​After years and years of shady dealings, bellowing promises, and more dirty money funneled toward the political process than stars in the sky, construction on the Freudian edifice known as One Broadway Plaza has officially begun. More >>

​Tomorrow, downtown SanTana will see its monthly First Saturday, which has all the galleries in the Artists Village open their doors to thousands. But not everyone will be happy--and I'm not talking about the folks gnashing their teeth about gentrification.

Feeling lost in the city's continued push to bring in restaurants, commerce, lofts, and other businesses are actual artists, especially those who have spaces in the Santora Building, where the neglectful hand of Mike Harrah reigns. Last month, a group of artists put in a public records request to find the original contract that had Harrah get a sweetheart loan with the city in the name of arts--and didn't like what they found.
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Perez: Is he the Mexican brother of Dave "YUUUP!!!" Hester from Storage Wars?

​Over the weekend, there was some sort of vote about endorsements or some shit involving Democrats in Orange County, a possible party endorsement, and the 69th Assembly District Democratic primary in June. All you need to know is that Julio Perez--formerly of the Orange County Labor Federation--handily got more votes than his opponents, former Anaheim mayor/current county clerk-reporter Tom Daly and SanTana councilwoman Michele Martinez--and that's driving the OC Dem establishment APESHIT LOCO.
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​SanTana City Council member and current 69th Assembly District candidate Michele Martinez has never been the smartest taco in the combo plate, especially since she's decided to align herself with SanTana Mayor-for-Life Don Papi Pulido and the Wicked Witch of Washington Square, Claudia Alvarez. But she committed an error of legendary dimensions--maybe not John Schmitz getting caught with a Swedish mistress, but definitely more embarrassing than Clownia's dumb insertion of Hitler into a gentrification battle--yesterday, talking about coordinating an independent expenditure with an Indian tribe. On her cell phone. On a public train.

Did we mention such coordination is illegal, if the IE is for the candidate's benefit? HILARIOUS.

Tweeting the conversation live was Bob Salladay, a senior editor for California Watch who doesn't cover Orange County but just happened to be on the same northbound train as Martinez.
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​Is the ultimate arbiter of art and culture in the city of Santa Ana the federal Department of Homeland Security?

Seems to be so based on a recent letter Vicky Baxter, executive director of Downtown Incorporated of Santa Ana, sent to Reverend Al Ridenour of Cacophony Los Angeles, a scheduled participant in the Feb. 4 Art Walk at Grand Central Santa Ana.
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​City Attorney Joseph A. Fletcher left the cracked streets of Santa Ana a January ago with more than $605,000 in salary, severance and benies, and new data released by the State Controller show that brought him this "distinction":

Fletcher earned more in 2010 than any other municipal employee in California except "Jabba the Corrupt" Robert Rizzo of Bell.
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Courtesy of Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance

Click for a larger image.

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See that map? It represents the new Santiago Creek Trail, which runs from the Orange County Water District Ponds near Cannon St. in Orange, all the way to the Santa Ana River--with one quarter-mile exception through Jack Fisher Park to Flower Street.
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​Pity the SanTana Fire Department, an agency with a 128-year-old history of serving the needs of the county seat. Times are tough around in all municipalities, but especially in SanTana, where the city faces an eight-figure hole due to an inept city council and the bureaucrats it's hired over the decades.

One of those bureaucrats is interim city manager Paul Walters, who's also SanTana's long-serving police chief. The fire and police department understandably take up a big chunk of the city's annual budget--so which one do you think Walters is thinking should be dissolved and outsourced?
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Not Santa Claus

​Cranes and heavy machinery are finally moving at the massive lot on the corner of Broadway and 10th Street in SanTana owned by Mike Harrah, the mega-developer intent on building on that site a 37-story Freudian eyesore called One Broadway Plaza--never mind it's right next to a high school and across the street from an elementary school. We've long covered his nearly decade-long subversion of democracy to have it built, his ownership of the SanTana City Council, and it seems like Harrah's will is finally being done.

Which raises the question: is it time to Occupy Mike Harrah?
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​Wow, I gotta hop on the wayback machine to remember what was the first time I wrote about One Broadway Plaza, the proposed 37-story office tower in a residential SanTana neighborhood that would be the tallest building in Orange County history AND the biggest Freudian monument yet erected for the SanTana's City Council's deluded, Norma Desmond-esque vision of itself. 2003? 2004? I forget, so convoluted this sordid episode is.
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