Busy weekend ahead for me. First, there’s the Minuteman rally to cover, then a reggae party at a local bike shop, then I think we’re heading to Ventura and Ojai possibly. Oh, and I hope to see Wall-E
News
- Something fishy on Hart Bond story: The Signal reports today that the Hard District and its polling firm have completed a survey of 800 voters in the SCV on the subject of a $300 bond measure that might appear on the ballot in November. The Hart District says some 65% of respondents said they “definitely” or “Probably” vote yes on. But wait, $300 million? I was a respondent in this same survey, and the only number I heard was $240 million. I even wrote a report on it and mentioned how complicated the questioning was and the fact that they brought up a “trust” element for various institutions in the SCV. You can read the Signal’s report here, or jump back to April to read my report about the $240 million bond initiative polling call.
- May Real Estate stats: The Signal has the details on May: over 200 homes sold that month, “sales activity is picking up” but median home price fell to $450k compared with $480k in April. I guess I didn’t read the stats sheet correctly; anyway, get the details here.
- Extreme Neighborhood Makeover program well received: At least that’s the way the Daily News is portraying it, quoting one resident of the “rundown” (KHTS’ phrase) Canyon Country neighborhood who called it “wonderful.” Katie Geyer also was at the event -designed to encourage residents to clean up their yards and homes- and said that while some were offended at first, the event was well-received .
- Lennar reports $120 million net loss for 2Q08: It’s the second quarterly loss in a row for the Florida-based home building giant, which owns part of Newhall Land. Signal has more.
- Antelope Valley worried over six murders in recent days: Four people, including a NASA engineer,were “brutally killed” before the house they were in was set on fire in Quartz Hill. That came just one day before another two murder victims were found in another burned down house. Authorities don’t think the two cases are connected, but the spike in murders hasn’t happened in the AV in over 20 years. LA Times has the story.
- SB Independent profiles Tony Strickland: The Republican candidate for the 19th Senate seat has solid GOP credentials; not only did he work with outgoing conservative Tom McClintock, but he even played Ronald Reagan in his 4th grade class. His ideas and beliefs are completely opposite of Hannah-Beth Jackson (they both served in the Assembly at the same time) so voters will have a stark choice this fall. Link
- Valley Fair expected to draw 40,000: Some 40,000 people might line up to see farm animals, eat cotton candy, pound the strength meter, and other types of fair-ish activities this weekend at the Valley Fair at the Saugus Speedway. Tammy Marashlian has a report.
Misc
- Where are the ungrateful LTE writers now? At least two letters to the editor last week have said it’s shameful for the City to expand a public and very popular sporst complex center while the poor seniors in our valley are suffering so much. Yes, they actually used the word “shame” to describe the city doing what it should be doing. So are we going to see some thank you notes from those same letter writers now that Mayo Bob Kellar has signed over $375,000 of our dollars to the SCV Committee on Aging, aka the Senior Center? I’m all for supporting the seniors, hell, give them more, but don’t dis the city for building facilities used by another demographic. We’re flush with cash, there’s plenty to go around, so stop whining. Link
- Dave Bossert is a broken record: Add two parts bitch about the Signal, one part bitch about the titular city council, and of course, a slam on Ken Pulskamp…what do you get? Another Bossert commentary on the City Manager and the now-discredited claim that he ever uttered the words “urban center.”
- I Heart the Signal Editor: Today’s commentary was brilliant and put to print the complex words and thoughts I’ve been trying to write about for weeks. It’s all about Ken “Urban Center” Pulskamp and why criticizing the city manager for that idea is ridiculous and silly: “Far be it for Santa Clarita to have an urban center. We’d much prefer to go on with our suburban sprawl, bulldozing hills into housing tracts that offer little or no tax base from which the city can draw funds to provide services. Right? We’d also much rather have to go over the hill for our entertainment because, after all, “urban centers” have things like movie theaters, live theaters, wide selections of restaurants, and fun and quirky shops to browse.We sure don’t want that in Santa Clarita.We’d all much rather drive through Newhall Pass to get to our jobs every day, idling in stalled freeway traffic for an hour in each direction as gas climbs to $5 a gallon. Right?” Must Read
I think the Signal’s editorial is so good that I’m opening up this thread to everyone; you don’t even have to be a member to post a response, and I won’t moderate the comments until after the fact. So go, have at it.