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I'm deciding to stir the pot and give a different opinion than the outspoken minority here about a city that is changing rapidly. The growth has become so self-sustaining that even those that turn their backs on the city are now, secretly, taking a closer look. This won't change the minds of those that dislike the city for whatever reason, but to those that live an open-minded life I know this will be interesting. Take a minute and read the following.
Info on myself because I know this does matter to some:
Age: I'll just say i'm one of those millennials
Race: White. Born in Huntington Beach.
Lifestyle: I <3 me urban walkable places & some good beer from The Good Beer Company in DTSA.
Current Residence: Santa Ana
Occupation: Urban Designer working in a large private firm here in Santa Ana.
Crime: This is what has earned Santa Ana the reputation of being a ghetto and undesirable place to be, and it's understood why that happened. The city was a hell-hole from the mid 80's up until the late 90's. Homicides were upwards of 70, violent crime was staggering, and gunshots were just as common as birds chirping. Santa Ana earned a reputation statewide. Then something very unusual happened, it all started to change very fast. Between 1991 and 2012, violent crime dropped more than 58%, murders dropped more than 85%, property crimes fell 66%, and motor-vehicle thefts fell over 88%. The trends continue too, the latest FBI data shows that in 2013, Santa Ana violent crimes fell 16% from 2012. These drops are unparalleled across anyplace in America. I have yet to find a large city in this country that has experienced such a drop. Crime has dropped so much that even Forbes acknowledges it back in 2012 with this article. So why is there still so much bitter hate for Santa Ana from some OC residents? It's simple, they don't want to acknowledge what Forbes has, Santa Ana is not dangerous... anymore. It's easier to continue saying it's a ghetto than to go back and realize it has changed. Society doesn't like change, especially when it happens this fast.
What makes the drop even more incredible is that demographics have not changed dramatically, which is another reason why this 90's stigma of the city being dangerous has not changed. It hasn't been 'gentrified' by definition. Income has increased from the mid $40,000's to $54,000 while the biggest demographic change has been a large increase in Asians moving into the city. So crime fell dramatically without an influx of rich folks, it's really an incredible story.
Another reason why the city still has a stigma is because it is compared to cities 1/4 its size like Mission Viejo or Lake Forest. If you want an accurate picture, one needs to compare cities of the same sizes. Now, of course there still are pockets and areas that are still dicey but the gang wars are gone. Sketchy areas are limited to blocks that have those old 60's/70's four/8-plex apartment like the Townsend neighborhood. Outside these small lot apartments, you won't find any problems.
We are now left with Santa Ana as one of Americas safest large cities in a very safe county. It's amazing really, a region (county in this case) of 3 million with crime rates this low is probably seen nowhere else in THE WORLD. We're lucky folks.
Transportation: A lot of folks complain about Santa Ana's inadequate infrastructure, which is pretty weird considering it's not in bad shape at all. In fact, the city has just finished repaving all but industrial roads. In terms of road capacity, it has to be understood that Santa Ana was not built during an era of car kingdom (thankfully as I will explain) so most roads are much narrower than south county. There has been large construction on various arterial roads but for the most part roads are narrower but well maintained. The city will also be completing the first transit project in the county by the end of this decade with the construction of a new streetcar that will go through downtown. It should expand through other parts of the city once the first leg is complete. As we move forward, transit & pedestrian focused cities will fare much better as traffic reaches a boiling point. We can't widen freeways more than we already have. The grid system lends itself perfectly to pedestrians, cyclist, and transit. The city is embarking on a large Complete Streets program to transform many roads into pedestrian and bike friendly avenues. It's actually pretty cool. Here is an example. Santa Ana is understanding it's potential in the transportation realm and following in Portlands footsteps in that regard.
Neighborhoods: This is probably the strongest part about Santa Ana. Tree-lined streets everywhere. The city has over 60 recognized neighborhoods in a small 27 square mile area with each having unique characteristics and some of which are full of awesome historical homes. You will find one of the counties first neighborhoods to some of the counties most modern residential high-rises. No two neighborhoods are alike which is awesome in county that is largely tract housing. Of course, a large problem has always been the care of homes in certain neighborhoods. Things are starting to change in the central part of the city though as owners have begun to really invest in their properties and bring them up. Now that it has become 'cool' to own a historic home we are seeing large re-investment in central Santa Ana historical homes.
