Sensing a thaw in the cold war between LA and OC

Shawn Hubler writes in her Orange Coast magazine column that she senses more openness toward Orange County from her Los Angeles friends, if not necessarily the other way.

For one thing, it’s now the one place in Southern California where you can attend a baseball game without a police escort. Plus, Orange County has great public television—something L.A. can’t say since KCET Channel 28 stopped carrying PBS programs and sold its studio to Scientologists. Who knew my friend’s beloved “NewsHour” one day would be brought to him from behind the Orange Curtain? Such developments are making him rethink all sorts of assumptions. Maybe O.C. is more public spirited than the People’s Republic of Santa Monica imagines.

“I hate to say it,” he admitted, “but maybe I was prejudiced.”

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The problem is, things change here, sometimes right out from under you. You might go on vacation and come home to a whole new stereotype. Get off at the wrong exit and discover that Greater Los Angeles is way past ’60s political correctness, and O.C. is way more about tech than conservative wingnuts.