HOW OC GOT RICH

Headnote

County's Development, Wealth Intertwined; Ability to Lure People, Money Were Key

Fox's "The O.C." shows Orange County as an "idyllic paradise, a wealthy, harbor-front community where everything and everyone appears to be perfect."

An exaggeration, to be sure. But there's no denying OC's wealth.

OC's $135 billion economy-on par with many countries-has produced a tremendous amount of wealth. Beneficiaries have included those in the agriculture, tourism, healthcare, defense and aerospace, real estate, and, more recently, technology and fashion.

For the past three decades, the county's wealth has been more pronounced than that of bigger neighbor Los Angeles County or California as a whole.

Since 1970, per capita income in OC has risen 674% to $38,000 in 2002. In Los Angeles County, the figure has grown 515% to $31,000. California's is up 585% to $33,000.

Just how did this small strip of coastal land between better known Los Angeles and San Diego come to be so wealthy?

To understand how OC got rich is to know how it developed, luring transplants from Los Angeles and drawing money from elsewhere via aerospace, tourism and other industries. Railways, roads and masterplanning round out the story.

Chief among the reasons, according to economists, historians and businesspeople, are the people of OC. Among them are visionaries who long ago saw an empty land and envisioned a future filled with industry and promise. Think Walt Disney, Arnold Beckman, Donald Bren, Donald Koll, Henry Samueli.

It has been OC's ability to offer the ambitious an alternative to Los Angeles that was key, argues Christopher Thornberg, a senior economist at The Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Orange County grew rich because Orange County attracted the educated," Thornberg said. "When you attract the educated and successful, your economy becomes rich. That's the game that all areas are trying to play."

Take Beckman, the recently deceased founder of what's now Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc. He started the medical diagnostic and research company in Pasadena before making the move south to Fullerton in 1954.

And The Irvine Company's Bren, OC's richest person, grew up in Beverly Hills before launching his real estate career with Mission Viejo Co.

It wasn't simply the drive of these people but the types of companies...