August 11, 2008 – Daily Brief

My wife painted her toes in honor of the Olympic rings of the Games of XXIX Olympiad and even allowed me to display her feet on this site. Props to Natural Nails in Newhall for their color coordination, selection, and Olympic Spirit.

News

• Gauny zings City on procedural technicality for Mayo EIR: The City of Santa Clarita extended the review period of the Environmental Impact Report for the controversial Mayo expansion project after SmartGrowthSCV’s David Gauny held a press conference Friday saying that the public wasn’t going to get a fair shake at cracking the 3,000 page document. The review period was supposed to end today, but written comments were supposed to be in by Friday afternoon, an apparent screw-up by City Hall. Now the review process will extend until September 29, bringing the review date past the public hearing date on September 9. Signal and Daily News have articles.
• Antonovich/Yaroslavsky calls for calories next to fast food menu items: Fifth District Supe Michael Antonovich (representing North County residents) and Zev Yaroslavsky will “present an ordinance that would require eatery chains to print menus and billboards with the number of calories for each item alongside the price.” New York already has such an ordinance and the supervisors say that “The Menu should be as informative of what its effect is on one’s waistline as it is on their pocketbooks.” The ordinance would only apply to chain restaurants that have 15 or more outlets, so you can still eat that chili-cheese burger at Jimmy Deans sans guilt. Yaroslavsky suffers from Type 2 Diabetes and says “this is personal” to him.
  
• Gas prices dip below $4 in SCV: So reports Tammi Marashlian at the Signal who says that “Drivers in the Santa Clarita Valley have been getting a niec break over the past several weeks as gas prices in the area have continued to drop in light of a decrease in oil prices and world-wide demand.” The average price in Santa Clarita is still about $4.12, but at some places in the valley, you can buy your fossil fuel for a penny less than $4. Link
• Henry Mayo sells expansion plan with ice cream social: More than 200 people attended an ice cream social on Saturday to learn and ask questions about the Henry Mayo Memorial Hospital expansion plan, the Signal reports. The event featured 10 supporters wearing “Ask Me” buttons who fielded questions from ice cream-consuming neighbors. A hospital spokesperson says four people changed their mind about the hospital after consuming the delicious treat on a hot summer afternoon, but others remained unconvinced about the 327,000 sq. ft. office/inpatient expansion. Link
• One supervisor changes his mind on MTA Tax inclusion on November ballot: Don Knabe voted against including the MTA’s half cent sales tax on the county’s November ballot, but he had a change of heart just a few days later after realizing that it’d cost taxpayers some $10 million to host a special ballot alongside the customary one. Knabe is still opposed to the measure itself, but wants “the voters to have the opportunity to decide for themselves,” according to a spokesperson. Knabe made a motion to reconsider the recent vote; that could happen Tuedsay. Meanwhile, a Democratic state Senator is threatening to kill the entire measure if a rail project of her’s isn’t addressed.
• Chamber August 2008 Newsletter: Haven’t had time to review the august organization’s publication for this month (double entendre ha!), but from a skim, it appears water conservation is a topic plus Larry Mankin pimping the Chamber’s visit to China in November.Link
• Latino marketing firm moves to SCV: The Daily News had an interesting article this week on Power Media, a Latino-focused marketing and public relations firm that recently opened new offices in Santa Clarita. The company “is a multimillion dollar enterprise that specializes in creating Spanish-language ad campaigns for high profile clients seeking to reach the booming Hispanic market,” The Daily News says. It counts among its clients big firms like Universal Music, Vivendi Entertainment, and others, but also works with small businesses to promote more routine products such as “red and hot pink” lipstick, which the company says is popular among Latinos. The company purchased a Sierra Highway building back in July and has already been toasted by the folks over at the Chamber. Link
• Bike shop gets harrassed by fuzz over motorcycle deaths: Props to the Signal for printing this story, which offers an interesting look into the Sheriff’s station relationship with an SCV business outside the mainstream as well as several revealing quotes from Captain LaBerge. Over the weekend reporter Jim Holt detailed a conflict between a Canyon Country motorcycle shop named 5150 Custom, which “fixes motorcycles and, sometimes, augments them to enable riders to perform stunts” and the Sheriff’s station. Along with the fact that that 5150 is in the motorcycle-modification business, it’s very name (5150) and the recent rash of motorcycle deaths has put it on the radar of the Sheriff’s station, according to Holt. Some six people have been killed on motorcycles in the last year, and four of those were “young adults on crotch-rockets” according to LaBerge, who has met with the owner of the 5150 shop. The shop owner says the fuzz are trying to put him out of business, but LaBerge denies that, but says his Deputies will “keep handing out citations until [the shop] proves to us that each and every one of your bikes meet legal requirements.” Link
• Daily News notices Hart Bison: Great profile in Sunday’s Daily News on the 16 Bison -including some new babies!- at Hart Park. Writer Jerry Berrios goes into the history of the Bison in the park (Disney gave them to William S Hart after driving the herd through Newhall), and even details some of the individual bison that roam on some 25 acres behind Hart’s mansion in Newhall. Link
• Plaza Shopping Center set to open soon: East valley residents have waited a long time for a good shopping center to open and soon the wait will be over as a 620,000 square foot retail center “located between Golden Valley Road and Via Princessa” may open as soon as October. The Plaza at Golden Valley, as it is unimaginatively named, will have a Kohl’s, Circuit City, Lowes, Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and other stores. The report quotes City economic manager Jason Crawford praising the project, but I’m pretty sure it lies outside city territory, which means all that tax money goes to the County, just like the Valencia Marketplace over in Stevenson Ranch. Link
• New school year upon us: Elementary, junior high and high school students are set to return to school this week, reports the Signal. Features Editor Michele Buttelman has some advice for parents. I’d only add one more: in your frenzied rush to get your precious child to school on his/her first day, please be conscious of other road users, especially bicyclists. K THX BAI

Misc

• John Boston’s History of the SCV scheduled:  The former Signal writer and valley folklorist/historian will host another History of the SCV class in September. The class begins September 17th and is held at a different significant spot in Santa Clarita every week until November 19th. Here’s some teasers: “ Newhall was once attacked: by our own Air Force. As recently as the 1970s, there were Bigfoot sightings in Sand Canyon. Were we home to the world’s biggest grizzly bear? A Chinese general once named Saugus as one of the top military targets on Earth.” Link
• What’s Myers know that we don’t? In his Sunday piece in the Signal, he details an imaginative financing deal on a vacant piece of land during an economic downturn (*cough* Smiser *cough*) and shows how developers can get creative even during slowdowns. It’s obviously aimed at the Smiser deal, I think, but is he describing whatcould happen or is he slying saying what is happening? Link
• Signal says Ender should prove she works for us: Great editorial on Sunday on Laurie Ender, the hospital, and the $30,000 spent to help elect Ender in the spring. The Signal says Ender “needs to go above and beyond in winning -and keeping- the trust of the people she represents.” Not to be too contrarian to the Signal and my own readers, but she did get more votes than anyone else. The hospital issue was hot back in the spring -indeed it was one of the main issues- and yet she still won. One might say she would have won even without the $29,500 mailer since her PTA organization was so strong and she got people in Valencia to the polls. Indeed, one might say that the majority of Santa Clarita is fine with such politics and politicking, that we who ask questions and seek answers are the minority. She doesn’t have to win our trust, in other words, more people trust her than don’t trust her. Just the facts! Link