“I wanted to spend time with my family and have a good summer with them,” Visoso said.

Visoso, 24, hadn’t been to the fair in more than a decade. After all those years waiting, how would he spend his day on the fairgrounds?

“Hopefully get on all the rides, because I know there’s going to be a lot of people coming in,” he said. “And get some good food.”

The 2025 OC Fair will run through Aug. 17 — it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The 23-day event is expected to bring in more than a million guests. Daily attendence has been capped since the onset of the pandemic and popular days sell out each year.

New activities this year include an after-dark event at the Plaza Pacifica that will get people moving with swing dancing, Latin music and more on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Read also: OC Fair 2025: Here’s what you need to know to pay, play and park

New attractions, food and stands, including Tom’s Puffs and Pie, the 180-foot-tall Aviator and an exhibit paying tribute to the VHS tape era featuring movie poster art, have also been added to the mix.

Each year, hundreds of residents submit entries to the fair’s competitions. Everything from quilts to cupcakes to table settings.

With a list of his family’s 20 entries, Long Beach resident and event planner Dan Smith Chavira rushed to the glass cases displaying the winning entries, searching for any blue ribbon wins. This is his second year submitting baked goods with his family. His niece had been perfecting her eight recipes for months, he said.

“This is the moment when you can first see the results,” Smith Chavira said. “So we doorbusted to see how we did.”

His Portuguese Focaccia, inspired by his Italian grandmother and Portuguese grandfather, won the focaccia class and an overall award for the artisan leavened bread division.

He turned in his focaccia earlier in the week, as well as his Yuzu bar that won an honorable mention in the citrus bar category. Smith Chavira says he only bakes for the OC Fair.

“I’m not a baker, but I’m a competitor,” he said. His focaccia beat out 24 other entries in his category, decided by a panel of 13 judges.

He was the only division winner in his family.

He called this year’s win a “redemption” after his “overdone” French onion focaccia garnered no accolades last year. This year, he told himself, “Don’t overcook it, slow down, cook to your skill level, and relax.”

Even without any entries in the competition, Anaheim couple LuAnn Hillman and Steve Rosco made an early stop in the OC Promenade hall to see the winners.

“We see all the talent that’s in Orange County. Look at these bakers and what they’ve done,” Hillman said.

They’ve been visiting the fair for more than 40 years. And each year, they go on the first day. They say it’s the best time to catch the food entries, “when everything’s fresh.”

“It’s beautiful,” Rosco added. “It’s not professional like when you go into a bakery, these are regular average people that have these incredible, wonderful talents.”

Standing next to his table setting, Orange resident and administrative manager Tim Wyckoff was approached by fans of his work from previous years. Wyckoff has been decorating table settings for more than 30 years.

This year, his table in the Tropical Paradise division won second place.

“I want to make people smile,” Wyckoff said. “Since I’m not a master of a certain craft, but I like crafting in general, I like that this lets me do so many different versions of crafting.”

He designs every aspect of his table meticulously, including the floral arrangement, glassware and menu. For the theme, he even made an animatronic parrot from scratch.

“The pink in the orchids matches the pink in the salt and pepper shakers. The green and orange are pulled upward into the birds of paradise. Everything is coordinated,” Wyckoff said.

Brian Koch, a 68-year-old arborist, took off work Friday to visit the first day of the fair. It was his first fair in at least a decade, and he purchased a season pass to come back regularly.

“I enjoy going to fairs,” Koch said. “Mainly for the agricultural stuff, not for the rides or anything.”

Throughout the fair, various animal species will come and go for people to visit and watch in competitions. Cattle, chickens, donkeys and more will make their way to the fairgrounds over the next month.

During opening weekend, visitors will be able to see goats and llamas brought by breeders from around Southern California.

Eleven llamas at the fair on Friday belong to Eileen Ditsler.

“I discovered the llamas by accident at a fair like this,” said the 61-year-old San Dimas resident. “I’ve had llamas now for 30 years and they’re just so easy.”

She said a few years ago they exploded in popularity with people watching videos of them on TikTok, wearing llama T-shirts and even paying for them to be at weddings. They can even be taken out for a walk in the neighborhood with a lead rope.

They’re a hit with the fair crowds, especially Jim Wilson, 83, of Cypress, who was smiling in the livestock area as he watched the llamas munching on hay and showing off their poodle-like haircuts.

“It’s so great to see them,” Wilson said. “These guys are something different.”

If you go

When: Hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 17

Where: The OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: General admission is $13 on Wednesdays and Thursdays and $15 on other days; seniors and children are $9 daily. Tickets must be purchased at ocfair.com/tickets and popular dates may sell out.

For more information: ocfair.com

National organizers said more than 1,600 actions were planned across the country, where protesters rallied against policies that target immigrants and the transgender community, slash programs like SNAP and Medicaid and that activists worry will restrict voting rights, a cause that Lewis championed as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Lewis’ efforts helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protected the right to vote for marginalized groups and ensured the 15th Amendment was enforced.

“All of that is under threat now because we have an administration that is determined to act in an unconstitutional way,” said Barbara Arnwine, a co-leader of the Transformative Justice Coalition, ahead of the rallies.

Around 300 people gathered in Downtown L.A., most for a rally in Gloria Molina Grand Park and others for a candlelight vigil outside City Hall to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Lewis’ death. The organization that planned the vigil, 5051, was also responsible for organizing the No Kings protest, which drew 200,000 protesters to downtown L.A. alone.

