Challenges as Steep as the Matterhorn : * Anaheim Must Now Address Needs of Its Citizens as Well as It Has Disneyland’s

Perhaps nowhere else in California is the contrast between grit and glitz as stark as in Anaheim, as a series of Times articles outlined last week.

At one extreme, according to a Times Orange County Poll, an overwhelming 89% of the city’s residents say gangs and violent crime are a problem. At the other extreme is the forever nostalgic Disneyland, of which residents are fiercely proud. Indeed, strolling down Main Street--as 59% of the city’s residents have done during the past year--urban problems must seem a galaxy away.

But back in the real world, the city is standing on the brink of even greater changes than the ones it underwent when Mickey Mouse took up residence 37 years ago. This is no time for nostalgia. City residents and leaders need to sharpen their responses to the problems and promises of the future.

For example, a proposed $3-billion expansion of Disneyland will require clear thinking so that the best possible agreements can be negotiated for Anaheim. True, three-fourths of the city’s residents favor the expansion, and 60% support a proposal that the city spend $500 million on two parking garages in the Disneyland area. But residents also want city officials to represent their interests. For example, more than half support an admissions tax on Anaheim sports and entertainment facilities--a proposal that Disneyland officials say could nix the proposal for expansion.

Residents are fully aware that city officials are subjected to enormous pressures from the city’s prestigious tenants. More than two-thirds, for example, say they believe city leaders are influenced “a lot” by Disneyland and about half say developers and the Angels and Rams sports teams have a heavy influence on city politics.

To counterbalance this, residents say they would support a limit of two terms for council members and imposition of $1,000-per-election-cycle limits on campaign contributions. Most would also favor district instead of at-large elections, which could broaden the City Council’s ethnic representation. These ideas deserve a full debate. But one thing is clear: Residents want better representation.

With the proposed expansion of Disneyland, the completion of a new sports arena and other major new civic and business projects on the horizon, Orange County’s best-known city is facing yet another quantum leap into Tomorrowland. Failure to address the challenges this growth presents could aggravate the urban problems Anaheim now faces, and place it increasingly in contrast with Disneyland’s cobbled streets.