If somehow you typed in www.SCVTalk.com to see the Daily Brief and ended up here, my apologies!
I'm now blogging at SantaClarita.com, at the following address: http://www.santaclarita.com/blog/ . Add that to your bookmarks, or use the site's RSS feed here.
NotesfromNewhall will continue to be around and I'll post here occasionally, but the Daily Brief and other Santa Clarita-specific content will be found at SantaClarita.com/blog
Thanks for sticking around all these years and amid these changes. I hope to see you -and your comments!- at SCVTalk's new home.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Shop SCV campaign goes to the next level; John Boston groans
The Signal, in concert with Westfield (and probably the City) have rolled out a new video campaign, hosted by a perky, pretty Valencian who highlights all the fashionable shopping Westfield Mall has to offer in videos done up in the style of a TLC reality show.
Really, it's kind of wild. No embeds are possible, but here's a screenshot and a link, go watch for yourself in case you haven't seen it on any of the standard social media coordinates:
If the various Shop SCV/Think SCV campaigns told you where you should spend your money, this new ad campaign shows you how fun it is to spend your money at Westfield. Gone are the lame 40 foot long bus decals, in is the perky, upbeat, fashionable, sexy and a bit flirtatious Nikki Phillippi, who uses the word "cute" in just about every sentence.
The fast zooms, odd camera angles, Extra,Extra! soundtrack and Nikki all make for a pretty compelling shop local package. You see, you too can be like Nikki, even though you live way out here in the sticks in Santa Clarita. Nikki is young, hip and fashionable and doesn't need to go to Northridge Fashion Center or Topanga Plaza to get her threads when there's plenty of cute spring and summer fashions right here in Valencia.
"I love to shop at the mall, and we've got a great one here in Santa Clarita," she says excitedly.
This is a campaign that directly targets what Westfield, the Signal, and the City think (hope) will be its primary customers/tax generators as we "infill" under OVOV and recover from the housing bust: young, fashionable women & moms who live in Valencia. It's a campaign that's trying to elevate Santa Clarita to the likes of say, a Woodland Hills or a Burbank, instead of a town surrounded by horse ranches, ridge-line destroying suburban sprawl, William Mulholland's greatest failure, and a truck stop in Castaic. You may think old Valencia is feeling kind of tired these days, filled with empty-nesters, Tea Party types, renters, and short sales, but it's not! It's a fashion center for the young, just like Silver Lake. Nikki likes it!
Also in the video is Nikki's husband, whose name I tried but could never catch. He looks like your typical SCV twenty-something, wearing a sports team shirt and tagging along with his wife and offering his opinion on her clothes, and even trying some on to her delight. I can only hope the producers make another series targeting 20 something SCV males, who will find that the SCV offers plenty of places to shop for raised-truck accessories, sports jerseys, and Monster energy drink decals. There's no reason to go out of the valley for those items!
On a side note: Ten years ago, John Boston, the SCV's official folklorist/old time/story-teller type, described for LA Magazine how he thought the SCV had struck a proper balance between its horse ranching/hog raising/cowboy ways and that of suburbia:
Nikki Phillippi is more than just an ad campaign you see; she is the fulfillment of all the Jeremiahs like John Boston who have been warning us for decades that we were destroying the SCV, bit by bit, development by development. Now, in 2013, and with the ultra-cute and hip Nikki Phillippi, the cycle is complete. We are all living in John Boston's personal dystopia.
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Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
Really, it's kind of wild. No embeds are possible, but here's a screenshot and a link, go watch for yourself in case you haven't seen it on any of the standard social media coordinates:
If the various Shop SCV/Think SCV campaigns told you where you should spend your money, this new ad campaign shows you how fun it is to spend your money at Westfield. Gone are the lame 40 foot long bus decals, in is the perky, upbeat, fashionable, sexy and a bit flirtatious Nikki Phillippi, who uses the word "cute" in just about every sentence.
The fast zooms, odd camera angles, Extra,Extra! soundtrack and Nikki all make for a pretty compelling shop local package. You see, you too can be like Nikki, even though you live way out here in the sticks in Santa Clarita. Nikki is young, hip and fashionable and doesn't need to go to Northridge Fashion Center or Topanga Plaza to get her threads when there's plenty of cute spring and summer fashions right here in Valencia.
"I love to shop at the mall, and we've got a great one here in Santa Clarita," she says excitedly.
This is a campaign that directly targets what Westfield, the Signal, and the City think (hope) will be its primary customers/tax generators as we "infill" under OVOV and recover from the housing bust: young, fashionable women & moms who live in Valencia. It's a campaign that's trying to elevate Santa Clarita to the likes of say, a Woodland Hills or a Burbank, instead of a town surrounded by horse ranches, ridge-line destroying suburban sprawl, William Mulholland's greatest failure, and a truck stop in Castaic. You may think old Valencia is feeling kind of tired these days, filled with empty-nesters, Tea Party types, renters, and short sales, but it's not! It's a fashion center for the young, just like Silver Lake. Nikki likes it!
Also in the video is Nikki's husband, whose name I tried but could never catch. He looks like your typical SCV twenty-something, wearing a sports team shirt and tagging along with his wife and offering his opinion on her clothes, and even trying some on to her delight. I can only hope the producers make another series targeting 20 something SCV males, who will find that the SCV offers plenty of places to shop for raised-truck accessories, sports jerseys, and Monster energy drink decals. There's no reason to go out of the valley for those items!
On a side note: Ten years ago, John Boston, the SCV's official folklorist/old time/story-teller type, described for LA Magazine how he thought the SCV had struck a proper balance between its horse ranching/hog raising/cowboy ways and that of suburbia:
Nikki Phillippi is more than just an ad campaign you see; she is the fulfillment of all the Jeremiahs like John Boston who have been warning us for decades that we were destroying the SCV, bit by bit, development by development. Now, in 2013, and with the ultra-cute and hip Nikki Phillippi, the cycle is complete. We are all living in John Boston's personal dystopia.
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Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
As for Me and My House,we will vote Frank Ferry
Much digital ink has been spilled and angst/joy/sadness is high in the SCV with the announcement that Frank Ferry will not seek another term on the City Council in 2014. The Haters are quite happy:
City haters are gonna hate, but let's not gloss over the fact that Ferry upset and offended a lot of people during his 16 years on the City Council. He bullied at times, seemed to enjoy political combat, and was very aggressive when it came to elections. He did a drive-by on Kevin Korenthal in 2010 and called some residents "developmental terrorists." Yes he manipulated the press and tried to suppress crime reporting, and he had a peculiar penchant for picking on parlors of the massage, tattoo & tanning variety. He appointed friends to committee positions and all but gave us Laurie Ender. For the longest time, I disliked him for joking about Hart High's name, even as the Indians routinely laid waste to his uppity Vikings on the grid iron during the late 90s/early 00s glory days.
No denying it, Frank Ferry could be an asshole.
And yet, assholes get things done, do they not? Here's what I liked about Frank Ferry:
Ferry was the first real City Council representative of people like my parents. He was not an old-timer SCV resident, he was not here when the City founders took control, or when the Creekside Target was an onion field or the Granary Square was the home to an airport. He didn't remember a time before Valencia and wasn't around when City founders were trying to split off the northern half of LA County. He didn't major in Animal Husbandry or grow up on a ranch in the canyons around here.
Nope, Ferry wasn't saddled with any of that nostalgic baggage. He was just like my parents and tens of thousands of other parents: he moved to a master-planned community because of good schools and low crime.
And he knew exactly what he wanted out of this community. And the young City of Santa Clarita wasn't providing it. Recall this great passage from a 2002 interview with Ferry about Valencia & the now-defunct Cafe Melisse:
Conversely, if you were born in the SCV, or spent your formative years on horseback in our canyons or on ranches & farms, you saw Ferry as a threat. He was the representative of everything you loathed about what the SCV was becoming during those boom years. You didn't take kindly to this newcomer's tamperin' with the valley's character.
So yes, there is some truth to the characterization of Ferry as polarizing. He was. He represented the new, which was necessarily in conflict with the old.
The other thing I liked about Frank Ferry was his fearlessness. Who can forget when he dressed down the Tea Party dolts who pounded the lectern at City Hall in the wake of Kellar's Proud Racist-gate? They quoted Reagan to him; he told them he had volunteered on Reagan's campaign in 1984. They demanded the City crack down on illegal immigration & day laborers somehow; he talked of his Catholic values and the dignity of all humans. He stood up to the know-nothings and even criticized Kellar, when no one else on the council dared.
He wasn't afraid of punching other Republicans in other words. Kind of like that other bombastic Republican politician with an alliterative name, Chris Christie. He was the SCV's own Chris Christie.
