We are one! And we will not go quietly into the night! or something:
We share a common history, a common high school district, we shop at the same stores, we go to the same churches and we enroll our kids in the same soccer clubs. Do we want to be feuding like Palmdale and Lancaster? Do we want to be lobbing grenades at each other across Interstate 5? Two cities would constantly bicker and give away the store in the form of tax incentives to entice the next sales-tax-generating big-box store. By joining the city of Santa Clarita, westside and Tesoro residents will share equally in our valley’s long and colorful march toward self-determination. Westside and Tesoro residents will cast equal votes for all five of their City Council representatives – and dump them out, or carve us into districts, or add seats, or stop development, or build roads or cut fees for recreation programs, if that is what they and the rest of the Santa Clarita Valley – and only the Santa Clarita Valley – decide they want to do.
I find no reason to quibble with the Signal’s analysis. I’m excited about this vote, excited that the 3% of west siders who actually bother to vote in this off-year election will be able to determine -in a non-binding way of course- the future of the west side.
This is an historic moment for the SCV and I can think of only one music track equal to that moment:
In all seriousness, I think there are several caveats in the upcoming vote that will allow either side, th city and the county, an ‘out’ if you will. For starters, voters are allowed to vote yes on more than one of the options. Do you wish to stay in the County of Los Anglees? Yes. Do you wish to annex to Santa Clarita? Yes. If enough voters vote that way, the results will be largely meaningless.
Secondly either side can claim that the results aren’t truly representative if turnout is low, which it always is in an off-year election.
Nevertheless this vote has been a long time coming and it should be interesting to see.
Join us my long lost west side brothers and sisters! From the mountains of Agua Dulce to the border of Newhall Ranch, from Castaic Lake to the Newhall Pass- one City, Santa Clarita!
PS, for the city haters, you can read Dave Bossert’s Sunday piece for balance. He says west siders should stay in Unincorporated Los Angeles County because the City of Santa Clarita has been disrespectful toward west siders in the past.
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