In a city with a terrible lack of park space, Santiago Park is a veritable oasis. The park is located in north Santa Ana, within easy walking distance of the MainPlace Mall. The new CityPlace shopping center is located right across the street.
I like to walk my dog there, along the trail on the north side of the park. I was doing that just yesterday, in the morning, when we came across two men who were loitering on either side of the trail. As I passed them I turned around and took a picture of them with my Blackberry phone. Then I called the Santa Ana Police Department.
You can see the picture of the two men above. I could not discern what they were up to. They were just lurking there. Below, in the riverbed, another guy was loitering on a bike. And it got worse.
I took my dog over the foot bridge on the east side of the park and we doubled back. As we did so we spotted another guy, this time standing in the brush. Waiting. For Lord knows what. I took his picture too.
My dog and I also walked along a dirt path along the riverbed, on the south side, and spotted a pair of vinyl gloves and a pair of pants hanging in the shrubs. We saw another pair of the gloves on the north trail. These are the sort of gloves used by nurses. See the pictures below.
And yet another guy was lurking by the cabin on the west side, near the playground.
Why are all these men loitering in Santiago Park?
The police responded within twenty minutes. A park ranger showed up and I spoke to him. He said that he routinely chases men out of the park along the trails and also under the overpass and the aforementioned bridge, and in the bathrooms alongside the tennis court. The officer told me that men come to the park to hook up – and to have sex.
I went back to the park the same day, at dusk. The park closes at dark, so I didn’t go in, but I walked around the park. Found many instances of graffiti and trash.
Ironically, graffiti in Santa Ana’s Artist Village is always covered up by the City of Santa Ana, right away. But guess what? The founder of the Artists Village, Don Cribb, lives in the Park Santiago Neighborhood – and he is on a city committee that is examining ways to improve Santiago Park!
I witnessed another strange incident in my evening visit to the park. A car pulled into the park entrance on Main St., as the barricade was left open. A young lady walked up the sidewalk to the car, and got in. The car zoomed off and got on the 5 Freeway, due north on the carpool lane. Is the park being used by johns who are meeting prostitutes there? Hard to say, but they could have met at a number of shopping centers. Instead they met at a dark park.
Sure enough, a cop came by later, but too late to catch them.
I will say this – our police department is very responsive and they are trying to police the park. It just isn’t working out the rest of the time, when the cops aren’t there.
A new movie just came out called the “Lovely Bones.” In it a family grieves for their fourteen year old daughter, who was killed by a perverted neighbor. How soon before we find some lovely bones at Santiago Park? Already one transient killed another, about a year and a half ago. The killer was never found.
Click here to contact the Santa Ana City Council. Click here to contact Councilman Carlos Bustamante, who represents the Santiago Park area.
Here are a few more of the pictures I took yesterday:
Landscapers were picking up trash at Santiago Park, but a lot more trash lay on the trails and in the brush
Why are there discarded vinyl gloves at the park?
Graffiti near the Main St. entrance to the park
Evidence of homeless occupants at the park
More graffiti near the park
Yep, shopping carts and more graffiti
This is where police say that men are often found hooking up at Santiago Park. The trail leads under Main St. to the Discovery Science Center
Tilly’s Life Center’s (TLC) recently raised over half a million dollars to support their youth…
On November 25, 2024, at approximately 1:46 PM, Fullerton Fire and Police personnel responded to…
OCFA fire crews responded to two significant vehicle accidents in Garden Grove last Friday, requiring…
On November 24th, 2024, at approximately 1:00 a.m. Newport Beach Fire Department units NE63, NT63,…
‼️UPDATE‼️ Earlier today, our robbery detectives arrested November 20, 2024, #WantedWednesday suspect Izaya Cuellar (35)…
Late Friday night, police officers responded to Balearic Park regarding a vehicle doing “donuts” on…
This website uses cookies.
View Comments
I used to live a few blocks away. One day I was riding my bike and looked up onto a hillside to see a naked man crouched on the ground. I had another follow me down Santiago blvd. one day when I was on my bike, just trying to drive right next to me. Why do we have to put up with this? It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight. Have some class and stay away from children's areas. This has nothing to do with gay rights. If someone is so pathetic in their private life that they have lie and have sex with boys on their lunch hour so the wife doesn't find out, or degrade themselves by having to pay for sex from strangers or have sex with them in a foul maggot-ridden public bathroom, they should save their money for therapy instead. It's time we stopped treating any moron who's mind extends no farther than their genitals as if they have rights. Human rights are for HUMANS, and should only extend to activities where you act like a decent human being, and not protect perverts and sickos.
wow thanks for postin this me n my son dad go there to walk around and enjoy the view and to think everytime we go i was scared of coyotes around now i have to be worried about men solitary lurkin around the park and i go there b4 i go to school to jog scary and n i would take my son to the big slide to play and i would tell him time to go i felt uneasy bein there you cant just enjoy anything anymore
If it is any consolation, the increased scrutiny seems to be working. I have not seen as many lurkers of late.
Its been a gay,gay park for 20 years
Please wake up
scary, i bike along that trail often.
