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[[Image:Density OC3.JPG|left|thumb|225px|Orange County Density Map. Lighter shades indicate less dense areas, darker shades indicate denser areas.]] |
[[Image:Density OC3.JPG|left|thumb|225px|Orange County Density Map. Lighter shades indicate less dense areas, darker shades indicate denser areas.]] |
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As of the [[census]] of 2000,{{GR|2}} there were 2,846,289 people, 935,287 households, and 667,794 families residing in the county, making Orange County the second most populous county in [[California]]. The [[population density]] was 1,392/km² (3,606/mi²). There were 969,484 housing units at an average density of 474/km² (1,228/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was |
As of the [[census]] of 2000,{{GR|2}} there were 2,846,289 people, 935,287 households, and 667,794 families residing in the county, making Orange County the second most populous county in [[California]]. The [[population density]] was 1,392/km² (3,606/mi²). There were 969,484 housing units at an average density of 474/km² (1,228/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 44.81% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 13.59% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 21.67% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.70% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 0.31% [[Pacific Islander (U.S. Census)|Pacific Islander]], 14.80% from [[Race (United States Census)|other races]], and 4.12% from two or more races. 30.76% are [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race. |
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In [[1990]], still according to the [[census]] there were 2,410,556 people residing in the county. The racial makeup of the county was 64.49% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], not of Hispanic origins, 23.43% [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]], 9.99% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 1.62% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.36% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], and 0.11% of some other race. |
In [[1990]], still according to the [[census]] there were 2,410,556 people residing in the county. The racial makeup of the county was 64.49% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], not of Hispanic origins, 23.43% [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]], 9.99% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 1.62% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.36% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], and 0.11% of some other race. |
Revision as of 13:24, 8 March 2007
Orange County | |
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Official seal of Orange County | |
Coordinates: 33°40′N 117°47′W / 33.67°N 117.78°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
Founded | March 11, 1889 |
Seat | Santa Ana |
Largest city | Anaheim |
Population (2005) | |
• Total | 3,056,865 (est) |
Time zone | UTC−8 (Pacific) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−7 (PDT) |
Website | www |
Orange County is a county in Southern California, United States. Its county seat is Santa Ana. Its population of 3,083,894 (as of July 1, 2006)[1] is larger than that of 20 states. It is the second most populous county in the state of California, and the fifth most populous in the United States. The county is known for its wealth and political conservatism, although it is in reality neither as uniformly wealthy nor as homogeneously conservative as its stereotypical image suggests.
It is also famous as a tourist destination, as the county is home to such attractions as Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, as well as sandy beaches for swimming and surfing, yacht harbors for sailing and pleasure boating, and extensive acreage devoted to parks and open space for golf, tennis, hiking, kayaking, cycling, and other outdoor recreation. It is at the center of Southern California's Tech Coast.
Thirty-four incorporated cities are located in Orange County; the newest is Aliso Viejo, the only one to incorporate since 2000. Seven of these cities are among the 200 largest cities in the United States.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,455 km² (948 mi²), making it the smallest county in Southern California. Surface water accounts for 411 km² (159 mi²) of the area, 16.73% of the total; 2,045 km² (789 mi²) of it is land.
Orange County is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Los Angeles County, on the northeast by San Bernardino County, on the east by Riverside County, and on the south by San Diego County.
The northern part of the county lies on the coastal plain of the Los Angeles Basin, while the southern half lies on the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. Most of Orange County's population resides in one of two shallow coastal valleys that lie in the basin, the Santa Ana Valley and the Saddleback Valley. The coastal plain gently rises into the Santa Ana Mountains, which lie within the boundaries of the county and of the Cleveland National Forest. The high point is Santiago Peak (5,687 ft/1,733 m), about 20 mi (32 km) east of Santa Ana. Santiago Peak and nearby Modjeska Peak, just 200 feet shorter, form a ridge known as Saddleback, visible from almost everywhere in the county.
The Santa Ana River is the county's principal watercourse. Its major tributary running through the county is Santiago Creek. Other watercourses within the county include Aliso Creek, San Juan Creek, and Horsethief Creek. The San Gabriel River also briefly crosses into Orange County and exits into the Pacific on the Los Angeles-Orange County line between Long Beach and Seal Beach. Laguna Beach is home to the county's only natural lakes, Laguna Lakes, which are formed by water rising up against an underground fault.
