Community leaders and the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Anaheim, saying the city in effect silences Latinos by shutting them out of the electoral process.Anaheim Hills ("The Hills") contains about 1/6 of the population of Anaheim. It is largely/entirely upper-income, and serves as home-turf to many pro-athletes, famous musicians, successful businessmen, etc... Not exactly the 1% Wall Street types, but you'd be hard pressed to find a box maker living there.
In Anaheim, the city's mayor and four council members are elected "at-large," meaning they can come from any part of the city. No Latino is currently on the council and four of the five council members live in Anaheim Hills.
The remainder of Anaheim (The Flatland) is decidely blue-collar, working class and heavily of Mexican descent. The Flatland has been there since the mid 1800's, while the The Hills didn't begin to exist til the 1970's.
If you live in The Hills, you would rarely, if ever, visit/pass through/shop/ do business in the Flatlands. It's not just the cultural differences that divide. There is also topography. Such things as highways, canyons, thoroughfares, and closer proximity to other (and generally upper scale)business districts... are the real divide.
In short: Anaheim Hills has no credible reason to consider itself a part of Anaheim.
The Hills and The Flatland. Never the two shall meet... and they don't in any real-world sense.
In The Hills: 'Jesus' and 'Maria' do your yard and watch the kids.
In the Flatland: They live next door, and sell tamales in the Wal*Mart parking lot from the trunk of their car.
In The Hills: 'Mohamed' is the enemy on Fox News.
The Flatland: He's the smiling face behind the counter, ringing up cigarettes and Slurpees.
The Hills have El Pollo Loco.
The Flatlands already know that Zankou and Pollo Norteno both kick Loco ass.
The Hills have spoiled rich girls who send naked pics to their boyfriends with the iPhone Daddy pays for...
The Flatland has strip clubs and hookers.
The Hills has Disneyland Passports...
Yer typical Flatlander hasn't been there in 10yrs... maybe longer...
But they drive past it daily.
The Hills: Pho?
Flatlands: Pho!
It seems a little bit kinda not-right that a city council member is not likely to ever be stuck in traffic with those who elected him, that they can be so far removed from the people of the city.
Yet, in Anaheim, it is very much that way.
I kinda like it, though.
I don't need to have somebody 'in charge' who knows my issues and wants to step in with more bullshit programs, or micro-managing every little less-than-savory element of community life, or telling the smoke shop guy his signage is not pretty enough.
Just collect the trash, pave the streets, and keep the place orderly without harassing the indigenous, and the city will work just fine.
1 comment:
Not on topic, but you did mention the chicken joints. We have a Pollo Campero that opened near us, right next door to a KFC, and we love it. We hit it about once a week or so, and really like the grilled option (though the fried is very tasty) and the plantain and yucca sides. Good sign: about 75% of the clientele whenever I'm in there is Hispanic.
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