April 30, 2008 - Daily Brief
Written by Jeff on April 30th, 2008I’m still ill but I feel ten times better than I did yesterday morning. I’m a bit doped up right now on various drugs so pardon the inevitable grammar/spelling errors.
News
- Standard and Poors says LandSource bankruptcy expected in weeks: The firm that counts Newhall Land as its biggest asset has defaulted on its loan payments and is expected to seek bankruptcy protection within weeks, Standard and Poors by way of Reuters is reporting today. Landsource is a unit that was formed by Lennar, LNR, Ceberus Capital and CalPERS a few years ago. It owns Newhall Land’s 15,000 acres of land in Northern Los Angeles County (including the Newhall Ranch land). The Reuters report claims that Landsource had $115 million in the bank in early February but only has $25 million in the bank now. Reuters wasn’t able to get a quote from a Landsource or Newhall Land spokesperson. Reuters report, Calpers WSJ report
- Rim of Valley bill on President’s Desk: The bill -sponsored by two area Democratic congressmen- would “look into” turning some 500,000 acres of land above and to the west of Santa Clarita into federally protected parkland under the Santa Monica Mountains Conservation authority. Advocates hope some day to build 150 miles of trails through the wilderness area. Katie Geyer has a good report here, and the Daily News one has also.
- Paramedics on strike: Some 60 medics working for AMR in the SCV went on strike yesterday in an effort to get better pay and medical benefits. Parimal Rohit finds out what the strike is about. KHTS quotes a medic who says the issue boils down to medical coverage. “When you’re making $9.50 an hour as an EMT, sometimes it comes down to paying health insurance or the rent.” Link
- Sharon Runner talks to SacBee about her fatal disease: Assemblywoman Sharon Runner announced last year that she was suffering from “limited sclerodoma,” a lung disease that is ultimately fatal and has no cure. The wife of Senator George Runner (known as the “Funner Runner”) is on the organ transplant list for a new set of lungs, and the disease is impacting what she can do. Despite all that, Runner seems to be in good spirits and says she just wants “God’s will to be done.” She gets “winded” on walks from her Assembly office to her husband’s office in the Capital. Link
- Crime Shorts: A 29 year old woman from North Hollywood was arrested in Canyon Country and Deputies found a US Postal Service mail key, methamphetamines, and other pieces of mail. She’s being held on $32,000 bail and I imagine she’ll be introduced to the feds soon. KHTS says the woman hadn’t stolen any mail from Santa Clarita boxes. Link And over at the Hart District, a female guidance counselor is under investigation for “inappropriate” telecommunications with a 16 year old student at Golden Valley High. There’s nothing specific in any reports yet, though KHTS got a Sheriff’s investigator to say that email and text messages were part of it. It may not be a criminal investigation at this point either, but the telecommunications may have been sexual in nature. OMG U R SO HAWT!
- Santa Clarita becoming a biotech hub? With the help of MannKind and other biotech firms, it’s looking more and more like the SCV is becoming a good place for biotech firms, the SFVBJ reports.