Residents often divide the county into "North County" and "South County", as opposed to an East-West division characterized by coastal and inland cities; however, there may be significant cultural differences found on the coast than futher inland. There is no formal geographical division of North and South County, though a North-South border may be drawn somewhere along the Tustin-Irvine and Costa Mesa-Newport Beach city boundaries, or along the boundary between the 714 and 949 area codes. Orange County is part of the five-county Greater Los Angeles area.
Incorporated cities
As of August 2006, Orange County has 34 incorporated cities. The oldest is Anaheim (1870) and the youngest is Aliso Viejo (2001).
- Aliso Viejo, incorporated in 2001
- Anaheim, incorporated in 1870
- Brea, incorporated in 1917
- Buena Park, incorporated in 1953
- Costa Mesa, incorporated in 1953
- Cypress, incorporated in 1956
- Dana Point, incorporated in 1989
- Fountain Valley, incorporated in 1953
- Fullerton, incorporated in 1904
- Garden Grove, incorporated in 1956
- Huntington Beach, incorporated in 1909
- Irvine, incorporated in 1971
- La Habra, incorporated in 1925
- La Palma, incorporated in 1955
- Laguna Beach, incorporated in 1927
- Laguna Hills, incorporated in 1991
- Laguna Niguel, incorporated in 1989
- Laguna Woods, incorporated in 1999
- Lake Forest, incorporated in 1991
- Los Alamitos, incorporated in 1960
- Mission Viejo, incorporated in 1988
- Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906
- Orange, incorporated in 1888
- Placentia, incorporated in 1926
- Rancho Santa Margarita, incorporated in 2000
- San Clemente, incorporated in 1928
- San Juan Capistrano, incorporated in 1961
- Santa Ana, incorporated in 1886
- Seal Beach, incorporated in 1915
- Stanton, incorporated in 1956
- Tustin, incorporated in 1927
- Villa Park, incorporated in 1962
- Westminster, incorporated in 1957
- Yorba Linda, incorporated in 1967
Noteworthy communities
Some of the communities that exist within city limits are listed below:
Unincorporated communities
These communities are outside of city limits in unincorporated county territory:
Adjacent counties
- Los Angeles County, California - north, west
- San Bernardino County, California - northeast
- Riverside County, California - east
- San Diego County, California - southeast
History
Members of the Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño nations long inhabited the area. After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish expedition led by Junipero Serra named the area Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne). On November 1, 1776, Mission San Juan Capistrano became the first permanent European settlement.
In 1809, the Spanish Empire granted 62,500 acres to Jose Antonio Yorba, which he named Rancho San Antonio. Yorba's great rancho included the lands where the cities of Olive, Orange, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Tustin and Costa Mesa stand today.
A severe drought in the 1860s devastated the prevailing industry, cattle ranching, and much land came into the possession of Richard O'Neill, Sr. [1], James Irvine and other land barons. In 1887, silver was discovered in the Santa Ana mountains, attracting settlers via the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroads. This growth led the California legislature to divide Los Angeles County and create Orange County as a separate political entity on March 11, 1889. It was named for its most famous product,[2] but other citrus crops, avocados, and oil extraction were also important to the early economy.
Orange County benefited from the July 4, 1904 completion of the Pacific Electric Railway, a trolley connecting Los Angeles with Newport Beach and Santa Ana. The link made Orange County an accessible weekend retreat for celebrities of early Hollywood. It was deemed so significant that the city of Pacific City changed its name to Huntington Beach in honor of Henry Huntington, president of the Pacific Electric and nephew of robber baron Collis Huntington. Transportation further improved with the completion of the State Route and U.S. Route 101 (now mostly Interstate 5) in the 1920s.
Agriculture, such as the boysenberry which was made famous by Buena Park native Walter Knott, began to decline after World War II but the county's prosperity soared. The completion of Interstate 5 in 1954 helped make Orange County a bedroom community for many who moved to Southern California to work in aerospace and manufacturing. Orange County received a further boost in 1955 with the opening of Disneyland.
In 1969, Yorba Linda-born Orange County native Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States.
In the 1980s, the population topped 2 million for the first time. Orange County had become the second largest county in California.
A spectacular investment fund melt-down in 1994 led to the criminal prosecution of Orange County treasurer Robert Citron. On December 6, 1994, Orange County declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy, from which it emerged in June 1995; this was the largest ever municipal bankruptcy in the U.S. The county lost about $1.6 billion through high-risk investments in derivatives.
In recent years, the county has been characterized by conflict between the older northern and newer southern cities over development, the building of new toll roads, and a recently defeated proposal to build an international airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station that would have reduced operations at the existing John Wayne Airport.