Schools: This is why property values are still lower than surrounding cities. The majority of the schools in the city suck, no doubt about it. They have improved but not quickly enough. There are good public schools if you look closely though. Here's a list of strong public schools.
High Schools: Segerstrom, Godinez, and Middle College High. Middle Schools: MacArthur, Villa, Mendez, McFadden, and Sierra. Elementary: John Muir, Thorpe, Greenville, Madison, Taft, and Jefferson.
The city also is seeing a rise in charter schools. I'm no expert in these so I won't dive to much into it. One that comes to mind is El Sol on Broadway. There's fantastic private schools as well.
Crime isn't really the #1 issue in the city, it's now shifted towards the schools. SAUSD has improved recently with the introduction of a lot of the schools on the list up there but it has a long way to go on the older schools. A great thing they are doing is investing in school infrastructure. Almost all the schools in the city are being renovated completely which is a step in the right direction.
Downtown: Now we get to DTSA. What was once an empty and scary core has changed dramatically in the past 15 years with the rise of amazing restaurants, bars, breweries, coffee shops, and housing. As the largest Downtown in Orange County, the city is poised to become a major player in the millennial generation of urban housing. Besides the amazing food and entertainment, downtown is seeing large investment in other ways. A 500 foot high office tower is being constructed, new modern urban housing, and even adaptive-reuse! The whole city is starting to get massive urban investment with projects like these. I recommend every one of you to go out on a Saturday night and hang out in DTSA.
********
It's no joke or theory, a new and safe Santa Ana is here to stay whether or not some like it. Once the streetcar line is finished, one can expect millions of dollars to be invested along its route. Being in the central of Orange County will only propel the city further.
This stigma from the 80's and 90's is old and outdated. The city and its residents are long past those ugly years, whether or not a few people outside the city believe it won't matter since Santa Ana has reached that point of never going back. Santa Ana is unique, historical, and now very forward thinking with it's new projects both public and private. It's not your typical Orange County suburb, it's a major city.
You're obviously trying very hard to sell this fairytale to the public. How much were you paid to conjure up this cute story by the city's tourism & marketing department? A desperate folk, they are. Because this topic is by far in the Top 3 Silliest Topics posted on City-Data.com.
Naaaa, I just really like math. Did you see those percentages? I did them on paper too!
Ignore the cranky geriatrics on this forum. Anyone who actually knows how to have fun already knows Santa Ana isn't the slum ridden hell hole the octogenarians make it out to be.
The first Taste of DTSA this year was wildly successful and I'm sure more and more events like that will continue to bring popularity to the downtown.
I'm deciding to stir the pot and give a different opinion than the outspoken minority here about a city that is changing rapidly. The growth has become so self-sustaining that even those that turn their backs on the city are now, secretly, taking a closer look. This won't change the minds of those that dislike the city for whatever reason, but to those that live an open-minded life I know this will be interesting. Take a minute and read the following.
Info on myself because I know this does matter to some:
Age: I'll just say i'm one of those millennials
Race: White. Born in Huntington Beach.
Lifestyle: I <3 me urban walkable places & some good beer from The Good Beer Company in DTSA.
Current Residence: Santa Ana
Occupation: Urban Designer working in a large private firm here in Santa Ana.
