August 11, 2008 - Daily Brief
Written by Jeff on August 11th, 2008
My wife painted her toes in honor of the Olympic rings of the Games of XXIX Olympiad and even allowed me to display her feet on this site. Props to Natural Nails in Newhall for their color coordination, selection, and Olympic Spirit.
News
- Gauny zings City on procedural technicality for Mayo EIR: The City of Santa Clarita extended the review period of the Environmental Impact Report for the controversial Mayo expansion project after SmartGrowthSCV’s David Gauny held a press conference Friday saying that the public wasn’t going to get a fair shake at cracking the 3,000 page document. The review period was supposed to end today, but written comments were supposed to be in by Friday afternoon, an apparent screw-up by City Hall. Now the review process will extend until September 29, bringing the review date past the public hearing date on September 9. Signal and Daily News have articles.
- Antonovich/Yaroslavsky calls for calories next to fast food menu items: Fifth District Supe Michael Antonovich (representing North County residents) and Zev Yaroslavsky will “present an ordinance that would require eatery chains to print menus and billboards with the number of calories for each item alongside the price.” New York already has such an ordinance and the supervisors say that “The Menu should be as informative of what its effect is on one’s waistline as it is on their pocketbooks.” The ordinance would only apply to chain restaurants that have 15 or more outlets, so you can still eat that chili-cheese burger at Jimmy Deans sans guilt. Yaroslavsky suffers from Type 2 Diabetes and says “this is personal” to him.
- Gas prices dip below $4 in SCV: So reports Tammi Marashlian at the Signal who says that “Drivers in the Santa Clarita Valley have been getting a niec break over the past several weeks as gas prices in the area have continued to drop in light of a decrease in oil prices and world-wide demand.” The average price in Santa Clarita is still about $4.12, but at some places in the valley, you can buy your fossil fuel for a penny less than $4. Link
- Henry Mayo sells expansion plan with ice cream social: More than 200 people attended an ice cream social on Saturday to learn and ask questions about the Henry Mayo Memorial Hospital expansion plan, the Signal reports. The event featured 10 supporters wearing “Ask Me” buttons who fielded questions from ice cream-consuming neighbors. A hospital spokesperson says four people changed their mind about the hospital after consuming the delicious treat on a hot summer afternoon, but others remained unconvinced about the 327,000 sq. ft. office/inpatient expansion. Link
- One supervisor changes his mind on MTA Tax inclusion on November ballot: Don Knabe voted against including the MTA’s half cent sales tax on the county’s November ballot, but he had a change of heart just a few days later after realizing that it’d cost taxpayers some $10 million to host a special ballot alongside the customary one. Knabe is still opposed to the measure itself, but wants “the voters to have the opportunity to decide for themselves,” according to a spokesperson. Knabe made a motion to reconsider the recent vote; that could happen Tuedsay. Meanwhile, a Democratic state Senator is threatening to kill the entire measure if a rail project of her’s isn’t addressed.
