OC INSIDER
Sign of the Times: It’s the Times Orange County (top) no more, as the Los Angeles Times has made a sign change (bottom) to its Costa Mesa building. Curious eyes remain focused on the fate of the “Orange County Edition” atop Times papers sold here.
OC Invades China; Schuller Expanding
Marco Polo, move over: Some local folks are visiting China,700 of them. The group, comprised of Chamber and Rotary members from Santa Ana, Orange, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Garden Grove, Yorba Linda and the Inland Empire, leaves Nov. 8 for a seven-night tour of Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou. The interest is understandable: $1,100 a person covers everything,travel, hotels, meals, tour tickets and tips. The trip has been arranged by Newport Coast businessman Leo Liu, a Chinese native with a travel company, Citslinc International, and connections in the Chinese government. Liu says this isn’t his biggest group,he has twice handled 1,300 tourists,but this will be the biggest business contingent to visit China. If you wish you could go, Liu notes, “I have two trips in March” …
Heaven’s gate: The Rev. Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral is undergoing a $20 million expansion, set to be finished by next March. The “International Center for Possibility Thinking,” a.k.a. hospitality center, will feature a 299-seat performing arts center, grand lobby, gift shop, reservation center and upscale food court. Richard Meier did the four-story design, giving Schuller bragging rights to four famous architects,the cathedral complex also features structures by Philip Johnson, Richard Neutra and Gin Wong. Spokesman John Charles said the project will create “a front door” to the cathedral grounds and comforts for the church’s roughly 750,000 annual visitors …
In town on Oct. 4, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger for a GOP breakfast at Tait & Associates, Santa Ana. In town Oct. 6, California First Lady Sharon Davis, stumping for Dem Congressional candidate Gerri Schipske at Chimayo at the Beach, Huntington Beach …
EE RR and Ms. S are back from a New England weekend. They visited Harvard (without RR suffering an allergic reaction), took in a Red Sox-Blue Jays game at Fenway Park (RR yelled “Go Angels!”), checked out the other Newport coast (R.I.) and joined 4,700 friends of Eva Franchi on her Connecticut estate for the annual concert honoring her late husband/tenor Sergio Franchi.
