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Santa Ana residents this week celebrated their newest neighborhood open space.
Gerardo Mouet Park.
Editor’s note: This is an occasional series where Voice of OC works with local community photographers to offer residents a first-hand look at the local sites and scenes of Orange County.
Mouet served as executive director of the City of Santa Ana’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency for 14 years and also served as Long Beach’s park director. In addition, he was appointed by Gov. Brown to the OC Fairgrounds board in 2011.
Present at an opening ceremony this week was Mouet’s wife, Jenny Doh, who said she was holding her breath when the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Santa Ana City Council voted for the park to be named after her late husband.
“It was a unanimous vote, through and through,” said Doh.
Located along dense housing apartments, a ribbon-cutting ceremony brought out dozens of people to celebrate the new $4 million project.
Speaker after speaker mentioned how much Mouet loved the City of Santa Ana along with his passion for public service and for working class residents.
“Mr. Mouet was passionate about providing access to parks, open spaces, and green spaces to neighborhoods and residents who have often been overlooked,” said councilman David Penaloza at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
“This park will serve the Minnie Street area and surrounding neighborhoods, Cornerstone Village, Madison Park, with modern park amenities and sustainable designs,” added Penaloza.
“He’s a phenomenal man. The more I hear about him [the more I realize] he’s brought a lot to Santa Ana. He loved this city,” said Laguna Niguel resident Crisynda Buss, who attended the event.
There was also a table set up where many wrote tributes and offered thanks to Mouet in a book.
One resident was excited about the new addition to her neighborhood.
“I grew up here. I noticed they started working on the park, and I thought it would be an awesome place for my two year-old to hang out,” said Rocio Marcial, 34, a Santa Ana resident.
Santa Ana had been encouraging residents to vote for names of Santa Ana’s newest parks and projects.
“Mr. Mouet’s passion for community advocacy, equity and environmental stewardship left a lasting legacy on Santa Ana,” said Santa Ana Spokesman Paul Eakins.
The park has a greenbelt, picnic tables, turf field, skate park, exercise courts and much more.
“It’s great for smaller kids, and they have a skate park section for older kids,” said Marcial
Many of the neighborhood kids could already be seen enjoying the new playground.
“It’s so apropos of who he was,” said Doh.
“Gerardo Mouet Park is located here in the thick of a community that needs the hope. [The park] is in one word, hope, for families and children [of Santa Ana].”
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