A good ending to a pretty great week in the SCV

Consider all the news we read this week: home prices are rebounding in a big way, which is great news for those of us who have been here long enough to see our home's values reach stratospheric heights in 2007 only to come crashing down to, in many cases, less than you paid for it. Hell, I'm even thinking of selling my high-density Newhall condo, and I'm notoriously slow and cautious about real estate. 

On another real estate front, we're finally erecting, pitching and ultimately selling new stucco boxes along the riverfront again. Let's all extend a warm welcome to the SCV's newest neighborhood, River Park Village Esplanade de Calle Soledad (I think that's the name?), the SCV's newest transit friendly village (so designated because it's directly across the street from the Metrolink station and the stands-less Saugus Speedway) located in Canyon Country Saugus Whittaker Bermite that place in between the other places. Hooray for hammers meeting nails and the construction industry!

And then there was Tuesday night, which brought only more good news to the SCV. The County Supes gave Disney what they wanted: approval of their final EIR for the Studios at the Ranch project, which will bring a few thousand local, high paying and potentially organized labor jobs to the SCV. Not to mention all the ancillary businesses that will sprout up to support & service Disney's ranch development and future productions. Hooray for Mickey and the Supes! 

And while we're at it, let's give three cheers to the City for approving some additions to Central Park!

But of course until Studios at the Ranch is built, the only thing really compelling people to move here remains, as it has for decades now, our quality public schools. And on that front, there's much to be happy about. After suffering through  five years of budget cuts, layoffs, class size increases, perpetual bashing of "teacher unions" and administrators, as well as declining enrollment, our local K-6 schools are still kicking butt. Today we found that every public K-6 school in the SCV scored north of 800 on the state's API score. Some Districts were down a few points this year, but over all, our schools continue to perform and exceed state averages, even in schools that are heavily diverse and have many English language learners. As long as our schools continue to do well, we'll continue to see young families moving out to raise their kids (and ultimately leave, like Myers did this week). 

And then, we also got some great news from an SCV blogging & writing perspective this week. Michele Buttleman has left the Signal, but will start up her own blog about the SCV, and Big John Boston will now write for SantaClarita.com, which has quickly become the SCV's go-to portal for those in the know and those who want to hear thought opinions on what the SCV is really about. We should see Boston's first piece sometime next week, and I can't wait to read it. Finally, as if that wasn't enough, Lois Eisenberg delighted with another one of her traffic nag letters. Hey, she means well, cut her some slack!

All that to say/explain why I'm taking today off and not writing a Daily Brief. You should take the day off too. It's Labor Day weekend, the last weekend of Summer. Kick back, soak in the sun poolside, or huddle inside with the A/C on and do a Netflix Marathon of something, or just have a lazy, pleasant weekend and reflect on the fact that, compared to a lot of places in the world, we have it really good in the SCV.