It's always entertaining to see which sacrificial lamb the Orange County Republican Party offers to Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez every two years, but the 2008 election is already proving to be particularly fun. Running unopposed as the Republican nominee for the 47th Congressional District is Santa Ana Unified School District Trustee Rosemarie Avila, whom we'll always remember for telling her pastor, Calvary Chapel's Chuck Smith, that her school district was planning to become the first in Orange County to offer benefits for same-sex couples. Smith, in turn, told his zombies to complain--and, oh, did they.

Enough about the past. On May 28, Avila will speak before the converted at the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. As part of the promotion, CCIR links to an ad paid for by Friends of Rosie Avila touting their candidate. Amongst many hilarious assertions (Avila was hardly the main catalyst behind the 2004 Nativo Lopez recall) is this: that Avila "regularly appears on FOX NEWS, CNN, ABC, cable television and radio talk shows as a trusted source of information."

Or, does she?

*Updated with new info on the bottom...

You know we live in dark times when a Macarthur Genius-winning mensch like Rueben Martinez has to close his legendary Libreria Martinez, the country's premier Latino-themed bookstore visited by every author from the legendary (Carlos Fuentes) to the terrible (yours truly). Am about to board a flight to Kansas City, so much more to come. Just two thoughts for y'all: hey, Santa Ana Mayor Papi Pulido: instead of allocating $1 million for a FREAKING ANTEATER EXHIBIT at the Santa Ana Zoo, howzabout helping Mr. Martinez? And Martinez landlord Orange County High School of the Performing Arts: howzabout helping out your best tenant? I ain't holding my breath...

**UPDATE: Just got off the phone with a Libreria Martinez worker. Store is selling some books at 40% off in the hopes of staving off a closure. There's still hope that Martinez doesn't shut down, but people need to start buying books--and fast.

**UPDATE: The mad genius of San Diego State, Bill Nericcio, weighs in.

Back in January, I theorized out loud about a SanTana scandal of Chinatown-esque proportions: the introduction of a light-rail system most likely involving the Cordoba Corporation, whose CEO sits alongside SanTana conflict-of-influenza-afflicted councilmember Carlos Bustamante on the board of the Santa Ana Business Bank. Last month, SanTana announced they would join Garden Grove in asking the Orange County Transportation Authority for about $300 million to make their choo-choo dreams a reality.

Today, we received an email blast from SanTana councilwoman Michelle Martinez announcing a charity basketball game this Saturday at Hector Godinez High School as part of the city's Nutrition and Fitness fair. The teams will feature "Elected Officials and Community Leaders," a fairly accurate statement (the rosters include politicos and non-profit types) save for one person: Cordoba Vice President of Transportation Jose de Jesus Martinez.

As we explained in January, Martinez was hired last year by SanTana officials to consult on their mass-transit plans to the tune of at least $10,000. He and other Cordoba workers accompanied City Manager Dave Ream, director of planning Jay Treviño and other SanTana bureaucrats to a Portland conference advocating mass transit solutions (thankfully, public records show Martinez and his crew went on their company's dime).

Martinez is the only participant in Saturday's game highlighted by his ties to a private practice. Even other people who have their own private practices (such as dentist Arturo Lomeli) don't bother putting their business' name out there. I say Martinez's participation is the beginning of Cordoba's efforts to ingratiate itself to sanTaneros--but then again, it's Chinatown. Wait, SanTana officials burned that down in 1906...

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?

News this afternoon that the SanTana police department will shut down most of northbound Bristol Street until tomorrow morning to stem off car cruising is about as breaking as that the city is mostly Mexican. The city has unsuccessfully battled cruisers on Bristol for almost 20 years. In 1989, the city council officially banned cruising at the behest of Police Chief Paul Walters, but enforcing that ordinance failed so spectacularly that in 1993, 12 other police agencies helped SanTana black-and-whites to try and stop the pastime to the tune of $150,000. The city declared victoria in 1995, but the cruisers returned en force in 2001--and here we are again.

The funniest thing about this episode? Bristol is where SanTana Mayor Papi Pulido use to ride low and slow. This shocking revelation (the Papi is usually about as exciting as stucco) comes courtesy of Pulido himself. No, Papi didn't break his years-long embargo against the Weekly--at a 1995 City Council meeting, the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying, ""I used to cruise there, by the way," "there" referring to Bristol. Will we see the Papi flipping the hydraulics on a '65 Impala? Stay tuned...

