Last April, I told you about the City of Santa Ana settling a lawsuit filed by the Friends of the Historic Lacy Neighborhood. In short, the City gave in and allowed at least half of the historic homes slated for demolition in the Lacy Historic District be saved from the bulldozers. Those remaining on the demolition list were then stripped for historical salvage materials which went to the Santa Ana Historic Preservation Association. (Give them a call if you need something for your own historic home.)
I thought I'd share some photos I took last week of a few of the houses that have been saved outright thanks to the Friends of Lacy, including the one above, being moved to a lot down the street.
These homes are all in the vicinity of 6th Street in Santa Ana, between Main St. and the Train Station.
All these homes are to be renovated as part of the settlement agreement. The one above is going to take a lot of work after vagrants camped out in it for a while. When it's done, it will make a great home for someone (again).
Why would any city want to tear out charming homes like these to make way for insta-slums? Why should the citizens have to fight city hall to preserve properties like these? It's really impossible to understand.
There used to be a very active group called Let's Improve Santa Ana (L.I.S.A.), which was founded by that juggernaut of community activism, Adaline Walker. It seems like the movement today is Let's Trash Santa Ana. Let's be glad there are a few acolytes of Mrs. Walker left to fight the good fight. Santa Ana has taken a lot of punches to the face, but she's still got a lot of potential.
