Platform : L.A. Versus Orange County: ‘So Close, but so Far Away’

DAWN THOMAS, 33, of Irvine.

I try to avoid Los Angeles whenever I can. Oh it’s got some things for the kids like the L.A. Child Museum. But the last time I went there with the children, there were homeless people peeing in the bushes. This was for everyone to see. I don’t consider that something children should have to see. It’s (LA) too crowded, too dangerous and too difficult to get to. Not too long ago, when Orange County depended more on L.A. for its supply of music, theater and art, then treks to L.A. were necessary. But we don’t need them anymore. We have everything we need right here in Orange County. JANET DULIN JONES, a screenwriter who lives in Beverly Hills.

Being a native Angeleno and coming of age when the Soviet Union was the global threat called “The Iron Curtain,” Orange County was, in my L.A. suburb, acknowledged with a grimace as “The Orange Curtain.” My school friends and I wondered how those behind the Curtain could survive without movie premiers and the Coliseum? Disneyland was hardly Hollywood, downtown or the Westside. Sometimes a visitor unfamiliar with L.A. would blurt out, “This is Orange County, right?” I would recoil in horror and shriek, “No! Los Angeles!”

As an adult, who still sees Orange County as a conservative enclave, it’s clear that OC now shares L.A.’s urban problems -- overcrowding, terrible traffic, overpriced housing and smog. However, though we may share the problems, it’s clear Orange County offers none of the L.A. “perks.” The perks being, that if I endure these urban indignities, I want to gaggle at Tom Cruise pondering over peaches at Mrs. Gooch’s, peek at Madonna mingling at a local play, or sit next to David Bowie’s table at dinner--at least I hae something glamorous to write about at the end of the day, instead of, “Dear Diary, saw Donald Duck pull into the lot at Disneyland. He’s taller that I thought.” LORETTA PIERCE, 61, of Laguna Hills.

I really don’t have anything against Los Angeles. I haven’t been there in quite a long time. The last time I was there was in 1980, and that was because I had to get some legal work done. It’s so close, but so far away. And with the way the freeways are these days. When I watch the news, and I hear about all the things happening in Los Angeles, they (news casters) might as well be talking about New York. I have a vision of Los Angeles, but it’s an old vision. I know it’s changed a lot. But I really don’t have any desire to see it. I guess what I’m saying is that I really don’t have anything against Los Angeles, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Too many people and too much crime. I guess Orange County is starting to get like that, but it doesn’t seem as frenzied as Los Angeles. But maybe We’ll (Orange County) will be like that some day. MARTIN FERGESON, 22, Fullerton.

I’m in the process of moving to Los Angeles. I can’t wait to get out of Orange County. It’s too depressing to live here. There’s some bad things about L.A. But isn’t there also bad things about any major metropolitan area. You think New York, Chicago, or Boston is safe? Sure there’s crime, and yes Orange County is probably safer. But for pure excitement and an endless list of things to do, L.A. can’t be beat. It’s alive. You can feel it the minute you get up there. On the other hand, Orange County has been in coma for at least 100 years. JILL FRAZIER, 33, Los Angeles.

I’ve lived all my life in Los Angeles. I love L.A. Which makes it really weird that a place like Orange County can be so close to such a cool place like Los Angeles.

I’m sorry. I know there are probably a lot of nice people down there, but I guess I would have to say the Disneyland persona is the beacon of that place--synthetic, conservative and not in touch with the real world.

They seem to elect politicians that come right out of an episode of Father Knows Best. I was down there last week seeing some friends in Mission Viejo. It was pretty frightening. It’s clean. And there are lots of beautiful homes, but you can smell conformity in the air. I was glad to get back to my multicultural neighborhood, despite all its problems. THANE TIERNEY, a novelist who lives in Inglewood and works in Burbank.

When I moved from Costa Mesa to Santa Monica in 1986 after 19 years in Orange County, almost all my new Westside friends said, “Wow, you’re pretty normal for a guy who grew up in Orange County.” Roughly translated, I believed that to mean I wasn’t a card-carrying, gun-toting, flag-waving, union-busting, rock-music-hating, border-closing arch-conservative. Well, duh. Neither were most of my friends down there.

Sure, I called a prominent shopping center Fascist Island, and high-priced spreads adjacent to “Pig Canyon.” But those are the sort of nicknames you’d give a sibling. And while you might, at times, call your sibling a moron, woe be unto anyone else who dares. That’s sort of been my relationship to Orange County. Orange County has changed dramatically in the last quarter century. The orange groves, where I used to ride on horseback, are now houses. The phone book, which used to have Smith as its most plentiful name, now has Nguyen. Anaheim has a second major league team. As an ex-pat from behind the Orange Curtain, I feel obliged to act as sort of cultural goodwill ambassador, educating my fellow Angelenos about their southern comrades and helping them to face our common enemy: The Valley. PHIL O’BRIEN, 43, of Costa Mesa

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to visit my aunt and uncle who lived in Los Angeles near Van Ness and Pico. We had so much fun playing around the neighborhood. We used to go up to the corner and watch the street cars and buy ice cream. In those days, kids could go off on their own and not be afraid of being abducted or killed. Now, it would be crazy for an adult, let alone a child, to walk those streets at night. It’s pains me to see what’s happened to my aunt and uncle’s house and the neighborhood. What’s happening Los Angeles? Why are you letting the city decay? Don’t you care what happens to the people that live in the city? I don’t get to Los Angeles much these days. I try to stay away. It’s not the same place I used to know. Unfortunately, the cancer that inflicts Los Angeles, could spread to Orange County.