Everything about Santa Ana Ca totally explained
Founded in 1869,
Santa Ana is the most populous city in
Orange County, California and is the
county seat and a city of over 340,000 people. Santa Ana is located in Southern California on the
Santa Ana River, ten miles away from the California coast. Santa Ana is part of the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area which, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is the second largest metropolitan area in the United States with almost thirteen million people. The
Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) runs through the city, and the
Costa Mesa Freeway (55 Freeway) and
Garden Grove Freeway (22 Freeway) travel along its edges. Santa Ana is home to two Fortune 500 companies, including Ingram Micro, and First American Corp. Santa Ana is also home to the famous guitar manufacturer, Rickenbacker International Corporation. It is today best known for its enormous
Hispanic population, now comprising about 80% of what was once a virtually all-white city. Santa Ana also has the largest Spanish-speaking population per capita for a city its size in the United States. The current
OMB metropolitan designation for Santa Ana and the
Orange County Area is "
Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA."
History
Members of the
Tongva and
Juaneño/
Luiseño nations long inhabited the area. After the 1769 expedition of
Gaspar de Portolá, an expedition that came out of
Mexico City, then capitol of
New Spain, Friar
Junípero Serra named the area
Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne). On November 1, 1776,
Mission San Juan Capistrano was established within this valley. This Santa Ana Valley comprised most of what is now called Orange County.
In 1810, year of the commencement of the war of
Mexican Independence (1810-1821),
Jose Antonio Yorba was granted land that he called
Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. Yorba's rancho included the lands where the cities of
Olive,
Orange,
Irvine,
Villa Park, Santa Ana,
Tustin,
Costa Mesa and unincorporated
El Modena, and
Santa Ana Heights, are today. This ranch was the only land grant in Orange County granted under
Spanish Rule. Surrounding land grants in Orange County were granted after Mexican Independence by the new government.
After the
Mexican-American war ended in 1848,
Alta California became part of the
United States and American settlers arrived in this area.
Claimed in 1869 by
Kentuckian William H. Spurgeon on land obtained from the descendents of
Jose Antonio Yorba, Santa Ana was incorporated as a city in 1886 with a population of 2000 and in 1889 became the seat of the newly formed
Orange County.
One of Santa Ana's most notable businesses is the
Rickenbacker musical instrument company, whose
electric guitars and
bass guitars earned fame in the hands of many
rock and roll legends. Santa Ana is also the home of the
First American Corporation and
Ingram Micro, and the original
Glenn L. Martin aviation company, which later merged with the
Lockheed Corporation to form the largest aircraft and weapons manufacturing corporation on the planet,
Lockheed Martin.
Geography
Santa Ana is located at (33.740717, -117.881408).
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 71.0
km² (27.4
mi²). 70.3 km² (27.1 mi²) of it's land and 0.7 km² (0.3 mi²) of it (0.95%) is water. It is the 8th most densely populated place in the United States with a population of 100,000 or more with 12,471.5 people per sq. mile.
Mater Dei High School,
Valley High School,
Middle College High School,
Santa Ana High School,
Saddleback High School,
Century High School,
Segerstrom Fundamental High School, newly opened
Godinez Fundamental High School,
Cesar E. Chavez High School, and other major schools in the area, along with the
Orange County High School of the Arts in the midtown district. It also is home to one of the many post-secondary private Art Institutions of California.
Santa Ana Unified School District includes thirty-seven K-5 elementary schools, nine 6-8 intermediate schools, eight 9-12 high schools, five special schools, and one charter school. The school district provides an online accountability report card, viewable at this url address: http://www.sausd.k12.ca.us/departments/research_eval/accountability.asp
The Roman Catholic Diocesan K-8 schools available in Santa Ana are: School of Our Lady, Saint Anne, Saint Barbara, and Saint Joseph. (Immaculate Heart Of Mary And Our Lady Of the Pillar schools were closed in 2005 and merged into the School of Our Lady which is located at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish.
(External Link
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Seat of government for one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, Santa Ana is close to several fine public and private universities and colleges, including
California State University, Fullerton,
Chapman University,
Soka University of America,
Whittier Law School and
University of California - Irvine, among others.
Renaissance
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 337,977 people, 73,002 households, and 59,788 families residing in the city. The
population density was 4,808.2/km² (12,451.9/mi²). There were 74,588 housing units at an average density of 1,061.1/km² (2,748.0/mi²). Some consider these numbers to be severely undercounted, and put the population, which may consist of up to 25% illegal immigrants, at 500,000. Santa Ana's population density is 4.6 per housing unit, the highest of any American city over 50,000. (By contrast, New York's is 2.8, and Los Angeles's density is 2.6 persons per housing unit.) Many residents live in illegally converted garages or in rooms not meant for occupancy. The city has attempted to reduce the number of individuals living inside one house by passing density limitations, which resulted in a
civil rights lawsuit being filed and the limits ultimately dropped.
The racial makeup of the city was 42.73%
White, 1.70%
African American, 1.19%
Native American, 8.81%
Asian, 0.34%
Pacific Islander, 40.64% from
other races, and 4.58% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 80.07% of the population. Non-Hispanic Whites make up 12.4% of the population, down from 70% in 1970. Since then the city has been suffering from
white flight.
There were 73,002 households out of which 53.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.6% were
married couples living together, 13.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.1% were non-families. 12.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.55 and the average family size was 4.72.