Alexis Bullara, an organizer with 5051, wasn’t surprised that the vigil saw a smaller turnout.

“It’s a work day,” she said. “It’s in the evening, and, at least for us, we’re not doing a big march. We’re not attracting as many of those people who might want to.”

Tim Myers, a musician and Calabasas resident who’s running for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket, thought it was important to come and address the gathering.

“We need more leaders who have peaceful solutions,” he said, calling Trump’s actions in bringing the National Guard to L.A. very violent.

“Other politicians in Sacramento are staying silent, but I’m here raising my voice up and doing what John Lewis called us to do — rise up,” he said.

For Victoria Leigh Julien, organizing one of the protests, in Whittier, was the most patriotic thing she could do.

Working for social justice causes since “Girls State” summer camp as a young girl, 28-year-old Julien honed her community collaboration skills through the Young Republicans Club in high school, college at Biola University, volunteer work and protests and discussions with law enforcement after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“Rallying alongside others amidst opposition is incredibly moving and encouraging,” Julien said, “and I hope people who have been motivated enough to come out of their homes and protest will experience that rallying energy and optimism for positive change.”

A member of the Whittier chapter of Indivisible, the group that organized June’s “No Kings” rally, Julien is working with the Truth and Democracy Coalition to galvanize opposition to Trump administration policies.

Whittier’s “Good Trouble Lives On” rally drew more than 100 people outside Whittier City Hall to honor the five-year anniversary of Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis’ passing and protest Trump administration policies.

In Pasadena, around 500 people gathered to the sound of The Nextdoors, a local duo, in Memorial Park.

Donna Thomas came to the rally worried about the state of democracy in the United States but also because she wanted to memorialize Lewis’ legacy. She held a sign in honor of Lewis that read, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble. That’s the soul of America.”

“I’m worried about ICE being in Los Angeles,” Thomas said. “I’m worrying about the Palestinian genocide. We’re losing our democracy. There’s so much injustices.”

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez told the crowd that she and other state lawmakers will do everything they can to push back against immigration raids and other Trump administration policies.

“We will use every tool in the toolbox to fight back,” she said, “and if the president thinks that I’m going to back down, then boy he has another thing coming.”

More than 200 people gathered at Bixby Annex Park in Long Beach, where protesters lined Ocean Boulevard and cheered as passing cars honked in support.

Tim Williams, 83, from Seal Beach was at the Long Beach rally holding a sign that said “MARA. Make America Responsible Again.”

“This word here,” Williams said, pointing at the word responsible on his sign, “is the reason why I’m here because I used to be able to be proud of my country for being responsible in the world, and at this point, we’re shirking almost every responsibility we can. “

Williams said he feels a lack of faith in U.S. leaders. The Trump administration, he said, is preventing policies and work that could slow climate change, slashed education budgets and taken steps that he said strip away civil rights that activists like Lewis fought for.

Around 40 protesters rallied along Pacific Coast Highway in front of the Huntington Beach Pier. Their anti-Trump signs and cheers were greeted with supportive gestures from visitors enjoying a sunny day at the beach.

One of the protesters, Cassie Helm, a 31-year-old mother of two from Huntington Beach, said Lewis’s “good trouble” quote and history of fighting for civil rights motivated her to speak out against the Trump administration.

“We have things that we can stand to lose by being out here, but we do it anyways because we have more to stand to lose as America if this continues,” Helm said.

Helm pointed to the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” a migrant detention center in Florida, as a sign of the perilous state the nation is in brought by Trump.

“If they are allowed to do that, and no one is going to do anything about it, what are they going to do next?” Helm said.

The Huntington Beach Pier, a common spot where Trump supporters rally, brought just a handful of teens who heckled protesters.

Larry Slonim, 72, said the demonstration was all about speaking out to defend democracy. The retired architect has been a regular at protests in Huntington Beach for the past several months.

Slonim said he was angered by National Guard presence during federal immigration sweeps throughout California  and believes it was a blatant show of force by the Trump administration to intimidate residents.

“It’s not about being right,” Slonim said. “It’s about being in power. It’s all about power.”

In the Inland Empire, community members were invited to learn about community organizing and voter registration from local leaders at the Riverside Main Library.

“We are seeking justice for people who have suffered from discrimination,” said Kris Lovekin, an organizer with Indivisible Riverside. “So banding together in community is important.”

The Riverside event included a life-sized cardboard cutout of Lewis, a Riverside Resistance Revival Chorus performance, an intergenerational discussion on protest, information booths on voter registration and footage from the documentary “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”

The demands come in a cross-complaint filed Monday by Aloha Financial Investment Inc. in the county’s lawsuit against Do and others who are accused of misusing county-administered COVID-relief funds for a meals program for the needy.

The company did business under the name Perfume River Restaurant and Lounge in Westminster and was contracted by Viet America Society to complete a county-funded meals program. The complaint portrays the organization as a victim that has been financially damaged by Do’s “evil intent.”

Thu Thao Thi Vu is the president and owner of Aloha Financial Investment Inc. The complaint alleges that Aloha Financial Investment Inc. thought that the $381,000 it paid Do and his daughter, Rhiannon, was a loan and not a bribe that was used by Rhiannon for a down payment on a house in Tustin.

