A Changed, and Still Changing, County : * New Problems Are Being Faced by the Residents of New Cities--and Old Ones Too

The sense so many people have that Orange County has changed was confirmed recently by the decennial portrait offered in the census. But change is about more than the new and old ethnic groups positioning themselves in the economic, political and cultural environment. And it is about more than the increasing urbanization that is evident in the new demands put on educators, law enforcement agencies and social services providers. It is, as much as anything, about adaptation to new realities all around us.

On the face of it, two items in the news on the same day recently were unrelated. One described the uneasy adjustments of apartment residents in Santa Ana who faced a transformation in their surroundings. The other noted two new cities, Lake Forest and Laguna Hills, poised on the heady launching pad of independence.

The Santa Ana residents no longer could count on the tranquil familiarity of gardens and trees, nor for that matter the readily accessible gas stations and doughnut shops. The Santa Ana Freeway widening project is closing in, taking space and altering lifestyles. Natural gas lines are being relocated, and psychological life lines are being readjusted. One longtime resident of an apartment complex slated for partial demolition lamented, “We love it here and never want to leave, but we wonder what our threshold of tolerance will be.”

From an older quarter of Orange County, shrinking and doubling up and making due, it is more than a few freeway miles in outlook to the new communities of South County that are breaking their dependence on county government. “It feels great,” said Lake Forest councilman Tim Link, as if the opportunity for do-it-yourself community pothole-fixing represented some kind of new thrill. Last weekend, that city had its first Fourth of July parade. In nearby Laguna Hills, facing the future means a taking a lean and mean approach; the city has hired eight employees and made room for 12 others in the coming year’s budget.

It was not so long ago that Santa Ana was a distant seat of Orange County, separated by miles of orange groves from Los Angeles to the far north. Lake Forest was even more distant, virgin terrain, a country way station in the Saddleback Valley.

Today, Santa Ana has become crowded, besieged with problems and coping with what used to be called “urban renewal.” To the south, the newer communities are talking about expanding malls and celebrating independence. Both signal a county in transition.