Orange County’s Status Restored (Somewhat)

Ten weeks ago I first heard the discouraging news that Rand McNally had revised its “Places Rated Almanac.”

Its first edition had stood for four years, ranking metropolitan Orange County far above Los Angeles as a desirable place to live (13th versus 47th). I had reacted as any urbane person would--by taunting my L.A. friends at every opportunity.

But in the 1985 edition, the wretched editors have reversed themselves. Now L.A. ranks 38th, Orange County 48th, and I cower every time the phone rings, fearing that I’ll hear one of my friends’ voices.

But we in Orange County have been rescued. In this month’s American Demographics, an esoteric, business-oriented magazine, Robert M. Pierce, professor of geography at the State University of New York at Cortland, writes that the “Places Rated” editors ignored one important factor in their rankings. When included, that factor rearranges everything, raising metropolitan Orange County to 28th-- and dumping L.A. to 67th!

This man obviously knows his business. I called him right away.

“I’m using exactly the same data base they did, including their original rankings. But what produces the difference is that I asked people, a sample population (of more than 1,100 persons reflecting the New York state population), to tell me how important each of the nine elements that ‘Places Rated Almanac’ uses to rate cities would be to them if they were thinking of another place to live.

“The underlying assumption of ‘Places Rated Almanac’ was that these nine things are of equal importance. I went back and weighted the original rankings according to their perceived importance. So what happens is cities that do very well on the things that people consider the most important are going to rise in their original rankings.”

Here are the nine elements, in the order of importance assigned by Pierce’s survey, together with “Places Rated” rankings for Orange County and L.A.:

O.C. L.A.

1. Economics 61st 175th

2. Climate 5th 5th

3. Crime 183rd 327th

4. Housing 324th 316th

5. Education 151st 37th

6. Health Care 52nd 5th

7. Recreation 28th 10th

8. Transportation 236th 143rd

9. The Arts 49th 3rd

“Orange County is 61st in economics, and Los Angeles is 175th, and people are telling us that getting a job, having prospects for improved income and so forth, is the most important thing to them in deciding where to live.

“Climatically they’re ranked the same, but in crime, Orange County is ranked 183, not all that high, but Los Angeles in comparison is 327. There are only two urban areas of the country that are more dangerous to live in--New York and Miami.

“So in two of the top three categories, Orange County far and away outranks L.A.,” Pierce said. The lead built up by Orange County in just those two heavily weighted categories was more than enough to offset L.A.’s lead in six lesser categories, he said.

At that point I saw victory hovering overhead, but I asked one more question: “Now that we’ve heard your statistics, what do you think personally?”

“I’m not fond of either place,” he said. I was too shocked to cut him off. “I’m just not fond of the freeway mentality, the life style associated with it, and I just would not live there under any circumstances,” he said.

“One moment,” I interjected, but there was no stopping him.

“It’s somewhat shocking to go back to houses that you grew up in and see one of the largest shopping centers in America across the street, such as in Montclair, or to watch the mammoth glass structures being developed in Irvine and places like that. Southern California is a terrific place to watch the landscape change in a few minutes, but I just don’t find that very appealing. Here in Upstate New York, things admittedly are a little slower, but I’ve come to prefer that.”

I had to endure much more of that before we finally hung up.

I apologize for letting things get out of hand there in the last round, but it doesn’t matter. I’m convinced we’ve beaten L.A. again, if only on points this time.

Postscript: Costa Mesa Police Chief Roger Neth called to object to a remark Superior Court Judge Robert J. Polis had made in Tuesday’s column. Like me, Polis had been drinking under Highway Patrol supervision as a test of our reactions. During the test, the judge had told the story of a friend, a trusty in Costa Mesa Jail, who occasionally was sent unescorted to fetch officers’ lunches.

“It doesn’t happen, never has happened,” Neth said.

On Tuesday, Judge Polis explained his mistake: “When we were talking about what happens to the trusties in the jail, I had merged two things in my mind: something that had happened four or five years ago (a trusty stealing a car he was washing, which happened to belong to the city manager) . . . with my knowledge about a young fellow who’s there now. And then I went ahead and said they wash cars and go buy lunch.

“If in any of your future articles about alcohol you want to use this incident about the lack of inhibitions in saying things that don’t link up, you’re welcome to.”

Consider it done.