having something for everyone.

I'm fearful that the driving force that thought it would be okay to:

• Allowed Ware set up shop in Logan


• Build stucco monstrosities in the middle of French Park


• Not develop amenities in conjunction with the Santiago Lofts at the train depot parking lot


• Have an El Pollo Loco as the only walkable restaurant to the world famous Bowers Museum (not including Tangata which is located adjacent to the museum)

is still behind the wheel of our city.

I'm hopeful in that Santa Ana will some day become a true destination city; where new circulation is brought to our streets–where places like Downtown, The Fiesta Marketplace, 4th Street, and the Station District (including the train depot) are ventured to by people all over Southern California.

Notes from E3

Life has been pretty busy these days–good, but busy (evident in my lack of blogging among other things [as if anyone really cares]). So today, I finally got a chance to have some good 'ol fashion geek fun as the wifey and I hopped on a train to L.A. for the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 for short.

Here are some of the highlights from today's trip:

Those were some giant Final Fantasy ads.

Didn't get a chance to see the upcoming game, but the Ecto-1 was a nice treat.

The Arkham Asylum game had a pretty sweet booth–
I have to say the game looked like the best Batman game to date.

Is Manny Pacquiao the first Filipino to be in a video game?
And no, Ewoks don't count.

Super Mario Bros. Wii was a 4-player blast, but I think it may break up some families and end a few friendships as other players can collide with you, hindering your attacks and jumps.

Left 4 Dead 2 (360) looked pretty solid, though I was surprised they went with such a saturated color palette being that the game takes place during the daytime.

God of War 3 looked amazing–probably the only reason to buy a PS3 next year.
The line to play the demo was intense!

Only geeks think tattoos like this are hardcore, so naturally I LOVED it.

The best part about today's trip was that we spent zero time behind the wheel–one of the great things about living so close to the train depot.

I can't wait until 2010 when the Metrolink will be running with later hours and more frequent stops. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to stay in downtown L.A. for dinner after next year's E3.

Making It Really "Work"

Live, Work, Play.

That was one of the marketing slogans that original sold me on the Santiago Street Lofts.

Three years later, I Live here, I (sometimes) Work here, and if you're a reader of this blog, you sure as hell know I Play here.

The "Live, Work, Play" slogan dreams big for this community, but has still yet to be fully realized. With the Renaissance Plan on the back burner until election season is over, and any developments that were headed our way postponed until the next real estate cycle, I figured in the mean time, the Work element was something that could use some fine tuning.

As someone who runs a part-time business out of their store front, I've witnessed firsthand how difficult it is to do so. On several occasions, my clients were unable to find a suitable parking space nearby. With gas prices on the rise, even the parking lot at the train depot can be packed with increased ridership. Also, it doesn't help that the city of Santa Ana previously designated ALL parking around the Santiago Street Lofts as No Parking/Stopping.

Currently, the city is looking the other direction and not enforcing the No Parking on Poinsettia Street until construction is completed here at the lofts. But once the construction crew is out at the end of the year, the plan was to make that entire block No Parking/Stopping.

And why are there so many streets designated “No Parking/Stopping” around the lofts? For years, the Logan neighborhood has battled irresponsible overflow parking from some of the neighboring businesses, which prompted the city to act with their usual kill a fly with a shotgun method by restricting parking on entire blocks.

While this method has prevented trash and tow trucks from taking up residence on nearby public streets, it has also put a stranglehold on many who've decided to run a business from within their unit.

This dilemma prompted me back in January (2008) to approach the city of Santa Ana with a plan to install parking meters around the Santiago Street Lofts–allowing guests and clients easy access during normal business hours to the businesses residing in the lofts. These meters would only be enforced Monday through Friday, 9AM-6PM.

After speaking with countless individuals and getting the runaround several times over, I called Scott Kutner of the Community Development Agency for Santa Ana and he was able to put me in touch with Frank Orellana, a Senior Engineer with the city of Santa Ana's Public Works department. Frank had just recently been assigned to identify options to improve on-street parking in our area due to upcoming developments with the Santa Ana Street Car plan.

Though we're currently not in an area that allows (is zoned) for metered parking, Frank and I worked out a plan that will now allow non-metered 1-hour parking in the green areas, indicated in the graphic below. This 1-hour rule will be in effect Monday through Friday from 9AM-6PM.