- Chamber August 2008 Newsletter: Haven’t had time to review the august organization’s publication for this month (double entendre ha!), but from a skim, it appears water conservation is a topic plus Larry Mankin pimping the Chamber’s visit to China in November.Link
- Latino marketing firm moves to SCV: The Daily News had an interesting article this week on Power Media, a Latino-focused marketing and public relations firm that recently opened new offices in Santa Clarita. The company “is a multimillion dollar enterprise that specializes in creating Spanish-language ad campaigns for high profile clients seeking to reach the booming Hispanic market,” The Daily News says. It counts among its clients big firms like Universal Music, Vivendi Entertainment, and others, but also works with small businesses to promote more routine products such as “red and hot pink” lipstick, which the company says is popular among Latinos. The company purchased a Sierra Highway building back in July and has already been toasted by the folks over at the Chamber. Link
- Bike shop gets harrassed by fuzz over motorcycle deaths: Props to the Signal for printing this story, which offers an interesting look into the Sheriff’s station relationship with an SCV business outside the mainstream as well as several revealing quotes from Captain LaBerge. Over the weekend reporter Jim Holt detailed a conflict between a Canyon Country motorcycle shop named 5150 Custom, which “fixes motorcycles and, sometimes, augments them to enable riders to perform stunts” and the Sheriff’s station. Along with the fact that that 5150 is in the motorcycle-modification business, it’s very name (5150) and the recent rash of motorcycle deaths has put it on the radar of the Sheriff’s station, according to Holt. Some six people have been killed on motorcycles in the last year, and four of those were “young adults on crotch-rockets” according to LaBerge, who has met with the owner of the 5150 shop. The shop owner says the fuzz are trying to put him out of business, but LaBerge denies that, but says his Deputies will “keep handing out citations until [the shop] proves to us that each and every one of your bikes meet legal requirements.” Link
- Daily News notices Hart Bison: Great profile in Sunday’s Daily News on the 16 Bison -including some new babies!- at Hart Park. Writer Jerry Berrios goes into the history of the Bison in the park (Disney gave them to William S Hart after driving the herd through Newhall), and even details some of the individual bison that roam on some 25 acres behind Hart’s mansion in Newhall. Link
- Plaza Shopping Center set to open soon: East valley residents have waited a long time for a good shopping center to open and soon the wait will be over as a 620,000 square foot retail center “located between Golden Valley Road and Via Princessa” may open as soon as October. The Plaza at Golden Valley, as it is unimaginatively named, will have a Kohl’s, Circuit City, Lowes, Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and other stores. The report quotes City economic manager Jason Crawford praising the project, but I’m pretty sure it lies outside city territory, which means all that tax money goes to the County, just like the Valencia Marketplace over in Stevenson Ranch. Link
- New school year upon us: Elementary, junior high and high school students are set to return to school this week, reports the Signal. Features Editor Michele Buttelman has some advice for parents. I’d only add one more: in your frenzied rush to get your precious child to school on his/her first day, please be conscious of other road users, especially bicyclists. K THX BAI
Misc
- John Boston’s History of the SCV scheduled: The former Signal writer and valley folklorist/historian will host another History of the SCV class in September. The class begins September 17th and is held at a different significant spot in Santa Clarita every week until November 19th. Here’s some teasers: “ Newhall was once attacked: by our own Air Force. As recently as the 1970s, there were Bigfoot sightings in Sand Canyon. Were we home to the world’s biggest grizzly bear? A Chinese general once named Saugus as one of the top military targets on Earth.” Link
- What’s Myers know that we don’t? In his Sunday piece in the Signal, he details an imaginative financing deal on a vacant piece of land during an economic downturn (*cough* Smiser *cough*) and shows how developers can get creative even during slowdowns. It’s obviously aimed at the Smiser deal, I think, but is he describing whatcould happen or is he slying saying what is happening? Link
- Signal says Ender should prove she works for us: Great editorial on Sunday on Laurie Ender, the hospital, and the $30,000 spent to help elect Ender in the spring. The Signal says Ender “needs to go above and beyond in winning -and keeping- the trust of the people she represents.” Not to be too contrarian to the Signal and my own readers, but she did get more votes than anyone else. The hospital issue was hot back in the spring -indeed it was one of the main issues- and yet she still won. One might say she would have won even without the $29,500 mailer since her PTA organization was so strong and she got people in Valencia to the polls. Indeed, one might say that the majority of Santa Clarita is fine with such politics and politicking, that we who ask questions and seek answers are the minority. She doesn’t have to win our trust, in other words, more people trust her than don’t trust her. Just the facts! Link
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1. I think it’s hilarious that the hospital changed the minds of fully 4 people at their ice cream social. It’s far more hilarious that someone working for the hospital would actually put a number on it instead of saying something vague like “We’ve already changed some minds of some people this afternoon.” It’s too good.
2. For the calories info. thing, most all of those places already have menus with calorie details–you just need to ask. It’s silly to require “chain” restaurants alone to display their nutritional information. Why not make “nice” restaurants be tacky too? After all, they’re the places that use the most cream, goose fat, truffle oil, confit-ing, and marbled pieces-o-meat in their quest to make cuisine. If Wendy’s has to, so too does Le Chene.
