Did Santa Ana’s taxpayers pay for Team Santa Ana’s jerseys too?
Isn’t it interesting that the City of Santa Ana scheduled their Ciclovia event a month before the General Election? And sure enough Councilman David Benavides and his pal Roman Reyna, who is running for Mayor, were there in full force, promoting themselves at the City’s expense.
A friend of mine figures the City had to have spent a small fortune on City employees including perhaps 30 police officers and public safety personnel. And who knows how much they spent on marketing the event? I hear that the turnout was not great. A reader estimated total turnout at under a thousand with perhaps half of them comprised of staff and volunteers.
The weather was awful on Sunday and that might have had something to do with the low turnout but on top of that there were baseball and football games on TV. Why go bake in the hot sun – unless you were there to worship Benavides and Reyna?
It is possible that the City of Santa Ana spent close to six figures on this thinly veiled political event – essentially to promote Team Santa Ana even as it was falling apart.
Ironically Los Angeles had a Ciclovia this weekend too but the turnout at their event was huge (see picture above). Not so the turnout in Santa Ana (see picture below).
I am sure the folks who pushed for this event were well-meaning but is this really the best use of city resources?
It sure seems like folks were afraid to ride their bikes at the Santa Ana Ciclovia. With good reason as the City police can and will ticket you for riding an unregistered bike. Problem is you have to register your bike at the police station during work hours when most of us are, well, at work.
Maybe instead of spending thousands of dollars on events to promote our lame City Council incumbents the City Council should just get rid of our mandatory bike registration ordinance?
Please explain Senor Editor.
I thought Michele Martinez was the Bike enthusiast, so where is she? Why are we looking at pictures of Benavides and Reyna instead of Martinez. What’s up with this?
I thought so too. Perhaps she ducked into one of the hipster bars due to the heat?
Wow.
Good article. Of course people will say that it’s negative and you just want the city cpuncil to fail. Guess what they already did.
I can’t see how this event was at all representitive of Santa Ana as I know it.
Seriously though. Was Michele there or not?
She claimed she wants bike lanes to accompany the Mayor’s Gentrification Trolley. In fact that is about the only thing she has to say about the trolley.
So where is she?
Good question. She promoted this event on her Facebook page but there are no pictures of her at the event.
Maybe she was in Sacramento looking for Exxon Donations or Indian Casino Donations for another assembly run in two years?
Or strategizing with Lou Correa on how to look like a progressive Democrat. Looking forward to one more distracting awards ceremony tonight.
No one in their right mind is going to ride a bike in Santa Ana. I live here and I love this city but bike friendly, it most certainly is not. Until we get more bike trails and not the type that abruptly end and go nowhere, I will tell my kids to stay off of bikes unless they are only riding within a few blocks of our house. To get anywhere you have to cross major streets with no bike lanes and no paths accessible.
I thought I saw her but quickly realized I was wrong. There are a lot of women with her build in Santa Ana.
Mateo is right she and Gerado championed this thing.
Funny that she is washing her hands of it now…
She better.
She might give us all State Manufactured Ebola if she doesn’t.
Maybe she got the Chorro and couldn’t ride her bike?