Downtown Santa Ana merchants and community groups, including Building Healthy Communities, will be at this Tuesday’s Santa Ana City Council meeting, to propose that the city establish a Downtown Wellness District strategy to foster retail and services that are authentic to our city’s Latino character, according to the O.C. Register.
The idea is to serve the people of Santa Ana and further diversify the visitors coming to DTSA by rebranding the area as Calle Cuatro Marketplace.”
We have been saying for some time that the hipster gentrification of DTSA has not served the majority of our residents and has in fact been part of an ongoing effort to push Latinos out of DTSA and cater to people who don’t live here.
The merchants’ Wellness District proposal is backed by a study done by the California Endowment last year that “found that downtown Santa Ana could bring in more than $137 million in new sales per year if it primarily catered to the purchasing needs of central Santa Ana residents.”
Ironically, even as our residents and downtown businesses gear up to promote the Wellness District, it seems that the hipsters on the East End are continuing to promote irresponsible drinking to 4 am in the morning. One of my readers sent me the Instagram picture seen above, from the East End marketers, that was accompanied by this caption, “Wursthaus DTSA is open until 4 am and is (sic) ready to pour you a frosty pint.” #latenights #dtsa #eastenddtsa.
What the East End hipsters are implying is that you can buy alcohol at Wursthaus until 4 am – but that is not allowed by their Conditional Use Permit. While the Santa Ana Planning Commission allowed them to stay open late, they are not supposed to sell alcoholic drinks as late as 4 am. But Wursthause also posted a picture, seen above, with the caption “It’s Friday and we’re open ’til 4am!” The picture shows their beer selection and taps.
You would think the owners of Wursthaus would know better than to mess with the City of Santa Ana since former Councilman Carlos Bustamante is allegedly one of Wursthaus’ investors.
So here is what all of this boils down too. The residents and DTSA businesses want to promote health and Latino culture via the Wellness District while the hipsters want to promote what amounts to a Drinking District. Which do you prefer? Vote below in our survey and be sure to let the City Council know on Tuesday where you stand!
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