SANTA ANA: Image vs. Reality : Mayor Foresees a Shiny Future for Santa Ana

Daniel H. Young wants to be known as the renaissance mayor of Santa Ana. To many, he is the most energetic advocate for redevelopment in Orange County’s second-largest city.

He proved it last fall, as more than 100 angry residents crowded City Hall to oppose a plan to turn the Bristol Street corridor into a teeming redevelopment region at the expense of some low-income housing.

After tense debate, the council narrowly agreed to postpone voting while members reconsidered it.

“I’m really mad,” declared Young, who at 39 is Santa Ana’s first mayor elected citywide. “Bristol Street is a failure, a traffic nightmare,” he told the council. “We had a plan ready to go.”

Two weeks later, with Young urging his colleagues to pass the proposal he had sponsored for more than two years, the council unanimously approved.

“When I go up and down Bristol Street,” Young said recently, “I see children playing on the front yards along the busiest street in Orange County and living in slum houses that are almost ready to fall down . . . . That’s unacceptable.”

“I’m a guy who grew up here, and I saw the city go to hell,” Young said. “I want to take charge of changing the city.”

Indeed, Young has visions of shiny new buildings that would forge the city’s image as the cosmopolitan hub of the county. He supports a proposal to build a $70-million indoor sports arena in Santa Ana and wants a sweeping countywide monorail system to relieve congested streets.

Married and the father of three children, Young has been a city resident since he was a boy growing up in a family with six brothers and sisters. With a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in public administration, he was a congressional chief of staff in Washington before returning home in 1981 and joining a development company that builds apartments. He won election to the council in 1983 and the mayor’s office in 1986.

He makes no secret that he is pro-development and that he has many friends in the business. According to campaign statements filed by Young, developers such as C.J. Segerstrom & Sons have donated thousands of dollars to his campaign committee.

Newport Beach-based political consultant Harvey Englander says developers trust Young because he speaks their language and understands their needs and problems.

“I’m the strongest advocate for a developer when it’s a high quality project and helps to improve the image of Santa Ana,” Young concedes. “But I can be a developer’s worst nightmare on the council because of my expertise.”

Some describe Young as the perfect politician--intelligent, convincing and able to stay cool under pressure.

Young has had police officers picket his house when negotiations between the union and the city went sour a few years ago. And he has been hit three times with threats of a recall campaign.

Democratic Party activist Rueben Martinez says he admired the calm Young displayed in public when the mayor’s youngest child, 3-month-old Andrew, was born with heart and breathing problems. Few realized that until the child outgrew the problems, Young stayed up nights with his wife Leslee to watch over the infant.

“I tried understanding everything Andrew was going through,” Young recalled. “It became our entire life. I learned so much about my own kid.”

Young is an obvious leader, says La Habra City Manager Lee Risner, who opposed the mayor much of the time they served together on the Orange County League of Cities’ Transportation Super Committee.

“He’s definitely a class act and articulate,” Risner said. “He’s got skills in handling a large group of people and finding some ways to match what they want.”

But Young cannot sway everyone on the subject of redevelopment.

Some of the mayor’s heaviest criticism has come from the legal center of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Latino-rights group that has often opposed the city.

Hermandad attorney Richard Spix contends that Young does not offer balance between commercial space and housing for moderate- and low-income residents.

“Maybe when Mr. Young matures (as a politician), he may be able to expand his vision beyond the golden horizon of economic growth,” Spix said.

Young surprised and angered many supporters two years when he switched political affiliations.

Once a highly visible workhorse in the Democratic Party, he had been the emcee at the county’s Democratic convention for the 1988 presidential election. He was one of the first mayors in California to endorse Presidential hopeful Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) before Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis won the party’s nomination. Three months after the county convention, however, Young and fellow Santa Ana Councilman Daniel E. Griset changed to the Republican Party.

“He stunned us,” recalled Martinez. “I felt I was completely betrayed.”

Young said the selection of Dukakis pushed him to switch his politics. But Young admits that being a Republican has helped him.

“As far as getting things done in this county, it is unquestionably easier when 90% of the power structure is Republican,” Young said.

While Young refuses to speculate on his political future, observers such as Englander have no doubt that he will seek higher office. Eventually, Englander believes, the mayor will practically be able to choose among being an assemblyman, a county supervisor or a congressman.