County Must Face Growing Question: What’s Next?

Orange County is embarking on a new year at a pivotal time in its history. Having enjoyed remarkable growth in the extended period after World War II, it stands at the end of the century in a somewhat reflective mood about what kind of community it will be.

The county’s historic optimism has fueled phenomenal development, giving residents new suburban communities in which to live and raise families where once there were citrus fields. It has done so in a political climate that placed a premium on individual freedom and opportunity. Change in recent years especially has been driven by an economic engine that provided job opportunity with a global reach.

In recent years, the influx of urban-style problems, the setback of recession and, especially, the disappearance of open space, has uprooted the county from its agricultural roots in a way that has jolted the county’s psyche.

The argument raging over the future of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station has become an emblem for concerns many have about quality of life. In this issue, the tension between growth and expanded opportunity is excruciating. At its heart lies the possibility that a single public policy choice, a big airport, can dramatically change the kind of place this is.

It’s not going to be resolved this year, but it will be front-and-center, a dramatic play in which we explore whether the very nature of a community can be altered by certain monumental kinds of development. We have seen harbingers of this debate throughout the 1990s, especially in the argument over the San Joaquin Hills tollway and what effect it would have on coastal areas.

The Olive Heights packinghouse for oranges, with its peeling “Orange Sunkist Orange” logo is symbolic of how things are changing in a less dramatic but inexorable way. The site is being prepared for demolition to make way for new housing and reportedly has become a haven for gang members and the homeless.

The county has big projects as well on the table, and some of these suggest a bright future, indeed. The new $1.4-billion Disney’s California Adventure will be the culmination of years of discussion and debate over the expansion of Anaheim as an entertainment center, and its ability to update its somewhat tired facade. The new Anaheim stadium make-over likewise represents an opportunity to move forward by building, literally, on the base of past achievement. The Convention Center expansion promises new opportunity for the local tourism industry as well.

New infrastructure improvements on the freeway system have been coming on line throughout the decade. The battle over wetlands near Huntington Beach continues but with a positive environmental outcome at hand; preservation could be assured if state and federal agencies craft a public purchase of marshes by the end of the month.

All in all, the intangible quality-of-life factor seems to be before the larger community as never before. A county that more than 100 years ago charted its future as an alternative to the perceived problems of Los Angeles now is facing its own crucial decisions about the forces of modernization and change. This requires strong leadership from the county; local government also must be farsighted and bold; and a spirit of cooperation must prevail to brace for the challenges ahead. The bankruptcy exposed a modern county being run basically as a mom-and-pop operation, dramatically in need of better efficiency, oversight and expertise.

The continued urbanization of Orange County is a force to be reckoned with in the new year and beyond. In this storied conservative heartland, let this be an occasion to summon the best conservatism for our time, one based not on reactionary politics, but on a commitment to honor and retain the best of the past while committing to freedom and new opportunity for all.