When I started this blog over two years ago, the first article I ever published was titled, “Is Santa Clarita still a bedroom community?” In that article, I wondered if Santa Clarita had progressed beyond the derisive title of “bedroom community,” considering that so many companies had moved to our valley in recent years and that residents truly had local employment opportunities. That was way back in March of 2006.
And boy have times changed…or have they? Today that term “bedroom community” is enjoying something of a rebirth in the local chattering classes. Not only is it being used to describe what Santa Clarita is today, but it’s a title some in the community actually seem to be proud of.
“Our Neighborhoods are under seige,” the YouTuber named “Frankenferry” breathlessly writes in one video under the cloak and safety of anonymity. “Our existing general plan, created decades ago, served to create and protect our Suburban Bedroom Community,” he/she says in another video.
And then in blog posts and at City Council meetings or in Letters to the Editor, this term “bedroom community” is being bandied about, as if it’s not only an accurate description of Santa Clarita, but something to be proud of, something to protect.
Fundamentally, I couldn’t disagree more. The idea of Santa Clarita as a “bedroom community” has never been something I’ve been proud of. I have always considered it an insult. This city is not just a place I come to lay my head when I’m done doing important things elsewhere. It’s not the place I close my eyes to when the day is over, safe in my bed. It’s not a place I experience primarily while asleep.
No, Santa Clarita is something way beyond the derisive and insulting descriptor of “bedroom community” for me. Santa Clarita is the place where I grew up, where I graduated high school, learned to drive, bought my first house, got married, etc. It’s a place I love to explore, to talk about, to write about, and occasionally, to make an impact on.
So what explains this discrepancy? We all live in the same valley, we see the same news, we go to the same council meetings, why the different perception of what Santa Clarita is and ought to be?
To some degree, I think there is a generational difference at play here. Many of the people I see endlessly complaining about the San Fernando Valley-ization of the SCV or Ken Pulskamp’s alleged comments about urbanization are, frankly, older than me. They’re my parents age. Some in their 40s, some in their 50s, 60s, and even 70s. They moved, no escaped is a better word, to Santa Clarita long ago, in the 1960s or 1970s or 1980s in order to avoid the problems they say they lived through in the terrible San Fernando Valley.
Their original motivation for moving to Santa Clarita was that it was, back then, a sleepy bedroom community of like-minded people.
Their entire perspective on what Santa Clarita is and what it ought to be is completely different from mine and many of my friends who not only grew up in this valley but have chosen to make our homes and lives here. I can’t possibly relate to their hatred of the SFV or what it represents since I’ve never lived there, nor have I experienced the problems they routinely cite.
That’s not to discount their worries about crime, runaway and poorly-planned growth, or any of the other issues in SFV. But the fact that they moved here from supposed bad places doesn’t give them any more qualifications to speak about Santa Clarita than people like me, who grew up here.
Likewise, I would argue that some believe their financial interests are tied into the idea of Santa Clarita being a bedroom community. These folks don’t view mass transit as an asset to a city; they view it -and its users- as a liability to their personal property. They refuse to see past their own personal financial interests when considering a denser project that might include high-rises yet have less of an impact on open space. They don’t want denser projects built near their ranch-style homes -as is the case in Placerita Canyon and the North Newhall Specific Plan- because they say the city promised 20 years ago to protect their “rural” (left unspoken is affluent) lifestyle.
Hence their acceptance and defense of the idea of Santa Clarita as a “bedroom community.” They believe they have their personal financial fortunes at stake, so they naturally defend the status quo and attack anyone who even hints at a different future.
And future is what all this about, is it not? We all know the predictions that Santa Clarita may someday be home to twice as many people as it is now. The question everyone is talking about and the City and County are addressing specifically is what will Santa Clarita, population 450,000, look like?
Will our hillsides be devoured by more single family home developments the way Stevenson Ranch was built out in the 90s? Will the pattern of life the bedroom community proponents defend be the pattern we use to double the population in Santa Clarita? Will Santa Clarita in 2050 be a 300 square mile city of gigantic ten lane arterials with thousands of cul-de-sac streets?
To some extent, Santa Clarita 2050 will be shaped by forces way beyond the residents of this valley or even the big bad Mr. City Manager’s control. As I have relayed in my Daily Briefs, many think the “bedroom community” way of life is obsolete, made impractical and almost impossible by sky-high energy prices and the reality of global climate change. Alarmists, however, are a dime a dozen these days, so I take a more reasonable approach.
The future of Santa Clarita is not black and white. It’s not Ken Pulskamp’s supposed “Urban Center” vs. FrankenFerry’s “Bedroom Community.” It’s not a simplistic debate about either vs or. Rather, it’s possible that we can build a community that has both the best elements of an urban city (two jobs per household, good mobility options, its own distinct culture and entertainment, and yes, density) while retaining some of that bedroom community feel that attracted many people in the first place.
As a younger person in Santa Clarita, this is what I expect of my city. I have a voice too, I am one of “We the People” as are my friends, colleagues and fellow 20-30 somethings stakeholders who call this place home. I want it to expand and more importantly evolve into something beyond a “bedroom community” and if that means I’m going to be known as a stooge for the city, then so be it.