In preparing for a--shameless self-promotion alert!--coming Navel Gazing profile of Orange County hate groups, I came across a stunning--though not surprising--revelation: Orange County was officially founded by the Ku Klux Klan.

This insight comes courtesy of Dr. Henry William Head, a Civil War veteran who served as a Los Angeles County Assemblymember (representing the Orange County region) from 1883-1889. Biographies on Head in the Santa Ana Library History Room and subsequent stories about him in the Orange County Register peg the good doctor as one of the men crucial to helping Orange County secede from Los Angeles' evil, evil grasp way back when. Problem is, none of them reveal Head's KKK membership--not Orange County Medical History, not Orange County Through Four Centuries or any of the main Orange County history textbooks, not even the self-congratulatory compendium of "notable" Orange County citizens printed in the 1930s whose title I can't remember but has glowing words about Head.

To find out about Head's uber-racist past, one has to delve deep into the Klan's history and read through Annie Cooper Burton's 1916 pamphlet on the Klu Klux Klan (the Santa Ana History Room has a copy), one of the first histories of the KKK and published just after The Birth of a Nation gave rise to the KKK's more-famous appearance in Orange County. Burton used Head--who she described as "a popular physician of Santa Ana, California"--as one of her primary resources, and Head--a former Grand Cyclops from the days when he lived in his native Tennessee--was more than happy to comply. Head was a Klansman almost since the group's founding 1867 convention in Nashville, by his own admission. He was in the KKK for about three years, until the Klan's reputed leader at the time, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, ordered all KKK members to burn all "Uniforms, oaths, and rituals ...because it meant death to a Klansman to have them found in his possession, so strong had grown the feeling against the Order, due to unscrupulous outsiders who committed horrible deeds in the guise of the Klan," according to Burton. But Head kept his robes and posed for a shot (pictured above) for Burton. "It was strange how the old feeling came back to him," she wrote. "He felt, he said, as if he were breaking his secret oath in thus displaying his uniform. Certainly he did look guilty and a little self-conscious as he emerged from the funny-looking garment."

There you have it, folks: Orange County was founded by a racist. Surprised? Of course not? Surprised that Orange County historians don't bother with this annoying factoid? If you were, you have a lot of reading to do--and don't bother with the Orange Crate Label school of history!

Papi Pulido and his amigos can breathe a bit easier: longtime Los Angeles Times SanTana reporter Jennifer Delson is leaving the paper, as reported by LA Observed and confirmed by Delson via phone call. Delson has written about Orange County's wackiest city since 1999, when she was known as Jennifer Mena.

No word yet on whether the Times will replace Delson with another writer, but her departure is further proof that owner Sam Zell is all bluster and cuss words and no action. Hey Zell, you fuck (note to readers: personal joke between he and I and not gratuitous name-calling): last month, you threw a fit about the Times' Washington, D.C. bureau being overstaffed and the Orange County offices being bereft of reporters and promised to reverse those numbers. How is letting a veteran reporter like Delson leave fulfilling that promise? We don't await an answer, as you obviously love to mumble about pussy much more than allow your quality product to approach Singleton territory.

With apologies to Orange County Register sports genius Randy Youngman, notes, quotes and observations from yesterday's Orange County Hispanic Bar Association annual fundraising dinner:

*Greeting the well-dressed, well-coiffed crowd as they drove toward the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel were about eight anti-Mexican whackjobs--and we don't add the "anti-illegal immigrant" qualifier like other journalists because they told more than one cute attorney of Mexican descent to "go home." Spotted was Lupe "Mexicans are Nazis; Americans are Jews" Moreno, the wab with the "Viva Minutemen" sign and other Know Nothings, whose sartorial sense showed that you don't have to be an illegal immigrant to dress swap meet-chic.

*Spotted: State senator Lou Correa, assemblyman Jose Solorio, and SanTana councilmembers Claudia Alvarez, Michelle Martinez, Vince Sarmiento, and David Benavides (Sal Tinajero was announced but I didn't see him). When Martinez and Alvarez sat at the same table, it sparked the coldest chill since the Ice Age.

*Winning bid for a dinner with yours truly and an autographed copy of my pinche book: $50. Damn cheap Mexicans...

*Course: so-so ceviche salad, delicious prawns paired with a too-tender tenderloined rubbed in a tasty adobo, and a soft, yummy chocolate ganache cake. Everyone could've been better served down the street at Bentoss.

*KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Dave Lopez served as emcee, and the legend was ornery. Twice, he browbeat people into shushing, at one point uttering "Gimme a break!" Love your stuff, Dave, but never imagined you to be such a diva.

*Somehow, I ended up with the business card of Los Angeles Times legal reporter Henry Weinstein. Bizarre...

*Your taxpayer dollars at work: all 560 attendees received two small chocolate bars (more like bites) wrapped in foil labeled with "University of California, Irvine." The chocolate was gross.

*In fairness to UCI, its new law professor Erwin Chemerinsky was the keynote speaker. Didn't stick around to hear his spiel, but betcha Mickadeit'll be all over it tomorrow.

*Special thanks to the folks at Rutan and Tucker for letting me sit at their table. When I asked about the whereabouts of their pendejo co-worker, Patrick Muñoz, they nervously laughed and move the conversation to polite topics.

With the skies painted a dismal gray, and my mood darkening to match what loomed overhead, I headed to Santa Ana for the Santa Ana Zoo’s weekend birthday celebration.

What’s that, you say? Santa Ana has a zoo? Yessiree. That it does and this weekend, the zoo turns 56. Fifty-six years of caged monkeys, displayed farm animals and good old-fashioned family fun.

I should have been more excited. I was, after all, headed to a party … but there’s something strangely somber about heading out to a small facility to view wild animals trapped for display. That may not be entirely fair, either. Who’s to say that the animals weren’t rescued then placed in tiny habitats because they couldn’t survive in the wild? Either way, the zoo is celebrating a birthday and catering to the families and community that have been its lifeblood for 56 years.

On the drive to Weekly world headquarters in SanTana today, I noticed a banner hanging on a chainlink fence near the Santiago Street Lofts. "Santiago Art District," it read, and what a relief! Faithful readers will recall my bickering with some loft residents over their attempted, lame branding of the area as the North Logan Artist District (NoLo for short), a historically inaccurate laugher if there ever was one--and it's no longer there. As I explained to the mysterious Ben Dayhoe (author of the chingón blog Life at the Santiago Lofts) last Saturday at Jason's Downown, I never meant my little crusade to become personal--I just get a little nutty when it comes to Orange County history. Dunno who was behind the name change, but the ghosts of OC past salute you, loft dwellers. Everyone else: check out the area's ArtWalk every third Saturday of the month.

Have received many emails since the weekend about the fate of El Pollo de Oro, a SanTana charbroiled chicken shop beloved by eaters for its namesake juicy golden hens and affordable prices.

I didn't know what the hell they were talking about until visiting today and finding a gutted interior and two papers taped to the storefront window, each scrawled with the word "CERRADO" ("closed" in Spanish). Its phone number is disconnected; its stern owner nowhere to be found. Methinks it's rising rent rates in SanTana's Fourth Street, but will investigate further. In the meanwhile, pray that the spot doesn't get transformed into some chain pendejada. And for charbroiled chicken fans, two fantastic substitutes: El Pollo Fino in Anaheim and the county's best charbroiled chicken, San Clemente's Surfin' Chicken.

Go to each, and raise a wing in memory of El Pollo de Oro.

On the corner of Santa Ana Boulevard and Broadway in SanTana stands a magnificent YMCA building (pictured here in the city's pre-Mexico days) that's been abandoned for years. Developers have proposed various ideas—turn it into a boutique hotel, reopen it as gym, transform the structure into an extension of Chapman University's film school, or tear the sucker down.

The latest pitch comes from one Jack Dangelo, managing partner at Giachino Development Co.: as reported by the Orange County Register, the Corona del Mar-based developer wants to turn the YMCA building into a mixed-use structure whose primary tenants would be the Orange County Archives and the wonderful non-profit, Taller San Jose. All the city has to do for this great project to happen is give Dangelo the building (estimated value around $9 millions) for gratis, and Dangelo promises to spend about $14 million to repair the YMCA.

Sounds chido, right? There are just a couple of problems, and all deal with Mr. Dangelo.

Over the weekend, the Orange County Register reported that SanTana City bureaucrats have put their much-vaunted Renaissance Plan on hold after public outcry over its Big Hermano approach to redevelopment. But that's not the biggest news: reporter Doug Irving also revealed that councilmember Vince Sarmiento is recusing himself from all votes and discussions involving the Renaissance Plan, even though his family's business is currently part of the Renaissance Blob and therefore outside its jurisdiction (gracias, Doug, for acknowledging that the Weekly first broke this story--you'll become the next Courtney Perkes yet). "In an interview last week," Irving wrote, "Sarmiento said he intends to remove himself from all further discussion of the plan, because 'the perceived or apparent conflict (of interest) is enough sometimes.'" Congratulations, Vince, on being an ethical councilmember--mind telling your colleagues to follow your example, por favor?

