Bustamante/McEwen $1.5 Million Gentrification Plan Should Now Be Dead Once And For All

French Park resident Debbie McEwen and her cohorts, aka “the Usual Suspects”, have long seen Santa Ana City Hall as the governmental version of Burger King.  In other words when it came issues in the community they got things their way in exchange for their unwavering support for Miguel Pulido and his allies.  Well times they are a changin’ and “the Usual Suspects” aren’t happy about that. 

There is perhaps no greater example of the loss of clout by “the Usual Suspects” then my appointment to the Planning Commission.  They lobbied long and hard to no avail and that really chaps their hide.  The one other thing that clearly demonstrates their demise is the property at 1002 N. French.  This is the property I have previously written about here on the Liberal OC and at the Orange Juice that McEwen wants the city to buy for $1.5 million in order to rid her neighborhood of “a property full of Mexicans who sit on the porch and drink beer”.

Councilman Carlos Bustamante promised her he would take care of this for her, but as of yet he has not.  With the new make up of the council it does not look like McEwen is going to get her way and she is furious.  This has not stopped her from continuing to push the city to waste the taxpayer funds.  However it looks as if the plan should be completely dead as the result of the property owner deciding to move forward with plans to rehab the property.

On Monday night the Planning Commission approved the Neighborhood Project Review which will allow for an exterior modification of the front porch.  In other words, the owner can now fix up his property and help alleviate an eye soar in the neighborhood.  The owner had delayed doing any upgrades because of McEwen’s efforts to have the city buy the property.  So thanks to McEwen the neighborhood was forced to deal with this problem rather than simply having the owner clean it up.

Those on the council such as Bustamante and David Benevides have lobbied for the city’s purchase of the home to appease McEwen on the grounds that the property was a nuisance to the community.  Now that the owner has agreed to clean up the property and fix the exterior of the house, most specifically the porch, this is now a moot point.  This should once and for all kill this ridiculous plan to waste taxpayer funds and the city council should move to kill it forever.

This entire effort by McEwen is just the latest debacle concocted by the once powerfully connected bigots known as “the Usual Suspects”.  Using the guise of “neighborhood improvement” they push these proposals and in the past have gotten support for them.  But it is clear that this has nothing to do with “neighborhood improvement” and it is all about “gentrification”.  Thankfully this time it looks like it’s not gonna work.