Floral Park

Bar Crawl In Progress: Little Sparrow Cafe Opens in Santa Ana

Remember two weeks ago, when I mentioned that we were just a bar or two short of a real honest-to-God bar crawl in downtown Santa Ana, one that only requires taxis at the start and end? Well, chalk up another craft cocktail bar and restaurant: Little Sparrow Café will be opening in what was former ... More >>

The Orange County Beer Trail

A map to all of our fine craft breweries, liquor stores and pubs pouring the good stuff!

New Restaurant Opening in Downtown Santa Ana With Great Concept, Terrible Name: The Volstead OC

Sometime late last year, a restaurant signed a lease to occupy the historic brick gas building in downtown SanTana that's been abandoned since forever. It's going to be nearly 8,000 square foot of happiness, not just for the new concept, but because that's the last swath of the Promenade that had ye ... More >>

Miguel Pulido Worst Chaperone Since Ray Charles; Teenage Party Hosted At His Home With Puking Teens, Possible Rape

If you grew up in Southern California during the early 1990s, you surely remember the legendary sketchy comedy show In Living Color, the program that launched Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier, Jennifer Lopez, and a trillion Wayanses into the stratosphere. Everyone remembers the characters--F ... More >>

OC Pioneers Who Were Klan Members: Jo Lowell, Santa Ana Rancher, Namesake of Street

Lowell Street in SanTana is one of those fascinating streets that skips across the city's various economic realities. It cuts through the muy muy neighborhoods of Washington Square and Floral Park (where, true to its exclusionary background, they call it Lowell Lane) and shady barrios, single family ... More >>

Dave Chapel, Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee, Demands Trustee Area Boundaries be Gerrymandered to Suit Him

This afternoon, the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on a proposal that would change how they get elected to the board. As it stands, RSCCD currently has six trustees elected at-large; a new plan proposes to divide the district into seven trus ... More >>

Floral Park Cafe, New Bistro, to Open in Downtown Santa Ana

Photo by Ben Dayhoe​SO...remember how I wrote about the above space in downtown SanTana, and that the rumor was it was going to be a bistro of sorts? The cat is out of the bag--sort of. The name of the restaurant will be Floral Park Cafe, and all that they'll say right now is that it'll be a "new ... More >>

Graffiti in Santa Ana: "Obama Lies"

​What is it about Orange County and illogical graffiti? You'll remember Michelle's post yesterday about the pendejo who tagged "Osama Forever" yesterday off the 405 Freeway in Westminster. This morning, in SanTana's ritzy Floral Park neighborhood, someone tagged "Obama Lies" on perhaps the most pr ... More >>

John Kobyalt of KFI's John and Ken Show on Santa Ana: "No Longer Part of the United States"

Fact-hater, at left...​I've regularly listened to KFI-AM 640's John and Ken Show for nearly a a decade now, not so much because I agree with most of the views of host John Kobyalt and Ken Chiampou (although you'd be surprised) but because they make great radio--the faux outrage, the scorched-earth ... More >>

'Law and Order: Los Angeles' Already Ripping Off Orange County Crime Stories

​I'm a huge fan of the Law and Order franchise--Special Victims Unit is my favorite because of hot-ass Mariska Hargitay, Criminal Intent remains a weird-ass show, the original will always live on TNT, and I even saw a couple of episodes of the UK version and liked them. The newest member of the fa ... More >>

Comfort Food at El Pico de Gallo Taqueria

Dave Lieberman​I'm sick of the word taquería. Seemingly every Mexican restaurant in these fair orange acres uses it to describe the food on offer, even when a place might better be described as a puesto, a fonda, a restaurante or a cenaduria. These shops do themselves a disservice, because while ... More >>

Election 2010: Gustavo Drinks Through the Election, Or: Trashing the Dems and Bashing Whitman

​Updated throughout the day, with the freshest post on top. Click after the jump for vignettes on Barbara Coe, Loretta Sanchez, Meg Whitman, and Borat!Midnight. Drink of choice: Alka-Seltzer...my pockets hurt. Loretta Sanchez has pulled away by thousands of votes, but we'll wait until the official ... More >>

Orange County Interwebs Horror Show Bash on Santa Ana Edition

​For this week's look at things said from and about Orange County on the Interwebs, we turn to a familiar topic all over cyberspace:  Santa Ana, a pit?As you'll see after the jump, our county seat does have its defenders. It's just that they are so outnumbered.