...live in SanTana. Measure D, the ballot measure funded by developers which claimed it would weaken their own grip on City Hall, passed by a 54-46 margin last night.

No excuses, SanTaneros: the lot of your are pendejos* who don't mind living under Papi Pulido and his band of conflict-of-influenza-infected City Council, don't bother to read your local papers (whether in English or español) to learn the truth behind robo-calls and idiot fliers, and don't even bother to vote. Consider the story of Roberto, whom I met at Taqueria de Anda on Fourth Street after leaving the morgue that was Pangea last night.

Roberto is a 24-year-old SanTana resident and American-born citizen. When I asked him about Measure D, Robert responded, "Yeah, I saw the Measure D posters around the city."

Did you vote?

"No."

Why not?

"I don't vote."

Why not?

"I just don't. I don't know about the issues."

Why not?

(shrug of shoulders and a smirk)

Compare that with my beloved Anaheim, where voters ran out trustee/bigot Harald Martin out of office last summer and replaced him last night with the bright Jordan Brandman, a man whose only true fault is he probably views the position as a springboard for something higher in the future. Anaheim might not be as Mexican as SanTana, but we're getting there--and our Mexicans pay attention. Those in SanTana? You deserve the Aliso Viejo that's coming your way.

*Exception made for the folks who voted against Measure D. Keep fighting the good fight against vendido politicians.

The Measure D gap has shrunk--a tiny amount, but shrunk. The No on Measure D crowd are getting more optimistic. They have no other choice. "We already saw the bulldozers driving up Flower Street," Orange Juice blogger Thomas Anthony Gordon cracks. I tell them to pray hard, or to at least move to Anaheim. "We do gentrification right!" I offer, which the semi-drunk Measure D folks think is the funniest thing in the world.

"We should put that on a bumper sticker with Curt Pringle's face on it!" Gordon howls, referring to Anaheim's eternally sunny mayor. Then he falls into gallows humor. "By the time all the votes are in, [the historic] Logan [barrio] will just be a pile of timber!'

"Ah, shit!" Phil Bacerra exclaims as he sees the early results for SanTana's Measure D term-limit extension. Measure D (D is for Developers) is currently winning by a nearly 60-40 margin, and the No on Measure D troops--Orange Juice bloggers Tish Leon and Thomas Anthony Gordon, and others--have arrived at Pangea and look glum.

Leon tries to muster a smile. "They say that the early results of a vote usually predict whether something will win or lose," she says. "But I talked to everyone I know, and they all voted no." She goes outside with her No on Measure D group, who stand around a laptop with long faces.

"I hate to sound like the eternal optimist," Bacerra says as he sees the results. But reality sets in. "Fuck!" he whispers. "Fuck!"

The "No on Measure D" sign on a fenced-off area of the City Place lofts in North SanTana. City Place's developer? Robert Bisno, who gave $40,000 to the Yes on Measure D efforts.

Not only does God have a sense of humor, he protects it via the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Today, SanTana voters will vote on Measure D, a ballot initiative that proposes to extend term limits from two four-year terms to three and whose supporters have waged one of the most misleading campaigns since the Iraq War. We won't know if Measure D passes until tonight, but one thing is certain: if it passes, SanTana residents can expect its leaders to want to rev up those redevelopment bulldozers pronto.

Both Orange Juice and The Liberal OC reported about a curious incident that happened yesterday during a meeting involving business owners in the city's historic Logan barrio. One of the main concerns is Ware Disposal, which bases its operations within breathing space of residential neighborhoods. Ware folks donated $20,000 toward the Yes on Measure D campaign, and a couple thousand more to SanTana councilmember Carlos Bustamante's failed 2006 supervisorial race, all in an effort to keep operating within eyesight of kiddies and families with no thought to their safety.

The Ware folks must despise Logan residents because during the meeting, Ware attorney A. Patrick Muñoz (of the muy connected OC law firm Rutan and Tucker) rose before the group of 50 or so Logan-area businessmen and described the houses in Logan as "crummy shacks that should be torn down." To top that off, Orange Juice blogger Thomas Gordon also claims Muñoz yelled "Fuck you" to him and gave Gordon the finger.

