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public partnerships in urban planning with a moderate involvement of the city through the
purchase of a building for a nonprofit organization, the acquisition of a site for a private
corporation, joint financing for the renovation of a museum, a leasing agreement for a
building with an obvious advantage for the lessee, a loan guarantee and so forth. The city
through the CRA has tried to lure investment and people to downtown and has helped to keep
projects going through mostly financial incentives.
Aside formal partnerships, an informal public-private partnership has contributed to
downtown revitalization. Santa Ana’s citizen and private interests pushed downtown
revitalization including the idea of an Artist Village taking SoHo, Greenwich Village in NYC,
Santa Monica, Pasadena, and Portland as example. An informal (that means not formalized
cooperation) partnership between the public and private sectors were established through a
Task Force for Art and Culture which was established in 1992 in order to encourage the arts
in downtown. While city officials and private interests worked together in the Task Force
until 1995, the idea of the Artists Village was conceived. Members of the Task Force were
Don Cribb, a city commissioner and activist, a graphic designer, a social neighborhood
activist, an artist, an architect, the Executive Director of building and planning, the Executive
Director of the Redevelopment Agency and other city staffers.2 In the Task Force public and
private interests started taking about the concept of attracting art to downtown, looked for an
appropriate geographical area for the Artists Village, went out to neighborhoods, museums,
citizen, and property owners to get support for the idea of the Artists Village. The Task Force
for Art and Culture commissioned a feasibility study for an arts area in downtown, which was
paid by the city developed, in 1993 and after the extremely positive study it started an
advertisement strategy for the project. Furthermore, live/work municipal codes were
developed for the Artists Village by the Task Force. The codes allow limited art uses and
live/work projects in the targeted area. After the codes were approved by the building and
planning department and the City Council in 1994, the rebuilding process in the 13 blocks
area could start. The Artists Village was born.3
In general, public-private and even public-public sectors cooperation have highly contributed
to downtown revitalization in Santa Ana. The local developer Strock, artists, the downtown
redevelopment manager, Charles View, as well as other city officials confirmed the great
influence of partnership cooperation on downtown development in Santa Ana. The Task
Force for Art and Culture further provides an excellent example of an informal partnerships
between the City of Santa Ana and its citizen in efforts to employ art as redevelopment
strategy. The discussed formal and informal partnerships in Santa Ana are investment
partnerships which aim primarily at economic development in downtown. However, the Artist
Village has already brought about social frictions since it does not take social considerations
into account. In this regard, the Hispanic majority of the city regard the Artist Village as an
artificial enclave inside Santa Ana.
B. Business Improvement Districts
Business Improvement Districts are best defined by Houstoun:
“A Business Improvement District (BID) is an organizing and financing mechanism used by property owners
and merchants to determine the future of their retail, commercial and industrial areas. The BID is based on state
2 Interview with Randy Au, artist and then-member of the Task Force, on the 17th of November 2000
3 I gathered information about the Task Force in interviews with Randy Au (November 17,2000) and Don Cribb
(November 24,2000)