FOOLISH FEARS; CENTRAL VALLEY TO BE AN L.A.? IT'S A DELUSION OF GRANDEUR.

Byline: Virginia Brooks

TO columnist Peter H. King and those folks who are fearful that the Central Valley will become another L.A., I say: Fat chance, not to worry.

The chances of any other place in the world being able to brew up the tantalizing elixir served up to all in Los Angeles - enviable weather, interesting population mix, luxuriant landscaping, cultural places and happenings, and a fast-paced atmosphere - are as slim as finding Saddam Hussein's footprints in the concrete outside Mann's Chinese Theatre.

Laced together by miles of freeways and overlaid by a patina of glamour spread by the movie and television industries, L.A. is a special place, not only to its citizens but also to people throughout the country and the world.

Yes, there is heavy traffic. Traffic occasioned by people in a hurry to get to jobs, entertainment centers and visits with friends and relatives. People on the go. And who knows, perhaps some of the cars are driven by residents who have moved to more laid-back places but, realizing they have made a mistake, are returning to the metro-Lorelei that is Los Angeles.

King complains about the ``polyglot population that sometimes makes Los Angeles seem like a dozen foreign cities lashed together as one.'' It is this spectrum of ethnic groups that helps make our city the fascinating place it is. Once, when touring China, I realized that all the faces looked alike. I missed the colors of the checkerboard of exotic faces that make up the complexion of L.A.'s population.

Our proximity to the Pacific Ocean adds an allure of its own. To take a dip in its cooling waves on a hot day or to gaze across the shimmering blue to those faraway places soothes the body and stirs the imagination.

The population is growing so fast that I want to call out: Stay where you are. Don't come! Yet it would be selfish of me to deny others the pleasures and opportunities that await them in L.A.

Many years ago I visited Los Angeles with friends. The adults in the group went home saying it's a nice place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there.

I parroted that philosophy until one bitterly cold day in my hometown of Wichita, Kan., when I was about to enter college. It dawned on me then that I would like to live in Los Angeles. As soon as I had acknowledged this desire, I was on my way, bypassing Berkeley and Stanford and choosing UCLA because it was in Los Angeles.

I never looked back, returning to my former hometown only for visits and funerals. True, the errands of my life - marriage, children, teaching - could have been followed elsewhere. But living in L.A. has added a dimension of excitement not available anywhere else and certainly not in the Great Central Valley or other ``regions facing appointments with the growth machine,'' as King words it.

As for the negatives: Yes, there are some. But people problems are found in even small communities in other states: school shootings in Michigan, abortion clinic bombings in the Midwest. Deadly family feuds ending in murder and suicide unfortunately happen in many cities as well as our town.

As for earthquakes, one has only to watch the other natural disasters on television that are threatening lives and destroying property in every part of the United States to feel lucky by comparison. If I were forced to make a choice, believe me, it wouldn't be to live in some other place where nature puts a pox on the environment with tornadoes, floods or hurricanes.

Los Angeles didn't just grow out of urban sprawl but because it had so many good things going for it: location, energetic dwellers and blessings of nature. Its parts make up the strength of its whole. We Angelenos came here as though attracted by a magnet. It was a positive thing.

Subdivisions that are growing because of their new arrivals' desire to escape situations in our metropolis are more to be pitied than encouraged.

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