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Orange County

California

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Huntington Beach in Orange County in Southern California.

©Hiroyuki Matsumoto/Getty Images

Overview

LA and Orange County are the closest of neighbors, but in some ways they couldn't be more different. If LA is about stars, the OC is about surfers. LA: ever more urban, OC: proudly suburban, built around cars, freeways and shopping malls. If LA is SoCal's seat of liberal thinking, the OC's heritage is of megachurches and ultraconservative firebrands. If LA is Hollywood glam, the OC is Real Housewives.

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