Monday, Jul. 06, 1987

Franchised Countryside

Your article on megacounties, the fast-growing, sprawling suburbs ((NATION, June 15)), failed to highlight one of the most frightening aspects of these neo-urban communities: their stultifying similarity to one another. With their flashy office buildings and cookie-cutter shopping malls, bars and theme restaurants, megacounties like Orange County, Calif., and Johnson County, Kans., are not only interchangeable, they are indistinguishable. I despair to think of a generation whose idea of local color is watering holes such as Houlihan's or TGI Friday's.

David Greusel

St. Louis

You only touched the surface when you discussed "radical polarization" occurring in America's boomtowns. I can tell you that Orange County, Calif., epitomizes a community that harks back to old-style bigotry. Not only do the majority of residents practice discrimination against blacks, Jews, homosexuals and Hispanics, they believe in it. Unlike most California cities, Orange County is in a time warp. Its residents are living behind the Orange Curtain.

Leonard Barozzini

Los Angeles

I expect to observe a flight from megacounties as people begin to reflect on the quality of life there. I am a refugee from the highly touted San Diego megacounty, and I left because I disliked the air, noise, traffic, crime and stress of living with 2.2 million other people. I moved to a town of about 300 residents, where I live on 67 acres of land, which includes a barn and a pond teeming with bass and bluegill. To the person who claims life in Southern California is "like being on vacation except you get to live here," I say small-town life is better yet: like being retired, except you get to go to work.

James R. Johnson

Centertown, Mo.