Finally, Ferry was fiercely loyal to and defensive of the City staff. Nothing got him more angry than criticism of the City Staff, whether it was justified or not. He was TimBen's nemesis in this respect. I liked that about him; he stood by the decisions of the Council and defended the staff, who more or less can't defend themselves publicly.
I'll miss Ferry and I wonder what it says about the SCV that both he and his hand-picked successor Laurie Ender will no longer be on the Council. Have much of Frank Ferry's constituents raised their families here and moved away, as he appears to be doing? Is the era of real growth over? Are our schools going to inevitably shrink?
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Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
City haters are gonna hate, but let's not gloss over the fact that Ferry upset and offended a lot of people during his 16 years on the City Council. He bullied at times, seemed to enjoy political combat, and was very aggressive when it came to elections. He did a drive-by on Kevin Korenthal in 2010 and called some residents "developmental terrorists." Yes he manipulated the press and tried to suppress crime reporting, and he had a peculiar penchant for picking on parlors of the massage, tattoo & tanning variety. He appointed friends to committee positions and all but gave us Laurie Ender. For the longest time, I disliked him for joking about Hart High's name, even as the Indians routinely laid waste to his uppity Vikings on the grid iron during the late 90s/early 00s glory days.
No denying it, Frank Ferry could be an asshole.
And yet, assholes get things done, do they not? Here's what I liked about Frank Ferry:
Ferry was the first real City Council representative of people like my parents. He was not an old-timer SCV resident, he was not here when the City founders took control, or when the Creekside Target was an onion field or the Granary Square was the home to an airport. He didn't remember a time before Valencia and wasn't around when City founders were trying to split off the northern half of LA County. He didn't major in Animal Husbandry or grow up on a ranch in the canyons around here.
Nope, Ferry wasn't saddled with any of that nostalgic baggage. He was just like my parents and tens of thousands of other parents: he moved to a master-planned community because of good schools and low crime.
And he knew exactly what he wanted out of this community. And the young City of Santa Clarita wasn't providing it. Recall this great passage from a 2002 interview with Ferry about Valencia & the now-defunct Cafe Melisse:
Like most of his constituents, Ferry is from somewhere else- in his case the San Fernando Valley, which he left ten years ago to start a family and teach high school.
"You're in a community that has grown 40 percent in the last ten years," Ferry told me one afternoon in his office, which sits across the street from the Newhall Land offices and is staffed by a former government student of Ferry's.So, if you were among the tens of thousands who moved to the SCV in the 80s/90s/00s because of schools and low crime, Ferry was your guy. He understood you and your family, your motivation for moving here. He understood you wanted a family friendly community and once he was elected, he almost single-handedly pushed the City in that direction. What followed was a building spree of parks, community centers, skate facilities and more, all focused on serving the SCV's growing youth population.
...
"I was part of that influx that came from somewhere else. Yet when I looked at the City Council, the demographics there didn't represent my family. There were people in city government who had lived here for thirty yeaers before I came. Some were into slowing growth. Other people wanted to spend more money preserving open space and on historical preservation. Who was fighting for my interests? I'm saying you can't build parks fast enough, teen centers, skate parks, more roads. The council was completely out of touch."
Conversely, if you were born in the SCV, or spent your formative years on horseback in our canyons or on ranches & farms, you saw Ferry as a threat. He was the representative of everything you loathed about what the SCV was becoming during those boom years. You didn't take kindly to this newcomer's tamperin' with the valley's character.
So yes, there is some truth to the characterization of Ferry as polarizing. He was. He represented the new, which was necessarily in conflict with the old.
The other thing I liked about Frank Ferry was his fearlessness. Who can forget when he dressed down the Tea Party dolts who pounded the lectern at City Hall in the wake of Kellar's Proud Racist-gate? They quoted Reagan to him; he told them he had volunteered on Reagan's campaign in 1984. They demanded the City crack down on illegal immigration & day laborers somehow; he talked of his Catholic values and the dignity of all humans. He stood up to the know-nothings and even criticized Kellar, when no one else on the council dared.
He wasn't afraid of punching other Republicans in other words. Kind of like that other bombastic Republican politician with an alliterative name, Chris Christie. He was the SCV's own Chris Christie.
Finally, Ferry was fiercely loyal to and defensive of the City staff. Nothing got him more angry than criticism of the City Staff, whether it was justified or not. He was TimBen's nemesis in this respect. I liked that about him; he stood by the decisions of the Council and defended the staff, who more or less can't defend themselves publicly.
I'll miss Ferry and I wonder what it says about the SCV that both he and his hand-picked successor Laurie Ender will no longer be on the Council. Have much of Frank Ferry's constituents raised their families here and moved away, as he appears to be doing? Is the era of real growth over? Are our schools going to inevitably shrink?
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Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
Friday, January 25, 2013
College of the Canyons Spring Speaker Series
I like the College of the Canyons is hosting more talks and lectures that are open to the public. It's not TED, but really, this is some great stuff. And it's free!
If science isn't your thing, you can always head over the hill to CSUN, where former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis is giving a talk next month on the 2012 election and its effects:
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The Spring 2013 Speaker Series begins at 7:00 pm and will feature:
February 26, 2013 - Dr. Michael Sailor, UCSD Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
"Harnessing the Photonic Properties of Silicon Nanostructures for Biomaterials Applications"
March 5, 2013 - Mr. Matthew Wallace, JPL
"Mars Curiosity Mission"
March 26, 2013 - Dr. Dan Lubin, UCSD Scipps Institution of Oceanography
"The Sun and Global Climate Change"
April 16, 2013 - Dr. Richard Squires, CSUN Department of Geological Sciences
"Fossil Treasures of Santa Clarita Valley"
April 23, 2013 - Dr. J. David Jentsch, UCLA Department of Psychology
"Reward, Interrupted: Inhibitory Control and its Relevance to Addictions"
If science isn't your thing, you can always head over the hill to CSUN, where former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis is giving a talk next month on the 2012 election and its effects:
A Conversation with Governor Michael Dukakis
Tuesday Feb 19th, 2013 - Tuesday Feb 19th, 2013
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM - Grand Salon, University Student Union
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM - Grand Salon, University Student Union
A Conversation with Governor Michael Dukakis
The 2012 Election Results - What it Means for Governing in 2013 and Beyond
Michael Dukakis was Governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. In 1988 he was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. Since leaving office in 1991, he has been a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University and a Visiting Profsesor in the School of Public Affairs at U.C.L.A.
Reservations are requested. For more information, call 818-677-3488.
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Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Santa Clarita thrived during recession?
I almost spit coffee all over my Samsung phone when I read this gem from our new City Manager who gave a speech to VIA yesterday:
¡Au contraire mon capitan! Are we talking about the same Santa Clarita here? Because I lived here before, during, and after the recession, and I don't remember us thriving from 2008-2011 at all.
Like a lot of Southern California towns, the recession turned our strengths (rapid growth, new housing, lots of new sales tax generation) into weaknesses -albatrosses even!- that dragged our community down. Sure, Santa Clarita is no San Bernardino or Las Vegas or any of the other suburban ghost towns, but this recession hit Santa Clarita hard and exposed our weaknesses.
During the boom years in this town, you could practically throw a stick in any direction and hit a building project. Bridgeport. Northbridge. West Creek, West Ridge, and countless other home developments on the east side of town. The population in and out of the City grew by several thousand each year. Schools were bursting; we couldn't build a new Castaic High fast enough and had to bus children from Castaic to Valencia & West Ridge.
And new retail. Everywhere. From Wal Marts & Sam's Club at Centre Pointe to Town Center Drive and elsewhere. Retail vacancies were very low during the boom years, so low that developers had to build more standard strip malls. The Patios squeaked in just as the recession was beginning.
And let's not forget the City's number one economic engine during those years: auto sales. Creekside was so full of dealers selling new cars to people that auto row spilled out onto Magic Mountain Parkway & Valencia Blvd. The Mercedes Benz dealership opened, followed by a BMW, and a new Honda dealership. We even had a Hummer (remember those?) dealership with a little fake mountain course to impress the soccer moms and dads. We were flush with cash from auto sales.
All of that, from population & housing growth to retail developments to auto sales, was devastated by the recession. Far from thriving, this community got hit hard. Short sales, foreclosures, empty store fronts, office/industrial/retail vacancy rates north of 20%, and a Creekside that was a shadow of its former self, with many dealerships going under and others converting to used car or fleet sales.
The recession exposed the fact that Santa Clarita has very little durable industry and its tax base is only as good as its retail & auto sales, its homes only attractive in so far as gas prices are low. The City probably knew all this going in, but it's an empirical fact now. We did not thrive during the recession. We barely hung on.