But why metered/1- hour parking at all you ask? That's a great question. The plan is to prevent long-term parking on the loft-side of the street from adjacent businesses, as well as overflow from the depot parking lot–a problem that has crept into our own "visitor parking" stalls here at the lofts. The goal is to create circulation, and not stunt businesses. Not to mention, preventing any future issues with abandoned cars near the lofts.

If things go well, Frank said there’s a good possibility that the 1-hour limit can be increased to a maximum of two hours. The ultimate goal of this pet project is achieve metered parking around the lofts, but with the city of Santa Ana, it's always baby steps. But hey, it's a start.

The debate on whether or not parking should be allowed on Civic Center Drive (loft side) is still going on being that the "Go-Local" streetcar scheduled for completion in a few years would just end up taking any allotted spaces away from that side of the street.

In the mean time, these added parking spaces should help out not only the daytime businesses that are blossoming in our community, but nighttime activities including our monthly Art Walk, which, by the way, is this Saturday.

Planting a Seed in Hopes of a Tree

Every Monday night, friends, family and neighbors gather at Tommy Pastrami on Fourth Street in downtown Santa Ana to celebrate the end of another Monday while enjoying the last football game of the week.

As I was chaining my bike to a puny birch tree, one that was just recently planted out front of Tommy Pastrami blocking their $8,000 sign, I wondered if the city of Santa Ana would ever install bike racks, or if myself and other bikers will forever be chaining our bikes up to fences, light posts and trees.

It was that moment that I remembered reading about the Bike Tree–a solar powered, medium capacity bike rack that safely stores bicycles above ground, protected from the elements and away from those looking for a “free ride”.

From Treehugger.com: Rather than hitching your bike to a post at street level, swipe a smart card, enter your PIN, and your cycle is taken up the “trunk” of the tree to a dome that protects it from thieves and the elements. The tree’s footprint is minimal, which helps keep space open for pedestrians (and the dome shields them from rain, too).

In a recent conversation I had with Mayor Pulido, he stated that he wants Santa Ana to keep looking for ways to be a Greener City. If that were truly the case, one would think that bike racks would be a good start; Bike Trees an even better one.

David Hastie, the general manager of Memphis Café and fellow biker once told me that Santa Ana did indeed at one time have bike racks throughout the downtown, but being constant targets of graffiti, not to mention bicycle thefts, prompted the city to remove them all together. “A typical solution of the city by throwing the baby out with the bathwater”, he stated.

David has lobbied the city to allow him to install a single bike rack in front of Memphis, and has even offered to have the restaurant pay for it. No word yet on whether or not the city will permit this crazy idea.

In my humble opinion, the Bike Tree coupled with Thomas Gordon’s notion of bringing bike sharing to our town would be a bold statement about our town to the rest of the county, and could truly set the pace for a greener, more pedestrian/biker-friendly and multi-transit Santa Ana.

Check out the Bike Tree in action below.

The "One-Stop" Ticket

Whether you love him or hate him (or have no clue who he is), Don Cribb proposes the idea of a "One Stop" ticket between the Santa Ana and Orange stations in an article featured in the May/June 2008 edition of the Old Towne Orange Review.

The train depots in Orange and Santa Ana present exciting changes. Both areas are experiencing new residential loft development and new business and retail opportunities in these areas. Orange’s Depot Walk and Santa Ana’s Santiago Street Lofts have introduced fresh ideas and energy into established dynamics. In Orange, new loft development helps reinforce the importance of Chapman University’s growing role in the socio-economics of the area driven, in part, by its celebrated new film studio. The Orange Plaza is becoming a smaller version of “Westwood Village” near UCLA! In Santa Ana, the Santiago Street Lofts, one-hundred ten of them, with the launch of monthly art walks, have demonstrated the vitality and appeal of transient-oriented development and reinforces the role of the Downtown Artists Village as an urban interactive arts district. A new streetcar system is under review that would link the depot to the Artists Village, the Santa Ana public library and the Orange County Civic Center, where a new Court of Appeals is under construction.

What happens when these two depots better relate? New residents at Santiago Street Lofts soon discover that they have few restaurants and retail amenities nearby, even though Downtown Santa Ana has new cafes such as The Crosby at 4th & Broadway, an ultra-cool and tasty music cafe, and a stylish small development called “Art House,” a residential/professional address next to Chiarini Marble and Stone on Washington, as an example of new ideas moving into established, older areas. This said, it doesn’t take long for new buyers to recognize that a five-minute drive up Grand Avenue onto Glassell can lead to Gabbi’s, one of the best regional Mexican restaurants, or to a wealth of other good cafes and quality retail opportunities - in Orange!

