Gustavo Arellano wrote a great post over at the O.C. Weekly’s Navel Gazing blog wondering what Republican Santa Ana mayoral candidate Charles Hart meant when he stated in his press release that “I am running for Mayor to help restore Santa Ana to its greatness.”
Here are a few excerpts from Arellano’s post. Be sure to click here to read the whole post! In the post Arellano cites numerous instances of old-time Usual Suspects decrying the condition of Santa Ana – back in the same time Hart is referring to!
“I was born and raised in Santa Ana,” Hart writes on his campaign website, “and I remember what Santa Ana was like when the streets were safe enough for kids to play on, our downtown was a fun place for families to visit and shop on the weekend, and the schools were considered a great place to get a good education.”
Click here to read the rest of this post.
Well by looking at old pictures of Santa Ana and driving via some beautifully design streets from the pre-Mexican era, which are now totally ruined by Mexicans, I must agree with Charles Hart and give him my 10,000 votes for having a courage to speak the truth.
I know Pedroza that you would prefer a Mexican liar Mayor from Bell City but I prefer the truth.
Fiala,
Really? How do you know that? You read this blog regularly and you know full well that I do not support politicians like those in Bell.
As for this ruination you speak of, again you are off-base. Our City Council has done a good job of getting a lot of our streets repaired over the past two years. The condition of those roads was not due to Mexicans but rather to deferred maintenance. Blame City Manager Dave Ream and past Public Works directors for that.
“You read this blog regularly and you know full well that I do not support politicians like those in Bell”…….. sure!
That is why you have made many posts about the Bell and have analyze how the Mexicans are ripping off Mexicans. However, you have made lot of posts analyzing how Americans are ripping off, hating and racially profiling against Latinos eve if it is total crapola.
You have never endorsed an American for any office who was not Latino and that is why you hate Charles Hart.
As to the streets I am not talking about the pavement! I am talking about the safety and destruction of the property by Mexicans. There are some beautiful streets with trees planed 100 yeas ago which calls for a midnight stroll but if you don’t mind the knife between your ribs from a Mexican.
oh, the streets are repaired. great. no nasty potholes to flatten your tire when you are racing away from the latest drive by shooting.
Right on Art/Gustavo.
Hart says, “and I remember what Santa Ana was like when the streets were safe enough for kids to play on, our downtown was a fun place for families to visit and shop on the weekend, and the schools were considered a great place to get a good education.”
Say what? He doesn’t look much older than 50 years old and if that is the case, when he was growing up in S.A. it was MUCH worse than today. Downtown was full of bars with many empty storefronts. Violent crime was MUCH higher than today. (Check the murder rate during those wonderful 1980’s..we led the nation.) The city council was taking political junkets to Hong Kong and buying T.V.’s on city credit cards and billing the taxpayers for expensive meals and booze before council meetings and traveling out of the state and country. (Yes those wonderful Republican/Anglo Councilmembers.)
Our schools may have had a few more whites in them but they were not setting any academic records then either. Hart was in diapers when “the schools were considered a great place to get a good education.” Neighborhoods were being ruined by those same S.A. white former Councilmembers tearing down homes and churches to build high density apartments.
Not my idea of the “Good old days.” Were there more Gringos then? Yes. Was it a nice place to live or shop? No way. Can you say, Mitchell Brothers Adult Theater at Honer Plaza or the Handlebar Saloon wet T-shirt contests downtown? When he waxes nostalgic about Santa Ana’s whiter days, let’s not allow his revisionist slant to cover up what he really means. What is message is meant to convey is “Hey all you holdout fellow white people trapped by real estate values in your ever more Mexican neighborhoods, vote for me!”
Art, I’m also troubled by the fact that most of Hart’s supporters also support Benavedes in his re-election bid. Hart is clearly Anti-Latino and yet Benavedes gives them a wink and a nod and welcomes them like family into his campaign? It’s a shame to see a man or woman betray their own people like that just to hold on to a little power. Shameful.
“Hart is clearly Anti-Latino”…… and what is wrong with that?
By definition you are against (those wonderful Republican/Anglo Councilmembers.) ….. that is a OK?
Tino, you are just another white hater latina.
“Tino, you are just another white hater latina”
Stan, It’s time to take a Spanish class at SAC.
Since i’m a ;man, the proper word is Latino not Latina
I wish you would use correct Spanish.
If I would knew that you are a man I would spell it right, you bet.
However, you brag like a woman and your name does not sound masculine neither so I stand corrected.
Tino, you are just another white hater latino.
Fiala,
Cool it. Treat our commenters with respect please. There is no need for these personal insults.
