Urban transitions - The time may have come for a Manhattan lifestyle in Orange County.

Todd Nelson savors the memory of last Christmas Eve. He was sitting on his balcony, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper, as a fire truck rumbled up the street, its sirens blaring.

Gone were quiet nights. Gone was floating on his back in a swimming pool, staring at the night sky filled with stars from his three-story house in the North Tustin hills.

But Nelson wouldn't change a thing about his new life in a Santa Ana loft, where he has less privacy but also a greater sense of community than in the suburbs.
More here