Who is Muñoz?

We've always been big fans of Los Angeles Times SanTana reporter Jennifer Delson because her stories are how journalism should be: hard-hitting, about unserved communities, and making a difference. And her skills have never been more evident than this past weekend, when Delson wrote a piece about the robo-calls infiltrating SanTana households this past weekend in support of Measure D, a topic we already discussed. She revealed that the message "does not identify who is paying for the call, a violation of state law."

Somebody is reading Delson, because SanTana residents received another robo-call over the weekend, this one voiced by councilmember (and the primary benefactor if Measure D passes) Claudia Alvarez. Identifying herself as mayor pro tem, Alvarez repeats the myths that Measure D is for "democracy" and "gets developers and special interests from taking over City Hall," the last point being particularly hilarious since Alvarez's main political papi Robert Bisno is the primary funder behind the Yes on Measure D campaign. At the end of her message, Alvarez says something curious: she identifies the PAC behind the call. Listen below:

Download file

Congrats, Jennifer, for making a difference. And Claudia: congrats on reading your Papi Pulido-approved script without whispering "pendejos" at the end!

Supporters of SanTana Mayor Papi Pulido claim he's the last line of defense before one of the most-Latino cities in the United States (and the largest with an all-Latino city council) finally becomes Mexico. But if the fliers that reached SanTana voter mailboxes over the weekend are any indications, the city is heading in a new, disturbing direction: political cheapness.

Take a look at the fliers presented here, for the city's ridiculous Measure D ballot initiative. Notice the lame graphics? The implausible scenario? The fat cat stereotype? The railings against special interests, railings we already debunked? Nearly $100,000 in donations and the best argument Papi Pulido and his pals can buy is a FREAKIN' moat?! The last time a Latino politician resorted to such lame tactics was in South Gate, when Albert Robles made the working-class Los Angeles suburb his own fiefdom. The worst part about this? The firm listed as being behind the fliers, Kaufman Downing, was one of the ethical heavyweights behind Robles' recall. Those who forget the past, huh?

More information on other Measure D shenanigans at Orange Juice!, The Sunken Road, and Life at the Santiago Street Lofts...

I'm confused. Supporters of SanTana's Measure D--which seeks to extend term limits for councilmembers from two four year-terms to three--say the initiative is necessary to curb the power of special interests and developers, a lie we already exposed. But today comes word that SanTana voters are being flooded with a robocall by a Santa Ana school teacher (can't make out the name, but it sounds like Marie) claiming that Measure D "is critically important to ensure ethical and accountable leadership in City Hall." Then the ringer:

Measure D, for Democracy

HA! HA! HA!

Listen to the hilarious robocall:

I remember SanTana councilmember Claudia Alvarez. I remember back in early 2000, when a friend of mine asked if I could help stuff envelopes for a campaign he was working on for a deputy district attorney. I remember meeting her--young, energetic, sincere--and thinking I wanted more politicians like her in office.

I remember Claudia Alvarez. I remember stuffing envelopes in the garage of her mother's realty firm, bundling up next to the heater as my friends and I worked for free. I remember looking in the trash can and discovering some crazy rag called OC Weekly.

I remember Claudia Alvarez. I remember going to the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association's annual dinner and seeing her charm the socks off everyone after a brief speech. Everyone whispered this lady had a chance at becoming great.

I remember Claudia Alvarez. I remember going to her first fundraiser, at Avila's El Ranchito in Santa Ana. As entertainment, she had a woman singing Mexican standards on a karaoke machine. The lady was so wabby she cracked jokes about Michael Jackson. I sang "Tristes Recuerdos." I sucked.

I remember Claudia Alvarez. I remember hanging with the Democrats in 2000 at whichever Anaheim hotel they always have their post-election party. I remember seeing an exhausted Claudia walk in with her supporters, certain of victory over some Papi Pulido puppet. I had stopped volunteering months earlier on amicable terms, having to concentrate on Chapman University.

I remember Claudia Alvarez. I remember seeing her at SanTana city council meetings, where she would wave hola to me from behind the dais.

