En el Corazon de Santa Ana, Orange County

El Centro seeks to remain strategically located in the downtown area and center of the City of Santa Ana which rests on occupied Acjachemen and Tongva land. Our work routinely revolves around local politics and organizing with the broader community’s interests. For example, in our anti-gentrification and building healthy communities work, we, community partners, and a growing base of community organizers would be strategically located in ground zero -- both where gentrification is occurring and contiguous to Central Santa Ana.

For example, major commercial development projects on Fourth Street and its surroundings in the past two decades have been exclusive, leaving out downtown business owners that cater to local poor, working-class and immigrant Mexicans, and Latinxs overall, in favor of developers’ business interests. The city’s latest attempt to implement New Urbanism and Creative City strategies of urban revitalization exacerbates this exclusion. While New Urbanism, a design-focused model of development, and Creative City, a strategy that emphasizes creative industries and urban cultural life and amenities, extol diversity and inclusiveness, they are consistently linked to gentrification and the displacement of marginalized people from cities. The on the ground debates and tensions over gentrification become obvious when we consider that downtown Santa Ana has been an attraction for poor, working-class, and immigrant Mexican culture and consumption in Orange County for over half a century.

Yet, how do we know that gentrification is changing the demographics of the downtown area? According to Londoño and González (2014), Santa Ana and the downtown are showing signs of demographic shifts and gentrification plays a role. 2010 Census data reveals a 4% population decline for Santa Ana. According to the same Census, the downtown area’s two census tracks lost an average of 13.65% of residents from 2000-2010, shifting the area’s racial composition so that on average whites increased by 17.4% and Latinos decreased by 16.33%. Londoño and González point out that while national and local political and economic conditions, such as high rates of foreclosure and the Obama administration’s draconian immigration laws influenced population declines, local anti-gentrification advocates and many long-time Latino business owners conclude that downtown revitalization is overwhelmingly responsible for downtown’s demographic changes.

Brugman’s (2014) study of demand and supply for wellness goods and services in downtown Santa Ana found that Latino renters compared to the downtown visitor or commuter. This research shows the need and differentiated economic function and momentum in Central Santa Ana, where serving and providing services to the traditional Santa Ana renter offer a tremendous opportunity to support investments in wellness.

El Centro’s space continues to be recognized as a hub for wellness activities such as education services, arts, music and culture.

It all started when…

https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/tn-wknd-et-el-centro-20181018-story.html