Gonzales v. City of Santa Ana

I. Introduction

Santa Ana’s Bristol Street has been described by the city’s mayor as “the biggest embarrassment” in the county. City council members have termed it a “disaster,” “troubled,” and in need of “help.” Residents of the city have described it as “unsightly, congested,” and a “mess.”

The street was developed as a residential area in the 10 years following World War II, but has changed over time to mixed residential and commercial uses. Single-family houses now sit next to small businesses and “strip” shopping centers. Utility lines tower overhead, there are billboards aplenty, and a cacophony of signs dot the landscape in a haphazard mixture of old and new. We doubt anyone would disagree that the street is not one of the garden spots of Southern California.

What Bristol is not is a “slum.” It bears no resemblance to Glasgow’s Drumchapel or New York’s South Bronx. There are no tenements; there is little graffiti. During the 1980’s, the dollar volume of the street’s merchants increased by 10 percent (not quite enough to keep up with inflation), and the assessed value of property actually increased at a rate more than twice the city average.

The street itself is…