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June 15, 2011· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

June 15, 2011 – Daily Brief

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

  • OVOV gets adopted on a 4-0 vote, more on districting, what’s the deal with the early closure of the Canyon Country library and did the City Council want to kill hundreds of SCV dogs as some anonymous email stated? City Council meeting details at I HEART SCV, KHTS, SIGNAL
  • Also, as SCOPE and the Sierra Club highlight new concerns about perchlorate contamination (SIGNAL), CLWA’s water chief was on hand last night at the Council meeting and seemed to downlplay the contaminated water discovered in the Valencia well recently. I Heart has details on that.
  • Buck McKeon, after looking at his new, slimmed down but even more Republican Congressional District, announces through his Deputy that he will seek reelection in 2012. A new look at the Congressional district draft map confirms that Old Orchard 1 plus most of Newhall will be in a Democratic SFV district, so if that holds, come next election Buck McKeon won’t be on my ballot, which is just wild. SIGNAL
  • Some 40 area residents protested outside of Cameron Smyth’s office in Valencia yesterday, pressuring the termed-out Assemblyman to support Governor Brown’s tax extension plans SIGNAL
  • I think we’re going to need a bigger dog: Residents of Fair Oaks, which backs up into hills near Placerita Canyon, want somebody, anybody, to do something about coyotes, which have been making meals out of the community’s dachsund and “Mal-Shi” dogs. But a P Canyon official tells the Signal that coyotes are natural predators in the area and that if exotic small dog owners think Wily E. Coyote is a problem, they ought to know that owls can also swoop down and carry away dogs SIGNAL
  • UCLA study says suburban housing model is obsolete and that Californians, afraid of high gas prices and long commutes, are trending back to the cities and urban rentals rather than McMansions and cul-de-sacs. The study points to a declining number of permits issued for single family homes in suburbs and a rise in permits issued for multi-family units in cities. That’s bad news overall for the economy as more construction workers are employed by big suburban devevlopments LA TIMES
  • LA County is handing control of two parks and one future park site over to the City of Santa Clarita SIGNAL
  • A woman driving a Kia crashed through the fence along the Old Road in West Ridge and ended up in the rough of the Tournament Player’s Club. Unknown if she suffered injuries but she probably distracted a lot of golfers SIGNAL
  • Signal Columnist Gary Horton was in Seattle, dining with his wife, when he and everyone else in the restaurant witnessed a suicide. He relates what happened in his column this week SIGNAL
  • Big Picture points its lens at the lives of immigrants throughout the world BIG PICTURE