Now if Striplin is only talking about the City's financial health, then I'd be more apt to agree. Pulskamp saw what was coming, hit the brakes hard, shored up his finances, and the City sailed through the recession unharmed, and indeed, continued building cool things like the library, Old Town Newhall, the CVC, and other projects. That is something to be proud and happy about, but it's not the full picture of the SCV during and after the recession.
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Saying community engagement has been a hallmark of Santa Clarita, Striplin encouraged residents to remain involved.
“For the last four to five years the economy was in a tough spot,” he said. “Santa Clarita not only survived — it thrived.”
¡Au contraire mon capitan! Are we talking about the same Santa Clarita here? Because I lived here before, during, and after the recession, and I don't remember us thriving from 2008-2011 at all.
Like a lot of Southern California towns, the recession turned our strengths (rapid growth, new housing, lots of new sales tax generation) into weaknesses -albatrosses even!- that dragged our community down. Sure, Santa Clarita is no San Bernardino or Las Vegas or any of the other suburban ghost towns, but this recession hit Santa Clarita hard and exposed our weaknesses.
During the boom years in this town, you could practically throw a stick in any direction and hit a building project. Bridgeport. Northbridge. West Creek, West Ridge, and countless other home developments on the east side of town. The population in and out of the City grew by several thousand each year. Schools were bursting; we couldn't build a new Castaic High fast enough and had to bus children from Castaic to Valencia & West Ridge.
And new retail. Everywhere. From Wal Marts & Sam's Club at Centre Pointe to Town Center Drive and elsewhere. Retail vacancies were very low during the boom years, so low that developers had to build more standard strip malls. The Patios squeaked in just as the recession was beginning.
And let's not forget the City's number one economic engine during those years: auto sales. Creekside was so full of dealers selling new cars to people that auto row spilled out onto Magic Mountain Parkway & Valencia Blvd. The Mercedes Benz dealership opened, followed by a BMW, and a new Honda dealership. We even had a Hummer (remember those?) dealership with a little fake mountain course to impress the soccer moms and dads. We were flush with cash from auto sales.
All of that, from population & housing growth to retail developments to auto sales, was devastated by the recession. Far from thriving, this community got hit hard. Short sales, foreclosures, empty store fronts, office/industrial/retail vacancy rates north of 20%, and a Creekside that was a shadow of its former self, with many dealerships going under and others converting to used car or fleet sales.
The recession exposed the fact that Santa Clarita has very little durable industry and its tax base is only as good as its retail & auto sales, its homes only attractive in so far as gas prices are low. The City probably knew all this going in, but it's an empirical fact now. We did not thrive during the recession. We barely hung on.
Now if Striplin is only talking about the City's financial health, then I'd be more apt to agree. Pulskamp saw what was coming, hit the brakes hard, shored up his finances, and the City sailed through the recession unharmed, and indeed, continued building cool things like the library, Old Town Newhall, the CVC, and other projects. That is something to be proud and happy about, but it's not the full picture of the SCV during and after the recession.
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Monday, January 14, 2013
Wal Mart at the Mall, Part 2
Everyone and their mother is upset about the revived plans to place a Wal Mart neighborhood market grocery store at the Westfield Town Center mall, next to Sears. Jana Adkins at the Signal has a good piece on the infrastructure challenges facing the store and the City's role in approving those changes, but what I'm more interested in is how people are reacting and what it says about our town.
Over at The Signal, the consensus is that a Town Center mall Wal Mart could be the end of our 21 year old mall as we know it. The concerns center around two things: A WalMart doesn't fit the 'character' of the mall and parking would be terrible.
You see the former sentiment now and again in the SCV. Wal Mart, and other down-market retailers, don't fit in with x neighborhood or y shopping center. I think when people say this, they're saying more about how they want the SCV to be than what the SCV actually is. They have an aspirational view of Santa Clarita: they think of it as a smaller Irvine, or a more cozy Anaheim. You know, some place white and upper-middle class, a place trending more toward Nordstrom's than Penny's, more Tar-jay than Wal Mart.
The reality is that the SCV is positively lower and middle class, and any trends toward upper class were probably just fueled by debt during the real estate boom years. Think about furniture stores in the SCV: We're now +5 years since the Great Recession and one of the first things to go bust after the recession hit was high end furniture stores like Ethan Allen.
None of them have returned.
In the meantime, Wal Mart & Target continue to grow, expand, and succeed in the SCV. Even the $0.99 Cent store opened a second store in the SCV post-recession! Hell, the La-Z-Boy store on Pico Canyon is now a Goodwill, and a Goodwill took over another old furniture space on Soledad. And that dumpy K-Mart at Bouquet Junction somehow continues to hang on.
Sorry folks, but this is a Wal Mart community through and through. Sure, we may have an Apple Store (a development I admit thinking would usher in many other high-end retailers), but our mall is pretty standard and run-of-the-mill, with everything from a Macy's and Penny's to Gap, Sears and aggressive kiosk salespeople. It's certainly no Glendale Galleria or even Northridge Fashion Center, let alone the Westfield Topanga.
As for parking, if the Wal Mart goes in, there will be an increase in demand for parking. It's not possible to build more land and the existing lots are already at or near capacity, so supply is limited. When you have a scarce resource that's in high demand, it's only logical to start charging people for it. What's more, we have a captive audience in the SCV, there is no other mall to go to, no one for Westfield to compete with at least in our valley. So, I think people would pay a reasonable $3 per day fee to park close to the mall, something akin to what other big malls in Southern California charge.
Meanwhile, those who don't want to pay can make use of the expanding transit center just across the street or the numerous paseos that intersect that area.
Rather than build an expensive and unsightly new parking garage, Wal Mart at Town Center could be the catalyst that creates the SCV's first large scale pay-parking experiment. Wouldn't that be interesting, if not a little entertaining?
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Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
Over at The Signal, the consensus is that a Town Center mall Wal Mart could be the end of our 21 year old mall as we know it. The concerns center around two things: A WalMart doesn't fit the 'character' of the mall and parking would be terrible.
You see the former sentiment now and again in the SCV. Wal Mart, and other down-market retailers, don't fit in with x neighborhood or y shopping center. I think when people say this, they're saying more about how they want the SCV to be than what the SCV actually is. They have an aspirational view of Santa Clarita: they think of it as a smaller Irvine, or a more cozy Anaheim. You know, some place white and upper-middle class, a place trending more toward Nordstrom's than Penny's, more Tar-jay than Wal Mart.
The reality is that the SCV is positively lower and middle class, and any trends toward upper class were probably just fueled by debt during the real estate boom years. Think about furniture stores in the SCV: We're now +5 years since the Great Recession and one of the first things to go bust after the recession hit was high end furniture stores like Ethan Allen.
None of them have returned.
In the meantime, Wal Mart & Target continue to grow, expand, and succeed in the SCV. Even the $0.99 Cent store opened a second store in the SCV post-recession! Hell, the La-Z-Boy store on Pico Canyon is now a Goodwill, and a Goodwill took over another old furniture space on Soledad. And that dumpy K-Mart at Bouquet Junction somehow continues to hang on.
Sorry folks, but this is a Wal Mart community through and through. Sure, we may have an Apple Store (a development I admit thinking would usher in many other high-end retailers), but our mall is pretty standard and run-of-the-mill, with everything from a Macy's and Penny's to Gap, Sears and aggressive kiosk salespeople. It's certainly no Glendale Galleria or even Northridge Fashion Center, let alone the Westfield Topanga.
As for parking, if the Wal Mart goes in, there will be an increase in demand for parking. It's not possible to build more land and the existing lots are already at or near capacity, so supply is limited. When you have a scarce resource that's in high demand, it's only logical to start charging people for it. What's more, we have a captive audience in the SCV, there is no other mall to go to, no one for Westfield to compete with at least in our valley. So, I think people would pay a reasonable $3 per day fee to park close to the mall, something akin to what other big malls in Southern California charge.
Meanwhile, those who don't want to pay can make use of the expanding transit center just across the street or the numerous paseos that intersect that area.
Rather than build an expensive and unsightly new parking garage, Wal Mart at Town Center could be the catalyst that creates the SCV's first large scale pay-parking experiment. Wouldn't that be interesting, if not a little entertaining?
