Santa Ana Bores Forbes

Santa Ana, boring? Our hopping county seat, where dudes kidnap boys, bullets rain from the sky, the Cham live free, municipal workers are laid off as trash fees rise, violent crime has dropped but still rules the county, air conditioners are cranked up to 11 in January, Lamborghini dealerships come and go (with $12 million missing), community college football players rape unconscious teens (allegedly) and Mexican gang bangers with designs on taking over LA's street drug trade get popped--THAT SANTA ANA is supposedly boring.

That doesn't even take into account Papi Pulido, Mater Dei, the mucked-up public school system, the councilman with lingerie hanging from his ear in all those Gustavo posts, the civic center's homeless population, my favorite taco truck, my old corner office, my mechanic, forever hovering police helicopters, Santa Ana Bowl and all of these places located in Santa Ana despite efforts by operators to make you believe they aren't: Morton's, Antonello's, Regency South Coast Village theater, whatever took the place of Gustaf Anders and Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. I know I'm forgetting more than I'm remembering.

So who would dare call such a place boring? Forbes, that's who. Santa Ana makes the financial rag's list of America's 10 most-boring cities: The city of Santa Ana was outdone by the infamous Santa Ana Winds that help fuel California's wildfires. The city itself is ignored in favor of its larger neighbor, Los Angeles. Forbes scoured news archives to determine which of the nation's 100 largest cities received the fewest media mentions in 2008, after being adjusted for population size. Joining Santa Ana, in no particular order, are Bakersfield and Chula Vista, California; Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert, Arizona; North Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada; Hialeah, Florida; and Aurora, Colorado.

Like the Santa Ana-LA canard, the Forbes reasoning goes that Chula Vista is overshadowed by the more happenin' San Diego; Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert by Phoenix; North Las Vegas and Henderson by Las Vegas; and Haileah by Miami. Aurora and Bakersfield, meanwhile, are just great big, boring towns in the middle of nowhere.

If Forbes thinks Santa Ana is boring, it should check out La Palma.