I almost spit coffee all over my Samsung phone when I read this gem from our new City Manager who gave a speech to VIA yesterday:
¡Au contraire mon capitan! Are we talking about the same Santa Clarita here? Because I lived here before, during, and after the recession, and I don't remember us thriving from 2008-2011 at all.
Like a lot of Southern California towns, the recession turned our strengths (rapid growth, new housing, lots of new sales tax generation) into weaknesses -albatrosses even!- that dragged our community down. Sure, Santa Clarita is no San Bernardino or Las Vegas or any of the other suburban ghost towns, but this recession hit Santa Clarita hard and exposed our weaknesses.
During the boom years in this town, you could practically throw a stick in any direction and hit a building project. Bridgeport. Northbridge. West Creek, West Ridge, and countless other home developments on the east side of town. The population in and out of the City grew by several thousand each year. Schools were bursting; we couldn't build a new Castaic High fast enough and had to bus children from Castaic to Valencia & West Ridge.
And new retail. Everywhere. From Wal Marts & Sam's Club at Centre Pointe to Town Center Drive and elsewhere. Retail vacancies were very low during the boom years, so low that developers had to build more standard strip malls. The Patios squeaked in just as the recession was beginning.
And let's not forget the City's number one economic engine during those years: auto sales. Creekside was so full of dealers selling new cars to people that auto row spilled out onto Magic Mountain Parkway & Valencia Blvd. The Mercedes Benz dealership opened, followed by a BMW, and a new Honda dealership. We even had a Hummer (remember those?) dealership with a little fake mountain course to impress the soccer moms and dads. We were flush with cash from auto sales.
All of that, from population & housing growth to retail developments to auto sales, was devastated by the recession. Far from thriving, this community got hit hard. Short sales, foreclosures, empty store fronts, office/industrial/retail vacancy rates north of 20%, and a Creekside that was a shadow of its former self, with many dealerships going under and others converting to used car or fleet sales.
The recession exposed the fact that Santa Clarita has very little durable industry and its tax base is only as good as its retail & auto sales, its homes only attractive in so far as gas prices are low. The City probably knew all this going in, but it's an empirical fact now. We did not thrive during the recession. We barely hung on.
Now if Striplin is only talking about the City's financial health, then I'd be more apt to agree. Pulskamp saw what was coming, hit the brakes hard, shored up his finances, and the City sailed through the recession unharmed, and indeed, continued building cool things like the library, Old Town Newhall, the CVC, and other projects. That is something to be proud and happy about, but it's not the full picture of the SCV during and after the recession.
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Santa Clarita thrived during recession?
Saying community engagement has been a hallmark of Santa Clarita, Striplin encouraged residents to remain involved.
“For the last four to five years the economy was in a tough spot,” he said. “Santa Clarita not only survived — it thrived.”
¡Au contraire mon capitan! Are we talking about the same Santa Clarita here? Because I lived here before, during, and after the recession, and I don't remember us thriving from 2008-2011 at all.
Like a lot of Southern California towns, the recession turned our strengths (rapid growth, new housing, lots of new sales tax generation) into weaknesses -albatrosses even!- that dragged our community down. Sure, Santa Clarita is no San Bernardino or Las Vegas or any of the other suburban ghost towns, but this recession hit Santa Clarita hard and exposed our weaknesses.
During the boom years in this town, you could practically throw a stick in any direction and hit a building project. Bridgeport. Northbridge. West Creek, West Ridge, and countless other home developments on the east side of town. The population in and out of the City grew by several thousand each year. Schools were bursting; we couldn't build a new Castaic High fast enough and had to bus children from Castaic to Valencia & West Ridge.
And new retail. Everywhere. From Wal Marts & Sam's Club at Centre Pointe to Town Center Drive and elsewhere. Retail vacancies were very low during the boom years, so low that developers had to build more standard strip malls. The Patios squeaked in just as the recession was beginning.
And let's not forget the City's number one economic engine during those years: auto sales. Creekside was so full of dealers selling new cars to people that auto row spilled out onto Magic Mountain Parkway & Valencia Blvd. The Mercedes Benz dealership opened, followed by a BMW, and a new Honda dealership. We even had a Hummer (remember those?) dealership with a little fake mountain course to impress the soccer moms and dads. We were flush with cash from auto sales.
All of that, from population & housing growth to retail developments to auto sales, was devastated by the recession. Far from thriving, this community got hit hard. Short sales, foreclosures, empty store fronts, office/industrial/retail vacancy rates north of 20%, and a Creekside that was a shadow of its former self, with many dealerships going under and others converting to used car or fleet sales.
The recession exposed the fact that Santa Clarita has very little durable industry and its tax base is only as good as its retail & auto sales, its homes only attractive in so far as gas prices are low. The City probably knew all this going in, but it's an empirical fact now. We did not thrive during the recession. We barely hung on.
Now if Striplin is only talking about the City's financial health, then I'd be more apt to agree. Pulskamp saw what was coming, hit the brakes hard, shored up his finances, and the City sailed through the recession unharmed, and indeed, continued building cool things like the library, Old Town Newhall, the CVC, and other projects. That is something to be proud and happy about, but it's not the full picture of the SCV during and after the recession.
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