This weekend, Anaheim city workers will begin putting LED bulbs on streetlights in the neighborhood around Edison Elementary School. On Monday, a city-sponsored crew will clean up trash and touch up the paint at nearby Edison Park.

These are the kinds of improvements residents of the surrounding streets have been asking for — and some are hoping they are the start of a more significant reinvestment in their community.

But bringing some of the amenities people want (such as a new community center) and rebuilding the relationship between residents and the city likely will take much more time and effort.

One of the biggest concerns community activist Yesenia Rojas hears is safety, she said Wednesday, Aug. 10 before a two-hour meeting between city representatives and residents at Edison Elementary.

A month ago, 17-year-old Juan Reynaga died after being shot while walking by the school on his way home from work. Residents had just that morning held their first meeting with city officials about how to improve the neighborhood, said Councilman Steve Faessel, who represents the area.

No arrests have been announced in the case, and an Anaheim police officer said Wednesday he had no new information to share.

That’s not the only issue. At Wednesday’s meeting, a group of about 15 residents (mostly moms, including some who brought their kids) told city officials about speeding drivers that ignore the school crossing guard, a parking shortage that causes friction between neighbors, and the lack of recreational activities and programs for their children. Some want to look into adding more “slow down” signs and speed humps.

The city plans to bring its mobile resource center to the neighborhood in September, but many residents want a permanent community center like the one that opened at Ponderosa Park in 2017.

They also want to make sure city leaders don’t leave them out when making spending decisions.

Residents “feel excluded from the city’s investment” when they see the resources going to other areas, Iris Valencia, who has two kids attending Edison, said in Spanish with a city staffer translating. “What we want to know is if there is money, if there is a budget to start addressing our issues.”

Mom and activist Maritza Bermudez raised an even harder-to-solve issue: a shortage of housing that leads families to double up in apartments or take in extra roommates to afford rent.

“The bigger problem here is we have way too many people living in the houses because it’s too expensive,” she said.

City officials didn’t directly respond to the budget or housing issues Wednesday, but they did tell residents about streetlight improvements, the return of an after-school program, and a park cleanup event.

They agreed to study the traffic issues and come back with possible solutions. They also encouraged people to let the city know about illegal parking, graffiti, drinking or drug use in the park, and any other problems they see.

After the meeting, Amy Arellano, who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, said in Spanish that it felt like a big step forward, and she’s expecting to see positive changes in the community.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Faessel said he’s not sure how the city would finance a community center that could cost about $25 million, but added: “I believe that many of the items that the Edison neighborhood is asking for are doable. They may not be doable immediately but we have to plan for them.”

The city made a number of promises Wednesday, but Bermudez told her neighbors they also have an ongoing role to play.

“There’s never going to be change if we don’t have the commitment to follow up,” she said.

This story has been updated. 

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