A hearty and cheerful good morning to all my fellow Santa Claritans! Oh I’ve got quite the Daily Brief for you- today we’ve got a wayward Hummer/pedestrian accident, TimBen’s shadow city council, gas prices galore, details on the possible sketch of the possible new library, and much more.
News & Stuff
- Signal details new SCV Activist Organization: The Santa Clarita Neighborhood Coalition -a new coaltion that defies my efforts at making a smooth, vocally-pleasing acronym- got some press in yesterday’s Signal, courtesy of reporter Katie Geyer. As we suspected, the group was formed by former City Councilman TimBen Boydston and brings together a number of disparate groups that have fought City Hall in the past. Boydston says the goal of the group is to “to lend mutual support to other groups that are in the coalition so that the City Council will know that there’s a broad base of support for the various groups.” Boydston says that some in the community are frustrated that the Council hasn’t been listening to citizens, but Geyer mentions the MRF project as one where the Council did listen. Unfortunately, there’s no juicy quotes from sitting City Council members on what they think of the new group. Remember, it’s only 22 months until the next city council election! Link
- Man driving Hummer allegedly runs over two people: A man named William Skett allegedly put his Hummer in reverse outside a Saugus restaurant on Saturday night and backed over another man and woman, both of whom were injured in the accident, according to the Signal. Details are sparse on this story, but the Signal reports that Skett was arrested at his home later that night and released on bond the same day (Saturday.) One of the victims suffered from broken ribs and two collapsed lungs and was still being treated. Link
- City bans produce trucks/ice cream carts and other peddlers: This one slipped in under my radar: KHTS reports that the City is considering a new peddling/soliciting ordinace that should “make everyone happy,” that is unless you like buying ice cream products from the happy Mexican man with a cart in Newhall or enjoy purchasing produce from the back of a truck. The new ordinance outlaws those types of activities and elevates them from simple infractions to misdemeanors. Regulations on door-to-door soliciting will be tightened up too, unless you happen to be selling Girl Scout cookies or the Mormon religion. Link
- 19th Senate race gets physical: Joel Angeles is the Chief of Staff for Assemblywoman Audra Strickland - the wife of Tony Strickland who is the Republican seeking office in the 19th District- and Angeles apparently got into a physical fight with some Strickland protesters last week in Westlake, according to the Ventura County Star. The Star says that protesters were upset that Strickland had accepted tobacco money, and a heated argument between Angeles and the protesters turned violent. Police even had to intervene, and Angeles has been suspended from the Strickland campaign. Also in the article: Mitt Romney was in Ventura County to campaign for Strickland last week. Article, statement from Hannah-Beth Jackson campaign on violence.
- City to throw block parties: Code enforcement guys generally aren’t thought of as party animals, but they’ll get to play that role as they throw a block party this week for a Canyon Country neighborhood that the Signal calls the opposite of a “rich and beautiful area.” There will be food, drinks etc, all part of an effort to soften the image of the code guys and to encourage residents to take pride in their community by not parking that 1983 IROC Camaro on their front lawn. Link
- Newhall Library news: The city council will decide tomorrow night whether to pay a design firm some $300k to produce exterior and interior sketches of the proposed Newhall Library, the anchor of the redevelopment efforts in Old Town Newhall. What’s unclear is how the architect would sketch a building who’s final size hasn’t been determined yet. The Signal says the library could be between 16,000 and 30,000 sq. ft. Link
- David Petraeus’ dad dies in SCV: Sixtus Petraeus, the father of the American General who engineered the surge in Iraq, died in Santa Clarita on Thursday at an assisted living facility, according to KTHS. Link
- Applicants for Parks, Planning, and Open Space panel: Several names appear on all three lists as many seek to pad their resumes with service on the City’s Parks, Planning and Open Space panels. List
- Gas prices approach $5 in SCV: The Signal keeps relying on this gent named Randy Cressall, who owns the Valencia Auto Spa & Gas Station on Valencia Blvd but also does formal surveys of gas prices in the SCV. Cressall says that gas prices average $4.65 in the SCV and are rising, a situation he says our society can’t withstand. Link Also, commuters north of us in the mountain communities of Frazier Park have cheaper gas prices but are facing similar commuting pressures as they drive to work in the SCV. One man says he’s just going to buy an RV and live off the freeway.
- Shameful to spend money on sports, youth: How dare we spend money on the next generation while forsaking the last generation, this Letter writer says. “Yes, the $50,000 in emergency funding is appreciated, but that’s a “drop in the bucket” compared with the $25 MILLION for the expansion of the Sports Complex. Where is the balance?!” Link
- Reductio ad absurdum: Ryan Metlen, the Signal’s talented cartoonist, had a pretty bold cartoon in Sunday’s opinion pages which equated same sex marriage to marrying animals, toasters, or invisible people. His point, according to his blog, is to get the state out of the marriage business altogether, though I don’t know how that would work since marriage is a legally recognized state.
- Ortiz responds to Conaway letter on CEMEX: My blog post last week on Bob Conaway’s letter to the editor of the Victorville Daily Press got a response from City Spokeswoman Gail Ortiz, who disputed Conaway’s allegations about the land swap deal that may keep CEMEX from mining in Soledad Canyon. “The only reason offered in this letter to the editor to oppose HR 5887 was the mistaken belief that the mine which Santa Clarita has objected to for nearly a decade will be transferred to Victorville,” Ortiz says in the response. Meanwhile, that blog post has been linked to by Aggregate Research.com and is getting a lot of hits.