Comments

27 · as published
  1. NFICJune 15, 2011 at 7:54 am
    I said after the last City Council election that the SCV will have another 4 years of darkness. Well, the current City Council just established their legacy – It will be much worse traffic, air pollution and rationed (either directly or through price increases) water. Like Tim Myers, I look forward to the day I will escape from this community to one that achieves better balance without the boosterism. Jim Holt as about the most senior writer on the Signal staff needs to brush up on his geography. Fair Oaks Ranch is not adjacent or next to Angeles National Forest. Angeles National Forest is south of Placerita Canyon and east of Sand Canyon and probably 1+ mile as the crow flies.
  2. ToddJune 15, 2011 at 8:13 am
    You understand, water in California is a finite resource. Even with zero growth, supply is dwindling, and rationing through price increases are inevitable. CLWA, gets its water primarly through DWR, which gets its water out of the delta. For those of you under a rock, pumping out of the delta is currently under severe restriction due to court order to protect an “endangered” fish. Even though the “drought” has ended, we’re pumping ground water faster than it replenishes, and we can’t claim all of the snow pack. And I’d cut Holt a break… its pretty damn close to the ANF. One could say ‘relatively adjacent’.
  3. CCJune 15, 2011 at 1:22 pm
    …and yet they are approving more homes and density. Go figure.
  4. Timothy Myers SR.June 15, 2011 at 1:44 pm
    NFIC: You mistake my intention. My Nebraska bride and I are going to escape and then keep ourselves willfully ignorant of what is going on, because if you think this is a strictly SCV thing you will be sorely disappointed.
  5. ToddJune 15, 2011 at 8:27 am
    I witnessed a suicide once when I worked in Sherman Oaks, in the City National Bank building on the corner of Ventura and Sepulveda (the tallest building in Sherman Oaks). I was headed home for the night, getting off the elevator, and out of the corner of my eye, saw a body fall (apparently from the top of the building) and land in the street. I ran to the front door of the building, and behind me (which I didn’t immediately notice) were LAPD officers having just arrived on-scene, as well as the deceased’s psychiatrist. Apparently she was despondent and called her psychiatrist just to say simply that she was going to jump. And within minutes, did just that. Tragic. And for the record… I live on the other side of the 14 from Fair Oaks Ranch, near Costco, and get coyotes in the streets all the time. Growing up in Burbank, it was not uncommon to see them run in packs down the paved streets, nearly 3/4 of a mile from the “urban/wildlife interface.” We’d see deer too. They were usually just eating our flowers tho, and not our dogs. What are people doing leaving their little dogs outside, anyway????
  6. Cheryl PhillipsJune 15, 2011 at 8:40 am
    Was that just a few years ago? Because if it was, I also saw it – was just going into the parking lot on Ventura Blvd. at Marie Calendar’s down the block for lunch. Tragic, is right.
  7. Cheryl PhillipsJune 15, 2011 at 8:41 am
    I meant for dinner………..
  8. ToddJune 15, 2011 at 9:18 am
    It was shortly after 9pm, on a Thursday, that much I remember… But the acutal date escapes me… sometime probably in 2003.
  9. Cheryl PhillipsJune 15, 2011 at 9:40 am
    THE CRC carved out Old Orchard I and Old Orchard II, Hidden Valley and all of Placerita Canyon Rd. from San Fernando Rd. (or whatever we are calling it now) to Sierra Hwy. Placerita Cny. on the east side of Sierra has also been taken out of the present Congressional District and put in the San Gabriel Mountain Foothill Congressional District. And, of course all of Newhall has been carved out as well. Interesting that Newhall, the southernmost and oldest area of Santa Clarita , and where it all began in 1878 will no longer be with the City of Santa Clarita and the rest of Santa Clarita for that matter, and placed in a district with the San Fernando Valley which includes Mission Hills, Van Nuys, west all the way to Calabasas and east to Valley Village North Hollywood. – keeping communities with common interests together says the Residstricting Committee……………What??? On NBC’s News Conference Sunday morning, California Redistricting Committee member, Maria Blando stated, We didn’t cross mountains like previous districts did.” I guess she didn’t notice the mountain range between Newhall and the SFV. Ms. Blanco also stated that geographic boundaries and common community interests were two of the most important areas they looked at. This isn’t about Buck McKeon. It’s about communities that have common interests, share the same school districts, live by the decisions made by their City Council members, and are geographically tied to each other by common boundaries – they are your next door neighbors. Old Orchard – out Valencia Hills – in. Seriously this is ludicrous. CRC has not yet seen the perseverance and resolve of the residents of Happy Valley, Placerita Canyon, Old Orchard I and II and all the rest, when they have been wronged. The troops have just begun to rally.
  10. JeffJune 15, 2011 at 9:43 am
    Respect your opinion as always Cheryl, but what of the area’s Latino residents? Communities of interests doesn’t just mean city/school district/topographical boundaries. It’s also ethnic. And one could argue Buck McKeon was hardly representative of Newhall’s Latinos and that Newhall’s Latinos, given their minority status in the SCV at large but plurality in Newhall, deserved to be lumped in with a district that had a stronger Latino voice. That’s what the Voting Rights Act tries to do- prevent disenfranchisement of minorities.
