Subject: Papi Pulido

• Register, Times Slam Santa Ana Good--And a Challenge

  If there's one thing that Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut hates more than Sheriff Mike Carona, it's city-controlled urban planning, and he ripped SanTana officials a new one and then some yesterday in a piece blasting the city's much-ballyhooed Renaissance Specific Plan. Proponents say the Renaissance Plan will transform the city's downtown; opponents say the same, except use the word "gentrification." Greenhut, in one of his increasing moves to the Left, sides with the o

  December 24, 2007

• And the Winner is...Papi Pulido!

  Last week, we asked ustedes to pick a nickname for SanTana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who's increasingly taking on the airs of a Latin American dictator. And the winner is...Papi Pulido! Personally, we liked El Caudillo Pulido better 'cause that would've allowed us to commission a portrait of Papi Pulido on horseback ala Napoleon--then again, who says we can't do it? From now on, Miguel Pulido no longer exists on this blog--SanTana's mayor is now and forevermore Papi Pulido. As always, if you have

  January 16, 2008

• Santa Ana Officials Redraw Renaissance Plan Boundaries Again

  Today, Los Angeles Times SanTana reporter Jennifer Delson delivers a bombshell of a story on the city's Renaissance Plan: not only did city officials redraw the Renaissance Plan boundaries to omit the family businesses of councilmember Vince Sarmiento and Mayor Papi Pulido (as we reported last month), but they're planning to do it yet again to allow councilmember Michelle Martinez and planning commissioner Victoria Bentacourt to vote on the matter. Martinez is claiming SanTana officials are usin

  January 20, 2008

• None of His Bisno-iss

  Only in SanTana can an effort to impose term limits on Papi Pulido transform into a ballot measure to extend term limits for councilmembers. But that's exactly what happened with Measure D, which SanTana voters will decide on February 5 and is one of the most laughable pieces of crap to grace Orange County ballots since Tan Nguyen ran for office. Measure D proposes to extend term limits for SanTana councilmembers from two terms to three. The person who would immediately benefit is councilmember

  January 25, 2008

• I Remember Claudia Alvarez

  I remember SanTana councilmember Claudia Alvarez. I remember back in early 2000, when a friend of mine asked if I could help stuff envelopes for a campaign he was working on for a deputy district attorney. I remember meeting her--young, energetic, sincere--and thinking I wanted more politicians like her in office. I remember Claudia Alvarez. I remember stuffing envelopes in the garage of her mother's realty firm, bundling up next to the heater as my friends and I worked for free. I remember loo

  January 30, 2008

• The Most Disturbing Fliers in the World

  Supporters of SanTana Mayor Papi Pulido claim he's the last line of defense before one of the most-Latino cities in the United States (and the largest with an all-Latino city council) finally becomes Mexico. But if the fliers that reached SanTana voter mailboxes over the weekend are any indications, the city is heading in a new, disturbing direction: political cheapness. Take a look at the fliers presented here, for the city's ridiculous Measure D ballot initiative. Notice the lame graphics? Th

  February 4, 2008

• The Stupidest Voters in Orange County...

  ...live in SanTana. Measure D, the ballot measure funded by developers which claimed it would weaken their own grip on City Hall, passed by a 54-46 margin last night. No excuses, SanTaneros: the lot of your are pendejos* who don't mind living under Papi Pulido and his band of conflict-of-influenza-infected City Council, don't bother to read your local papers (whether in English or español) to learn the truth behind robo-calls and idiot fliers, and don't even bother to vote. Consider the story

  February 6, 2008

• Jennifer Delson--Going :-(

  Papi Pulido and his amigos can breathe a bit easier: longtime Los Angeles Times SanTana reporter Jennifer Delson is leaving the paper, as reported by LA Observed and confirmed by Delson via phone call. Delson has written about Orange County's wackiest city since 1999, when she was known as Jennifer Mena. No word yet on whether the Times will replace Delson with another writer, but her departure is further proof that owner Sam Zell is all bluster and cuss words and no action. Hey Zell, you fuck

  March 6, 2008

• Papi Pulido Reads Emails!

