Communities
Much of the historical downtown area of Anaheim was destroyed in the early 1970s in what is now generally regarded as a misguidedly drastic attempt at urban renewal. The remaining historic homes, some of which date back to the original, willow encircled center of the nineteenth century German wine-making collective that was the beginning of Anaheim, have been renovated and restored. Many of their owners have worked with the city to form a voluntary program for historical preservation in this old downtown neighborhood.
While most large cities in the United States have been tightening up zoning restrictions and being very selective about where and how they subsidize low-income housing, the governing City Council of Anaheim has, during most of the late nineties and the beginning of the new century, Anaheim has taken a more “free market” approach to housing issues. While daring at the time, in retrospect, the results prove it to have been a sound and generally sensible approach. The benefits have been more grassroot, and not purely to the advantage of large development companies. Without the subsidies and other tax breaks to new construction common in the rest of the country, there has been no economic incentive to flee to the suburbs rather than renovating the city center and other urban residential neighborhoods.