As a Santanera, Jessica Hurtado always dreamed of owning a coffee storefront in downtown Santa Ana, starting with a pop-up in a local bar before eventually opening up Corazón Coffee Bar on Main Street.
“We had started the business small. I’m born and raised in Santa Ana. I take a lot of pride in it and the city– it’s my city and I love it – so just building something here, I feel like I already achieved something,” Hurtado said in an interview.
But lately, like many downtown business owners, Hurtado has found herself having to advocate for being able to market her cafe without being fined in a city where leaders have struggled to attract customers to the historic downtown area.
Hurtado and many downtown business owners are at odds with the city over sidewalk advertising — putting up small signs to boost foot traffic.
It comes as business owners have had to navigate a loss of foot traffic downtown in recent years amid a global pandemic, years of construction on the OC streetcar and now widespread immigration raids that some say have left the area a ghost town.
A couple of shop owners in downtown Santa Ana have also spoken out against raising parking prices in the area earlier this year.
In order to market her business, Hurtado uses an affordable and portable A-shaped free standing sign – called an A-frame or sandwich board – like other local business owners to attract pedestrians downtown to her cafe.
It’s come at a price.
Hurtado said she was given a $100 citation last October for having her sign outside her cafe because the city’s current sign regulations do not allow the sandwich boards commonly seen on the sidewalks of downtown Santa Ana.
Citations can cost up to $500, wrote city spokesman Paul Eakins in an email.
She is now taking a stand – challenging a rule that she said is making things harder for business owners to succeed.
“This is not hurting anybody. It’s not in the middle of the walkway; it’s more towards the side of the building where we have always kept it,” Hurtado said in an interview.
Business and restaurant owners like Hurtado are now calling on city officials to revise the city’s sign ordinance and allow them to put A-frame signs outside their shops to advertise their store’s services and products without having to pay a ticket.
And now it seems their calls are being heard.
Earlier this year, City Councilwoman Jessie Lopez called on staff in May to review the city’s rules on signs and allow business owners to put out A-frames to market their business – a discussion expected to come back this month.
“What I see as an affordable way to advertise products, promotions, and special events, many small businesses in Santa Ana struggle with the high cost of traditional advertising,” said Councilwoman Jesse Lopez in an interview.
Other elected officials, including City Councilman Phil Bacerra, raised concerns that sandwich board signs on city sidewalks can create accessibility issues and leave the city open to liability.
“I think if there’s gonna be anything that comes back, I think we have to make sure that we pay attention to ADA concerns, also to any areas depending on where these designated commercial areas are want to make sure that we’re not seeing A-frames trampling city landscaping,” said Bacerra at the May 6 meeting.
Meanwhile, Hurtado isn’t the only business owner getting fined by city officials for trying to market her business in Santa Ana.
Over roughly the past five years, nearly 3,000 violations have been issued throughout the city, according to city records obtained and reviewed by Voice of OC through a public records request.
Over 2,300 ended in a citation.
“I think that the high number of citations demonstrates that businesses are struggling to navigate the city’s regulations so it’s leading to confusion and in some cases, penalties that are deterring growth. And not only are they deterring growth, they’re not supporting trust with their local jurisdiction,” Lopez said in a phone interview.
“And this is why I think businesses continue to say that the city needs to do more to support them in return because for many of our local business owners, this isn’t just a minor inconvenience.”
Lopez added citing businesses for the signs affects their ability to thrive.
“I have even heard that they feel like they don’t have the support of the city so we need to recognize that the volume of citations is a clear indication that businesses need more support, not just enforcement,” she said.
While city officials released a list of violations, they did not include an accounting of how much money was generated during the roughly five-year period.
Santa Ana sign code forbids any sign that “is an A-frame, sandwich board or other portable, temporary advertising display” on public property.
City Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said officials shouldn’t generate revenue by ticketing local business owners.
“I find it problematic when a city attempts to generate revenue on the back of the people who have built the city with their taxes, especially people who are employing our neighbors already. They’re already providing a service that is incredibly important by opening a business and employing our community,” said Hernandez in a phone interview.
“We as a city should be more vested in how are we relaying our respect to our merchants.”
Mayor Valerie Amezcua and the rest of the city council did not respond to requests for comment.
Citations or Customers: The Price of Marketing
Valentin Martinez, from Ninos Bridal and Couture, is feeling the impact of slowing business in downtown Santa Ana.
Martinez downsized his store front, from having his own store on the second floor of a building to sharing a space with another merchant on the first floor on Fourth Street.
When Martinez was on the second floor, marketing signs were helpful to bring traffic in.
“For the most part people do not look up,” said Martinez, who says rents can be anything from $4,000 to $6,000 a month.
“If people on the floor level don’t have customers, on the second floor it’s even worse.”
Martinez said he feels like he has to beg the city for help to understand the needs of downtown businesses.
“I have gone to Tustin and Irvine Spectrum, and outside their businesses they have signs, signs are popular all over the United States, New York and Vegas; That is why I do not think it is appropriate to remove them, and the city should come up with a plan that favors us as much as it does them.”
Another vendor along Fourth Street believes that there also can be creative ways to market the downtown merchants.
“There can be a directory that shows all of the pedestrians what’s in downtown and where to find us,” said Marcela Rodriguez, a longtime merchant along Fourth Street.
Hurtado said there still can be a revision done to the ordinance, because A-frames are an affordable way for small business owners to market their shops.
“If the walkway is not ADA accessible, I totally understand that, but there is room for some type of small marketing,” said Hurtado in an interview.
What Will Santa Ana’s Sign Policy Look Like?
City officials are expected to discuss revisions to the sign policy at their Aug. 19 meeting after council members in May agreed that any changes made had to comply with accessibility laws.
During the May 6 meeting, Mayor Amezcua asked the city attorney to prepare a report that details how the city could be liable for A-frame signs on public sidewalks.
“When someone trips and falls, we write the check,” said Amezcua.
“It’s not a council member, not the business, we write a check–that’s on our sidewalk.”
Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan was also concerned with the aesthetics of the business signs – wanting to implement design guidelines.
“And just when we bring this back, I’d also like to see, and I’m sorry if I missed it, design guidelines, some of them are kind of ugly, like, I don’t want, like, a bad white plastic frame,” said Phan at the May meeting.
“Just make sure they look cute too.”
At one point during the meeting, Councilman David Penaloza, who wants to support downtown businesses, said the city should revise signs citywide.
The comment was met with pushback.
“I think limiting it to A-frames is perfectly fine, because it seems to me that Councilmember Lopez is trying to address a specific issue. I’m okay with keeping it with A-frames. And if staff believes, or if Councilmember Penaloza believes that we should bring back a broader sign ordinance, maybe that’s another council-requested item that would need additional time” said Phan.
Councilman Bacerra said looking at a broader sign ordinance instead of just A-frames can open up a “can of worms.”
“No, no, no, thank you,” Bacerra said. “I’ll just stick to what’s before us and see what comes back.”