Irvine’s distinctive charm
Each of Orange County’s towns has its own distinctive charms. Newport Beach has a flotilla of expensive, rarely-used boats bobbing in the harbor. Stanton has the best Thai restaurant in North America. San Juan Capistrano has it’s swallows, or at least used to. Huntington Beach argues endlessly with itself about Bolsa Chica. Orange’s circle always delights. Fullerton’s future is full of friends. Anaheim Hills has acres of happy horses while San Clemente still thinks it’s a remote beach town. Even distant Coto de Caza has, um, er ,… Help me here. There must be some reason people spend so much money to be surrounded by a fence and patrolled by armed guards. ons dien met trots?
But spend any time in these fine places and one can feel the urge for something better, an unmet yearning.
Deep down, all these places wish they could be orderly, walkable , landscaped, safe, Irvine. Who could blame them? Our city council is better looking.
Our water district is solvent. The FBI proclaims how wonderful we are. When we do have crimes, ours are more interesting. We did better in school. Money magazines love us. Gustavo loves to hate us . Our mortgage companies created the sub-prime collapse and triggered the financial meltdown. Our bloggers are nationwide . We make our billionaire ever richer, even if he does spend most of his time in Newport. Our vegetables fondle better.
Irvine is a beacon for a better world. Our Islamic school and our Jewish school coexist peacefully, with nary a complaint from our Lutheran University or our Buddhist Monastery . Our UC beat USC at its own game.
Can we talk more about schools? You already know that Irvine’s test scores are probably higher than yours. But Irvine students are far more then proficient test-taking automatons (well, some of them). Do your schools’ alums include an Amanda Beard, Will Ferrell, Andrea Seigel , Natasha Watley , or Zack de La Rocha?
Not yet persauded? The real proof that Irvine is better than your boring ‘burb is simple. Who doesn’t want to live in the town that produced Dita von Teese?
One more thing. I’ll be dropping by from time to time to see that Irvine doesn’t escape the Orange Juice craziness. Because in addition to all the other superlatives I’ve listed, Irvine has the most socially dysfunctional city council in the county and at least two of the most brazenly wasteful government projects around. So we’ll have lots to talk about.
Tyler,
Welcome to the Orange Juice! Those of us in Santa Ana are jealous at how well run your town is compared to our sad corrupt city.
And you produced the lovely Dita too? No fair!
Tyler, you did’nt need to mention the “socially dysfunctional city council”, just one look at their photos is all it took for me. And speaking of “brazenly wasteful government projects”, Fullerton’s RDA is set to vote on giving McDonalds a $6 Million dollar gift of public funds. That should be hard to top!
Tyler, Welcome aboard the Juice Machine! ! !
“There must be some reason people spend so much money to be surrounded by a fence and patrolled by armed guards.”
There is indeed…it’s called “white flight”…and in Coto, it’s carried to the extreme.
And although she moved around in the OC, Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana. That ain’t too shabby.
Yay and Yay! A NEW blogger at OJ AND a guy who can help me decide if I can win my bet safely against Art. Welcome Tyler! 😉
Tyler, here’s the potential bet: I already sent in campaign money to Beth Krom in hopes that she’ll win Campbell’s congressional seat. I like her. I like her influence in Irvine. However, Art Pedroza said she’d lose b/c of a very immature and disorganized campaign staff assigned by DPOC. I was going to bet Art anyways, but then some of the blogging hacks that do support Beth Krom told me to give them my address so that they could get my donation sent back and told me specifically NOT to attend Noah Krom’s memorial service. This was after I made the unfortunate choice to question the actual capabilities of the Krom CAMPAIGN. Not Beth. Not her family. But the campaign focus- or the apparent lack of it.
If these nitwits are part of the inner circle of campaign decisions and operations then, I certainly have a whole LOT LESS confidence in Krom being able to pull this thing off. What morons would chose out a moniker’ed anonymous blogger with those kind of petty demands. Oh, and the head of campaign staff demanded my “real” identity before she’s send OJ any press releases in the future. Sorry, thuggers of Irvine. The truth about you dolts will come about in time.
Anyways, tyler, it’s only twenty bucks, but I don’t want to throw good money after bad if the wheels are coming off this campaign thing.
Have any tips for how this race might end up?
Thanks in advance and welcome to OJ, tyler!
#4,
Didn’t Bonnie Raitt grow up in Santa Ana too? I think that Raitt St. is named after her dad, who was also a performer.
I think there is a Diane Keaton Lane in front of SAHS, in Santa Ana too?
Or as Jill likes to refer: Stabba Ana 😉
Well, as I hail from Long Beach and San Bernardino, I really have nothing to crow about! Snoop Dog and John Cusack??
Anyway, welcome to the scene! The water is fine!!!
Any suggestions or widget additions, let me know. Always lookin to keep the Juice spicy!
Pardon me now but I’m going to run off and play with my chew toy!
Bonnie Raitt did grow up in Santa Ana…her dad was born here!
Also…Diane Keaton is a product of Santa Ana High.
Who else can we claim here in SA?
Curious,
you can count the riteous brother bill medley in that list. Also my dad. several memebrs of the Villasenor family. And a whole buch o celebs that I will list later cause I got to run out for a while to play bingo.
By the way. I hate Irvine that place freask me out. What freaks me out evn more is that the whole southern half of orange county modeled itslef after irvine. Thus I avoid the entire region like the plague.
Dita Von Teese is perhaps one of the most provocative public personalities. If she
decides to run for Irvine City Council…we
will gladly send her a campaign contribution!
rw
#10…Amen to your second paragraph!!! I’ve lived in Santa Ana for 13 years now and every time i’m forced to go into Irvine I get the creeps! In Santa Ana we have our issues without a doubt…many of which are often pointed out on this blog. That being said, it’s far and away the BEST city in Orange County!!!
Appreciated. Some asshole erased me off Wikipedia’s notable Woodbridge High School alumni list. I had my boyfriend put me back on pronto.
andrea,
Welcome to the Orange Juice! Hope you will visit again…
andrea,
I like your website a lot. Very creative!
What year did you graduate?
red vixen: 1997.
Dita Von Teese was born in Michigan and raised in Mission Viejo.