I just watched David Gauny’s speech before the Canyon Country Advisory Committee last week.
Insofar as any City Council candidate has a plank, Gauny’s seems to be that:
- Traffic is bad in SCV
- The process at City Hall is broken
- The City Council is weak
- Small businesses and homeowners are getting screwed by the broken process
- Illegal immigrants
There were a couple of things that interested me about this speech. First of all, Gauny, like so many candidates before him, says traffic sucks in the SCV. But he’s not promising to build more roads, he thinks the problem starts at City Hall:
We all sit in red light after red light and wonder how do we keep building here? And the answer is, we bury the numbers to our detriment. There is fuzzy math. I have spent a lot of time looking at how we are calculating traffic, and the numbers are skewed.
Let’s stipulate that traffic does indeed suck in the SCV (I don’t believe that but ok)- is he alleging dishonesty or incompetence on the part of the City’s traffic engineers and planners? That they are manipulating traffic counts or deliberately underestimating the amount of traffic that will be generated by development projects?
That’s a pretty serious charge.
Or is he just using the familiar traffic canard to browbeat the incumbents for letting development in the SCV grow too much?
He then goes on to say some smart things. The City Council, he says, should be focused on bringing high-quality, high paying jobs to the Santa Clarita Valley, not low-wage jobs.
70% of our economy are small business owners. We are three years into a down economy and not one of the incumbents has really stepped up with a plan to solve that problem. What we do have is we’ve got big box stores, we’ve got big companies coming here that are bringing low wage jobs that are benefiting from our tax incentive programs that we’re all paying.
In this, he seems to be questioning the effectiveness of some of the City’s business-friendly programs. Such programs are helping businesses, just not the businesses we need to make the local economy robust. He also says that many of the jobs in the SCV attract people from the SFV and Antelope Valley who increase traffic in our town then take their paychecks back home and spend there.
Perhaps he’s right about that but here’s the thing: how do you grow the SCV economy with high-quality jobs without building new business parks, office buildings and other developments that then result in more traffic?
Remember, this is the guy who lead the fight against Mayo Expansion because it wasn’t a true hospital expansion, rather it was just medical office space expansion. But couldn’t one argue that the Mayo Expansion project, as flawed as it was, will bring high-paying medical jobs to Valencia (recall Frank Ferry shouting “BRAINS!” while gesticulating wildly at an aerial view of HMNMH)?
Much better paying jobs than the Golden Valley shopping center or Bridgeport Marketplace at any rate?
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Doesn’t matter what any of the candidates say or don’t say. There is no reason to re-elect a single one of those incumbent idiots. It’s time for Frank, Marsha, and Laurene to give someone else a chance to screw things up, they had their fair share of years and it’s time they walked away.
WE NEED TERM LIMITS! So let’s pretend we have some and elect a new slate. Unfortunately there are only two candidates worth voting for, but vote for both of them (David Gauny and Tim-Ben Boydston) and see what happens. We will get one moron back, but at least two new ones will add something to the mix that might work for US. And if we get rid of Frank, Laurie Ender might be forced to think for herself. No telling what will happen there, but that might be an improvement, who knows.
No need to build new commercial\industrial facilities to lure tenants – there is currently a 25% vacancy rate for this product. We just need the right kinds of companies to fill the existing product.
NickelDime:
Your right – see
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/24915/
I’d hate to see much more industrial built because the workers can’t afford to live here which only contributes to our traffic mess. With filling those offices, there is a better chance they can afford to live here. But rents will still need to drop significantly.
They will when the banks take the buildings over.
Cracks me up when people say traffic is getting worse. I grew up in the CC part of Newhall (LOL)off of Golden Valley. I remember S.Hwy being so bad that my mom wouldn’t go to the market (closest was at Whites) after like 4:00 because traffic would be backed all the way up S.Hwy. Like, completely stopped traffic all the way down to Soledad.
Sure I think the Newhall Ranch and Bouquet area is horribly designed and no fun to drive through, but traffic moves around swimmingly compared to the SCV roads of my youth (way, way, way back in the 80s
)
I see so many vacant office/medical/retail space around town, I often wonder why some feel that building more is the answer. In face I was just on old road near the 126 and noticed all that retail space that was built about a year ago, is still empty.
Just an observation.