Miscellaneous
- Ken Striplin points out Enterprise Zone success stories: A few weeks ago, the Daily News did a piece asking whether communities such as Santa Clarita are really served by the state Enterprise Zone program, which gives businesses tax incentives to hire and operate locally. The Daily News report said multi-national companies like WalMart and McDonalds were quick to take advantage of the designation. Well, in Sunday’s Signal, Assistant City Manager Ken Striplin outlined some of the businesses in Santa Clarita that have taken advantage of the program. From Valencia Acura to WalMart to Salt Creeke Grill to US Healthworks; it looks like quite a few companies are taking advantage of the designation. It’s “proven to be an amazing new tool in the economic development toolbox” Striplin says. Link
- Tim Myers has more on election, teases us with City Council districts: The blogger and bespeckled business exec got out of map of Santa Clarita’s precincts and used crayons to signify which precincts Laurie Ender, Bob Kellar, Diane Trautman and Bob Spierer won (Gutzeit didn’t win any). What he found was completely different than in past elections where councilmembers Kellar and Smyth cleaned up valley-wide. In fact, in the 2008 election, Ender destroyed all comers in North Valencia, Saugus and other areas served by her mighty PTA, while Kellar dominated the east valley. So all this fresh lovely data has Myers wondering whether it’s time to take the training wheels off of City Politics and do grown-up City Council Districts (Ummm YEAH!). Anyway, he doesn’t talk about districts much this week but promises more analysis next week. Good stuff
- Mayors Prayer Breakfast tomorrow: The Signal has coverage of the annual breakfast put on by a Christian businessman’s group. The event will be decidedly less controversial than last year; a comedian will give the keynote. You wouldn’t know why it was so controversial if you read Katie Geyer’s piece on the breakfast from yesterday; the Signal writer says the controversy last year was just about the word “Mayor” and the placement of an apostrophe. That’s part of it, but not the whole story as SCVTalkers will remember: the controversy was over the Keynote speaker, arch-conservative Ralph Drollinger who’s comments about female legislators (they being sinful) offended many in the community, even Marsha McLean, who was Mayor at the time. I even caused a ruckus when I started an online petition asking the Mayor to boycott the breakfast (that went nowhere but McLean and others made statements in reaction to it). Anyway, Geyer’s report is here.
- More anti-urbanization agitprop from “Not A Ferry Fan” YouTuber: A new video posted on the site shows scores of headlines about crime, development, and Santa Clarita problems and claims City Manager Pulskamp wants to urbanize the SCV. It touches on the hospital, the Avenue project, traffic and more. A soundtrack plays “Hey City Manager, this city’s broken” again and again in the background. If you wish the SCV never grew much beyond what it looked like in 1970, you might enjoy it. Link
- Hey Gary Horton, didn’t your momma teach you not to hate? Gary Horton is a talented if somewhat odd columnist in that he seems to vacillate between being a liberal Democrat to a guy who supports Buck McKeon even though our Rep toes the George Bush line like no one else. Well in today’s Signal, Horton has a column that might get some play in the blogosphere once the Signal posts it online. It’s titled, “I hate you Hillary Clinton” and it’s a series of complaints against the junior Senator from New York who’s in a neck-and-neck race for the Democratic nomination with Barack Obama. “I hate you because you’re a narcisstic candidate running damaging your own party’ s prospects because of your limitless self-obsession and greed for power,” Horton says. He also calls her a “cowardly cheater,” a “divider of our nation,” a liar.
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Great to have the brief back. Hope you feel better soon.
Candidate preference aside, I applaud TIm Myers for his analysis of the election. Political nerds like myself love reading all that detail. And yes, districts are a very good idea.
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RE Gary Horton’s column:
Is there anything the Signal won’t print?
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I’d really like to read in The Signal one day soon that Gary “Socialist” Horton moved to Manhattan, NY or San Francisco where he would fit in perfectly.
Re: Pulskamp’s urbanization. Amusing YouTube Video. Isn’t it true that most folks who moved to Santa Clarita within the last 20 to 30 years - up to the last 5 years or so - expected a certain amount of growth? But given our limited traffic infrastructure, growth has been pretty much out of control…?
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“…..If you wish the SCV never grew much beyond what it looked like in 1970…..”
Hmmmmm…..if that was meant for all the people who are insisting on smarter, more resonable growth management, that’s simplifying the issue a bit. I’ve been here since 1974, and yes, traffic was certainly lighter, but there are many advantages now that I enjoy. When my little girls were growing up, there was only K-Mart and Sears catalogue for shopping, and I didn’t/don’t drive “over the hill” for anything. We were thrilled when Mervyn’s was built, and when the mall was built, we were even more thrilled. Now the mall expansion? Wow, I can’t wait, even though I shop mostly on the internet. And as far as I know, there haven’t been any throngs of residents opposing the mall expansion, because that will be a good thing for this city - just like an ACTUAL hospital expansion will be a good thing for this city, as would a REASONABLE number of office buildings on the hospital site. No one is saying no to development, no one expects the hospital to remain where it was a couple of decades ago. Mayor Bob Kellar has explained this project quite well, and he has continually pointed out that the Valencia Summit residents have NOT said no to a hospital expansion, that they have NOT said no to office buildings.
