Papi Pulido Reads Emails!

For the past five years, we've come to expect no response from longtime SanTana mayor Papi Pulido whenever the Weekly is working on a story involving the city. So have other longtime activists who approach him in public for a word, a murmur of acknowledgment about their concerns but come away disappointed, leading to speculation the Papi is actually a deaf-mute dwarf, the kind Moctezuma used to keep for advice.

But thanks to Orange Juice! blogger Thomas Gordon, the world now has proof that Pulido can communicate with mortals. Last week, Gordon sent a picture of a badly graffitied wall to Pulido's e-mail account and claimed the blight had been up for "several days." "I know you'll want to keep lying to the residents, telling them that the graffiti problem is under control and that there is no crime here in Santa Ana," Gordon wrote, "but for us to keep falling for your BS you have to at least play along."

Two days later, the graffiti was gone. Good work, Thomas—and Papi, mind taking a question from a reporter who isn't a gofer once in a while?