Demographics
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1890 | 13,589 | — | |
1900 | 19,696 | 44.9% | |
1910 | 34,436 | 74.8% | |
1920 | 61,375 | 78.2% | |
1930 | 118,674 | 93.4% | |
1940 | 130,760 | 10.2% | |
1950 | 216,224 | 65.4% | |
1960 | 703,925 | 225.6% | |
1970 | 1,420,386 | 101.8% | |
1980 | 1,932,709 | 36.1% | |
1990 | 2,410,556 | 24.7% | |
2000 | 2,846,289 | 18.1% |
As of the census of 2000,Template:GR there were 2,846,289 people, 935,287 households, and 667,794 families residing in the county, making Orange County the second most populous county in California. The population density was 1,392/km² (3,606/mi²). There were 969,484 housing units at an average density of 474/km² (1,228/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 44.81% White, 13.59% Asian, 21.67% African American, 0.70% Native American, 0.31% Pacific Islander, 14.80% from other races, and 4.12% from two or more races. 30.76% are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
In 1990, still according to the census there were 2,410,556 people residing in the county. The racial makeup of the county was 64.49% White, not of Hispanic origins, 23.43% Hispanic or Latino, 9.99% Asian, 1.62% African American, 0.36% Native American, and 0.11% of some other race.
There were 935,287 households out of which 37.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.9% were married couples living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.6% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.00 and the average family size was 3.48.
The population is diverse age-wise, with 27.0% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 33.2% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 9.9% 65 years of age or older. The median age is 33 years. For every 100 females there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.7 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $61,899, and the median income for a family was $75,700. Males had a median income of $45,059 versus $34,026 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,826. About 7.0% of families and 10.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.2% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.
Median household income by community
Unincorporated communities are included if their population is greater than 15,000.
- Anaheim Hills: $120,852
- Villa Park: $116,203
- Tustin Foothills: $96,230
- Irvine: $85,624
- Newport Beach: $83,455
- Laguna Niguel: $80,733
- Yorba Linda: $79,593
- Rancho Santa Margarita: $78,475
- Mission Viejo: $78,248
- Aliso Viejo: $76,409
- Laguna Beach: $75,808
- Laguna Hills: $70,234
- Fountain Valley: $69,734
- La Palma: $68,438
- Lake Forest: $67,967
- West Garden Grove: $66,830
- Huntington Beach: $64,824
- Brea: $64,820
- Cypress: $64,337
- San Clemente: $63,507
- Dana Point: $63,043
- Placentia: $62,803
- San Juan Capistrano: $62,392
- Orange: $58,994
- Tustin: $55,985
- Los Alamitos: $55,286
- Costa Mesa: $50,732
- Buena Park: $50,336
- Fullerton: $50,269
- Westminster: $49,450
- Garden Grove: $47,754
- La Habra: $47,652
- Anaheim: $47,122
- Santa Ana: $43,412
- Seal Beach: $42,049
- Stanton: $39,127
- Laguna Woods: $30,493
Education
Orange County is home to many colleges and universities, including:
Many Orange County residents commute to colleges in neighboring counties, including California State University, Long Beach, which is just miles from the L.A. county line.
Its county department of education also oversees 28 school districts.
Points of interest
The area's warm Mediterranean climate and 42 miles of year-round beaches attract millions of tourists annually. Huntington Beach is a hot spot for sunbathing and surfing; nicknamed "Surf City, U.S.A.", it is home to many surfing competitions. "The Wedge", at the tip of The Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, is one of the most famous body surfing spots in the world. Other tourist destinations include the theme parks Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim and Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park. The Anaheim Convention Center is the largest such facility on the West Coast. The old town area in the City of Orange (the traffic circle at the middle of Chapman Ave. at Glassell) still maintains its 1950s image, and appeared in the That Thing You Do! movie. Little Saigon is another notable tourist destination, being home to the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. There is also a sizable Korean community, particularly in western Orange County.
Other notable structures include the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse in Santa Ana, the largest building in the county; the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, the largest house of worship in California; the historic Balboa Pavilion [2] in Newport Beach; the Huntington Beach Pier; and the restored Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Some of the most exclusive (and expensive) neighborhoods in the U.S. are located here, many along the Orange County Coast, and some in north Orange County. Large shopping malls exist throughout the county, such as the Irvine Spectrum Center, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Fashion Island in Newport Beach, The Block at Orange, and the recently remodeled Shops at Mission Viejo in Mission Viejo.