Crime: This is what has earned Santa Ana the reputation of being a ghetto and undesirable place to be, and it's understood why that happened. The city was a hell-hole from the mid 80's up until the late 90's. Homicides were upwards of 70, violent crime was staggering, and gunshots were just as common as birds chirping. Santa Ana earned a reputation statewide. Then something very unusual happened, it all started to change very fast. Between 1991 and 2012, violent crime dropped more than 58%, murders dropped more than 85%, property crimes fell 66%, and motor-vehicle thefts fell over 88%. The trends continue too, the latest FBI data shows that in 2013, Santa Ana violent crimes fell 16% from 2012. These drops are unparalleled across anyplace in America. I have yet to find a large city in this country that has experienced such a drop. Crime has dropped so much that even Forbes acknowledges it back in 2012 with this article. So why is there still so much bitter hate for Santa Ana from some OC residents? It's simple, they don't want to acknowledge what Forbes has, Santa Ana is not dangerous... anymore. It's easier to continue saying it's a ghetto than to go back and realize it has changed. Society doesn't like change, especially when it happens this fast.
What makes the drop even more incredible is that demographics have not changed dramatically, which is another reason why this 90's stigma of the city being dangerous has not changed. It hasn't been 'gentrified' by definition. Income has increased from the mid $40,000's to $54,000 while the biggest demographic change has been a large increase in Asians moving into the city. So crime fell dramatically without an influx of rich folks, it's really an incredible story.
Another reason why the city still has a stigma is because it is compared to cities 1/4 its size like Mission Viejo or Lake Forest. If you want an accurate picture, one needs to compare cities of the same sizes. Now, of course there still are pockets and areas that are still dicey but the gang wars are gone. Sketchy areas are limited to blocks that have those old 60's/70's four/8-plex apartment like the Townsend neighborhood. Outside these small lot apartments, you won't find any problems.
We are now left with Santa Ana as one of Americas safest large cities in a very safe county. It's amazing really, a region (county in this case) of 3 million with crime rates this low is probably seen nowhere else in THE WORLD. We're lucky folks.
Transportation: A lot of folks complain about Santa Ana's inadequate infrastructure, which is pretty weird considering it's not in bad shape at all. In fact, the city has just finished repaving all but industrial roads. In terms of road capacity, it has to be understood that Santa Ana was not built during an era of car kingdom (thankfully as I will explain) so most roads are much narrower than south county. There has been large construction on various arterial roads but for the most part roads are narrower but well maintained. The city will also be completing the first transit project in the county by the end of this decade with the construction of a new streetcar that will go through downtown. It should expand through other parts of the city once the first leg is complete. As we move forward, transit & pedestrian focused cities will fare much better as traffic reaches a boiling point. We can't widen freeways more than we already have. The grid system lends itself perfectly to pedestrians, cyclist, and transit. The city is embarking on a large Complete Streets program to transform many roads into pedestrian and bike friendly avenues. It's actually pretty cool. Here is an example. Santa Ana is understanding it's potential in the transportation realm and following in Portlands footsteps in that regard.
Neighborhoods: This is probably the strongest part about Santa Ana. Tree-lined streets everywhere. The city has over 60 recognized neighborhoods in a small 27 square mile area with each having unique characteristics and some of which are full of awesome historical homes. You will find one of the counties first neighborhoods to some of the counties most modern residential high-rises. No two neighborhoods are alike which is awesome in county that is largely tract housing. Of course, a large problem has always been the care of homes in certain neighborhoods. Things are starting to change in the central part of the city though as owners have begun to really invest in their properties and bring them up. Now that it has become 'cool' to own a historic home we are seeing large re-investment in central Santa Ana historical homes.
Schools: This is why property values are still lower than surrounding cities. The majority of the schools in the city suck, no doubt about it. They have improved but not quickly enough. There are good public schools if you look closely though. Here's a list of strong public schools.
High Schools: Segerstrom, Godinez, and Middle College High. Middle Schools: MacArthur, Villa, Mendez, McFadden, and Sierra. Elementary: John Muir, Thorpe, Greenville, Madison, Taft, and Jefferson.
The city also is seeing a rise in charter schools. I'm no expert in these so I won't dive to much into it. One that comes to mind is El Sol on Broadway. There's fantastic private schools as well.
Crime isn't really the #1 issue in the city, it's now shifted towards the schools. SAUSD has improved recently with the introduction of a lot of the schools on the list up there but it has a long way to go on the older schools. A great thing they are doing is investing in school infrastructure. Almost all the schools in the city are being renovated completely which is a step in the right direction.