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Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Explaining my absence
I suppose you're all wondering where I've been...well, the staff and readership of Notes from Newhall/SCVTalk has recently grown by one. Introducing Everett Jeffrey Wilson, born on my birthday nearly three weeks ago:
Everett is a strapping young lad. His turn ons include feedings, the binkie (but only in moderation), a swing (for limited periods of time), being held close, and pot lights in the ceiling, which he finds fascinating. His musical tastes include Mumford and Sons, Seawolves, and Radiohead, though he's shown an interest in Yo Yo Ma recently as well. He has an unfortunate tendency of trying to fly; like when I'm holding him, he'll try to take a dive out of my arms. I'm hoping he'll wise up soon.
I tried to see if Kaiser would birth him at their Santa Clarita Medical offices so that Everett would have some solid SCV cred like our friend I Heart, but alas, he was born in the SCV's nemesis, the SFV, at the Panorma City Medical Center. Weighing in at 8 lbs 14 oz, Everett took his time coming out until he was finally liberated under a skilled surgeon's scalpel His mom is doing well and resting with him now.
Having a baby was probably the most emotional and intensive process I've ever been through, and I wasn't the one who was pregnant. I remember the first time I saw him vividly: my pulse quickened, my breath was caught short, and tears exploded from my wide eyes. I gripped my wife's hand hard, and a joyous giggle escaped my mouth as he took his first breath and let loose with a long cry.
What a rush! Who knew so much emotion could be packed so densely into such a singular, fleeting moment. In an instant, I was a real dad!
And so, for the last three weeks, through recovery and discharge to the first car ride home to learning how to attach the car seat to the stroller to not getting any sleep, I now know what all my friends and family who are parents were talking about. I'd do anything for this kid; he's my flesh and blood, and what's more, he shares my birthday.
As it relates to the SCV, I'm now an authentic and righteous SCV resident because I have a child. No more strange looks from neighbors and colleagues; I'm a bona-fide dad with a kid in a place designed for rearing young 'uns, as Buck McKeon would say. I can finally experience fully the SCV since our DINK status is over.
Usually people move to the SCV because of their children, and then leave once they are empty-nesters. Just look at Tim Myers, who plans to move to a fairer climate next year after his youngest heads off to college. I would seem to be starting off this process with an advantage in that I already live in the SCV and I have a kid, but we'll see how it shakes out in the years ahead. Maybe we'll stay and raise him here, maybe we won't.
As for the blog: Everett takes all my free time now. Between feedings, diaper changes, giving his mom a break, and walking him around in endless circles to get him to calm down, I barely have a free hand to move a mouse around, let alone type out a daily brief or other posts.
So for now, Notes from Newhall is officially suspended. I hope you understand. Maybe in a few months when he has a more regular schedule I'll be able to write again. Maybe I'll fit a post in now and then, but I don't anticipate regular postings for awhile.
Until then, wish me luck, and thank you for reading all these years!
Everett is a strapping young lad. His turn ons include feedings, the binkie (but only in moderation), a swing (for limited periods of time), being held close, and pot lights in the ceiling, which he finds fascinating. His musical tastes include Mumford and Sons, Seawolves, and Radiohead, though he's shown an interest in Yo Yo Ma recently as well. He has an unfortunate tendency of trying to fly; like when I'm holding him, he'll try to take a dive out of my arms. I'm hoping he'll wise up soon.
I tried to see if Kaiser would birth him at their Santa Clarita Medical offices so that Everett would have some solid SCV cred like our friend I Heart, but alas, he was born in the SCV's nemesis, the SFV, at the Panorma City Medical Center. Weighing in at 8 lbs 14 oz, Everett took his time coming out until he was finally liberated under a skilled surgeon's scalpel His mom is doing well and resting with him now.
Having a baby was probably the most emotional and intensive process I've ever been through, and I wasn't the one who was pregnant. I remember the first time I saw him vividly: my pulse quickened, my breath was caught short, and tears exploded from my wide eyes. I gripped my wife's hand hard, and a joyous giggle escaped my mouth as he took his first breath and let loose with a long cry.
What a rush! Who knew so much emotion could be packed so densely into such a singular, fleeting moment. In an instant, I was a real dad!
And so, for the last three weeks, through recovery and discharge to the first car ride home to learning how to attach the car seat to the stroller to not getting any sleep, I now know what all my friends and family who are parents were talking about. I'd do anything for this kid; he's my flesh and blood, and what's more, he shares my birthday.
As it relates to the SCV, I'm now an authentic and righteous SCV resident because I have a child. No more strange looks from neighbors and colleagues; I'm a bona-fide dad with a kid in a place designed for rearing young 'uns, as Buck McKeon would say. I can finally experience fully the SCV since our DINK status is over.
Usually people move to the SCV because of their children, and then leave once they are empty-nesters. Just look at Tim Myers, who plans to move to a fairer climate next year after his youngest heads off to college. I would seem to be starting off this process with an advantage in that I already live in the SCV and I have a kid, but we'll see how it shakes out in the years ahead. Maybe we'll stay and raise him here, maybe we won't.
As for the blog: Everett takes all my free time now. Between feedings, diaper changes, giving his mom a break, and walking him around in endless circles to get him to calm down, I barely have a free hand to move a mouse around, let alone type out a daily brief or other posts.
So for now, Notes from Newhall is officially suspended. I hope you understand. Maybe in a few months when he has a more regular schedule I'll be able to write again. Maybe I'll fit a post in now and then, but I don't anticipate regular postings for awhile.
Until then, wish me luck, and thank you for reading all these years!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Santa Clarita gets Stage Start & Finish in Amgen Tour of California race 2013!
This is great news for the SCV as the Amgen Tour of California announces that Santa Clarita will be home to both a stage finish and start in 2013:
Interestingly, the race will be run from South to North this year, the first time in the history of the race.
The stage from Palmdale to Santa Clarita will take place Tuesday May 14 and riders will leave the SCV on Wednesday May 15. The course, not determined yet, will surely be a brisk one. Just about every route from Palmdale to the SCV is downhill whether it is along Soledad, Sierra Highway, or up through the mountains via Bouquet or San Francisquito. I have ridden all these roads and they are, in my opinion, some world-class cycling routes that are fast and fun, with great scenery, lots of twists and turns, and excellent roads.
That Santa Clarita will be home to a stage stop, rather than just a start, is great news. Our local businesses, hotels, and restaurants will be able to plan for big crowds to stay one or two days in town. Cycling and sports media will set up throughout the SCV to film the big finish, likely to be at Town Center Drive & McBean, and riders, support staff, and media will sleep over in the SCV for the Santa Clarita-Santa Barbara stage the next day. Hell the City may even host a concert, like they tried to do the last time a race had a start/stop stage in the SCV (it got rained out and canceled, not likely to happen in mid May 2013).
This is great news for SCV & cycling fans. We haven't hosted a stage finish and start since 2008.
PRESS RELEASE
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Interestingly, the race will be run from South to North this year, the first time in the history of the race.
The stage from Palmdale to Santa Clarita will take place Tuesday May 14 and riders will leave the SCV on Wednesday May 15. The course, not determined yet, will surely be a brisk one. Just about every route from Palmdale to the SCV is downhill whether it is along Soledad, Sierra Highway, or up through the mountains via Bouquet or San Francisquito. I have ridden all these roads and they are, in my opinion, some world-class cycling routes that are fast and fun, with great scenery, lots of twists and turns, and excellent roads.
That Santa Clarita will be home to a stage stop, rather than just a start, is great news. Our local businesses, hotels, and restaurants will be able to plan for big crowds to stay one or two days in town. Cycling and sports media will set up throughout the SCV to film the big finish, likely to be at Town Center Drive & McBean, and riders, support staff, and media will sleep over in the SCV for the Santa Clarita-Santa Barbara stage the next day. Hell the City may even host a concert, like they tried to do the last time a race had a start/stop stage in the SCV (it got rained out and canceled, not likely to happen in mid May 2013).
This is great news for SCV & cycling fans. We haven't hosted a stage finish and start since 2008.
PRESS RELEASE
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Valley Mobility Summit in SCV
It was a conference that was somewhat under the radar (even on this blog!) but in October, Santa Clarita hosted the Valley Mobility Summit, a meeting of transportation & transit policy makers at the Hyatt in Valencia.
Our own Marsha McLean got a part in the celebratory feel-good video (about 1:44 in):
McLean says the SCV is making "huge changes" with "our current general plan OVOV, and make sure we implement projects we need to be sure we can move people along."
What are those plans? Well, in contrast to the other attendees at the conference, who are creating real alternatives to single person vehicle travel, Santa Clarita, as part of OVOV, will widen roads primarily. Take a look at the OVOV plan -highlighted last week at SCVNews.com- and you'll see the casualty list of Class II bike lanes, more than four of which will be sacrificed for six lane super-roads:
To McLean and others at the City, apparently "Moving people along" means moving them along swiftly in their personal vehicles alone on six lane super-roads.