Historical points of interest include Mission San Juan Capistrano (destination of migrating swallows), and the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace (the only privately controlled presidential library in the nation since the government began constructing these libraries in 1939) in Yorba Linda. The Nixon Home is a National Historic Landmark, as is the home of a very different character, Madam Helena Modjeska, in Modjeska Canyon on Santiago Creek.
Sports
Huntington Beach annually plays host to the U.S. Open of Surfing, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball and Vans World Championship of Skateboarding.[3]
Sports teams
The Major League Baseball team in Orange County is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which moved southeast from Los Angeles to Anaheim in 1966. The team's first name in Orange County was the California Angels. The team was renamed the Anaheim Angels by the Walt Disney Company in 1997. Under Disney's ownership, the team won the 2002 World Series, the first championship title for a professional sports team based in Orange County. In 2003, the franchise was sold to Arizona billionaire and one-time Santa Ana resident Arturo Moreno, who renamed the team the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005.
The county's National Hockey League team, the Anaheim Ducks (formerly the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim), came close to winning the 2003 Stanley Cup finals after winning three games in a seven-game series.
The Orange County Blue Star is a USL Premier Development League soccer club. They play at Orange Coast College. Among those who have played for OCBS are Juergen Klinsmann, the former German star and Germany's 2006 World Cup coach, who played under an assumed name.
The Anaheim Arsenal are a NBA D-League expansion team for the 2006-2007 season. They will play their home games at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Orange County has two amateur Australian Rules Football teams. The men's team is the Southern California Australian Football League Orange County Bombers [4]. The women's team is the Women's Australian Football Association Orange County Bombshells [5].
Former and defunct Orange County sports teams
National Football League football left the county when the Los Angeles Rams relocated to St. Louis in 1995. Anaheim city leaders are in talks with the NFL to bring a Los Angeles-area franchise to Orange County, though they are competing with other cities in and around Los Angeles.
The California Surf played in the North American Soccer League from 1978 to 1981. The club called Anaheim Stadium home.
The L.A. Salsa played at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium in 1993-94 in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL), at the time the top soccer league in the U.S. The Salsa, whose general manager was former Cosmos star Ricky Davis and its coach former Brazil star Rildo Menezes, also played some games at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Calif., attempting a season in Mexico's second-tier Primera A Division. That attempt was cancelled after several games when FIFA and CONCACAF ruled a club could not play in two leagues in separate countries. The Salsa lost to the Colorado Foxes in the 1993 APSL final at Cal State Fullerton.
The Orange County Zodiac, affiliated with MLS's Los Angeles Galaxy, played soccer at Santa Ana Stadium (also known as Santa Ana Bowl) and Orange Coast College from 1997 to 2000.
The county was the home of the Orange County Buzz basketball team of the American Basketball Association (ABA). In May 2006, the NBA Development League's L.A. Clippers-affiliated team announced their move to Carson, California.
The Anaheim Storm were a member of the National Lacrosse League. They folded in 2005 due to low attendance.
The Anaheim Piranhas were a Arena Football League team in 1996-97, but folded due to team board financial problems.
The Anaheim Bullfrogs were a Roller Hockey International team that had relative success lasted from 1993-99 and briefly revived in 2001.
The Anaheim Splash was a soccer team that played in the Continental Indoor Soccer League from 1993 to 1997.
The Los Angeles Clippers played some home games at the Honda Center for a few years, before moving to Staples Center, which they share with the rival Los Angeles Lakers.
Government
Orange County is a general law county of California; its seat is Santa Ana. Its legislative and executive authority is vested in a five-member Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor is popularly elected from a regional district, and together the board oversees the activities of the county's agencies and departments and sets policy on development, public improvements, and county services. At the beginning of each year the Supervisors select a Chairman and Vice-Chairman, but the administration is headed by a professional municipal manager, the County Executive.
Seven other public officials are elected at-large: the County Assessor, Auditor-Controller, Clerk-Recorder, District Attorney, Sheriff-Coroner, Treasurer-Tax Collector and Public Administrator. Since 1999, the Orange County Sheriff's Department has been led by Sheriff-Coroner Mike Carona.