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“She doesn’t have to win our trust, in other words, more people trust her than don’t trust her. Just the facts!”
Jeff you seem to be drawing a conclusion based on information not available to the voters before they voted. It may not be a fact that more people trust Ender than do not trust her. Now that the facts are available for all to see, I do not trust her. I had no reason to not to trust her before the under handed G&L bribe.
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Jeff you seem to be drawing a conclusion based on information not available to the voters before they voted. It may not be a fact that more people trust Ender than do not trust her. Now that the facts are available for all to see, I do not trust her. I had no reason to not to trust her before the under handed G&L bribe.
I’d go so far as to say her support for the hospital’s expansion plan was as close to “unqualified” as one could get before the election. She said as much in her interview with me, which you can listen to right here.
And she was known back then as the candidate in favor of the hospital. She criticized Bob Spierer for his stance on the hospital too.
All the negative publicity about the hospital and the controversy last year over the allegations of “collusion” had no effect on Ender’s electability.
In fact, I’d argue that nothing has really changed since spring as far as the hospital and the groups opposing it are concerned.
Face it- the controversy that’s “tearing this community apart” (Laurene Weste) had zero impact on Ender’s candidacy. You can claim the people who voted for her were ignorant or just not aware of the issue but that’s your assumption not mine.
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Jason Crawford of the City wrote to correct me on my entry about the new shopping center:
Was just reading the site this morning and wanted to let you know that the new retail center, Plaza at Golden Valley actually IS within the City of Santa Clarita limits. The Lowe’s should be the first of the retail stores open, at the end of August. And then we’ll see the rest opening up over the next six months.
Apologies for the error. All that tax money is going right to Valencia Blvd baby!
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“Gauny zings City on procedural technicality for Mayo EIR”
Jeff, for three years the G&L/HM applicants have had this project submitted as a Conditional Use Permit (CUP). In this last EIR, a small paragraph mentions that this has now been withdrawn and they are simply going to use the “Master Plan” entitlement to ignore zoning codes, building height restrictions, etc. WTF? If this is the case, the precedent set would mean that you could take a stirp of land anywhere in SCV surrounded by homes, and put a “Master Planned” mall there - or whatever you like! This kind of a change without a public hearing is NOT a technicality, it’s an obligation through precedent the city set since its inception. That they would try this without a public hearing on such a massive change is absurd.
Also:
“Not to be too contrarian to the Signal and my own readers, but [Ender] did get more votes than anyone else. The hospital issue was hot back in the spring -indeed it was one of the main issues- and yet she still won.”
As Cash stated above, Laurie ran on a platform without full disclosure. The audacity of G&L to provide such a massive transfusion of cash while knowing full well that it would be disclosed in July is arrogance in the highest extreme. It now seems certain that she will have bias to G&L’s views and I don’t think that’s what people were voting for when they voted for Laurie.
Laurie brilliantly smeared and misrepresented other candidates in her (G&L PAC money fliers) knowing that all of us (self included) want a “hospital expansion.” But as has been said here many times, the G&L Master Plan continues to offer nothing more than a mere suggestion of an inpatient tower. So, how can Laurie meet her campign promise AND serve her benefactor? G&L’s plan offers no guarantee of anything but office buildings and voting for it would be contrary to what she has repeatedly promised: a hospital.
So her blind support for a plan that is increasingly mired in doubt and trickery, must also now be questioned given her massive collection from G&L - AND Frank Ferry’s illegal $12,000 contribution to add to her smear campaign.
Yes, people trusted Laurie when they voted but would they do so now with recent revelations of this hidden benefactor? She ran on a false premise and I think many would change their vote if they could. Like the G&L Master Plan itself, the people didn’t get the real facts with Laurie.
Of course, this is how G&L has done business from the beginning which is why the project continues its seemingly unending review. It should be a warning to us all that their mere suggestions of inpatient services should not be trusted in any way.
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Jeff, the point is one of trust. During the campaign Ender came across as the innocent, sometimes naive, PTA mom. We now know that she is a bit more devious. That is where the lack of trust comes in. A new vote with the latest G&L information (facts) may bring a different outcome. I was taking exception to your view that the “FACTS” support the position that more people trust her than do not. The fact is, the facts are much different post election.