As for The Avenues on Calgrove, that’s 12 times bigger than Las Lomas, a project this city officially opposed. Our city council voted unanimously to officially oppose the Las Lomas project because of its monstrous size and scope, if you remember, and Assemblyman Cameron Smyth also officially opposed the Las Lomas project based on its outrageous size and scope. Now why would Jay and Joyce Rogers or anyone else think that a project 12 times bigger than Las Lomas would get approved right on top of an existing community after the outrage over the Las Lomas project? The Calgrove Coalition is not saying no to anything being built on the Smiser Ranch, they are just saying no to a project that is too monstrous in size and scope to be a reasonable development for that area. Once this city and our Assemblyman said no to Las Lomas, that set a precedent for what this city would consider too big to approve - and I doubt anyone could accuse our city council and our assemblyman of wanting to keep this city looking like it did in 1970 because they oppose Las Lomas-sized developments.
Except for the Cross Valley Connector, our infrastructure, unfortunately, still resembles too closely the same road system we had back in the 1970’s. High density development with our existing 1970’s roads will turn this city into gridlock. This city’s infrastructure has not kept up with the high density planning, and there are too many areas now within thin this city that have turned into gridlock nightmares. And how about some open space WITHIN the city, where we can enjoy it as we are inching along in traffic.
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Actually, the mall did get some opposition, as I recall, but that opposition was from businesses located in Valencia Town Center and their opposition to the expansion was due to parking problems. A couple of the businesses opposing the mall expansion were Lockheed Federal Credit Union (LFCU) and Salt Creek Grill. Once the problems were ironed out (including a financial settlement) there was no further opposition to the mall expansion.
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Districts? A very BAD idea! Why in the world would you want to give up 80% of the power of your vote? Right now we get to vote for every council member. That means if you have an issue and bring it before the Council they ALL have to listen to you if they want your vote. If you go to districts you only get to vote for ONE! That means you gave up 4 5ths of you voting power. Just look at the county. If you convince Mike to do everything you want there are 4 others that can say “NO” and there is nothing you can do about it. I for one don’t want my vote diluted, I want them All to pay attention. It may seem like a good idea having one person looking out for you but the truth is Districts are a divide and conquer tactic.
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From the signal “Don Fleming of Valencia Acura has been one of the first business owners to take advantage of the program”.
“The Enterprise Zone has saved me $10,000 that I wouldn’t have otherwise saved. It works, and it’s easy,” stated Fleming. Fleming’s wife, Cheri, agrees, saying, “If Don can do this, anyone can!”
Now perhaps they can pay for their own advertising. One could have guessed that Don would be the first to belly up to the freebie bar! What a joke! Hopeful the less fortunate businesses will be able to take advantage of the program, as it is intended. Again, what a Joke. Fleming is King of the GOB’s
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cash, your posts used to drive me crazy, now I look forward to them.
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Mike: Are you ill or are you just coming around to common sense?
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There’s that old rule in comedy, you say something once it’s funny, two or three times it’s repetitive, but say it seventeen times and it’s hilarious. Maybe that’s it. Can’t put my finger on it. Maybe your posts are tighter, funnier, pack a bigger punch and are less likely to be picking on me. A mutual understanding of styles, and non-conflicting handles? Whatever it is, the GOB Watch is always entertaining.
FYI, to get your GOBs straight, I think Cheri has the larger stake in Valencia Acura. Only recently has Don been mentioned as a co-owner.
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“FYI, to get your GOBs straight, I think Cheri has the larger stake in Valencia Acura. Only recently has Don been mentioned as a co-owner.”