Politics
Year | Republican | Democratic |
---|---|---|
2004 | 59.7% 641,832 | 39.0% 419,239 |
2000 | 55.8% 541,299 | 40.4% 391,819 |
1996 | 51.7% 446,717 | 37.9% 327,485 |
1992 | 43.9% 426,613 | 31.6% 306,930 |
1988 | 67.7% 586,230 | 31.1% 269,013 |
1984 | 74.7% 635,013 | 24.3% 206,272 |
1980 | 67.9% 529,797 | 22.6% 176,704 |
1976 | 62.2% 408,632 | 35.3% 232,246 |
1972 | 68.3% 448,291 | 26.9% 176,847 |
1968 | 63.1% 314,905 | 29.9% 148,869 |
1964 | 55.9% 224,196 | 44.0% 176,539 |
1960 | 60.8% 174,891 | 38.9% 112,007 |
1956 | 67.4% 113,510 | 32.6% 54,895 |
1952 | 70.4% 77,548 | 29.6% 32,530 |
Orange County has long been known as a Republican stronghold and has consistently sent Republican representatives to the state and federal legislatures. It has been dubbed by the GOP party of Orange County, "America's Most Republican County." Republican majorities in Orange County helped deliver California's electoral votes to Republican presidential candidates Richard Nixon (1960, 1968 and 1972), Gerald Ford (1976), Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984) and George H. W. Bush (1988). Orange County has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 landslide re-election for a second term. Although Democrats have made inroads in the northern end of the county since the mid-1980s, Orange County politics are still dominated by Republicans. Five of the county's six U.S. Representatives, four of its five State Senators and seven of its nine State Assembly members are Republicans, as are all five members of the County Board of Supervisors following the replacement of Democrat Lou Correa in 2007.
According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, as of January 29, 2007, Orange County had 1,502,871 registered voters. Of these registered voters, 47.68% (716,676) are registered Republicans, and 30.07% (452,017) are registered Democrats, giving the Republicans a registration advantage of 17.61% (264,659) – or over a quarter of a million voters. An additional 18.27% (274,610) declined to state a political party, and the remaining 3.96% (59,568) are registered with minor political parties.[3]
Orange County has produced such notable Republicans as President Richard Nixon (born in Yorba Linda and lived in San Clemente), U.S. Senator John F. Seymour (previously mayor of Anaheim), and U.S. Senator Thomas Kuchel (of Anaheim). Former Congressman Chris Cox (of Newport Beach), a White House counsel for President Ronald Reagan, is currently chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Orange County was also home to former Republican Congressman John G. Schmitz, a presidential candidate in 1972 from the ultra-conservative American Independent Party and the father of Mary Kay Letourneau. In 1996, Curt Pringle (currently mayor of Anaheim) became the first Republican-elected Speaker of the California State Assembly in decades.
While the growth of the county's Hispanic and Asian populations in recent decades has significantly influenced the culture of Orange County, its conservative reputation has remained largely intact. Partisan voter registration patterns of Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic minorities in the county have tended to reflect the surrounding demographics, with resultant Republican majorities in all but the central portion of the county. When Democrat Loretta Sanchez defeated veteran Republican Robert K. Dornan in the congressional contest of 1996, she was continuing a trend of Democratic representation of that district that had been interrupted by Dornan's 1984 upset of former Congressman Jerry Patterson. Until 1992, Sanchez herself was a Republican, and she is viewed as having moderate or even conservative positions on many issues.
Republicans have responded to the influx of ethnic immigrants by making more explicit efforts to court the Hispanic and Asian vote. In 2004, George W. Bush captured 60% of the county's vote, up from 56% in 2000, despite a higher Democratic popular vote compared with the 2000 election. Although Barbara Boxer won statewide, and fared better in Orange County than she did in 1998, Republican Bill Jones defeated her in the county, 51% to 43%. And while the 39% that John Kerry received is higher than the percentage Bill Clinton won in both 1992 and 1996, the percentage of the vote George W. Bush received in 2004 (60% of the vote) is the highest any presidential candidate has received since 1988, showing a still-dominant GOP presence in the county. Democratic strength is concentrated in the communities of Santa Ana, Laguna Beach and Laguna Woods. Santa Ana and Stanton are the only municipalities in Orange County with a majority of voters registered as Democrats.
The county features prominently in the book Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right by Lisa McGirr. She argues that the county's conservative political orientation in the 20th century owed much to its settlement by Midwestern transplants, who reacted strongly to communist sympathies, the civil rights movement, and the turmoil of the 1960s in nearby Los Angeles—across the "Orange Curtain."
In the 1970s and 1980s, Orange County was one of California's leading Republican voting blocs and a sub-culture of residents to hold "Middle American" values that emphasized a capitalist religious morality in contrast to West coast progressive liberalism that well existed there.
Political jokes spoke of Orange County as a "white" racist bastion, where their city councils alleged to have ties to the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis, though they are mean-spirited rumors meant to generate controversy on the county's attitudes on the rising percentage of minority groups moving into formerly homogeneous suburban communities.
