Myers, in his great column about the long goodbye to the SCV, recalls how he got into town:
The Wilson family -three boys (I'm the oldest), mom, dad, confused Cocker Spaniel & arthritic cat- also rolled into town for the first time via Highway 14 & SFR.
I remember we were distinctly unimpressed on that cool November day in 1992. Or rather, I should say what I think my mom said as we rolled past the Carl's Jr, a trailer park, the dumpy gas stations, several high density apartments and unimproved Old Town Newhall: "What a dump! Why did you move us here, Larry?!?"
She was right. This was not the SCV I envisioned from the great NLF brochures that showed smiling families walking along paseos in leafy-green Valencia neighborhoods. This was not the Shangri-La we were promised at the end of our desperate & confused 10+ hour journey through the barren wastelands of the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert & the strange, unending Antelope Valley. This was all wrong! WTF dad?!?!
The tears & anguish over moving started flowing all over again.
You can't imagine the disappointment I felt, and continue to feel to this day. I was born under the shadow of America's Mountain, Pikes Peak, a place so wondrous and awe-inspiring that America the Beautiful was written from its summit back when there were still people alive in these parts who spoke Aliklik. In that place, we actually had four seasons, rain in the summer time, clean air, and rivers that lived up to their billing. We had a real downtown area with, you know, skyscrapers, and intersecting streets organized into blocks and districts.
Not so in the SCV. There was none of this here.
That late-afternoon drive on Highway 14 & SFR was but the first of what would become many disappointments with this place, disappointments that shattered then shaped my adolescent years.*
And my story, along with Myers' perhaps, underscores the importance of building good "Gateways" to the SCV. A good gateway project welcomes newcomers to town with attractive signage, leafy medians, and well-built infrastructure. You want to build something that says, "Hey, newcomer, welcome! And don't be afraid. This is your home." The City has rightly focused on this at the Lyons, McBean & Valencia intersections with I-5, and, to some extent, on Newhall Ave & Highway 14.
Of course, Old Town Newhall is now much more attractive than it was in 1992, so any family coming to the SCV in 2012 won't receive the same shock I did. Still though,if I were a dad moving my family to the SCV in 2012, I'd try to find a way to vector them in via Highway 126; that's the best way to get to town if you're coming for the first time and want to make a good impression (stopping at fruit stands along the way, admiring the beautiful mountain river valley views then cue the slowly dawning Magic Mountain Sky Tower for the win!)
*I don't mean to dump on the SCV too hard, but it's tough to move when you're 16. I'm jealous of folks like I Heart SCV, whose SCV Credentials are legion because he was born at Henry Mayo and grew up here as a kid. His perspective is entirely different and just as valid as mine
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Do you remember how you first arrived in the SCV?
In the first week of June 1996, the Myers Clan, with our three youngest children, came over the Newhall Pass in a rental car, turned onto the Highway 14 freeway and exited at (then) San Fernando Road to set up housekeeping in a corporate apartment in Newhall near Dockweiler.I don't have any evidence to support this, but if it were possible to poll or analyze how new families came to the SCV, I think the majority of them would have come off Highway 14 and exited the old San Fernando Road just like the Myers clan did. Unless you're moving to the SCV from LA (somewhat likely), the central valley (somewhat unlikely) or the coast (very unlikely), you probably came to town on Highway 14, right?
The Wilson family -three boys (I'm the oldest), mom, dad, confused Cocker Spaniel & arthritic cat- also rolled into town for the first time via Highway 14 & SFR.
I remember we were distinctly unimpressed on that cool November day in 1992. Or rather, I should say what I think my mom said as we rolled past the Carl's Jr, a trailer park, the dumpy gas stations, several high density apartments and unimproved Old Town Newhall: "What a dump! Why did you move us here, Larry?!?"
She was right. This was not the SCV I envisioned from the great NLF brochures that showed smiling families walking along paseos in leafy-green Valencia neighborhoods. This was not the Shangri-La we were promised at the end of our desperate & confused 10+ hour journey through the barren wastelands of the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert & the strange, unending Antelope Valley. This was all wrong! WTF dad?!?!
The tears & anguish over moving started flowing all over again.
You can't imagine the disappointment I felt, and continue to feel to this day. I was born under the shadow of America's Mountain, Pikes Peak, a place so wondrous and awe-inspiring that America the Beautiful was written from its summit back when there were still people alive in these parts who spoke Aliklik. In that place, we actually had four seasons, rain in the summer time, clean air, and rivers that lived up to their billing. We had a real downtown area with, you know, skyscrapers, and intersecting streets organized into blocks and districts.
Not so in the SCV. There was none of this here.
That late-afternoon drive on Highway 14 & SFR was but the first of what would become many disappointments with this place, disappointments that shattered then shaped my adolescent years.*
And my story, along with Myers' perhaps, underscores the importance of building good "Gateways" to the SCV. A good gateway project welcomes newcomers to town with attractive signage, leafy medians, and well-built infrastructure. You want to build something that says, "Hey, newcomer, welcome! And don't be afraid. This is your home." The City has rightly focused on this at the Lyons, McBean & Valencia intersections with I-5, and, to some extent, on Newhall Ave & Highway 14.
Of course, Old Town Newhall is now much more attractive than it was in 1992, so any family coming to the SCV in 2012 won't receive the same shock I did. Still though,if I were a dad moving my family to the SCV in 2012, I'd try to find a way to vector them in via Highway 126; that's the best way to get to town if you're coming for the first time and want to make a good impression (stopping at fruit stands along the way, admiring the beautiful mountain river valley views then cue the slowly dawning Magic Mountain Sky Tower for the win!)
*I don't mean to dump on the SCV too hard, but it's tough to move when you're 16. I'm jealous of folks like I Heart SCV, whose SCV Credentials are legion because he was born at Henry Mayo and grew up here as a kid. His perspective is entirely different and just as valid as mine
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