This isn't surprising for the SCV. We have an auto-first approach to transportation in this valley. Read through the new OVOV General Plan and you'll see it; the City and County would like to encourage transit or non-motorized transportation where possible, but the only substantive changes mentioned are to roadways like the ones listed above.
Now contrast that plan with what the hated SFV is doing. In the SFV, the Orange Line busway system is nearing maturity. It offers a rail-like line all the way from Chatsworth through Woodland Hills to North Hollywood, complete with a Class I bike lane the entire way. We've got nothing like that in the SCV, or indeed, nothing like that conceptually as a way to cross from the SCV to the SFV. The only way for you to get from the SCV to the SFV is via a commuter bus with a $4 ticket.
Instead, what we have is bigger, higher-capacity roads and public/private partnerships advocating for a wider/faster 5 Freeway to carry freight from the ports to the rest of the state with hardly any benefit to us in the SCV. Oh, and a City Council that is dead-set against High Speed Rail transiting through the SCV.
It's a joke that we were the host for this summit. You'll see in 10 year's time how this works out for us as the SFV morphs into a transit-friendly valley and even the Antelope Valley begins to appreciate mass transit. Meanwhile, the SCV will be stuck building and expanding roads into six and even eight lane super-highways with $5 or $6/gallon gasoline to support all the private development on the west side of the valley.
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Our own Marsha McLean got a part in the celebratory feel-good video (about 1:44 in):
McLean says the SCV is making "huge changes" with "our current general plan OVOV, and make sure we implement projects we need to be sure we can move people along."
What are those plans? Well, in contrast to the other attendees at the conference, who are creating real alternatives to single person vehicle travel, Santa Clarita, as part of OVOV, will widen roads primarily. Take a look at the OVOV plan -highlighted last week at SCVNews.com- and you'll see the casualty list of Class II bike lanes, more than four of which will be sacrificed for six lane super-roads:
To McLean and others at the City, apparently "Moving people along" means moving them along swiftly in their personal vehicles alone on six lane super-roads.
This isn't surprising for the SCV. We have an auto-first approach to transportation in this valley. Read through the new OVOV General Plan and you'll see it; the City and County would like to encourage transit or non-motorized transportation where possible, but the only substantive changes mentioned are to roadways like the ones listed above.
Now contrast that plan with what the hated SFV is doing. In the SFV, the Orange Line busway system is nearing maturity. It offers a rail-like line all the way from Chatsworth through Woodland Hills to North Hollywood, complete with a Class I bike lane the entire way. We've got nothing like that in the SCV, or indeed, nothing like that conceptually as a way to cross from the SCV to the SFV. The only way for you to get from the SCV to the SFV is via a commuter bus with a $4 ticket.
Instead, what we have is bigger, higher-capacity roads and public/private partnerships advocating for a wider/faster 5 Freeway to carry freight from the ports to the rest of the state with hardly any benefit to us in the SCV. Oh, and a City Council that is dead-set against High Speed Rail transiting through the SCV.
It's a joke that we were the host for this summit. You'll see in 10 year's time how this works out for us as the SFV morphs into a transit-friendly valley and even the Antelope Valley begins to appreciate mass transit. Meanwhile, the SCV will be stuck building and expanding roads into six and even eight lane super-highways with $5 or $6/gallon gasoline to support all the private development on the west side of the valley.
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November 27, 2012 - Daily Brief
Thank you for the emails asking where I've been and if I'm okay. No, I've not fallen off the face of the earth, my mind has just been elsewhere lately. My wife and I are expecting our first baby any day now (indeed, the little guy is 5 days over due!) so we've been nesting at a frenetic pace, cleaning until two in the morning sometimes and getting to know employees at the Bouquet Lowes on a first name basis. This crazy time caps months of home improvements, marathon baby-naming sessions, long range planning what-ifs (will he go to Harvard or Stanford or CalTech?) and other typical baby-is-coming rituals. In short, I'm becoming a dad and it's been hard to focus on the site.
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- Historical preservation ordinance, appeal of a planning commission decision regarding some land in P-Canyon, and a few other items on the agenda for tonight's Council meeting AGENDA
- Damn: Maru Sushi is closing its doors after 11 years as probably the best independent restaurant in the SCV, according to the SCV Beacon. The Beacon says Maru tried to negotiate lower rents with Westfield but was "given the boot" by Westfield's leasing department. Maru will close December 12. SCV BEACON
- The Signal has released two more of its liberal-leaning columnists this week, following the dispute of early November in which Gary Horton's column endorsing Lee Rogers was spiked a few days prior to the election (but McKeon endorsements weren't). You will not read Horton or Lori Rivas in the Signal anymore; they follow John Zaring out the door. You can and should read Lori Rivas' last Signal column (the Signal says it was full of "inaccuracies" and has refused to publish it) here.
- Meanwhile, Tim Myers, who hasn't gotten the ax from Creekside (yet), notices that SCVi, a popular charter school in town, makes a big ad-buy on KHTS and gets not only commercials around the clock, but positive news stories as well. FACEBOOK
- The Hart District's CADRE anti-drug program is getting all sorts of national media attention following an LA Times article profiling the program last week. CADRE allows parents to volunteer their children to be drug-tested. Critics like the ACLU says it violates children's rights, and if a Hart student were to refuse testing, it could set up a big legal challenge for the district, but District & Sheriff officials say they're just trying to get a handle on the heroin problem.63 students enrolled by their parents last year were tested positive for drug use. LA TIMES, AP
- The LA Regional Water Quality Control board wants to fine the LA County Sanitation District $280,000 for "discharging excessive chloride into the Santa Clara River from two Santa Clarita Valley treatment plants." LA TIMES
- Amgen Tour of California organizers will announce the route & host cities for the 2013 bicycle race this afternoon. The race bypassed the SCV last year; hopefully we'll get a stage finish this time! KHTS
- Brief profile of the SCV's other new State Senator, Steve Knight. Knight says he wants to be bipartisan and focus on the economy SCVNEWS
- New Vietnam history book about the 9th Infantry Division debuts. The book tells the story of the 9th and "Charlie Company," which was made up of several SCV veterans including Bill Reynolds. Stephen Peeples has a good story KHTS
- The beloved Metrolink holiday Toy Train rode into town last night. COUGAR NEWS
- Newhall Library goes Hobbitt, with a painting of a Shire door on the main entrance BLOG
- Bakersfield Californian newspaper comes out in favor of High Speed Rail, noting that the massive public works project will create thousands of jobs. "High speed rail is moving forward, with us or without us," the paper concludes HSR BLOG
- I Heart SCV builds new blog highlighting major events and milestones of the City's first 25 years. He promises an honest look at the City's history, unlike the Signal whose 25th Anniversary issue is being sold as a "good branding opportunity for businesses" by Publisher Randy Morton. Read it and bookmark it, I Heart will be posting new entries every few days. I HEART SCV HISTORY
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Friday, November 16, 2012
No Daily Brief, blame AT&T
On November 14, AT&T ended DSL service in my neighborhood and tried to force me onto U-Verse. I think they're eliminating old-school DSL in an effort to save costs and consolidate resources. A blog in Nevada describes the same letter I received about the change last month:
Since my internet went down, I've been attempting to get all my business done on my 4G LTE phone with the hotspot feature, and I've had mixed results. The service cuts out for some reason.
It's kind of hard to do a Daily Brief without a solid internet connection, so blame AT&T for this one.
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Some AT&T customers in Grass Valley have just received a form letter indicating they are being involuntarily switched to U-verse High-Speed Internet effective Wednesday, August 15, 2012. If a customer has been thinking of switching AT&T DSL Internet service to a local or regional DSL provider, it must be done within the next few weeks. Other areas are, most likely, soon to follow. Coupled with AT&T’s new pricing for limited bandwidth, the end result will be higher pricing without the ability to switch.After debating awhile, I decided not to go with U-Verse because 1) I think AT&T should have done fiber right and brought it to my door like Verizon does, and 2) it's not as cost-competitive as Time Warner cable, and 3) I resent the fact the fact that AT&T is killing my trusty if poky 2mb/s DSL line that I've had since 2003.
In AT&T’s Grass Valley mailing, they write “If we don’t hear from you by Wednesday, August 15, 2012, as a reminder, your service will be temporarily suspended until you contact us.” In addition, AT&T writes, “If you have phone service that depends upon your high speed Internet line (i.e. Voice over IP), this means that you’ll experience an interruption of your voice service – including 911 emergency services.”
Since my internet went down, I've been attempting to get all my business done on my 4G LTE phone with the hotspot feature, and I've had mixed results. The service cuts out for some reason.
