Santa Ana Is Named Empowerment Zone

Santa Ana’s designation as an empowerment zone will bring the city as much as $100 million in federal funds for its poorest neighborhoods, but it is far from assured that the ambitious economic development program will improve the lives of residents.

Empowerment zones in other cities across the nation have met with decidedly mixed results, in some cases dividing communities over how best to spend money and leaving residents bitter that the program did not deliver the promised jobs and prosperity.

Experts said Santa Ana will have to learn from the mistakes of other cities like Atlanta and Cleveland if they hope to successfully bring jobs and improved education and children’s services to poor neighborhoods.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment politically. But the reality is, it doesn’t ensure success,” said Mark Baldassare, professor of urban planning at UC Irvine.

City officials acknowledged that winning the coveted zone designation is the easy part, and that they must now unite community groups and residents behind a plan to spend the money, which is expected to be paid out in 10 annual installments of $10 million.