Luis Orlando Gallardo Rivera is the head of an urban development agency in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico. He will be spending the next week in Orange County to attend a Fair Housing Policy Conference hosted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Luis is a member of the left wing Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in Puerto Rico, and he maintains a personal blog at: http://www.barriomulas.com/blog/
My first two days in Orange County were characterized by lengthy voyages via public transportation, with routes chosen by random. I made the initiative to purposely get lost, in an attempt to get as far away from the tourist zone as possible and see the “real Orange County.†(Or what I thought would be the “real†Orange County.) Disneyland is not my thing, so finding pockets of cultural value was most definitely a priority. I followed a similar pattern in previous visits to Mexico, Washington D.C., Seattle, and New York City, all of which blessed me with very enjoyable and enlightening experiences.
Almost instantly I felt hostility from the city planning. “This place isn’t very friendly to pedestrians,†I mentioned to locals; “Nope, you’re right.†Pedestrians seem to be brushed off as a hassle as hip box-shaped cars and convertibles plow through the six-lane avenue.
At times it seems as if public transportation usage is limited to immigrant and marginal populations; almost everybody I ran into that wasn’t from such groups had no idea what time buses stopped service. One woman was shocked when I told her that the Orange County Transportation Authority was voted #1 by the American Public Transportation Association.
In many areas, all the employees of any business was Latino and all the clients White. “Where do the White people work?†I continued to ask myself. I wonder how Mexicans feel preparing fake Mexican food for non-Mexicans.