I would bet that the ‘rent’ for the new MOB’s (on the G&L side) will not be able to attract ‘brains’. No one with ‘brains’ will pay more rent then what they currently do right now.
Just a thought.
Jeff & Walker,
I agree with both of you in that traffic is not that bad. Sure there are a few trouble areas like Bouquet/Newhall Ranch and Soledad/Sierra area but for the most part, traffic flows well and is much better than it was 20 years ago. I think it might have to do with the additional roads in the area as well as the City’s aggressiveness in synchronization.
I dont think the current system is flawed. With all the growth that has occurred, things are flowing better in my opinion. I dont claim to know everything about the planning process or what it entails but it seems that if the City was doing something deficient on purpose, they would be called out. I also think that they would want to scrutinize developments properly because I dont think they want to hear people complain about it down the road.
On Traffic:
This is one of the greatest tropes of SCV politics.
The traffic flows in MANY areas of the SCV are demonstrably better than they were 15 years ago. Of course that does not solve the problem of the Newhall Pass and the 14, over which the City has limited control since most of the incremental traffic in the last 15 years did not originate in the SCV.
In addition to the intersections mentioned already, McBean Parkway and Copper Hill are also both deplorable during commute. And we have not yet discussed the increasing number of neighborhoods that have cars speeding through them to shave off a couple of stoplights.
The point I attempted to make in my speech is that while many of these problems exist and are worsening, we are attempting to add new projects with even less due diligence. For example, the 200 room Sheraton proposal had no cumulative traffic analysis despite 260K sqft new mall space also added across the street. Oddly, an approved office building which shares the Sheraton’s sole access point was also left out of the proposal documents!
If you want to know more about my concerns for the future, please read my recent post regarding One Valley, One Vision at my website: http://www.electdavidgauny.com.
“…the problem of the Newhall Pass and the 14, over which the City has limited control since most of the incremental traffic in the last 15 years did not originate in the SCV.”
But the City didn’t lobby against megaprojects like Newhall Ranch… they are part of the Newhall pass problem as a bystander instead of a participant.
And with the population of the SCV just about doubling since the City was formed, how can you say that the SCV’s own traffic isn’t to blame for Newhall Pass congestions?!
The mismatch of jobs and approved housing types makes it a two-way commute nightmare.
Meh. The traffic at Copperhill and McBean isn’t bad either, IMO. Sure it’s FAR more congested than it was prior to the neighborhoods being built out, but duh LOL. That’s the whole point of building the roads before the homes. This was intentional. Once upon a time the only way to get in and out of Saugus was Bouquet (or Vasquez). Now, that was awful traffic. Parking lot from Kmart to at least Seco. Our current conditions are Utopian in comparison.
The 5/14, though. That’s another story.
Agree Walker. McBean and Copperhill isnt bad and does get a little congested in the peak periods. However, that intersection is not at build-out yet. The bridge that is just west of the intersection (in the county) will be expanded in the future which will alleviate that bit of congestion for eastbound people. Its similar to the number of bridges that have been expanded in the Valencia development over the years.
I-5 carpool lane to only go to about the 126.
Anyone know when the present Newhall Pass construction will complete?
“Anyone know when the present Newhall Pass construction will complete?”
Not *(*&($%*)(&^^&% soon enough!
Walker and Linda and Timmy need to get their heads out of Gail Ortiz’s Kool-Aid.
No kool-aid here, just reality
People complain about the traffic because they want something to complain about. Simple as that.
I complain about traffic because it takes forever to get anywhere in the SCV. (warning, whining to follow). WHen I moved to Bouquet Canyon 20 years ago, there were only three traffic lights between me and Newhall. Sure, Bouquet junction tooka long while, but it was smooth sailing after that. I think the count is now about 13-15. Before moving out of there I spent more time stopped at a light than actually driving. Weekends are just as bad, maybe worse!
Same problem in Seco Canyon. The City thinks more traffic lights solve the problem. The real problem, is poor planning (including the County): Bouquet Junction should have been made a flyover but they cheaped out. Same with ther CVC at Bouquet. Can you BELIEVE all those traffic lanes? That shoudl tell them something! Woe to the hapless pedestrian that has to walk the SClarita Death March to get across in time!
Traffic is fine. People don’t appreciate how much ground they cover.
Um UM um Um………