01-02-1973 - Laserfiche WebLink

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lng, arguing and philosophizing instead of getting a job done; that there were citizens who wanted to see the community prosper. He further stated that Santa Ana had had about four developments occur; that Spurgeon and Tustin had started the city developing about 1900 and had caused a new downtown to grow up; that that had been replaced about 1920 with another set of businesses; that in the 1950's, another redevelop- ment wave had come; that about once every 20 to 30 years the downtown had renewed itself, and it had been'Z3 years since the last changes had occurred. He urged citizens to renew the visions that had been shared by Spurgeon, Tustin, Warner and McFadden in the history of Santa Ana and to fall into their footsteps; that there was a cancer in the community; that a social price was being paid for the condition of the downtown area with bars and dirty book stores; that the proposed plan was not perfect, however, nothing was perfect; that private enterprise could not accomplish the job alone; and that to adopt the proposed ordinance would be to recap- ture the spirit of those who started the community. Mr. Gordon Bragg, a member of the Board of Directors of the Santa Aha City Center Association, and Property Manager for the Bank of America Trust Department, 801 North Main, stated that both of the organizations he represented were behind the ordinance. Mr. Loren Norton, 1932 Griset St., stated that regardless of the merits of the issue before Council, the project did have political ramifications; that four of the'Councilmen would be seeking re-election in approximately three months; that he believed the matter would be an election issue, although he could not guess which would be the best side of the issue to be on. He inquired of Council if they had fully evaluated whether or not private enterprise could accomplish the desired goals in the area as efficiently as a tax-supported effort, and urged Council to reconsider Councilman Markel's request to delay the issue for two weeks. Mr. William Croddy, 2128 Victoria Drive, stated that he had been rewarded for the work he had done by the mere fact that the City was trying to do something; that he had heard no one come up with any idea to accomplish the same goals; that he was certain that if the proper leadership was taken, that private enterprise would move in. Councilman Villa requested the Mayor to explain to the audience that the proposed ordinance had nothing to do with urban renewal; that the project was to be undertaken by private enterprise in that it was downtown businessmen for downtown businessmen. Mayor Griset responded that private enterprise could not flourish without the cooperation of government; that the cooperation of government was best accomplished in Santa Ana at the local level where the best opportamity existed for local government ~nd private enterprise to work together; that income to the agency would be derived from the property taxes already being paid and thus there would be no additional taxes levied against anyone. Mr. Hector Godinez, 2218 S. Birch, stated that he had lived in the City for 48 years and had watched the failure that had occurred in leadership; that he was very desirous of lifting the City back to the status that had existed for many years; that the proposed program gave far-sighted citizens an opportunity to see once again a well-balanced downtown area with all segments of the community represented; that he was interested in maintaining the flow of sales tax; that a minority downtown area was not healthy for the minority groups; and that the fate of the downtown area rested in Council's hands. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 8 JANUARY 2, 1973