The O.C. Register touted Irvine’s safe city ranking but ignored Santa Ana’s

OJ Blogger Greg Diamond ripped Santa Ana’s safe city ranking but was silent about Irvine’s ranking

My colleague, Sean Mill, wrote a post earlier this week regarding the lack of attention paid by the O.C. Register, and in particular by their Santa Ana beat reporter Andrew Galvin, to the recent Forbes ranking of Santa Ana as the “4th Safest City in the U.S.” The Register briefly noted Santa Ana’s ranking in an article about the FBI crime data that was used by Forbes. But we found that the Register wrote an entire article on Dec. 13, touting a similar story, when the City of Irvine was ranked as the Safest City in the U.S. by an obscure entity (as compared to Forbes) – CQ Press.

The Santa Ana ranking was heavily criticized by the Liberal OC’s Chris Prevatt and by Orange Juice blogger Greg Diamond. Neither of them had anything negative to say about Irvine’s ranking, and Prevatt’s colleague, Dan Chmielewski, even wrote an entire post praising Irvine’s ranking. Diamond and Prevatt were silent about that too.

Why is it that all of these supposedly liberal bloggers are so critical of Santa Ana – even when there is something good to say about our city? Santa Ana is a majority Democrat city. Our City Council is entirely comprised of Democrats, with the exception of lone Republican Councilman Carlos Bustamante – who Chmielewski used to refer to as a “decent family man” before Bustamante resigned from his high-paying County of Orange job after facing a slew of sexual harassment charges a few months ago.

Could it be that the Forbes ranking runs counter to these bloggers’ – and the Register’s, narrative of Santa Ana? Could it be that these bloggers, and Galvin, have an issue with Latinos in general? Or with Mexican immigrants?

It is sad that they must constantly put Santa Ana in a bad light – even when a national story is available that proves Santa Ana isn’t nearly as bad a place to live as these white Democrats appear to think it is.

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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