Santa Ana's portion of Republican voters come largely from culturally conservative Asian-Americans, many of whom came as refugees from wars and dictatorships and are strongly loyal to policies of the Republican party to defeat communism. High numbers of Vietnamese-Americans in Garden Grove and Westminster are also Republican loyalists for the party's anti-communist policies, with more than 55% registered Republican compared to 22% Democratic. Republican Assemblyman Van Tran was elected to become the first Vietnamese-American to serve in a state legislature and is tied with Texan Hubert Vo as the highest-ranking elected Vietnamese-American in the United States. In the special election for an open Board of Supervisors seat in 2007, two Vietnamese-American Republicans won the greatest number of votes in a field of 8 candidates, with the winner becoming the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor in the nation and making the Orange County Board of Supervisors all-Republican.
Political Figures
The five members of the county board of supervisors are Janet Nguyen (elected), John Moorlach, Bill Campbell, Chris Norby, and Pat Bates. Janet Nguyen had not been sworn in because of a pending legal challenge.
The nine state assemblymembers who currently represent Orange County are Jim Silva, Van Tran, Jose Solorio, Chuck DeVore, Todd Spitzer, Michael Duvall, Mimi Walters, Bob Huff, and Tony Mendoza. Mendoza (who only represents Buena Park, and Solorio are the only Democrats out of the nine.
The six members of congress who represent Orange County are John B.T. Campbell, Dana Rohrabacher, Loretta Sanchez, Edward Royce, Gary Miller, and Ken Calvert. All but Sanchez are Republicans.
The five state senators who represent Orange County are Dick Ackerman, Tom Harman, Lou Correa, Mark Wyland, and Bob Margett. All but Correa are Republicans.
Transportation
Major highways
Surface transportation in Orange County relies heavily on several major interstate highways: the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5), the San Diego Freeway (I-405 and I-5 south of Irvine), and the San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605), which only briefly enters Orange County territory in the northwest. The other freeways in the county are state highways, and include the perpetually congested Riverside and Artesia Freeway (CA/SR-91) and the Garden Grove Freeway (CA/SR-22) running east-west, and the Orange Freeway (CA/SR-57), theCosta Mesa Freeway (SR/CA-55), the Laguna Freeway (CA/SR-133), the San Joaquin Transportation Corridor (CA/SR-73), the Eastern Transportation Corridor (CA/SR-261, CA/SR-133, CA/SR-241), and the Foothill Transportation Corridor (CA/SR-241) running north-south. Minor stub freeways include the Richard M. Nixon Freeway (CA/SR-90), also known as Imperial Highway, and the southern terminus of Pacific Coast Highway (CA/SR-1).
The three transportation corridors, typically referred to as "the toll roads" or by their number designations ("the 73", "the 133", "the 261", and "the 241"), were privately constructed by municipal bonds and are operated by a joint powers authority (the Transportation Corridor Agencies or TCA) in the 1990s. These toll roads were built to connect existing freeways (including the currently non-tolled portions of CA/SR-73 and CA/SR-133) to new South County developments, and to serve as alternate routes for crowded Orange County freeways. Tolls can be collected in cash or with the use of transponders for prepaid accounts. The median of the Riverside Freeway (CA/SR-91) also contains toll lanes known as the Express Lanes maintained by the Orange County Transportation Authority; users must maintain prepaid accounts to drive on these lanes.
Residents typically call local freeways by their route number rather than their formal name (e.g., "The Fifty-five" instead of "The Costa Mesa Freeway"). One of the most important Orange County roadways is the north-south Santa Ana Freeway, or Interstate 5, which bisects the length of the county. It merges with another key north-south road, the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) in Irvine. The 5 and 405 freeways meet at the El Toro Y, one of the busiest interchanges in the U.S. Another notoriously busy interchange is the Orange Crush, where the I-5, 22, and 57 meet.
Public transit
Transit in Orange County is offered primarily by the Orange County Transportation Authority. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) cited OCTA as the best large property transportation system in the United States for 2005. OCTA manages the county's bus network and funds the construction and maintenance of local streets, highways, and freeways; operates a coordinated taxicab system; maintains express toll lanes through the median of the Riverside Freeway (SR/CA-91); and works with Southern California's Metrolink to provide commuter rail service along three lines - the Orange County Line, the 91 Line, and the Inland Empire-Orange County Line.
The bus network comprises 6,542 stops on 77 lines, running along most major streets, and accounts for 210,000 boardings a day. The fleet of 817 buses is gradually being replaced by LNG-powered vehicles, which already represent over 40% of the total.
