Apathy on the Pacific Exchange.

When there was talk recently of moving the New York Stock Exchange to New Jersey, it caused near panic among city politicians, who realized that a large portion of Manhattan's economy is tied to Wall Street.

As a result, the city of New York recently offered to put up the largest subsidy package in its history, with the city and state laying out $560 million to build a new 60-story office tower and state-of-the-art trading floor.

Meanwhile, as it becomes increasingly apparent that the days of the Pacific Exchange in downtown L.A. are numbered, it is impossible to detect similar urgency - or urgency of any kind.

In many parts of town, in fact, it's hard to find people who even know that the Pacific Stock Exchange exists.

"(The exchange) is viewed as a dinosaur," said one City Hall official. "While there are concerns about a loss of prestige, L.A.'s economy is so diverse now that there really wouldn't be much of an impact to the economy."

Indeed, far from being upset about the potential closure of the exchange, some of the brokers who work there seem relieved.

"(Closing the exchange) would be nice," said Briant Patterson, a 10-year veteran floor broker with the Seidler Cos. Inc., who commutes from South Orange County. "So many people here live so far away. (off-site trading) would certainly make life more convenient."

At City Hall, there is no movement underway to prevent the exchange from closing. Mayor Richard Riordan declined comment. Dan Margolis, spokesman for the mayor's business-retention team, said the future of the exchange is too unclear for the mayor to take any kind of position at this point.

It's hard to blame Riordan for his lack of involvement. To most Angelenos, the big white stock exchange building situated just west of the Harbor (110) Freeway opposite Bunker Hill is one of the city's many mysteries.

"Whatever they do there, I guess they do it very, early in the morning, like at 4 in the morning," said veteran downtown bike messenger Sean Lawson. "I've been a messenger here for seven years, and I think I've been in that building once. I don't even know what its address is."

The future of the exchange's equity trading floor in Los Angeles has been in doubt for years. With the recent collapse of merger talks between the exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, plans to establish an electronic trading system are likely to speed up. The exchange is almost certain to go virtual, with traders buying and selling stocks from computers located all over Southern California. Advances in technology eliminate the need for a physical headquarters.

"Our lease on this building goes through 2001, so I don't think we'll be moving before that," said Dan Turner, president of Rubicon Securities and a 17-year veteran of the trading floor. "But beyond that, I think the whole idea of bricks and mortar has to be re-evaluated. If trading would be more efficient without a trading floor, it should be considered. As far as I'm concerned, there is no reason you couldn't be a specialist on the Pacific Stock Exchange even if you were in Bangkok, Thailand - or anywhere else for that matter."

While closing the exchange would have little impact on Los Angeles, it would constitute a far more serious blow to its headquarters in San Francisco.

The exchange has around 100 employees in Los Angeles, mostly technical support staff and secretaries, compared with around 400 in San Francisco. There are only a little over 100 traders operating on the Los Angeles trading floor, compared with over 1,800 in San Francisco. If the trading floor did close, most of those local professionals would simply conduct business from the offices of brokerages throughout the city.

"We would retain all our people," said Lyne Reitnouer, a partner at Crowell Weedon & Co., echoing the sentiments of other brokerages,

Unlike many of the major corporations based in downtown Los Angeles, and even out-of-town companies with a big presence in the city, the Pacific Exchange has a low profile when it comes to charity and other civic activities.

Other than being a member of the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce and running a stock market competition for high school kids, the exchange's philanthropy has been mostly limited to holiday season toy drives and participation in some Red Cross events.

"The companies like Atlantic Richfield and Bank of America that have actively been involved in the community have done it for reasons of affecting public policy, for corporate citizenship and for solid business reasons," said Ezunial Butts, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. "But the exchange has a different marketing program, so they have not been players to that extent."

Burts also conceded that except for a loss of prestige, the economic impact of closing the trading floor would be minimal.

"Five or 10 years ago, the impact would have been much greater," he said. "But today the availability of replacement activity (such as trading electronically) is much greater."

In other cities such as New York, London and Hong Kong, stock exchanges have become hubs of vibrant financial districts. Even in San Francisco, the Pacific Exchange remains the centerpiece of that city's business community.

Not so in Los Angeles. Of the roughly 280 brokerages that are members of the exchange, less than 20 have offices in Los Angeles. And a number of them already trade from more remote locations around Southern California.

It's a far cry from 40 or 50 years ago when Spring Street, in the heart of downtown, was the center of what was then the biggest financial community on the West Coast. Besides boasting the ornately designed stock exchange building and various brokerage houses, the street was home to a slew of now-defunct banks, such as United California Bank and First Western Bank.

Back during Spring Street's glory days, stock exchange employees frequented such favorites as the Stock Market Club, the Bond Club or Cole's PE Buffet.

"There used to be a lot of camaraderie, a lot of interplay," said Reitnouer, who has been on the local investment scene for around 30 years. "Spring Street was winding down by the early 1970s, By the 1980s, most of that was gone. Now the whole investment community is fractured throughout the city." And in 1986, the exchange moved to its present location, creating further erosion.

Because the Pacific Exchange trades on the same schedule as the market in New York, employees of the L.A. trading floor are usually at their desks well before dawn and on the way home by mid-afternoon. If they do decide to venture to a downtown restaurant or store, they have to pay for parking or walk a circuitous route over the Harbor Freeway, then take their chances going through a graffiti-scarred underpass.

Even at the Harbor Restaurant, which is in the basement of the Bank of America building adjacent to the stock exchange, traders rarely show up.

"We get some in the morning when we open. And we do maybe two or three catering jobs a month," said restaurant manager Linda Farmer. "I'd say less than 5 percent of our business comes from the exchange."

About the biggest question looming over the exchange's probable closure is what to do with the building. With eight floors of parking topped by the trading floor and a few offices, finding a new tenant would be difficult, real estate brokers say.

Some have suggested the building should be torn down and redeveloped as a retail-office complex that might be more beneficial to the surrounding neighborhood.

Lina Fafard, search director for Torrance-based executive search firm Montgomery West, who has done recruiting for online stock trading firms, had a more novel idea. "I think they should turn it into a museum," she said.