The miles add up in bus-reliant Santa Ana

Three days into a strike by Orange County bus drivers, the walkout is resonating in Santa Ana with an urgency unfelt in neighboring cities.

Here in the county’s civic core, low-paid immigrant workers say they depend on public transportation not only to get to work but to travel to the grocery store, take children to health clinics and to keep basic appointments.

And finding empathy here for striking drivers, some of whom earn more than $20 an hour, is a tall order.

On Monday, workers began long commutes riding bicycles, walking or bargaining for rides with unlicensed cabbies who have spotted the sudden business opportunity.

Experts say Santa Ana fits the profile of a city dependent on public transportation. In 2004, the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, singled out Santa Ana as the city with the greatest level of “urban hardship” in the United States. High rents and low wages factor into that distinction.

Santa Ana remains a magnet for new immigrants, and 10% of city residents -- double the state average -- rely on public transportation, according to census data. The Orange County Transportation Authority reports that two-thirds of its bus riders are Latino.

At the corner of Pine and Main streets, where unlicensed taxi drivers typically wait for customers willing to pay $20 a head for rides to Tijuana, even drivers commiserated with customers they’re now driving to local destinations.

“I couldn’t even force myself to charge anyone,” said driver Angel Benji, who transports clients in a late-model green van.

“I had a woman here crying that she would lose her job in Huntington Beach if she couldn’t get there, and she had no money. She only makes $5 an hour as a nanny for some rich people,” Benji said. “This is the sort of person affected by this strike -- the poorest of the poor. How can we show compassion for a bus driver making $20 an hour?”

One bus driver, Benjamin C. Garcia, said he and his co-workers were just trying to keep up with the cost of living in Orange County.

“We are not asking to live in luxury. We are asking for what we need,” said Garcia, 39. “Everything is going up. Gas, food and rent. We just want to be treated fairly.”

In downtown Santa Ana, that message did little to placate those who rely on buses.

Hilda Cuellar, who works at Hugo’s Beauty Salon, said she usually has 45 to 60 customers a weekend. She said that last weekend, with the strike in progress, she had only 12. Other business owners said foot traffic was alarmingly light on the weekend.

“People are calling to ask if there’s any bus to our shop,” Cuellar said. “I can’t give them any good news. It’s very frustrating. These people [bus drivers] want more money for their jobs, and we are hurting here. We have no customers and we still have to pay our bills, our taxes, and the people don’t care.”

Angel Paredes, 40, said he walked 45 minutes to South Main Street in Santa Ana, where he got a ride with a friend to a warehouse job about five miles away. He had planned for another friend to pick him up from work at 4:30 p.m. and take him to a second job at a fast-food chain. Paredes said he works 11 hours a day and makes about $500 a week.

Over the weekend, he and his wife skipped their usual grocery shopping because of the bus strike. Walking and hauling their groceries back home would have been too much, he said.

Nazario Garibay left his Santa Ana home at 5 a.m. to get to Orange, but by 7 had given up on getting to his gardening job, which pays $60 a day.

“It’s getting harder and harder to just work in this country,” said Garibay, 52, who vowed to return to his native Mexico if the bus strike continued.

Mario Gomez Garcia, 28, paid an unlicensed taxi driver $15 for a ride to Brea, where he earns $8 an hour shaping and cutting palm trees.

“I know that I’m giving the first two hours of salary to the cab driver, but it’s better than losing the job,” Gomez Garcia said. “Without a car, without a bus, we are really lost in this region.”

jennifer.delson@latimes.com

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Routes in service during strike

Fifty of the county’s 81 bus routes are shut down during the bus strike, which started Sunday. Thirty routes are operating normally, but Route 43, the busiest line, has been shortened and leaves from Fullerton instead of La Habra. See route maps at www.octa.net

Route no.: Origin and destination, route

43: Fullerton - Costa Mesa via Harbor Blvd.

75: Tustin - Newport Beach via Harvard Ave./Jamboree Rd.

131: Yorba Linda - Orange via Lakeview Ave./Riverdale Ave./Tustin Ave.

147: Brea - Santa Ana via Birch St./Brea Blvd./Harbor Blvd./Raymond Ave./Haster St./La Veta Ave.

164: Seal Beach - Westminster via Seal Beach Blvd./Lampson Ave./Edwards St.

172: Huntington Beach - Costa Mesa via Main St./Garfield Ave./Ellis Ave./MacArthur Blvd./Sunflower St.

173: Huntington Beach - Costa Mesa via Atlanta Ave./Hamilton Ave./Victoria St./Orange Ave./Fair Dr./Bear St.

175: Irvine via Yale Ave./Campus Drive

188: Laguna Hills - Irvine via Moulton Pkwy./Irvine Center Dr./Alton Pkwy./Ridge Route

191/191A: Mission Viejo - San Clemente via Rancho Viejo Rd./Camino Capistrano/El Camino Real

193: San Clemente via Camino de los Mares/Camino Vera Cruz/Avenida Pico

212: Irvine - San Juan Capistrano Express via 405 Freeway

216: San Juan Capistrano - Costa Mesa Express via 405 Freeway

410: Anaheim Canyon Metrolink Station - Anaheim via Tustin Ave./La Palma Ave.

411: Anaheim Canyon Metrolink Station - Canyon Corporate Center via Coronado St./La Palma Ave.

430: Anaheim Metrolink Station/Amtrak Station -- Anaheim Resort Area via Katella Ave./Harbor Blvd./Ball Rd.

453: Orange Transportation Center - St. Joseph’s Hospital via Chapman Ave./Main St./La Veta Ave.

454: Orange Transportation Center - Garden Grove via Chapman Ave./Metropolitian Dr.

462: The Depot at Santa Ana - Civic Center via Santa Ana Blvd./Civic Center Dr.

463: The Depot at Santa Ana - Hutton Centre via Grand Ave.

464: The Depot at Santa Ana - Costa Mesa via 5/55 Freeways/Sunflower Ave.

470: Tustin Metrolink Station - John Wayne Airport via Harvard Ave./Michelson Dr./MacArthur Blvd.

471: Tustin Metrolink Station - Irvine via Red Hill Ave./Jamboree Rd./Von Karman St.

480: Irvine Transportation Center - Lake Forest via Alton Pkwy./Bake Pkwy./Lake Forest Dr.

482: Irvine Transportation Center - Irvine Center & Discovery via Barranca Pkwy./Alton Pkwy.

490: Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Metrolink Station -- Aliso Viejo via Crown Valley Pkwy./Moulton Pkwy./Aliso Creek Pkwy.

686: Irvine Transportation Center - Irvine Spectrum via Ada/Alton/Irvine Center/Fortune

693: San Clemente via Avenida Pico/Camino la Pedriza/Avenida Vista Hermosa

757: Pomona - Santa Ana Express via 57 Freeway

758: Chino - Irvine Spectrum Express via the 57/5 Freeways

794: Riverside/Corona - South Coast Metro Express via the 91/55 Freeway

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Some alternatives to buses

Carpool: (800)COMMUTE or www.commutesmart.info; also https://members6.boardhost.com/OCAngels/

Cabs: (949)654-8294 or www.octap.net

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Source: Orange County Transportation Authority

Los Angeles Times