The Orange and Santa Ana Depots have one important and unique feature they share; proximity! A special “One-Stop” ticket, created to encourage residents near either location to move easily back and forth by rail for educational, artistic or business benefit, would enable others to look at rail transportation more seriously in their daily lives. It means they could leave many cars at home!

Santa Ana is set to acquire county land near its depot. There have been discussions regarding more art, educational and residential development, near the depot. The first Artists Village boundaries included the Santa Ana depot and some land south of the depot reads “Artists Village influence” in terms of future development, to make use of light industrial properties.

Much as has been done in Orange. The two depots help to offer positive transportation consideration while discouraging automobile use. The more cars that enter Old Towne Orange and begin to congest the area, the less appealing the area becomes. No one wants to lessen the charm and attraction of Historic Old Towne Orange.

At a time when fuel costs are ever high and pollutants are becoming increasingly regulated, more MetroLink use could help ease vehicular demands! Much mutual benefit could be realized between two important Orange County cities with so much to share! They share a community college district, public school district boundaries and have city boundaries that move back and forth irregularly through neighborhoods and retail and office addresses. Both cities share so much! This relationship could become even more important when transportation opportunities become more important and are shared, too, to help preserve quality of life and ensure sustainable growth and maybe add a bit more interest and fun!

Don Cribb served on the Santa Ana planning commission for eight years, is currently sitting on the Environmental and Transportation Advisory Committee and is the President of the Santa Ana Council of Arts & Culture.

Would a "One-Stop" ticket encourage you to visit our neighbors to the north more frequently? If you haven’t been to Gabbi’s, my growing gut and I highly recommend.

Are there Any Depot Walk residents out there? Would this ticket encourage you to visit sunny, sometimes scary Santa Ana?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Strangers in a Strange Land

I’m a huge fan of mass transportation when I’m not in Southern California, so when my good friend/neighbor suggested we take a Sunday day trip to Los Angeles via the Metrolink, the wannabe New Yorker inside of me jumped for joy.

Even though downtown Los Angeles is only 35 miles away from the Santiago Lofts; I personally can count the times I’ve been there on one hand.

Perhaps it’s been the dreaded (potential) 2-hour crawl up the 5 freeway that makes me turn the other way and drive to my hometown of sunny San Diego.

But, with a train station in our backyard, and gas prices running at an all time high, it would be foolish to not take advantage of the Metrolink.

A weekend roundtrip ticket to Union Station and back runs you $11.50. Being that most cars average around 25mpg, not to mention the reduced stress of not having to drive on California’s dangerous cell phone-plagued freeways, this price is a steal.

Our trip began with the 10:49AM train departing the Santa Ana station–which if you don’t know, is a Nerf football’s throw from the loft sales office on Santiago Street.

The hour-long trip passed quickly and in no time our train arrived on time at Union Station at 11:50AM. From there we stopped for lunch at Philippe’s for some delicious sandwiches (you can read Elmo Monster’s wonderful review of the restaurant/adventure here) just a few minutes walk from the train depot.

Are you taking notes here City of Santa Ana?

After lunch, we headed back to Union Station and took the Red Line Subway (free with the Metrolink ticket, though no one ever stopped to check us) to 7th Street and walked a few blocks until we arrived at the South Park Flea Market.

Unfortunately, the flea market was just a small showing of vendors so what we thought would be an all-day event ended up being thirty minutes, at most.

So we headed back to the 7th Street Station where we reversed course and took the Red Line back to Union Station where we walked across the street to check out historic Olvera Street.

The piazza had live music that packed in many spectators and the street (cart) vendors were out in full force. It seemed like this was business as usual and weekend events held at Olvera Street are wonderful tourist traps–something our own Fiesta Marketplace could learn a lot from.

After some quick shopping, the Santiago gang ventured up Cesar E Chavez Avenue where we eventually found ourselves in Chinatown.

Our group ventured into the middle building pictured above to pick up some delicious "snackies" while escaping the 90-degree weather.

Afterward, we decided it was time to head back to Union Station where we caught the 4:30PM train back home, arriving promptly in Santa Ana at 5:20PM.

The simplicity, comfort and convenience or the Metrolink is one of those luxuries I’m hoping to take advantage of more often. Though I don’t think I’ll ever be able to 100% do away with my car in California, it’s definitely a goal worth trying.

California’s car-culture has a tendency to make us forget that some of life’s best adventures aren’t always the destination, but the journey itself.


If you're thinking of planning a car-free weekend trip, check out the Metrolink schedule here.

