NOTE: This petition has been created by Delilah Snell (Alta Baja Market), Ana Laura Padilla (Perla Restaurant), and Loni Paniagua (Casa Bloom Studios). We are business owners in downtown Santa Ana and have been a part of the many downtown merchants, advocating for assistance.

The community of downtown Santa Ana has been severely damaged by the construction of the OCTA OC Streetcar (OCS) project. Many small businesses, many of them historically Latino-owned, have operated in Calle Cuatro for decades and the district as a whole heavily relies on the foot traffic and easy navigation of a dense downtown district that consists of 600 businesses.

The construction of the OC Streetcar, a light rail that is to travel from the Santa Ana Train Station to The Garden Grove Transportation Center, has been handled disastrously. Very few people were given proper notice with postcards, but this is not enough or adequate notice for a disruption of this size. Proper planning was needed to prepare and protect the businesses to withstand interruption ESPECIALLY after COVID. To have construction happen in this manner and time is a catastrophe for our downtown.

Businesses have shut down; others sit on their leases rather than open because it is cheaper to be closed. Several are on the brink of closing and MANY are feeling losses in various levels because this construction is ill managed and there is nothing that businesses can do. People feel helpless, but many of us in the downtown are trying to find assistance and help for our community.

We as a business and downtown community have come together to educate, advocate and try to find assistance for the area. We have held a number of meetings, larger town halls, spoken at City of Santa Ana, OCTA and Board of Supervisors meetings. We have met with city staff and made phone calls, email and have walked door-to-door to help our community. This has happened since the construction began in early February.

What our community is asking for is a Business Interruption Fund (BIF). A BIF is a fund that we are asking for and is similar to what LA Metro created for the Crenshaw Line, which is scheduled to open this year. Metro's strategy was recently celebrated in transit publication Mass Transit. This fund helped to support small businesses during a massive construction period. 

Construction for the OC Streetcar is slated to last until 2024, so downtown Santa Ana businesses are asking for OCTA to adopt a similar program. We are asking all customers, supporters, fans and people who believe we need this assistance to sign this petition and to share it so that OCTA can see that the public demands a BIF for DTSA.

NOTE: we do not and have not ever created a Go Fund Me or other campaign where we have asked for the public to give us money. We are asking for vocal support so that the transportation agency of this county can be held responsible to the community for their impact on us.

OTHER WAYS TO HELP:
1. Write to the OCTA Board to Directors (ocstreetcar@octa.net, ClerkOffice@octa.net) and the City of Santa Ana

2. Share this petition
3. SHOP DOWNTOWN SANTA ANA