Orange County, California

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County of Orange, California

Flag Seal
Official website: http://www.oc.ca.gov/
Location
Location of Orange County within California.
Government
Country   State	United States   California
Board of Supervisors      District One      District Two      District Three      District Four      District Five	Janet Nguyen John Moorlach Bill Campbell Chris Norby Patricia C. Bates
Formed
March 11, 1889
Geographical characteristics
Area	2,455 km²
Land	2,045 km²
Water	411 km²
Population
Total (2005)	3,056,865
Density	1,392/km²
Time zone	Pacific (UTC−8)
Summer (DST)	Pacific (UTC−7)

Orange County is a county in Southern California, United States. Its county seat is Santa Ana. Its population of 3,056,865 (2005 estimate [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, which is also the only city in the county to incorporate since 2000. Seven of these cities are among the 200 largest cities in the United States.

Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Incorporated cities 1.2 Noteworthy communities 1.3 Unincorporated communities 1.4 Adjacent counties 2 History 3 Demographics 3.1 Median household income by community 4 Education 5 Points of interest 6 Sports 6.1 Sports teams 6.2 Former and defunct Orange County sports teams 7 Government 8 Politics 9 Transportation 9.1 Major highways 9.2 Public transit 10 Orange County in popular culture 10.1 Film and television 10.2 Music 10.3 Literature 10.4 Religion 11 Master planned communities 12 Notable residents 13 ZIP codes 14 See also 15 External links 15.1 Government 15.2 Media 15.3 Others

[edit] 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 further 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.

[edit] Incorporated cities

As of August 2006, Orange County has 34 incorporated cities. The oldest is Anaheim (1870) and the youngest is Aliso Viejo (2001).

[edit] Noteworthy communities

Some of the communities that exist within city limits are listed below:

[edit] Unincorporated communities

These communities are outside of city limits in unincorporated county territory:

See also: List of neighborhoods and unincorporated communities in Orange County

[edit] Adjacent counties

• Los Angeles County, California - north, west
• San Bernardino County, California - northeast
• Riverside County, California - east
• San Diego County, California - southeast

[edit] 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.

A severe drought in the 1860s devastated the prevailing industry, cattle ranching, and much land came into the possession of Richard O'Neill, Sr. [2], 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, 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.

[edit] Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
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%
2005 est.	3,056,865	7.4%

As of the census² of 2000, 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 64.81% White, 13.59% Asian, 1.67% 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 census² there were 2,410,556 people residing in the county. The racial makeup of the county was 78.60% White, 10.34% Asian or Pacific Islander, 1.77% African American, 0.50% Native American, and 8.79% from other races. 23.43% were Hispanic or Latino of any 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.

[edit] Median household income by community

Unincorporated communities are included if their population is greater than 15,000.

[edit] 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.

Further information: List of school districts in Orange County, California

[edit] 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 [3] 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.

[edit] Sports

Huntington Beach annually plays host to the U.S. Open of Surfing, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball and Vans World Championship of Skateboarding.[4]

[edit] Sports teams

The Major League Baseball team, the Anaheim Angels, won the World Series in 2002. The team has been known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim since the 2005 season.

The county's National Hockey League team, the Anaheim Ducks, 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 [5]. The women's team is the Women's Australian Football Association Orange County Bombshells [6].

[edit] Former and defunct Orange County sports teams

The 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.

The Southern California Sun were an American football team based out of Anaheim that played in the World Football League in 1974 and 1975. Their records were 13-7 in 1974 and 7-5 in 1975. Their home stadium was Anaheim Stadium.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Politics

Orange County Votes
by Party in Presidential Elections

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. 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.

According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, as of December 26, 2006, Orange County had 1,501,843 registered voters. Of these registered voters, 47.78% (717,546) are registered Republicans, and 30.08% (451,706) are registered Democrats, giving the Republicans a registration advantage of 17.7% (265840) – or over a quarter of a million voters. An additional 18.19% (273,215) declined to state a political party, and the remaining 3.95% (59,376) are registered with minor political parties.^[1]

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.

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 minoritiy groups moving into formerly homogeneous suburban communities.

Santa Ana has a high portion of Republican voters from culturally conservative Asian-American, Middle Eastern and Latino immigrants, many came as refugees from wars and dictatorships, are strongly loyal to policies of the Republican party to defeat communism and radical Islamic terrorism. High numbers of Vietnamese-Americans in Garden Grove and Westminster are also Republican loyalists for the party's anti-communist policies. Vietnamese Americans registered Republicans outnumber Democrats at a rate of 55% to 22%. 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 2007 Special Election for the vacant county supervisor seat following Democrat Lou Correa's election to the state senate, two Vietnamese-American Republican candidates topped the list of 10 candidates, separated from each other by only 7 votes, making the board of supervisor all-Republican.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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; regulates taxicab services; 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.

[edit] Orange County in popular culture

[edit] 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. Since its premiere, Orange County has often been referred to as The O.C.
• 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.

[edit] Music

The following musical artists and record labels come from Orange County:

• The Adolescents
• Agent Orange
• The Aggrolites
• The Aquabats!
• Atreyu
• Avenged Sevenfold
• Berlin
• Black Flag
• Bleeding Through
• Jackson Browne
• Bullets and Octane
• Ca$his
• The Chantays
• D.I.
• Eighteen Visions
• Geykido Comet Records
• Guttermouth
• Bobby Hatfield of the The Righteous Brothers
• Hellogoodbye
• Ignite
• Jeff Buckley
• Jeffries Fan Club
• Kottonmouth Kings
• Lit
• The Militia Group
• No Doubt
• O.C. Supertones
• Odd Project
• The Offspring
• Pacific Symphony
• Reel Big Fish
• Saosin
• Save Ferris
• Slayer
• Social Distortion
• Something Corporate
• Stefy
• Stryper
• Suburban Legends
• Supernova
• Thrice
• Throwdown
• T.S.O.L.
• The Vandals
• The Weirdos

In 2006, Gwen Stefani made a song about Orange County called Orange County Girl for her album The Sweet Escape.

[edit] 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 novel's 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. [7]

[edit] 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. [8]
• 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) [9]
• 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. [10]
• The Baha'i Center of San Clemente was built by members of the Baha'i faith. [11]

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.

[edit] 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, Tustin Ranch, 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.

[edit] Notable residents

Main article: Notable Orange County 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, basketball player Dennis Rodman, 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.

[edit] ZIP codes

Further information: Southern California ZIP Codes

[edit] 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
• USS Orange County (LST-1068)
• Orange County Water District

[edit] External links

[edit] Government

• County of Orange - Official County Government Web Site
• Orange County Transportation Authority
• Orange County Regional Parks and Beaches Authority
• Orange County Water District

[edit] 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.

[edit] Others

• Orange County Real Estate - MLS Search
• 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.

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