CLIPBOARD

Welcome to Stepford.

In 1925, Wisconsin transplant and developer Ole Hanson decided that his baby, San Clemente, was to be the quintessential master-planned community. All buildings and dwellings would have red tile roofs and stucco exteriors of stark, aristocratic white. It was a uniform design of architectural conformity that would have made even Irvine look like Greenwich Village. And all one needed to move in was $300 for the lot and the appropriate epidermal hue.

Today, much of Hanson’s vision remains intact, though there have been some changes. A few strip malls have managed to find their way into the landscape; homes--opulent to a fault--seem to have proliferated with abandon on previously unmolested hillsides. And there’s more to come. Gargantuan earthmovers regularly rearranging Mother Nature are a common sight, as are freshly laid streets--all to accommodate a growing population.

Inland San Clemente is a caring neighborhood, backed squarely against Camp Pendleton, and more than a few Marine families have sought off-base housing there. It is no wonder that friends and neighbors are beginning to feel the sting of missing the people next door who are now serving in the Persian Gulf area.

In a show of solidarity, American flags, draped from balconies or mounted on front posts, flap in the cool offshore breezes, and car antennas display bright yellow ribbons of hope. Even San Clemente High School--where nearly 200 students have parents or relatives in the Persian Gulf--has a simple message on its marquee: “Go troops.”

But the neighborhood also takes care of those left behind. Friends, neighbors and classmates rallied when the medical bills became too overwhelming for San Clemente Police Officer Jeff Carter’s 6-year-old son, Christopher, who requires round-the-clock kidney dialysis and expensive medication. Skeet shoots, eating contests, football games and dances were held to raise money to help offset the $4,000-per-month medical costs, with more to come.

But Stepford’s alter ego is Twin Peaks. And while inland San Clemente is a caring place, there are times when cracks in the facade appear. It is evidenced in some youth, who have too much time and too little to do.

A clear manifestation is a drainage tunnel snaking its way 1 1/2 miles underground from San Clemente High School, opening out into graceful, peaceful canyons. The tunnel has been decorated the whole length with witticisms, love notes, drawings and messages.

The majority, though, are almost artistic in design, and, for the most part, they are as innocuous as they are colorful. The names of some well-known gangs--Crips, F-Troop and Fifth Street--are spray-painted almost benignly on the walls at the mouth of the tunnel, vying for space with markings from surfer gangs, skinheads and devil worshipers.

The existence and location of the tunnel are common knowledge to teen-agers, some of whom view it as a sanctuary. But it is just as well known to local police and their gang units, who say that some kids just use the area to skateboard and rock climb. Either way, the youths dislike having their space invaded.

“They know we make periodic sweeps of the tunnel, so they’ve booby-trapped it so we can’t drive through,” said Sgt. Richard Downing, spokesman for the Police Department.

With regard to the graffiti, the police take it seriously enough to monitor it and to have the city eradicate it, but so far they see nothing in the scrawlings to indicate much more than musings on a wall. They do, however, acknowledge the existence of several Latino gangs and white gangs, mostly skinheads, in their city.

“There are a couple of groups of skinheads,” said Detective Sergio Cerne of the city’s gang unit, as he surveyed the markings on the walls to see if there was anything new. “One is the neo-Nazi fascist group that everyone hears about, and the other is the SHARPs.”

According to Cerne, the SHARPs, an acronym for Skin Heads Against Racial Prejudice, is a pacifist, non-biased gang. “Actually, they’re best buddies with the one black gang. They say they’re nonviolent, but they will get into it with the neo-Nazi skinheads,” he said.

But it’s not all kids. The adults can be just as quirky. Two canyons east of the tunnel, on a well-guarded TRW compound, radar and spacey-looking pods dot the hillsides. Talk among locals is that the government is building and testing “Star Wars” laser defense weaponry at the site.

And it was the grown-ups who randomly built the industrial parks and research and development centers in the middle of nowhere, and who built a fire station that remained vacant for two years because the city ran out of money to staff it until just recently.

But young or old, when all is said and done, inland San Clemente is not a bad place to live. Whether Stepford or Twin Peaks, it does not lack for personality.

Population Total: (1990 est.) 10,593 1980-90 change: +45.0% Median Age: 37.4

Racial/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino): 84% Latino: 9% Black: 1% Other: 6%

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 35.9 years FEMALES Median age: 39.0 years

Income Per capita: $24,273 Median household: $57,026 Average household: $64,303

Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 19% $25,000-49,999: 24% $50,000-74,999: 27% $75,000-$99,999: 14% $100,000 and more: 16%