Social Distortion's Mike Ness Loves Santa Ana Mayor-for-Life Miguel Pulido to the Tune of $1,000

​Back in March, the Liberal OC noted that Social Distortion head man Mike Ness attended a fundraiser for SanTana Mayor Don Papi Pulido but didn's share how much OC's ultimate outlaw musician donated, if any.  Might as well share it now: $1,000. Why someone who has represented working-class OC ... More >>

Sunday News Notes

Happy 10-10-10 to you.​Weekend news highlights from various media sources include:Fred Phelps thinks he knows whyYou can thank UC Irvine researchers for this good news: The future "Big One" earthquake along the San Andreas fault will be much worse and much sooner than previously expected, accordin ... More >>

For Whom Exactly Was Santa Ana "Great"? And When?

Flickr user Ben DayhoeDowntown SanTana, yesterday and today...​Another person has entered the SanTana mayoral race this year--Charles Hart, a man I've never heard of, but who thinks he can take down Mayor-for-Vida Don Papi Pulido and challenger Alfredo Amezcua. I guess he'll be the candidate for r ... More >>

Is Santa Ana Finally Invading its Exclusive Floral Park Neighborhood?

Don Papi Pulido: No trash cleaner is he!​The only time Fate takes me into SanTana's ritzy Floral Park neighborhood is while taking a shortcut across the city and straight through the area's heart: Santa Clara Avenue, from Bristol Street through Broadway. It's a picturesque commute, one where drive ... More >>

Santa Ana Mayor-for-Life Miguel Pulido Now an Aztlanista?

Pulido: The New Emiliano Zapata?​Is the world coming to an end? Oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, volcanic ashes creating havoc--and now, SanTana Mayor Don Papi Pulido joining wabs in not only condemning Arizona's anti-illegals SB1070, but bringing forth a resolution to oppose it AND vote for its ... More >>

Miguel Pulido Sighting!

Don Papi Pulido, braving the mean streets of SanTana...​Public sightings of SanTana Mayor-por-Vida Don Papi Pulido are rarer than a Floral Park resident bogeying the night away at the Inn Step, but a source snapped this shot of the city's grand don at the Gypsy Den. Happened recently. The source i ... More >>

DWM (Driving While Mexican) in Santa Ana's Floral Park

Don Papi Pulido: No wabs in my domain!​This story's a hoot: I know a wab who bought into SanTana's ritzy Floral Park neighborhood last year--you know, the exclusive neighborhood that holds a segregated Halloween each year and was created specifically as a refuge for Whites. Made his money the legi ... More >>

God Calls Yost Theater Matriarch Phoebe Olivos

​Another part of old SanTana disappeared this week as Phoebe Olivos passed away July 23 at 89. The artists and hipsters who currently troll the city's downtown, marveling at how authentic the area is compared to the rest of OC while munching down on $9 "street" tacos owe her respect, as she was th ... More >>

The First History Book About OC's African-American Community Tells Tales of Segregation, Triumph

Does Miguel Pulido Work out of a Tax Preparer's Office?

With IRS troubles like his, will Don Papi become Obama's ambassador to Mexico?For years, opponents of SanTana Mayor Don Papi Pulido have openly wondered how an invisible politician can make so much cash that he can afford an estate in the city's ritzy Floral Park neighborhood. His Form 700s have alw ... More >>

No Ace with Taxes: Santa Ana Mayor Don Papi Pulido and His Family Muffler Shop

Not scheduled for gentrificationThere is perhaps no business more fundamental to an Orange County politico's creation myth than Ace Muffler Shop, on First Street in downtown SanTana and belonging to the family of SanTana Mayor Don Papi "Miguel" Pulido. It was the city's planned demolishing of Ace Mu ... More >>

Will Floral Park's Home Tour Mention the Neighborhood's Segregationist Pioneers?

