The “Sage of Saugus” is a friend of mine who occasionally submits opinion pieces here on SCVTalk that come from a center-right perspective. The Sage, who required that I grant him anonymity, has advice for our City Council Candidates in his first column. Let’s see what he has to say.
Dear City Council Candidates:
I love living in the SCV, but believe that major issues of concern that you may actually be able to do something about are not being addressed. Here in no specific order are those issues.
Annexation- I do not see any advantage to increasing the size of the city west of the 5 and further north of Copperhill. A smaller city is more accountable to the existing residents. One Valley-One Vision is just an attempt to increase your power and authority into areas that may be bettter served by newly formed municipalities. Stop the land grab and tell the whiners to call Mike Antonovich. Any annexation should require those areas to deed their private parks and recreation areas to the city. Period, end of story. Require them to build and install bike paths first.
Cemex-Huge amounts of City dollars have been spent to stop a company from enjoying the property rights that ran with the land when the property was acquired. Reach a final resolution , imperfect as it may be and stop wasting the cities limited resources on something that is inevitable when the economy turns around.
Whitaker Bermite Clean up- This is like treating a mentally ill death row inmate so you can execute him. Once the land is cleaned up the developers will move in to destroy it. I like it vacant !
Valencia Auto Dealers _ Stop kicking back sales tax revenue to these dealerships under the guise of a “Buy in Santa Clarita” program. You have never applied an objective metric to measure how effective it is. Buy your own city vehicles from local dealers-stop taking campaign contributions from these entities.
Ban Dogs from
Cross Valley Connector- Where is the money coming from to complete the bridge-when will construction begin-when will it be completed.?
Police/Sheriff - Consider establishing our own Police Department. Tell the Sheriff to enforce the underage smoking laws and helmet laws for young bicyclists. Tell the Sheriff to stop using the facility in Santa Clarita to house officers working the county areas. Tell the sheriff to publish a non emergency phone number for folks to use when observing suspicious activity. Enforce or contract out for parking enforcement .Get rid of laws that you never enforce like smoking in the parks. Let people exercise their freedoms and liberty in a responsible fashion.
Art- You should not discriminate against religious themed art displayed at Farmers Market in Newhall and hung in municipal buildings. If you ban religious art then get rid of the secular pieces hanging in buildings under your control. This is to comply with the first amendment and CA constitutional guarantees
Cowboy Festival- What is a Cowboy Festival without CowboyChurch early Sunday morning. Encorage the local faith community to organize a cowboy church service.
Mayors Prayer Breakfast - Stop trying to tell the Dunamis Goup how to pray and where to put the apostrophe. Do not use governmental power to intimidate this group of local businessmen. Recognize the fact that you don’t own the term Mayor and do not divide the community by insinuating that this group is not inclusive, anyone can buy a ticket. If you do not like their policy and you refuse to recognize them as a vital group of concerned responsible citizens tell them you won’t be there. Machinations are an insult to the Christian faith tradition. Can you spare us the battle this year ?
Veteran’s Plaza- Pay the money to recognize Willy with a plaque and complete the information boards on the walk way that give entry to the park. It’s the least we can do.
Recycling Facilities- Use your zoning and municipal regulation powers to make sure that adequate recycling facilities are available for private citizens to redeem their cans and bottles for the CRV. These facilities are woefully inadequate throughout the city. Just look at the line of people begging for their redemption funds if you can find one. Locate one at City hall and Central Park for the citizens to encourage recycling and make it easy for people to get their deposits back. That’s right !
Central Park Tell the County Animal Control Authority to get down there and enforce the regulations for licensing and poop removal. Install video surveillance cameras at Central Bark, don’t even think about putting in tennis courts/ stadium. Leave an open area for folks who don’t play softball, soccer, football. or other organized sport. leave an area free of trees for kite flying. Stop planting trees ok, enough already.Install another 9 holes of frisbee golf. Ban skateboarding in all municipal parks. Let the Sage of Saugus pick the bands for the Central Park Concert series! Allow at least one Saturday night for a community faith gathering and worship service.
MTA/ Santa Clarita Transit – The Sage uses municipal transportation, why don’t I ever see you riding? Make the seniors pay full fare since they constitute the highest net worth demographic in the city. Increase the number of parking spaces at the Santa Clarita Transit Station, Duh !!!
Preserve the Dark Skies- The stars and planets under a dark sky are a beautiful resource. just look up next time there is a widespread power outage. Have the city install Dark Sky friendly lighting fixtures and require new developments to do the same. have the city send a representative to the meetings of the International Dark Sky Association and report back to you about the development of energy efficient, environmentally friendly lighting. Consider the Dark Sky a resource worthy of preservation. Ban businesses from using searchlight promotions that cast huge beams to light into our night sky.
Newhall Redevelopment What can be said ? Tell Tresierras to quit unloading trucks in the middle of Railroad Avenue with their fork lifts- That is a start. In general Tresierras is a blight and eyesore for the whole area. Tell them to clean it up or move to the facility built for them on San Fernando Road.
HMH-Community hospitals are an endangered species. Be cautious about limiting their ability to keep their facility economically viable. No one want to hear that they are closing the facility.
Make the Sage of Saugus City Czar with complete authority to create heaven on Earth in the SCV !
Sincerely,
The Sage of Saugus