Starting in 1992, Metrolink has operated three commuter rail lines through Orange County, and has also maintained Rail-to-Rail service with parallel Amtrak service. On a typical weekday, 40 trains run along the Orange County Line, the 91 Line and the Inland Empire-Orange County Line. Along with Metrolink riders on parallel Amtrak lines, these lines generate over 12,000 boardings per weekday. Metrolink also began offering weekend service on the Orange County Line and the Inland Empire-Orange County line in the summer of 2006. As ridership has steadily increased in the region, new stations have opened at Anaheim Canyon, Tustin, and Laguna Niguel, and a new station in Buena Park is slated to open in 2008. Stations at Placentia and Yorba Linda are proposed for future construction.
A car and passenger ferry service, the Balboa Island Ferry, comprising three ferries running every five minutes, operates between Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island in Newport Beach.
Orange County's only major airport is the John Wayne-Orange County Airport (SNA). It is located in unincorporated territory surrounded by the cities of Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, and Irvine. Its modern Thomas F. Riley Terminal handles over 8 million passengers annually through 14 different airlines.
Orange County in popular culture
Film and television
Orange County has been the setting for numerous films and television shows:
- It is best-known as the setting of the eponymous 2003 Fox Network television drama The O.C. which is set in the Orange County coastal harbor town of Newport Beach, California (although the series is actually filmed in Los Angeles County to keep production costs down). It is a very loose and locally criticized interpretation of the county and its residents.
- It is the subject and setting of the eponymous 2002 movie Orange County. However, the film was not actually filmed in Orange County.
- It is also the setting of the 2003 sitcom Arrested Development. Most of the series was not filmed in Orange County, but in Culver City and Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles County.
- The film Better Luck Tomorrow was shot and set in the cities of Cypress and Anaheim.
- The film Life as a House was set in Laguna Beach, although it was filmed in Los Angeles County.
- The film Brick was shot and set in San Clemente
- MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County was filmed in the Orange County coastal town of Laguna Beach, California.
- A key scene in the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was shot and set at The Block at Orange in the city of Orange.
- A plot line in the television drama The West Wing involved a dead liberal Democrat unexpectedly winning a Congressional seat from an Orange County district.
- Orange County is the home of the late Republican President Teddy Bridges on the (now canceled) ABC drama Commander-in-Chief.
- Sayid Jarrah from the ABC drama Lost was bound to go to Irvine, where his longtime friend Nadia lives. John Locke, another castaway from the series, is said to work in Tustin.
- Orange County was the location of the 1994 Charlie Sheen movie The Chase.
- The 2006 film A Scanner Darkly was set in the city of Anaheim. A freeway scene was shot along the Northbound I-5 in Tustin.
- The show The Real Housewives of Orange County which is filmed in Coto De Caza.
- In the first the Fast & the Furious movie, where Paul Walker's green Eclipse was blown up in a dark parking lot. The lot was based and shot on location, in Little Saigon's T&K Food Market, now a prominent tourist attraction.
Orange County has also been used as a shooting location for several films and television programs. Examples of movies at least partially shot in Orange County are Tom Hanks's That Thing You Do, the Coen Brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There, and the Martin Lawrence movie Big Momma's House. All three of which were filmed in or around the Old Towne Plaza in the City of Orange.
Music
The following musical artists and record labels come from Orange County:
In 2006, Gwen Stefani made a song about Orange County called Orange County Girl for her album The Sweet Escape.
Literature
A number of novels by best-selling fiction and horror author Dean Koontz, a resident of Newport Beach, are set in the area.
Several of the stories in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon's collection, A Model World, are set in Orange County. Chabon studied creative writing at UC Irvine.
Orange County is the place in which Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias Trilogy is set. These books depict three different futures of the Orange County (survivors of a nuclear war in The Wild Shore, a developer's dream gone mad in The Gold Coast, and an ecotopian utopia in Pacific Edge). Philip K. Dick's novel A Scanner Darkly was also set in Orange County.
From his first novel, "Laguna Heat," to more recent books such as "California Girl," mystery-writer T.Jefferson Parker has set many of his novels in Orange County.
The modern fantasy novel "All the Bells on Earth" by James P. Blaylock is set in Orange.