Not to worry!!! The SAPD Mounted Unit has been working several times a month since October at the park..I heard that they had been arresting several subjects per night for being in the park after dusk plus people drinking etc. If you live in Park Santiago area you know that years ago the mounted unit worked the park for a long time and they made a great difference. Good job!!
Yes it is very troubling that this behavior occurs this park. It is Lewd conduct. However, there is a double standard in enforcement. I have called the park ranger on more that one occasion to report male and female couples lying on top of each other on top of park benches (most recently at the long slide area, there were 2 couples doing this! Heavily making out (or who knows what else) one couple had a blanket over them...do you think the police respond---NO! Another couple were doing it in their vehicle on the street to the entry of the park--called it in-- the ranger asked if it were two men, they did not respond and later the discarded condom was on the curb. Granted there may be more male to male activity, but no one seems to care or enforce the lewd conduct statutes if there are men and woman exhibiting lewd conduct in public!
You are right. No one should be having sex in our park, regardless of their gender.
Good news. This Saturday you can help paint a mural at Santiago Park! http://newsantaana.com/2011/01/10/help-paint-a-mural-by-roberto-del-hoyo-at-santiago-park-this-saturday/
And you said Art, "My city is not a scummy city" Really?
Santa Ana's youth are in a total free fall! This is due to poor parenting, a third world mentality as far as young women being impregnated and a severe lack of education! You have a third world mentality with a lowered standard of civility!
Where are your law enforcement, your parents and civility?
Michelle,
Sigh. Having a rough day are we?
I stopped by here to take a walk and wait to pick up my wife from work as she works nearby. I sat reading and noticed men standing around as mentioned above. There were also at least 5-6 men parked sitting in their car or sitting next to it in the small parking lot. I sat on the steps near the parkin lot and one guy pulled up in his car and kept staring at me, just sitting there. I kept hearing chatter all around me and didn't see anyone. After about 20 mins, I felt it was Ike to leave. Needless to say, my experience there led me to search the net to see what is up with this park.
I will not be going back there and for everyone saying that his person takig pictures and reporting it to the police has too much time, you must be nuts or the ones who are lurking in the bushes!! He is only trying to help make it a better place and safer as well. I say if it looks suspicious, it probably is!
I never thought going to a park was such a crime for single males. I go to parks for walks, bike rides all the time glad to know if I stop to check out shrubbery or sit on a bench to take a breather i'm a lurking creep. Some of you have to much time on your hand posting pics of people on the net like this. Anyone could have taken your pic at anytime placed it on the net and wrote bad things about you, but choose not to I guess. Congrats on being creepier than everyone else in the park Rose the nosey neighbor. I searched the net to find what this park was cause I have drove by it and found some weirdo takes pics of unsuspecting guys and posts them on the net labeling them creeps thanks for keeping a non-gay non-creep away loser!
After I wrote this post the SAPD set up a sting operation and arrested 12 of these perverts.
Santiago Park is a city park. If you don't live in Santa Ana you have no business coming to this park. It isn't a county park.
What? You mean nobody has a right to go to a city park unless they are residents of that city? Bullshit, Art, you are full of it. Your understanding of the US Constitution and the law is laughable and scary. And, yeah, I agree with you that people shouldn't be having blatant sex in a public park, and I am particularly concerned about people leaving used condoms around, etc., but your conclusion that anybody who is standing around is a "pervert" IS homophobic and stupid, since maybe they are just enjoying the park view (have you ever just sat down to watch the birds or enjoy the environment, or just to be alone with your thoughts away from the surrounding rat race or is the only reason you go to a public park to spy on others through paranoid lenses like a one-man NSA spy? Or maybe they were selling pot, but all you think about is sex? And maybe they are homeless and sleep there and leave their clothes in the tree sometimes, so that makes them "perverts"? And what if they want to meet somebody there and go somewhere else for whatever? What if the guy who picked up a woman was picking up a friend for a ride? And who the hell knows what those gloves were used for or why they were left there, but to you, gloves = perverts??? WTF? And what about Burt Lancaster and that woman in "From Here to Eternity" who were making out and rolling around in the beach sand and ocean water, in full view of millions of Americans? Should they have been arrested too? Were they "perverts" ? And don't be surprised if some of those perverts are undercover cops hanging out at urinals with their pants unzipped, it's a common police tactic. Anyway, a cop riding by on a bicycle once in a while should do the trick, but you, you're a bit scary. Please, leave the spying to Obama.
You clearly didn't read the post or the comments. This is a real problem at this park. If people want yto hook up they should go to the gay bar in downtown Santa Ana.
I read you comments quite clearly but maybe you should read them again yourself. You come off as obsessive compulsive and scary.
There have been many comments on this post and others by women who have not felt safe at this park. Do you liberals not care about families?
Admin, I despise people like you. I really do.
Indubitably, you are the creep; and your mental process is similar to to that of a paranoid schizophrenic. Go ahead and call me out on how irrelevant and ignorant my opinion of you is. I just want to say "I'm having a rough f*cking day"
Well, it is Monday. I hope your day gets better.