It's kind of hard to do a Daily Brief without a solid internet connection, so blame AT&T for this one.
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
Kathy Kellar, Online Conservative Dynamo
If you thought Councilman Bob Kellar was an outspoken guy who routinely holds forth on matters of politics and policy, you haven't seen his wife on Twitter.
Bob's better half, Kathy, is quite the Twitter-er. With over 400 followers concentrated in the SCV and a hair under 1,000 tweets to her name, Mrs. Kellar goes all in on politics on the micro-blogging service.
Here's a sample:
Conservatives ripping Obama-bashing news from the headlines of conservative websites is nothing new on Twitter, but I like Mrs. Kellar's tweets (misplaced hastags notwithstanding) because they have a sort of flow and bounce to them; they're almost lyrical or poetic in nature.
"Obama slithers the Earth with his snakes"
Awesome alliteration here combined with some good old fashioned imagery from Genesis.
and
"Dear UN: I will never surrender my guns
not even my toothpicks
you useless piece of real estate"
This tweet not only references UN conspiracy theories, but her husband's profession as well and it's all wrapped up in a nice little verse that has a beat to it (bounce from syllable to syllable, pause between the lines, and you'll hear it).
This is quality stuff here, way better than the other "KK" in town, Kevin Korenthal, whose tweets aren't nearly as entertaining. In fact, when I refrence KK from now on, it'll mean Kathy Kellar, not Kevin Korenthal, who will be known as KK2 or KK Junior.
I dare say KK is the best conservative twitter user in Santa Clarita.
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TimBen's videos & Free speech
We've already read I Heart's great summary of the confusing and contradictory views of our Councilmembers regarding videos at Council meetings, but this reader puts the issue into perspective:
You see this pattern time and again on the City Council. They're constantly worried about how late the meetings will go, or whether the process will be smooth and efficient. It's why they fretted over where to place the public comment period, and why McLean was worried last month that she'd be ambushed during a Council meeting.
Well as the reader points out, guess what? Democracy isn't smooth and efficient In fact it's almost the exact opposite of that. It's messy, slow, riddled with starts and stops and checks and balances. It's not designed to be efficient; it's designed to be representative. It's not designed like a business where power is in the hands of a single executive. It's a government, and power is meant to be fractured & shared among different stakeholders.
So yeah, sometimes our representatives will get ambushed. And sometimes meetings will go late and decisions will be delayed. If you ask me, we could use a little more of delay and slow consideration given how many mistakes the Council and Staff have made. If we had gone a little slower and been a little more careful, maybe we could have avoided this two-tier compensation boondoggle that's been on the agenda for sixty days. It's not TimBen Boydston's fault that this became a problem.
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For the first time ever, I turned my computer over to SCVTV and watched the Santa Clarita City Council meeting on Tuesday. Luckily I logged on just in time to catch the discussion on showing the videos created by other council members.
The whole thing is very shocking for me to see (maybe it shouldn't be). What I saw was basically some members of the council make every attempt to stifle the first amendment rights of a fellow council member because the message that they might present would be "piecemealed" or "contrived." I hate to tell our fine councilmembers, but, who cares? It could be a hack. It could be 5 minutes of rambling nonsense. I could be 5 minutes of Looney Tunes cartoons. It does not matter. The first amendment guarantees that everyone has a right to say what they want to say, even when it may be contrary to their own best interests.
The council does have the right to limit the length, and I support that, and I would also even support them requiring it to be entered into the record as part of the public comment periods. Where they've crossed a line, and in my layperson's opinon opened themselves up to a legal challenge, is in requiring that videos be submitted ahead of time to be vetted.
Our city council needs to stop acting like a group of children, and start acting like the leaders that Santa Clarita needs.
You see this pattern time and again on the City Council. They're constantly worried about how late the meetings will go, or whether the process will be smooth and efficient. It's why they fretted over where to place the public comment period, and why McLean was worried last month that she'd be ambushed during a Council meeting.
Well as the reader points out, guess what? Democracy isn't smooth and efficient In fact it's almost the exact opposite of that. It's messy, slow, riddled with starts and stops and checks and balances. It's not designed to be efficient; it's designed to be representative. It's not designed like a business where power is in the hands of a single executive. It's a government, and power is meant to be fractured & shared among different stakeholders.
So yeah, sometimes our representatives will get ambushed. And sometimes meetings will go late and decisions will be delayed. If you ask me, we could use a little more of delay and slow consideration given how many mistakes the Council and Staff have made. If we had gone a little slower and been a little more careful, maybe we could have avoided this two-tier compensation boondoggle that's been on the agenda for sixty days. It's not TimBen Boydston's fault that this became a problem.
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Prescription narcotic overdoses in the SCV
The 38 year old Valencia woman who died this week of narcotic pain relief overdose brought into sharp focus the reporting by the LA Times this week on the same subject.
The Times has reviewed thousands of physician, prescription, overdose, and autopsy reports and say that narcotic painkillers are contributing to the death of over 15,500 Americans a year. The Times also says narco painkillers contributed to the death of over 3,700 Southern Californians from 2006 to 2012.
These are incredibly large numbers. If a terrorist group was killing this many Americans yearly, or some food-born disease was claiming this many lives, we'd be all over it from a military or regulatory aspect. Yet it seems narco painkillers aren't getting any scrutiny.
And it's impacting us even in the SCV. Narcotic painkillers have contributed to the death of at least 12 people in Santa Clarita this year alone, possibly as many as 18.
I wonder if perhaps the heroin threat has been overblown in the SCV and the real threat is from these opiate painkillers instead. Local reporting doesn't seem too clear on that, and it's easy to confuse the two as those addicted to pain pills can easily transition to heroin use.
A reader reflects:
For my brain chemistry, hydrocodone makes me feel wonderful and warm. And that scares me. I'm glad they're hard to get.
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The Times has reviewed thousands of physician, prescription, overdose, and autopsy reports and say that narcotic painkillers are contributing to the death of over 15,500 Americans a year. The Times also says narco painkillers contributed to the death of over 3,700 Southern Californians from 2006 to 2012.
These are incredibly large numbers. If a terrorist group was killing this many Americans yearly, or some food-born disease was claiming this many lives, we'd be all over it from a military or regulatory aspect. Yet it seems narco painkillers aren't getting any scrutiny.
And it's impacting us even in the SCV. Narcotic painkillers have contributed to the death of at least 12 people in Santa Clarita this year alone, possibly as many as 18.
I wonder if perhaps the heroin threat has been overblown in the SCV and the real threat is from these opiate painkillers instead. Local reporting doesn't seem too clear on that, and it's easy to confuse the two as those addicted to pain pills can easily transition to heroin use.
A reader reflects:
I have had two knee surgeries and found that I do not tolerate Vicodin or Narco/Hydrocodone. Interestingly, I found that both Morphine and Oxy masked my pain, but provide no other reactions – positive or negative. Although both were extremely successful in pain reduction I have no desire to use them recreationally. Unfortnately, there are those that hav this desireIn the last five years I've broken a leg, bruised ribs, and received a concussion after crashing my bike. For all these painful incidents, I was prescribed hydrocodone and ibuprofen for pain relief. Unlike the reader, I really enjoyed how the hydrocodone not only relieved my pain, but made me feel in general. I almost started looking forward to treating myself with those pills.
For my brain chemistry, hydrocodone makes me feel wonderful and warm. And that scares me. I'm glad they're hard to get.