On October 4, 2006, author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez wrote a book for young adults called Haters, which revolves around a young girl who moves to Aliso Viejo, California and attends the City's Aliso Niguel High School. Residents reacted angrily to the book and alleged that Valdes-Rodriguez portrayed the City and school in a negative and slanderous light. [6]
Religion
Orange County is also the base for several significant religious organizations:
- Association of Islamic Charitable Project
- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange headed by Bishop Tod Brown.
- Chuck Smith, father of the Jesus People movement, is headquartered at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa.
- Reverend Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral is in Garden Grove.
- Trinity Broadcasting Network began as Channel 40 in Tustin, now in Costa Mesa.
- The Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren and his Saddleback Church are in Lake Forest.
- The Vineyard Christian Fellowship movement began in Orange County.
- The Newport Beach LDS Temple serves the 50,000 Latter-day Saints in the county.
- The Merage Jewish Community Center headquartered in Irvine.
- Grace Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach is leading a Lutheran renewal movement. [7]
- The Jewish Federation of Orange County.
- Children of God, AKA "The Family" ,was founded in 1968 in Huntington Beach by David Berg.
- The Islamic Center of Anaheim
- The Islamic Educational School (TIES) [8]
- The Islamic Educational Center of Orange County is based in Costa Mesa.
- The mosque at the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove serves one of the largest Muslim communities in the nation.
- The Islamic Center of Irvine is one of the newest and largest Islamic Centers in the nation. [9]
- The Baha'i Center of San Clemente was built by members of the Baha'i faith. [10]
It should be noted that among the Christian population, the majority of the population with German ancestry follows the various Protestant denominations while the ethnic Irish, Hispanic, and other populations follow Roman Catholicism. There are about 35 synagogues to serve the sizeable Jewish community in the county.
Master planned communities
Orange County has a history of successful master planned communities. Nearly 30% of the county was created as master planned communities, the most notable being the City of Irvine, Coto de Caza, Anaheim Hills, Ladera Ranch, Talega, and Mission Viejo. Irvine has become the model master planned city, encompassing many villages which were all planned under a master plan by the Irvine Company in the mid-1960s. Many communities within California and throughout the country (and even outside the country including China) have used these Orange County developments as models for their own planning. Elements such as community clubhouses, numerous community pools, pocket parks, horse trails, and active associations were first established in Orange County master planned communities and have been copied in numerous places throughout the United States. Many attribute the large housing boom in the county to the creation of these desirable communities in the 1990s.
Notable residents
Due to Orange County's close proximity to Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the United States, many film and media celebrities have moved or bought second homes in the county. Actor John Wayne, who lived in Newport Beach, is the namesake for Orange County's John Wayne Airport. Orange County has also produced many homegrown celebrities, including golfer Tiger Woods, actor Kevin Costner, comedian/actors Steve Martin and Will Ferrell, actresses Michelle Pfeiffer and Diane Keaton, and singers Bonnie Raitt, Gwen Stefani, and Jeff Buckley.
The county's most famous resident was perhaps Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, who was born in Yorba Linda and lived in San Clemente for several years following his resignation. His presidential library is in Yorba Linda.
ZIP codes
References
- ^ State of California, Department of Finance (December 2006). "California County Population Estimates and Components of Change by Year, July 1, 2000-2006" (.xls). Sacramento, California. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
- ^ "This county was given its name by the Legislature because of the orange groves for which it is justly famous." (Blue Book 1907, pg. 278)
- ^ Orange County Registrar of Voters (2007-01-29). "District Registration by Party" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-02-25.
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See also
- Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, California (current OMB designation)
- John Wayne-Orange County Airport (SNA)
- Orange County Transportation Authority
- List of school districts in Orange County, California
- Orange County High School of the Arts
- Orange County Fair (California)
- The O.C.
- Orange County, China
- Orange County (film)
- Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County
External links
Government
- County of Orange - Official County Government Website
- Orange County Transportation Authority
- Orange County Regional Parks and Beaches Authority
Media
- The Orange County Register - OC's chief Newspaper
- OC Weekly - Orange County's Alternative Newsweekly
- Orange County Business Journal - Weekly newspaper covering business in OC
- KOCE Orange County Public Television (PBS)- Five night per week Orange County news program "Real Orange."
- SqueezeOC Weekly magazine and Web site devoted to things to do in Orange County.
- OC Post Tabloid newspaper from the publishers of the Orange County Register.
Others
- OCStandard - Orange County City Guide
- Orange County Business Council (Chamber of Commerce)
- Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau
- Orange County ArtSource - Links to Major Visual and Performing Arts Venues
- Unofficial Orange County History Page - From the 1400s to the present
- Historical Orange County Page - emphasis on American Indians and Missionaries.