DOWNTOWN Santa Ana street as it appears now (Orange County Tribune).

Second of two columns on why the OC Streetcar is a good bet.

It was before my family came to Orange County, but there was a time when the chief and most important city here was Santa Ana, which billed itself as the “Golden City” of the Golden State.

Before the malls and the multiple freeways, before the Angels and Mickey Mouse, Santa Ana was what it still tries to call itself: “Downtown Orange County.”

If you lived in Garden Grove or Westminster or Huntington Beach, you might buy your groceries in town, but to get your back-to-school clothes or to do your Christmas shopping, you hopped on the Red Car or drove your Rambler to central Santa Ana.

SANTA ANA downtown in the 1930s (Orange County Archives).

There was a Sears, a JC Penney, a Montgomery Ward and lesser retail giants like Woolworths, W.T. Grants along with wide a assortment of other shops, alongside offices, restaurants, houses of worship and more.

People thronged the streets and it was a mini-metropolis. But that all changed.

You know the story. Other cities sprung up. The big stores multiplied and anchored “malls.” Santa Ana, with a host of aging housing stock, became less desirable to the homebuyer looking for air-conditioning, two baths and room for a backyard pool or badminton court.

In short, central Santa Ana emptied out and went downhill. Folks from Cypress and Anaheim Hills didn’t want to go there, especially after dark.

But the road is short that never turns. Santa Ana, I believe, is poised on the edge of a comeback. The comeback may well be riding on the OCStreetcar now under construction connecting that city to Garden Grove (at Harbor Boulevard).

On a recent visit to that city’s downtown I found broad avenues and fine plazas. Attractive (but not too trendy) buildings and broad-leafed trees. And lots of vacancies. Traditional malls are dying and central cities with bike lanes and rapid transit are prospering.

The tracks that are now in place in the roadways may eventually bring in new throngs of people to again crowd the sidewalks and light up the night. What was once the heart of Orange County could be again.

The mistake that people make when trying to envision the future is to fail to account for what might be different in the days to come. Or, perhaps failing to account for how much the future might be like the past.