Downtown: Now we get to DTSA. What was once an empty and scary core has changed dramatically in the past 15 years with the rise of amazing restaurants, bars, breweries, coffee shops, and housing. As the largest Downtown in Orange County, the city is poised to become a major player in the millennial generation of urban housing. Besides the amazing food and entertainment, downtown is seeing large investment in other ways. A 500 foot high office tower is being constructed, new modern urban housing, and even adaptive-reuse! The whole city is starting to get massive urban investment with projects like these. I recommend every one of you to go out on a Saturday night and hang out in DTSA.
********
It's no joke or theory, a new and safe Santa Ana is here to stay whether or not some like it. Once the streetcar line is finished, one can expect millions of dollars to be invested along its route. Being in the central of Orange County will only propel the city further.
This stigma from the 80's and 90's is old and outdated. The city and its residents are long past those ugly years, whether or not a few people outside the city believe it won't matter since Santa Ana has reached that point of never going back. Santa Ana is unique, historical, and now very forward thinking with it's new projects both public and private. It's not your typical Orange County suburb, it's a major city.
Excellent analysis and much appreciated. It's great to hear from someone who is actually involved in urban design and also lives in Santa Ana.
I too have noticed the "for the better" changes that are happening in Santa Ana, especially the downtown area. It is a much livelier and safer place now then it was even 10 years ago.
The reputation of the city however, changes much slower than the actual physical changes to its environment, so that is expected, but I do see people attitudes towards it changing as of recent.
Regardless, in this day and age, I feel safer in Santa Ana than I would in say, Anaheim.
Ignore the cranky geriatrics on this forum. Anyone who actually knows how to have fun already knows Santa Ana isn't the slum ridden hell hole the octogenarians make it out to be.
The first Taste of DTSA this year was wildly successful and I'm sure more and more events like that will continue to bring popularity to the downtown.
Just waiting for a few of our, ahem, younger folks who are Santa Ana haters to come out of the woodwork.
I have been working at the Register over the past several months and it is amusing to me how the "lifers" here (people who have lived in SA their whole lives, mostly middle-aged or older women) chide me for making visits in broad daylight to McDonalds on First St near Main, as if it's the gateway to hell. They tell me I should have gone to the one on 17th St and Grand Ave. My appearance does not cause me to stand out especially, as far as I can tell, and it doesn't seem to matter anyway, at least in the circumstance I describe above.
Sometimes lifers and people with LONG memories are NOT the best ones to tell people whether or not they should move to an area. People in general do not like being wrong, and some people make a cottage industry of being willfully blind and ignorant, in order that they may remain "right" in their own minds.
Notice the extraordinarily desperate tone the OP is conveying in their post. It's like he saw someone talking bad about Santa Ana and it struck a nerve, and he retaliated by posting this thread. Crime does have its ups and downs over the decades. For some bizarre, short-sighted reason, the OP thinks that the current lull in crime is somehow permanent. It isn't. Don't believe me? Wait a while. Even the FBI acknowledges this, surprisingly.
People like the OP actually make me hope that crime suddenly sharply increases where he lives, just to p'iss him off. Especially when the stupid economy collapses. Ask the Russians for more details on how that sort of thing tends to go down.
You're obviously trying very hard to sell this fairytale to the public. How much were you paid to conjure up this cute story by the city's tourism & marketing department? A desperate folk, they are. Because this topic is by far in the Top 3 Silliest Topics posted on City-Data.com.
Santa Ana's gentrification is not a silly subject. I support it a great deal, as should all OCers. The problem is that we live now in the Spike Lee era whereby we are supposed to consider gentrification to be a negative because the newcomers are not authentic, too gay, too hipster, too white/Asian, too classist, and controlled by evil capitalist developers and politicians who refuse to provide free new and better housing for the existing residents, yada yada. These "educated and aware" idiots oppose gang injunctions and lambast the city council and Mayor of SA too.
These people show how low are society has descended with no courtesy extended, no cogent arguments presented, and veiled threats.
Last edited by LuvSouthOC; 01-18-2015 at 04:53 PM..
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