Bustamante Keeps $1.5 Million Gentrification Plan Alive

January 8, 2008 Uncategorized 12

Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante continues to push for the city of Santa Ana to purchase a property in the French Park neighborhood at a cost to the taxpayers of $1,500,000 in an effort to appease one of his supporters. 

Bustamante, who was recently appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, made a promise to local bigot/activist Debbie McEwen during his failed Supervisors campaign that the city would acquire the property at the corner of 10th and French and relocate its current residents in return for her support.  

The proposal to purchase the property has come before the council on two other occasions and both times it failed.  According to my sources at city hall, City Manager Dave Ream is floating the idea around again at the behest of Bustamante.  My source tells me that there is little chance that this plan will go anywhere because only Bustamante, David Benevides and Mayor Miguel Pulido support it.  However Bustamante is desperate to appease McEwen, who according to her friends is absolutely furious that the property has not been purchased by the city as Bustamante had promised.

So what is so special about this property that the city would spend one million five hundred thousand dollars to aquire it and relocate its current residents?  Well, as I previously wrote in December 2005 on the Orange Juice, Ms. McEwen wants to rid her neighborhood of “a property full of Mexicans who sit on the porch and drink beer”.  That’s right Councilman Bustamante wants to spend $1.5 million to help Debbie McEwen gentrify French Park.

This isn’t the first time McEwen has turned to city officials to use taxpayer funds to help her with her bigoted agenda.  McEwen and her allies at City Hall shut down streets in her French Park neighborhood with an un-Contitutional traffic plan that was thrown out by the federal courts and Judge Cormac Carney.  The plan and subsequent legal fees cost Santa Ana taxpayers dearly and now Bustamante wants to waste more just to appease Debbie McEwen.

This proposal is yet another indication that Carlos Bustamante should not be confirmed to the Fair Employment and Housing Commission by the State Senate.  I urge you all to call Senator Lou Correa at (714) 558-4400 and ask him to lobby his colleagues to oppose the Bustamante nomination.  Then call Santa Ana City Hall at (714) 647-6900 and let them know that you oppose the “$1,500,000 Bustamante/McEwen Gentrification Plan”.

12 Comments

  1. Is this the latest project that Sal Tinajero is against?

    Is Sal trying to get back at McEwen for not supporting him for City Council?

    What ever happened to your/Sal’s crusade against Ware Disposal? Did Ware finally give Sal some money, so now he is pacified?

  3. Dear Anon,

    The Ware case is in the City Attorney’s office and they will decide what happens.

    Sal and 3 other members of the city council have continuosly opposed the spending of $1.5 million to appease the French Park bigot. Carlos continues to push for it just to keep Deb happy.

    So am I to believe that you support this waste of $1.5 million???

  4. i remember debbie mcewen and one of her hate filled rants about that property on one of the telivised meetings a while back. that woman is scary.

  6. i appreciate You going after the bad seeds, but it is unfortunate when You only go after them when they go against Your pal Sal.

  8. Anon,

    Sal has nothing to do with any of this. Why is it that you insist upon bringing his name into this discussion?

    Other than the fact that Sal plans to oppose the “McEwen/Bustamante $1,500,000 Gentrification Plan” his name has little relevance to this conversation.

  9. Sean,

    First on the Ware issue, City Attorney’s do not decide what to do with legal matters. Councils and City Managers give the attorney direction on what to do typically during closed sessions.

    Second, it is difficult to separate you from Sal and his actions. You have to understand that any position you take is seen with an eye on Sal’s activities. Fair or not it’s what your up against.

  10. Sean, you appeared noble in going after Ware Disposal up until you complained in the same post on Orange Juice that Ware Disposal did not support Sal.

  11. Why doesn’t the city force the owner to repair the place now?

    Buying the place and relocating the residents of the 7 units on a SFR lot and converting it back to original condition does solve a “Slum Lord” rental building problem. But why should the property owner be allowed to profit on failure to maintain their rentals?

  12. I think this is the same property that for a time housed two or more of the Sisters Of St. Joseph who helped break the cycle of crime in the neighborhood in the early nineties.

    I know, (as an Irishman) that I drank beer there with the nins after doing community work in the neighborhood.

    I never remember seing McEwen out there working, only taking pictures and griping.

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