Marc Payan wakes up just about every day well before the sun comes up, and drives to Downtown Santa Ana from his home in Irvine. He heads to a parking structure where he leads Santa Ana residents in free workouts that start at 5 am.
It is a nice story, that the L.A. Times touted in a recent article, where they opined that “in one of the nation’s densest cities, there are no beaches and hardly any parks. And, for many, paying $100 or more per month for a fitness group just isn’t an option”
That is of course complete B.S. Santa Ana has 35 parks, four joint use sites shared with the SAUSD, and 19 recreation facilities, according to the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Agency – and we are not that far from the beach. And there is in fact a downside to the workouts, dubbed Payan X. They have been waking up residents of Downtown Santa Ana for quite a long time.
Recently one resident, Yvonne Flores, who has been sick at home, emailed the Santa Ana Council Members to complain about the noisy workouts, which have not been granted a permit by the City of Santa Ana.
Flores wrote on her Facebook page, “I officially dislike Marc and his “we come in peace to bring good families to Santa Ana” non-sense. What the heck am I, chop liver? Not a good family? Good families are already here in SA and PayanX is disturbing their well being by disturbing their sleep. I say the families of Santa Ana deserve to sleep at 5am without having people from Irvine use SA city facilities without a permit and making all kinds of noise at 5am with a mob of people.”
Flores finally heard back from Council Woman Michele Martinez, whose ward includes Downtown Santa Ana, today. Apparently the workouts will be moving to Eddie West Field in January.
Why did it take so long to move these workouts? Well there are two Council Members, David Benavides and Roman Reyna, who partake in the workouts. And I am pretty sure that Martinez has done so as well. Her political consultant, Alex Flores, is a member of Payan X too. (Click here to look for pictures of these folks at the Payan X workouts). Did these Council Members run interference for Payan, at City Hall? If they did it is par for the course for these Council Members, who recently found themselves in hot water after a major contributor to their campaigns was outed in a lawsuit by a former partner. It turns out the contributions have been less than above board.
Why didn’t Payan keep his workouts in Irvine, where he lives? The city leaders in that city would never allow such shenanigans on public property – certainly not if residents were inconvenienced.
Benavides and Martinez are up for re-election next year. Reyna is apparently going to challenge our longtime Mayor, Miguel Pulido. Voters beware – these Council Members appear to march to their own rules – in this case they did so in apparent disregard for our local civic ordinances.
Nutty Pedroza strikes again! One resident complains and now she speaks for the whole city? Tell Chop Liver to get some ear plugs so the good folks can get their workout!
If you had bothered to visit her FB page you would have seen that quite a few folks are upset about these disruptive workouts.
Who her FB friends??? Come on – you are just being a cynic. Although SA does have 35 parks, some are far too small to even accommodate some kind of sports field. Art you tend to be too pessimistic sometimes. . . . .Maybe you should run for council and see what happens. . . .BTW I live off of Main & Cubbon and tend hear all sorts of Rancheras, street racers, & loud people that walk by. It’s called a CITY.
The bottom line is that permits are required for these activities when they take place on public properties. It is pretty obvious that our Council Members ran interference for Payan and that is what we refer to as civic corruption.
EDITOR,
Re-Post link to the complaint filed earlier this year!
What happened to the injured lady????? OBAMACARE covered the broken ankle? How long before that is the subject of a “CLOSED MEETING” in chambers to settle a lawsuit
I understand there ACTUAL residents whose teenaged kids were cited for skateboarding in this SAME garage. They were told it was city owned, and “other than parking” no activities were permitted.
So, my question for Ms. Esquivel is this: when did exercise for divorced MEN and single mothers, council members an their connected friends take priority over youth?
Nineteen kids showed up for Roman’s “YOUTH CONFERENCE” this fall. That many kids are looking for a place to skate EVERYDAY.
OUT OF TOUCH!
Well that was a big help. How are we supposed to know which one is Alex Flores?
Sigh. Use Google Images.
Is this the same Alex Flores, who promotes himself as a “Campaign Director”, “President of UM SUNGLASSES”, “Customer Service Representtive” at JNR Marketing and is really a former ride operator at a water park.
This young man appeared to have a good and bright future. But he is listening to some foolish people. NOTE TO ALEX FLORES: slow and steady wins the race.
What’s next, a VOC post calling him a community leader/activist?
Using Google maps I can see FOUR parks and a high school with ample facilities.
This is about helping Marc Payan build a brand. So he can start his empire conning “weak minded” people who think they are too fat.
Whose seat is Karina Onofre running for?
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/santa-530018-community-think.html
The 74th I believe. I think it is Wagner’s.