City Briefs, the City's official blog, has a post about the latest plan to literally throw fistfuls of cash at film & tv productions to get them to shoot inside the SCV. That's nothing new of course; we're in a classic race to the bottom, with the production houses & networks playing community against community, state against state,and even country against country.
But what is new is this photochopped and imaginary image posted on the blog, an image of a big "SANTA CLARITA" sign similar to the one in Hollywood:
I want a Santa Clarita sign! On a mountain!
But what is new is this photochopped and imaginary image posted on the blog, an image of a big "SANTA CLARITA" sign similar to the one in Hollywood:
Image not recoveredfilm-santa-clarita-hollywood-north.jpg
I've pined for such a sign since I started blogging about the SCV way back in 2006. We've got plenty of mountains around here, lots of freeway traffic and visibility, but it seems we lack the collective will and vision to declare on some mountain side or other that this land is our land, and it's called Santa Clarita, damnit.
The Newhall Land and Farming Company had no such qualms back in the 80s and early 90s, declaring boldly (with stylized logo and shaped stones) that this land was Valencia:
Our chloride-saturated neighbors down the 126 in Fillmore and Santa Paula also boldly declare on mountainsides their community name. And those towns are like a fourth the size of Santa Clarita!
Alas, the best we can do in the SCV is build blindingly bright electronic signs advertising auto row along I-5, inviting drivers to come visit and save big bucks on stomper trucks. From a freeway driver's perspective, we're little better than some cheap and tawdry truck stop (I'm looking at you Castaic).
A Santa Clarita sign on say, Oat Mountain or somewhere around Castaic Junction or even Canyon Country would help bring this community together. It'd be a point of pride as in, "Hey look, we actually built that," and it would unite the SCV from north to south and east to west (at least to the I-5, where the County begins. The county would no doubt respond by building a Stevenson Ranch sign). And it'd be visible from the air, so every time you fly into Burbank or LAX you could look down and see your home.
We could even borrow liberally from Woody Guthrie and teach SCV children about the sign and learn to sing: "This land is your land, this land is my land, from Castaic Junction to the Newhall Pass, from Agua Dulce, to the Towsley switchbacks, from Placerita to the Vasquez Canyon, this land was made for you and me!"
Alas, it probably wont' happen during my lifetime. We'll just always be known as the place near Magic Mountain, that place way way out there past the SFV, you know, Valencia and such.
The Newhall Land and Farming Company had no such qualms back in the 80s and early 90s, declaring boldly (with stylized logo and shaped stones) that this land was Valencia:
Image not recoveredvalencia.jpg
Our chloride-saturated neighbors down the 126 in Fillmore and Santa Paula also boldly declare on mountainsides their community name. And those towns are like a fourth the size of Santa Clarita!
Alas, the best we can do in the SCV is build blindingly bright electronic signs advertising auto row along I-5, inviting drivers to come visit and save big bucks on stomper trucks. From a freeway driver's perspective, we're little better than some cheap and tawdry truck stop (I'm looking at you Castaic).
A Santa Clarita sign on say, Oat Mountain or somewhere around Castaic Junction or even Canyon Country would help bring this community together. It'd be a point of pride as in, "Hey look, we actually built that," and it would unite the SCV from north to south and east to west (at least to the I-5, where the County begins. The county would no doubt respond by building a Stevenson Ranch sign). And it'd be visible from the air, so every time you fly into Burbank or LAX you could look down and see your home.
We could even borrow liberally from Woody Guthrie and teach SCV children about the sign and learn to sing: "This land is your land, this land is my land, from Castaic Junction to the Newhall Pass, from Agua Dulce, to the Towsley switchbacks, from Placerita to the Vasquez Canyon, this land was made for you and me!"
Alas, it probably wont' happen during my lifetime. We'll just always be known as the place near Magic Mountain, that place way way out there past the SFV, you know, Valencia and such.
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