And the reason for that would be! Answer: It gives them the minority owned business enterprise status! Don will be sure they take advantage of all of the ADANTAGES, need them or not. Then he will play the roles of major contributor to local charity! I never did care much for those that wear gold chains and over the top gold watches, and then take advantage of a government funded program that is intended for the less fortunate. If I buy an Acrua, it won’t be local.
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Pauline, once again your comments are right on target. A good many past expansion projects have been appreciated, but over the last few years it seems there’s a mad dash to duplicate everything bad that happened in the San Fernando Valley. Growing up in “The Valley” during the 60’s and seeing what happened, especially in the 70’s & 80’s… well, the construction of apartment buildings, condos, strip malls, etc., went crazy there. That’s why so many of us moved here and now we see it happening all over again. Only here we do no have the traffic grid that exists in “The Valley”. That new YouTube video’s depiction of our City’s Seal morphing into a representation of downtown NYC was an exaggeration, or was it? Hmmmm… Avenue at Santa Clarita.
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This is what annoys me, we are supposed to learn from our mistakes, and the San Fernando Valley became a huge blighted mistake that a lot of us fled from to come here. That’s the problem, a lot of people remember the San Fernando Valley before all the strip malls and overdevelopment caused massive blight. We should be learning from that mistake, not repeating it here! And yes, we do not have the traffic grid that exists there, and we never will. How much more can our roads take? Shouldn’t take that rocket scientist to understand that our road system is what it is and it cannot and never will support massive over-building. Our General Plan exists for a reason, and a lot of the people who helped with the input of that General Plan did so with the San Fernando Valley’s over-development woes in mind as they planned the future of Santa Clarita.
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I just wish our general plan included the areas around us (the county) so we could have some control to reduce the density. Maybe with the LandSource bankruptcy it will buy us some time so that the areas around the city that want to can annex. This would give the City a chance to expand its sphere of influence. I know some are not big fans of the City but it gives us a lot more control in the city than in the county.
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Interesting point regarding the Landsource bankruptcy, since NL&F has always opposed a sphere of influence for SCV.
City county continue battle for control of Santa Clarita Valley. (Local Watch).
…..When Santa Clarita incorporated in 1987, it became a city with no sphere of influence. The city filed applications in 1989 and 1991 with the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission to establish a large sphere of influence, but LAFCO said no both times. In January 2000, the city filed another application with LAFCO, this time seeking to place 116 square miles of the Santa Clarita Valley and its hillsides into the city’s sphere of influence. The city of 151,000 residents now covers about 47 square miles. Once again, Santa Clarita faces opposition from the county and from builders — who do not want the city to get between them and the development-friendly Board of Supervisors……
…..Newhall has been responsible for much of the development in the Santa Clarita Valley and still owns tens of thousands of acres in the area. The developer opposes Santa Clarita’s proposal to reach across Interstate 5 to Newhall holdings west of the freeway. That area includes the site of the proposed Newhall Ranch, where the developer plans what would essentially be a new town of 21,800 homes and 1,000 acres of commercial and mixed-used development. (See CP&DR January 1999, July 2000.) Los Angeles County has approved a specific plan and zoning changes for Newhall Ranch, but the project is mired in litigation brought by neighboring Ventura County over the development’s water sources…..
…..”We are opposed to the sphere of influence west of the 5 freeway on our property. We are not opposed to the sphere of influence request for our property on the east side of the 5 freeway,” Newhall spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said. “We’ve always seen the 5 freeway as the dividing line between the city and the county. …There are no city services in that area and it’s isolated from the rest of the city.”
Currently, the city’s boundary coincides with the Interstate for several miles. To the west lies Newhall Ranch, the 6,000-unit Stevenson Ranch, which is partially approved and built, and Six Flags’ Magic Mountain theme park. All of those interests want the city to remain on the other side of the eight-lane freeway.
But Santa Clarita officials complain that they have no control over development that is greatly affecting their city……
(A LandSource bankruptcy could just be the beginning of a new, successful, sphere of influence push)
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