In the city the population was spread out with 34.2% under the age of 18, 12.8% from 18 to 24, 34.1% from 25 to 44, 13.5% from 45 to 64, and 5.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 26 years. For every 100 females there were 107.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 108.7 males. Santa Ana bucks the national trend on a large percentage of young people under the age of 21.
The median income for a household in the city was $43,412, and the median income for a family was $41,050. Males had a median income of $23,342 versus $21,637 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $12,152. About 16.1% of families and 25.3% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 24.1% of those under age 18 and 10.4% of those age 65 or over. Santa Ana is a city divided by
socio-economic class stratification after decades of immigration and economic prosperity.
Hispanics in Santa Ana
Santa Ana has the nation's highest urban percentage of Hispanics, brought to the county's (and nearby Los Angeles') economic importance. Downtown Santa Ana is a replica of a miniature "Latin American" country with stores, restaurants and social clubs catering to the city's 250,000
Mexicans and estimated 50,000
Central Americans alone.
The reason for Santa Ana's appeal to a large Hispanic immigrant population since the 1970s was the availability of multi-housing units dating back before the Orange County suburban boom, and a history of
Mexican American culture going back to the 1850s is appealing to the many residents still closely attached to Mexico, and many others from
Central America came as well.
In the 1970 census the city's Hispanic population was 24.6 percentthen increased to 44.5 percent in 1980 and went up to 64.7 percent by 1990though it's now decreasing, due to Hispanics moving out of areas full of high crime and rising apartment rental prices during the 2000s real estate boom, to live in cities such as
Riverside and
Indio which have large Mexican immigrant enclaves and equally high percentages of Latinos.
Santa Ana has a large presence (compared to Orange county) of African Americans. Large numbers of Asian Americans, such as
Iranians,
Indian Americans and
Vietnamese Americans arrived in Santa Ana during the 1980s. There's even a
American Indian community in Santa Ana as a result of migrants from
Oklahoma and the
American Southwest in the 1940s whom sought wartime industry work.
Politics
In the
state legislature Santa Ana is located in the 34th
Senate District represented by
Democrat Lou Correa, and in the 69th
Assembly District, represented by
Democrat Jose Solorio. Federally, Santa Ana is located in California's
47th Congressional District and is represented by
Democrat Loretta Sanchez.
Business
Santa Ana is home to:
Climate
Santa Ana experiences the warm sunny weather that Southern California is famous for. Santa Ana's climate can best be called mild. Winter daytime temperatures average in the high sixties and low seventies (degrees Fahrenheit), and summer daytime temperatures average in the mid eighties. Rainfall averages below fourteen inches per year.
Transportation
Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Santa Ana several times on weekdays with less frequent service on weekends. It operates its
Pacific Surfliner between
San Diego to the south and either
Los Angeles or
Paso Robles to the north (see
Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center). Greyhound USA is the largest bus transportation service in Santa Ana. Greyhound serves the continental United States and Canada. The bus lines Crucero, Intercalifornias, and others serve all points into Mexico.
Santa Ana is also served by
Metrolink's Orange County Line (
Oceanside to
Union Station), and
Inland Empire-Orange County Line (
San Bernardino to
San Juan Capistrano).
Public transit bus service is available via the
Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA).
John Wayne Airport is located at 18601 Airport Way Santa Ana, CA 92707. The
IATA code for the airport is SNA.
Notable natives and residents
David Aldana, former professional motorcycle racer
David "Elsewhere" Bernal, actor and dancer
Beverly Bivens, singer
Marlon Brando, actor
Sandro Dias, professional skateboarder
Philip K. Dick, writer
Lenny Dykstra, former MLB player, 3-time all star
Diane Keaton, actress (Santa Ana High School Graduate)
Matt Leinart, football player (Mater Dei High School graduate)
Rueben Martinez - activist and MacArthur Fellow
Bill Medley, singer and songwriter
Mike Ness, musician
Louie Olivos Jr., actor and dramatist
Michelle Pfeiffer, actress
Erasmo Ramirez, professional baseball player (Saddleback High School graduate)
John Raitt, musician
Garry Templeton, former baseball player (Santa Ana Valley High School graduate)
Gerald Young, former baseball player (Santa Ana Valley High School graduate)
Gilbert Melendez, Mixed Martial Artist (Santa Ana High School Graduate)
Sites of interest
Artist Village and Civic Center (See Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts).
Bowers Museum - History museum started in the 1930s with a large collection of Central American artifacts.
Centennial Heritage Museum - home of the Kellogg House and other 1890s buildings
CSUF Grand Central Art Center - At the heart of the Artist Village in Santa Ana.
Delhi Park and El Salvador Park (Artesia Pilar Neighborhood)
Discovery Science Center.
Downtown National Register District.
Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts.
Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum.
El Centro Cultural de Mexico.
Galaxy Theatre.
Historic Floral Park.
Historic French Park.
Main Place Mall opened in 1990.
OC Pavilion performing arts center and 5-star restaurant Ambrosia.
Old Orange County Courthouse.
Santa Ana Civic Center
Santa Ana College
Santa Ana Fire Department's Firefighter's Museum.
Santa Ana Zoo, built in 1960.
St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Sol Art Gallery Cafe
The Rancho Santiago Community College District, established in 1878, has six satellite campus locations across Orange County, including Santa Ana College.
Greenville, a formerly rural section of Santa Ana, has buildings over a century-old, but industrial complexes replaced agricultural fields that once surrounded the town.
Santa Ana has several wall paintings and murals depicting local history, community events and cultural diversity in Orange County.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Santa Ana Ca'.
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