Anaheim’s Quest Not Really a Core Issue

Cue Petula Clark:

“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely

You can always go ... to Anaheim.”

Like a lot of Orange County residents, I used to fret that we had no core, no center. Everybody kept talking about it, so I started worrying about it. Every other metropolis in America had a “soul,” but we didn’t. Why didn’t we have a place where people from all over town could just show up, mill around and look at each other? The fact that we had 30-some towns in the county probably had something to do with it, and traffic was a bear, but should that have stopped us from having our own core?

Nowadays, I don’t give a hoot. While reassessing life in recent years and assigning priorities to what was important to me, “No Center in Orange County” finished well out of the top 100.

In Anaheim, however, it’s still Job One.

This hybrid town of quaint neighborhoods, dumpy neighborhoods, nice motels, crummy motels, major tourist attractions and other places you’d never want to go still insists it’s a big-time player.

It insists on designating itself as downtown-elect of Orange County, whether there’s any ongoing sign that residents care if we have one.

Get a load of this proposal, introduced with much hope that it will become the county core that is sorely lacking: a sports, entertainment and office complex that would include a monorail linking three major sporting venues to Disneyland; a western-themed park featuring trendy restaurants; a large hotel overlooking a new football stadium; a backdrop of orchards that would harken to our agricultural roots.

Built on property next to Angel Stadium, it would be part of a hip place known as Sportstown.

Sounds great. It sure did back in 1996 when Anaheim officials touted it as a breakthrough project. The hype surrounding it coincided with rumors that the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks were talking about relocating to Anaheim.

Hate to break it to you, but Sportstown never got built and the Seahawks are still in Seattle.

But Anaheim’s thinkers are back at it, hailing plans for its “Platinum Triangle” -- yep, same location -- as a way of creating Orange County’s 21st century downtown. Planners envision more than 9,000 condos and apartments in an area, including after-hours entertainment and commercial outlets. Not to be outdone by their predecessors, there’s also room in the proposal, officials say, for a new NFL stadium.

I thought Irvine’s Great Park was supposed to be our new urban center, but maybe that’s out of date by now.

It’s not that I’m rooting against Anaheim. I’d describe myself more as amused that this city -- which has always struck me as serviceable but unremarkable -- has such grandiose visions of itself. Having a fixture like Disneyland probably gives a town a superiority complex, and the Angels have become a first-rate operation, but Anaheim will always be Anaheim.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

The city seems intent on identifying itself as a happenin’ town.

It puffed out its chest and announced it wants one of the 2008 presidential conventions, but when Mayor Curt Pringle hosted a meet-and-greet last week in New York, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t show.

Still, the past does not predict the future. Sportstown’s fizzle doesn’t mean that the current project won’t sizzle.

But the downtown of Orange County? This time around, can we at least turn over some earth on the project before we all get in our cars in search of our metropolitan soul?

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana

.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.