I respect your position.
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Another fact lost in the election was that most of those who voted for Ender (a.) Had no more idea about the facts than she (b.) Didn’t care (c.) Supported her as blindly as she supports the office building expansion.
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Jeff, The Signal spelled it out brilliantly regarding Laurie Ender, and I Heart SCV has had some really smokin’ articles on Ender and G&L, but you seem to be the only one who can’t see the forest through the trees. The fact is, this last election was the dirtiest election this city has ever seen and this from a “PTA mom.” The Signal editorial on this subject cannot be faulted in any way, it was right on the money. Ender needs to recuse herself from voting on any hospital issues, but I predict that her arrogance and total lack of a conscience will have her thumbing her nose at anyone who “dares” question that $30,000 from G&L Realty that was meant to buy her vote for them. That money certainly bought a lot of G&L Realty campaigning from Ender, a year and half’s worth of lobbying (by her own admission) misrepresnting the project to “real” (uninformed) people as she walked door to door for G&L Realty.
“What’s Myers know that we don’t? In his Sunday piece in the Signal, he details an imaginative financing deal on a vacant piece of land during an economic downturn (*cough* Smiser *cough*) and shows how developers can get creative even during slowdowns.”
The Smiser property was purchased at the height of the real estate market and then real estate values plummeted. The purchaser of that property paid so much that the purchaser has stated that 2.5 million square feet must be developed on the property to make it a profitable venture for them, but that is not going to happen and this will affect the value of the entitlements.
Why won’t 2.5 million be developed on the Smiser property? Because our city (and Buck McKeon and Cameron Smyth and George Runner) opposed the Las Lomas project, 2.3 million square feet of development on 555 acres. Jay and Joyce Rogers and Thomas Properties proposed to build 2.5 million sqare feet on 37 acres. No way would this much square footage on the Smiser site ever get an approval from this city, and by the time the suare footage of the Smiser property is knocked back to a number that will be accepted by surrpunding communities, the greatly diminished square footage that can be developed listed on that property’s entitlements won’t be too appealing to future buyers of that property, especially with the flood plain mitigation issues making more dents in that site’s value.
Land $17,581,945
According to the assessor’s office, the owner of record for the Smiser property is listed as Monteverde Development Companies, Champagne Lane, Newhall, CA 91321
The site address is Hawkbryn Ave but the land is the same on the map.
Records for this property are kept at the North District Office
Property Information
Assessor’s ID No. 2825-012-011
Site Address 24924 HAWKBRYN AVE
SANTA CLARITA CA 91321
Property Type Commercial / Industrial
Region / Cluster 24 / 24818
Tax Rate Area (TRA) 00219
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As Cash stated above, Laurie ran on a platform without full disclosure.
Another fact lost in the election was that most of those who voted for Ender (a.) Had no more idea about the facts than she (b.) Didn’t care (c.) Supported her as blindly as she supports the office building expansion.
Jeff, The Signal spelled it out brilliantly regarding Laurie Ender, and I Heart SCV has had some really smokin’ articles on Ender and G&L, but you seem to be the only one who can’t see the forest through the trees. The fact is, this last election was the dirtiest election this city has ever seen and this from a “PTA mom.”
Are you all saying that if the election were held tomorrow and we know what we know now that the outcome would be any different?
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“Are you all saying that if the election were held tomorrow and we know what we know now that the outcome would be any different?”
Sorry, my crystal ball is out getting a lube.
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The Smiser property was purchased for around $25,000,000. According to the new Specific Plan (a meeting with city officials confirms this) the Smiser property will not have more than 800,000 sq. ft. of development allowed to be built on that site, and the purchase of that property depended on 2.5 million sq. ft. being built to make the purchase profitable. Hard to get “creative” with a 800,000 sq. ft. cap on allowable square footage for that property when the purchase price was so high. In short, the Rogers’ made a real bad deal, and that is not a burden that is the problem of the residents or the City of Santa Clarita, and Thomas Properties does not seem willing to take on such a bad deal, either.