Do insisted that VAS get Aloha to issue a loan to Rhiannon so that the former supervisor could benefit from the contracts he steered to VAS, the complaint said.

In escrow papers, Rhiannon told loan officers that the money was a gift to secure the purchase as a straw-buyer for her father, the complaint said.

Rhiannon Do did not make any repayment on the loan and Aloha is asking that it now be repaid.

The federal government seized bank accounts and property in Santa Ana owned by Aloha Financial Investment Inc. and Vu.

The seizure was derived from Do’s “unsubstantiated claims that Aloha and Vu were connected to his actions which created the bribes,” the complaint said.

“Aloha and Vu have never met Andrew Do nor have any personal dealings with Andrew Do,” the complaint said.

Aloha Financial Investment Inc. wants $15 million to compensate for damages it incurred.

Do was sentenced in June to 60 months in prison after admitting he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. A restitution hearing to determine how much Do must repay the county is set for Aug. 11, a few days before he heads to prison.

Do’s attorney, Eliot F. Krieger, responded: “It would be inappropriate to comment at this point.”

An attorney for Rhiannon Do did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HPT Realty is also being sued by Aloha Financial Investment Inc. The complaint accuses Philip Vu Nguyen, an agent with HPT Realty and Finance, of aiding Rhiannon Do and receiving commission “for the assistance and completion of the fraudulent transaction in which loan documents were falsified.”

HPT Realty and Finance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors in an indictment of VAS’s leader, Peter Pham, alleged that money was laundered through an Aloha Financial Investment Inc. bank account.

Aloha Financial Investment Inc. received millions in checks collectively between Pham and Nguyen using county funding, prosecutors described in the indictment.

Prosecutors in the indictment said Aloha Financial Investment Inc. received millions in checks collectively from Pham and another co-conspirator using county funding.

That indictment said Pham used $150,000 of county money that was first laundered through an Aloha Financial Investment Inc. bank account to help him buy a home in Garden Grove.

A judge last month ruled that the county’s civil lawsuit could move forward toward a possible trial. The next hearing is set for October.

More than 26 million people in 2024 traveled to Anaheim, according to numbers released this week by Visit Anaheim.

Naturally, many of them were tourists making their way to Disneyland, but the count also includes those visiting the city for business, such as attending a conference at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Visit Anaheim President and CEO Mike Waterman has termed upcoming major events and developments coming to Southern California and Anaheim as a new “golden decade” of opportunity that will increase the number of visitors well beyond where it stands today.

“The future is so bright for tourism, both for visitors and the locals,” Mike Waterman said. “We’ve got the James Beard restaurants, OCVibe and new attractions with DisneylandForward. I’m so bullish for the golden decade.”

Visit Anaheim, which markets the city to travelers and books the convention center, found that about 500,000 more people traveled to Anaheim last year compared to 2023. Visitor spending also hit $6.6 billion in 2024.

The organization wants to shatter the visitation record set this year and bring in 30 million visitors annually by the end of 2028.

That’s when the Olympics will descend upon Southern California, including volleyball at the Honda Center. Paired with developments from OCVibe, which along with adding new housing is planning multiple music venues around the Honda Center, and DisneylandForward well underway, guests will have more reasons to stay in Anaheim and for longer, Waterman said.

“It’s nice to see us making progress toward that goal,” Waterman said. “We still have quite a ways to go. We are excited about the progress and the future.”

Leveraging the most out of the Olympics is the goal of almost every city in Southern California. But Anaheim is unique in OC by having the only event actually in the county (surfing at Lower Trestles south of San Clemente is actually in San Diego County). Spectators will have easy access to the dozens of hotels around the resort area.

One sign of the scramble to maximize the opportunity comes from Disney. The Disneyland Resort’s former president, Ken Potrock, was elevated last year to president of The Walt Disney Company’s major events integration, where he will “focus on maximizing the company’s value during large-scale global events, such as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”

But there are headwinds buffeting the travel industry.

In January, Waterman said there was a considerable drop in visitors that month due to the LA fires and people avoiding Anaheim, who might have been unaware how far the city was from the fires.

Leisure travel to Anaheim, Waterman said, has been softening, but Visit Anaheim is looking to spend $3 million on a marketing campaign to lure travelers. He pointed to a luxury travel campaign that cost a bit less last year as bringing in $100 million in incremental business.

An ongoing drop in international visitors, especially from Canada, the area’s largest international market, is another critical challenge.

There’s been a prolonged spat this year between Canadian and American leadership over trade and assertions from President Donald Trump that Canada should become the 51st state.

The state’s marketing organization, Visit California, said in an April report that “tariffs, policies and pronouncements from the Trump administration have contributed to a growing wave of negative sentiment toward the US among potential international travelers.”

The forecast for visitors coming from Canada saw the largest decline in the Visit California report.

More Canadians were expected to travel to California compared to pre-pandemic numbers, but recent projections have downgraded that to 19% fewer people visiting this year than in 2019, according to the report.

Full recovery of pre-pandemic international visitors isn’t expected to happen until 2028.

To staunch the bleeding, Visit California launched a “California Loves Canada” campaign and even featured Gov. Gavin Newsom giving his pitch to Canadians deciding where to travel this year.