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November 15, 2012 - Daily Brief
- More details on City Council changes to Norms and Procedures. TimBen Boydston can now show a 5 minute video during a Council meeting if he likes. SIGNAL, KHTS, SCV BEACON
- Doug Bonelli says he ordered the Saugus Speedway grandstands torn down because they were unsafe. He also says he intends to give out pieces of the grand stand as souvenirs to die-hard race fans and SCV Romantic nostalgics alike SIGNAL
- Santa Clarita man suing two unions for calling his cell phone with campaign messages. "I'm sick of this crap," says the 62 year old man who has sued "close to 50 companies for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and received about $20,000 in awards and out-of-court settlements." DAILY NEWS
- Albert Einstein school backers successfully petitioned a school district in San Diego County for charter status for an Albert Einstein elementary, middle, and high school. Einstein says it used the same petition it used at Saugus USD, where it was denied a charter petition for the fourth time earlier this fall. Organizers say they will appeal the SUSD decision to LA County Board of Education. FACEBOOK
- Speaking of charter schools, KHTS' Stephen Peeples checks in on the growth at SCVi Charter school SCVNEWS
- Oh yeah: No one ran against CLWA's incumbents so they all returned for another term SCVNEWS
- The City has budgeted $45,000 for an art piece to be installed at the new Newhall round-about that will be built at Newhall & Main Street SIGNAL
- A "Local football star" parked his car outside designated lines at COC yesterday and was upset to find that someone keyed his car and stuck a needle in one of its tires. A COC Security person says it's an example of "parking rage" on the sprawling campus and its massive lots. SIGNAL
- Neat: 18 year old Hart High grad and LMU student publishes his own cookbook. SCVNEWS
- Before the SCV was a NLF town, it was a Bermite town. Also, people used to hold pistol drawing contests up San Francisquito way TIME RANGER
- Former Signal reporter and all round great-guy Brian Charles pens an impressive and sharp editorial explaining why our politics are so divided. He even uses a McKeon example. Read it. PASADENA STAR NEWS
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Wednesday, November 14, 2012
November 14, 2012 - Daily Brief
- A clumsy, rambling, and ultimately disappointing (for TimBen) three hour council meeting. I HEART SCV, SIGNAL, KHTS
- "The battle between environmentalists and the developers of the sprawling Newhall Ranch property in Santa Clarita has been long and contentious, and it shows signs of only getting more so." LA TIMES
- Another deadly prescription narcotic overdose, this time in Valencia. The victim is a 38 year old woman. It's the 12 prescription narco overdose this year SIGNAL
- Ernie Tichenor, a former COC Board member who moved to Virginia in 2009, killed himself last week on the same day he was to be sentenced for soliciting a 13 year old girl. SCVNEWS
- Prosecutors recommend charges against a man who was driving a Mazda Miata at 90mph+ down McBean and crashed, killing his passenger, a Turkish woman who was living and working in the SCV. SIGNAL
- Get to know the name Tom Cole, we'll be seeing it a lot. Cole, formerly an operations officer for the Hart District and a project planner at Newhall Land, is the new Community Development Director at the City SCVNEWS
- City of Santa Clarita to host Enterprise Zone conference featuring Bruce Jenner CITY BRIEFS
- Verizon to officially announce that it has enabled 4G LTE in the SCV tomorrow SIGNAL
- LTE writer complains more rock & roll lyrics don't agitate against Obama. Ted Nugent anyone? SIGNAL
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Tuesday, November 13, 2012
How the SCV voted, ctd
The LA Times went all out this year, plotting vote totals in every precinct in the County and overlaying it on a big, attractive map. But something doesn't feel right: there's no way the SCV is this blue, is there?
That's crazy right?
According to this map, there are pockets of Valencia that voted for Obama over Romney. Yes, Valencia! The Master Plan itself.
And Placerita Canyon voted for Obama over Romney. Even Canyon Country voted for Obama. Something's not right, or is it?
I can't embed the map, but if you visit the Times' site and run your mouse over each precinct, you'll see that the vote total numbers are very low. In my precinct, they show 217 votes for Obama and over 260 for Romney, yet there are about 5,000 voters in my precinct.
That pattern (very low vote totals) repeats itself throughout the SCV and in just about every precinct in the County, so it may be a feature rather than a bug. It could be that the Times is using those numbers just to get the percentage spread, since the spread seems accurate. We know, overall, that Romney beat Obama in the SCV 54-46 by just under 4,000 votes.
If it's right though, this is a significant change from 2008 when the map looked like this for Obama/McCain:
You could say, after comparing the 2012 map to the 2008 map, that the SCV is getting more blue.
As Lindsey Graham said, there's just not enough old angry white guys to sustain the base of the GOP. Perhaps that's true in the SCV as well?
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That's crazy right?
According to this map, there are pockets of Valencia that voted for Obama over Romney. Yes, Valencia! The Master Plan itself.
And Placerita Canyon voted for Obama over Romney. Even Canyon Country voted for Obama. Something's not right, or is it?
I can't embed the map, but if you visit the Times' site and run your mouse over each precinct, you'll see that the vote total numbers are very low. In my precinct, they show 217 votes for Obama and over 260 for Romney, yet there are about 5,000 voters in my precinct.
That pattern (very low vote totals) repeats itself throughout the SCV and in just about every precinct in the County, so it may be a feature rather than a bug. It could be that the Times is using those numbers just to get the percentage spread, since the spread seems accurate. We know, overall, that Romney beat Obama in the SCV 54-46 by just under 4,000 votes.
If it's right though, this is a significant change from 2008 when the map looked like this for Obama/McCain:
You could say, after comparing the 2012 map to the 2008 map, that the SCV is getting more blue.
As Lindsey Graham said, there's just not enough old angry white guys to sustain the base of the GOP. Perhaps that's true in the SCV as well?
-----------------
Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
Driver-less cars in the SCV, ctd
It'll never happen here, a reader says:
is popular, I'm not sure driver-less cars will take off.
Another:
Of course it'd function like a subscription service where you pay monthly for the service. You'd probably have an app on your phone and you'd have to think about when you'll need a car in the day ahead. The software would then match source & destination and schedule it all.
As for pollution? That's a thing of the past. I'm seeing more and more Leafs and Volts driving around town lately. My own dad has a Leaf and can run errands for a full day (or perhaps even two if he's light on the accelerator) around the SCV without having to recharge.
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Just what God-fearin', big truck-drivin', red meat eatin' Santa Clarita needs...driverless lib-mobiles careening around European socialist traffic circles. Can you use your welfare check to rent that driverless car, liberals?Heh. Nailed it. In a place where this
is popular, I'm not sure driver-less cars will take off.
Another:
It's an interesting idea, but wouldn't there be a net increase of cars on the road? Wouldn't there be more pollution as cars are in use much of the time, rather than sitting in parking lots or garages turned off?Good point. While I think cars would be in use much more of the time, I don't think you'd see a net increase in the amount of vehicles on the street. It's a matter of scheduling a car to be where you want it when you want it. On a massive scale.
Of course it'd function like a subscription service where you pay monthly for the service. You'd probably have an app on your phone and you'd have to think about when you'll need a car in the day ahead. The software would then match source & destination and schedule it all.
As for pollution? That's a thing of the past. I'm seeing more and more Leafs and Volts driving around town lately. My own dad has a Leaf and can run errands for a full day (or perhaps even two if he's light on the accelerator) around the SCV without having to recharge.
-----------------
Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
November 13, 2012 - Daily Brief
- City Council meeting tonight like a replay of October 9, with Council norms & procedures and pay back on the agenda. SIGNAL, KHTS
- Deputies perform 'daring' rescue of stranded hunter in Castaic wilderness area known as Frenchmen's Flats. Rescuers and the hunter had to cross a cheest-deep river. I didn't know we had rivers that ran at this time of year SIGNAL, LA TIMES
- Wife's car struck by hit and run driver. Husband investigates, gathers footage from area surveillance cameras. Husband shows camera footage to deputies, and Deputies arrest the hit and run driver suspect, a 75 year old Newhall man. Husband of the year award to be awarded? SIGNAL
- 55% of voters in Palmdale and over 50% in Lancaster voted for Lee Rogers over Buck McKeon, according to the AV Press. The area is trending blue according to the paper (paywall)
- Great Times article on how building a high speed rail line from Los Angeles to Bakersfield (Traversing the SCV) will be a 21st century engineering marvel, if/when it's completed. LA TIMES
- Following two years of study, the National Park Services releases land-use options for the Rim of the Valley Corridor, a vast mountainous region from Santa Clarita's west side to the ocean VECO STAR
- The Signal is changing its URL come December first. Gone will be The-Signal.com, replaced with signalscv.com. Is a paywall coming too? Morris Multimedia, the paper's corporate parent, has been looking into paywall systems at other papers, according to several blog posts at Morris' tech blog BLOG
- Neat: Signal profilese Drummond Ranch, a ranch in Acton where you can take your dog and train him how to herd sheep. Or just run him till he's exhausted and sleeps for a day or two SIGNAL
- Buck McKeon sits for interview with Fred Arnold, the mortgage banker who reviewed McKeon's Countrywide loan documents and argued that McKeon didn't get a sweetheart deal. This must be the reward for toeing the line. SCV TV
- I Heart wants SCVers to request that the City plan and host a real 25th Birthday Party for city residents. He has a letter you can read to the Council tonight requesting such I HEART SCV
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Monday, November 12, 2012
Signal releases liberal columnist John Zaring
John Zaring, a writer under the Democratic Voices banner, was let go today by Publisher Randy Morton, Zaring says on Facebook:
This follows the Signal's suppression of at least one or two Lee Rogers endorsement columns per the Signal's policy of not publishing endorsement pieces within a week of election day. Of course that policy didn't apply to Buck McKeon or his various water carriers in the SCV, as we documented about 10 days ago.