We must apologize for two huge errors we made in our recent post regarding developer Robert Bisno's campaign contribution love affair with SanTana councilmember Claudia Alvarez. We had reported that Bisno and his friends contributed $36,300 to her failed 2006 Assembly race, but we were grossly off. The real figure is $42,900--just Google Bisno with the names Transaction, EMG Properties, Hammerstein, and Andrew Tapper and mix 'n' match on this website. And Bisno didn't donate $20,000 to SanTana's Measure D, which would allow Alvarez to run for a third term--as Orange Juice! reported yesterday, the figure is actually $40,000. So the total Bisno has raised for Alvarez in the past two elections affecting her isn't $106,300; it's $132,900. Our sincerest apologies to Bisno and Alvarez for the error.

Only in SanTana can an effort to impose term limits on Papi Pulido transform into a ballot measure to extend term limits for councilmembers. But that's exactly what happened with Measure D, which SanTana voters will decide on February 5 and is one of the most laughable pieces of crap to grace Orange County ballots since Tan Nguyen ran for office.

Measure D proposes to extend term limits for SanTana councilmembers from two terms to three. The person who would immediately benefit is councilmember Claudia Alvarez, who is termed out this November unless Measure D passes. The argument in favor of the measure--signed by Papi Pulido and councilmember Sal Tinajero, amongst others--reads like the typical little-man call for freedom. "Santa Ana community leaders strongly believe that ethics reform and term limits will make City government more honest, effective and accountable to voters," it reads and from there it mentions "special interests" twice and "developers" three times, always negatively, always in the context of reducing their stranglehold over SanTana.

The most hilarious part about the Yes on Measure D crowd? Its principle donor is a developer--and man, do Robert Bisno (pictured above) and pals want their gal Claudia to stay!

Yesterday, we promised to investigate why SanTana officials were so adamant in redrawing the boundaries for its much-vaunted Renaissance Plan so that planning commissioner Victoria Bentacourt could vote it. Actually, we knew what we wanted to write, but there were football games to watch, broder! But now, Betancourt.

President of Coneybeare Staffing, Betancourt is a developer's dream--not only will she vote on your project, she'll also buy property from you mere days after voting on it. Consider her 2006 fiasco, when SanTana activists discovered Betancourt voted on ground-floor plans for the reprehensible One Broadway Plaza 37-story Freudian tower then accepted a plane ride to Hawaii and lodging 10 days later to check out a condo she bought from One Broadway Plaza owner Mike Harrah. The Fair Political Practices Committee ultimately cleared Betancourt, but that didn't make the episode any less smelly.

But Betancourt stands to gain much more if the Renaissance Plan gets passed. She sits on the board of the Santa Ana Business Bank, which counts as members councilmember Carlos Bustamante and trolley king George Pla, whose Cordoba Corporation is already planning SanTana's light-rail dreams. A Betancourt vote in favor...ah, let's get real; anyone actually think Betancourt would vote against something that would benefit her, her pals and a city that employs her company's services? Might be legal, but that conflict-of-influenza bug still produces one Icky Vicky!

*UPDATE: The Associated Press files a dispatch about SanTana's Renaissance Plan redrawing. Unsurprisingly, Pulido and Sarmiento didn't return a call.

Today, Los Angeles Times SanTana reporter Jennifer Delson delivers a bombshell of a story on the city's Renaissance Plan: not only did city officials redraw the Renaissance Plan boundaries to omit the family businesses of councilmember Vince Sarmiento and Mayor Papi Pulido (as we reported last month), but they're planning to do it yet again to allow councilmember Michelle Martinez and planning commissioner Victoria Bentacourt to vote on the matter. Martinez is claiming SanTana officials are using her name to deflect citizen outrage from Sarmiento and Papi Pulido, and we're inclined to believe her being that the other councilmembers despise her (see any City Council meeting...oh wait! Not all of them are televised!) and she has appeared at town hall meetings regarding the Plan. We're going to leave Bentacourt for tomorrow, but for the meanwhile, let's ridicule SanTana planning director Jay Trevino, who told Delson, "It would be silly to have a plan that three council members can't vote on." You know what's even sillier, Jay? Letting councilmembers off the hook of a plan that normal citizens are decrying as unfair to their livelihood. It's so silly, it's downright unethical--hee hee! Way to side with the afflicted, güey. Sarmiento and Pulido, by the way, didn't return Delson's calls--and we all know what that means--right, Carlos Bustamante?