“California is the ultimate playground — over 2,000 miles from Washington and a world away in mindset,” Newsom said in an April video ad, “from our iconic beaches and national parks to world-class wine, food, and outdoor adventure — there’s something here for everyone. Canada, come experience our California Love.”

Last month, the city partnered with the nonprofit Anaheim Community Foundation to launch Anaheim Contigo, which accepts donations from the community to fund emergency assistance grants for families affected by the sweeps.

The $250,000 in new money for Anaheim Contigo, approved by a split 5-2 City Council on Tuesday, July 15, would significantly bolster the fund, which had received $35,000 in donations to date.

“We are called right now to meet this moment with compassion and expediency,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said. “Current immigration actions are sowing fear among our residents and intimidating our communities. Unjust enforcement every day is tearing our families apart and it’s tearing at the fabric of our community.”

“It’s a facade of unity with the community if we’re not willing to put a dime toward helping our residents,” Aitken continued.

Only Anaheim residents who are low-income and can demonstrate an immediate need are eligible for the grants. Residents can apply at the city’s family resource centers.

The grants are meant to pay for rent, utilities and household essentials. City officials said some Anaheim residents have avoided going to work out of fear of coming into contact with federal immigration officials at their jobs, stressing the need for help to pay their bills.

The new funding is enough to help 500 people. The city already has more than 100 people who have reached out for assistance.

The City Council directed staff to look for any existing housing dollars or grants that could be allocated to Anaheim Contigo. The backup funding plan would rely on reallocating money from other city departments or cost savings that come up throughout the year.

City spokesperson Mike Lyster told the council about a single mother of two teens who has been unable to work as a delivery driver and a family of five whose father’s work at a nursery was affected by immigration enforcement activity at the facility. These are two examples, Lyster said, of people who have already received the grants; both received $500 to help with rent or utilities.

The Samueli Foundation contributed $10,000 to the Anaheim Contigo fund, and Councilmembers Norma Campos Kurtz and Carlos Leon donated a few thousand each to it as well.

Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava said she hoped the Samueli contribution would spur other large companies in the city to contribute, too.

Councilmembers Natalie Meeks and Ryan Balius voted against supporting Anaheim Contigo with city dollars.

“The council approved a budget three weeks ago, and I believed that there was no excess,” Meeks said. “A reduction of $250,000 will have impacts to our community. And this agenda item asks this body to take this action with no information about what those impacts are.”

City officials on Tuesday said there hasn’t been any federal immigration enforcement since July 9. A car wash on Euclid saw six people detained over two separate enforcement incidents and had to be closed over a busy Fourth of July, Lyster said.

“We don’t want a carny atmosphere,” one councilmember said. “We don’t want people falling in the river, or merry-go-rounds squawking all day long.”

When it was over, Disney and an artist who had joined him at the public meeting, Harper Goff, gathered up their drawings and left in disgust, according to an account in the 2008 book “Working With Walt.”

That was September of 1952. Over the next two-plus years Disney – then a 14-time Oscar winner and one of the best known men in America – would get a very different hearing from officials in Anaheim and Orange County.

Anaheim’s leaders, unlike their counterparts in Burbank, didn’t trash talk Disneyland. And county officials welcomed him. Disney responded, as his ambitious project got going, by engaging local leaders and doing business with local companies.

As a result, by the time Disneyland’s gates opened, on July 17, 1955 — on former orchards just inside the recently expanded city limit of Anaheim — Disney and Anaheim happily entered one of the great corporate-civic marriages in American history.

See also: Disneyland 70th anniversary timeline from 1955 to today

What has their marriage changed? More than you might think.

Real estate? Disneyland helped spark a mid-century re-invention of Orange County, which soon became a center for master-planned (Disney-like) communities such as Irvine and Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo. Similar towns can be found in Arizona, New Jersey and China, among others.

Entertainment? Disney, post Disneyland, expanded into everything from live-action movies to streaming services to cruise ships, becoming the template for modern entertainment conglomerates.

Government? Disney’s connection to Anaheim sometimes has drawn unflattering critiques, with the company viewed as overly powerful and the city as overly welcoming. Critics say it’s helped to pave a path for corporate influence over municipal governments. Whether that’s fair or not, Disney has become far more intertwined in civic life in Florida, at times holding approval rights and responsibilities over development and community services on some Disney-owned property in that state.

But for all that, the marriage of Disney and Anaheim has been, if not romantic, mutually transactional.

Anaheim was shedding its agricultural roots before Walt’s arrival. Door locks, paint, steel and aerospace — not farming — were the city’s top industries. But, before Disneyland opened, Southern California’s biggest freeways didn’t yet reach deep into Orange County. And the idea that Anaheim might be a tourist destination was laughable.

“Anaheim was that little town on the way to the beach,” said Keith Murdoch, who was Anaheim’s city administrator and city manager from 1950 to 1976, in the 2007 documentary “Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic.”

Likewise, before expanding south, Disney’s company wasn’t yet what it would become.

Though wildly successful as a producer of animated movies and shorts, and maker of documentaries that touched on themes of nature and history, Walt Disney’s basic goal was both simple and profound — he wanted to extend his movie-experiences to something approximating real life; a place like Disneyland.

He also wasn’t above a little revenge.

“I think that (Disney) took a great deal of pleasure in taking (Disneyland) elsewhere after the reception he got” in Burbank, Goff recalled in a 1979 interview.

