It looks like 2010 is going to be the year the residents of Santa Ana begin to rise up and speak out and demand accountability from their city leaders. I have long wondered when they would have enough, it turns out having six schools to be declared failures, a non-responsive City Council, a lack of places for their children to play and gang violence have finally driven them over the edge.
First, a Santa Ana Valley High School alumni named Leo Villarreal has started a blog site called Valley High 180, although this person is not using it to pontficate and get on a soapbox, they are using it to organize people via the internet to take action. They are planning to canvass the area around Valley High and survey the residents to find out their thoughts on how they can improve the school. WOW! WHAT A CONCEPT! I wonder why none of the school board members or most of the  City Council members have never done that. They are so disconnected from this community, to the point that only ONE, YES ONE, Councilmember has regular meetings with the public that do not require you to call the 8th Floo
r and schedule a meeting. That person is David Benavides.
If you are interested in helping with the canvass on May 1st, please e-mail Leo at  ValleyHigh180@gmail.com so he can get an accurate head count.
Next, I have been informed that SACRED has scheduled tonight as a night of turnout for the Santa Ana City Council meeting. The idea is to give the Santa Ana City Counciln a visual of the people they are screwing over by trying to shove thousands of more residents in high density developments while providing NO parks. Several residents will speak about the Community Pride Event, and the 5 points that SACRED is pushing for.
If real change is to come to Santa Ana, it needs to come through the average residents like Mr. Villarreal and Lacy residents. I never had any illusion that us bloggers were going to be the straw the broke the camel’s back. People like Madero and Zapata were nothing without their rag tag band of rebels who fought to bring change to Mexico. They could not do it alone, but needed the support of the people.
It is the people speaking out now who will bring change! Change we all can believe in!
Claudio,
Sad times for the SA schools but I’m not sure why your venting on the council for this mess. I’m sure you understand that no city in California funds or administers schools. LA has a slightly different relationship but even they don’t really run anything. Not yet anyways…
Don’t get me wrong the SA Council should be regularly flogged for much of what they do, and mostly for what they don’t do, but this is not one of those issues.
So what is the connection of the Council to test scores?
just…asking?
People have always risen up to try and do what they can for this city. Up til now, they may have even made headway, and influenced positive change.
Never before has the city of Santa Ana been hamstrung by such a divisive, hostile, deceptive city council. If you speak out and they don’t agree, they can retaliate in a number of underhanded ways, and they do.
This certainly creates a chilling effect on the process, and creates apathy as the citizens ask “why bother?”, killing forward momentum by neighborhood and community groups.
That’s why a movement these days won’t have staying power. People don’t have time to waste tilting at windmills.
You can see the council at public meetings as they text, rifle papers, and talk amongst themselves ignoring the public during what are supposed to be public input and presentation items. Calls to city hall asking for councilmember help or a meeting at city hall with council and staff are not returned. The council simply doesn’t bother to show up and support community events, sending a clear message that they don’t care.
Hopefully any movement from the community will also include a change in leadership and they can get a council that cares about the people who choose to live in the city and make it a sustainable positive place.