Loft Residents Enjoy Urban Life Near Station... But Do They Take the Train?

Ride a Metrolink train to an Orange County station and you'll see condos and apartments popping up like weeds. They're bringing an urban feel to suburban Orange County. In the second part of her series about "transit-oriented development," KPCC's Susan Valot stopped by the new lofts near the Santa Ana train station.

[Sound of railroad crossing]

Susan Valot: Cars line up behind the rail crossing on Santa Ana Boulevard as a Metrolink train cruises into the Santa Ana Train Station. Across the street, Anne Pliska opens the garage-like door to her bright three-story live-work loft.

[Sound of Pliska opening her loft]

Valot: At her small art gallery, Pliska's set out a table with drinks and wine. Her neighbors mill about. Many of their loft doors are already open. In ones and twos, they gaze at each other's paintings and photographs. A bigger group hovers around a big-screen TV to watch boxing.

[Sound of Pliska greeting newcomers]

Valot: The open house is a monthly tradition at Santiago Lofts, dubbed the first "live-work" transit-oriented development in Orange County. Before she moved to the lofts, Anne Pliska lived in a house in Orange.

Anne Pliska: Yeah, we waved at each other, but did I know 'em? No, I didn't even know their names! You know, you pull in your garage, the garage door goes down. You go in the house. And that's it. Yeah, I did – seven years I lived there, I did not know my – that's pitiful to me. But here, in the first day, I knew everybody that lived around me. The first day.

Valot: Pliska says she wanted a modern urban feel, but a 1950s sense of community. She found it here.

Pliska: I don't want to live in suburbia. I don't want to live in the suburban, you know, mom with the minivan and the ten kids and the baseball games and the ballet lessons. I can't relate! Ha ha! So this works for me.

Valot: Chris Bradley's a landscape architect who lives around the corner with his wife. Urban art sketched with graffiti splatters the walls of their loft. A DJ spins tunes. And Chris Bradley hangs with his neighbors.

Chris Bradley: When we were moving in, it literally probably took us three times longer than it should have because other people were moving in at the same time, and so we were stopping and put down our sofas in the alley and we were talking and hanging out and you know – not moving in! We were, like, engaging with the neighbors, and none of us were moving in!

Valot: Then came the weekend barbecues, dinners at neighbors' homes, and the monthly open houses. The lofts – priced at about a half-million dollars and up – are mostly filled with couples and professional singles. They're an eclectic mix – carpenters, architects, sculptors. But Bradley says the neighborhood's still got some rough edges.

Bradley: People are like, "Well, isn't it scary living over there?" And it's like, "Yeah, you know, this isn't Ladera Ranch." Honestly, we don't mind it. We live in an urban area because we like it. Obviously, you're gonna have a crackhead on your doorstep once in a while.

Valot: But Kate Woods, a yoga teacher who lives here, says the rough feel outside the lofts fosters a sense of community inside.

Kate Woods: We've had it where a couple of people have tried to come into this particular area, and we're all so hyper-conscious and we, you know, immediately – three of our neighbors independently all come out of their building and start confronting the people. And they're not accustomed to having someone be that aware.

Valot: Loft dweller Chris Bradley's motto? "Be bold or move to the suburbs."

Bradley: I think a lot of young people who have professional jobs are looking to live in a more urban place like this. I think people like us are jealous of like a place like New York or Boston, but we don't really want to live there because we like the beach and the California laid-back lifestyle. So the fact that we can kind of have that and have that urbanity and it's cool.

Valot: Cool enough to drive less and take the train more?

Bradley: Unfortunately, we don't drive less. And you know, there's actually a train stop fairly close to my office.

Valot: In fact, a five-minute walk from his office. But Chris Bradley says the train's too expensive for just a couple of stops.

[Sound of Bradley saying good-bye to his friends]

Valot: Bradley's neighbors don't take the train either – other than an occasional trip to an art gallery in L.A. or dinner in San Clemente. And they still need their cars for basic necessities. There's no grocery store nearby. Santiago Lofts developer David DeRienzo of Urban West:

David DeRienzo: As more residential aspects come in, the greater need for services will be there. Service providers will come in. You know, as the retailers say, they gotta have the rooftops to make the retail work.

Valot: For now, vacant lots lap the edges of Santa Ana's oldest barrio. They're being prepped for development under the city's "Renaissance Plan." Next stop: More transit-oriented development between the train station and downtown Santa Ana.

[Sound of train crossing]