Tonight at 7:30 PM the number one ranked Mater Dei boys basketball team will take on number two Santa Margarita at Mater Dei’s on campus arena. The much anticipated match-up is expected to draw a large crowd especially since both teams are ranked in the top 30 nationally and feature some of the top rated high school recruits in the country. However it isn’t the game that has me intrigued, it is the fact that fans, according to the OC Register, are being offered a shuttle service from First American Title near Mac Arthur and the 55 Freeway.
This has left myself and others asking, “Doesn’t Mater Dei have adequate on-site parking to handle on-campus events? Or is it that their fans are afraid to be in Santa Ana after dark?”
I can’t believe that Mater Dei doesn’t have adequate parking considering all the land ceded to them at the direction of City Manager Dave Ream. In fact I can’t believe that Mater Dei was allowed to build facilities without providing adequate parking. Was this another sweetheart deal given to the parochial school at the behest of Ream?
Besides all the land along the east side of Bristol that was given to Mater Dei so that they could turn it into a parking lot, Ream also managed to get the city council to dedicate land to the school which had been occupied by medical offices. The grand total for all the land, zero dollars and zero cents. While the residents of Santa Ana did not benefit from the Mater Dei land grab, Ream and his family sure did. After the city gave the land away to Mater Dei, Ream’s wife managed to land a cushy well paying job at the school. Ream also sent his kids to Mater Dei, because as a former councilmember told me, “Ream didn’t want his kids going to Santa Ana High School with the Mexicans.”
The fact that Mater Dei feels it needs to offer off-site parking to its fans is a testament to the failures of Dave Ream and his cronies. Either Ream and company didn’t require Mater Dei to include adequate parking when they upgraded their facilities or it’s the fact that they haven’t cleaned up Santa Ana’s image as a crime-ridden gang infested community enough to satisfy the lilly white backers of the Monarchs.
Whatever the reason, this is just another demonstration of why we need new leadership on the Eighth Floor of City Hall. With all this talk about Michele Martinez leading the way for change in Santa Ana could someone please explain how she can justify her staunch support for Dave Ream?
Why did Mater Dei invest so much in their campus if they are afraid to have people nearby after dark?
Does the OC Grand Jury know that Santa Ana is in OC? With all of the corruption surrounding Sheriff Carona, they must not be able to focus anywhere else. Now that the Sheriff has resigned, perhaps we would be so lucky to see the OC Grand Jury take a look at the disgusting corruption taking place in Santa Ana.