It’s sad that I can’t tell whether this commenter on WRB is serious or being sarcastic about City vs County Leadership:
It is a damned shame that we over here in the City of Santa Clarita don’t have the caring, protective representation that Westside residents get from their Town Councils. Instead, Santa Claritans get conniving tyrants that couldn’t care less about how they are destroying this city, neighborhood by neighborhood, just so City Manager Ken Pulskamp can retire and move on to consulting, leaving with a hefty portfolio showing how he can get monster, inappropriate developments approved right on top of existing communities in spite of overwhelming opposition from community coalitions. And our weak, worthless, corrupt City Council is only too happy to abandon us while they happily hand this city over to their rotten city manager.
Live the dream, you lucky folks on the West side – DON’T ANNEX INTO THIS NIGHTMARE CALLED THE CITY OF SANTA CLARITA!
Let’s suppose s/he is serious for a moment, because the sentiments aren’t really difficult to imagine.
For real? Santa Clarita is a nightmare?
Sorry, I just don’t see it. In fact, I don’t see anything even resembling this.
Here’s what I see: a city with low voter turnout and an apathetic (meaning quite possibly happy) population. A council that is perhaps too chummy with developers, local business interests, car dealers and certain neighborhoods, but one that still manages to get things done for the community. I see a staff that may subscribe to New Urbanism ideals but is professional, competent, accessible and reasonable nonetheless. I see a fiscal picture that, while not rosy, nevertheless stands in stark contrast to other cities in this state. I see a road network that, while crowded at some points during the day, still manages to get me from one side of the valley to the other in 15-20 minutes.
On the other side, I see dedicated no-growthers who have re-branded themselves as defenders of 80′s style suburbia and foes of anything “high density” or affordable and who think that sitting in traffic -alone in their cars- for even a few minutes is akin to a violation of their personal human rights.*
Closer to home in my ‘hood, I see a new community center, a re-built and redeveloped Newhall, a new library, a Veteran’s Park, a Metrolink station, and an emphasis on walkability, affordable housing, new job centers, and alternate transportation, all values I hold near and dear.
And I’m supposed to think that these things are bad, nay, that this is a nightmare I just haven’t woken up to yet?
Nonsense. Of course there are areas the City could improve in (I remain really ticked that they re-striped Lyons into three lanes, but I recognize I’m a minority user of that roadway in this case), but life in the City of Santa Clarita is in no way, shape, or form a nightmare.
Enjoy the exile to the warm embrace of the County, guys. Come back to the table when you’re feeling a little more reasonable about growth, climate change, affordable housing, traffic, land use, local jobs, gas prices, and demographic changes.
*To be fair, the traffic-as-a-human-rights-violation meme applies to about 86% of the SCV’s population.
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