The Lowdown on O.C.’s High-Tech Dream

* Re “Dreams of High-Tech Glory Passing O.C. By,” (July 9): The common thread of the article was that Orange County lacked “trendy nightspots and the kinds of snazzy meeting places” preferred by high-tech companies and their employees. How ironic is it that you read about nightclub closures in Orange County because neighbors rally to shut them down? Really, where is the excitement in our county? Orange Countians, take a chance and venture to places like Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach to see why these high-tech companies prefer these environments. Hint: They ain’t like the Spectrum. Life is more than beige houses, and we shouldn’t be afraid to be more like cutting edge L.A.

RANDY MEES

Costa Mesa

* Your two-part article addresses a vital concern regarding the future of technology in Orange County. UC Irvine is both critically involved and concerned with this future. Your data present a wrong impression, though, about what is happening both on campus and in our engagement with the local technology business community.

Since 1995, enrollment in engineering, and information and computer science--UCI’s two high-tech academic units--has, in fact, skyrocketed: engineering by 36% and information and computer science by 85%.

UCI’s Graduate School of Management has made a real name for itself as one of the best “high-tech MBA” programs in the country, with such competition for entry that the scores of entering students are in the top 20 in the country. Key to the growth of the school is its focus on information technology for management and enterprise innovation.

In our view, the stage is set for the emergence of a stronger technology sector in Orange County. UCI’s synergistic relationship with technology businesses is key to the success of the university, the University Research Park and the region. A guiding principle of our growth over the next 10 years will be a continuing commitment to meeting the needs of the local and regional corporate communities.

THOMAS R. MOEBUS

Vice Chancellor

University Advancement

UC Irvine

* In your excellent and much-needed articles, you neglected to mention another very important reason for the failure of Orange County to become a high-tech mecca: the local establishment does not respect the intellect and those who have it. The powers that be here made their money from real estate, an industry where dumbness is an asset, in that it helps dull the moral sense when vast tracts of houses of numbing sameness and shoddiness are sold for extravagant profit.

The other cities that created tech meccas in conjunction with universities did so because those cities, like San Francisco and Austin, embraced the universities and the university culture with its respect for intelligence. The other negative aspect of Orange County’s conservatism, of course, is racism. Nearly two-thirds of Silicon Valley start-ups are by immigrants, mostly from India and China. In Orange County, white is the only color allowed comfort in public, and everyone who visits here feels that.

So, absent a future that resembles the past, when Orange County grew fat off the Defense Department, it looks like we’ll have the trophy-wife coastal areas, providing employment for interior decorators and whatever low-value added light industry that hasn’t gone to Mexico.

KENT SOUTHARD

Dana Point

* As a recent transplant from Santa Monica, one of the thriving cutting edge high-tech areas that Orange County hopes to become, I can assure county leaders they will have to do more than put in a few trendy nightspots and snazzy meeting places and wait for the techies to come.

Orange County’s political and cultural conservatism poses a huge public relations and lifestyle problem. This county is only a few years removed from having Bob Dornan frequently featured on the national news--not exactly the kind of persona that draws sophisticated, well-educated young people.

Back in Santa Monica, my daughter’s best friend had two moms; the state Assembly representative, Sheila Kuehl, is openly gay; meanwhile Irvine voters couldn’t get it together to pass a simple gay anti-discrimination law a decade ago, and recently pro-Proposition 22 posters were out in force lest anyone forget that anti-gay prejudice is thriving here. The recent attempt by local Republican business leaders to steer the party away from its cultural conservatism met with disaster.

Obviously people are entitled to their views, but these kinds of views are pure poison for any hopes of attracting the sort of young people Orange County needs to become a cutting-edge hub. Hard as it may be, its residents will need to embrace and indeed champion tolerance and differences, show a little compassion, welcome new ideas, support the kind of cultural chaos on which young people thrive--in effect, become liberal. Failing that, county leaders may do well to chuck the whole high-tech aspiration and embrace another industry that should boom in the next 30 years, which is much more compatible with the county’s conservative ways, sleepy streets and great weather. It can become a retirement community.

PAUL GULINO

Irvine