COMING SOON: OK, it has been more...
COMING SOON: OK, it has been more than four months since PacTel Cellular became AirTouch Cellular. So why does the sign atop the 20-story office building along the San Diego Freeway at Jamboree Road still carry the old name? . . . It seems that aesthetic changes don’t come quickly in notoriously self-conscious Irvine. Be patient, says Melissa May, an AirTouch spokeswoman: “It’s a matter of going through the channels. First came our landlord the Irvine Co., and then the city and the city Planning Commission. We knew from the start it would be a lengthy process.”
NO HEELS: The swimsuit competition will still be part of next month’s Miss America Pageant, but contestants will no longer wear spiked heels. Instead, pageant organizers are going for a barefoot, natural look. While welcome news to some, not to Deanna Hardwick of Seal Beach, Miss California 1979. “Of course it would be stupid to go to the beach with high heels on,” says Hardwick, 37, co-owner of Spaghettini restaurant. “But for me, being of the old school, it would be unnatural to be on stage barefoot.”
COVER TEEN: Woodbridge High graduate Derya Buyukuncu is the toast of prep swimming, making the August cover of Swimming World magazine as High School Swimmer of the Year. Buyukuncu, 17, moved to Irvine in 1991 to train, but represented his native Turkey in the 1992 Olympics. Now he’s on his way to the University of Michigan, although he’s likely to rejoin his Turkish teammates in Atlanta for the 1996 Games.
CAFE OLE: Can rustic San Juan Capistrano, better known for cowboy bars than espresso shops, be turning urbane? The cafe-au-lait crowd has arrived. Cafe Cinema came first, then J.J. Beans and Amsterdam Coffee House. Now Starbucks Coffee Co. has plans to move in, and cafe mocha makers are said to be eyeing a spot in the redevelopment area next to the venerable Swallows saloon. Councilwoman Carolyn Nash foresees one wired city. “That’s a lot of coffee,” she muses.
