Santa Ana Got Grants Thanks to D.C. Friends

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. was on a business trip in Mexico City last Friday when the White House tracked him down with a request: Could he be in Washington on Wednesday morning for a news conference?

Pulido suspected immediately what turned out to be true: The city had been named a federal “empowerment zone,” a designation that will bring Santa Ana $10 million a year over the next 10 years to improve poor neighborhoods.

Santa Ana joins such cities as Boston, Cincinnati, East Chicago, Miami and Minneapolis in being named Wednesday by Vice President Al Gore to share $3.8 billion in federal grants and tax-exempt bonding authority.

Santa Ana might not seem like the kind of aging inner city in need of massive federal aid, but it has one singular benefit that stands out: friends in Washington.

“Santa Ana has become very well-known in Washington,” said Pulido, a Democrat whose city has hosted campaign rallies for President Clinton twice and who recently was named by Clinton to an international trade committee.

Among those who jumped in to help Santa Ana with its application for zone status was Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), who co-sponsored the bill authorizing the funds. Also lending assistance was Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo and his assistant, Saul Ramirez, as well as Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gore himself.

Sanchez said she and Gore met through his wife, Tipper Gore, and have become friends during her two years in Washington.

Did their friendship help Santa Ana win the coveted empowerment zone status?

“Of course, it helps,” Sanchez said.

“But we had a good project, and we need help here,” she added. “Santa Ana is a bellwether to what’s happened across the nation. Santa Ana really is more reflective of the Midwest and New York than what happens in the rest of Orange County.”

In fact, Santa Ana has the lowest unemployment rate of any of the 20 empowerment zones designated Wednesday. The city’s jobless rate is about 6%, twice the county’s rate.