  For the past five years, we've come to expect no response from longtime SanTana mayor Papi Pulido whenever the Weekly is working on a story involving the city. So have other longtime activists who approach him in public for a word, a murmur of acknowledgment about their concerns but come away disappointed, leading to speculation the Papi is actually a deaf-mute dwarf, the kind Moctezuma used to keep for advice. But thanks to Orange Juice! blogger Thomas Gordon, the world now has proof that Pul

  April 8, 2008

• Libreria Martinez--Closing :-( ?

  *Updated with new info on the bottom... You know we live in dark times when a Macarthur Genius-winning mensch like Rueben Martinez has to close his legendary Libreria Martinez, the country's premier Latino-themed bookstore visited by every author from the legendary (Carlos Fuentes) to the terrible (yours truly). Am about to board a flight to Kansas City, so much more to come. Just two thoughts for y'all: hey, Santa Ana Mayor Papi Pulido: instead of allocating $1 million for a FREAKING ANTEATER

  April 23, 2008

• OC Fundie Funder Gives Money to Wacky Reeps, Homo-Haters--And Lou Correa?!

  The most influential Orange County man you've never heard of is undoubtedly Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., heir to the Home Savings (remember that bank?) fortune. He rarely makes public appearances due to suffering from Tourette's Syndrome, but that hasn't stopped him from giving millions of dollars away to some of the craziest causes imaginable: creationism, anti-gay marriage, anti-gay clerics in the Episcopalian Church, and so many others that in its list of America's most influential evangelicals a

  June 19, 2008

• Some Words of Advice for Mike Harrah

  Was walking up Main Street in SanTana the other day, and who was driving a massive Cadillac Escalade without a care to gas prices? None other than Mike Harrah, the Weekly's former landlord, one of many sugar papis to councilmember Claudia Alvarez, and the man who wants to build a 37-story building near a residential neighborhood that would be the tallest in Orange County. Seeing Mike staring glumly into traffic reminded us we hadn't thought about his phallic skyscraper complex for a while. SanT

  June 26, 2008

• Baboso Busty Bursts Bubbles of Boho Beaners!

  *Updated, with new info after the jump... Carlos Bustamante was supposed to be the Golden Boy, the Mexican who could deliver Latinos to the Republican Party in Orange County. He won a SanTana City Council seat in 2004 by defeating a Papi Pulido-backed candidate in the one OC city where Democrats rule, and the dreaming started immediately. From a 2004 Los Angeles Times article: His candidacy was supported by Hispanic 100, an organization that supports pro-business Latino candidates. Founder Man

  July 10, 2008

• Santa Ana Now Officially Run by Lazy Mexicans

  *Updated, with new information on the bottom... As the largest city in Orange County, SanTana needs a more-committed city council than, say, Laguna Niguel. Unfortunately, the county seat is cursed with buffoons, a veritable clowncil, to use the term of Orange Juice! bomb-thrower Art Pedroza. We've documented the wackiness of Mayor Papi Pulido and councilmembers Busty Bustamante (pictured), Claudia Alvarez and David Benavides, and at least one of them is amongst the pendejos who are out of town

  August 2, 2008

• Why Anaheim Historians Rule, and Santa Ana Historians Drool

  People frequently assume I'm a SanTana native, but that's probably because I devote so many stories to the Banana Republic. Fact is (as I've said a billion times in this paper and blog), I'm a proud fourth-generation Anaheimer (pre-order my coming book on the subject) who will proclaim Anaheim's superiority over SanTana until I'm blue in the cara. Besides us looking better and being at ease with our lot in county life (unlike constantly insecure SanTana, which constantly seeks to reinvent itself

  August 20, 2008

• The Renaissance Reconquista Will Be Televised

  Strange rumblings are emanating from downtown SanTana, where the perpetually squabbling merchants of Fourth Street seem to be sobering up to the reality that a new wave of invading immigrants--hipsters, artists, and young professionals with disposable incomes--is nibbling away at their bit of the most Mexican city in America. The long-dormant Yost Theater--for decades the center of entertainment life for Latinos in Orange County--is getting readied to become a multipurpose theater that boosters

