CLIPBAORD

If Archie Bunker lived in Orange County, he would probably live in a neighborhood much like northwest Santa Ana.

It is almost a cliche: a solid, working-class enclave of post-World War II homes with self-maintained landscaping on tree-lined streets. Chevys, Dodges and Fords rest in cement driveways alongside Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans--symbols of a rock-steady middle-class lifestyle.

Again, the neighborhood is almost a cliche. There is a widespread perception that Santa Ana is basically a city of a lower- to middle-class homes and incomes, but it is also common knowledge that the city has pockets of affluence. And one of those pockets lies just east of Bristol Street. Here, Ozzie and Harriet might have been more comfortable than Archie Bunker.

It is an area where there are estates instead of houses, BMWs instead of Toyotas, pools instead of sprinklers and gardeners instead of do-it-yourselfers.

And if ever there were a self-contained community, this is it.

In fact, there are almost more businesses than there are residences. All along the perimeter of the neighborhood is everything from service-oriented enterprises, a carwash, restaurants and small offices to a hospital, an elementary school and a college, a city park and even a golf course.

But the jewel in the crown may be the renovation of the former Honer Plaza, reincarnated as Bristol Marketplace. And residents seem to approve.

“The residents have been real cooperative,” said Greg Mickelson, a broker with Grubb & Ellis Co., which is responsible for securing tenants for the new marketplace. “Typically, you’re in planning commission hearings and residents are screaming that they don’t want a new development in their back yard. But the residents realized that the center needed some

work and that the renovations would help their property values and that they would have convenient shopping. Everybody wins.”

Well, not everybody won. Part of the reason that residents may have been reluctant to oppose the development of the outdated shopping center was because it gave them the opportunity to rid the community of a perceived blight: the X-rated Mitchell Brothers Theatre.

Few people were fond of the theater; its opponents were many and formidable. The city of Santa Ana filed 47 lawsuits, spent 11 years and $700,000 trying to close the theater--to no avail. And when the city threw in the towel, Charles H. Keating, the embattled former chairman of the parent company of the now-defunct Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn., picked up the gauntlet. It seems the bank had a branch diagonally across the street from Honer Plaza. And the millionaire anti-pornography crusader, who couldn’t even save his own bank from failure, wanted desperately to save the neighborhood from that which his lawyers termed “obscene” and which “caused personal offense, outrage and emotional distress” as well as subjecting Lincoln’s employees and customers to “immoral, corrupting and degrading influences.”

But the theater is gone now. What the city, Keating and all the legal big guns couldn’t accomplish, time did: The lease simply ran out and wasn’t renewed. The structure was razed last summer, the letters stripped from the marquee. The only thing that remains is a faint outline of the words “Mitchell Bros.” and a large dirt island in the middle of a paved parking lot at the far west end of the plaza.

The new Bristol Marketplace has a brand-new anchor tenant in the HomeClub ; the stalwarts such as Montgomery Ward & Co., J.J. Newberry and Sav-On Drugs will all be getting face lifts, while Ralphs grocery store will be expanding. Soon, new tenants and storefronts will join them. Professional landscaping, a fountain and a new

entrance are planned for fall, and finally the whole center should be completed by the middle of next year.

And between the renovations, the recreation, the educational opportunities and the shopping, life in Archie Bunker’s neighborhood is looking pretty good.

Population Total: (1990 est.) 2,889 1980-90 change: +14.2% Median Age: 32.4

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 31.3 years FEMALES Median age: 33.3 years

Income Per capita: $17,482 Median household: $52,181 Average household: $53,729

Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 19% $25,000-49,999: 28% $50,000-74,999: 32% $75,000-$99,999: 16% $100,000 and more: 5%