Special license plates for AIDS, Reagan lack support

SAN FRANCISCO - Where has all the vanity gone?

Once notorious for their specialized license plates, Californians are balking when it comes to campaigns for new tags supporting AIDS research and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

In fact, there's so little interest, it appears the two proposed vanity plates won't be minted at all.

The state will not give the green light unless 5,000 people apply for a proposed plate. That threshold will rise to 7,500 next year, after highway patrol officers complained that the graphics make tag numbers to read.

California drivers have bought 227,188 special-interest plates since the option became available in 1992, Department of Motor Vehicles officials said. The cost is $50 per plate, plus a $40 annual renewal fee.

Proceeds from the eight designs have benefited everything from Yosemite to fire fighters. The last new plate, for the Coastal Conservancy, was added in 1997.

Since 1999, activists have worked to gain support for a plate bearing the red AIDS ribbon. The campaign got a high-profile kickoff from actress Jamie Lee Curtis, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker. But sales have been sluggish.

Proceeds from the plates were to have supported research at the University of California. But U.C. has started issuing refunds to people who have already ponied up for plates they apparently won't ever get.

Promoters of a license plate to benefit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation have generated a mere 1,000 applications.

''It does appear to me the novelty of the idea does seem to be wearing thin,'' said Bill Cather, DMV assistant director of legislation.

That's not what AIDS activists expected.

''When we set out, we thought it would be a slam dunk. When we saw how poorly the sales were doing, it was a real shocker,'' said Brenda Patterson, project coordinator for the University of California at San Francisco.

Patterson said she thought some potential applicants were reluctant to tag their cars with anything AIDS related.

Not to be deterred, several groups are gathering applications for new special-interest plates. Among them, the Girl Scouts, Rotary International and Cure Breast Cancer Inc.

With history as a guide, the breast cancer campaign will not leave its success to chance. Organizers said they have enlisted several companies to purchase the plates for their vehicle fleets.