Southland Warms Hearts That the East Had Left Cold

In these times of congestion and smog, random violence and runaway real estate prices, Wednesday served as one of those days that can reassure Southern Californians who have begun to fear that forsaking the Corn Belt was all a big mistake.

Consider this: In Denver, you would have awakened Wednesday to a foot of fresh snow. In Providence, R.I., they were hoping for a high of 27. In Chicago it had warmed up to 34 degrees.

And in Santa Ana, skies were sunny and blue, with the high 72.

Gene Klinger of Whittier didn’t need a thermometer to measure the day. Perched on scaffolding on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood along with three other construction workers, he was basking in the sunshine, watching the foot traffic below.

Klinger, 42, was telling--with relish--the story of how he came to leave Chicago.

“I’ll never forget the date,” he said. “It was Jan. 1, 1985, and we had an 80-below wind-chill factor. Broke the windshield out of my car. I made up my mind then I was going to California. I won’t go back. Ever.”

Robert Kelly, 32, who was seated beside Klinger, nodded his head in agreement. He commutes two hours a day into Los Angeles but said, “It’s days like this that make up for it. And it’s days like this when everyone back East, where it’s snowing, wants to move here. I ain’t leaving.”

At a small park in Beverly Hills, Jim Reed of West Hollywood and Susan Brooks of Sherman Oaks were seated on a blanket, sharing a fortuitously planned picnic in the 70-plus-degree sunshine.

“As soon as we got in the Jeep (for lunch) I turned to Susan and said, ‘You picked a perfect day,’ ” said Reed, 28, who works for a film production company. “Even gray skies can get you down when you live out here. The cold weather is hard to take. It makes people irritable out here.”

Reed left Springfield, Ill., seven years ago and doubts that he could ever return.

“It’s one thing to get stuck in the snow one day, but to scrape ice off your windshield every day . . . well, it’s awful,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever scraped ice off my windshield here.”

At Mann’s Chinese Theater, 19-year-old Sonja Huff was getting her first glimpse of Los Angeles. Back home in Roanoke, Va., it was rainy and cold.

“Actually we’re on our way to UCLA to pick up some admission papers,” she said. “It’s so nice to come into the sunshine. I never imagined California being this wonderful!”

And the population grew by one.

Yet not everything was so cheery in the sun. Tourist Hiroyuki Seki, 24, talked about the differences between Tokyo and Los Angeles, which he was visiting for the first time.

“I like L.A.,” said Seki, obviously unfamiliar with the nuances of Randy Newman’s civic anthem. “Little bit cold in Tokyo. I like L.A. But the other night I saw some people making a fight with a knife in a Jack in the Box. At night Tokyo is very quiet. Not so many sounds of policemen at night.”