Over 70 years, Disney and Anaheim’s mutual needs have been a key part of Orange County’s evolution from an agricultural suburb of Los Angeles into a stand-alone urban center, the nation’s sixth most populous county with an economy that federal data recently pegged at about $333 billion a year. The marriage also helped turbocharge Disney’s studio into something that today sells everything from costumes and condominiums to theme park tickets and plays and movies in every corner of the globe. Currently, Walt Disney Co. has a market cap of about $215 billion.

But when Disney came to Anaheim he wasn’t exploiting any rubes. Both partners entered the marriage with the idea of profiting off the other.

“We were looking to improve the economic status of the city by attracting new industries,” Murdoch said in yet another film, the 2009 documentary “50th Anniversary of Tomorrowland.”

“We looked at Disney as another industrial opportunity.”

Over the decades the relationship has shifted and re-shifted and re-shifted again, with Disney at times viewed as a corporate overlord and Anaheim seen as a vassal state. But Disney money – tax revenue created by Disneyland and Disney-related projects – has helped fund everything from Anaheim schools and parks to street repairs and semi-affordable housing.

And while Disney frequently has strayed outside of Anaheim – building theme parks in places like Florida and France and China – it’s also continued to grow locally.

In 2001, Disney California Adventure opened next to Disneyland. And, since then, the company and the city have worked together to transform the model from “theme park” – with visitor money mostly staying on Disney-owned properties – into something they both describe as a “resort,” with visitors using hotels and restaurants near Disney-owned properties but with taxes going to the city.

“When Walt Disney chose Anaheim to build Disneyland, he worked with leaders who had a bold vision of what the city could become,” said Cathi Killian, Disneyland Resort’s vice president communications and public affairs, in a prepared statement dated July 11.

“Over the last seven decades, we’ve been fortunate to continue those relationships, which in the ‘90s helped transform the park into the resort destination it is today. Now, with the approval of DisneylandForward, we look forward to a bright future with meaningful investment and growth that will benefit the community we call home.”

‘Wonderful World?’ Sometimes

After Burbank slapped down Disney’s theme park idea, the cartoonist hired the Stanford Research Institute to find the best location for his park, a long held dream that he wasn’t surrendering.

Economists looked at traffic patterns and freeway planning, population growth – even access to power and sewage. The best sites, the group said, were in Orange County, a community next to a huge population center (Los Angeles) that was in the early stages of a boom. And the best of the best, they said, was a tract near Ball Road and Harbor Boulevard.

But after Disney put down a deposit on that land – at a number considered generous – the asking price for a neighboring property shot up.

At that point, according to “Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park that Changed the World,” Disney decided he “had to form an alliance with the city government.”

“(Walt Disney) had a vision,” said former Anaheim Councilmember Stephen Faessel, who has written several books about Anaheim’s history.

“Anaheim’s leadership, at that point, embraced that vision.”

Disney soon built a rapport with downtown businesses.

“He engaged some of our local insurance companies. He bought stuff from local builders. He bought lumber from Ganahl Lumber. He bought hardware from the old Martenet,” Faessel said. “So he tried as best he could to build a business relationship with Anaheim businesses, which was certainly appreciated.”

That business relationship would boost both sides.

Disney — who pitched Disneyland every Sunday night on his national TV show, “Wonderful World of Disney” — sold a lot of theme park tickets. In the second half of the 1950s, Disneyland was drawing about 5 million people a year.

That, in turn, helped boost Anaheim. In the last federal head count before 1955 Anaheim’s population was about 15,000; by the 1960 Census it was more than 104,000.

But it wasn’t just people. Hotels and restaurants; roads, schools, parks — all were opening in Anaheim during a time when Disneyland was becoming a national household name and, increasingly, a bucket list item for every kid in America. Tourism to Anaheim — and to nearby beach communities like Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach — expanded rapidly in the ’50s and 1960s.

Anaheim even joined the big leagues.

In 1966, the year the Angels moved from Los Angeles to Anaheim, the city was by far the smallest to host a Major League team.

Those other towns might’ve had more people, but they didn’t have Disneyland.

Walt Disney and the Angels owner, cowboy actor and crooner Gene Autry, were long-time friends. Disney sat on the Angels board of directors when the team first joined the American League, in 1960, and he was a voice on the board as several cities — notably Long Beach — wooed the Angels.

Disney reportedly pushed hard for Autry to choose Anaheim, and he played a role in the development of Anaheim Stadium.

Disney died in 1966, but his company remained connected to pro sports in Anaheim.

The Disney Corp. was the first owner of the Mighty Ducks hockey team, which started play in Anaheim in1993. And in the mid-1990s Autry sold a 25% of stake in the Angels to Disney Corp., which took an active managing role in the organization. By 1998, when Autry died, controlling interest in the team went to Disney Corp., which owned both of Anaheim’s pro sports teams until the early 2000s.

During that same period, Disney was expanding. The company opened Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in 1971. It opened another park in Tokyo, in 1983, and Euro Disney, in Paris, in 1992.

But expansion in Anaheim was left out.

Though attendance didn’t rise every year, the trend line at Disneyland was pretty strong. By the mid-1990s, the park, which in the early years closed a couple days each week, was a 365-day-a-year operation bringing in more than a million visitors a month.