  11. spineflower2June 15, 2011 at 1:19 pm
    Sounds like just a different flavor of gerrymandering. Race should not play a part of redistricting, whether it discriminates for or against any particular group.
  12. CCJune 15, 2011 at 1:25 pm
    Agreed
  13. CCJune 15, 2011 at 1:25 pm
    I hate to break this to you Jeff, but Latinos live outside of Newhall too.
  14. MikeJune 15, 2011 at 1:41 pm
    Since it’s not joining the east valley district, I don’t think they’re doing that here. My issue with this slice is it’s the worst possible size. 30,000 people, or so. It’s not easy to move that many people around without a significant ripple effect through many districts, yet at the time time, it’s a little too small to matter, politically.
  15. Cheryl PhillipsJune 15, 2011 at 8:44 pm
    “Communities of interests doesn’t just mean city/school district/topographical boundaries. It’s also ethnic.” I disagree, Jeff. I think that the parents in our Latino communities want the same things that non Latino residents want – a good job, a quality education for their kids, a safe place to live and raise a family and opportunities for growth in all endeavors. Latino and Anglo kids sit side by side in nearly every one of our schools in SCV. They are not separated out by ethnicity. All students learn about each other’s cultures and traditions – surprisingly many of which we have in common. This is how we learn about each other, learn to respect one another and become a strong community. Taking a piece of a population out of a community because of their ethnicity accomplishes nothing. I’ve heard it said that as far as registered voters go in the SCV, we are close to 50-50 Republican and Democrat. (Don’t think they count us “Decline to Staters!”). We usually have about 13% of our community come out to vote, so who’s fault is it that the same people keep getting reelected over and over and over again? You have to vote to make changes if that is what you want, and that just plain doesn’t happen out here. And one last interesting note on this subject – I spent this afternoon and evening with some families and some employees in the McGrath area and they are outraged that their community is being carved out of this valley. Amazing how sometimes we think we know what’s best for all our neighbors!
  16. MikeJune 15, 2011 at 9:42 am
    Does anyone know if Cemex is still in Buck’s district?
  17. Timothy Myers SR.June 15, 2011 at 10:40 am
    On coyotes feasting on small dogs: This is a very tough issue and I have all the sympathy in the world. We own four small dogs and love them very much and would be heartbroken if something happened to them. The only way to for sure keep coyotes away from humans (and their pets) is to periodically mount punitive expeditions against packs, executing two or three of the alpha coyotes with guns. The remaining pack members will then associate the smell of gunpowder with death, and gunpowder with humans, and stay away. It seems that a common pattern in these coyote depredations is the use of an ironwork fence rather than a full block wall. (There was also a few years back where a poor stupid husband in Canyon Country was negligent and left the gate open and the dogs ran up the hillside to become breakfast for a pack that could probably not believe their luck.) When the coyotes can see the dog it seems they are more likely to jump the fence to take it. When they can’t see the dog it seems they are less likely to move because they don’t know what is going to greet them on the other side, and don’t fully trust their sense of smell. People can help the situation by confronting coyotes when they see them and forcing them to run off, either by making noise or throwing rocks and sticks. This imprints the coyotes with the feeling that humans are Alpha and not to be trifled with.
  18. CCJune 15, 2011 at 1:27 pm
    …or you could be a responsible pet owner.
  19. Timothy Myers SR.June 15, 2011 at 1:45 pm
    Dogs have to go out to go potty!
  20. JayceJune 16, 2011 at 12:36 pm
    Wow what’s with all the negative Nancy’s lately (no offense to anyone named Nancy) thumbing down EVERYTHING no matter what the flavor of the post.
  21. TaTonkaJune 16, 2011 at 12:56 pm
    Bush’s fault
  22. spineflower2June 16, 2011 at 4:37 pm
    Malcontents struggling to find a way to ruin a board they again failed to browbeat. Simple juveline destructive tendencies. It’s continuing in new threads, too.
  23. TaTonkaJune 15, 2011 at 11:21 am
    The over/under for wars started by obama in first term has risen to 4. I have 3 units on the over. Very suprised by the silence on the left regarding war monger Obama. Consistency?
  24. spineflower2June 15, 2011 at 1:21 pm
    So, you are including Obama’s continuation of Bush Wars as belonging to Obama?
  25. JerryJune 15, 2011 at 2:02 pm
    Absolutely. He is now the commander in chief and he campaigned on ending them and bringing the troops home. They are now all his responsibility.
  26. TaTonkaJune 15, 2011 at 4:40 pm
    Jerry, not sure how long you have been here? Jeff wrote this a month back about Buck…. Osama bin Laden had been dead only a few days when House Republicans began their efforts to expand, rather than contract, the war on terror. I have been waiting for his piece on Obama’s wars but have yet to get any??? I guess intellectual honesty is an aquired taste and not genetic
  27. TaTonkaJune 16, 2011 at 5:03 am
    Hey it is only 9 million a day. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/06/obama-libya-war-congress-authority-war-powers.html
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