Keep Minnie Street Plan on Track

Some of the nation’s best ideas for reclaiming troubled neighborhoods from crime, drugs and despair have taken root in one Santa Ana neighborhood. But today residents wonder whether their efforts will come to fruition. The mayor’s ties with a project developer have stirred the city’s political caldron. While it’s clear that his handling of the matter has been clumsy at best, a way still must be found to get this worthy redevelopment project done.

The Minnie Street area in the southeast corner of the city once served as off-base housing for local Marines. By the 1970s, it had gone the way of many down-on-their-luck communities. Years of persistence by residents, landlords, city officials, the clergy and police began to pay off when they started community policing and planned extensive renovations and repairs with the help of state and federal funds.

A $5-million project was started a few weeks ago, but it is now caught in a battle between two powerful city contenders, Mayor Miguel A. Pulido and the organization Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, which has filed suit to stop the project. Hermandad alleges a conflict of interest because of the mayor’s ties in unrelated Garden Grove real estate deals to Kris Kakkar, a part-owner of the Santa Ana buildings targeted for redevelopment. Tenant association leaders worry that the dispute will stall the project.

There is a legitimate question whether Pulido properly revealed the connection in financial disclosure forms. Also, though he abstained in a recent city vote on Minnie Street redevelopment, a year ago he approved an agreement giving money to the project, raising the question of a possible state Fair Political Practices Commission violation.

The Pulido matter needs to be resolved separately from the fate of the project, with full disclosure from the mayor and a willingness on the other side to facilitate a solution that doesn’t derail the effort. One nonprofit agency that already has renovated 40 units appears to have addressed a key Hermandad concern that undocumented immigrants not be driven out. Santa Ana’s housing manager has offered similar assurances.

It would be a shame to invalidate the hard work of residents and the cooperative spirit shown by city and community leaders. This is a dispute that ought to be resolvable.