Orange County Was Not Immune to the 1960s

Photographs and Memories Reveal the Darker Side of a Symbol of Postwar Suburban Order

The Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California bills itself as “the first great metropolitan park of the 21st century,” but until recently it was the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The base was commissioned in 1943 and served as an airport for President Richard Nixon as he shuttled between the Western White House and Washington, D.C. After El Toro was decommissioned in 1999, the site was dormant for years. Then, after a long and contentious debate, voters approved a plan to create the Great Park. In 2011, I …

by Deborah Aschheim | July 22, 2014

A SoCal City Born on the Fourth of July

We Can Thank Independence Day For Making Huntington Beach What It Is Today

by Chris Epting | July 3, 2014

The Fourth of July is a cherished celebration across our country. But in the Orange County city of Huntington Beach, it’s even more important. The holiday helped make the town …

Los Alamitos Race Course In All Its Decaying Glory

Kentucky Derby Winner California Chrome’s Home Track Is Where a Suburban Kid Fell for a Rough-and-Tumble Pastime

by Jeff Adkison | May 3, 2014

Sometimes a thing so special needs to be approached slowly, in small steps that get closer over time.

I grew up a few short miles from Los Alamitos Race Course in …

Irvine, I Love You

My Hometown May Be Sterile and Boring, But It Made Me Hungry to Experience the Wider World

by Tiffany Ujiiye | April 1, 2014

I am Irvine.

I grew up in Westpark, the neighborhood between Culver and Warner avenues a few miles north of where the 5 and 405 freeways meet. My first-grade classroom and …

Segerstrom Center for the Arts President Terrence W. Dwyer

They Call Me Buffalo

March 3, 2014

Terrence W. Dwyer has been president of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California since 2006. Before participating in a panel on whether the arts make us …

Can SoCal’s Most Reluctant Patients Get Preventive Healthcare?

Try Speaking Their Language. And If You Build a Health Fair, They Just Might Come.

by Anderson Nguyen | February 3, 2014

I met Mr. Pham two years ago as he sat in line at a health fair in Garden Grove and anxiously tapped his feet. I was a volunteer that day, …

Get More Zócalo