The Shape of Things to Come

Tonight as I walked down Santa Ana Boulevard to pick up a few delicious pounds of carne asada at Northgate Market, a gleeful vision of what's to come danced through my mind.

With Lennar rapidly finishing the final development of the Santiago Street Lofts, bigger and better developments will soon follow. Our community is successful and thriving, and it will be only a matter of time when the ball starts to roll on other neighboring projects.

Passing the Prime Urban office off Santa Ana Boulevard, I thought about two upcoming and exciting developments that these way cool and down-to-earth guys have in the works in this area.

Minter Court, a unique bungalow-style development consisting of 10 newly constructed town homes designed around central courtyards should most likely break ground later this year. If you haven't been inside the Prime Urban office, I highly suggest stopping by. You'll quickly become a believer in their work as soon as you step through their doors (they have a hypno-ray hidden somewhere behind all that brick).

The second project, although a bit further out should get all residents of and near the Santiago Street Lofts excited. The Depot Project is looking to feature anywhere from 12-16 ground-level retail shops/restaurants/cafes with 4-5 stories of new (residential) neighbors living along Santiago Street.

You know as soon as this project is underway, I'll be on the phone with Chipotle headquarters trying to get them to fill one of those retail pads.

In recent weeks, the OC Register has reported that the city of Santa Ana is moving forward with their plan to develop streetcars running from the Santa Ana Train Depot though out the downtown and ending in Garden Grove.

Although I personally love walking and biking through town, the thought of taking a streetcar home after a nice meal downtown does hold a very strong appeal.

I for one am all aboard with the streetcar plan and think it’s a fantastic and exciting idea to help reboot Santa Ana–I just hope that by the time the project is finally completed, I'll still be ways away from qualifying for the senior discount.

So for now, while we may have to put up with the “random feces” or the occasional tag on our complex from one of the local kiddies, things are looking to turn around dramatically in the next couple of years–and it’s that potential that makes living in this area all the worthwhile.

Amtrak Deal: Buy One Ticket, Get One Free

Amtrak is celebrating the first annual National Train Day with six weeks of festivities culminating on Saturday, May 10, 2008. What better way to celebrate riding the rails than than with a trip with a friend on Amtrak on National Train Day? With this limited time Buy One, Get One Free sale, you can buy a full fare adult ticket and get a free companion ticket valid for travel to any of over 500 Amtrak destinations. But hurry, this one day sale is valid for sale on April 4th only.

Click here for the deal.

The (Potential) Tragedy of Santa Ana

Whether or not we all agree that the Renaissance Plan is the answer to Santa Ana, James Howard Kunstler speaks some hard truths in this video that hit very close to home.



A thanks goes out to "Ted" who posted this link as a comment in the previous post. I think that this is a message that should be seen by all.

A Desire Named Street Car

While the idea of having a system of streetcars in downtown Santa Ana has generated a lot of criticism, I personally welcome it. One of the many lures that attracted me to moving to Santa Ana was the CenterLine light rail project.

But like many projects that start here in Santa Ana, the light rail project grows further from our grasp. From what I've been told by the folks at OCTA, this project will most likely not come to fruition any time soon. I've heard rumors that the city of Irvine is partly to blame, mainly because they don't want certain elements from within our city to make their way over to their taupe and beige town.

“Go away! There ain’t no monorail and there never was!”

With recent talks of a streetcar coming to this town, my hopes for a fun and successful mass-transit system are slowly being rekindled. Two serious issues that I see as an immediate problem are:

1. The streetcars are without any worthwhile destinations.
Santa Ana seems backwards at times, building new homes and lofts, attracting people like myself to this city, but then doesn't do much by way of supporting our leisurely needs. One can only go to Bowers Museum and the Discovery Center so many times.

Santa Ana seems backwards at times, building new homes and lofts, attracting people like myself to this city, but then doesn't do much by way of supporting our leisurely needs. One can only go to Bowers Museum and the Discovery Center so many times.

2. Streetcars will most likely end up the target of taggers.
Though definitely not the only other problem, the glass on the cars will undoubtedly be etched on a continual basis, and the exteriors will become the canvases for Santa Ana's very untalented spray can jockeys.

My biggest concern about continuing to live in Santa Ana, is that the city will not develop at a pace fast enough to retain the young professionals that have moved into new loft developments all over the city. We all took a big gamble moving to this city, let's just hope it pays off sooner than later.

Here is good pro-streetcar article coming from my favorite city.