The park’s popularity — and a growing desire for more of everything in Orange County — brought the company’s focus back to Anaheim. A second theme park, locally, felt inevitable, said former Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly, who served on the City Council from 1988 to 2002.

But there were hurdles.

Though Disneyland was well maintained and marketed as relentlessly happy, conditions in some neighborhoods close to the park were blighted. The area now known as Anaheim Resort was grim, and life on parts of some of the bigger streets near Disneyland included everything from prostitution and drug use to rampant poverty.

“The condition of Harbor Boulevard was a big deal,” Daly said. “It was a major embarrassment.”

Daly said the focus was on removing blight and improving the area’s infrastructure. Design standards were set, utility poles were put underground and new freeway ramps were built leading into a massive new parking garage.

In 2001, the city opened a second Anaheim park, Disney California Adventure.

The city took out $510 million in bonds to finance its contributions for the project and Disney invested $1.4 billion. The resort area — and the concept — were established.

It also became the subject of heated civic debate.

The city’s deal let Disney pay rent of just $1 a year for that parking structure. The company also got to keep parking revenue and take ownership of the lot when the bonds are paid off.

Daly and others defend the deal. But, fair or not, the low rent — and Disney’s long-term profit — remain a flashpoint for people critical of the city’s marriage with Disneyland.

Still, since that expansion, hotel tax revenue in Anaheim has skyrocketed. In the late 1990s, the city was getting about $45 million a year in hotel taxes. Last year, it was about $240 million.

“It’s easy to criticize, but on par, Disneyland powers the hotel stays in Anaheim,” Daly said. “And you look at the growth of bed tax revenue over time, it’s breathtaking.”

The bonds the city took out will be paid off in about two years. After that, the city will have more than $120 million a year for public projects.

That foundation, was set by the 1990s expansion that has turned Disney into the county’s largest employer (passing UC Irvine) and the linchpin of Anaheim’s economy.

To infinity, and…

If the tone of the last two decades of Disneyland and Anaheim’s marriage was set by the 1990s expansion, the next 40 years could be influenced by the city’s recent move to approve DisneylandForward.

In one sense, the plan is simply a zoning change. Over the next four decades, Disney will be allowed to develop Disney-related projects on its parking lots, building new parking as needed to accompany revenue- and tax-generating developments.

But it’s also bigger than zoning. At its essence, the council’s unanimous approval of DisneylandForward means the Disney and Anaheim marriage will continue, at least somewhat amicably, for the foreseeable future.

For most residents, the promise of tax-generating Disney experiences — everything from theme park-esque attractions to hotels and restaurants — figures to boost city revenues.

For local business owners who depend on Disney-oriented tourism dollars the deal means security. The floor for Disney spending over the next decade is $1.9 billion.

“This is really going to be a tremendous destination for people,” said Bharat Patel, whose family has owned Castle Inn & Suites on Harbor Boulevard since 1989.

If Disney builds new attractions or retail or anything that might bring in tourists — and if Anaheim’s other major developments, like OCVibe, succeed — Patel sees a future with more visitors staying longer and spending more. He even compared his town to “vibrant destinations” like New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Patel has lived through decades of such changes. He remembers the days of tired families in station wagons driving into the parking lot at his family’s inn, in the middle of the night, looking for a place to sleep. They’d ring the bell, waking his father, who’d groggily get them settled into a room.

“It was pre-internet,” Patel said. “People would either have to call and make a reservation. I still remember the days you would get a letter from somebody, four months in advance.”

The DisneylandFoward changes figure to come slowly. Attractions linked to such Disney properties as “Coco” and “Avatar” the “Avengers” franchise could entice guests who aren’t even born yet.

That kind of planning, to Patel, is progress.

“Back in the ’70s, the hotels were separate, Disney was separate, the city was separate,” Patel said. “Now, we all work together.”

It’s hard to imagine an Anaheim without its marriage to Disney. Longtime residents suggest the city and the county were going to grow with or without Disneyland. But would Anaheim, sans Disneyland, have pro sports, or a convention center, or dozens of hotel owners like Patel?

Most say no.

“With marriages, there may be tough times. And I think that’s true in Disney’s relationship with Anaheim,” said former city councilmember and Anaheim historian Faessel.

“But the significance of Disney, as (it) grew, was not lost on the city, or businesses, and the residents.”

Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento and Chair Doug Chaffee, representing the Fourth District, have each announced they will redirect the roughly $50,000 more they’ll get annually. The pay raises caused backlash from the county’s largest union after the county tightened spending and implemented a hiring freeze.

Sarmiento said in a statement published Monday afternoon that after talking with his family and “reflecting on the stark contrast between this raise and the ongoing hardships faced by our immigrant neighbors,” he has decided to donate his salary increase to a legal defense initiative for families navigating the immigration system.

“As an attorney, I understand that lack of legal counsel remains one of the greatest barriers for families facing deportation and separation,” Sarmiento said in a statement. “At a time when immigrant families face vicious abuse from unjust federal policies and an absence of due process, it is more important than ever that we stand together.”

Supervisors’ pay has been tied for years to the salaries of superior court judges throughout the state. Previously, their match was set at 80% of what a judge made, or about $195,000 a year. Now the supervisors’ salary will mirror the judges, who currently make $244,000 annually.