Don Papi Pulido is a Floral Park residentThis weekend, the Floral Park Neighborhood Association  hosts its annual Home and Garden Tour, a fantabulous two days where residents can pretend they don't live in SanTana. "Stroll tree-lined streets, enjoy the ambiance of a simpler time gone by," reads ... More >>

Getting Ripped Off By Bland Food at Geisha House

I've eaten at restaurants where the bill came to more than $300 for two (the late, great Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel). Where the buffet cost $100 for two (Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel again). Over $100 for omakase for one (Hanamori). Many other places too expensive and too superflu ... More >>

SanTana Sports and Don Papi Pulido's Preferred Pelotas

Don Papi Pulido in his other preferred sport: maintaining his kingdomArt Pedroza at Orange Juice! had quite the scoop last week in reporting that First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen recently allocated $170,000 to the building of a clay tennis court at Cabrillo Park in SanTana. Pedroza opined out ... More >>

A Look at Craig Monteilh, Who Says He Spied on the Islamic Center of Irvine for the Feds

Man Claiming to be FBI Informant Spins Quite a Tale

A location scout for a spy movie could not have picked a better location for my late December meeting with Craig Monteilh: a table outside a restaurant in a bustling Irvine shopping center. A lensman would appreciate the shadow-erasing clouds hovering overhead on the warm winter morning. And cen ... More >>

Where Santa Ana's Segregationists Can Eat Mexican Food in Peace

Cute, little, quaint Floral Park in SanTana--the place that holds segregated Halloweens and where a mansion gate states "Tara"--has its own Mexican restaurant: El Pico de Gallo Grill. It's located right at the entrance of the neighborhood--or rather, where the northbound entrance would be except tha ... More >>

The Unluckiest 7-Eleven In Orange County

I have many fond memories of 7-11. When I went to Sycamore Junior High in Anaheim, I'd play the pinball version of Terminator 2: Judgment Day before taking the bus down La Palma Avenue. In my drunken years, 7-Eleven has always stocked my all-time favorite fast food: Zingers. And one of my most-prize ... More >>

The Best Posts of 2008, Direct From the Weekly's Parallel Universe

SanTana's Boys in Blue Don't Care about Prostitution?

Saturday night, around 9 p.m. Was hanging out at a friend's SanTana business on the outskirts of Floral Park when we saw a car in the darkest section of the parking lot, um, a'rockin. Hey, young lovers need their public areas, but the folks who patronize this cozy corner always leave their used cond ... More >>

Floral Park's Segregated Halloween Continues

*Updated, with new info on the bottom... Floral Park imagines itself as an oasis of tranquility in SanTana, a respite from the city's gritty reality. Really, this neighborhood--roughly bordered by Bristol to the west, 17th Street to the South, Broadway to the east, and Memory Lane in the north--is ... More >>

SanTana is Finally Mexico Gracias to Don Papi Pulido

This Is Your Life: A Companion Guide/Shameless Propaganda for 'Orange County: A Personal History'

A Gardener, His Heroism, and Orange County Register Readers

"Look at that black plume of smoke!" someone said, as your favorite group of ragtag rag writers knocked back some pints and Maker's at The Olde Ship in SanTana. We assumed it was some car crash on Interstate 5 but were surprised when it turned out to be a house fire in Floral Park, the SanTana neigh ... More >>

County Life

People, places, politicos, lawmen, muckrakers, card sharps, & other assorted scalawags & neer-do-wells, plus tall tales & ghost stories.

The Playground

No. 3: Santa Ana is absolutely, positively, OCs best downtownnow, keep it that way!

!Ask a Mexican!

Special Music Edicion

Santa Ana

Good Bones

Careful restoration and decoration revived designer David-Michael Madigans historic Federal-style home

Bare, Ruined Choirs

The historic buildings in the way of One Broadway Plaza were doomed
long before the vote on Measure A

Bare, Ruined Choirs

The historic buildings in the way of One Broadway Plaza were doomed long before the vote on Measure A

Architecturally Sound

Orange County can match LA County building for building

Hardwood House

The Year in Girl

There was a war in there, somewhere

United We Brand!

So a priest, an imam and a Buddhist guy make a long-distance phone call . . .

Santa Ana

If OC is a melting pot, Santa Ana is the fire

Guilty Pleasures

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