  August 26, 2008

• The Untold Story of Santa Ana's Fiestas Patrias

  While the Orange County Register and others published fawning dispatches on SanTana's annual Fiestas Patrias Mexican Independence Day festival and parade this past weekend, no one bothered to look into how it came to be that festival organizers moved the Fiestas from its traditional Fourth Street location to Flower Street between Civic Center Drive and Santa Ana Boulevard--or why the carnival rides, food booths and games on Fourth Street weren't acknowledged by civic boosters, Fiestas Patrias or

  September 17, 2008

• This is Why the Democratic Party in Orange County is Largely a Joke

  Last year, I gave a speech for some section of the Democratic Party of Orange County--I can't remember if it was the Foundation, Young Dems, or something, but it was at the Hacienda in SanTana. It wasn't well-received if I remember correctly through the haze of Maker's, mostly because I urged the younger Dems in the audience to not follow in the footsteps of their corrupt predecessors--Robert Battin, a couple of other supervisors, and the like (I'll never forget OC Dem boss Frank Barbaro's long

  September 29, 2008

• SanTana is Finally Mexico Gracias to Don Papi Pulido

  October 13, 2008

• Busty Bustamante Losing Sense of Reality

  *Updated, with new info on the bottom... I will always be a fan of Art Pedroza, the county's original political blogger and the man behind Orange Juice!, because he's living proof that people's political philosophies can change—in Art's case, he went from a homo-hating, MEChA-bashing Republican to a Prop. 8-opposing virtual Aztlanista who tells it like it is, damn public opinion. Nevertheless, Art has an uphill battle in his campaign to wrest the SanTana City Council's Ward Three seat from Bu

  October 29, 2008

• Dems Bringing Sexy Back?

  *Update: They just announced Papi Pulido beat out Michelle Martinez for the SanTana mayoral seat. Not much cheering. Everyone's busy bumping and grinding. *Update 2: A mean trick played by accident on congressional candidate Steve Young led him and his campaign team to believe, for a brief, exultant moment, that he'd beat incumbent John Campbell. A television blip around 10:30 p.m. flashed Young and Campbell's numbers in reverse. Champagne was popped and victory cheers were unleashed but it wa

  November 4, 2008

• Santa Ana Bores Forbes

  Santa Ana, boring? Our hopping county seat, where dudes kidnap boys, bullets rain from the sky, the Cham live free, municipal workers are laid off as trash fees rise, violent crime has dropped but still rules the county, air conditioners are cranked up to 11 in January, Lamborghini dealerships come and go (with $12 million missing), community college football players rape unconscious teens (allegedly) and Mexican gang bangers with designs on taking over LA's street drug trade get popped--THAT SA

  January 13, 2009

• Salty, Overpriced, Inattentive, Mild, Disappointing Lola Gaspar in Santa Ana

  *Moved up, 'cause I hear people are reading this and talking. Did you know that if you Google "Lola Gaspar," this is the first post that shows up? Another strike against Lola--if ustedes had a website, this phenomenon probably would've never happened...**Moved up YET AGAIN because people still keep leaving comments. So far, most commented post in Stick a Fork in It's young history...***Originally published Dec. 15, 2008I've been to many a restaurant opening in my day, and--even when allowing for

  December 31, 2008

• Jerry, Be Wary

  January 31, 2008

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

  January 1, 2009

• Altared States

  October 30, 2008

• [This Hole-In-the-Wall Life] Smokin' Hoagies, Hookahs at Janna Cafe in Anaheim

  February 14, 2008

• SanTana's Designated Choo-Choo Builder Cordoba As Controversy-Ridden as They Come

  Spurious GeorgeAs we predicted, Don Papi Pulido and his SanTana City Puppets rewarded Cordoba Corporation over more-qualified candidates with a contract to head a proposed streetcar project because of Cordoba head George Pla's many SanTana connections. Doug Irving of the Orange County Register had a great piece over the weekend about how SanTana officials are stonewalling his efforts to unearth public records pertaining to the $6 million contract. He also elicited a quote from Pla: Pla said his

  May 5, 2009