Originally Posted by
SnowJob
Sorry to hear about the OP getting assaulted and robbed. That really sucks.
Here in Minneapolis we have Trailwatch rides made up of groups of volunteers who ride the Greenway on just about every evening of the week (a MUP situated in an old railroad trench that runs W/E through South Minneapolis). Trailwatch has a mandate to ride, observe, and report. They communicate with various community leaders (neighborhood associations, ministers, imams, etc) and have a good relationship with local law enforcement. Maybe something like this would work on your SART. We've found that many cyclists are happy to volunteer their time in order to make the trails a little bit safer.
I took a look at your Greenway. Its about a 5 mile stretch that commuters take in the big city to avoid traffic. The SART is altogether a different animal. The distance is about 36 miles from the Pacific Ocean (Orange County) to the next county line, Riverside. It's width is well over 100 yards with approximately 32 underpass type crossings. Not all those 32 are habitable for the homeless. I figure the "tough area" is from the Interstate 405 freeway to maybe Katella Avenue. That's about an 8 mile stretch.
Spanish is the common language in Santa Ana (74%), according to a 2001 survey. Here's what the study shows:
http://swdb.berkeley.edu/News_Info/N...20Ana%20No.htm
Anaheim comes in fourth, with 42.8% of its population speaking Spanish at home, behind El Paso (69.5%) and Miami (66%). Los Angeles, at 42.2%, is fifth. Riverside has the nation's eighth- highest percentage of Spanish speakers, at 33.2%. The national average is 10.5%. California has the highest percentage of people who speak languages other than English, 39%, according to the survey. New Mexico comes in second, with 35.5%, followed by Texas with 32%. The national average is 17.6%.
Gangs in Santa Ana: The Santa Ana Police has a list of the "most wanted".
http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/pd/mostwanted.asp
13 of them and 5 have descriptions of "gang related". Here's a Channel 7 clip on gang related activity in Santa Ana:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=7427987