You may have heard that the Yorba...

You may have heard that the Yorba Linda City Council has proclaimed Jan. 9 a civic holiday to honor the birth of its most famous native, former President Richard M. Nixon.

If the Los Angeles City Council is inspired to take similar action, who would be chosen as L.A.’s most famous product?

Not an easy question. For decades, it seemed as though no one had been born in “The City of the Second Chance”--people came here from there.

In an old L.A. novel, “Play the Game,” a character relates: “When I said I was born here in Los Angeles, she almost gasped, and then she flushed and said, ‘Oh, really?’ ”

Newcomers still abound today. They’re often the ones who call freeways by their numbers instead of their names (the 405 instead of the San Diego .)

It’s easier to name famous locals who weren’t born here, such as former President Ronald Reagan (Illinois), industrialist Armand Hammer (New York), comic Bob Hope (England) and the late Nobel Prize winner Ralph Bunche (Michigan).

While a Boyle Heights product was probably the most famous Angeleno of the 1950s, mobster Mickey Cohen is largely forgotten today.

Then there were the notables born nearby, including Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California (San Gabriel) and Gen. George Patton, the World War II hero (San Marino).

Since California became a state, Los Angeles has never had a native mayor. Like predecessors Sam Yorty (Nebraska) and Norris Poulson (Oregon), Mayor Bradley came from elsewhere (Texas).

Oddly enough, L.A. did produce a serious presidential candidate--Adlai Stevenson, the losing Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956. His birthplace near the corner of Hoover and Adams is a civic monument, even though the family later moved to Illinois.

But. . . .

There is one Los Angeles-born character who has won enduring, worldwide fame. His birthday is Nov. 18, 1928. He was born in the head of a man who ran a cartoon studio in Hollywood.

Yorba Linda can keep Richard Nixon. Los Angeles has Mickey Mouse.

L.A., it was noted here recently, is filled with businesses calculated to attract transplants. They carry such foreign names as Boston Deli, Chicago Pizza Works and New York Bakery.

However, further investigation has revealed that there is a restaurant called Los Angeles Tacos.

It’s about 8,000 miles east of City Hall--in Paris, France.

In ever-bursting L.A. with real estate values on the rise and with newcomers less appreciative of the city’s history, landmarks have always been an endangered species.

Only memories remain of the Angel’s Flight trolleys downtown, Schwab’s drugstore, the Original Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard and old movie star haunts like the Garden of Allah and Garden Court apartments.

However, one survivor in the midst of downtown redevelopment is the Original Pantry Cafe on Figueroa Street, one of a handful of local eateries dating to the 1920s. Albert C. Martin and Associates announced the other day that a 35-story high-rise planned for the corner occupied by the Pantry will preserve the restaurant and “feature it as an integral part of the design.”

Speaking of Schwab’s (1932-1983), ironies abound at the former site of the drugstore/coffee shop/Hollywood hangout on Sunset Boulevard.

It was at Schwab’s, of course, where Lana Turner wasn’t discovered (but the Turner myth attracted generations of starlets to the premises). In the film “Sunset Boulevard,” screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) refers to Schwab’s as his “headquarters.”

Now, the whole block has been leveled to make room for a shopping mall. A faint echo of the Schwab’s legend is a nearby billboard ad for acting lessons that says: “Future Stars--Be One--Call Free.”

And a sign in the construction area promises:

“A shopping experience that captures the imagination of Hollywood.”