PLACENTIA : La Placita: Rising Amid the Barrio

The smell of homemade tortillas and menudo suddenly fills the air south of Chapman Avenue, where wrought iron and old brick replace peach and mint mini-malls, and signs appear in both Spanish and English. For the merchants who dreamed that it would be this way, Placita Santa Fe, a newly renovated downtown district, has become a reality.

Raul Davis, owner of the Tlaquepaque restaurant and Placentia Bakery, is one such dreamer. Like his father before him, Davis is working for a Placita Santa Fe--a place for entire families to live, work and shop.

His father “opened this restaurant and bakery 75 years ago to supply the local people who had no services, but he dreamed of this area as another Olvera Street,” Davis said. “The idea was always here, but the money wasn’t.”

In those days, “the orange groves were still here, the citrus packinghouses were in full bloom, employing three to four thousand Mexicans, and Santa Fe was the main street, the main strip.”

But as Placentia grew to the north, Santa Fe Street south of Chapman Avenue, once the center of town, became a barrio with gangs and crime. In 1989 alone, 87 people were arrested in the area for violations related to drunkenness, Police Chief H.A. Fisher said.

As the downtown deteriorated, so did its image. Although merchants wanted redevelopment, residents feared their homes would be taken if the city got involved, Davis said.

“We always had the idea, but I never knew how to do it constructively,” he said. However, Davis, who has been running the restaurant since he was 19, began knocking on the doors of his neighbors and fellow merchants to get them involved.

Forming a group that they called the Placita Santa Fe Merchants Assn., Davis and a fistful of business owners began working to get city redevelopment money for renovation and restoration of the city’s oldest buildings.

Barely a year later, they are closer than ever to their dream of a tourist attraction and shopping area similar to the Fiesta Marketplace on 4th Street in Santa Ana, Davis said.

“Today, there’s a real feeling of camaraderie, and we have the support of the City Council,” said Davis’ wife, Rosalina. “Everyone can see the positive things we’ve done.”

“The image will change,” Davis said. “It’s going to keep changing.”

More than $300,000 has been spent in redevelopment of the La Placita area, Mayor Norman Z. Eckenrode said, and there are plans to spend more.

Last October, the area was rededicated during the city’s annual Heritage Days Festival. This June, it will host Placentia’s first Festival of Cultures.

Although Placita Santa Fe is blossoming, many of the building owners are not Mexican-Americans and don’t share the dream of mixing business with heritage, according to Jose Zepeda, owner of the Kraemer Building and an active member of the merchants association.

“Every owner has to take pride in redoing his building,” Zepeda said. “Redevelopment has scared away merchants because it’s so expensive to bring these old buildings up to code.”

Zepeda is restoring his 60-year-old building, one of Placentia’s first hotels. He planned to open a meat market, laundry and apartments, but he now wonders if office space might not benefit the community by bringing professionals into the downtown area.

“A doctor or dentist would be fantastic for the people,” Zepeda said. “They don’t want to go to a cold hospital or doctor’s office; they want the community feeling of bringing the whole family, which they can’t get unless they go to Santa Ana.”

The city is also trying to eliminate a number of bars by making it increasingly difficult to obtain a liquor license, Davis said.

“We know the downtown image is not the best, but we’re trying to change that,” Rosalina Davis said. “We are a gem down here that’s really untapped. . . . The beauty of the business is that we get people from all walks of life--businessmen, students and families, Hispanics and Anglos.

“When you can attract people from all walks of life, you must be doing something right,” she added.

Renovated Area Placita Santa Fe area, once a crime-ridden neighborhood, has been renovated to become a downtown tourist area that preserves the flavor of old Placentia.