One final point: Trevino says the boundaries were redrawn the first time to allow Papi Pulido and Sarmiento to vote. But, as we disclosed earlier this month, previous precedent by the two show they're honorable enough to abstain from any votes involving downtown SanTana. Even if they do the same this time, it doesn't matter: their family's properties will remain unaffected. And, as the boundaries stand for the moment, Sarmiento still can't vote, being his property is RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOUNDARY of the Renaissance Plan. Can't wait for your next draw-up, Jay--keep comforting the comforted and chingando los chingados!

My post earlier this week about the attempted naming of the Santiago Street Lofts area as the historically inaccurate North Logan Art District (NoLo for short) has sparked quite the mini-imbroglio through comments on Navel Gazing, private email and comments on Life at the Santiago Street Lofts, a muy bueno blog run a guy whose only realy sin is he likes Chipotle (seriously, Ben: I'll take you to much better burritos if you want--but screw McBurrito!!!). But no one has reacted more strongly than Chris and Kendra Bradley, owners of Neue Transit Studio. In long, rambling, misspelled comments, Chris alternately called the Weekly "a very shading publication" and wondered "why don't they write stories about calling people out on corruption in this County," and that I "didn't have th balls to say anything to my face!" about the NoLo designation. Kendra, for her part, left an anonymous comment on this blog and followed up by claiming I stabbed her "in the back in a public forum" and that I did my post solely "to save some face among your Latino amigos."

The casual observer might wonder what the hell are the Bradleys rambling about. Come gather 'round you lofters and artists, a story I will tell:

Tonight, SanTana officials hold yet another meeting for their much-vaunted, much-derided Renaissance Plan. A slew of different interests will attend, from loft dwellers who want to turn Orange County's largest city into another Aliso Viejo to activists who fear the Plan's gentrification purposes to those hell-raising boys at Orange Juice!. I won't be there, alas, busy as I am in Oakland doing...something. So I'll leave ustedes with what I hope everyone can universally deride: clueless hipsters.

Last week, we asked ustedes to pick a nickname for SanTana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who's increasingly taking on the airs of a Latin American dictator. And the winner is...Papi Pulido!

Personally, we liked El Caudillo Pulido better 'cause that would've allowed us to commission a portrait of Papi Pulido on horseback ala Napoleon--then again, who says we can't do it?

From now on, Miguel Pulido no longer exists on this blog--SanTana's mayor is now and forevermore Papi Pulido. As always, if you have a better nickname, leave it below!

Remember my post yesterday, where I theorized out loud about how SanTana councilmember Carlos Bustamante could greatly benefit if Cordoba Corporation (headed by major contributor and fellow Santa Ana Business Bank director George Pla) ever got a contract with the city to develop a mass transit system? It's already happened--and what's more, they're actively trying to influence SanTana's transit strategy.

On October 15 last year, the SanTana City Council held a special work study regarding the city's master transit plans. Giving a presentation was Jim Ross, executive director of SanTana's public works agency. Following him was one Jose de Jesus Martinez. Mayor Miguel "Times Almost up on our Nickname Poll!" Pulido gushed as he introduced him, telling councilmembers and the public Martinez was "under contract working for the city, assisting our staff from the private sector...he's with a firm that's under contract with the city...[Martinez] is a resource to all of us to try and put this together and make it successful."

Martinez began his presentation by stating he has a "love for transit" and talked about creating a system that would connect SanTana's Rail Depot to Garden Grove, saying it would be an "economic catalyst to develop something really nice" for SanTana. See the city council meeting for yourself at Santa Ana Insight--forward to around minute 38 for the October 15 meeting.

What no one ever disclosed that day is Martinez is Vice President of Transportation for Cordoba and head of its regional office. But wait, there's more!

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed the Renaissance Blob, the strange cutout in SanTana's Renaissance Specific Plan that conveniently excluded the family businesses of Mayor Miguel "What's my Nickname?" Pulido and councilmember Vince Sarmiento from its boundaries. SanTana planning commissioner Sean Mill says city planners told him that the Renaissance Blob came about so both Pulido and Sarmiento can vote on the RSP without violating SanTana's conflict-of-interest laws. Even if the gerrymandering accomplished such a feat, Pulido and Sarmiento would be violating their own precedents.

On August 6, 2007, both Pulido and Sarmiento abstained from Item 25.E from that night's consent calendar. The item at hand was a contract for All Access Entertainment to operate the annual Fiestas Patrias on Fourth Street. Minutes from that meeting show Pulido "declared a conflict of interest...due to the proximity of his family business to the proposed September Fiesta site," meaning Ace Muffler on First Street. Sarmiento also abstained from that v