Container Problem Will Be Contained

Neighbors note the irony: Don Cribb, the Santa Ana planning commissioner behind the beautification of the Main Street area, has created an eyesore on his own block.

Since last July, a full-size steel storage container has been placed in the street in front of the vintage house that Cribb is remodeling on North Spurgeon Street. The project, which was supposed to take three months, has dragged on for 10.

The big, metal box--filled with Cribb’s belongings--is expected to be gone next week. But it has been making a jarring statement on the quiet tree-lined block with its trimmed lawns and neat gardens.

“We call it ‘Cribb’s crib,’ ” said Pam Marsh, who lives down the street. “It’s a hazard, and you can’t see around it.”

“It’s been here forever,” said retiree Larry Lucier, who was trimming flowers Monday in front of his house across from the 10-foot high, 28-foot-long container.

“Here he is, all for the beautifying of Santa Ana, and he leaves his own neighborhood looking like a dump,” said Maureen Pockett, who lives a few houses away.

Perhaps worse, neighbors said, is that they have been frustrated for months in trying to get the city to do anything about it. They charge favoritism.

“The door has been slammed in everyone’s face,” said Dave Bergman, who contends that Cribb’s friendship with Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. and Councilmen Thomas E. Lutz and Brett Franklin have kept enforcement efforts at bay.

None of the elected officials could be reached for comment, but Cribb said the charges are absurd.

“I am sympathetic to their complaints,” he said. “But when [construction] . . . dragged out, what could I do? I put $50,000 into that 1,000-square-foot house. No one has come and complained to me.”

All the commotion has made him feel unappreciated, and he sees irony on his side as well.

“They are making me feel that I am wasting my money here,” he said. Had he not cared about the neighborhood, he said, he would have left the house the way it was and rented it out.

“Why would someone like me, who has brought a revitalization to downtown . . . why would I, in any way, try to do something that is not appropriate?”

Perhaps worse, Cribb said, is that because of his high profile, he has been forced to agree to move the container by next Tuesday. A city official said that no ordinance bars a resident from placing a container in the street during construction.

“Anybody else would get better treatment than I would,” he said. “The city is very sensitive to me getting preferential treatment.”

Nevertheless, Cribb acknowledged that he was called “a few months ago” by City Manager David N. Ream, who told him that a neighbor had complained.

“Ream told me: ‘Get it done as fast as you can,’ ” Cribb recalled.

Assistant City Manager Debra Kurita said the police “negotiated a resolution” to the problem last week after tagging the container May 13 under a 72-hour rule.

The ordinance requires vehicles on city streets to be moved within 72 hours of tagging, but says nothing about cargo containers. The police allowed him until the end of the month because he claimed a hardship, she said.