I know this is naive, but how about remembering that the civil rights movement was about promoting EQUALITY and a lack of discrimination. This continued discussion of race if melting pot America does not further ANY cause. I dare anyone to provide a working definition of what it means to be “black,” “white,” “latina,” or other than purely based on a passport, what it means to be “mexican.” All of these titles are just used by those fostering hate or wanting to continue politics based on patronage. I have five kids, three of Nordic descent and two through latin descent – I pray that they are all treated equally and dialogue like this is NOT productive.
hey i guess this guy is trying to restore santa ana and pedroza rips him . LIKE SANTA ANA IS IN GREAT SHAPE TODAY . i think stan f got this one right . if it comes down to a qualifed white guy and a unqualifed latino . pedroza will take the latino . because with him EVERYTHING IS ABOUT RACE .
I remember a time when Santa Ana wasn’t the fetid cesspool that it is today. The invasion of hordes of illegals has resulted in Santa Ana becoming a failed, 3rd world city. It’s an absolute shame what has happened to a city that was once the center of all that Orange County stood for and was known for. What’s left is now an urban failure – a ghetto full of poor, illiterate savages. The only hope for that place now is for the earth to open up beneath the entire city and its inhabitants and swallow it whole.
With Hart on the nutter tea bagger far right, and Amezqua on the viva la raza left, all of a sudden our imperfect Mayor Pulido is starting to look pretty good to me!
I agree that his why I have endorsed Pulido as his opponent in 2006 election and have instructed my 10,000 suporters from the 2004 election to vote for Pulido instead for Gordon.
I have even made a motto for my constituency which no one, except for Pulido, got:
LOVE SANTA ANA MORE THAN YOU HATE PULIDO
hector great points . the reconquista pedroza crowd is so blind and is tide up in race . he fails to see how HIS OWN has brought this city down . i say that because he supports ILLEGALS .. ANY ONE WITH 2 EYES CAN SEE WHAT IS GOING ON IN THAT CITY .. it is a 3rd world city full of poor , low skilled , poor education like hector states . and every post you see of el zorro is about race , getting rid of mexicans , calling every one immigrants , NOT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS .. santa ana was once a real nice city . now why go to the bad part of mexico wnen you take a short drive to the 22 or 5 frwy and your there .
Do we wish there was less Mexicans in Santa Ana?..that questions is a little more complicated…
Yes we would like less Mexican Gangs, pregnant teens, welfare recipients, illegal immigrants, drop outs, obesity etc……
So the answer is YES to all the above who are Mexican. Which I am sad to say is quite a large majority of the population!
🙁
very interested to see if his campaign gains traction between now and November. I agree with a previous poster on a separate entry, it really seems as if someone “put him up to this” which begs me to wonder the true strategy behind this move to run. I also wonder what will happen w/ Amezcua’s campaign I haven’t seen a peep on FB or any other internet updating sources….que paso?
“it really seems as if someone “put him up to this”
There are a few candidates like this every election in Santa Ana. They appear out of thin air and then go away just as quickly after the election. I’ll believe Hart is serious when I see him SPENDING (not transfering into his campaign account for a campaign report flash roll) his own cash on the campaign. Doesn’t cost anything to set up a web site but let’s see some glossy brochures and some yard signs (not the cheap cardboard kind that melt when you turn on the sprinklers either) and a few mass mailings. Let’s see some of his kids college funds going towards dad’s big run for Mayor of Santa Ana and then I’ll believe he is serious. Otherwise this is just something Big Al and the Strouds cooked up over tacos and beer in Downtown S.A.
Mexicans themselves aren’t the problem, the CULTURE of apathy, neglect, impunity and lawlessness is – regardless of race/ethnicity.
Stating that Santa Ana is great now ignores reality and greatly damages all of its residents. Failed schools – the vast majority – are creating a permanent underclass of uneducated residents incapable of truly succeeding in life. Unchecked gang activity, everyday shootings, stabbings and assualts in residential neighborhoods create fear, uncertainty and insecurity, The crumbling infrastructure only reinforces the message that residents (illegal or not) are on their own.
Folks like Art ignoring the problems and trying to put a positive spin on Santa Ana’s plight are only perpetuating the problems and keeping it down. The police cannot solve the gang problems, only neighbors and parents can. Same goes for the schools. Accountability is the only solution, and no one is proposing holding anyone accountable – finger pointing at “haters” and “racists” won’t solve a damn thing.
rob great points . he does not see that . he only sees everything from RACE COLORED GLASSES .
I’m appalled at the tenor of some of these blogs. What happened to civil discourse? Those that have a right to vote will speak at the polls. Hart will have my vote just based on the fact that he is not the incumbent and this City needs to vote out its career politicians. Hopefully, he is what he professes to be.
Well that ought to put Hart over the top. Not.
Why the lovefest for the current group of people running the City? Looks like from your past blogs you were for bringing in others in a hope to create change.
Swedish,
We did create change. We have an all-Latino Council that has become increasingly progressive. Now they are cleaning house and dumping the Usual Suspects. I am quite happy with the direction this Council has taken.