CITY
VIEWS
Changing
Our City
The newly proposed streetcar that will connect Santa Ana to Garden Grove will
only further the gentrifi cation that is already occurring in the downtown area.
Santa Ana holds a working-class, cultural, and immigrant identity which is under-
going a tremendous change.
STORY KAREN RODRIGUEZ
The mayor of Santa Ana argues
it is a good thing. “I see this
project as very forward thinking,”
Miguel Pulido said. What Pulido
does not mention is the key
issues and challenges that come
with the streetcar, such as the
high cost of housing and funding
challenges. It’s a million dollar
idea that will become a billion
dollar one.
In other words, the cost of
creating the street car will only
increase with time. This is money
that could be used to help the
current residents of the city,
instead of using it to try to reel in
new ones. Cash fl ow that could
help resolve problems relevant
to the city like the growing
homeless population that has
been ignored by Pulido for years.
Santa Ana has an all-Latino
council, so you would think that
they are interested in preserving
the culture-rich history of the
city. However, they are instead
supporting the whitewashing of
the community. It’s a separation of
14
el Don Santa Ana College · October 29, 2018
their own roots, of an identity that
is already ignored and demonized
in today’s political climate.
Furthering the stigma that
comes with being Latino. That’s
why gentrifi cation is such a
big deal because it’s taking
a community, a culture that
is already underrepresented
and erasing it. Changing it to
fi t “refi ned” standards while
simultaneously driving people
out. And with the streetcar
in eff ect, upper middle class
individuals will only come
running. Why you ask?
Because transit-oriented
development can make
neighborhoods more desirable
and lead to gentrifi cation. The
city will become more crowded
than it already is, and housing
will evidently skyrocket, more
than it already has. So, is this new
streetcar project aimed to better
our city and benefi t the residents
that inhabit it, or is it just another
way to push us out?
Santa Ana to many families,
like mine that came here in
the 80s from Mexico, was a
supposed promise land. A place
people could go to if they were
low-income with a chance to
strive. A community where
Latino immigrants could go to
be surrounded by things familiar
to them in an unknown country.
Fourth street, or what used to
be known as “La Cuatro”, is now
called DTSA or East End. The East
End is the most recent example
of gentrifi cation.
Streets once crowded with
ethnic shops that are reminiscent
of resident’s homelands and the
Latino culture, were replaced by
hipster coff ee shops, obscure
eateries, high-end retail, and bars,
lots of them. None of which seem
to be aimed at the residents.
But the price longtime residents
have to pay for this infl ux of
upscale businesses and now a
streetcar, are far higher than a $8
dollar latte, a $90 t shirt, or a $2
future OCTA streetcar ride. It is
the cost of losing their homes.