The salary increase was approved 4-1, with Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley voting against it.

A few hours following Sarmiento’s announcement on Monday, Chaffee’s office issued a press release saying he’d be donating his raise to an environmental studies scholarship fund that he and his wife established at the University of Redlands, a private college in the Inland Empire.

“We are proud to expand our scholarship program to create more opportunities for students who are passionate about environmental sustainability, climate action and the protection of our natural resources,” Chaffee said in a statement.

The donation will allow more undergraduates at Chaffee’s alma mater pursuing an environmental studies degree to receive an annual scholarship, according to the news release.

Supervisors weren’t alone in receiving pay raises at the last board meeting. They also approve higher pay for county CEO Michelle Aguirre and County Counsel Leon Page.

Aguirre earlier this year had told department heads that they needed to continue a hiring freeze and find cost savings measures as the county was facing a difficult budget to balance.

The Orange County Employees Association, in a message shared with its members and the supervisors, said that the decision to change the supervisors’ pay structure was “insulting” to county workers after being told to reduce costs.

“When leaders take for themselves, they lose trust,” OCEA’s leadership wrote. “We urge the board to reconsider their raise and meet with front-line workers to understand how the current budget impacts services and morale. County employees are told to cut spending and hiring while maintaining the same level of services and standards. The board must see how out of touch they are with those serving the community.”

San Diego Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal, who is overseeing the lawsuit that was moved out of Orange County, ruled on Friday against the initial legal objections made by attorneys representing the organization and individuals the county first sued in August, the first significant movement in the case that has grown with new names added.

The county has sued Viet America Society, Aloha Financial Investment Inc. and some of their associates, alleging they used COVID-relief funds provided for a meals program during the pandemic for their personal gain. A Vietnam War memorial in Mile Square Park was also never finished.

The county entered into multiple contracts with Viet America Society to perform services. Federal prosecutors have said they then turned around and laundered the money, using it to buy real estate, make lavish purchases and send bribes using the money back to Do.

Civil defense attorneys at a hearing Friday argued how the county’s lawsuit was insufficient to move forward.

Heidi Lewis, one of Do’s attorneys, told the judge that the county’s specific allegations are against others and not Do.

“There’s nothing alleged against Andrew Do specifically,” Lewis said. “They should have to put the facts forward, specifically with respect to ownership interest, because they can’t. They can’t allege that he was a stockholder of VAS or that he was a limited liability member of any of the other entities.”

D. Kevin Dunn, an attorney for the county, said it’s clear Do had an interest in VAS as he admitted to receiving bribes in his plea agreement for his criminal case.

“The issue is not just ownership, it’s interest,” Dunn said. “And here we know, both from Andrew Do’s own words in his plea agreement and from the allegation in the (county’s) petition, that VAS was funding Mr. Do. And so the idea that he didn’t somehow have an interest in VAS just seems on its face to be counterbalanced by … his own plea agreement.”

Do was added to the county’s lawsuit in January after he agreed to plead guilty and resign from office. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit bribery. He is set to report to prison in August.

Dunn said the county is suing people who were “officers and directors of a corrupt organization that was handed contracts by a public official” and then turned around and bribed Do.

“These are not people who typed up invoices,” Dunn said. “These are people who had decision-making authority.”

After Bacal issued her ruling Friday, she gave each of the defendants 60 days to respond to the county’s complaint. But, she also mentioned trial would not be set that soon.

The updated lawsuit also accuses Peter Pham, who founded Viet America Society; Rhiannon Do, an officer at VAS and Do’s daughter; Dinh Mai, a corporate secretary at VAS; Thu Thao Thi Vu, who controls Aloha Financial Investment Inc.; and Le Dan Hua, who was added after the original filing, of violating contracts with the county.

The next hearing is set for October.

“Negotiate hard but fair,” says a June 9 blog post under the byline of former Mayor Harry Sidhu. “Teams bring value, but so do cities. Don’t give away public land or money without getting real benefits in return. Stay transparent. Public trust is everything. Without it, even the best deal will fall apart.”

The Angel Stadium deal Sidhu negotiated did fall apart. He was sentenced earlier this year to two months in prison for obstructing federal investigators examining his actions in the city’s now-canceled sale of Angel Stadium.

A flurry of blog posts and press releases have appeared in recent weeks detailing Sidhu’s life story as an immigrant who rose to become mayor and giving his take on how local leaders can navigate public emergencies, champion small businesses and even handle sports stadium issues.

The headlines of the blogs range from “From Local Voices to National Change: Why Municipal Leaders Are America’s Frontline Problem-Solvers” to “Faith, Family, and Public Service: The Personal Values That Shape Good Governance” to “Sports, Stadiums, and Cities: Balancing Civic Pride with Smart Development.”

“You can’t just chase headlines or sign flashy deals,” a June 9 blog post reads. “Public officials have to look at the big picture — what’s the cost, what’s the return, and how does it help the average resident? Civic pride is important, but not at the expense of public trust or financial health.”

When asked if the former mayor made the posts or if it was someone impersonating him, Paul Meyer, an attorney for Sidhu, said in an email, “The items were not posted by Harry Sidhu.”

In June, five blog posts have appeared under Sidhu’s name on HarrySidhuCalifornia.com. Another website, HarrySidhuEntrepreneur.com, has four blog posts.