Zaring had one column left to publish, and since it's never going to see the light of day in the Signal, he sent it to me. It's published below, in full:
really bad stomach flu. I’m sure my Republican readers have experienced similar feelings this past
week, especially after watching GOP surrogates hit the various cable news outlets in the final days all
predicting Governor Mitt Romney would knock President Barack Obama out of the White House and
return control of the Senate to Republicans.
They said America’s recovery from the Great Recession was too stilted for an impatient populace,
and I must admit, Romney had grown quite adept at spinning a bleak future under another Obama
term. Then Benghazi happened, throwing real red meat at the feet of Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity.
GOP kingmaker Karl Rove went on FOX News to join the chorus of Republicans predicting an electoral
landslide for Romney.
Well, Rove and company got the landslide part right – the final tally was 332 to 206 – but it was Obama
who emerged victorious. Not even a billion dollars worth of negative Super PAC ads from the Koch
Brothers and casino maven Shelden Adelson could prevent the American people from moving forward,
not backward. When the dust cleared, Democrats not only kept the White House, but gained seats in
both the House and Senate, including big Senate wins in Massachusetts and Virginia, as well as Indiana
and Missouri, two red states where Republican victories are usually a foregone conclusion. Tea party
incumbents were sent packing in key Congressional races, most notably controversial flame-thrower
Allen West in Florida. Even Michelle Bachman barely eked out a victory.
GOP leaders should be asking themselves how this happened, and what lessons can be learned …
I believe that Romney’s positioning in the GOP primaries hurt him last Tuesday. After coming down
squarely against Obama-care, illegal immigration, abortion rights, gay rights and government bailouts to
fend off challengers Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and others more appreciated by the party’s evangelical
and tea party base, it was harder for him to return to the center. When he tried, it reinforced concerns
among moderates from both parties that Candidate Romney was a spineless opportunist who would say
just about anything to anyone to become President Romney. And finally, there were the foot-in-mouth
tea party-backed candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, whose comments about “legitimate
rape” and whether a pregnancy resulting from rape was “something God intended” drew unwanted
attention to just how far right the party had drifted.
With both unemployment and the economy trending in the right direction, President Obama managed
wins in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, and defeated Romney’s
Hail Mary to put New Hampshire and Pennsylvania back into play. He only lost North Carolina and
Indiana, two traditionally Republican states, among the swing states where everyone knew this election
would be fought and decided.
Even with a convincing Electoral victory, Obama must be very careful to avoid prideful hubris, and not
over-read the election’s results. The truth is he won the popular vote by just about three million votes,
a smaller margin than in 2008, and after a year-long, brutal roller-coaster race faces a country even
more fractured than when he first moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Second terms are often treacherous, something George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and even Ronald Reagan
learned. Obama must find a way to bridge a stubborn partisan divide because this nation’s economic
recovery is far too tenuous for four more years of partisan animosity. America needs a saner set of
immigration laws, simplified tax code, reformed entitlement programs and reductions in spending in
domestic AND defense programs.
With the Bush tax cuts, along with several other temporary measures passed under Obama, expiring at
year’s end, and automatic spending cuts – known as sequestration – set to take effect under terms of
a stop-gap budget deal reached by Congress when the so-called Super Committee failed to handle the
Debt Ceiling crisis back in the summer of 2011, Obama and leaders from both parties must pull together
to avoid sending our nation right back into recession.
Will they? Can they? They must.
No American, including those who supported Romney, can afford to see Obama fail. The 51-year old
President has an opportunity to cement a legacy in health care policy but now must use the modest
leverage of victory to lead Congress through a series of looming confrontations over taxes, the budget,
deficit and social safety net programs relied upon by tens of millions of Americans (those people
Romney ineptly referred to as “takers” in his infamous 49% comment to big dollar donors).
Folks, ultimately we the people bear responsibility for the gridlock gripping Washington. Americans
voted for divided government so we too must put away our ideological anger and encourage our
legislators to put country before party. Beginning today, let’s all advocate for the common good,
because if compromise doesn’t happen, we’ll be up the proverbial creek in a leaky boat without a
paddle.
-----------------
Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
This follows the Signal's suppression of at least one or two Lee Rogers endorsement columns per the Signal's policy of not publishing endorsement pieces within a week of election day. Of course that policy didn't apply to Buck McKeon or his various water carriers in the SCV, as we documented about 10 days ago.
Zaring had one column left to publish, and since it's never going to see the light of day in the Signal, he sent it to me. It's published below, in full:
Obama Won! Now what?!
John Zaring
I vividly remember what it felt like when George W. Bush won reelection in 2004. It felt like, well,really bad stomach flu. I’m sure my Republican readers have experienced similar feelings this past
week, especially after watching GOP surrogates hit the various cable news outlets in the final days all
predicting Governor Mitt Romney would knock President Barack Obama out of the White House and
return control of the Senate to Republicans.
They said America’s recovery from the Great Recession was too stilted for an impatient populace,
and I must admit, Romney had grown quite adept at spinning a bleak future under another Obama
term. Then Benghazi happened, throwing real red meat at the feet of Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity.
GOP kingmaker Karl Rove went on FOX News to join the chorus of Republicans predicting an electoral
landslide for Romney.
Well, Rove and company got the landslide part right – the final tally was 332 to 206 – but it was Obama
who emerged victorious. Not even a billion dollars worth of negative Super PAC ads from the Koch
Brothers and casino maven Shelden Adelson could prevent the American people from moving forward,
not backward. When the dust cleared, Democrats not only kept the White House, but gained seats in
both the House and Senate, including big Senate wins in Massachusetts and Virginia, as well as Indiana
and Missouri, two red states where Republican victories are usually a foregone conclusion. Tea party
incumbents were sent packing in key Congressional races, most notably controversial flame-thrower
Allen West in Florida. Even Michelle Bachman barely eked out a victory.
GOP leaders should be asking themselves how this happened, and what lessons can be learned …
I believe that Romney’s positioning in the GOP primaries hurt him last Tuesday. After coming down
squarely against Obama-care, illegal immigration, abortion rights, gay rights and government bailouts to
fend off challengers Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and others more appreciated by the party’s evangelical
and tea party base, it was harder for him to return to the center. When he tried, it reinforced concerns
among moderates from both parties that Candidate Romney was a spineless opportunist who would say
just about anything to anyone to become President Romney. And finally, there were the foot-in-mouth
tea party-backed candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, whose comments about “legitimate
rape” and whether a pregnancy resulting from rape was “something God intended” drew unwanted
attention to just how far right the party had drifted.
With both unemployment and the economy trending in the right direction, President Obama managed
wins in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, and defeated Romney’s
Hail Mary to put New Hampshire and Pennsylvania back into play. He only lost North Carolina and
Indiana, two traditionally Republican states, among the swing states where everyone knew this election
would be fought and decided.
Even with a convincing Electoral victory, Obama must be very careful to avoid prideful hubris, and not
over-read the election’s results. The truth is he won the popular vote by just about three million votes,
a smaller margin than in 2008, and after a year-long, brutal roller-coaster race faces a country even
more fractured than when he first moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Second terms are often treacherous, something George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and even Ronald Reagan
learned. Obama must find a way to bridge a stubborn partisan divide because this nation’s economic
recovery is far too tenuous for four more years of partisan animosity. America needs a saner set of
immigration laws, simplified tax code, reformed entitlement programs and reductions in spending in
domestic AND defense programs.
With the Bush tax cuts, along with several other temporary measures passed under Obama, expiring at
year’s end, and automatic spending cuts – known as sequestration – set to take effect under terms of
a stop-gap budget deal reached by Congress when the so-called Super Committee failed to handle the
Debt Ceiling crisis back in the summer of 2011, Obama and leaders from both parties must pull together
to avoid sending our nation right back into recession.
Will they? Can they? They must.
No American, including those who supported Romney, can afford to see Obama fail. The 51-year old
President has an opportunity to cement a legacy in health care policy but now must use the modest
leverage of victory to lead Congress through a series of looming confrontations over taxes, the budget,
deficit and social safety net programs relied upon by tens of millions of Americans (those people
Romney ineptly referred to as “takers” in his infamous 49% comment to big dollar donors).
Folks, ultimately we the people bear responsibility for the gridlock gripping Washington. Americans
voted for divided government so we too must put away our ideological anger and encourage our
legislators to put country before party. Beginning today, let’s all advocate for the common good,
because if compromise doesn’t happen, we’ll be up the proverbial creek in a leaky boat without a
paddle.
-----------------
Share your thoughts on this, or other topics, by emailing your comment to jeff at scvtalk.com
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