Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/parks/)
Santa Ana City Council members in a near-unanimous vote of the majority Democrat panel approved a budget Tuesday that increases police spending by nearly $3 million.
Hundreds of public comments on spending pushed the Tuesday meeting into Wednesday.
City council members voted unanimously to pass a resolution to partially reopen some parks and golf courses for limited use with mandatory safety requirements.
Hundreds of security cameras will be added to seven parks and monitored by the Santa Ana Police Department in an attempt to combat vandalism, prostitution, gambling, and misuse of drugs and alcohol at city parks.
The idea is to involve community members in developing vacant city-owned properties – many of which are empty dirt or gravel lots – into affordable housing, parks, urban micro-farms, and marketplaces for small businesses.
Top county officials broke the law by imposing new requirements on employee negotiations, without giving unions a chance to negotiate about the changes ahead of time, according to a proposed decision from the Public Employment Relations Board.
The seven-acre site was bought with money specifically for parks in or near the Platinum Triangle. But city officials want to sell the land and use the profits to improve a park somewhere else in the city.
Hugo Godinez, who triggered a huge backlash over bans on sex offenders in parks, is convicted of probation violations.
John P. Quimby, who authored the state law that lets local governments require developers to set aside land for parks, has died.
Preconceived notions regarding the reasons for obesity and other neighborhood health ills are not as cut-and-dried upon closer examination.