Minnie Street Headed in New Direction

Walk with me down Santa Ana’s Minnie Street, two blocks of 48 buildings, where children crowd bleak courtyards, permanent house guests sleep wall to wall in dreary one-bedroom apartments and the ongoing neighborhood sound is the hum of too many people struggling to make a life in too little space.

It’s the two blocks once considered the most crime-ridden stretch of Orange County.

Let’s take that same walk by 2001’s end. Magnificent landscaping, the buildings painted in a rhythm of bright colors, the apartments upgraded, fewer people packed per square inch and, finally, places for children to play. A street where neighbors might say, “Welcome to Cornerstone Village.”

That’s if everything goes as scheduled, of course. Residents, apartment owners and city officials, backed by $4.8 million in federal and state funds, are ready to break ground next month on the long-planned and exciting Cornerstone Village project.

Minnie Street will never be the same.

Thank goodness. Who could miss it?

Certainly not Victoria Zaragoza, who has lived there 28 years and can remember long periods when residents were afraid of their own neighbors.

“We were so isolated from each other; we couldn’t trust anyone,” she said.

That began to change five years ago.

“We residents finally decided to work with the owners instead of against them,” Zaragoza said. “Things had gotten so out of control, we had to do something.”

At residents’ request, the city put a community-policing substation in the neighborhood five years ago. And tenants started working together for other needed improvements.

Minnie Street sits between McFadden Avenue on the south and Grant Street to the north. To the west is Standard Avenue, to the east, a set of spur train tracks. Right now the street is three-fourths Latino, one-fourth Cambodian, according to city records. Its 48 buildings include 527 units, 99% of them one-bedroom. More than 4,000 people live in those two blocks.

Imagine finding a moment of solitude anywhere around.

But it wasn’t always like that.

Originally Off-Base Housing

Minnie Street was built up in the early 1960s, designed as small, efficient, off-base housing for military personnel at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Zaragoza’s husband was a civilian employee at El Toro. She pleasantly recalls her first days there, when some buildings even had swimming pools.

“The apartments were beautiful; it was a perfect place for us and other young military couples,” she said. “It was never designed for large families.”

But when housing expanded at El Toro, many moved on base. Minnie Street saw a major transformation in the 1970s. Cheap apartment prices were attractive to the county’s influx of immigrants with nowhere else to go. Overcrowding hit Minnie Street almost overnight.

And then came the gangs. Shootings and open drug dealing became commonplace along Minnie Street in the 1980s.

Carol Berg, a Santa Ana community development district manager, credits Zaragoza with organizing residents to clean up their neighborhood. But Zaragoza says it was Cathy Howie, one of the building owners, who led efforts to bring owners and tenants together. Others who worked to bring about improvements were the nonprofit group Cambodian Family and Mariners Church in Irvine, which set up a learning lab there.

The street has seen serious crime reduction, thanks to community policing. And a park--high on the residents’ priority list--is a strong possibility, with several sites within easy walking distance as options.

But the most exciting plans for now revolve around the Cornerstone Village project. The name will grace the street at its McFadden entrance.

“The residents came up with ‘cornerstone,’ ” Berg said, “because we hope this will become a model--the first stone in a foundation--for other neighborhoods to follow.”

The architectural renderings are dazzling. Right now Minnie Street is lined with cars, and two-way traffic between the parked rows can be treacherous--a child pedestrian was killed last year. Under the new plans, safer angled parking will be established, with traffic becoming one-way, a single lane. The angle parking will switch sides farther away from McFadden to give the street what Berg calls a “meandering, calming effect.”

Major landscaping will take place, with trees and grassy areas lining the buildings for the first time. Courtyards will be divided into two areas: one a children’s play area--with game boards and play patterns--and the second with benches so that residents can mingle there instead of in the parking lot, as they do now. Stairs and balconies, many substandard, will be upgraded. Facades will be painted.

The owners will pay monthly dues that will go to a property management company to keep up new standards.

One major change will be in how many live there.

The owners agreed to limit tenants in a one-bedroom to five people. This may seem awfully high to most of us, who think you need a four-bedroom home for a family of five. But current studies show that the average number for Minnie Street units is almost eight. Some say many units have twice that many. On a walking tour the other day, I saw one apartment where residents were using ceiling fans for hanging their clothes, the closets given over for bed space.

“The owners at first wanted to agree to six per unit,” Zaragoza said, “but we convinced them it had to be cut if we’re going to maintain quality along our street.”

This doesn’t mean anybody has to move. The new agreement is only for tenants moving in. But the city and the residents hope that attrition will eventually bring all the apartments in under the five-per-unit rule.

The owners of 46 of the 48 buildings have agreed to Cornerstone Village. Only 90% were needed to make it a go.

“It’s going to be a new Minnie Street, inside and out,” Zaragoza said. “We finally realized we aren’t going anywhere. If we’re staying, we want something better.”

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 966-7789 or by e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.