(2 of 2)
One might assume that Rancho Santa Fe residents are stunned and horrified by the events in the house on Colina Norte, and of course they are. They are even more appalled by the media locusts lurking behind every bougainvillea. And as soon as the residents learned that the suicide victims were only renters, not property owners, they started asking questions of their own in answer to media inquiries. Such as: How did 39 people get to rent a house that's zoned for a single family? How could the cybercult operate its Higher Source computer service without a business permit? This in a private residence that by definition cannot be used as a business in the first place. This in a community where property owners cannot paint the exterior of their homes without approval of an "Art Jury."
These are the burning questions on the minds of Ranch folks as they flee correspondents using the mass suicide to write oxymoronic treatises on "California Culture." So when the sheriff released the video of all those corpses in Nike sneakers, the peevish locals said, "Well, you know Nike's slogan, don't you? Just do it."
The events on Colina Norte have already lost their resonance in Rancho Santa Fe, at least among frazzled residents who look upon the bizarre incident as an aberration that has nothing to do with them. The only question homeowners are asking themselves these days is: When the hell are all these people leaving?
JOSEPH WAMBAUGH, whose latest novel, Floaters, will be published in paperback next week, is a former resident of Rancho Santa Fe.