News you can use on this Monday morning on the eve of fools.
News
- Two Las Lomas Obits: The Signal’s Jim Holt has an interesting history of the Las Lomas housing project going back all the way to 1984. Holt frames the controversial 5,800 home housing project in the Newhall Pass as a battle between the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley. And over at the SFVBJ (subscription required), a writer there details business reaction to the City of LA’s decision to end work on the project and says that Dan Palmer, the developer, could resubmit a scaled-back Las Lomas project to the City of Los Angeles.
- Daily News on Bandit Sign fines: “Bandit signs are worse than litter. It’s as bad as graffiti,” Councilmember TimBen Boydston told the Daily News in an article about the City Council’s adoption of higher fines for ad signs placed in “median strips, on utility poles, next to freeway ramps and elsewhere in the public rights of way.” Now companies displaying ads will face a fine of $250 for the first violation up to $1000 for the second. Link
- Council candidates and fundraising: The Signal’s Katie Geyer reported this weekend on funds raised by the City Council candidates. Retired Sheriff’s Chief Bob Spierer raised the most from February to March ($24k) and has the most cash on hand ($48k). He’s followed by Mayor Bob Kellar, Laurie Ender, Maria Gutzeit and Diane Trautman. Geyer made special note of the fact that Gutzeit has received some $360 from G&L Realty, the Beverly Hills firm that “has a vested interest in the hospital’s expansion project.” Gutzeit says she’s also received funds from environmentalists and that her funding is “balanced.” And Trautman, despite raising the least amount of money ($5,000) says she’s feeling very competitive. One week to go baby!
- Thieves continue to steal car parts: Remember that announcement from COC about a year ago cautioning students about thieves who were caught stealing car parts of Toyota vehicles? It seems those thefts were just the beginning of what’s become a nationwide trend. The Long Beach Press Telegram reports that catalytic converters “containing platinum, palladium, and rhodium -among the planet’s most precious metals -” are luring thieves who can find and remove the parts quickly and easily. The Telegram says Santa Clarita was hit by 15 such thefts last year and that five converters were stolen in just two days this month. “It’s all happening during daylight hours,” LT Brenda Cambra of the SCV Station told the Telegram. Toyotas are especially an easy target. Link
- LAFCO Honcho Profiled: No, it’s not some comedy club, rather it’s the agency that either allows or denies annexation in Los Angeles County, and it’s played an important role in the history of the SCV. In Sunday’s Signal, Jim Holt profiled LAFCO’s executive director, a man named Sandor Winger who said that the county agency “takes no sides” in matters of annexation. Winger told Holt that “water is California’s gold” and that the agency can’t recommend an annexation project unless water is guaranteed. There’s a bit about Las Lomas in the story but no new word the reports we’re all waiting for detailing the governance options for the West Side. Link
- Retail real estate in SCV strong says SFVBJ: In an article on San Fernando, Santa Clarita, and Antelope Valley retail real estate, the SFVBJ says the demand for retail spaces in Santa Clarita is high and rents are increasing despite the housing downturn. The SFVBJ spoke with a commercial real estate broker who told the paper that, “We have to beat tenants away with sticks,” in Santa Clarita and that some spaces have had 5-6 percent rent increases over last year. There’s no statistics on how much space is actually leased presently, but the article says that shopping centers that provide an all-in-one services are virtually “recession proof.” I suppose that’s good news for upscale developments like the Bridgeport Marketplace, which should open up later this year, but in my walks and rides around Newhall, I’ve seen an increasing amount of vacant retail spaces (not just in Old Town either, but along Lyons). Link (Subscription)
- SCV Marine going to A-Stan: We talked about 19 year old Darryl Crookston last year as he and his two high school buddies were the subject of a multi-part Column One story in the Los Angeles Times. The Valencia man and his buddies all joined the Marines at the same time and the Times followed them from the time they made their decision to join to their first days of boot camp and finally graduation. Well now, Karen Elowitt at The Signal completes the stateside story of Crookston, who’s set to ship off to Afghanistan next Sunday. He had a going away party this weekend, and the street around Crookston’s house was “festooned with dozens of American flags and signs wishing the young Marine well.” Congressman McKeon was there. “I grew up in a patriotic family, so I just decided to go for it,” Crookston told the Signal. Keep your head down and best of luck Darryl. Link
Blogs & Opinion
- Still opining on coots mess: Have the coots left Bridgeport yet? It’s spring after all. Whether they are still there or not, the LA Times story on the coot problem at Bridgeport is still getting a lot of hits and reaction apparently. One commenter on the story had this to say about killing coots: “How about uprooting “Bridgeport” and all of post-1980 Santa Clarita for that matter and restoring it to its natural state. Sprawl has hit the wall.” Ten pages of SCV bashing
- Poison Drummer and SCV resident makes TMZ: Ricki Rockett, a drummer for the band Poison, was supposed to play a gig with his fiancee at Rattlesnake Slim’s, a new coffeehouse in Newhall (near OLPH in that old western retail area). But the drummer had to cancel to deal with some legal charges, and that cancellation made the TMZ celebrity news blog. Link
- Pot calling the kettle black? So it’s great that the City Council has finally tackled those nasty and annoying bandit signs, but aren’t the worst offenders as of late city council candidates themselves? That’s what Linda Slocum ponders in a blog post on the matter saying that Mayor Bob Kellar so far is the only candidate who has taken signs down (I thought that was for another reason, namely that some alleged they were too big?). Oh, and points for originality go to Maria Gutzeit, who apparently leased a traffic warning sign to flash a campaign message at the corner of San Fernando Road and Magic Mountain Parkway. Link
- LTE Section makes for good reading these days: At one time The Signal said it was having trouble receiving quality Letters to the Editor, but now-a-days, in the midst of a city council election with five qualified candidate, it seems everyone wants to opine on the race. And thankfully Creekside now puts its LTEs online. Link
- Two from the Signal Blogs: A reader wants to know why SCV teens cuss so much and the Publisher wants to know what you think of all the campaign mailers this season (he thinks they aren’t as bad as other mailers in other areas of the state.)