ORANGE COUNTY STYLE

How to define Orange County style? It is confidence, energy and pride abounding in its people--people who believe their county is the closest thing to Paradise. An exaggeration? Not according to Money Magazine, which ranks the county among the 10 most desirable places to live in America.

Optimism dominates people’s lives here, no matter the diversity of their ethnic origins or economic status. From Vietnamese boat people to fifth-generation families, from small entrepreneurs to huge multinational corporations, there is an excitement about the place.

As you--our readers--live, work, prosper and play here, you are creating a style as varied and vibrant as you are. An Orange County style.

‘There is an assumption that only the rich can afford to indulge in the beautiful. The fact is, many thousands of middle-class families today enjoy the wide-open spaces and well laid-out streets of carefully controlled housing and commercial developments. Not only does that contradict the assumption that everyone under these palm trees is a millionaire, but it proves that most segments of society can indeed enjoy what heretofore had been reserved for the super-rich’

--Raymond L. Watson, vice-chairman, Irvine Co.

‘I certainly don’t think of Orange County as a state of mind. I think that’s passe. Largely, when people think of Orange County as a state of mind. I think that’s passe. Largely, when people think of Orange County, they think of money’

--Paige Rense, editor-in-chief, Architectural Digest

‘You can go to some neighborhoods right off the freeway and two blocks away find kids riding horses. To me, that’s kind of neat’

--Rod Carew, 15-time baseball All-Star

‘My impressions always were that, more than Los Angeles and San Francisco, Orange County representing the sunshine, the glowing, healthy, fabulously fresh, hopeful atmosphere of the state . . . all that orange juice, fresh air, sunshine’

--Helen Gurley Brown, editor-in-chief, Cosmopolitan

‘Orange County people are young in spirit, think young, are young at heart. We’re confident, self-reliant people. We dare to do things that more established areas of our society would say, “Oh, you can’t do that!”

--Henry Segerstrom, managing partner, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons

‘Orange County is a 21st-Century community.

--Sen. Pete Wilson

‘The down side is that it could all become Muzak’

--Peter Alexander, artist

‘Orange County style is defined by the very act of breaking away from Los Angeles’

--Dean Koontz best-selling author

‘We’re actually quite liberal on political issues such as equal rights, abortion, school prayer, civil rights--issues that derive from questions of personal freedom, privacy’

--Mark Baldassare, director, Center for Orange County Research, UCI

‘I would like to see the poets and writers here reflect the cultural diversity of Orange County. I would like to see our collective hand shake the hand of the American culture. I want to hear the voices of Hispanic, Indian and Asian artists before we disappear into the European-American culture’

--Mitsuye Yamada, poet