Celebrating 20 years at OC Register

Orange County Register business columnist Jon Lansner is celebrating 20 years at the newspaper, and as part of the commemoration he wrote about the top 20 news events that have happened in the area during that time period.

Lansner, former president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, wrote, “It’s enough time to watch local bosses create a half million jobs, even after axing scores in the early 1990s. Or to observe O.C. home prices grow five-fold, despite a horrific 1990s tumble tied to those job cuts.

“In the past two decades, I’ve marveled as a Register business journalist – reporter, editor and for the past nine-plus years as columnist – at this town’s uncanny ability to stay ahead of the pack.

“It’s a break-the-rules mind-set that created breakthroughs in technology, housing, finance and branding. It’s also an edgy culture that too frequently steps over the line.

“Anybody forget our colorful frauds? Or our county’s bankruptcy?

“To look back over my days in The O.C. – what amounts to a generation of commerce – I’ve cobbled together a list of the 20 most intriguing business stories, which I’ll count down to my No. 1.

“My rankings aren’t based solely on any sense of importance or an event’s impact on the business world, here or afar. These are the stories that appealed to my own curious sense of business evolution: Actions that captured Orange County’s entrepreneurial essence – for better or worse.”

Read more here. No. 1 is the Lincoln Savings & Loan fiasco.