Sidhu was ordered to surrender himself to serve his prison sentence on June 2. Most of the posts are dated when Sidhu was in federal custody at Lompoc II in Santa Barbara County.

Sidhu’s life story published in the blogs and articles aligns with what he shared in a letter to the judge who delivered his two-month prison sentence. He arrived from India to the United States in 1974 with only $6 and his first job was as a janitor at a Philadelphia Holiday Inn.

A blog post on the platform Medium dated June 13, “Innovative Public-Private Partnerships: Lessons from Anaheim’s Economic and Social Programs,” describes issues during Sidhu’s tenure, including the pandemic, homelessness and building up the Platinum Triangle neighborhood.

Brainz Magazine’s “Harry Sidhu: From Six Dollars to City Hall” says Sidhu is now retired, but “keeps in touch with local leaders and often gives informal advice.”

A widely read Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, has a June 23 press release that says “Harry Sidhu Urges Support for Immigrant Success and Local Empowerment.” The Globe and Mail notes that syndicated content is not reviewed or approved by them. The press release appears when searching for Harry Sidhu on Google News.

HarrySidhuEntrepreneur.com was registered on June 9, but the registrant’s name is not disclosed. The same goes for HarrySidhuCalifornia.com, which was registered on April 28.

Combined, the blogs and articles appear to be a push for reputation repair when searching Sidhu’s name and to push down negative headlines, but it’s unclear the exact purpose and if Sidhu hired a firm to do the work.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons previously showed Sidhu scheduled to be released on June 29, but now lists his release date as unknown. The bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sidhu, in his plea deal, admitted to providing confidential information about price to a consultant working for the Angels so the team could buy the stadium on favorable terms. He had positioned himself as the lead negotiator in the discussions to sell the stadium.

That deal was canceled by the City Council after it became public that Sidhu was the target of an FBI investigation and he stepped down from the mayor post.

The Anaheim Transportation Network’s new budget, approved by its board this week, sets funding for the next three months and relies on getting money from a tourism transportation fund it does not have control over. The agency has hit a crossroads brought by sharply rising labor costs and little ability to raise sufficient revenue on its own.

“If you look across the board, every transit agency is at a fiscal cliff,” ATN CEO Diana Kotler said at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Heading into its new fiscal year, ATN’s expenses outweigh revenues by $2.8 million.

ATN’s board of directors, made up of mostly hoteliers and other resort stakeholders, had several budget options presented to them that included laying off dozens of bus operators and slashing service to maintain operations.

Instead of moving forward with any layoffs or service cuts, the board voted to approve a 90-day budget that relies on getting $712,000, plus much of what it is behind in paying to its bus contractor, Parking Company of America, from the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District’s Transportation Committee.

“If we don’t get ATID funding ASAP … We will immediately run into a cash-flow issue within a month,” said interim chair Matthew Hicks.

But, the stopgap funding from the tourism district’s transportation committee has not been approved by its three-member board and no meeting has been agendized.

The transportation fund is overseen by a city staff member, a Disney official and a local hotelier and has provided millions in the past few years to ATN. The transportation fund has around $35 million in the bank that the committee has been stockpiling for the last several years to build a pedestrian bridge in the resort area.

Since 2020, ATN’s labor costs have gone up by 60%. It expects its unionized bus operators to start earning $26 an hour after a new labor contract is negotiated at the end of the year.

The agency sees revenue from fares, hotels that pay into the system and a key route it operates for Disney moving visitors from the Toy Story Parking Lot to the theme parks’ gates.

Drastically increasing what hotels pay into ATN would cause many that are not required to have a shuttle service to leave and further threaten federal assistance funding that’s based on ridership, Kotler said.

Board member Ronald Kim said the hotel community feels they are maxed out on what they are assessed to pay into ATN.

One option to balance the budget the board considered was laying off 43 union positions and cutting service by 30%.

The city, which is currently evaluating taking some level of control over the transit provider, recommended that service be cut by 24%, according to a staff report.

Al Burgess, a representative of Teamsters 952, which ATN’s bus operators are a part of, told the board that any proposal that includes layoffs would not get their support “when other budget solutions remain available.”

“Operators are not disposable,” Burgess said. “They are essential.”

Parking Company of America executives at the meeting said ATN is several months behind paying its bills and pleaded for the board and the city to work together on a sustainable path forward.

“While we understand the constraints ATN faces, we are equally deeply concerned that the city, despite having access to the financial capacity, has not stepped forward with the support needed to sustain current service levels and is seemingly content with our employees, Teamsters members, losing their jobs up to a ceiling of 24%,” said Parking Company of America Vice President Aaron Chaves.

“It is unjust to expect the agency as a whole to manage continued growing service demands without support and resources necessary to do so,” Chaves added.

ATN was created to mitigate air quality concerns that were raised during the 1990s expansion of the resort area. Many hotels in the city are required to have clean-air transportation as part of their development agreement, which ATN fulfills.

Anaheim Public Works Director Rudy Emami said the city is willing to support the use of the tourism district’s transportation funding, which it has a vote to help make happen, but that must be paired with changes at ATN.

“We’ve expressed a willingness to support a temporary bridge agreement for the 90 days, but only if it’s tied to a credible plan to address ATN’s deeper structural issue,” Emami said. “A short-term fix won’t be effective unless it’s part of a long-term solution.”